The Las Vegas 51s explained: the 1983 Stars, the alien logo, the Dodgers, Blue Jays and Mets years at Cashman Field, the Aviators rebrand and the A's era.
Quick answer: The Las Vegas 51s were the city's Triple-A baseball team from 2001 through 2018, named for the Area 51 base and known for an alien logo. The franchise began in 1983 as the Las Vegas Stars, played at Cashman Field, and became the Las Vegas Aviators, the A's top farm club, in 2019.
Long before anyone talked about a big-league ballpark on the Strip, Las Vegas already had professional baseball. One franchise has carried it since 1983, under three names, with five major league parents and two home ballparks. If you are a newer Vegas fan trying to place the 51s, or an old Cashman Field regular who wants the dates straight, this is the whole story, checked against Baseball-Reference and the team's own history.
What Were the Las Vegas 51s?
The 51s were the 2001 to 2018 version of Las Vegas's Pacific Coast League franchise, one level below the majors. They played downtown at Cashman Field and served as the top farm club for three different MLB teams over 18 seasons. The quick version of the franchise's life in Las Vegas:
- 1983 to 2000: Las Vegas Stars, Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, at Cashman Field.
- 2001 to 2018: Las Vegas 51s, affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers, then the Toronto Blue Jays, then the New York Mets, still at Cashman Field.
- 2019 to today: Las Vegas Aviators, Triple-A affiliate of the Athletics, at Las Vegas Ballpark in Downtown Summerlin.
Same franchise, same league, same city. Only the name, the parent club and, eventually, the ballpark changed.
How Did Pro Baseball Start in Las Vegas?
According to the Aviators' official franchise history, it started on April 1, 1983, when 13,878 fans packed Cashman Field for a Major League exhibition between the Seattle Mariners and the San Diego Padres. Nine days later, on April 10, 1983, the Las Vegas Stars played their first Pacific Coast League game there in front of 10,622 fans and beat Salt Lake City, 11-8.
That first team was good right away. The 1983 Stars went 83-60 under Harry Dunlop and Bob Cluck, per the Baseball-Reference 1983 team page, and outfielder Kevin McReynolds was the PCL's Most Valuable Player. The club later went into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame.
The titles came fast, too. Las Vegas won the PCL championship in 1986 under Larry Bowa, beating the Vancouver Canadians three games to two, and again in 1988 under Steve Smith, beating Vancouver three games to one. Over 18 seasons as a Padres affiliate, the Stars went 1,227-1,329 in the regular season.
Why Were They Called the 51s?
The name changed when the parent club did. After the 2000 season, Las Vegas signed a player development agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Stars became the Las Vegas 51s for 2001. The team's own history says the alien-themed name and logo paid homage to "Area 51," the semi-secret government base out in the Nevada desert. Baseball-Reference's team encyclopedia describes the logo as an alien over the number 51.
It was a very Las Vegas move. Most minor league names nod to local industry, wildlife or history. The 51s leaned into the one piece of Nevada lore that people across the country already knew, and the alien stuck around for 18 seasons and three parent clubs.
Which MLB Teams Were the 51s Affiliated With?
wer: The Las Vegas 51s were the city's Triple-A baseball team from 2001 through 2018, named for the Area 51 base and known for an alien logo.
Counting the Stars and the Aviators, the franchise has had five major league parents. The regular-season records below come from Baseball-Reference's year-by-year Las Vegas team pages, and they match the totals in the team's official history.
| Years | Team name | MLB parent | Regular-season record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 to 2000 | Las Vegas Stars | San Diego Padres | 1,227-1,329 |
| 2001 to 2008 | Las Vegas 51s | Los Angeles Dodgers | 561-586 |
| 2009 to 2012 | Las Vegas 51s | Toronto Blue Jays | 287-288 |
| 2013 to 2018 | Las Vegas 51s | New York Mets | 436-422 |
| 2019 to today | Las Vegas Aviators | Athletics | Ongoing |
A few highlights from the 51s years:
- Dodgers (2001 to 2008): the 2002 team went 85-59, the best record in franchise history at the time, and reached the PCL playoffs. It was the only playoff trip of the Dodgers era.
