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The Midland RockHounds are a Minor League Baseball team based in Midland, Texas. The team, which plays in the Texas League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Athletics major league club. The RockHounds play in Momentum Bank Ballpark, which opened in 2002 and seats 4,709 fans. They have won seven Texas League championships: in 1975 (co-champions with the Lafayette Drillers), 2005, 2009, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
History.
The RockHounds were previously known as both the Midland Cubs (1972–1984) and Midland Angels (1985–1998). While Midland has been the Double-A affiliate of the Athletics since 1999, they were affiliated with the Chicago Cubs from 1972 to 1984, and then with the California Angels from 1985 to 1998. The team was renamed "Rockhounds", a nickname for geologists, as a reference to the oil and gas industry of the area.
The RockHounds have received numerous awards throughout their history. The Midland franchise under the Angels won the Texas League Organization of the Year in 1990 and 1994 and as the RockHounds in 2002. In 1995, Midland won Double-A Baseball's highest award, the Bob Frietas Award. General Manager Monty Hoppel has been named Executive of the Year with the franchise three times (1991, 1995, and 2002).
In 1995, Midland reached its first-ever playoff appearance as an affiliate of the Angels and their first playoff appearance overall in 20 years. It also became the first season that Midland accumulated more than 200,000 fans in a season, a feat repeated in 1996. The feat surprised many in Minor League Baseball as the Midland-Odessa area only has just over 200,000 residents total. The RockHounds moved into Momentum Bank Ballpark, part of the Scharbauer Sports Complex on the west side of Midland, in 2002. Since then, the RockHounds have averaged over 250,000 fans every season. Prior to that, their home had been what is now known as Christensen Stadium, in northeast Midland.
The Rockhounds won their first ever Texas League Championship in 2005. They shared the title with the Lafayette Drillers in 1975 as the Cubs. In 2006, they won the second-half championship of the South Division, but they lost to the eventual champion Corpus Christi Hooks in the division playoffs.
In 2007, the RockHounds won the John H. Johnson President's Award, Minor League baseball highest award for a franchise, making them the third Texas League franchise to do so after the El Paso Diablos and the Tulsa Drillers.
In 2009, the RockHounds won their second Texas League pennant, defeating the Northwest Arkansas Naturals three games to one in the Championship Series. In 2010, the RockHounds returned to the Texas League title game, but this time fell to the Naturals.
In 2017, the RockHounds won their fourth straight Texas League title, the first team to do so since the Fort Worth Panthers won six in a row from 1920 to 1925.
In conjunction with Major League Baseball's restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the RockHounds were organized into the Double-A Central. In 2022, the Double-A Central became known as the Texas League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization.
On the radio.
The Midland Rockhounds have always had a play-by-play broadcast that has been available. KCRS (AM) had been the network to carry roughly 95% of the Rockhounds games since they debuted in 1972. Some afternoon games in 2008 didn't air on the radio due to contracts with Rush Limbaugh and others. For the 2009 season Gap Broadcasting announced the Rockhounds would have a new radio home, KFZX, also known as 102.1 Jack FM. For the 2010 season, the Rockhounds once again moved radio homes to KMRK 96.1 FM. In both cases Bob Hards remained the voice of the Rockhounds, a position he has currently held for 19 consecutive years. In 2013 the Rockhounds moved their games back to KCRS, though weekday day games would be preempted for talk shows that were already scheduled.
Notable players.
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References.
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