IL1 Gwinnett Stripers

A Look Into The International League

Published on October 10, 2008 under International League (IL1)
Gwinnett Stripers News Release


So, like all of us here with the G-Braves, you are excited about Triple-A baseball being part of the Gwinnett County-Metro Atlanta-North Georgia landscape.

But how much do you know about the teams we will be playing beginning in 2009? This is the first part of what I hope will be articles that will help familiarize you with the competition in 2009.

The Gwinnett Braves will be one of 14 Triple-A clubs playing in the International League. The "IL" as it also sometimes is known has been around a long time...1884 to be exact. It gets its "International" name because at one time three countries, the United States, Canada and Cuba had teams in the league. That has changed. Each team is now from the U.S.

The other 16 Triple-A teams play in the Pacific Coast League, which also goes by the "PCL." Not too long ago there were three Triple-A leagues: the International, the Pacific Coast and the American Association. After the 1997 season, the American Association folded. Three teams joined the IL: Buffalo, Indianapolis and Louisville. The rest joined up with the PCL.

So now here's the breakdown of the teams in the International League that the Braves will be playing this season:


SOUTH DIVISION

Gwinnett Braves (Atlanta)
Charlotte Knights (Chicago White Sox)
Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay)
Norfolk Tides (Baltimore)

WEST DIVISION

Toledo Mud Hens (Detroit)
Columbus Clippers (Cleveland)
Indianapolis Indians (Pittsburgh)
Louisville Bats (Cincinnati)

NORTH DIVISION

Syracuse Chiefs (Washington)
Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees (New York Yankees)
Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (Philadelphia)
Buffalo Bisons (New York Mets)
Pawtucket Red Sox (Boston)
Rochester Red Wings (Minnesota)

The Gwinnett Braves will play a 144 game schedule, most of which will be against teams in the South. Therefore, it seems pretty natural that a rivalry will be formed with Charlotte and/or Durham. They are the closest to Gwinnett and they, along with Norfolk, will be coming to the Gwinnett County Ballpark the most during the season.

The season runs from early April to the end of August. There is a Triple-A All Star game in mid July, this season it will be held in Portland, Oregon on July 15. In September, the three division winners and a "wild card" team go to the best-of-five playoffs. The International League Champion gets the Governor's Cup and goes on to the Triple-A championship game to meet the champion of the PCL.

The Richmond Braves last won the Governor's Cup in 2007 beating Durham in five games and then lost to Sacramento in the Triple-A Championship game.You're probably going to see IL President Randy Mobley in Gwinnett a few times this season. He also came down for the stadium ground breaking in July.

When I was growing up, the Richmond Braves were the Triple-A team of Atlanta; the Columbus Clippers were always the Triple-A team of the Yankees; the Rochester Red Wings, the Triple-A team of Baltimore and the Pawtucket Red Sox, the Triple-A team of...well...you guessed it; the Mets were always in Norfolk and the Blue Jays seemed to always settle in Syracuse. With the addition of the three teams from the American Association and the Durham Bulls, this has drastically changed.

But what has not changed is the great talent that you are going to see play in the IL each and every game. Many of the stars will make the trek---up and down---between the Majors and Triple A as well as young, budding stars making their way up from Double-A and Single-A.

Over the next few months leading up to first pitch, I will take a look at the individual teams that we will be seeing in 2009.

Check out the Gwinnett Stripers Statistics

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International League Stories from October 10, 2008


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