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SF Canary Info: Early Sioux Falls teams Professional baseball in
Sioux Falls dates back at least to 1902, when the original Canaries
joined the Iowa-South Dakota League. That team and its league
lasted just two seasons. Another team, known variously as the
"Soos" as well as the Canaries, was a member of the Dakota League
from 1920-1923, then moved to the short-lived Tri-State League in
1924. The longest-lived Canaries prior to the current team were
founded in 1933 as part of the Nebraska State League. They joined
the Western League in 1939, then joined the original Northern
League when the Western League folded after the 1941 season. The
Canaries played in the Northern League in 1942 and again from
1946-1953. The city was without a Northern League franchise until
1966. Then the Sioux Falls Packers began play, and spent six
seasons in the circuit until the league ceased operations following
the 1971 campaign. Current team A handful of independent baseball
pioneers revived the Northern League in 1993. Sioux Falls competed
in a six-team league, joining the St. Paul Saints, the Rochester
Aces, the Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks, the Sioux City Explorers and
the Duluth-Superior Dukes. On the field, the Canaries enjoyed their
greatest successes in 1994 and 1996. Former major leaguer Pedro
Guerrero batted .329 with eight home runs and 47 RBIs for the 1994
Canaries, as the team posted a 47-33 record. Sioux Falls was
narrowly beat out by Sioux City in the first half of the season
while the "Birds" finished four games out of first in the second
half. Chris Powell batted a league-best .357, while Jamie Ybarra
paced all league hurlers with 10 wins and 109 strikeouts. In 1996,
the Canaries overcame a 20-22 first half to the season and posted a
24-18 mark over the second half of the campaign. Even then, the
team finished three games back of the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks. New
ownership took over the club in 1998 and a steady diet of
improvements have followed, including a new manager, new logo and
identity system. The Canaries posted an outstanding season in 2001,
going 55-35 and gaining the team's first playoff berth since the
league re-emerged in 1993. On July 11, 2001, the Canaries won the
first-half title in the South Division in dramatic fashion on the
final day of the half. Sioux Falls won 21-7 win over
Duluth-Superior in the game that secured its first pennant and its
first playoff appearance. Team owners and city officials hosted a
ceremonial groundbreaking in November 1999, kicking off a $5.6
million renovation to Sioux Falls Stadium. The new Birdcage drew
national attention on June 2, 2001, as USA Today writer Mel Antonen
wrote a feature story on the retrofit. The project drew praise for
the integration of an existing facility with more modern elements.
Sioux Falls Stadium now features nine luxury suites, a
3,000-square-foot (280 m2) home clubhouse, a group barbecue area
and a video wall/scoreboard that features live and recorded video
clips as well as animated pieces. On September 29, 2005, the
Canaries left the Northern League, along with the Lincoln Saltdogs,
the Sioux City Explorers and the St. Paul Saints to form the
American Association for the 2006 season. Sioux Falls struggled
early on in the new league, but everything came together for the
Canaries in 2008. They posted their best regular-season record ever
at 60-36, and won the first-half North Division championship with a
31-17 mark. The Canaries opened the 2008 playoffs by sweeping rival
Sioux City in three games, then took on Grand Prairie for the
American Association championship. Sioux Falls took the best-of-5
series three games to one, earning the clinching win in dramatic
fashion on a walkoff single in the bottom of the 12th. The Canaries
became the first team other than Fort Worth to earn an AAIPB
championship. In popular culture While with the Canaries in 2002,
Tyrone Pendergrass was interviewed and featured in an article in
the September 4th, 2002 edition of the Christian Science Monitor,
called "Mapping the American Spirit" On July 12, 2006, Jim Eriotes,
83, became the oldest person in professional baseball history to
suit up, swinging at four pitches, before striking out. The
Canaries beat the St. Joe's Blacksnakes 5-3.
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