Yuma Panthers (NAL)
| Yuma Desert Rats | |
|---|---|
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| Information | |
| Location | Yuma, Arizona |
| Ballpark | Desert Sun Stadium |
| Year founded | 2005 |
| Year disbanded | 2012 |
| League championships | 0 |
| Division championships | 0 |
| Former name(s) |
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| Former league(s) |
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| Colors | Black, red, white |
The Yuma Desert Rats were a professional baseball team based in Yuma, Arizona, in the United States. From the 2005 season to the 2011 season, they were known as the Yuma Scorpions and played their home games at Desert Sun Stadium at the Ray Kroc Complex, former spring training home of the San Diego Padres.
They were members of the Golden Baseball League from 2005 to 2010 and the North American League in 2011. They were to have joined the American West Baseball League, but left the league due to a fallout with the league's founder and C.E.O. Michael Cummings. They were sold to Godfather Media, Inc. in 2012 and had announced a name change to the Yuma Panthers, but they never played. They were sold to Tim Ferguson for 2013 and renamed the Desert Rats, but they never played either.
The team also played as the Scorpions in the Arizona Winter League from 2007 to 2011.
The Yuma Scorpions were one of the Golden Baseball League charter members in 2005 along with the Chico Outlaws, Fullerton Flyers, Long Beach Armada and San Diego Surf Dawgs in California; Mesa Miners and Surprise Fightin' Falcons in Arizona and the Japan Samurai Bears, the league's first (and so far only) traveling team. The Panthers, along with the Outlaws, Armada and Flyers remain the only charter teams still active in the league.
The team replaced the former Bullfrogs as the city of Yuma's professional baseball team. The Bulldogs played in the defunct Western Baseball League from 2000 to 2002, but folded after being financially unsuccessful and leaving a legacy of lawsuits and a trail of unpaid bills, players and employees. Other baseball teams are the Yuma Desert Dawgs of the defunct Golden State League (1995–96) and American West Leagues (1997–99). The San Diego Padres inhabited Desert Sun Stadium as their spring training complex and used it from 1968 to 1994 before they went to a new facility in Peoria, Arizona.
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