Phoenix Firebirds | |
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Minor league affiliations | |
Previous classes | AAA (1958–1959, 1966–1997) |
League | Pacific Coast League (1958–1959, 1966–1997) |
Major league affiliations | |
Previous teams | San Francisco Giants (1958–1959, 1966–1997) |
Minor league titles | |
League titles | 1959, 1977 |
Division titles | 1977, 1985, 1996, 1997 |
Team data | |
Previous names |
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Mascot | Phineas T. Firebird (1989-1997)[1] Booster Rooster (1978-1985) |
Previous parks |
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The Phoenix Firebirds were a Minor League Baseball team that played in Phoenix, Arizona, from 1958 to 1959, and from 1966 to 1997. Before 1986, the team was known as the Phoenix Giants.
The franchise was a member of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League (PCL), and were the top minor league affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. The Firebirds were forced to leave Phoenix following the 1997 season, as the new National League expansion team, the Arizona Diamondbacks would begin play in Phoenix the following year. In a complicated series of events, the owners of the Firebirds moved their team to Tucson, Arizona, and became the Tucson Sidewinders, dropping their affiliation with the Giants in favor of the expansion Diamondbacks. The owners of the existing Tucson Toros then moved their franchise to Fresno, California, thus ending a 92-year hiatus of PCL baseball in Fresno. The transplanted Toros, renamed the Fresno Grizzlies, became the Giants' new PCL affiliate.