The Rockford Rivets are a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

team in the Northwoods League, a collegiate summer baseball league. The league's only team based in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, their home games are played at

Rivets Stadium Rivets Stadium is a stadium in Loves Park, Illinois. It is primarily used for baseball, and is the home field of the Rockford Rivets baseball team. The stadium has 3,279 seats, but can host crowds of over 4,000. It opened in 2006 as the hom ...

Loves Park Loves Park is a city in Boone and Winnebago counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Most of the city is in Winnebago County, with a tiny sliver in the east located in Boone County. The population was 23,996 at the 2010 census, up from 20,044 in ...

History

Following the demise of the Frontier League's

Rockford Aviators The Rockford Aviators were a professional baseball team based in Rockford, Illinois that played in the independent Frontier League. Rockford previously had a team in the Frontier League called the RiverHawks (2002-2009). There was no Rockford team ...

, their

ballpark A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into the infield, an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined, and the outfield, where dimensions can vary widely from place to pla ...

was put on the market. On October 14, 2015, the Northwoods League officially announced that Rockford Baseball Properties, LLC (composed of league president Dick Radatz, Jr. and Chad Bauer) had purchased the ballpark and would field a team in the league to begin play in the 2016 season. The team would be a member of the South Division, with the

La Crosse Loggers The La Crosse Loggers are a La Crosse, Wisconsin based baseball team playing in the Northwoods League, a collegiate summer baseball league. Since the team's inaugural season in 2003, they have played at Copeland Park. The ballpark is nicknamed "th ...

moving to the North Division (taking the place of the recently folded Alexandria Blue Anchors). On November 18, the team announced that

Northern Illinois Huskies baseball The Northern Illinois Huskies baseball team is a varsity intercollegiate athletic team of Northern Illinois University (NIU) in DeKalb, Illinois, United States. The team is a member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) West division, which is part ...

and

Madison Mallards 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. History The history of minor league baseball in Madison b ...

alumnus Brian Smith would serve as the team's first manager. Finally, on February 11, the Rivets name, logo and colors were officially announced.

Seasons

Rivets in the Pros

References

External links

Rockford Rivets official siteNorthwoods League official site
Northwoods League teams Amateur baseball teams in Illinois Rivets Baseball teams established in 2015 {{Illinois-baseball-team-stub