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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives wish to congratulate the Kane County Cougars on
425 years of playing in Geneva; and
 
5    WHEREAS, The Kane County Cougars are a Class A minor league
6baseball team, playing in the Midwest League; their home games
7are played in Geneva, approximately 35 miles west of Chicago;
8and
 
9    WHEREAS, The Midwest League came to Kane County in 1991
10after a franchise that was previously based in Decatur
11(1952-74) and Wausau, Wisconsin (1975-90) relocated; since
12moving to Kane County, the team has been known as the Cougars;
13they were affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles in 1991 and
141992, the Florida Marlins from 1993 to 2002, the Oakland
15Athletics from 2003 to 2010, the Kansas City Royals for the
162011 and 2012 seasons, and the Chicago Cubs for the 2013 and
172014 seasons; for the 2015 season, they joined the Arizona
18Diamondbacks organization; and
 
19    WHEREAS, As a Marlins farm team, some of the key
20contributors to the 2003 World Series championship team played
21for the Cougars on their way to the big leagues; 2003 World
22Series MVP Josh Beckett played for the Cougars in 2000 and

 

 

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1Dontrelle Willis had the league's best winning percentage and
2earned run average in 2002; and
 
3    WHEREAS, The Cougars play their home games at Fifth Third
4Bank Ballpark, built in 1991; the franchise attendance record
5of 523,222 was set in 2001 and they are perennially among the
6league leaders in attendance; on July 20, 2013, the Cougars
7became the first Class A team to attract 10 million fans; in
82015, the Cougars finished in the top 30 across all Minor
9League Baseball clubs in terms of attendance and their overall
10attendance of 408,449 fans was second-best in the 16-team
11Midwest League; Nancy Faust, after 40 years with the Chicago
12White Sox, is the stadium organist for selected home games; and
 
13    WHEREAS, In addition to welcoming more than 400,000 fans
14during the organization's 25th anniversary season, this year's
15Cougars team went 84 and 54 (third-best record in franchise
16history) while winning the Western Division second half
17championship; and
 
18    WHEREAS, The 2015 season was the first year of the
19Cougars's affiliation with the Arizona Diamondbacks; they were
20led by former Major League Baseball player and first-year
21manager Mark Grudzielanek; more than 130 former Cougars have
22reached the Major Leagues; numerous former Cougars are
23currently involved in the Major League Baseball postseason,

 

 

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1including 2014 Cougar Kyle Schwarber, who has helped lead the
2Chicago Cubs to the National League Championship Series;
3therefore, be it
 
4    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
5NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
6congratulate the Kane County Cougars on 25 years of playing in
7Geneva and we wish them many more successful years; and be it
8further
 
9    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
10presented to the Kane County Cougars organization as an
11expression of our esteem and respect.