SPRING(FIELD) AWAKENING
WRITTEN BY: JASON GUERETTE
SPRINGFIELD, IL - Tonight will be a special night in the capital city of Illinois, as the Gateway Grizzlies travel north to take on the Lake Erie Crushers at Robin Roberts Stadium, marking the first professional baseball game in Springfield since 2001.
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Springfield has been home to many professional teams since Robin Roberts Stadium opened in 1928 as Reservoir Stadium, beginning with the Springfield Senators/Browns of the Class B Three-I League from 1928- 35, and again from 1938-49. After a 28-year hiatus, the Springfield Redbirds played in the Triple-A American Association from 1978-81, and the following year, the Springfield Cardinals of the Midwest League called the historic ballpark home, staying until 1995.
It was at that point after the 1995 season that the last pro team to play in Springfield moved in- the Springfield Capitals of the Frontier League. The Capitals would celebrate their inaugural season with immediate success on the diamond in 1996, going 39-35 in the regular season before a run to the Frontier League Championship under manager Mal Fichman. Just two years later, in 1998, the Capitals did it again. Led by Frontier League Pitcher of the Year Jason Simontacchi as well as fellow postseason all-stars Pat Evans and Sean House, they won their second Frontier League title with a 48-29 overall record, the highest win percentage in the circuit that year.
In their six seasons in the league, Springfield would also play host to some notable names not only in the Frontier League but in higher levels of pro baseball all the way up to present-day MLB, with three teammates on the 1998 championship squad standing out. Simontacchi, the Pitcher of the Year in 1998 after going 10-2 with a 2.95 ERA in 110 innings, eventually reached the big leagues as a player with the St. Louis Cardinals from 2002-04, and with the Washington Nationals in 2007. He recently served as a pitching coordinator in the Kansas City Royals organization from 2018-22 as well as the pitching coach of the Springfield Cardinals, the Double-A Affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, from 2014-18. The Frontier League's Rookie of the Year award also now bears Simontacchi's name.
Darren Bush, for whom the Frontier League Coach of the Year award is named, played in Springfield in 1997 and 1998, with the lefty-hitting outfielder batting .332 with 16 home runs and 66 RBIs in the latter championship season. After retiring as a player, Bush transitioned to coaching, managing several independent teams before joining the Oakland Athletics organization in 2005, eventually working his way up to the Major League level, where he currently serves as the A's bench coach after several years as their hitting coach and third base coach.
Another former Capital now in the majors with Oakland is David Forst, who has been the General Manager of the A's since 2015 after working as a scout from 2000-04, and as the Assistant General Manager from 2004-15 under Billy Beane. He, too, played for the Capitals in the Frontier League from 1998-99, batting .288 over 147 games in his career in Springfield.
The Capitals eventually relocated to Rockford, Illinois following the 2001 season, but the impact Springfield made on the Frontier League can still be felt today. The arrival of the Capitals in Springfield marked the beginning of an important shift by the league into larger stadiums and markets than had originally founded the circuit in 1993, setting the stage for future expansion and growth into major metropolitan areas such as St. Louis, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York, and more.
Today, the Frontier League is the longest-running and largest MLB Partner League. Tonight, the league returns to Springfield with a game between the Gateway Grizzlies and Lake Erie Crushers, two of the top teams in the league in 2024. We hope you enjoy the action tonight!