Pecos League

History

The Pecos League operated six teams in the 2011{{Cite web

The Pecos League also operates a spring developmental league, which is a one-month showcase beginning in March for recent college graduates and free agents looking to catch on to a full season league.

In May 2014, Fox Sports 1 aired a six-part documentary about life in the Pecos League, mostly based on the Trinidad Triggers.

In August 2014, Jon Edwards made his major league debut with the Texas Rangers becoming the first player in Pecos League history to play in Major League Baseball.

In September 2016, Chris Smith was called up to the Toronto Blue Jays becoming the second player from the Pecos League to make a major league roster, though he did not appear in a game that season. Smith would eventually make his debut for the Blue Jays on June 27, 2017, against the Baltimore Orioles.

For 2016, the Las Vegas Train Robbers moved to Topeka, Kansas. Expansion teams were added in Great Bend, Kansas{{Cite web

On February 25, 2016 it was announced that the Las Cruces Vaqueros would sit out the 2016 season due to severe damage to their home stadium.{{Cite web

Following the 2016 season, a drastic shift in the Pecos League landscape occurred as two Kansas teams, the Salina Stockade and Great Bend Boom, both folded, while a third, the Topeka Train Robbers, moved to Bakersfield, California, taking the place of the former Bakersfield Blaze, who folded following the 2016 California League season.

The Train Robbers were joined in California for 2017 by three expansion teams: the High Desert Yardbirds (replacing the California League's High Desert Mavericks), the Monterey Amberjacks, and California City Whiptails. The league also announced a travel team, the Hollywood Stars, who played a handful of home games in Los Angeles.

For 2019, the Ruidoso Osos were replaced by the Wasco Reserves, and the league reduced the number of divisions from three to two.

For 2020, the Martinez Sturgeon and Santa Cruz Seaweed were announced as expansion teams, and the San Rafael Pacifics were added from the Pacific Association. They joined the all-California Pacific Division, and replaced the California City Whiptails and High Desert Yardbirds in the circuit. The Tucson Saguaros moved to the Mountain Division, taking the place of the White Sands Pupfish. Interdivisional games would not be played to cut down on travel and other expenses. Later, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league announced that the Mountain Division teams would not play at their home stadiums, and that 4 of the 6 teams would play a condensed 36-game season beginning on July 1, 2020. All games were played at Coastal Baseball Park in Houston, Texas. The Pacific Division originally planned on enacting a similar format, but due to the ongoing pandemic, were unable to compete in 2020.

For the 2021 season, the Salina Stockade returned and the league announced the addition of the Colorado Springs Snow Sox as an expansion team. On April 4, the league announced its final division alignment for the season, which did not include California City and High Desert after previously indicating each would return. On August 3, the league announced the Bay Series between the San Rafael Pacifics, Monterey Amberjacks, Martinez Sturgeon, and Santa Cruz Seaweed after the Bakersfield Train Robbers tested positive for COVID-19 and had to cancel their final home series. The Pecos League operated the Houston Apollos in the American Association as a travel team.

In April 2021, Yermín Mercedes was called up to the Chicago White Sox where he set a major league record as the first baseball player in modern MLB history to begin a season with eight consecutive hits.

For the 2022 season, the league announced three expansion franchises: the Santa Rosa Scuba Divers, Austin Weirdos, and Weimar Hormigas. After competing in 2021, Salina was not included as a member club in 2022.

Before 2023, the league introduced 4 new teams; the Lancaster Sound Breakers, Marysville Drakes, Blackwell Fly Catchers, and Dublin Leprechauns. The Weimar Hormigas, Colorado Springs Snow Sox, Wasco Reserve, and Santa Rosa Scuba Divers folded. Tucson moved back to the Mountain Division, while the Santa Cruz Seaweed moved to Vallejo, California.

For the 2024 season, the Lancaster Sound Breakers and Monterey Amberjacks did not return. The Sound Breakers folded due to the city of Lancaster entering into a lease with a soccer organization to use The Hangar, leaving the Sound Breakers without a stadium. The City of Monterey reportedly did not renew its contract with the league, but the Amberjacks plan to return in 2025.

To replace the Sound Breakers and Amberjacks, the league brought in two new teams for the season, the North Platte 80s and the Pecos Bills. Both of which are the first time that each city has had a team in the league.

Before the 2025 season, the Amberjacks made a return while Marysville folded. A new expansion team, the Kansas City Hormigas was announced. The Santa Rosa Scuba Divers returned with the relocation of the Vallejo Seaweed, but it was short lived as they moved back to Vallejo to play as the Seaweed in June, 2025.

The league will split the Mountain Division into a Mountain North and Mountain South for the 2025 season.

Current teams

Map of teams

Former teams

Proposed teams that never played

A high number of Pecos League teams postponed their premiere seasons before they were slated to play, like the Pueblo Diablos (Bighorns) in Colorado, and Douglas Diablos, Maricopa Monsoon in Arizona and Nogales Sonorans or Skeletons.

