Huntsville Stars
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Huntsville Stars 1985–2014 Huntsville, Alabama |
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| Class-level | |||||
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| Previous | Double-A (1985–2014) | ||||
| Minor league affiliations | |||||
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Previous leagues
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Southern League (1985–2014) | ||||
| Major league affiliations | |||||
| Previous |
Milwaukee Brewers (1999–2014) Oakland A's (1985–1998) |
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| Minor league titles | |||||
| League titles | 1985, 1994, 2001 | ||||
| Division titles | 1985, 1986, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2007 | ||||
| Team data | |||||
| Nickname | Huntsville Stars (1985–2014) | ||||
| Colors | blue, red, gray, white |
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| Mascot | Homer the Polecat | ||||
| Ballpark | Joe W. Davis Stadium (1985–2014) | ||||
The Huntsville Stars were a minor league baseball team of the Southern League, which served as the Double-A affiliate of Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics from 1985 to 1998 and Milwaukee Brewers from 1999 to 2014. The franchise was located in Huntsville, Alabama and named for the space industry with which Huntsville is economically tied (NASA conducts operations at the nearby Marshall Space Flight Center).
The Stars played their home games at Joe W. Davis Stadium, named after the former mayor of Huntsville; built in 1985, the park seats 10,200 fans and is sometimes referred to as "The Joe." The Stars won the Southern League championship in 1985 and 1994 as the Double-A affiliate of the Athletics, and in 2001 with the Brewers.
In January 2014, the Stars were sold to an ownership group, which relocated the team to Biloxi, Mississippi in November 2014, upon which the team became known as the Biloxi Shuckers. The Shuckers played a few home games in Huntsville in 2015 while their new ballpark in Biloxi was being completed. The Shuckers did not retain the Stars' history, opting to act as a newly established franchise.
The Stars came to Huntsville by way of Evansville, Indiana and Nashville, Tennessee. In July 1984, Larry Schmittou, majority owner of the Double-A Southern League's Nashville Sounds, purchased the Evansville Triplets of the Triple-A American Association. After the 1984 season, Schmittou moved the Triplets franchise to Nashville, where it would adopt the Sounds' name and history, effectively elevating the Sounds organization to Triple-A and leaving Nashville's existing Southern League franchise without a home. Schmittou considered moving the Double-A team to Evansville, but city leaders declined necessary improvements to the aging Bosse Field. The City of Huntsville, led by Mayor Joe W. Davis, agreed to build a brand new 10,000-seat multipurpose stadium which lured the franchise to town, where it began play in 1985 as the Huntsville Stars, still under Schmittou's ownership. The Triplets' legacy was retired, and the Stars began with a clean history, much like an altogether-new franchise.
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