The Scottsdale Scorpions are a baseball team that plays in the East Division of the
Arizona Fall League. They play their home games in
Scottsdale, Arizona, at
Scottsdale Stadium, which is also the
spring training facility of the
San Francisco Giants. The team was established in 1992 and has retained the Scorpions nickname through several location changes. The Scorpions have won three league championships, most recently in 2015.
History
In the fall of 1994, the team gained worldwide media attention, when
Michael Jordan joined the Scorpions after playing his first minor league baseball season with the Double-A
Birmingham Barons in
Birmingham, Alabama.
The Scorpions won their first championship in 1996, against the
Mesa Saguaros. The Scorpions reached the championship game in 2002, 2004, and 2005 but failed to win it. For the 2005 season, the team played its games in
Surprise, Arizona, due to renovations of Scottsdale Stadium. The team returned to Scottsdale Stadium the following year, renamed as the Grand Canyon Scorpions. The team changed their name back to Scottsdale Scorpions for the 2007 season. The Scorpions won the league championship in 2010, their first in 14 years. They also won the championship in 2015.
The Stenson Award was created in 2004 by the Arizona Fall League, in memory of
Dernell Stenson, a Scorpions outfielder (Cincinnati Reds), who was killed in a carjacking on November 5, 2003.[3][4]