Hall of Fame

The first player to be inducted, Reggie Abercrombie spent 10 seasons with the Sioux Falls Canaries and the Winnipeg Goldeyes, winning championships in 2016 and 2017 with Winnipeg.

Entering the 2023 season, Abercrombie is the AAPB’s all-time leader in games played (781), runs scored (563), hits (936), home runs (146) and runs batted in (606). He ranks third with 174 career stolen bases with 174 and fifth with 145 career doubles.

Abercrombie had a 20-year professional career, including three seasons in the majors with the Florida Marlins and Houston Astros. He finished his career with over 2,400 hits, 300 home runs and 500 stolen bases. He was the 2016 winner of the American Association Scott Miller/Brian Rose Man of the Year award for his service in the Winnipeg community.

A two-time league champion and owner of a .314 career AAPB batting average, Espinosa ranks first in league history with 46 triples, second with 529 runs scored and third with 801 hits. The 2010 postseason all-star shortstop also holds Grand Prairie career records with 314 games played, 268 runs, 394 hits and 63 doubles over his four seasons with the AirHogs. After his playing career, he became an independent scout for the Miami Marlins and the Cincinnati Reds.

Owner and Director of the Winnipeg Goldeyes, Katz returned professional baseball to Winnipeg in 1994. He spearheaded the building of Blue Cross Park in downtown Winnipeg, which opened in 1999 and founded the Goldeyes’ Field of Dreams Foundation which benefits . Katz also served has Mayor of Winnipeg from 2004-2014.

A former Major League player and manager, Lanier joined the Winnipeg Goldeyes as manager in 1996 and crafted a 472-360 record in ten seasons. His clubs advanced to the post-season every year he was manager. Lanier spent over ten seasons in Major League baseball as a player and managed the Houston Astros from 1986-88 and was named the National League Manager of the Year in 1986.

Second in league history and first in Canaries AAPB history with 55 career victories, 701 strikeouts and 797.1 innings pitched, Moore led the league in strikeouts three times and was named a post-season all-star twice. He was a member of Sioux Falls’ 2008 championship squad, while his 144 Ks in 2011 are fourth-most in league history.

Ed Nottle joins the Hall of Fame after his long and successful career as both a manager and owner, piloting the Northern League’s Sioux City Explorers from 1993 to 2000 and again in 2006 and 2007 when the Explorers were members of the American Association. In 1998, Nottle put together an ownership group that purchased the franchise and he served as the managing partner and league director for the club for several seasons.

Nottle won 418 games over ten seasons with Sioux City. In addition, he managed independent clubs in Duluth, Minn.; Brockton, Mass.; and Ottawa, Ontario.

Prior to his independent baseball career, Nottle managed in the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics organizations, including eight seasons at the Triple-A level. He was named Baseball America’s minor league manager of the year in 1983. He also played for ten seasons in the Chicago White Sox system.

Doug Simunic enters the Hall of Fame after a 25-year managerial career in the American Association and the Northern League. Simunic managed the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks from 1996 to 2017, as well as the Winnipeg Goldeyes in 1994-95 and Rochester (Minn.) Aces in 1993.  

The former Triple-A catcher won six league championships (five with Fargo-Moorhead and one with Winnipeg), was named league Manager of the Year six times, and at the time of his retirement, he was the winningest manager in independent baseball history with 1,346 career regular-season victories.

The face of the Saltdogs for a decade and a two-time post-season league all-star, Smith ranks third in AAPB history with 151 career doubles, fourth with 794 hits and 441 RBI and sixth with 96 home runs. Assembling a .309 batting average over eight seasons with Lincoln, he leads the club in nearly every career offensive record during its AAPB tenure. The Curacao native also represented the Kingdom of the Netherlands at countless international tournaments, including the 2009, 2013 and 2017 World Baseball Classics.

Mike Veeck joins the Hall of Fame after owning independent baseball’s flagship club, the St. Paul Saints, and served as a director with the Saints in both the American Association and Northern League, for over 30 years. As a founding member of the first independent league, the Northern League, he set the course for independent leagues across America.

In 28 independent seasons, the Saints drew 7.7 million fans and won five league championships. Initially dismissed by the nearby Minnesota Twins upon their start in the Northern League in 1993, the Saints are now the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate at CHS Field, the team’s 7,000-seat stadium opened in 2015.

Veeck owned parts of six other minor league baseball clubs, with his “Fun is Good” philosophy becoming a major influence throughout the industry. Most recently, “The Saint of Second Chances” was released on Netflix featuring the Veeck family and their impact on baseball.

Miles Wolff blazed the trail for hundreds of professional baseball teams across North America.

Wolff is considered the “Godfather of Independent Baseball” after resurrecting the Northern League as a non-affiliated circuit in 1993. In addition to serving as Commissioner of the American Association from 2006 to 2019, he also served in that role for the Northern League (1993-2002), the Central League (2002-2005), the Northeast League (2003-2004) and the Can-Am League (2005-2018). Wolff is also the former owner of the Durham Bulls, the Quebec Capitales, the Burlington Royals, and ten other minor league, independent, and summer collegiate teams. He is the former publisher and owner of Baseball America, and Total Baseball named him among the top 100 individuals in the history of baseball.

Year Founded

2022

Committee Members