- Blue Jays (2009 to 2012): four seasons, almost exactly .500, with catcher J.P. Arencibia winning PCL MVP in 2010.
- Mets (2013 to 2018): back-to-back division titles in 2013 and 2014, both at 81-63, with first-round playoff exits each year. When the Mets reached the 2015 World Series, the team's history counts 11 players on that World Series roster who had played in Las Vegas between 2013 and 2015.
What Was Cashman Field Like?
Cashman Field, near Downtown Las Vegas, was home for 36 seasons, from the Stars' first game in 1983 through the 51s' last in 2018. It had a reputation as a hitter-friendly park, which is why the official history treats its two no-hitters as milestones: Tim Worrell threw the first on September 5, 1992, against the Phoenix Firebirds, and Lindsay Gulin no-hit Tacoma on June 13, 2003.
The park also had its big nights. It hosted the Triple-A All-Star Game on July 11, 1990, and Las Vegas fans saw plenty of big-league names come through on rehab assignments. During the Dodgers years alone, the team's history lists Kevin Brown, Hideo Nomo, Jayson Werth, Rafael Furcal, Nomar Garciaparra and Andruw Jones among them.
Which Famous Players Played for the Stars and 51s?
A lot of future stars passed through Las Vegas. Every name below appears on that season's Las Vegas roster on Baseball-Reference.
Las Vegas Stars (Padres era)
- Tony Gwynn is on the 1983 Stars roster. The team's history lists his time in Las Vegas as a rehab assignment.
- Kevin McReynolds was the 1983 PCL MVP.
- Ozzie Guillen and John Kruk were on the 1984 team.
- Benito Santiago played for the 1986 champions.
- Roberto Alomar and Sandy Alomar Jr. were teammates on the 1988 champions. Sandy was PCL MVP in both 1988 and 1989.
- Carlos Baerga and Andy Benes played for the 1989 Stars.
- Bruce Bochy played for the Stars in 1983, 1984 and 1988. He later managed the Giants to World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014 and the Rangers to the 2023 title.
Las Vegas 51s (Dodgers, Blue Jays and Mets eras)
- 2001: Adrian Beltre, Paul Lo Duca and Eric Gagne.
- 2006: Matt Kemp, Russell Martin, Andre Ethier, James Loney, Chad Billingsley and Jonathan Broxton. Loney won the PCL batting title that year.
- 2009 to 2012: J.P. Arencibia, Travis Snider, Edwin Encarnacion and Brett Lawrie, plus Vladimir Guerrero and Jamie Moyer late in their careers in 2012.
- 2013 to 2015: Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, Brandon Nimmo and Seth Lugo.
- 2018: Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil, the year before Alonso won NL Rookie of the Year.
Why Did the 51s Become the Las Vegas Aviators?
Three changes landed in one offseason. First, the parent club left: after the 2017 season the Mets bought the Triple-A Syracuse franchise, which meant Las Vegas needed a new partner for 2019. The 51s reached an agreement with the Oakland Athletics on September 17, 2018.
Second, the name went. On December 8, 2018, the 51s officially became the Aviators, a name the team says pays tribute to Howard R. Hughes Jr. and his aviation firsts. Third, the team left Cashman Field for a brand-new ballpark in Downtown Summerlin.
Las Vegas Ballpark opened on April 9, 2019. Chris Bassitt threw the first pitch, and the Aviators beat Sacramento 10-2 in front of a sellout crowd of 11,036, per the team's ballpark firsts page. The park has roughly 8,200 fixed seats plus berm seating, party decks and a pool beyond the outfield wall. That first season, the Aviators led all of Minor League Baseball with 650,934 fans.
One naming note: "Las Vegas Ballpark" is the Aviators' Summerlin park. It is not the A's domed stadium going up on the Strip, which we cover on our A's Las Vegas ballpark page.
How Have the Aviators Done as the A's Triple-A Team?
The A's era has produced the franchise's best stretch since the 1980s:
- 2019: 83-57, a franchise record .593 winning percentage, and a division title.
- 2020: no minor league season.
- 2021: the league played that season as Triple-A West before the Pacific Coast League name returned in 2022.
