NHL/MLB markets where hockey and baseball share special links
By Al Daniel
Shared NHL and MLB market: Cleveland/Columbus
Better late than never is a proper adage for the way these Ohio cities joined forces through their respective hockey and baseball teams.
The International League’s Columbus Clippers long partnered with the New York Yankees while Cleveland’s MLB chapter based its top-level prospects out of state. That finally changed in 2009 when the Clippers also inaugurated a new park across the street from Nationwide Arena. Since then, both Columbus and Cleveland’s indoor and outdoor venues have been within walking distance of each other.
Meanwhile, one could argue the Columbus Blue Jackets and Cleveland Lumberjacks missed an open net in 2000. Ohio’s capital was ready to launch its NHL expansion team while Cleveland’s IHL franchise was coming off back-to-back short-lived affiliations.
Cleveland, which previously had the Barons as Ohio’s only other NHL team and a tradition-laden namesake AHL franchise, became the new home of Pittsburgh’s primary farm team in 1992. Left independent in 1998, the Lumberjacks turned to Tampa Bay, then Chicago for one season apiece.
On their next rebound, they linked up with the Minnesota Wild, Columbus’ fellow 2000 establishment. Like many other IHL teams, the Lumberjacks struggled off the ice that year, and were gone by season’s end.
One Barons reboot and eight years of the Lake Erie Monsters later, the Jackets finally made Cleveland their AHL base in 2015. Columbus still has yet to make many postseason ripples, but the Monsters pleased the better part of Ohio’s hockey fandom by winning the Calder Cup in their first season as the Jackets’ affiliate.
Similarly, while their parent club nurses baseball’s longest active championship drought, the Clippers won four IL pennants in their first decade as Cleveland’s partner. Within that span, they added back-to-back Triple-A national championships in 2010 and 2011.