The Hudson Valley Renegades are a

Minor League Baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

team based in

Fishkill, New York Fishkill is a village within the town of Fishkill in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The village is in the eastern part of the town of Fishkill on U.S. Route 9. It is north of Interstate 84. NY 52 is the main street. It is part of ...

. The

High-A High-A, officially Class High-A, formerly known as Class A-Advanced, and sometimes abbreviated "A+" in writing, is the third-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States and Canada, below Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A and D ...

affiliate of the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

, the Renegades play in the

South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its h ...

. The Renegades play their home games at Heritage Financial Park. From 1994 to 2020, the team competed in the

Class A Short Season Class A Short Season (officially Short-Season A) was a level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States from 1965 through 2020. In the hierarchy of minor league classifications, it was below Triple-A, Double-A, Class A-Advanced (crea ...

New York–Penn League.

History

The Renegades were founded in 1994 when the Erie Sailors relocated from Pennsylvania to the

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley or Hudson River Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The region stretches from the Capital District (New York), Capital District includi ...

, rebranding as the Hudson Valley Renegades. The team originally retained the Sailors' existing affiliation with the Texas Rangers organization but became an affiliate of the

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. They are one of two major ...

organization in 1996, even though the major league team would not start playing until 1998. The Renegades became an affiliate club of the

in 2021.

New York-Penn League

The Renegades won three New York–Penn League championships in 1999, 2012, and 2017. The team has had a number of future major leaguers such as Scott Podsednik, Jorge Cantu, Ryan Dempster, Joe Kennedy, Craig Monroe, Matt Diaz, Evan Longoria,

Josh Hamilton Joshua Holt Hamilton (born May 21, 1981) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from 2007 to 2015, most prominently as a member of the Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers teams ...

, John Jaso, Wade Davis, and Toby Hall as players. On August 10, 2000, Doug Waechter threw the only

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter or no-hit game is a game in which a team does not record a hit (baseball), hit through conventional methods. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in ...

in Renegades history against the Pittsfield Mets. In October 2005, Scott Podsednik became the first former Renegade to win a

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

with the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

defeating a

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...

club which included former Renegades Brandon Backe and Dan Wheeler.

High-A East/South Atlantic League

In conjunction with

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

's restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the Renegades were placed into the High-A East. They won the 2021 Northern Division title with a first-place 71–49 record. Despite winning the division, their record was third-best in the league, and only the two teams with the highest winning percentages in the regular season competed for the league championship. In 2022, the High-A East became known as the South Atlantic League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization.

Ownership

The original owner of the team was the Goldklang Group headed by Marvin Goldklang, which also had stakes in several other minor league baseball teams, including the

Charleston RiverDogs The Charleston RiverDogs are a Minor League Baseball team of the Carolina League. They are located in Charleston, South Carolina, and are the Single-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. The RiverDogs' home stadium is Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park. Char ...

and St. Paul Saints. In December 2021, it was announced that The Goldklang Group sold the Renegades to

Diamond Baseball Holdings Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH) is an American sports ownership and management group that operates over 40 Minor League Baseball (MiLB) teams in the United States and Canada. DBH was established in 2021 by media conglomerate Endeavor and is a su ...

, which as of 2023 is owned by Silver Lake, an American global

private equity firm A private equity firm or private equity company (often described as a financial sponsor) is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of a Startup company, startup or of an existin ...

Mascots

The team's

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

s are a family of anthropomorphic

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...

s. "Rookie" the Raccoon appeared first and Rene Gade in late 1995. The pair was married "in an on-field ceremony" on July 20, 1997. Occasionally, Rookie's father Roofus also appears as part of the mascot team. Their raccoon mascot son Rascal was born in 2000 who married a skunk named Rosie on July 20, 2024. In December 2023, the mascots participated in a holiday yule log event. Team promotions include a "Fun Team" that promotes between-inning entertainment. Former manager Matt Quatraro coined the nickname "Gades" in 2000.

Roster

Playoffs

*1995 season: Lost to

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

2-0 in semifinals. *1998 season: Lost to Oneonta 2-0 in semifinals. *1999 season: Defeated Utica 2-1 in semifinals; defeated

Mahoning Valley The Youngstown–Warren, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, typically known as the Mahoning Valley, is a metropolitan area in Northeast Ohio with Youngstown, Ohio, at its center. According to the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau, ...

2-1 to win championship. *2012 season: Defeated

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

2-1 in semifinals; defeated Tri-City 2-1 to win championship. *2014 season: Lost to State College 2-1 in semifinals. *2016 season: Defeated Lowell 2-0 in semifinals; lost to State College 2-0 in finals. *2017 season: Defeated

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

2-1 in semifinals; defeated

2-0 to win championship. *2018 season: Defeated Auburn Doubledays 2-0 in semifinals; lost to

Tri-City ValleyCats The Tri-City ValleyCats are a professional baseball team based in Albany, New York. The ValleyCats compete in the Frontier League (FL) as a member of the North Division in the Atlantic Conference. The team was established in 2002, along with the ...

2-0 in finals. *2019 season: Lost to

2-1 in semifinals. *2023 season: Defeated

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore, commonly called the Shore by locals, is the coast, coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The term encompasses about of shore, oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Perth Amboy in the n ...

2-1 in semifinals; lost to Greenville 2-0 in finals. *2024 season: Defeated

Greensboro Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina, af ...

2-1 in semifinals; lost to

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

2-1 in finals.

References

External links

*
Statistics from ''Baseball-Reference''
{{New York Sports 1994 establishments in New York (state) Baltimore Orioles minor league affiliates Baseball teams established in 1994 Baseball teams in the New York metropolitan area Fishkill, New York High-A East teams New York Yankees minor league affiliates New York–Penn League teams Professional baseball teams in New York (state) South Atlantic League teams Tampa Bay Rays minor league affiliates