- 2025: PCL champions, the franchise's first league title since 1988. They swept Tacoma in the final, then lost the Triple-A National Championship Game to Jacksonville, 8-7.
- 2026: 87-61 in the regular season and a first-half PCL title. They lost the PCL final to the Oklahoma City Comets in a deciding Game 3, 5-2, and Las Vegas Ballpark then hosted the Triple-A National Championship Game, as the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
The roster has been a pipeline to Oakland, Sacramento and soon Las Vegas. The 2019 Aviators included Matt Olson, Sean Murphy, Jesus Luzardo and Mark Canha. More recent Aviators include Zack Gelof, Lawrence Butler, Tyler Soderstrom and Jacob Wilson in 2024 and Nick Kurtz in 2025. In 2026, the Review-Journal noted that top prospects Henry Bolte, Gage Jump, Tommy White and Joshua Kuroda-Grauer all graduated from Las Vegas to the big leagues.
What Does the A's Move Mean for Las Vegas Minor League Baseball?
For the first time, the franchise that started as the Stars will share its city with its own major league parent. The Athletics' ballpark experience site says the Strip stadium is opening in 2028, and the A's already got a preview in Summerlin: they played six regular-season home games at Las Vegas Ballpark in June 2026, three against Milwaukee and three against Colorado, according to the MLB schedule.
The question every Aviators fan asks next is whether the Triple-A team stays once the A's arrive. We track that in detail, including what has been reported about the Aviators staying in Summerlin and what is still undecided, in what happens to the Las Vegas Aviators when the A's arrive.
The bigger point is continuity. The alien logo is gone and Cashman Field no longer hosts the team, but the line from the 1983 Stars to the 2028 A's runs through one franchise. Some of the players who wore 51s or Aviators jerseys will be the ones Las Vegas cheers for on the Strip.
Sources
- Baseball-Reference, Las Vegas, Nevada minor league team encyclopedia (season records, leagues and affiliations, 1983 to 2026) and team pages for 1983, 1988, 2001, 2018 and 2019 (rosters and attendance)
- Baseball-Reference BR Bullpen, Las Vegas 51s and Las Vegas Stars (logo description, managers)
- Baseball-Reference, Bruce Bochy managerial record
- Las Vegas Aviators on MiLB.com, franchise history, playoff results, Las Vegas Ballpark firsts and ballpark facts, checked October 16, 2026
- Las Vegas Review-Journal, 2026 PCL Championship Series Game 3 and Triple-A National Championship Game preview
- Athletics, Ballpark Experience site (2028 opening), checked October 16, 2026
- MLB Stats API schedule, Athletics regular-season games, June 2026 (venue: Las Vegas Ballpark)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why were the Las Vegas 51s called the 51s?
The name and alien logo paid homage to Area 51, the semi-secret government base in the Nevada desert. The Las Vegas Stars took the name in 2001, when the franchise became a Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate.
What are the Las Vegas 51s called now?
They are the Las Vegas Aviators. The 51s officially became the Aviators on December 8, 2018, a name honoring Howard R. Hughes Jr., and started play as the Athletics' Triple-A affiliate in 2019.
Where did the Las Vegas 51s play?
The 51s played at Cashman Field near Downtown Las Vegas, the franchise's home from 1983 through 2018. As the Aviators, the team moved to Las Vegas Ballpark in Downtown Summerlin, which opened April 9, 2019.
Which MLB teams were the Las Vegas 51s affiliated with?
The 51s were the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2001 to 2008, the Toronto Blue Jays from 2009 to 2012 and the New York Mets from 2013 to 2018. The Stars were Padres affiliates before that.
Did Las Vegas ever win a Pacific Coast League title?
Yes, three times. The Las Vegas Stars won PCL titles in 1986 and 1988, and the Las Vegas Aviators won in 2025. The 51s never won one, reaching the playoffs in 2002, 2013 and 2014.
Is Las Vegas Ballpark the same as the A's new stadium?
No. Las Vegas Ballpark is the Aviators' Triple-A park in Downtown Summerlin, opened in 2019. The A's are building a separate domed stadium on the Las Vegas Strip, which the team says opens in 2028.