The Springfield Capitals were an

independent baseball league An independent baseball league is a professional baseball organization in the United States or Canada that is not overseen by Major League Baseball and is outside the Minor League Baseball clubs affiliated to it. The Northern League and Frontie ...

team in

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...

. The Capitals were members of the

Frontier League The Frontier League is a professional independent baseball league with teams in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Eastern Canada. Formed in 1993, it is the oldest currently running independent league in the United States. The le ...

from 1996 to 2001. The Capitals won the Frontier League championship in 1996 and in 1998. After the 2001 season, the team moved to

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, located in the far northern part of the state. Situated on the banks of the Rock River, Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County (a small portion of the city is located in Ogle County). ...

, and became the

Rockford Riverhawks 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 tea ...

The Ballpark

The Capitals played at Robin Roberts Stadium at Lanphier Park. The park had a capacity of 5,200.

Springfield Capitals (1963–1977)

The original Springfield Capitals baseball team played in Springfield from 1963 to 1977 in the

Central Illinois Collegiate League The Central Illinois Collegiate League (CICL) was a collegiate wooden bat summer baseball league. It was composed of five teams from Illinois and Indiana. The CICL was founded in 1963 as a charter member of National Collegiate Athletic Associatio ...

. The team was disbanded when the

New Orleans Pelicans The New Orleans Pelicans are an American professional basketball team based in New Orleans. The Pelicans compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division and play their hom ...

relocated to Springfield to play as the Springfield Redbirds a Triple-A affiliate of the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

References

External links

Statistics from ''Baseball-Reference''

Statistics from ''Stats Crew''
Professional baseball teams in Illinois

Capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

Defunct baseball teams in Illinois Defunct Frontier League teams Defunct independent baseball league teams Baseball teams established in 1996 Sports clubs disestablished in 2001 1996 establishments in Illinois 2001 disestablishments in Illinois Baseball teams disestablished in 2001 {{Illinois-baseball-team-stub