Rocket City Trash Pandas

• Location: Madison, AL
• League: Double-A South 2021; Southern League 2022-
• Affiliation: Los Angeles Angels
• Stadium: Toyota Field

Team History

The Rocket City Trash Pandas, of the Double-A Southern League and briefly in Double-A South, returned Organized Baseball to Greater Huntsville, AL, just four years after the Huntsville Stars moved to Biloxi, MS. The Pandas play their home games at Toyota Field in the Huntsville suburb of Madison, AL.

Although the franchise's operations physically moved during the 2019-2020 off-season, the Coronavirus delayed actual play another year by killing that campaign in Minor League Baseball. After the season - and with a brand-new playpen there was never any doubt - the Pandas survived MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization.

The team's debut was actually delayed twice. When BallCorps LLC bought the Mobile BayBears in late 2017, the firm was already developing what would become Toyota Field. Less than four months later, BallCorps announced the BayBears would move to that new ballpark - originally in 2019, a very tight timeline that was soon pushed to 2020. Thus, the pandemic's delay was another year.

This followed incredible advance buzz: In November 2018, season tickets went on sale and a temporary team store - The Junkyard - opened; after closing to re-stock and expand, it reopened in February 2019 - then did it all again in July to get into an even larger location; season tickets sold out in August; the stadium naming-rights deal was announced in October; and merchandise sales passed $2 million in December. Later, the club opened a new Trash Panda Emporium four miles from the stadium in Huntsville proper - and in June 2023 another off-site location opened on Hughes Road in Madison[1].

The Pandas play Copa de la Diversión Hispanic engagement campaign games as Lunaticos de Rocket City (Rocket City Lunatics).

Year-by-Year Record

Year	Record	Finish	Manager	Playoffs	Hitting coach	Pitching coach	Coach
2020	Season cancelled
2021	54-56	6th	Jay Bell		Kenny Hook	Michael Wuertz	Derek Florko
2022	81-57	1st	Andy Schatzley	Lost in 1st round	Kenny Hook	Michael Wuertz	Dann Bilardello
2023	58-80	7th	Andy Schatzley		Sean Kazmar	Michael Wuertz	Dann Bilardello
2024	61-75	7th	Andy Schatzley		Joel Chimelis	Michael Wuertz	Dann Bilardello, Doug Henry