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Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Founded in 1962 Appleton, Wisconsin |
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| League titles | 1966, 1978, 1984 | ||
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| Manager: Jim Horner | |||
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The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are a Class A minor league baseball team, affiliated with the Seattle Mariners, that plays in the Midwest League. Their home games are played in Appleton, Wisconsin.
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The team began playing in 1958 as the Appleton Foxes. The team was created five years after Appleton's previous minor league franchise - the Papermakers - folded along with the rest of the Wisconsin State League. The team played in the Three-I League. After the 1961 season, a total of three cities, Burlington, Cedar Rapids, and Appleton, moved to the Midwest League, replacing a franchise in Kokomo, Indiana. They expanded the league to ten teams. The three other teams, Topeka, Lincoln and Des Moines remained out of professional baseball for a number of years. At the January 7, 1962 meeting when the league folded, officials felt that the Midwest League, especially its president, C. C. Dutch Hoffman, sought to tamper with the Three-I League, taking their best franchises. The directors proposed reorganizing in 1963, but never were able to pull the league together. The location of the Three-I Leagues' top Iowa teams (Waterloo, Davenport, Burlington, Cedar Rapids) in the Midwest League was a serious problem that could not be overcome.
1958 - Professional baseball returns to Appleton for the 5th and final time. The team, called the Foxes, were affiliated with the Washington Senators. The team drew over 58,000 fans in its first year.
1966 - The Foxes change their affiliation to the Chicago White Sox, where it remains until the end of the 1986 season. The Foxes were the league champions, with a 77-47 record.
1978 - The Foxes draw an all-time record 94,730 fans, while compiling a 97-40 record and again winning the league championship.
1984 - The Foxes win the league championship for their final time with an 87-49 record. They draw 54,281 fans.
1987 - The Foxes begin their Major League affiliation to the Kansas City Royals.
1993 - The Foxes begin their Major League affiliation with the Seattle Mariners.
1994 - The Foxes play their last game in Goodland Field, drawing over 76,000 fans. Following the end of the season, the team changes its name to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.
thumb|right In 1994, the management of the Foxes enlisted a local marketing firm to help develop a new identity for the team. Several names were considered, and a survey was done of area school kids to determine popularity. The result was naming the team the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. The new logo shot to #1 overnight,[citation needed] and Rattlers caps are still among the most popular nationally.[citation needed] The team was renamed for the 1995 season after moving from its original home, Goodland Field (built in 1940) in Appleton, to the new Fox Cities Stadium in nearby Grand Chute.
1995 - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers open the season in new, privately financed Fox Cities Stadium. The $5 million stadium seats 5,500, and the team draws an attendance of 209,159.
1996 - The Timber Rattlers host both the Midwest League All-Star Game and an exhibition game with their parent club, the Seattle Mariners. The Rattlers draw 233,797 in their second season. The team goes to the playoffs, only to lose in the final game of the Championship Series. The Timber Rattlers received the Bob Freitas Award as the top Class 'A' franchise in the Minor Leagues. David Arias (now know as David Ortiz) lead the Timber Rattlers in hits (156), runs (89), home runs (18), and RBI's (93). Kevin Gryboski had the second most wins (10) and strikeouts (100).
1997 - Timber Rattlers pitchers break the ten-year-old Midwest League record for strikeouts in a season with 1220. Manager Gary Varsho leads the team to the playoffs again. Denny Stark led the pitching staff with an ERA of 1.97. Stark struck out 105 hitters and walked only 33.
1998 - First round draft picks Gil Meche (1996) and Ryan Anderson (1997) headed a pitching staff that once again broke the Midwest League strikeout record with 1274. Joel Pineiro led the starting pitchers with an ERA of 3.19. For the third season in a row, the Rattlers advanced to the playoffs.
1999 - The Timber Rattlers celebrated their fifth year and welcomed their one-millionth fan. The Wisconsin Timber Rattler organization once again received the Midwest League "Playing Field" and "Groundskeeper of the Year" awards. The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers won the second half of the season and went on to the championship round and were defeated in the final game by the Burlington Bees. Attendance was 223,814. Juan Silvestre set the record mark of 21 home runs for the Timber Rattlers and Bo Robinson led the team in hitting .329.
2000 - The Timber Rattlers came within one game of the Midwest League Championship Series. J. J. Putz led the club with 12 and in 2003 made his big-league debut as a member of the Mariners, joining Rafael Soriano (8-4, 2.87 ERA) and Julio Mateo (4-8, 4.19) in Seattle. Before his 2003 rookie campaign Toronto Blue Jays, Aquilino Lopez went 6-1 with a 1.85 ERA adding 17 saves. Craig Anderson (11-8, 3.71 ERA) and Cha Seung Baek (8-5, 3.95) also threw strong for manager Gary Thurman.
2001 - The Timber Rattlers came out on top of the Second Half Western Division to earn a playoff berth, only to lose in the second round to the Midwest League Champion Kane County Cougars. Wisconsin's success was well balanced with a team ERA of 2.96 and team batting average of .271. Clint Nageotte led the Midwest League with 187 strikeouts, Kevin Olore won 13 games, and Derrick Van Dusen threw the first nine-inning complete game shut out in Timber Rattler history on August 27 at Cedar Rapids. Jamie Bubela led the MWL with 161 hits and 12 triples.
2002 - On April 29 the Timber Rattlers played host to the Seattle Mariners led by 2001 American League Rookie of the Year and MVP Ichiro Suzuki. Shin-Soo Choo appeared in the All-Star Futures game, had his own Timber Rattlers bobble-head, led the club in hitting over .300, and had a slugging percentage of .440. Rattler third baseman Greg Dobbs staring alongside Choo in the Midwest League All-Star game and had a slugging percentage of .431.
