Brainerd Lakes Area Lunkers
Encyclopedia
The Brainerd Lakes Area Lunkers are a baseball
team that plays in the Northwoods League
, an collegiate summer baseball league. Their home games are played at Mills Field
in Brainerd, Minnesota
.
in 2005.
The Blue Thunder ended operations after the 2008 season and on December 23rd, 2008, the Northwoods League announced that St. Cloud River Bats Owner Joel Sutherland had purchased the Brainerd Blue Thunder.
Sutherland has owned the St. Cloud River Bats since the team’s inception into the Northwoods League in 1997. He also started the Alexandria Beetles franchise as owner in 2001, but sold the Beetles following the 2001 season. Both of those franchises continue their longstanding success in central Minnesota. The River Bats have won three Northwoods League championships in 14 seasons and have averaged better than 1,850 fans per game since 2000. The Bats also boast the most wins in the playoffs of any team in the Northwoods League. Alexandria, a city of roughly 10,000 people, has averaged better than 1,000 fans per game in their 11-year history.
Assisting Sutherland in turning the Brainerd franchise into a thriving Northwoods League affiliate will be a staff headed by General Manager Dustin Anaas. Anaas has been involved with the Northwoods League since 2008 when he was an intern with the Madison Mallards
. He joined the Lunkers for their inaugural season in 2009 as the promotional coordinator and was promoted to Assistant GM following the 2009 campaign. Following a successful second season, he was the promoted to General Manager following the 2010 season. This will be Anaas' third season with the Lunkers and his fourth overall season in the Northwoods League.
On January 22, 2009, the Lunkers announced their new name, logo and blue and orange color scheme. The term “lunker”, which is commonly used to describe a game fish that is large for its kind, was submitted twice out of the more than 800 entries in Brainerd’s name-the-team contest. In 1874, a lunker was found in the Baltic sea by a one Norwegian captain Oden. It was reported that the fish was golden bronze and weighed 724 pounds.
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team that plays in the Northwoods League
Northwoods League
The Northwoods League is a collegiate summer baseball league comprising teams of the top college players from North America and beyond. All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate...
, an collegiate summer baseball league. Their home games are played at Mills Field
Mills Field
Mills Field is a baseball stadium in Brainerd, Minnesota. It is primarily used for baseball, and is the home field of the Brainerd Lakes Area Lunkers baseball team. It was built in 1994 holds 2,500 people....
in Brainerd, Minnesota
Brainerd, Minnesota
Brainerd is a city in Crow Wing County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 13,590 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Crow Wing County and one of the largest cities in Central Minnesota...
.
History
The Lunkers are not the first Northwoods League team to play in Brainerd. From 1998 to 2002, the Brainerd Mighty Gulls played in Brainerd. The Gulls folded after the 2002 season and the current franchise entered the league as an expansion teamExpansion team
An expansion team is a brand new team in a sports league. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues, but is applied to sports leagues worldwide that use a closed franchise system of league membership. The term comes from the expansion of the...
in 2005.
The Blue Thunder ended operations after the 2008 season and on December 23rd, 2008, the Northwoods League announced that St. Cloud River Bats Owner Joel Sutherland had purchased the Brainerd Blue Thunder.
Sutherland has owned the St. Cloud River Bats since the team’s inception into the Northwoods League in 1997. He also started the Alexandria Beetles franchise as owner in 2001, but sold the Beetles following the 2001 season. Both of those franchises continue their longstanding success in central Minnesota. The River Bats have won three Northwoods League championships in 14 seasons and have averaged better than 1,850 fans per game since 2000. The Bats also boast the most wins in the playoffs of any team in the Northwoods League. Alexandria, a city of roughly 10,000 people, has averaged better than 1,000 fans per game in their 11-year history.
Assisting Sutherland in turning the Brainerd franchise into a thriving Northwoods League affiliate will be a staff headed by General Manager Dustin Anaas. Anaas has been involved with the Northwoods League since 2008 when he was an intern with the Madison Mallards
Madison Mallards
The Madison Mallards are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Madison, Wisconsin that plays in the Northwoods League. Warner Park on Madison’s North side is the team's home field. The 2010 season marks the Mallards' 10th anniversary season....
. He joined the Lunkers for their inaugural season in 2009 as the promotional coordinator and was promoted to Assistant GM following the 2009 campaign. Following a successful second season, he was the promoted to General Manager following the 2010 season. This will be Anaas' third season with the Lunkers and his fourth overall season in the Northwoods League.
On January 22, 2009, the Lunkers announced their new name, logo and blue and orange color scheme. The term “lunker”, which is commonly used to describe a game fish that is large for its kind, was submitted twice out of the more than 800 entries in Brainerd’s name-the-team contest. In 1874, a lunker was found in the Baltic sea by a one Norwegian captain Oden. It was reported that the fish was golden bronze and weighed 724 pounds.