One Town, One Team, One Pennant
Rob McLean
Century", has written another fascinating book: "Minor League
Baseball Towns of Michigan". It's a great book whether you're
from Michigan (like me) or not (well, nobody's perfect).
One of the towns is Ypsilanti, MI, home of my alma mater,
Eastern Michigan University. Ypsi had only one pro team, for one
year: an unnamed franchise in the Class D Border League in 1913.
Actually, calling the BL a full-fledged professional league was a
bit of a stretch; the were part of the National Association, but
were really a semi-pro "trolley league", connecting the southeast
Michigan town of Mt. Clemens, Pontiac, Wyandotte and Port Huron,
plus Windsor, Ontario. Ypsi joined the BL as its sixth member in
1913.
And they won the pennant, with a 24-10 record. (Talk about
"short season" leagues; the BL only played on weekends and
holidays!) The cobbled-together lineup featured batting champion
Jack Shafer (.395) and pitcher Ralph Bell, who fashioned a
perfect 6-0 mark. The BL folded after the season, and the good
people of Ypsilanti have never had another pro baseball team
since. (There was talk of placing an Ypsi franchise in the
now-defunct independent North Central League in 1995, but no
dice.)
Now. This set me to thinking: how many cities have featured
only one team, for one season, that won a championship? What
towns have won the only pennant race they were ever in?
After six months of on and off (mostly off) research with my
Minor League Encyclopedia (for Ruth's sake, buy this book now!),
here's what I came up with:
*There have been 273 cities in the US and Canada that
featured professional baseball for just one season: "onlies".
(This includes six cities that shared a total of three teams,
such as New Rockford-Carrington, ND; these are called "double
onlies". These teams represented two cities at once; they are not
to be confused with teams that represented more than one town due
to franchise shifts in mid-season.)
*Many of these "only" towns didn't even get the team for the
whole season, such as Holton, KS of the Eastern Kansas League of
1913 (the team moved to Blue Rapids mid-season), and the
wonderfully named Cap de Madeleine (Quebec) Madcaps of the 1922
Eastern Canada League, who had shifted from Valleyfield. And then
there were "parked" franchises, such as the Fort Arthur (TX) team
of the 1932 Cotton States League. They moved to DeQuincy, LA,
where they went 2-12, then moved again to Opelousas, TX, before
the team and league expired. This was DeQuincy's only pro
baseball team.
At the least the good people of DeQuincy got to see their
team play; the year before, Corpus Christi of the Rio Grand
Valley "moved" to the tiny south Texas town of LaFeria.
Apparently LaFeria had no suitable ballpark, so the team's "home"
games were actually played in nearby Harlingen. (It's not known
how many LaFerians made the journey to see "their" team in
action.)
*Seventeen "only" teams won a half-championship and/or
qualified for the league playoffs without winning it all:
FIRST HALF CHAMPIONS: Clarksville, TX (North Texas, '05;
league folded); Red Deer, Alberta (Western Canada, '12); and
Surrey, British Columbia (Western, '95).
SECOND HALF CHAMPIONS: Charlottesville, VA (VA Mtn,, '14;
league folded); Flandreau, SD (IA/SD, '02; they could not keep
their team together for a playoff); Russellville, AL (AL/TN,
'21); and (Steubensville)-Follansbee, OH (OH/PA, '12; they also
could not field a team for the playoffs.) Note: Steubensville had
teams in other seasons; Follansbee is the "only". The OPL itself
was also confusing, for reasons that would take too long to
recount here!
MADE PLAYOFFS: (Andalusia)-Opp, AL (AL/FL, '54); Hollywood,
FL (FL East Coast, '40); Leesville, LA (Gulf Coast, '50; began
season in Lufkin); Monahans, TX (West TX/NM, '37); Ontario, CA
(Sunset, '47); Oroville, CA (Far West, '48); Refugio and Taft, TX
(both TX Valley, '38); Russellville, AL (AL/TN '21; remember this
one); Seguin, TX (Gulf States, '76); and Thomson, GA (Gulf
States, '56). All of these teams lost.
*Eleven "onlies" have been in first place when their league
disbanded: Berrien Springs, MI (IN/MI, '10; a special case, since
all six teams in this league were "onlies"!); Brookfield, MO (MO
State, '11; began season in Sedalia); Chaska Valley, MN (North
Central, '95); Fredericton, New Brunswick (NB/Maine, '13);
Frostburg, MD (Potomac, '16); Bill Clinton's hometown of Hope, AR
(North TX, '05; began season in Paris); Lewiston-Auburn, ME
(Northeast, '19; a "double only" which actually had two separate
franchises in this league: one which began the season and folded,
and another which moved from Lowell, MA); Oakdale, LA (LA State,
'20); Redondo Beach, CA (Southern CA Trolley(!), '10); Rosamond,
CA (Golden State, '95); and Staunton, IL (Eastern IL, '08;
started season in Danville). Whew.
*Which brings us, finally, to the eight teams (representing
nine "only" towns) that have won a full-season professional
baseball championship in their only season their town had a pro
team. All played in Class D leagues, the lowest rung on the
Organized baseball ladder. They are:
*Albany-[Decatur] (Alabama) Twins (Alabama/Tennesee, 1921).
Decatur had teams before and since, but this was Albany's only
team ever. They finished first with a 50-39 record, then beat
Russellville , five games to one. Yes, that's the same
Russellville mentioned above; the final series is (I think) the
only championship playoff between two "onlies" in history.
