The Mahoning Valley Scrappers are a collegiate summer baseball team of the MLB Draft League. They are located in Niles, Ohio, a city in the valley of the Mahoning River and play their home games at 7 17 Credit Union Field at Eastwood. From 1999 to 2020, they were a Minor League Baseball team that played as members of the New YorkâÂÂPenn League. The club was the Class A Short Season affiliate of the Cleveland Indians from its inception until Major League Baseball's reorganization of the minors following the 2020 season.
In 2004, the Scrappers won the New YorkâÂÂPenn League championship.
From the team's conception in 1999, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers were affiliated with the Cleveland Indians as their Class A Short Season team, until 2020 when as part of a series of cuts to many Minor League teams, they were terminated from Minor League Baseball. In 2021, they were assigned to the MLB Draft League where they continue to play to this day.
The Youngstown, Ohio radio station WBBW (1240 AM) originally broadcast Scrappers games from 1999 to 2001 with John Batcho calling the games. In 2002, WNIO (1390 AM) took over broadcasting Scrappers games from 2002 to 2009. Mike Pilch called their games in 2006 and 2007 while the broadcasts right were with Clear Channel. WHTX (1570 AM) took over in 2010, followed by WHKZ (1440 AM The Word) broadcast Scrappers games in 2013, both radio stations from Warren, Ohio. Austin Pollack was named the play-by-play broadcaster in January 2015. Pollack will broadcast all 76 games for the Scrappers. In 2015, the Scrappers switched back to WBBW (Sportsradio 1240 AM). All of the games were carried live. From 2021 until 2022, local sports broadcasting network Your Sports Network, commonly referred to as YSNn began broadcasting Scrappers games on their website. Ron Potesta covered play by play duties in 2021 before Richie Juliano assumed the responsibilities of the "Voice of the Scrappers" in 2022.
Former Channel 27 news anchor Robb Schmidt, is the current P.A. announcer. Schmidt took over the position from John Brown, who was a communications student at Youngstown State University and served as announcer in 2009 and 2010. Brown replaced current Cleveland Indians announcer Ryan Pritt.