Staten Island Yankees

• Location: Staten Island, NY
• League: New York-Penn League 1999-2019
• Affiliation: New York Yankees 1999-2019
• Ballpark: Ballpark at the College of Staten Island 1999-2000; Richmond County Bank Ballpark at St. George 2001-2019

Team History

The Staten Island Yankees were the NY-Penn League affiliate of the New York Yankees for two decades. When there was the announcement of a Yankees minor league team coming to Staten Island, the local papers and fans immediately nicknamed them the Baby Bombers. The Yankees' previous NY-Penn League affiliate was located in Oneonta, NY. With the expiration of their Player Development Contract there after 1998, the Yankees used the opportunity to work out an agreement with the owners of the Watertown Indians. The Yankees purchased 49% of the team and moved them to Staten Island, NY, where they were slated to play in a ballpark to be built on the site of a former rail yard. While awaiting the construction of the ballpark, the team worked out an arrangement with the College of Staten Island to use their ballpark until their stadium was completed.

In 1999, the Staten Island Yankees became the first professional baseball team to play in Staten Island since the New York Giants in 1889. The Giants and before them the New York Metropolitans (American Association, 1886-1887) played relatively close to the site of the current stadium. The 1999 Staten Island Yankees were managed by Joe Arnold who managed the Oneonta Yankees the year prior. Among the players on the roster were future major leaguers Andy Phillips, Brandon Claussen, Rosman Garcia and Alex Graman.

After the 2016 season the team announced it would go through a rebranding. A name-the-team contest was held with the finalists being the Bridge Trolls, Heroes, Killer Bees, Pizza Rats and the Rock Pigeons. Public opinion on the new choices was mixed and in December of 2016 it was announced that the name change would not go through in time for 2017 season. However, in 2018, they did adopt the name "Pizza Rats", but just for Saturday home games. The name was based on a video which had gone viral in 2015, depicting a rat carrying a piece of pizza up a flight of stairs in the New York subway, apparently simply preparing to chill out with a slice like any good New Yorker would.

Following the 2019 season, the Staten Island Yankees were identified as one of the numerous teams slated to be eliminated following the 2020 season, as part of a major reorganization of the minor leagues that would involve the disappearance of the Short-Season Class A classification and the NY-Penn League as a whole. Then, the entire 2020 minor league season was wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic and news about minor league teams being eliminated starting to filter out that fall. On December 3rd, it was confirmed that Staten Island was to be eliminated. The "Baby Bombers" quickly declined an offer to join the new amateur MLB Draft League, ceased operations – and sued both MLB and their departing parent New York Yankees. Most of that lawsuit was dismissed in September 2021[1], but the remaining question is whether the big Yankees breached a written agreement that was independent of the Professional Baseball Agreement that expired in 2020. In December 2021, the Yanks and three other dropped teams jointly filed a new suit against MLB. One of the others, the Tri-City ValleyCats, also has a pending suit against its former parent, and the other two - the Norwich Sea Unicorns and Salem-Keizer Volcanoes - are taking their first legal action.[2]

Year-by-Year Record

Year	Record	Finish	Manager	Playoffs	Hitting Coach	Pitching Coach	Coach
1999	39-35	7th	Joe Arnold		Mike Easom	Mike Baker
2000	46-28	2nd	Joe Arnold	League Champs	Kevin Higgins	Gary Lavelle	Mitch Seoane
2001	48-28	3rd	Dave Jorn	Lost in 1st round	Kevin Higgins	Neil Allen
2002	48-26	1st	Derek Shelton	League Champs	Kevin Higgins	Neil Allen
2003	29-43	11th	Andy Stankiewicz		Kevin Higgins	Dave Eiland	Torre Tyson
2004	28-44	13th	Tommy John		Kevin Higgins	Dave Eiland
2005	52-24	1st	Andy Stankiewicz	League Champs	Rob Ducey	Mike Thurman	Tony Caradonna
2006	45-29	1st	Gaylen Pitts	League Champs	Ty Hawkins	Carlos Chantres	Julio Mosquera
2007	47-28	2nd	Mike Gillespie	Lost in 1st round	Ty Hawkins	Jeff Ware	Julio Mosquera
2008	49-26	1st	Pat McMahon	Lost in 1st round	Ty Hawkins	Pat Daneker	Victor Valencia
2009	47-29	2nd	Josh Paul	League Champs	Ty Hawkins	Pat Daneker	Carlos Mendoza
2010	34-40	10th (t)	Jody Reed (8-6) / Josh Paul (26-34)		Ty Hawkins	Pat Daneker	Justin Pope
2011	45-28	1st	Tom Slater	League Champs	Ty Hawkins	Danny Borrell	Danilo Valiente
2012	30-45	11th (t)	Justin Pope		Ty Hawkins	Carlos Chantres	Danilo Valiente
2013	34-41	10th	Justin Pope		Ty Hawkins	Carlos Chantres	Danilo Valiente
2014	37-38	6th	Mario Garza		Ty Hawkins	Tim Norton	Luis Figueroa
2015	41-34	4th	Pat Osborn	Lost League Finals	Eric Duncan	Butch Henry	Teuris Olivares
2016	44-31	4th	Dave Bialas	Lost in 1st round	Eric Duncan	Travis Phelps	Teuris Olivares, Radley Haddad
2017	46-29	1st	Julio Mosquera	Lost in 1st round	Kevin Mahoney	Travis Phelps	Teuris Olivares
2018	37-36	7th	Lino Diaz		Ken Joyce	Travis Phelps	Tyson Blaser
2019	40-36	6th (t)	David Adams		Ken Joyce	Travis Phelps	Tyson Blaser
2020	Season cancelled

Further Reading

• Jesse Yomtov: "Staten Island Yankees cease operations, sue New York Yankees, Major League Baseball", USA Today, December 3, 2020. [3]

External Link

• Staten Island Yankees