The Saskatchewan Silver Sox are an independent professional baseball team based in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

. They play in the developmental

Arizona Winter League The Arizona Winter League was an independent professional winter baseball league. Arizona Winter League games were all played at Desert Sun Stadium in Yuma, Arizona. The league was founded in 2007. It disbanded in 2013 due to parent league, t ...

, a short-season instructional winter league affiliated with the North American League and compete in the International Division, as well as the Calexico Outlaws,

San Diego Surf Dawgs The San Diego Surf Dawgs are a professional baseball team based in San Diego, California, that competes in the Federal Baseball League. The team played for two seasons in San Ramon, California, in the Golden Baseball League (GBL), and then in th ...

, San Luis Atleticos and

Team Canada Canadian National Team or Team Canada may refer to: Canada at multi-sport events * Canada at the Olympics ** Canadian Olympic Committee * Canada at the Paralympics ** Canadian Paralympic Committee * Canada at the Commonwealth Games * Canada at ...

. They began playing their home games in 2009 at Desert Sun Stadium in Yuma. (The Blythe Heat, El Centro Imperials and San Luis Atleticos played home games on their own fields until 2011.) They are owned by Diamond Sports & Entertainment.

Team name

The Silver Sox brand belonged to the since-defunct

Golden Baseball League The Golden Baseball League was an independent baseball league based in San Ramon, California, with teams located in the Western United States, Western Canada and northwest Mexico. The GBL was not affiliated with Major League Baseball or the org ...

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

franchise and Reno's minor league team before them. The franchise began in the GBL as the

Mesa Miners The Mesa Miners were an independent professional baseball team based in Mesa, Arizona. They began as a member of the Arizona Division of the now-defunct Golden Baseball League in 2005. The original team became known as the Reno Silver Sox in ...

in 2005 and played one season at

HoHoKam Park Hohokam Stadium (previously spelled ''HoHoKam''), also known as Dwight W. Patterson Field and formerly Hohokam Park (1997–2013), is a 10,500-seat baseball park located in Mesa, Arizona. The stadium, named for the Hohokam people who occupied ...

before relocating to Reno and becoming the new Silver Sox one year later. They played their home games at William Peccole Park at the

University of Nevada at Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada, United States. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded ...

and won the GBL Championship in their first season there in 2006, but suffered for their last two seasons in Western Nevada. Following the relocation of the AAA

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

franchise the

Reno Aces The Reno Aces are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. They are located in Reno, Nevada, and play their home games at Greater Nevada Field, w ...

from

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

, in 2009, the team was purchased by Tucson Baseball owner Jay Zucker, relocated to Tucson and renamed the

Tucson Toros The Tucson Toros were a professional baseball team based in Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. The original Toros were a Triple-A minor league baseball team in the Pacific Coast League from 1969 to 1997, where they won the PCL Championship in ...

. The Silver Sox team name (owned by the league) has since been given to the current Saskatchewan team in the AWL, which has no ties to the original Reno franchise, yet could adopt the team history.

Team name origin

Unlike its GBL predecessor and name sake, the Silver Sox team name is based on the importance of the precious metal in Saskatchewan where significant silver ore deposits lie in the Canadian Shield in the eastern part of the province near Flin Flon, Manitoba. It is also a not too subtle hint that the summer professional Golden Baseball League, which already has teams in Victoria, Calgary, and Edmonton; would be very open to a new ownership group that would like to add an expansion team in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

or Regina for the 2010 season.

Attendance and possible relocation

Supported by throngs of Saskatchewan residents wintering in Arizona, the Silver Sox roster is reflective of the diversity of the province with players from Canada, Korea, Japan, the U.S. and Latin America and is striving to bring a professional baseball championship back to Saskatchewan. The Silver Sox lead the average attendance in 2009 with approximately 1,200. Though nothing has been etched in stone, there has been talk between the GBL and a potential investor about bringing a franchise (possibly the Silver Sox) to play at Cairns Field in Saskatoon. The dedicated fan base did catch the attention of Golden Baseball League commissioner Kevin Outcalt. He said in an interview, "The Silver Sox are also a bit of a nod by the Golden League that we'd love to be up in Saskatchewan, too, in Saskatoon or in Regina or Moose Jaw, if we had the right ownership group and ballpark."Saskatchewan's Silver Sox wrap up season
Ron Petrie, ''The Regina Leader-Post'' @ Canada.com, March 2, 2009

Season-by-season records

Arizona Winter League:

Articles

Sunshine boys eye Saskatoon
Kevin Mitchell, ''The StarPhoenix'', October 27, 2007

Ron Petrie, ''The Regina Leader-Post'', March 2, 2009

Mike Summers, Southern Oregon Timberjacks GBL website, May 21, 2009

References

External links

Arizona Winter League's official website

Golden Baseball League

''Regina Leader-Post'' newspaper

''Saskatoon StarPhoenix'' newspaper

{{Professional Baseball Sports clubs and teams in Saskatoon Arizona Winter League teams