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)
“Red river, red river,
Slow flow heat is silence
No will is still as a river
Still.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive,
Half wishing they were dead to save the shame.
The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow;
They have drawn too near the fire of life, like gnats,
And flare up bodily, wings and all. What then?
Who’s sorry for a gnat ... or girl?”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)