The New Hampshire Fisher Cats are a Minor League Baseball team based in

Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Hamp ...

. The team, which plays in the Eastern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

major league club. During the team's first season in Manchester, the Fisher Cats played at

Gill Stadium Gill Stadium is a sporting stadium located in Manchester, New Hampshire. It is one of the oldest concrete-and-steel ballparks in the United States. The venue, which mainly hosts amateur baseball and football contests, has a capacity of 3,012. ...

, a historic ballpark in a residential neighborhood. Starting with the 2005 season, the Fisher Cats have played at

Delta Dental Stadium Delta Dental Stadium is a stadium in Manchester, New Hampshire that holds 6,500 people. It is used primarily for baseball, and is the home field of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, an Eastern League baseball team. The first game played at the ball ...

(originally known as Fisher Cats Ballpark, later as Merchantsauto.com Stadium, and previously as Northeast Delta Dental Stadium), which is located in Manchester and has a capacity of 6,500. The Fisher Cats won the Eastern League championship in 2004, their first season in New Hampshire after moving the franchise from

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

. They won their second Eastern League championship in 2011, their first season wearing their current red, white, and blue team color scheme. In 2018 the team won the championship again, this time for the first time at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium.

History

, along with

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

, was granted an expansion Double-A franchise on October 3, 1992. The new ballclub was named the New Haven Ravens in January 1993, the result of a contest sponsored by the ''

New Haven Register The ''New Haven Register'' is a daily newspaper published in New Haven, Connecticut. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The Register's main office is located at 100 Gando Drive in New Haven. The ''Register'' was established about 1812 and i ...

'',

WELI The ''Weli'', formerly ''Welli'', is a playing card used in the Salzburg and William Tell card decks, which are Austrian regional patterns of the German-suited playing cards. It has the value of 6 of Bells and, in the South Tyrol variant of t ...

and

WTNH WTNH (channel 8) is a television station licensed to New Haven, Connecticut, United States, serving the Hartford–New Haven market as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WCTX (channel 59), al ...

. The Ravens began play in the 1994 season affiliated with the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...

. The team hosted the 1998

Double-A All-Star Game The Double-A All-Star Game was an annual baseball game held from 1991 to 2002 between professional players from the affiliated Double-A leagues of Minor League Baseball—the Eastern League (EL), Southern League (SL), and Texas League (TL). Tea ...

, was league runner-up in 1995 and 2003, and won the Eastern League Championship in 2000 with an 82–60 record, defeating the Reading Phillies 3 games to 1 in the championship series. The Ravens played in

Yale Field George H.W. Bush Field (commonly known as Bush Field, originally Yale Field) is a stadium in West Haven, Connecticut, just across the city line with New Haven, Connecticut. It is primarily used for the Yale University baseball team, the Bulldogs, ...

. The team was sold on January 27, 2003, to

Lowell Spinners The Lowell Spinners were a baseball team based in Lowell, Massachusetts. From 1996 to 2020, they were members of Minor League Baseball's New York–Penn League (NYPL) as the Class A Short Season affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. With Major League ...

owner Drew Weber, with the intention of moving the franchise to Manchester, New Hampshire. The Eastern League baseball team owners voted to approve the move during the league playoffs later that same year on September 3. The team's first season in Manchester was 2004. The first season was played at

southeast of the downtown area while the current ballpark was under construction. On July 19, 2005, Drew Weber sold his controlling interest in the team. Art Solomon became the new controlling owner with 60% ownership while Weber retained a 40% ownership share. On July 12, 2008, Solomon purchased full ownership of the Fisher Cats from Weber. Gary Cathcart was named the team's new manager on December 3, 2007; Cathcart had served as the Fisher Cats' hitting coach during 2005 and 2006, and had most recently managed the single-A

Lansing Lugnuts The Lansing Lugnuts are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. They are located in Lansing, Michigan, and play their home games at Jackson Field (Lansing), Jackson Field. The Midwe ...

. On July 16, 2008, the team hosted the 2008 Eastern League All-Star Game and Home Run Derby between the Northern Division and Southern Division. Travis Snider of the Fisher Cats won the Home Run Derby over Luis Montanez of the

Bowie Baysox The Bowie Baysox are a Minor League Baseball team located in Bowie, Maryland. They are the Double-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, and play in the Eastern League. Their home ballpark is Prince George's Stadium. History From 1989 to 1992, ...

