New York-Penn League (1981-1987)
Tombstone
Born: 1981 – The Auburn Americans relocate to Erie, PA
Moved: November 13, 1987 (Hamilton Redbirds)1WIRE SERVICE REPORTS. “Franchise for Hamilton”. The Citizen (Ottawa, ON). November 14, 1987
First Game: June 19, 1981 (L 11-3 @ Jamestown Expos)
Last Game: September 3, 1987 (W 3-0, L 4-2 vs. Jamestown Expos)
New York-Penn League Championships: None
Stadium
Ainsworth Field
Opened: 1914
Marketing
Radio:
- 1981-1982: WERG (89.9 FM)
Radio Broadcasters:
- 1981-1982: Len Fatica (Play-by-Play)
Ownership & Affiliation
Owners:
- 1981-1983: Dave Masi and Joe Castelli
- 1984-1987: Fred Alvord and W. Robert Chandler
Major League Affiliation: St. Louis Cardinals
Attendance
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Source: Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball – Third Edition (Durham, NC: Baseball America, 2007). Pages 597-621.
Background
Professional baseball returned to Erie, Pennsylvania after a 14-year absence in the summer of 1981. Beginning in 1976, local businessmen Dave Masi and Joe Castelli worked for five years to secure a franchise for Erie. Their break finally came in the summer of 1980. New York-Penn League President Vince McNamara gave the men an opportunity to operate his league’s rudderless franchise in Auburn, New York. Operating without a Major League affiliation in 1980, their Auburn Americans were a “co-op” club, accepting low-level draftees from the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox.
The arrangement was essentially a quid pro quo. In return for operating a dog in Auburn for one season, Masi and Castelli were essentially guaranteed an Erie franchise for 1981. This was long before the minor league baseball renaissance of the late 1980’s. The Auburn Americans drew 9,474 fans during the entire summer of 1980 – just 250 lonely spectators per game.
At the Dallas winter meetings in late 1980, Masi and Castelli landed an affiliation deal with the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cards agreed to place their short-season single-A farm club in Erie for the 1981 season. The relationship would prove to be unusually enduring. St. Louis stuck with the franchise through numerous name changes and relocations for the next quarter century until 2006.
Move To Ontario & Aftermath
The Cardinals stayed in Erie through the summer of 1987. That November veteran minor league operator Jack Tracz purchased the team and simultaneously moved it to Hamilton, Ontario ahead of the 1988 season. The franchise wound its way through several subsequent purchases and relocations over the decades that followed.
Meanwhile, the New York-Penn League immediately put a new franchise into Erie for the 1988 season – the Erie Orioles. The Orioles (later re-named the Sailors) brought the Ainsworth Field era to an end in 1994. In 1995, 6,000-seat Jerry Uht Park opened and yet another New York-Penn League franchise arrived, the Erie SeaWolves. The modern ballpark facilitated the eventual promotion of the SeaWolves to the Class AA Eastern League in 1999 where they play to this day.
The former Erie Cardinals franchise eventually returned to Pennsylvania as the State College Spikes in 2006. The New-York Penn League ceased to exist in late 2020 following Major League Baseball’s takeover and re-organization of Minor League Baseball. The State College Spikes are now an amateur collegiate team, set to play their first season in the MLB Draft League in 2021.
Erie Cardinals Shop
In Memoriam
Former Erie Cardinals owner Fred Alvord died on May 5th, 1991 at age 54.
Cards team owner/President W. Robert Chandler passed on October 20, 2009 at age 73. Erie Times-News obituary.
Links
New York-Penn League Media Guides
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One Response
I played in 1981. We had T-Shirts that said “I survived the Baseball Strike with the Erie Cardinals” A young man’s dream came true in 1981. Even thought I was only up 4 times 2 for 4 (500%) I had a blast and lived out a dream.
Roger Martin