 After the Eastern League's Allentown Red Sox played their final season in 1960, the city was without pro ball until the Allentown Ambassadors of the independent Northeast League arrived in 1997.However, dwindling attendance (hurt by increasingly poor on-field performance) led to owner Peter Karoly to fold the team shortly before the 2004 season; the franchise wound up as a travel team for a year (as the Northeast League Aces) before becoming the Worcester Tornadoes in 2005.Over its six seasons, twenty-one MLB players played for or managed the Ambassadors, including Ed Ott, Luis Andujar, Kim Batiste, Scott Bullett, Brian Drahman, Angelo Encarnacion, Mike Figga, Jason McDonald, Darryl Motley, and Brad Pennington.