The Arkansas Travelers, known informally as The Travs, are a Minor League Baseball team based in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The Travelers are the Double-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners and play in the Texas League.
The team succeeded the Double-A Little Rock Travelers of the Southern Association, which folded after the 1961 season, returning as the Arkansas Travelers of the International League in 1963. The “Travelers” name derive from the folk song, “The Arkansas Traveler“. The Travelers have the third-longest running nickname in Minor League Baseball, behind the Buffalo Bisons and Indianapolis Indians.
After the end of the Southern Association in 1961, the Travelers were given the opportunity to move up as the Philadelphia Phillies‘ Triple-A affiliate for first the International League (1963) and then the Pacific Coast League (1964–1965). However, in 1966 the Travelers moved down to the Texas League as the St. Louis Cardinals‘ Double-A affiliate through 2000. This marked the most successful period for the Travelers as they won the Texas League championship in 1971, 1977, 1979, 1980, and 1989. After serving 35 years as a Cardinals’ affiliate, the Travelers became the Los Angeles Angels‘ affiliate in 2001; this ended the second-longest active affiliation at the time. The Travelers remained with the Angels through 2016, winning the Texas League championship in 2001 and 2008.[3] In 2017, the Travelers entered into a new Player Development Contract, becoming the Double-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners; this move marked just the second time in the last half century that the Travelers swapped major league teams. The 2018 season marked the Arkansas Travelers’ 53rd season as a part of the Texas League, making them the longest tenured active member of the league.[2]
In conjunction with Major League Baseball‘s restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the Travelers were organized into the Double-A Central.[4] In 2022, the Double-A Central became known as the Texas League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to 2021
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