TheLancaster Stormers (formerly known as theLancaster Barnstormers) is anAmericanprofessional baseball team based inLancaster, Pennsylvania. It is a member of the North Division of theAtlantic League of Professional Baseball, a "partner league" ofMajor League Baseball.^[1][2] The team has played its home games atPenn Medicine Park in the city'sNorthwest Corridor since 2005 when the stadium was completed.

Lancaster Stormers
Team logo Cap insignia
Information
League	Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (North Division)
Location	Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Ballpark	Penn Medicine Park
Founded	2003
League championships	(4) 2006, 2014, 2022, 2023
Division championships	(5) 2006, 2012, 2014, 2022, 2023
Former name(s)	Lancaster Barnstormers (2003–2023)
Colors	Red, black, gold, white
Mascot	Cylo
Retired numbers	42
Ownership	Lancaster Baseball, LLC
General manager	Michael Reynolds
Manager	Ross Peeples
Media	LNP
Website	lancasterstormers.com

Baseball first came to Lancaster County in the 1860s by soldiers returning home from theCivil War. They learned the rules while serving in the military and wanted to continue playing.^[3] The very first professional baseball teams in Lancaster were the Lancaster Lancasters and theLancaster Ironsides. The Lancasters played in the Keystone Association while the Ironsides played in theEastern League, both starting in 1884. The following season, the Lancasters joined the Eastern League, and the two teams became rivals. They competed against each other for fan support, league affiliation, and money at the gate. At its peak, insults and refusals to play against each other were the norm. The teams finally agreed to play each other at the end of the 1884 season, in which the Ironsides defeated the Lancasters after seven very close games. Only the Lancasters continued to play the next season.^[4]

In the 1894 to 1895 seasons, a team called the Lancaster Chicks played in the Keystone Association. An all-African-American team called the Lancaster Giants followed in 1887, and many Lancastrians supported the team despite the social pressure of the day. The Giants hosted many exhibition games against the Philadelphia Giants of the Keystone Club.^[5]

Between 1896 and 1899, the first team called the Lancaster Maroons played in the originalAtlantic League. In 1905, the second inception of the Maroons played in the Tri-State League.^[6]

In 1906, the Maroons became theLancaster Red Roses. As both teams were named for the opposing factions in England's historicWars of the Roses, the name change infuriated the rivalWhite Roses from the nearby city of York.^[7]

In 2003, the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball formally announced an expansion team for the city of Lancaster. In November 2004, the Barnstormers announced the signing ofTom Herr, a Major League Baseball veteran and Lancaster native, as the team's first manager.^[8] The Barnstormers' were set to begin competition in 2005 at the newly built Penn Medicine Park.

On May 11, they lost their first game, 4–3, to theAtlantic City Surf, in front of 7,300 fans. They finished the 2005 season with a record of 64 wins and 76 losses. In finishing the first half of the 2006 season with a record of 38–25, the Barnstormers qualified for their first Atlantic League playoff berth. They also won the second half, posting a record of 37–26. After defeating division challenger, Atlantic City, in the first round of the playoffs, the Barnstormers swept theBridgeport Bluefish to win their first Atlantic League championship, in only their second season. Pitcher Denny Harriger threw a complete game, breaking a franchise record for consecutive pitches. It was the city of Lancaster's first professional championship since 1955 when the former Red Roses won the Piedmont League title. The Barnstormers played in the 2012 Atlantic League Championship Series but were ultimately defeated by theLong Island Ducks in Game 5.^[9] In 2012, the Lancaster Barnstormers set an Atlantic League record with 88 wins.^[10]

Herr managed the team from 2005 to 2006 and from 2009 to 2010. In 2008, the Barnstormers was coached byVon Hayes, a former teammate of Herr from the 1989 and 1990Philadelphia Phillies.^[11]Rick Wise, the winning pitcher for theBoston Red Sox in Game 6 of the1975 World Series, is also a managerial alumnus of the Lancaster Barnstormers. He was the team's third base coach from the inaugural 2005 season to the end of the 2008 campaign. Herr, in his second term, was succeeded byButch Hobson.^[12]

The Lancaster Stormers was originally owned byOpening Day Partners (ODP), a company that specializes in baseball club and stadium operations. ODP also created Atlantic League clubs inYork, Pennsylvania,Southern Maryland, andSugar Land, Texas. On November 12, 2014, ODP transitioned its ownership of the Stormers to Lancaster Baseball, LLC. Lancaster Baseball consists of Ian Ruzow, Rob Liss, Steve Zuckerman, and Bob Zuckerman. Ian Ruzow was born in South Africa and moved to the USA in 1980. The other three partners are all natives of New York, and all four have lived in Lancaster for 40 years. Steve Zuckerman, Ian Ruzow, and Bob Zuckerman were the founders of Clipper Magazine, with Rob Liss joining them a few years later. Clipper Magazine has owned the naming rights to the stadium since 2005.

