Early History
In 1995 Miles Wolff, who founded the Northern league and served as its commissioner, started this independent league (his second). For the first season, six teams played and all five were based in southern and central New York. Albany (Albany Diamond Dogs), Glens Falls (Adirondack Lumberjacks), Yonkers (Yonkers Hoot Owls), Newburgh (Newburgh Night Hawks), Little Falls (Mohawk Valley Landsharks) and Mountaindale (Sullivan Mountain Lions) were all given teams and Albany won the first league championship in a 68-game season. The overall title, however, went to Adirondack.
For 1996, things changed slightly. Sullivan's team was sold to a new ownership group who renamed them the Catskill Cougars and moved them to the North Atlantic League while Mohawk Valley moved to West Warwick, Rhode Island, expanding the league into New England as the team became the Rhode Island Tiger Sharks. To replace the Mountain Lions/Cougars, an expansion team was granted to Elmira, New York to replace the city's affiliated team which moved to Lowell, Massachusetts and took the name Elmira Pioneers as every other professional team that called Elmira home since 1923. Yonkers was also folded and the league expanded into Maine with the Bangor Blue Ox taking their place. Albany won the league title again.
In 1997 the league expanded to eight teams and switched to a two-division format. Newburgh and Rhode Island folded after the 1996 season. As the result of the disbanding of the North Atlantic League Catskill rejoined the Northeast League and the Lynn, Massachusetts-based Massachusetts Mad Dogs followed them. Meanwhile, the league expanded into Waterbury, Connecticut and Allentown, Pennsylvania with the Waterbury Spirit and Allentown Ambassadors. The league was won by the Elmira Pioneers.
For 1998, the Diamond Dogs added the name of their actual home city, Colonie, to their name and became known as the Albany-Colonie Diamond Dogs. Bangor's team folded and the team's place was taken by the expansion New Jersey Jackals, who played in a then-unfinished Yogi Berra Stadium in Little Falls, New Jersey on the campus of Montclair State University. The new franchise won the Northeast League championship in their first season.
After the season, prior to the merger with the Northern League, the Catskill franchise again folded. The Cougars would return as a member of the Northern League East in 2000 but would not last beyond that season.
Read more about this topic: Northeast League
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