Belfast Northstars
The Belfast Northstars is one of two clubs from Northern Ireland competing in the Baseball Ireland adult league. An amateur club, the Northstars play their home games at Hydebank Playing Fields in Newtownbreda, Belfast. The club competes in Baseball Ireland's B League. Franchise history. The early years. The Northstars were formed in September 1996 when 10 players split away from the Belfast Blue Sox. The Blue Sox had been affiliated with baseball in Britain, but travelling to games and hosting visiting teams became problematic. Following the Blue Sox' demise, Gerry Long of Los Angeles was installed as  the Northstars' first coach, and the new team quickly established an affiliation with Baseball Ireland. 2004: A winning season and playoff contenders. Following a frustrating first few years of existence, in which the team often performing poorly in the standings, the 2004 season saw the Northstars in contention to the last day of the season. The club beat one of the league's new teams, the Dublin Trojans, as well as the established Dublin Black Sox. Following two narrow defeats against the reigning champion Dublin Hurricanes, the Northstars came close to making the playoffs but lost the final game of  the season to the Black Sox, with that team finishing with a 12–6 record to the Northstars' 11–7 and barely edging out the Black Sox for one of the four playoff spots. The 2005 League Trophy final. A shake-up in Baseball Ireland's league structure for the 2005 season saw the creation of two separate competitions. Teams in the now nine-team league played each other just once before the league split into two. The top five teams competed for the League Championship while the remaining four battled for the newly created League Trophy. Teams played each other twice  in the second half. By winning three of their first four games in the second half, the Northstars faced the now defunct Dublin Panthers, who had won their first four games, in two games that would decide the trophy winners. The Panthers, however, swept the short series at the O'Malley Fields at Corkagh Park in Clondalkin, West Dublin, the home of Irish Baseball. 2010: A winning season and playoffs. The addition of new young players alongside many established veterans helped the club to its first winning season in five years. Highlights included two victories over the reigning national champions the  Spartans in Belfast, while there were also wins against the Black Sox, Hurricanes and league newcomers the Munster Warriors. By finishing the regular season with a record of 8 wins and 7 defeats, the Northstars placed fourth in the table, setting up a playoff semi-final with the Spartans. 2013–2014. The Northstars entered a growth and development phase in 2013, bringing in former Keuka College Storm pitcher Jonathan Sculli as co-manager, finishing a respectable eighth place at the Finkstonball tournament in Attnang-Puchheim, Austria and reintroducing the development team to Baseball Ireland's B League. By the first weekend  in August, both A and B teams had qualified for the playoffs. The strong 2013 season was followed by another trip to the playoffs in the 2014 season, a berth clinched following a home two-game sweep over the defending champion Spartans.