Bradenton Marauders - Bradenton Marauders

Bradenton Marauders

The Pittsburgh Pirates have had their spring training facilities based in Bradenton, Florida since in 1969, when the city met with Pirates' general manager Joe Brown and owner John W. Galbreath and both sides agreed to a lease of 40 years, with an option for another 40 years.

After the Reds' spring-training departure from Florida's Grapefruit League to Arizona's Cactus League in 2009, the Reds and Pirates did an "affiliate-swap". The Pirates took over the Sarasota Reds, while the Reds became the parent club of the Pirates' former Class A-Advanced affiliate, the Lynchburg Hillcats of the Carolina League. On November 10, 2009, baseball officials voted to allow the Pirates to purchase and uproot the Sarasota Reds. The Pirates moved the team to Bradenton, where they were renamed the Bradenton Marauders. The Marauders became the first Florida State League team located in Bradenton since the Bradenton Growers folded in 1926.

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Famous quotes containing the word marauders:

    When all this is over, you know what I’m going to do? I’m gonna get married, gonna have about six kids. I’ll line ‘em up against the wall and tell them what it was like here in Burma. If they don’t cry, I’ll beat the hell out of ‘em.
    Samuel Fuller, U.S. screenwriter, and Milton Sperling. Samuel Fuller. Barney, Merrill’s Marauders (1962)