{{Infobox baseball team , name = Sullivan Mountain Lions , founded =

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, folded =

, city =

Mountain Dale, New York Mountaindale is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in the town of Fallsburg in Sullivan County, New York, United States, situated at an altitude of . History Mountaindale changed drastically in character from a rural farming hamlet, beginn ...

, ballpark = Baxter Field (New York) , logo = , cap_logo = , league = , division = , former_leagues =

Northeast League The Northeast League was a professional independent baseball league that operated in the Northeastern United States from 1995 until 1998 and from 2003 until 2004. Between 1999 and 2002, the league was part of the Northern League after the two le ...

(1995) , former_names = , nicknames = , uniform = , retired_numbers = , colors = Blue, White , former_ballparks = , league_champs = , division_champs = , owner = Jay Acton , general_manager = Pete Jameson , manager = Ken Oberkfell , media = , website = The Sullivan Mountain Lions were a minor-league baseball team based near Mountain Dale, Sullivan County, New York. The Mountain Lions played in the inaugural season of the

, an independent circuit not affiliated 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 ...

, in 1995. The Lions played their home games at

Baxter Field Baxter International Baseball Field or the Albert Park Baseball Complex is home to the Far North Coast Baseball Association (FNCBA), part of Baseball NSW, in Lismore, New South Wales. It is a fully fenced and regulation size field with field ...

as one of the NeL's six original teams.

Lions' den

Originally the team planned to play in the Town of Thompson near

Kiamesha Lake Kiamesha Lake is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in the town of Thompson, in east-central Sullivan County, New York, United States. The zip code for Kiamesha Lake is 12751. Kiamesha Lake is located on Route 42, between Monticello and F ...

, but after the local planning board rejected the idea, a park was built on 75 acres near Mountain Dale, a remote but "charming" locale, some eight miles off the nearest highway,

New York State Route 17 New York State Route 17 (NY 17) is a major state highway that extends for through the Southern Tier and Downstate New York, Downstate regions of New York (state), New York in the United States. It begins at the New York–Pennsylvani ...

. The plan was to create a mini-

Cooperstown Cooperstown is a village in and the county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in ...

with a small museum to help draw tourists to the hamlet. The field was named in honor of Ruth Baxter, who bought the very first pair of season tickets for $125.There Used to be a Ballpark Here, ''Times Herald Record'' April 12, 2015
/ref> A manual scoreboard was created in the outfield, bleachers were purchased from Aqueduct Raceway and blue plastic seats installed behind home plate, bringing the capacity to 3,500.

On the field

Jay Acton was the club's owner, hiring former major leaguer

Ken Oberkfell Kenneth Ray Oberkfell (born May 4, 1956) is an American former third baseman. He played from 1977 to 1992 for six different teams. Oberkfell primarily played third base but he also played over 400 career games at second base. After retiring as a ...

as the manager. The Lions also featured former MLB pitcher

Floyd Youmans Floyd Everett Youmans (born May 11, 1964) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He pitched all or part of five seasons in Major League Baseball from 1985–89. He is one of the players dealt by the New York Mets to the Montreal Exp ...

; unfortunately, he appeared in only two games, and the team's combined ERA was a bloated 6.15, second-worst in the league. The offense was even worse, managing barely four runs a game, last in the NeL, despite Chris Kokinda winning the league batting title with a .370 average. Sullivan finished the season with a 23–43 record, fifth in the six-team league, ahead of only the disastrous

Yonkers Hoot Owls The Yonkers Hoot Owls were a minor league baseball team based in Yonkers, New York, playing in the independent Northeast League (later known as the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, Can-Am League). The team existed just one ...

franchise. Despite the poor play and their ballpark's out-of-the-way location, the Mountain Lions (aided by bringing in groups from the many summer camps in the area) averaged more than 1,200 fans per game, third-highest in the Northeast League. “But there was no clubhouse, so players had to dress at the Mountain Dale Firehouse and drive down the road to the park,” said Mike McGuire, a third-base coach with the Lions and later a Sullivan County Judge. “But by the end of that first season paychecks were bouncing, vendors weren’t being paid, contractors weren’t being paid.” The Mountain Lions were shifted to

West Warwick, Rhode Island West Warwick is a town in Kent County, Rhode Island, Kent County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 31,012 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. West Warwick was incorporated in 1913, making it the youngest town in the s ...

for the 1996 season, becoming the Rhode Island Tigersharks, and a new ownership group brought the

Catskill Cougars The Catskill Cougars were a minor-league baseball team based in Mountaindale, New York, in the state's Catskill Mountains region. The Cougars played in the North Atlantic League in 1996 and the Northeast League (later known as the Canadian Ameri ...

to Baxter Field.

References

Defunct independent baseball league teams Defunct baseball teams in New York (state) Baseball teams disestablished in 1995 Baseball teams established in 1995 1995 establishments in New York (state) 1995 disestablishments in New York (state) Sullivan County, New York