2003 - It was a record setting season for a few members of this Rattler team. Matt Hagen tied the single season home run record of Juan Silvestre with twenty-one homers. Bobby Livingston became the single season record holder for wins with fifteen victories on the season. TA Fulmer set a new single season earned run average record of 2.58. The Timber Rattlers, lead by manager Daren Brown, qualified for the playoffs as the First Half Western Division Wild Card thanks to winning streaks of seven, eight, and nine games. Plus, the Rattlers won their last eleven home games of the half. On July 25th, a single game record crowd of 7,722 saw the Rattlers defeat the Cedar Rapids Kernels 9-7. Just under a month later, on August 14th, the Rattlers fell to the Beloit Snappers at Miller Park in Milwaukee before a short-lived Midwest League record crowd of 14,447. Wisconsin finished the regular season with a record of 69-66 before being swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Snappers.
2004 - The Timber Rattlers missed the playoffs for the second time in three seasons with an overall record of 57-82. Steve Roadcap, who led Wisconsin to the Midwest League Championship series in 1999, returned for his second tour of duty as the club's manager. The Rattlers finished the first half 31-38, but were in the second half playoff race with just over a month to go in the season. On August 10, the team was 22-23 and within striking distance of either of the two playoff spots. However, Wisconsin went 4-20 in their final twenty-four games to miss out on the post-season for just the third time in its history.
2005 - The 2005 season was a bounce-back year for the Rattlers. Under first year manager Scott Steinmann, the Rattlers made it all the way to the Midwest League Championship Series against the South Bend Silver Hawks. Wisconsin lost the first two games at South Bend in the best-of-five series, but won the next two games at Fox Cities Stadium. Game Five was scoreless until the Hawks scored three runs in the seventh inning. South Bend won the game 4-0 and the Rattlers came up just shy of their first Midwest League Championship.
The team has been affiliated with the Mariners since 1993. Previous affiliations have been with the Washington Senators (1958-59), the Baltimore Orioles (1960-65), the Chicago White Sox (1966-86), and the Kansas City Royals (1987-92).
The franchise set its attendance record of 233,797 in 1996.
The most famous player to wear a Foxes/Timber Rattlers uniform is Alex Rodriguez, who played for the team for part of the 1994 season, until he was promoted to the major leagues.
David Ortiz, the famed clutch home run hitter of the Boston Red Sox, played for the Timber Rattlers in the 1996 season and led them in hits that season. Ortiz was known as David Arias when he played for the Timber Rattlers.
Major league reliever Tom Gordon pitched for the Appleton Foxes between getting drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 1986 and his promotion to the majors in 1988.
On March 9, 2007, it was announced that the park had been renamed Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium per a naming rights deal with the local cable provider.[1]
Appleton Foxes (1962, 67-94), Fox Cities Foxes (1963-66), Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (1995-present)
Bold indicates league champions
Three-I League
| Season | Affiliation | Manager | Record | Win % | Finish | Attendance | Playoffs |
| 1958 | Washington | Pete Suder | 56-73 | .434 | Unknown | 58,602 | |
| 1959 | Washington | Jack McKeon | 59-67 | .468 | Unknown | 51,004 | |
| 1960 | Baltimore | Earl Weaver | 82-56 | .594 | Unknown | 61,062 | Won Title |
| 1961 | Baltimore | Earl Weaver | 67-62 | .519 | Unknown | 47,552 |
Midwest League
| Season | Affiliation | Manager | Record | Win % | Finish | Attendance | Playoffs |
| 1962 | Baltimore | Cal Ripken | 61-63 | .492 | 7th | 41,323 | None |
| 1963 | Baltimore | Billy DeMars | 55-65 | .458 | 8th | 43,412 | None |
| 1964 | Baltimore | Billy DeMars | 81-43 | .653 | 1st | 45,557 | Defeated Clinton 1-0 |
| 1965 | Baltimore | Billy DeMars | 55-63 | .466 | 7th | 43,412 | None |
| 1966 | Chicago (AL) | Stan Wasiak | 77-47 | .621 | 2nd | 57,496 | Defeated Cedar Rapids 2-1 |
| 1967 | Chicago (AL) | Alex Cosmidis | 71-46 | .607 | 1st | 48,186 | Defeated Wisconsin Rapids 2-0 |
| 1968 | Chicago (AL) | Gary Johnson/Alex Cosmidis | 57-61 | .483 | 6th | 45,436 | None |
| 1969 | Chicago (AL) | Tom Saffell | 81-41 | .672 | 1st | 67,028 | Won both halves |
- Dinda, J. (2003), "Appleton, Wisconsin in the Midwest League," http://www.mwlguide.com/cities/appleton/index.html
- Appleton Baseball Hall of Fame - http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060325/APC02/60324032/
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| AAA | AA | A | Rookie |
| Tacoma Rainiers | West Tenn Diamond Jaxx |
High Desert Mavericks Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Everett AquaSox |
AZL Mariners VSL Mariners |
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| Eastern Division | Dayton Dragons • Fort Wayne Wizards • Great Lakes Loons • Lansing Lugnuts • South Bend Silver Hawks • West Michigan Whitecaps |
| Western Division | Beloit Snappers • Burlington Bees • Cedar Rapids Kernels • Clinton LumberKings • Kane County Cougars • Peoria Chiefs • Quad Cities River Bandits • Wisconsin Timber Rattlers |
