The Lansing Lugnuts are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Athletics. They are located in Lansing, Michigan, and play their home games at Jackson Field.
The Midwest League came to Lansing after owners Tom Dickson and Sherrie Myers moved the team to work with the city for a public-private lease to build a new stadium. Mayor David Hollister, and the City Council worked to attract the owners and build the stadium for downtown economic development. The team began playing in downtown Lansing in 1996. The franchise began as the Lafayette Red Sox in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1955; after two seasons it became the Waterloo Hawks, moving to Waterloo, Iowa, where it stayed for 36 seasons. Before the 1994 season it moved to Springfield, Illinois, but only spent two seasons there before moving to Lansing. The franchise was an affiliate of the Kansas City Royals on two occasions in three cities: as the Waterloo Royals from 1969 through 1976, as the Sultans of Springfield in 1995, and then, upon the team's move to Lansing, from 1996 through 1998. The Lugnuts were then an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs from 1999 through 2004 before joining the Jays' farm system for the 2005 season. In September 2014, the Jays extended their agreement with the Lugnuts through the 2016 season. In October 2016, their player development contract was extended through the 2018 season. Since 2021, they have been the High-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics.
The Lugnuts' ballpark, Jackson Field, opened in 1996. The stadium seats over 10,000 fans and is one of the most handicapped accessible stadiums in the country. The franchise attendance record of 538,326 was set during its inaugural year. They won the Midwest League Championship in 1997 and 2003. The Lugnuts have their own original song which plays immediately after the national anthem for every home game accompanied by their mascot, Big Lug.
In conjunction with Major League Baseball's restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the Lugnuts were organized into the High-A Central. In 2022, the High-A Central became known as the Midwest League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization.
Crosstown Showdown Since 2007, the Lansing Lugnuts have participated in an annual exhibition game with nearby Michigan State University which draws a large crowd of students to the event. In 2026 the Lugnuts announced a new format with the entire game being machine pitched, with the goal of eliminating pitching injuries. It is not currently clear if the change will remain in future years. The overall record and attendance for each game is as follows:
Date Winning team Score Losing team Attendance Ref April 3, 2007 Lansing Lugnuts 4–3 Michigan State 6,223 April 24, 2008 Lansing Lugnuts 4–2 Michigan State 12,862 April 16, 2009 Michigan State 12–2 Lansing Lugnuts 12,992 April 26, 2010 Lansing Lugnuts 5–4 Michigan State 6,778 April 5, 2011 Michigan State 2-1 Lansing Lugnuts 7,212 April 5, 2012 Lansing Lugnuts 7–0 Michigan State 12,997 May 1, 2013 Lansing Lugnuts 10–2 Michigan State 11,619 April 3, 2014 Lansing Lugnuts 3–2 Michigan State 4,455 April 9, 2015 Lansing Lugnuts 9–4 Michigan State 9,318 September 6, 2016 Lansing Lugnuts 4–1 Michigan State 8,432 September 5, 2017 Lansing Lugnuts 5–1 Michigan State 6,804 September 4, 2018 Lansing Lugnuts 6–4 Michigan State 6,338 September 3, 2019 Lansing Lugnuts 5–1 Michigan State 5,933 April 6, 2022 Lansing Lugnuts 3–2 Michigan State 3,117 April 4, 2023 Lansing Lugnuts 12-3 Michigan State 4,412 April 3, 2024Lansing Lugnuts16-0Michigan State 4,118 April 1, 2025Michigan State1-0Lansing Lugnuts3,733April 1, 2026Michigan State16-10Lansing Lugnuts2,125
Playoffs
SeasonQuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinals1996 - - -1997 W, 2–1, Michigan W, 2–0, Fort Wayne W, 3–2, Kane County1998 - - -1999 W, 2–0, Michigan L, 2–0, Wisconsin -2000 - - -2001 L, 2–0, Dayton - -2002 W, 2–1, Michigan W, 2–1, West Michigan L, 3–1, Peoria2003 W, 2–0, South Bend W, 2–0, Battle Creek W, 3–0, Beloit2004 L, 2–1, West Michigan - -2005 - - -2006 W, 2–0, South Bend L, 2–0, West Michigan -2007 L, 2–0, West Michigan - -2008 L, 2–0, Dayton - -2009 - - -2010 - - -2011 W, 2–1, Dayton W, 2–0, Fort Wayne L, 3–0, Quad Cities2012 L, 2–0, Fort Wayne - -2013 - - -2014 - - -2015 W, 2–0, Great Lakes L, 2–1, West Michigan -2016 - - -2017 - - -2018 L, 2–0, Bowling Green - -2019 - - -2020 - - -2021 - - -2022 - - -2023 - - -2024 - - -2025 - - -2026 - - -
Media coverage Jesse Goldberg-Strassler broadcasts Lugnuts home and away games on WVFN-AM. WVFN previously aired Lugnuts games from 2001 to 2003.
