The St. Louis Cardinals will have a Class-AA baseball team in Springfield, Missouri beginning next year. Team president Mark Lamping was on hand to make the official announcement Tuesday afternoon. John Q. Hammons who owns the $32-million dollar baseball field where the team will play promised an affiliated minor league team, though there was no certainty as to which team it would be. The Cardinals bought the rights to the El Paso Diablos of the Texas League and will use those rights to put the team together in Springfield. The Cards have ended their affiliation with the Tennessee Smokies. The move is still pending Texas League approval for next season. Lamping said, “This is not something that got done early. If we would have been able to start this process six months ago we would have done that. Unfortunately we had a lot of ups and downs and truly it wasn’t until the last ten days that this really came together.” Springfield hosted a Cardinals minor league team in the 1930’s and 1940’s and a Cubs team in the 1950’s.
