Mobile BayBears

The Mobile BayBears were a Double-A Minor League Baseball team from Mobile, Alabama. They competed in the Southern League and were affiliated with three Major League clubs over their history: the San Diego Padres (1997–2006), the Arizona Diamondbacks (2007–2016), and the Los Angeles Angels (2017–2019). Their ballpark, Hank Aaron Stadium, opened in 1997 and was named for the Mobile-born slugger who once held baseball’s all-time home run record. After the 2019 season, the franchise moved to Madison, Alabama, and became the Rocket City Trash Pandas.

The team’s roots go back to 1976 in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the franchise began as the Charlotte Orioles and later the first Charlotte Knights. When Charlotte moved up to Triple-A in 1993, the club temporarily played in Nashville as the Nashville Xpress (1993–1994) and then in Wilmington, North Carolina, as the Port City Roosters (1995–1996). The franchise settled in Mobile in 1997.

The BayBears name was chosen through a fan contest and announced by Mobile mayor Mike Dow during the city’s Fourth of July fireworks display in 1996. That September, the team signed its first affiliation agreement with the San Diego Padres.

In November 2017, owners Michael Savit and HWS Group sold the team to BallCorps LLC. The BayBears stayed in Mobile through the 2019 season before relocating to Madison, Alabama, in 2020 to play in a new ballpark. The new name, Rocket City Trash Pandas, honors the area’s space industry and the resourcefulness of raccoons. The BayBears played their final game on September 2, 2019, losing 5–4 to the Tennessee Smokies in front of 1,554 fans.

Notable players who passed through the organization include Hall of Fame inductees Dusty Allen, Ben Davis, Buddy Carlyle, Matt Clement, Kevin Nicholson, Brian Tollberg, Wiki González, and Jake Peavy. Other alumni include Emilio Bonifacio, Craig Breslow, Max Scherzer, Justin Upton, Paul Goldschmidt, Mark Reynolds, Trevor Bauer, and Tyler Skaggs.