Florence Freedom

• Location: Hamilton, OH 2003; Florence, KY 2004-2019
• League: Frontier League 2003-2019
• Affiliation: Independent
• Ballpark: Foundation Field 2003; Champion Windows Field 2004-2019

Team History

The Johnstown Johnnies moved to the Cincinnati, OH metropolitan area to become the Florence Freedom of the independent Frontier League in 2003. The team was slated to play in Florence, KY, on the other side of the Ohio River, but because no ballpark was available at the time, they played their first season in Hamilton, OH, on the campus of Miami University, with disastrous results, finishing with the worst record in the 12-team league. The team had tried to tap into connections with the Cincinnati Reds, hiring former Reds star Chris Sabo as manager, but he quit at the beginning of training camp, leaving the job to former Reds pitcher Tom Browning. Attendance was awful that first year, not surprising as the city of Florence is over an hour away from Hamilton, making it difficult from local fans to connect with the name.

Things improved markedly off the field in 2004, when the Freedom moved into the brand-new (and not completely-finished) Champion Windows Field in their home city and tripled their attendance numbers. On the field, things were still as bad, leading to Browning's firing by text message on July 7th. He was replaced by Pete Rose, Jr., the son of the local legend Pete Rose, but after one game Rose quit to resume his playing career in the rival Northern League. Mike Easler inherited the reins of the team for the remainder of the season. While this was going on, the front office being roiled by the financial and legal troubles of owner Chuck Hildebrandt. The League was forced to take over operation of the team partway through the season and sold it to local businessman Clint Brown at the end of the year.

2005 saw a great improvement on the field, the Freedom having their first winning season under new manager Jamie Keefe, lured away from the Chillicothe Paints. While the team's play has been mediocre in the following years, the next winning season only coming in 2012, it has at least found some stability within its home community. After the 2008 season, Toby Rumfield was named the team's new manager.

After the 2019 season, the team rebranded itself as the Florence Y'alls [1].

Year-by-Year Record

Year	Record	Finish	Manager	Playoffs	Hitting Coach	Pitching Coach
2003	27-61	12th	Tom Browning			Chris Hook
2004	31-65	11th	Tom Browning (13-33) / Pete Rose Jr. (1-0) / Mike Easler (17-32)		.	Chris Hook
2005	53-42	2nd (t)	Jamie Keefe			Chris Hook
2006	38-56	10th	Jamie Keefe			Chris Hook
2007	42-54	9th	Jamie Keefe			Chris Hook
2008	47-49	8th (t)	Jamie Keefe
2009	49-47	6th	Toby Rumfield
2010	38-58	10th	Toby Rumfield
2011	39-57	10th (t)	Fran Riordan
2012	57-39	2nd (t)	Fran Riordan	Lost League Finals
2013	53-43	4th (t)	Fran Riordan	Lost in 1st Round
2014	41-55	9th	Fran Riordan
2015	49-47	5th (t)	Dennis Pelfrey
2016	46-49	6th	Dennis Pelfrey
2017	61-35	2nd	Dennis Pelfrey	Lost League Finals
2018	49-47	3rd	Dennis Pelfrey
2019	57-39	1st (t)	Dennis Pelfrey	Lost League Finals

Related Sites

• Official site of the Florence Freedom