New England Knockouts | |
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Information | |
League | Frontier League (East Division) |
Location | Brockton, Massachusetts |
Ballpark | Campanelli Stadium |
Founded | 2024 |
Former name(s) | New England Chowdahheads (pre-debut) |
Ownership | Brian Kahn |
Manager | Jerod Edmondson |
General Manager | John Wilson |
Website | www |
The New England Knockouts are a professional baseball team based in Brockton, Massachusetts. The Knockouts are set to begin play during 2024 as members of the Frontier League (FL), [1] one of several independent baseball leagues throughout the United States and Canada that serve as Major League Baseball (MLB) Partner Leagues.
The Knockouts are set to first compete during the 2024 Frontier League season, in the East Division, playing their home games at Campanelli Stadium, a facility they share with the Brockton Rox of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.
The Frontier League announced late in the 2023 season that it would be placing a team in Brockton for the 2024 Frontier League season to replace the Empire State Greys, a traveling team founded when the Southern Illinois Miners were disbanded after their owners retired. Brockton's most recent professional baseball team had been the Brockton Rox, who were founded as a member of the former Northern League in 2002, and left the Can-Am League following the 2011 season to become a collegiate league team.
A team naming contest was conducted following the 2023 season, with five names chosen as finalists. [2] Of these, the most popular was New England Chowdahheads, and the team initially selected it as their new moniker, announcing it in November 2023. [3] However, reactions from fans and local business leaders in the area were lukewarm at best; as such, the owners of the team reconsidered. [4] On December 15, they announced that they would be dropping the Chowdahheads name in favor of a name that was reflective of Brockton's history of producing championship caliber prizefighters such as Rocky Marciano and Marvelous Marvin Hagler; the team thus became the Knockouts. [4]
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The Frontier League is a professional baseball league based in the East North Central and Mid-Atlantic United States, and Central Canada. It operates as one of four Major League Baseball (MLB) Partner Leagues in the American independent baseball league system. Founded in 1993, the Frontier League is the oldest extant independent baseball league in North America to have never organized under the Minor League Baseball system.
Brockton is a city in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States; the population was 105,643 at the 2020 United States census. Along with Plymouth, it is one of the two county seats of Plymouth County. It is the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts and is sometimes referred to as the "City of Champions", due to the success of native boxers Rocky Marciano and Marvin Hagler, as well as its successful Brockton High School sports programs. Two villages within it are Montello and Campello, both of which have MBTA Commuter Rail Stations and post offices. Campello is the smallest neighborhood, but also the most populous. Brockton hosts a baseball team, the Brockton Rox. It is the second-windiest city in the United States, with an average wind speed of 14.3 mph (23.0 km/h).
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Campanelli Stadium is a stadium in Brockton, Massachusetts that is primarily used for baseball. The stadium is home to the Brockton Rox, a collegiate summer baseball team that plays in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, and the New England Knockouts, a professional minor league team that plays in the independent Frontier League.
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