Lugnuts games also aired on WJIM-AM from 1996 to 2000 and WQTX-FM from 2004 to 2016. Several games per season aired on WLNS-TV from 1996 through 2001. From 2002 to 2009, one game aired each season on WILX-TV.
Alumni The following are players in Major League Baseball who played, at one time, for the Lugnuts. This partial list includes players making injury-comeback starts as well as those that developed in Lansing.
Kansas City Royals
Jeremy Affeldt Kevin Appier Carlos Beltrán Juan Brito Lance Carter Tim Collins Chad Durbin Carlos Febles Jeremy Giambi Mark Quinn José Santiago Andy Sisco
Orber Moreno
Chicago Cubs
Francis Beltrán Ronny Cedeño Rocky Cherry Robinson Chirinos Hee-seop Choi Juan Cruz Ryan Dempster Jake Fox Adam Greenberg Ángel Guzmán Rich Hill Jon Leicester Carlos Mármol Sean Marshall Juan Mateo Adalberto Méndez Sergio Mitre Orber Moreno Corey Patterson Billy Petrick Félix Pie Andy Pratt Mark Prior Clay Rapada Ryan Theriot Jermaine Van Buren Todd Wellemeyer Randy Wells Carlos Zambrano
Toronto Blue Jays
Anthony Alford Henderson Álvarez Danny Barnes Chad Beck Jon Berti Bo Bichette Cavan Biggio Ryan Borucki Joel Carreño Miguel Castro Taylor Cole David Cooper Evan Crawford Jonathan Davis Matt Dermody Danny Farquhar José Fernández Graham Godfrey Ryan Goins Yan Gomes Kendall Graveman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Adeiny Hechavarria Drew Hutchison Casey Janssen Danny Jansen Brett Lawrie Jesse Litsch Aaron Loup Trystan Magnuson Darin Mastroianni Tim Mayza Deck McGuire Brad Mills Daniel Norris Roberto Osuna Tyler Pastornicky Luis Perez Kevin Pillar Dalton Pompey Carlos Ramírez Sean Reid-Foley Jordan Romano Marc Rzepczynski Aaron Sanchez Anthony Sanders Justin Shafer Dwight Smith Jr. Travis Snider Marcus Stroman Noah Syndergaard Rowdy Tellez Ryan Tepera Curtis Thigpen Richard Ureña
Miami Marlins
Anthony DeSclafani Jake Fishman Adam Greenberg Jake Marisnick Justin Nicolino Renyel Pinto Matt Treanor
St. Louis Cardinals Kiko Calero
San Francisco Giants Eugenio Vélez
Roster
References Notes
Sources
Roth, Bob. Our Lugnuts, Year One. 1996. Lansing Lugnuts Official Website
External links
Official website Lugnuts page at the Lansing State Journal Broadcaster's Blog of Jesse Goldberg-Strassler