Columbus Clippers


The Columbus Clippers are a professional Minor League Baseball team based in Columbus, Ohio. The team plays in the International League and is the Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. The team is owned by the government of Franklin County, Ohio.
The Clippers began play in as an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, changing its affiliation to the New York Yankees in, beginning a 28-year relationship that ended in. An affiliation with the Washington Nationals lasted from to. A four-year affiliation with the Cleveland Indians was announced on September 18, 2008. That working agreement with the Indians has since been extended four times, now through the 2020 season.
Coincidentally, the major/minor league sports connection between Cleveland and Columbus is duplicated, but with reverse roles, in ice hockey, as the Cleveland Monsters are the top-level minor league affiliate of the National Hockey League's Columbus Blue Jackets.
In 2011, the team won back-to-back Governors' Cup championships for the first time since 1992 by defeating the Lehigh Valley IronPigs 3 games to 1 in the best-of-five series. They went on to defeat the Omaha Storm Chasers in the Triple-A Baseball National Championship Game to win their second consecutive Triple-A baseball title.
From to, the Clippers played in Cooper Stadium, which was known as Franklin County Stadium until 1984. The final game at "The Coop" was played on September 1, 2008, in front of a sellout crowd of 16,777. It was the third largest audience in stadium history. In 2009, the Clippers began playing in Huntington Park, located at the corner of Neil Ave. and Nationwide Blvd. in the Arena District of Columbus.
The 1992 Clippers were recognized as one of the 100 greatest minor league teams of all time. In 2016, Forbes listed the Clippers as the fifth-most valuable Minor League Baseball team with a value of $41 million.

Ballparks

The Clippers have played at Columbus' Huntington Park since 2009. Construction on the $70 million facility began in 2007. The stadium can seat 10,100 people. This ballpark includes 32 suites, 42 loge boxes, and 650 club seats. In addition to baseball, the stadium has also hosted concerts. From 1977 to 2008, Cooper Stadium was the team's home ballpark.

Playoffs

The Clippers have won the Governors' Cup, the International League championship, 11 times, and played in the championship series 14 times.

Notable alumni

Columbus has been the former home of many current MLB broadcasters. Below is Clippers broadcast alumni and the MLB teams they were with after they left Columbus and in parentheses are the years that the broadcaster broadcast games for the team.
Except for six seasons, professional baseball has been played in Columbus since 1894. It has been represented in the highest levels of minor league baseball for all but six years since 1902, at first in the American Association by the Columbus Senators and Columbus Red Birds, and since then in the International League. The first IL team in Ohio's capital, the Columbus Jets, was the transplanted Ottawa Athletics which moved to Columbus in 1955. While playing for its first two seasons as the top farm club of the Kansas City Athletics, the Jets spent the next 14 years as a top affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The franchise moved to Charleston, West Virginia, as the Charleston Charlies in 1971.