Red Wings’ 2026 championship celebrated before big crowd

BY DAN GLICKMAN

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Hundreds if not thousands of people crowded ESL Ballpark on Monday night to celebrate the Rochester Red Wings’ first International League title since 1997 while also enjoying music, shopping, and food. People lined up to take photos next to the trophy and pennant, they crowded the team store to buy victory apparel, and they went to get autographs from the team’s hitting coach, Brian Daubach, and one of its catchers, Max Romero.

More people came, in fact, than Red Wings general manager Dan Mason had planned for. When fans initially began to enter the stadium around 6:00 p.m., a small cluster of chairs and an impromptu stage had been set up in the concourse for a ceremony. Far fewer chairs than there were people there to celebrate the victory. There were, however, plenty of seats in the seating bowl of the stadium, leading to a late change of plans…

VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM JOE TERRITO.

“We had to move it to the field, because we weren’t expecting this many people here,” said Mason later. “It was amazing. I’ll never forget this night, it reminds me of the stock rally we held in 1994 to try and secure the funding for this ballpark.”

Part-thank you, part-pep rally, a series of speakers addressed the crowd, which had filled most of the lower seating bowl of ESL Ballpark’s third base side.

They’d all gathered because the Red Wings had won the International League Championship Series, two games to one, against the Memphis Redbirds. All of the games of that series, however, had been played in Memphis, so this was one of the first opportunities for all fans to gather together to celebrate. While Rochester then lost the one-game AAA National Championship Game in Las Vegas to the Oklahoma City Comets, it did nothing to dampen the excitement of the crowd, or the people who make Rochester baseball what it is.

“The International League Championship is the one that’ll be forever etched on the outfield wall out there,” said Mason early in the ceremony. “We are incredibly psyched to celebrate this title with you, the best fans in baseball.”

Rochester Community Baseball President and CEO Naomi Silver, whose father Morrie kept baseball as we know it in Rochester by leading a stock drive during the 1950s to bring the team under local ownership, also spoke. After thanking the Washington Nationals front office – which had been almost entirely replaced by new members last season – for helping provide such a deep squad, she thanked local politicians for their continued support and highlighted how Romero and Daubach had stayed in town for a few extra days.

But most of all, like Mason, she hailed the fans:

“Whether you went to Buffalo, to Memphis, to Las Vegas, watched on TV, or listened on the radio, we thank you. You’re more than fans, you are our friends, and I mean that sincerely,” she said. “Not only do we know how we feel about you, but it’s known around the world of baseball. Rochester is not only looked upon as the most historic of teams, but as a pinnacle of minor league baseball, and it’s because of you and the outstanding support we get.”

Sadly, the demands of travel schedules and the calls of home meant one of the most important people of the 2026 Red Wings wasn’t there: manager Matt LeCroy, who won International League Manager of the Year. Mason quipped that with five children and a wife waiting for him back in South Carolina, he had to get home. Still, the skipper – now sixth on the all-time wins list for the Red Wings and called an “Honorary Rochesterian” by Mason – left a video message, again thanking the fans.

“Nothing makes me happier than to bring that trophy back to a community who loves their team,” he said in the video.

It was a sentiment shared by Daubach, the man who has been his hitting coach the last several years. The Red Wings led the International League in several categories this season, but as he pointed out after thanking the fans, it was a bit of a slow start.

“We got off to a cold start with you all in April, because it was like 30 degrees every day, but over the next five months, I just kept telling the guys… be patient with us, because the sun’s going to come on.”

Indeed it did, the Red Wings ultimately hit 202 home runs on the season, the most ever for a single season in club history.

Ten of those home runs came off the bat of Romero, who came to the club late in the season but provided an important platoon at catcher with the veteran Riley Adams, slashing .268/.360/.521 in 40 games.

“I speak for the whole team when I say this would not have happened with you guys,” he said to the fans during remarks. “I’ve never been part of a fan base as good as you guys.”

Finally, it was time for the politicians to speak. Several were there: Congressman Joe Morelle (who told Romero he hopes that he can see him play in a Washington uniform next season), Monroe County executive Adam Bello, and Rochester Deputy Mayor Michael Burns (a season-ticket holder with the Wings). They read out a proclamation that proclaimed Sept. 28, 2026 a special day: Rochester Red Wings International League Championship Day in the City of Rochester and in Monroe County.

Soon after that, the ceremony was over. The people returned to eating their two-dollar hot dogs and drinking their two-dollar soda pops, while waiting in line for photos with the trophies. But as the dignitaries left the field, someone in the crowd could be heard yelling:

“Let’s run it back!”

No Red Wings team has repeated as IL champions since 1955-56. But with Washington’s minor league system now possessing more depth than before, and with the possibility that a work stoppage in the big leagues may keep some of the prospects in Rochester longer than expected, perhaps that could change. That quest for a possible repeat in Rochester starts when the 2027 season begins on Friday, March 26 with a home game against the Syracuse Mets.