Allentown Ambassadors
Founded	1997
Ballpark	Bicentennial Park Bicentennial Park (Allentown) Bicentennial Park is a stadium in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The park, officially named Earl F. Hunsicker Bicentennial Park, is primarily used for baseball and softball....
Based in	Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...
Team Colors	black, red, blue
League	Northeast League
Team Trainer
General manager
Owner	Peter Karoly

The Allentown Ambassadors were an independent baseball team that competed in the Northeast League and the Northern League from 1997 until 2003. They played their home games at Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...

's Bicentennial Park

Bicentennial Park (Allentown)

Bicentennial Park is a stadium in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The park, officially named Earl F. Hunsicker Bicentennial Park, is primarily used for baseball and softball....

.

History

The Ambassadors joined the Northeast League in 1997. The League had started in 1995 as a six team league, with all teams being based in the State of New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. In the second season of play the league expanded into the New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 Region, and in 1997 it expanded to an eight team league. Allentown was granted a franchise, replacing the Rhode Island Tiger Sharks

Rhode Island Tiger Sharks

The Rhode Island Tiger Sharks were a former Northeast League minor-league baseball team, located in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The Northeast League was an independent league and as such none of the teams in it were affiliated with Major League Baseball teams...

. The Northeast League now boasted teams from Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 and Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

. The Ambassadors got off to a good start as a franchise as they finished their inaugural season with a 39-43 record, and led the league in most offensive categories. The Ambassadors also had a very successful season in terms of attendance, finishing 3rd in the league in that category.

In 1998 the team continued to improve, sporting an impressive 52-32 record but losing in the first round of the playoffs to New Jersey. They led the league in attendance with an impressive 122,000 fans on the season, an average of about 2,900 fans per game. In 1999 the league merged with the very successful Northern League to form the Northern League-East. The Ambassadors won the regular season title with a record of 47-39 but would lose in the playoffs.

In 2000 the Ambassadors started to slip in terms of play on the field as their record fell to 42-43 and they missed the playoffs. Also, attendance started to slip as other teams in the league all started seeing increases in attendance. 2001 was another tough year for Allentown, once again in terms of attendance and also their record fell to 43-47, which was last in the South Division. In 2002 things took a drastic turn for the worse. The Ambassadors finished a miserable 26-64 on the season, 36½ games out of first place. They were also at the bottom of the league in attendance, averaging only about 1,700 fans per contest, which would have been very competitive in the early years of the league, but not at the present time.

By 2003 the team only made minimal strides in terms of their on-field play. They once again finished last in their division with a 32-58 record, 20½ games out of first. However, their biggest loss was in the attendance category. Once again, most league teams were averaging over 150,000 fans per season, but Allentown saw only about 40,000 fans for the year, or 888 fans per game. The attendance numbers were the 4th worst in all of independent baseball.

After the 2003 season, team owner Peter Karoly announced that he was folding the team as the Ambassadors filed for bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

. The roster, for the most part, was dispersed through all the teams in the league, and whatever was left (with the addition of a few free agents) became part of a traveling team known as The Aces

Northeast League Aces

The Northeast League Aces were a traveling team in the Northeast League in the 2004 season to replace the Allentown Ambassadors....

. The Aces played one season before the league replaced them with the Worcester Tornadoes

Worcester Tornadoes

The Worcester Tornadoes are a professional baseball team based in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the United States. The Tornadoes are a member of the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball, an independent baseball league which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball...

.

Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 winning recording artist John Mayer

John Mayer

John Clayton Mayer is an American pop rock and blues rock musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to Atlanta in 1997, where he refined his...

 performed at the park during the Ambassadors final season. Mayer's concert represented the most attended event in the venue's history.

In April 2008, professional baseball returned to Allentown, when the Lehigh Valley IronPigs

Lehigh Valley IronPigs

The Lehigh Valley IronPigs are a minor league baseball team that plays in the International League. The IronPigs are the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. The team plays their home games at Coca-Cola Park, which is located in Allentown, Pennsylvania...

, the AAA-level Philadelphia Phillies

Philadelphia Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...

 team, began play at Coca-Cola Park, a new, 10,000-capacity stadium.

Karoly died in a plane crash in 2007.