League timeline

DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy ImageSize = width:1100 height:auto barincrement:25 Period = from:01/01/2011 till:12/31/2025 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 # to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20" Colors = id:barcolor value:black id:line value:pink id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a current league member id:Past value:rgb(0.4,0.80,0.67) # Use to indicate a former team id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to or from another league

PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s

bar:1 color:Full from:01/01/2011 till:12/31/2019 text:Alpine Cowboys (2011–2019, 2021–present) bar:1 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:

bar:2 color:Past from:01/01/2011 till:12/31/2011 text:Carlsbad Bats (2011)

bar:3 color:Past from:01/01/2011 till:12/31/2012 text:Las Cruces Vaqueros (2011–2012, 2015) bar:3 color:Past from:01/01/2015 till:12/31/2015 text:

bar:4 color:Full from:01/01/2011 till:end text:Roswell Invaders (2011–present)

bar:5 color:Past from:01/01/2011 till:12/31/2011 text:Ruidoso Osos (2011, 2013–2014, 2018) bar:5 color:Past from:01/01/2013 till:12/31/2014 text: bar:5 color:Past from:01/01/2018 till:12/31/2018 text:

bar:6 color:Past from:01/01/2011 till:01/01/2020 text:White Sands Pupfish (2011–2019)

bar:7 color:Full from:01/01/2012 till:12/31/2019 text:Santa Fe Fuego (2012–2019, 2021–present) bar:7 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:

bar:8 color:Full from:01/01/2012 till:12/31/2019 text:Trinidad Triggers (2012–2019, 2021–present) bar:8 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:

bar:9 color:Full from:01/01/2013 till:12/31/2015 text:Las Vegas Train Robbers (2013–2015), Topeka Train Robbers (2016), Bakersfield Train Robbers (2017–2019, 2021–present) bar:9 color:Full from:01/01/2016 till:12/31/2016 text: bar:9 color:Full from:01/01/2017 till:12/31/2019 text: bar:9 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:

bar:10 color:Past from:01/01/2013 till:12/31/2014 text:Taos Blizzard (2013–2014)

bar:11 color:Past from:01/01/2014 till:12/31/2014 text:Bisbee Blue (2014)

bar:12 color:Past from:01/01/2014 till:12/31/2014 text:Douglas Diablos (2014)

bar:13 color:Full from:01/01/2015 till:12/31/2019 text:Garden City Wind (2015–2019, 2021–present) bar:13 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:

bar:14 color:Past from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2017 text:Great Bend Boom (2016)

bar:15 color:Past from:01/01/2016 till:01/01/2017 text:Salina Stockade (2016, 2020–2021) bar:15 color:Past from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2021 text:

bar:16 color:Full from:01/01/2016 till:end text:Tucson Saguaros (2016–present)

bar:17 color:Past from:01/01/2017 till:01/01/2020 text:California City Whiptails (2017–2019)

bar:18 color:Past from:01/01/2017 till:01/01/2020 text:High Desert Yardbirds (2017–2019)

bar:19 color:Past from:01/01/2017 till:01/01/2018 text:Hollywood Stars (2017)

bar:20 color:Full from:01/01/2017 till:12/31/2019 text:Monterey Amberjacks (2017–2019, 2021–2023, 2025–present) bar:20 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:12/31/2023 text: bar:20 color:Full from:01/01/2025 till:end text:

bar:21 color:Past from:01/01/2019 till:12/31/2019 text:Wasco Reserve (2019, 2021–2022) bar:21 color:Past from:01/01/2021 till:12/31/2022 text:

bar:22 color:Past from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020 text:Houston Apollos (2020)

bar:23 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:Martinez Sturgeon (2021–present) bar:24 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:San Rafael Pacifics (2021–present) bar:25 color:Past from:01/01/2021 till:11/17/2022 text:Santa Cruz Seaweed (2021–2022), Vallejo Seaweed (2023–2024) bar:25 color:Past from:11/17/2022 till:12/31/2024 text: bar:26 color:Past from:01/01/2021 till:12/31/2022 text:Colorado Springs Snow Sox (2021–2022) bar:27 color:Past from:01/01/2022 till:12/31/2024 text:Austin Weirdos (2022–2024) bar:28 color:Full from:01/01/2022 till:12/31/2022 text:Santa Rosa Scuba Divers (2022, 2025–present) bar:28 color:Full from:01/01/2025 till:end text: bar:29 color:Past from:01/01/2022 till:12/31/2022 text:Weimar Hormigas (2022) bar:29 color:Full from:01/01/2025 till:end text:Kansas City Hormigas (2025–present) bar:30 color:Full from:01/01/2023 till:end text:Blackwell FlyCatchers (2023–present) bar:31 color:Full from:01/01/2023 till:end text:Dublin Leprechauns (2023–present) bar:32 color:Past from:01/01/2023 till:12/31/2023 text:Lancaster Sound Breakers (2023) bar:33 color:Past from:01/01/2023 till:12/31/2024 text:Marysville Drakes (2023–2024) bar:34 color:Full from:01/01/2024 till:end text:North Platte 80s (2024–present) bar:35 color:Full from:01/01/2024 till:end text:Pecos Bills (2024–present)

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/2011 TextData = fontsize:L

textcolor:black

pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center)

text:^"Pecos League Timeline"

1. If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following three options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space.

Champions

References

References

1. "Pecos League signs on with Vimeo OTT for 2026 season".
2. Darby, Seyward. (2013-04-03). "The Legends of Last Place".
3. IndyBallIsland. (2014-10-15). ""The Shit Show" – The Pecos League and Reality TV".
4. (February 25, 2020). "Pecos League to play with fourteen teams in two divisions for 2020 season". Pecos League.
5. (May 7, 2020). "Pecos League 2020 Season Update". Pecos League.
6. "2021 team map".
7. "The Bay Series is born".
8. "It is the Weimar Hormigas Baseball in the Pecos League for 2022".
9. Krieger, Dan. (December 30, 2024). "Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report". Our Sports Central.
10. "Clint Lightner". Pecos League.
11. "2017 Professional Baseball Ballparks". Baseball Pilgrimages.
12. "Fort Marcy Park". Charlie's Ballparks.
13. "新人报导，请多多关照！我叫罗伯特-莱万多夫斯基".
14. (August 4, 2018). "Bakersfield Train Robbers win Pecos League Championship".