The State College Spikes are a collegiate summer baseball team of the MLB Draft League.
Through its first two decades, the team's affiliation passed through the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, and Philadelphia Phillies.
Erie-area businessmen Dave Masi and Joe Castelli propped up the Americans, then reached an affiliation agreement with the St. Louis Cardinals during baseball's winter meetings.
In 1991, Vellano sold the Redbirds to a limited partnership headed by Barry Gordon and Marc Klee.
Gordon and Klee planned to relocate the team to New Jersey where partner Rob Hillard was heading up management of a new stadium.
The team's relocation to Glens Falls welcomed back professional baseball in five years.
The team completed its relocation to Augusta, New Jersey, which is located in Sussex County to become the New Jersey Cardinals despite having construction delays on the stadium and the apparent mismanagement by the stadium group which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy 120 days before the start of the season.
While the team suffered through several losing seasons, they quietly established new standards for Minor League Baseball attendance.
With the arrival of additional teams in the New York metropolitan area and further stadium mismanagement attendance, began to slip.
The team relocated again after the 2005 season and were replaced by Sussex Skyhawks of the independent Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball.
This team folded after the 2010 season, leaving Skylands Park vacant for the first time in the stadium's history.
In October 2005, the owners agreed to sell the New Jersey Cardinals to a group headed by the principal partners of the Class Double-A Altoona Curve of the Eastern League.
The team's new colors became Penn State navy blue, cardinal, old gold, and moonlight yellow.
They locked up the Pinckney Division over Jamestown Jammers who would make it to playoffs under the wildcard and what was very important Home field advantage.
The final game would see the Spikes jump out to a 1-run lead and have Tri-City answer that call with 4 runs.
While West Virginia and Williamsport both made late runs, State College easily won the Pinckney Division in mid-August and clinched the number one seed in the NYPL playoffs a week later.
"We're not one of these ownership groups that demands a winner every single year, but we haven't even put playoff tickets on sale," Spikes general manager Jason Dambach said in June 2012.
[4] In September 2012, the Pirates offered State College a player development contract extension.
[5] However, Greenberg never received a return phone call from anyone with the Pirates—not owner Bob Nutting, nor Coonelly, nor GM Neal Huntington.
The team's official colors are Penn State navy blue, cardinal, old gold, and moonlight yellow.
(Place listed is finish in the six-team Pinckney Division, 2006–2019) Pitchers Catchers Infielders Outfielders