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The New Orleans Zephyrs are a minor league baseball team based in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. The Zephyrs play in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and are the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins. The Zephyrs play their home games at Zephyr Field. The Zephyrs joined the PCL after the 1997 season when the American Association (AA) was disbanded. The Zephyrs were one of five clubs from the AA to join the PCL, with three joining the International League. Triple-A baseball was also expanded to 30 teams at that time, concurrent with the expansion of Major League Baseball. The Zephyrs franchise history spans 100 years, three cities, five leagues, and affiliations with 14 of the present 30 Major League teams, some on more than one occasion. Both the organization's formation and geographic moves were in response to franchise movements on the major league level. Prior to 1978, New Orleans was home to another minor-league team, the New Orleans Pelicans. ==Kansas City (1901–1954)== In order to bolster its claim to Major League status, the American League moved some of its teams from mid-sized Midwestern cities to larger Eastern venues for the 1901 season. One such shift saw the Kansas City Blues become the Washington Senators. With the town suddenly bereft of a ball club, a new team, which would, in time, become the Zephyrs, was quickly founded. Playing with the old Blues nickname, the team was easily the class of the new, but unrated, incarnation of the Western League, winning the pennant by 10 games. With a decent team and a solid fan base, the franchise moved on to become a founding member of the new American Association, rated at what today would be the AAA level. Although only moderately successful on the field, the team was a fixture of the Midwest sports scene, playing in Kansas City for over half a century. The most notable player for the franchise was future Baseball Hall of Fame member Phil Rizzuto, the League MVP and ''Sporting News'' Minor League Player of the Year in 1940. Another MVP was Don Bollweg in 1952. The team, itself, won the championship in 1938, and then back-to-back in 1952 and 1953. Winning teams boast higher ticket sales, so when the Philadelphia Athletics found themselves unable to compete for market-share with the Phillies and decided to relocate after the 1954 season, Kansas City, Missouri was an attractive choice. This move, however, forced the Blues out, victims of their own success. 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「New Orleans Zephyrs」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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