The team's original name (the Barnstormers), selected in a fan ballot,^[13] refers to the tradition of "barnstorming," which means to travel around an area appearing in exhibition sports events, especially baseball games.^[14] The term was used to describe Lancaster's baseball teams as early as 1906 when theLancaster Daily Intelligencer reported, "There was a crowd of between seven and eight hundred persons out on Friday to see the Lancaster barnstormers play thePhiladelphia Giants."^[15] Their original primary logo incorporated the colors red, navy blue, and khaki previously used by theLancaster Red Roses of affiliatedMinor League Baseball from 1940 to 1961.^[16] The name and logo also alluded to Lancaster'sPennsylvania Dutch agricultural heritage. The team's name was changed to the Stormers in a rebranding effort between the 2023 and 2024 seasons.^[17]

After winning their second straight Atlantic League title in 2023, Barnstormers social media began to tease "A New Storm," set to be announced on February 15, 2024. On that day, the team unveiled a new logo set and a new name. Now known as the Lancaster Stormers, the new logo set includes a bull's head, with a lightning bolt down the middle of its face in red and khaki colors as the main logo. Alternate logos include the bull charging through a barn, a circular logo with the team name on the outside with a barn in a storm inside the circle, while keeping the white L with a baseball as a homage to the prior name and logo set.

The primary colors of the Stormers are red, black, gold, and white. These are similar to the colors previously used by the Red Roses to reflect Lancaster's baseball heritage. The primary logo features the "Stormers" wordmark in red with a white outline set against a black background. The letters are in a custom font inspired byfraktur, a Pennsylvania Dutch blackletter calligraphy. A bull's head completes the logo below the wordmark in red, black, and gold. There is also a lightning bolt across the bull's forehead. The secondary logo features a bull charging through a barn while the tertiary logo is a black roundel with a red outline and "Lancaster Stormers" in gold letters. Inside the roundel, there is a baseball field with a red barn as a backstop featuring two white Xs implied on the door trim symbolizing the Stormers' twentieth season. A rooster-themed weathervane tops the barn with lightning striking it.^[18]

The Stormers home cap is red, charged with a stylized cursive L in white with a black and gold outline interweaving with a curving baseball. The home jerseys are white with red headspoon piping and the cursive "Stormers" wordmark across the front in red, black, and gold. The away jersey is gray with red headspoon piping, featuring the cursive "Lancaster" wordmark in white and outlined in gold and black. The Stormers wear red belts, socks, and undershirts with all uniforms.

• 4 Atlantic League Championships (2006, 2014, 2022, 2023)

The cities ofLancaster andYork inSouth Central Pennsylvania, US have a historical rivalry in all sporting events from the high-school level to the professional. Since the cities are named after the English cities ofLancaster andYork, their former Pennsylvania baseball teams were named for the opposing sides of theWars of the Roses. As a metaphor, "War of the Roses" describes the intense baseball matches fought between theLancaster Red Roses and theYork White Roses. With the addition of York to theAtlantic League, theRevolution and Stormers now continue this tradition as they battle each other for lower Susquehanna supremacy.

The "War of the Roses" was rekindled with the sound of celebratory cannon fire at the start of the 2007 Atlantic League season inWrightsville, a borough located on theSusquehanna River, the natural boundary betweenLancaster andYork counties. The winner of the War of the Roses is presented with the Community Cup, while the defeated team is obligated to sing the ballpark classic "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and plant a rose garden at the opponent's ballpark with their representative color: red for Lancaster, white for York. The first Community Cup was championed by the Stormers in the 2007 season, though the Revolution avenged them by winning it in 2008.^[20] The clubs also competed in theRoute 30 Showdown in 2009–2011, an annual cross-county doubleheader inadvertently created after the 2008 season by a rain-delay.^[21]

Every Stormers game was broadcast onWLAN (1390 AM) andWPDC (1600 AM) by Dave Collins, their announcer.^[31] Select home games were televised on Blue Ridge Cable-11.^[32]On April 20, 2023, the Atlantic League announced that all games, including the Barnstormers, would be streamed exclusively on FloSports.^[33]

The Lancaster Stormers'mascot is ananthropomorphic, red cow named Cylo. He wears the team's home jersey with striped socks and retro-style sneakers. Cylo debuted on March 4, 2005, at the Mascot Roller Mill in the Lancaster County village ofMascot. His name in full is Cyloicious L. Barnstormer, alluding toHall of Fame pitcherCy Young and tosilos, representing the county's agricultural heritage.^[34] The mascot was designed by the Raymond Entertainment Group,^[34] which also produces thePhillie Phanatic's costume.

42 (Jackie Robinson)

2B, Retired throughout professional baseball on April 15, 1997

• Lancaster Stormers (official website)
• Lancaster Barnstormers Booster Club