Butte Copper Kings
The Butte Copper Kings were the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' first minor league affiliate at the Advanced-Rookie level.
Contents
General History
The Copper Kings, named for the once-powerful owners of the copper mines around Butte, MT, began play in the Advanced-Rookie Pioneer League in 1978 as a co-op team with players from the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers organizations.
Affiliation with Tampa Bay
Butte's affiliation with Tampa Bay lasted for only the 1996 season. The following season, the Devil Rays moved their Advanced-Rookie affiliation to the Princeton Devil Rays of Princeton, WV in the Appalachian League.
The Copper Kings' first game as a Devil Rays-affiliated team was on June 19, 1996, a 5-4 loss to the Padres-affiliated Idaho Falls Braves. Their final regular-season game in the Devil Rays system was a 12-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds affiliate, the Billings Mustangs, which clinched a playoff spot for the Copper Kings.
Butte lost the best-of-3 Pioneer League South Division playoffs 2-1, in a high-scoring series (a combined score of 25-33), to the Ogden Raptors, a Milwaukee Brewers affiliate.
Staff
- Manager: Tom Foley
- Pitching Coach: Dennis Rasmussen
- Hitting Coach: Howard Johnson
- Trainer: Mike Klein
- Equipment Manager/Assistant Trainer: Chris Tomashoff
- Mascot: Donkey-Hotey
Stadium
- Alumni Field on the campus of Montana Tech (now Montana Tech of The University of Montana)
Ownership
References
- "Pioneer Adds Butte." Sporting News. 25 February 1978: 63. Print.
- Copper Kings Team Set. Best Cards, 1996. Baseball cards. Common, 1-30.
