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The Tennessee Smokies are a Minor League Baseball team based in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Area . The team, which plays in the Southern League , is the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball as of Sept. 21, 2006. Smokies Park , the team's ballpark, is located near Sevierville, Tennessee in the town of Kodak, opened in 2000, and seats 6,412 fans. The team's nickname, "Smokies," refers to the Great Smoky Mountains Mountain Range which permiates the region; mountains in the chain are often clouded in a hazy mist that often appears as smoke rising from the forest. Prior to 2005 , the Smokies were the Double-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals and before that the Toronto Blue Jays . However, when the Cardinals purchased the El Paso Diablos , which had been the Arizona Diamondbacks' AA affiliate, the Diamondbacks retained the Smokies as their new AA affiliate. On Sept. 21, the Chicago Cubs reached a two-year player development contract with the Smokies through the 2008 season. Some notable major league baseball players that have played for the Smokies are Roy Halladay , Carlos Delgado , Shawn Green , and Felipe Lopez . The team was based in Knoxville, Tennessee and called the Knoxville Smokies for many years before moving and changing its name in 2000. History Knoxville's first organized baseball franchise, the ''Appalachians,'' played in the original South Atlantic League (Class C) in 1909. The club dropped out of the "Sally League" that season, but - after Knoxville fielded teams in the Class D Southeastern and Appalachian leagues - returned to the South Atlantic loop, now Class B, as the ''Smokies'' from 1925-29. On July 22, 1931, the Mobile Bears franchise of the A1 Southern Association moved to Knoxville and played as the Smokies through July 5, 1944 when the club returned to Mobile. The transfer marked the end of Knoxville's membership in the Southern Association. In 1946, the Smokies joined the Class B Earl Weaver . The Smokies continued in the Sally League through 1963, when it was reclassified Class AA, and were charter members of the Sally's successor, the Southern League, in 1964. Apart from a four-year (1968-71) hiatus, they have continued in the Southern loop ever since. From 1972 to 1979 , the ''Knoxville Knox Sox'' played as the Chicago White Sox 's Double AA club as part of the Southern League . The Smokies were the Toronto Blue Jays 's Double AA club from 1980 to 1999 . From 1980 though 1992 , the team was officially known as the ''Knoxville Blue Jays'', or locally referred to as simply the ''K-Jays''. The ''Smokies'' moniker was reintroduced beginning in the 1993 season. The Smokies played in Bill Meyer Stadium in Knoxville from 1980 to 1999. The stadium was named for Knoxville native son and former Pittsburgh Pirates Manager Billy Meyer . YEAR-BY-YEAR RECORD
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