The Lehigh Valley IronPigs
are a minor league baseball team, serving as the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball. The team plays its home games at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The park, which opened for the start of the team's first season in 2008, seats 8,100, with a capacity of 10,000, and cost $50.25 million to complete. [1]
Previously, the team operated as the Ottawa Lynx (2007), in Ottawa, Ontario before moving to Allentown. Preceding the Lynx, the Philadelphia Phillies' Triple-A team was known as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, which existed from 1987-2006, and played their home games at PNC Field in Moosic, Pennsylvania. Unhappy with the local management that owned the franchise, the Phillies decided to move the team to a brand new stadium in Allentown and temporarily entered a one-year Player Development Contract (PDC) with the Ottawa franchise while Coca-Cola Park was being constructed. The Ottawa franchise was then moved to the Lehigh Valley in 2008.
The name is a reference to pig iron, used in the manufacturing of steel, for which the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania is world-renowned.
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LEHIGH VALLEY IRONPIGS TICKETS
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History
Prior to the arrival of the IronPigs, the Lehigh Valley did not have a Major League-affiliated baseball team since 1960, when the
Allentown Red Sox left for
Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
[2] The Allentown Red Sox played at Breadon Field (later called Max Hess Stadium) from 1958-1960, at the site where the
Lehigh Valley Mall stands today.
[3]
The region was previously home to two
independent baseball teams: the
Allentown Ambassadors of the
Northeast League and the
Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds of the
Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. The Ambassadors played at
Bicentennial Park in Allentown until the team was disbanded in 2004. The Black Diamonds moved from
Newburgh, New York in 1999 and were expected to move into a new ballpark near
Easton called the
Lehigh Valley Multi-Purpose Sport Complex, but the project never came to completion and ultimately was terminated. While the Black Diamonds waited for their new stadium, they played as a traveling team.
In 2003, Joseph Finley and Craig Stein began actively pursuing their interest in bringing affiliated baseball to Allentown. Initially, the duo pursued a Single-A franchise when the
Ottawa Lynx, the AAA affiliate of the
Baltimore Orioles, were rumored to be moving to
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. When the city of Harrisburg did not upgrade
Metro Bank Park to AAA standards, the
Baltimore Orioles shifted their interest to Allentown because of its proximity to the
Mid-Atlantic. The Phillies also looked into moving their AAA operations to Allentown from the Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre region. For the 2007 season, the Phillies shifted their AAA affiliate to Ottawa, leaving Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre after 18 seasons, while the Orioles affiliated with the
Norfolk Tides.
The move of the Phillies' Triple-A affiliate to Allentown has been extremely well-received, since the Phillies have a large fan base in the Allentown area, and because the move to Allentown will permit Phillies' players to rehab in Allentown without significant transportation time as compared to Ottawa or Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Allentown is 60 miles north of Philadelphia).
Television and radio coverage
The IronPigs franchise broadcasts all 72 of its home games on television, a rarity for a minor league team. Local cable outlet
Service Electric TV2 carries IronPigs games; the station reaches nearly one million subscribers, predominantly in the
Lehigh Valley region of
Pennsylvania. In addition, TV2 will feed its telecasts to Blue Ridge Cable TV-13. Selected Saturday night home games are telecasted over the air on
WFMZ-TV 69, which also carries into the Philadelphia area as well as western
New Jersey. All 144 IronPigs games are also broadcast on
WEEX, an
Easton, Pennsylvania-based
ESPN Radio affiliate.
Television
- Service Electric TV2 (Bethlehem)
- Service Electric Cablevision (Bethlehem)
- Blue Ridge Cable TV13 (Palmerton)
- WYLN - 35 (Hazleton)
- WFMZ-TV - 69 (Allentown)
Radio
- WEEX - 1230 (Easton)
- WTKZ - 1320 (Allentown)
- WYBF - 89.1 (Radnor)
- WMGH-FM - 105.5 (Tamaqua)
- WLSH - 1410 (Lansford)
- WNPV - 1440 (Philadelphia)
- WPAZ - 1370 (Pottstown)
2008 season
On Monday, April 14th, 2008 the Lehigh Valley IronPigs broke an 11-game losing streak by defeating the
Richmond Braves 3-1 at their new home stadium Coca-Cola Park. This win was both the first home win for the team and also their first win ever as the IronPigs. Early on in the season
Shane Victorino made a rehab start of the IronPigs. In July 2008, Phillies starter
Brett Myers pitched a few games for the IronPigs trying to work on his command at the insistence of the Phillies.
2009 season
In 2009, former Phillies' pitchers
Kyle Kendrick and
J. C. Romero pitched for the team. Kendrick was assigned to the IronPigs after failing to make the Phillies starting roster for 2009. Romero pitched for the IronPigs in May 2009 following a 50-game suspension for failing Major League Baseball's substance abuse policy, after he tested positive for the use of
androstenedione.
Logos and uniforms
Mascot
On
December 1,
2007, the IronPigs selected "PorkChop" as the name of their mascot from 7,300 submitted names. On
December 2,
2007, the name was changed to Ferrous, derived from the chemical name for
iron, because of complaints from the local
Puerto Rican population, who alleged that "Pork Chop" was a racist term, despite the name being submitted by a young girl who lived in the
Lehigh Valley area.
[4]
Season-by-season records
| Season
| League
| Division
| Regular Season
| Postseason
| Awards
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| Finish
| W
| L
| Win%
| GB
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| 2008
| IL
| North
| 6th
| 55
| 89
| .382
| 33.0
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* - Current season.
These statistics reflect games played through July 16, 2008.
Current roster
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| Players
| Coaching staff
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Pitchers
- 7 Jason Anderson (baseball)
- 27 Travis Blackley
- 30 Matt Childers
- 45 John Ennis (baseball)
- 31 Steve Green (baseball)
- 33 J. A. Happ*
- 40 Brian Mazone
- 43 Stephen Randolph
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| Catchers
- 15 Jason Jaramillo*
- 11 John Suomi
Infielders
- 16 Joey Hammond
- 10 Oscar Robles*
- 3 Mike Rouse
- 13 Casey Smith
- 28 Andy Tracy
Outfielders
- 41 T. J. Bohn*
- 17 Jon Knott
- 12 Rich Thompson (outfielder)
- 5 Brandon Watson
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| Manager
Coaches
- 8 Greg Gross (hitting)
- 54 Rod Nichols (pitching)
- -- Jason Kirkman (head athletic trainer)
Disabled and Inactive List
- 19 Brennan King
- 9 Chris Snelling
* - On Philadelphia Phillies 40-man roster
updated 2008-07-16
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See also
- Sports in Allentown, Pennsylvania
- History of baseball in Allentown, Pennsylvania
References
- Stadium's final cost hits $50.25 million
- "Eastern League History"
- Will baseball be very, very good to the Valley with a AAA team?
- IronPigs Hear More Complaints In 'PorkChop' Mascot Name Flap - Sports News Story - WCAU | Philadelphia