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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | ||||||
| 3 | Representatives wish to congratulate the Kane County Cougars on | ||||||
| 4 | 25 years of playing in Geneva; and
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| 5 | WHEREAS, The Kane County Cougars are a Class A minor league | ||||||
| 6 | baseball team, playing in
the Midwest League; their home games | ||||||
| 7 | are played in Geneva, approximately 35 miles
west of Chicago; | ||||||
| 8 | and
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| 9 | WHEREAS, The Midwest League came to Kane County in 1991 | ||||||
| 10 | after a franchise that was previously
based in Decatur | ||||||
| 11 | (1952-74) and Wausau, Wisconsin (1975-90) relocated; since | ||||||
| 12 | moving to Kane County, the team has been known as the Cougars; | ||||||
| 13 | they
were affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles in 1991 and | ||||||
| 14 | 1992, the Florida
Marlins from 1993 to 2002, the Oakland | ||||||
| 15 | Athletics from 2003 to 2010, the Kansas City Royals for the | ||||||
| 16 | 2011 and 2012 seasons, and the Chicago
Cubs for the 2013 and | ||||||
| 17 | 2014 seasons; for the 2015 season, they joined the Arizona | ||||||
| 18 | Diamondbacks organization; and
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| 19 | WHEREAS, As a Marlins farm team, some of the key | ||||||
| 20 | contributors to the 2003 World Series championship
team played | ||||||
| 21 | for the Cougars on their way to the big leagues; 2003 World | ||||||
| 22 | Series MVP Josh
Beckett played for the Cougars in 2000 and | ||||||
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| 1 | Dontrelle Willis had the league's best
winning percentage and | ||||||
| 2 | earned run average in 2002; and
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| 3 | WHEREAS, The Cougars play their home games at Fifth Third | ||||||
| 4 | Bank Ballpark, built in 1991; the
franchise attendance record | ||||||
| 5 | of 523,222 was set in 2001 and they are perennially
among the | ||||||
| 6 | league leaders in attendance; on July 20, 2013, the Cougars | ||||||
| 7 | became the first
Class A team to attract 10 million fans; in | ||||||
| 8 | 2015, the Cougars finished in the top 30 across all Minor | ||||||
| 9 | League Baseball clubs in
terms of attendance and their overall | ||||||
| 10 | attendance of 408,449 fans was second-best in the
16-team | ||||||
| 11 | Midwest League; Nancy Faust, after 40 years with the Chicago
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| 12 | White Sox, is the stadium organist for selected home games; and | ||||||
| 13 | WHEREAS, In addition to welcoming more than 400,000 fans | ||||||
| 14 | during the organization's 25th
anniversary season, this year's | ||||||
| 15 | Cougars team went 84 and 54 (third-best record in franchise
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| 16 | history) while winning the Western Division second half | ||||||
| 17 | championship; and | ||||||
| 18 | WHEREAS, The 2015 season was the first year of the | ||||||
| 19 | Cougars's affiliation with the Arizona
Diamondbacks; they were | ||||||
| 20 | led by former Major League Baseball player and first-year | ||||||
| 21 | manager
Mark Grudzielanek; more than 130 former Cougars have | ||||||
| 22 | reached the Major Leagues; numerous former Cougars are | ||||||
| 23 | currently involved in the Major League Baseball
postseason, | ||||||
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| 1 | including 2014 Cougar Kyle Schwarber, who has helped lead the | ||||||
| 2 | Chicago
Cubs to the National League Championship Series; | ||||||
| 3 | therefore, be it
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| 4 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
| 5 | NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | ||||||
| 6 | congratulate the Kane County Cougars on 25 years of playing in | ||||||
| 7 | Geneva and we wish them many more successful years; and be it | ||||||
| 8 | further
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| 9 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
| 10 | presented to the Kane County Cougars organization as an | ||||||
| 11 | expression of our esteem and respect.
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