Sonoma Stompers
| Sonoma Stompers Baseball Club | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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| League | Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs | ||||
| Location | Sonoma, California | ||||
| Ballpark | Peoples Home Equity Ballpark at Arnold Field | ||||
| Year founded | 2014 | ||||
| League championships | 2016 | ||||
| Colors | Navy, orange, white |
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| Retired numbers | Jayce Ray (99) | ||||
| Ownership | Eric Gullotta, Derek Rampone | ||||
| Manager | Takashi Miyoshi | ||||
| General Manager | Theo Fightmaster | ||||
| Media | Sonoma Index-Tribune | ||||
| Website | stompersbaseball |
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The Sonoma Stompers are an independent professional baseball team based out of Sonoma, California. They began play as a member of the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs in 2014. They are a successor franchise to the defunct Sonoma County Grapes, and are the first professional team to make Sonoma County home since the Sonoma County Crushers ceased play following the 2002 season.
The Stompers announced their first professional signing, Tommy Lyons in March 2014, and shortly there after traded for local hero, Jayce Ray. The team's first manager was Ray Serrano, who led the Stompers to a 42–36 record in their inaugural season. In 2015, Serrano accepted a full-time position with the Atlanta Braves to serve as the organization's catching instructor.
Former major league pitcher Bill "Spaceman" Lee started a game for the Stompers on August 12, 2014, pitching the team to victory over the Pittsburg Mettle (since renamed the Pittsburg Diamonds). Lee set a record with the win, becoming the oldest person (at age 67) to ever win a professional baseball game. Lee pitched 5⅔ innings, and batted for himself.
In 2015 the Sonoma Stompers allowed Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller of Baseball Prospectus's "Effectively Wild" podcast to serve as the Baseball Operations department, under General Manager Theo Fightmaster. The duo wrote about their experience in a book entitled The Only Rule is it Has to Work that came out on May 3, 2016.
The team made history in June 2015, when pitcher Sean Conroy became the first openly gay active professional baseball player.
In June 2016, the Stompers announced that two female baseball players would join their roster starting in July. Upon joining the roster, the two players, outfielder-pitcher Kelsie Whitmore and infielder Stacy Piagno, will make the Sonoma Stompers the first coed professional baseball team since the 1950s. The Stompers added catcher Anna Kimbrell in July 2016.
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