The Stratford Nationals were an independent

Independent baseball

Independent baseball leagues are professional baseball organizations located in the United States and Canada. They are not operated in conjunction with either a Major League Baseball team or an affiliated minor league team. Being independent allows teams to be located close to major-league teams...

, minor league baseball

Minor league baseball

Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...

 team of the, semi-pro

Semi-professional

A semi-professional athlete is one who is paid to play and thus is not an amateur, but for whom sport is not a full-time occupation, generally because the level of pay is too low to make a reasonable living based solely upon that source, thus making the athlete not a full professional...

, Intercounty Baseball League

Intercounty Baseball League

The Intercounty Baseball League is a semi-professional baseball organization located in the Canadian province of Ontario. The league was formed in 1919....

 based in Stratford, Ontario

Stratford, Ontario

Stratford is a city on the Avon River in Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada with a population of 32,000.When the area was first settled by Europeans in 1832, the townsite and the river were named after Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It is the seat of Perth County. Stratford was...

. They played their home games at National Stadium

National Stadium (baseball)

National Stadium was home to the Stratford Nationals of the Intercounty Baseball League. It is located in a southeastern location in Stratford at the intersections of Romeo and Norfolk Streets....

.

The team was moved from St. Thomas, Ontario

St. Thomas, Ontario

St. Thomas is a city in southern , Ontario, Canada. It is the seat for Elgin County and gained its city charter on March 4, 1881.-History:...

, to Stratford in 2004 after several years of dwindling fan support in St. Thomas. On November 25, 2008, the team announced that the league had approved the sale of the Stratford Nationals to Elliott Kerr, president of the Landmark Sports Group, and the transfer of the franchise to the City of Mississauga.

Prior to its re-location, the team changed its name from the Storm to the Nationals for the 2006 season, in view of the Canadian National Railway

Canadian National Railway

The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....

's historical importance to Stratford.

The Nationals struggled in their final seasons, missing the playoffs regularly.

For many years, however, Stratford was a premier franchise in the Intercounty League and also one of its founding members in 1919 (along with Galt, Guelph and Kitchener), operating at various times as the Stratford Nationals, the Stratford Kraven Knits and Stratford Hillers.
Derrick Franklin hit the first RBI for the nationals as a new team in 2006.

Championships

Intercounty League

• 1934 (as the Nationals)
• 1938 (as the Nationals)
• 1939 (as the Nationals)
• 1940 (as the Nationals)
• 1946 (as the Nationals)
• 1974 (as the Kraven Knits)
• 1976 (as the Hillers)
• 1977 (as the Hillers)
• 1980 (as the Hillers)
• 1986 (as the Hillers)
• 1987 (as the Hillers)
• 1989 (as the Hillers)
• 1991 (as the Hillers)
• 1992 (as the Hillers)

The Stratford Nationals also won the Ontario Baseball Association title in 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933 and 1934.