*Angier-Fuquay Springs (North Carolina) Bulls (Tobacco State,
1946). The TSL was one of many "textile" (semipro) leagues that
joined the National Association after World War II. The Bulls
didn't exactly overwhelm the six-team circuit, in fact they
finished a poor fourth at 57-62. But they beat first-place
Sanford four games to two, then knocked off Clinton in seven
games for the title. The TSL had eight teams in '47, but A-FS
wasn't one of them; the franchise was shifted to Warsaw, NC in
1948.
*Atlantic (Iowa) [unnnamed] (Southwest Iowa, 1903). This is
really a special case; Atlantic won the second-half title and had
the league's best overall record (34-26), but there was no
playoff because first-half winner Shenendoah had folded. The SIL
itself, howver, apparently played out its schedule, which would
have made Atlantic unofficial champions. Only two other teams,
Clarinda and Red Oak, survived until the end.
*Brattleboro (Vermont) Islanders (Twin States, 1911). Like
the Indiana-Michigan League the year before, the TSL was an
"all-only" league; they had four teams, and five cities, that
never hosted pro ball before or would again. (The others: Bellows
Falls [VT], Keene [NH], and Springfield [VT]-Charlestown [NH]).
Somebody had to win, and the Islanders did with a 22-14 record.
*Coudersport (Penn.) Giants (Interstate, 1905). A thrilling
pennant race saw the Giants (59-38) edging out the Erie Fishermen
by a single game. The Giants either died or moved the following
year, perhaps to Punxsutawney (that's right, the place with the
ground hog) in 1906. The Punxsutawney Policemen (!) finished
second to Erie in '06, eight games out.
*Ridgway (Penn.) [no name] (Interstae, 1916). There have been
five different Interstate Leagues; this one played for seven
seasons, from 1905-08 and 1914-16. They're the only league with
two "only" champions. Who were these guys? Nobody knows anything
about them, not even their nickname, but they cruised to a 56-24
record and the final ISL pennant.
*Rockingham (North Carolina) Eagles (Tobacco State, 1950).
Since the first TSL title was won by an "only", it's fitting
their last one should've been won by another "only". Like
Angier-Fuqay Springs, Rockingham finished under .500 (63-69) and
in fourth place, 27 1/2 games back of Lumberton -- who the Eagles
promptly dispatched, four games to two, in the semifinals. They
met the Sanford Spinners (who lost to Angier-Fuqay Springs in the
TSL playoffs four years earlier) and defeated them in a thrilling
seven-game series. The Tobocco State League was one of eight
minor-league circuits to disband after the 1950 season; seven
more died a year later. The fifty-nine minor leagues that existed
in 1948 were shorn to just twenty-one by the end of the fifties.
The boom had gone bust.
Well, there you have it. (And that's enough!)
--RMc
zene...@wwa.com
thing I think of is "One Bourbon, One Scotch, and One Beer"?
We could make that song with your line, I think..."The ballpark landlord
came and said, you got the rent...I said, no, I ain't got the rent...he
said, well then you ain't got no ballpark....heh. But I got...one town,
one team, and one pennant..."
On the subject of your post, I had a neat brush with an old low-minors
town some years ago. I found in a record book where the biggest dimensions
of any minor league park ever were in Leeman, VA (in the SW corner of the
state) in a 1940s league: 1200 feet to center, 900 down one line, 600 down
the other. My dad and I were in the general vacinity on a trip once, so we
set out to find the place. Sure enough it was still there as a big empty
field overgrown with weeds in the vast outfield. We met an old man whose
grandfather was the groundskeeper for the park back when they played
there.
What a game.
Jeff C.
Don Malcolm
> Interesting stuff, but why is it when I read the subject line, the first
> thing I think of is "One Bourbon, One Scotch, and One Beer"?
>
> We could make that song with your line, I think..."The ballpark landlord
> came and said, you got the rent...I said, no, I ain't got the rent...he
> said, well then you ain't got no ballpark....heh. But I got...one town,
> one team, and one pennant..."
Quick, now--how many out there know who sang this song? First
person to email me the correct answer (sorry, Jeff, you're not
eligible) gets a free copy of BBBA 99...
John Carter
I'll supply my address on request :)
John Carter
Don Malcolm wrote in message <36D11A...@backatcha.com>...
Rob McLean
zene...@wwa.com wrote:
> Interesting stuff, but why is it when I read the subject line, the first
> thing I think of is "One Bourbon, One Scotch, and One Beer"?
Try to stay sober, guy, this is serious business...;)
> We could make that song with your line, I think..."The ballpark landlord
> came and said, you got the rent...I said, no, I ain't got the rent...he
> said, well then you ain't got no ballpark....heh. But I got...one town,
> one team, and one pennant..."
Maybe Terry "Talkin' Baseball" Cashman could record it?
> On the subject of your post, I had a neat brush with an old low-minors
> town some years ago. I found in a record book where the biggest dimensions
> of any minor league park ever were in Leeman, VA (in the SW corner of the
> state) in a 1940s league: 1200 feet to center, 900 down one line, 600 down
> the other. My dad and I were in the general vacinity on a trip once, so we
> set out to find the place. Sure enough it was still there as a big empty
> field overgrown with weeds in the vast outfield. We met an old man whose
> grandfather was the groundskeeper for the park back when they played
> there.
I can't find "Leeman, Viginia" (or any similar name) in my Minor League
Encyclopedia...perhaps they played in a semi-pro or "outlaw" league? (I guess
they'd have to, with dimensions like *that*...!)
--RMc