7–6. In the All-Star Game itself, the Northern Division defeated the Southern Division 5–3 before a Northeast Delta Dental Stadium record crowd of 8,762. On May 21, 2012, three Fisher Cats pitchers combined to throw the third

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...

in franchise history, stifling the

Portland Sea Dogs The Portland Sea Dogs are a Minor League Baseball team based in Portland, Maine, playing in the Eastern League (1938–present), Eastern League. Established in 1994, the Sea Dogs are the Double-A (baseball), Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red ...

in a 6–0 victory at New Hampshire. Combining on the gem for the team were

Brett Cecil Brett Aarion Cecil (born July 2, 1986) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals. Cecil was drafted as the 38th overall pick in the 2007 MLB dra ...

(5⅔ innings),

Danny Farquhar Daniel Andres Farquhar ( ; born February 17, 1987) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played for the Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago White Sox before retiring on July 31, 2019. Amateur career ...

(2⅓), and Ronald Uviedo (1). It was the first no-hitter for New Hampshire since

Kyle Drabek Kyle Jordan Drabek (born December 8, 1987) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago White Sox, and Arizona Diamondbacks. Drabek is the son of former major-l ...

hurled a complete-game, nine-inning no-hitter against the

New Britain Rock Cats The New Britain Rock Cats were a minor league baseball team that competed in the Eastern League. They were the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox for 12 years, the Minnesota Twins for 20 years and the Colorado Rockies for one. They playe ...

on July 4, . In conjunction with

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

's restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the Fisher Cats were organized into the

Double-A Northeast AA, Aa, Double A, or Double-A may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''America's Army'', a 2002 computer game published by the U.S. Army * '' Ancient Anguish'', a computer game in existence since 1992 * Aa!, a J-Pop musical group * Do ...

. In 2022, the Double-A Northeast became known as the Eastern League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization.

Origin of current team name

On November 6, 2003, the new management unveiled the New Hampshire Primaries name and logo, which featured an elephant and a donkey holding baseball bats, and was to be used starting in the 2004 season. The management stated that they felt it reflected a unique aspect of the state, since the

New Hampshire primary The New Hampshire presidential primary is the first in a series of nationwide party primary elections and the second party contest (the first being the Iowa caucuses) held in the United States every four years as part of the process of choosi ...

, held every four years, signifies the start of the Presidential election process. Immediately, the name and logo were widely criticized. An online petition was created by two local baseball fans asking the team ownership to reconsider their decision and was covered by local newspapers, radio, and television stations. This coverage was led by a front-page article in the ''

New Hampshire Union Leader The ''New Hampshire Union Leader'' is a daily newspaper from Manchester, the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. On Sundays, it publishes as the ''New Hampshire Sunday News.'' Founded in 1863, the paper was best known for the conse ...

'', New Hampshire's largest newspaper, on Sunday November 9, 2003. By the afternoon of November 10, over 1200 unique visitors had signed the petition. Later in the day, the team announced that they would not use the Primaries name after all and that they would seek public opinion on a new name. On November 13, 2003, the team announced the "Name the Team" contest which had three phases over the following weeks. During the first phase, fans submitted suggestions. During the second phase, fans ranked their top five favorite names from the suggestions. For the final phase, fans voted for their single favorite among the top five names from the second round. On December 3, the final voting results were announced: New Hampshire Fisher Cats (1,574 votes – 24.5%), Manchester Millers (1,552 votes – 24.1%), Granite State Mountain Men (1,382 votes – 21.5%), New Hampshire Granite (1,302 votes – 20.2%), and New Hampshire Primaries (627 votes – 9.7%). The ultimate source of the name is the

fisher Fisher is an archaic term for a fisherman, revived as gender-neutral. Fisher, Fishers or The Fisher may also refer to: Places Australia *Division of Fisher, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in Queensland *Elect ...

, often called a fisher cat in New Hampshire. On January 22, 2004, the team unveiled the new set of logos that would be used for the name New Hampshire Fisher Cats. All of the team's logos and fonts were created and designed by Studio Simon of Louisville, Kentucky. Team colors were green, black, silver, and bronze. On August 25, 2007, the Fisher Cats held a " turn back the clock" promotion and played as the New Hampshire Primaries against the

. The Primaries wore specially-designed game worn jerseys for the game. This event would be repeated on July 4, 2008, for a game against the Trenton Thunder, and on July 4, 2009. On November 28, 2007, the team unveiled a new logo, uniforms, and team colors that were designed by Rickabaugh Graphics of Gahanna, Ohio. The official colors were emerald green, black, white, and silver. On November 16, 2010, the team colors were changed to red, white and blue, with no other major changes to the logo and uniforms. In 2021, Manchester's minor league baseball team announced it will briefly change its name from the New Hampshire Fisher Cats to the Manchester Chicken Tenders, referencing the city's role as the birthplace of the chicken tender.

Season-by-season

These statistics are current through the 2019 season.

Roster

References

External links