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The Madison Mallards are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Madison, Wisconsin that plays in the Northwoods League. Warner Park on Madison’s North side is the team's home field. The 2015 season will mark the Mallards' 15th season. The Mallards are one of 18 teams in the Northwoods League, playing 72 games per season, in late-May through mid-August. The Northwoods League is a summer collegiate league that provides an opportunity for college players to spend their summers and display their talents to professional scouts. Players must be enrolled in college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility to participate. The league is designed to give college players the minor league experience, providing players an opportunity to play under the same conditions using wooden bats, minor league specification baseballs, experiencing overnight road trips, and playing nightly before fans in a stadium. The Mallards maintain roughly 30 members on the team, including 14 position players, 16 pitchers. ==History== The history of minor league baseball in Madison begins with the early success of the Madison Muskies. A Midwest League Oakland A's affiliate, the Muskies were competitive and gained a healthy following in the years following their 1982 origins. Unfortunately by 1993 the crowds had declined and the Muskies became less profitable. In 1994 the Muskies were replaced for a single season by the St Louis affiliate, Madison Hatters. 1996 began the five-year stint of the independent Madison Black Wolf, but once again low attendance and little interest plagued the team and they were forced to move to a more profitable community.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Madison Black Wolf )〕 In 2001 area businessman, Steve Schmitt, introduced the Madison Mallards to Warner Park. The Mallards would be a new team in the young Northwoods League featuring amateur college ball players playing summer ball during their off-season. The gamble was that a successful team could be built using amateur ball players in a family atmosphere. The Mallards made it to the playoffs in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2013, and 2015. They have made four Northwoods League Championship Series appearances, which resulted in runner-up finishes in 2005 and 2008. They won the Northwoods League championship in 2004 and 2013. In 2011, the Mallards unveiled a new team logo, and entered the season with a newly renovated ballpark. The new grandstands features seats that were once at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. In 2014, the Mallards ownership group created Big Top Baseball. Big Top Baseball is the nations leader in summer collegiate baseball, operating four Northwoods League franchises in the state of Wisconsin. Big Top Baseball owns and operates the Madison Mallards, Wisconsin Rapids Rafters, Kenosha Kingfish, and Green Bay Bullfrogs. The organization holds every national attendance record for summer collegiate baseball and projects to draw more than 350,000 fans to its ballparks in 2014. Big Top has won more Northwoods League Organization of the Year awards and Executive of the Year awards than any other organization. Big Top has teams in three of Wisconsins four largest cities and places a focus on affordable, family entertainment and strives to play an integral role in each of its communities. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Madison Mallards」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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