The Rochester Red Wings are a Triple-A team based in Rochester, New York. The team plays in the International League and are a minor league baseball affiliate of the Minnesota Twins major-league club. The Red Wings play in Frontier Field, located in downtown Rochester.
The Red Wings were an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals for 32 years (1929–1960), then spent 42 years (1961–2002) as a farm club of the Baltimore Orioles before changing to the Twins in 2003. The franchise played from 1929 through 1996 at Silver Stadium (called Red Wing Stadium (1929–1968)) and moved to Frontier Field in 1997. In 1981, the Red Wings and Pawtucket Red Sox set the record for the longest professional baseball game ever played (33 innings); Pawtucket won, 3–2.
Baseball in Rochester dates back to 1877 with the "Rochesters" of the International Association, and Rochester has had a franchise in the league now known as the International League as early as 1885. The current franchise has been playing in Rochester since 1899, when the team was known as the Rochester Broncos and won the league championship in its inaugural season.
According to Rochester sports historian Douglas Brei, only six franchises in the history of North American professional sports have been playing in the same city and same league continuously and uninterrupted since the 19th century: the Rochester Red Wings, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals. He also reports that the Red Wings and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League are the only two franchises in North American professional sports to have captured a league championship in every decade of the 20th century.
Read more about Rochester Red Wings: Titles, Current Roster, Retired Numbers, Notable Alumni, Awards and Honors
Famous quotes containing the words rochester, red and/or wings:
“The clog of all pleasure, the luggage of life,
Is the best can be said for a very good wife.”
—John Wilmot, Earl Of Rochester (1647–1680)
“He gets red roses in different places,
the head, that time he was as sleepy as a river,
the back, that time he was a broken scarecrow,
the arm like a diamond had bitten it,
the leg, twisted like a licorice stick....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly’s wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred. Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and of their construction and he learned to think and could not fly any more because the love of flight was gone and he could only remember when it had been effortless.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)