Cleburne Railroaders

The Cleburne Railroaders are a professional baseball team based in Cleburne, Texas, that plays in the American Association of Professional Baseball, an official Partner League of Major League Baseball.^[1] The team, which began play in 2017, plays its home games at La Moderna Field.^[2]

Cleburne Railroaders
Logo
Information
League	American Association of Professional Baseball (East Division)
Location	Cleburne, Texas
Ballpark	La Moderna Field
Founded	2017
Colors	Caboose Red, Steel Rail Blue, Whistle Post White
Manager	Pete Incaviglia
Website	railroaderbaseball.com

History

A different team known as the Cleburne Railroaders played in the Texas League, where they won the 1906 championship.^[3] The team won the 1911 Texas–Oklahoma League championship. They played their home games at Gorman's Park, now part of Hulen Park.

The modern Railroaders were announced as an expansion franchise in the American Association on October 6, 2016.^[4] The team plays in the Depot, a new US$25 million stadium that was recognized as the fan-favorite independent stadium by Ballpark Digest in 2017.^[5]

On June 12, 2020, it was announced that the Railroaders were one of six teams that would not be participating in the 2020 American Association season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[6]

New ownership

The Cleburne Railroaders announced three new additions to their ownership group: Neil Leibman, Alan Miller, and Jon Ryan.^[7] Leibman is the Texas Rangers Chief Operating Officer and President of Business Operations and owns multiple professional sports teams.^[8] Miller is the owner of COLLiDE Agency and Ryan is a former NFL player and are part owners of the Portland Pickles independent baseball team located in Oregon. These additions to the ownership team came about in 2021 and these three will help in preparation for the upcoming season.

New colors

The Railroaders colors have changed from orange and blue to colors that are inspired by the flag of Texas. The new colors are: caboose red, steel rail blue and whistle post white.^[9]

New uniforms

The Railroaders will have three uniforms for this upcoming 2021 season. The home uniform is a white jersey with 'Railroaders' script across the chest. The pants are white with red and navy piping, the numbers are red, and on the sleeve there are Gandy and American Association patches. The away jerseys consist of a grey jersey and grey pants with the same patches as the home uniforms on the sleeves. Lastly, there is the Heritage uniform which features a navy blue top and grey pants with stirrups mimicking the ones worn by the original Railroaders team back in 1906.^[9]

Gandy

Railroaders also introduced a new mascot to their team, known as Gandy. Gandy will join Spike, the original mascot, in representing the Railroaders and what they stand for. Gandy's background is that he was a part of the Santa Fe railroad track maintenance gang. These maintenance gangs were known as Gandy Dancers because they would sing a variety of songs while they were working on the track.^[9]

Season-by-season records

Cleburne Railroaders season records

Season	League	Division	Regular Season				Postseason			Manager	Ref
			Record	Win%	Division	GB	Record	Win%	Result
2017	AA	South	47–53	.470	2nd	14.5	Did not qualify			Gabe Suárez
2018	AA	South	33–66	.333	5th	37.5	Did not qualify			Gabe Suárez
2019	AA	South	57–43	.570	3rd	1	Did not qualify			Brent Clevlen
2020	AA	South	On hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021	AA	South	54–46	.540	2nd	15	0–1	.000	Lost Wild Card Game 4–0 to Sioux City Explorers	Mike Jeffcoat (19–18), Logan Watkins (35–28)[a]
2022	AA	East	50–50	.500	4th	4	2–3	.400	Won East Division Semi Finals 2–1 to Kane County Cougars, Lost East Division Championship 2–0 to Milwaukee Milkmen	Logan Watkins
2023	AA	East	46–54	.460	4th	10	1–2	.333	Lost East Division Semi Finals 2–0 to Chicago Dogs	Pete Incaviglia
2024	AA	East	60–40	.600	1st	–	1–2	.333	Lost East Division Semi Finals 2–1 to Chicago Dogs	Pete Incaviglia
2025	AA	East	–			–				Pete Incaviglia

1. On June 30, 2021, Jeffcoat announced his retirement and Watkins was named interim manager.^[10]

Roster

Cleburne Railroaders roster

• v
• t
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Active (25-man) roster				Coaches/Other
Pitchers 10 Jaime Arias 26 Bryce Bonnin 18 Luke Boyd 27 Taylor Broadway 32 Derek Craft 40 Trey Dillard 24 Austin Faith 37 Blair Henley 12 Gabe Klobosits 30 Cristian Lopez 16 Kade Mechals 39 Nick Paciorek 28 Kristian Scott 29 Mike Shawaryn 31 Zeke Wood		Catchers 23 Jacob Morrow 21 Andres Sosa Infielders 3 Korry Howell 4 Shed Long Jr. 33 Kyle Martin 13 Dustin Peterson 1 Cooper Weiss Outfielders 34 Aaron Altherr 7 Anthony Brocato 2 Steven Rivas 9 Lamar Sparks		Manager  5 Pete Incaviglia Coaches 14 Brooks Carey (bench) 22 Billy Horn (pitching) 13 Rudy Jaramillo (hitting)    Jacob Popoff (clubhouse manager)    Arturo Valles (trainer) Disabled list ‡ Inactive list § Suspended list Roster updated May 8, 2025 Transactions

Notable alumni

• Mitch Glasser (2017)
• Shawn Zarraga (2017)
• Winston Abreu (2017)
• Preston Palmeiro (2018)
• Ryan Brett (2019)
• Nefi Ogando (2019)
• Daniel Robertson (2019)
• Bubby Rossman (2019)
• Ozzie Martínez (2021)
• Logan Verrett (2021)
• Jacob Rhame (2021)
• D. J. Peterson (2021)
• Michael Mariot (2021, 2023)
• Nick Gardewine (2021–2023)
• Nick Shumpert (2022)
• Héctor Sánchez (2022)
• Hunter Cervenka (2022)
• Kevin McCarthy (2022)
• Josh Lucas (2022)
• Zac Reininger (2022)
• Wyatt Mathisen (2022)
• Riley Smith (2023)
• Delino DeShields Jr. (2023)
• Bret Boswell (2023–present)
• Chris Muller (2024–present)
• Brian O'Grady (2024–present)
• Thomas Dillard (2024–present)
• Shed Long Jr. (2024–present)
• Trent Giambrone (2024)
• Seth Romero (2024)
• Beau Burrows (2024–present)
• Caleb Smith (2024–present)

Further reading

• Cleburne Baseball: A Railroader History by Scott Cain^[11]