Delmarva Shorebirds | |||||
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Minor league affiliations | |||||
Class | Single-A (2022–present) | ||||
Previous classes | |||||
League | Carolina League (2022–present) | ||||
Division | North Division | ||||
Previous leagues |
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Major league affiliations | |||||
Team | Baltimore Orioles (1997–present) | ||||
Previous teams | Montreal Expos (1996) | ||||
Minor league titles | |||||
League titles (2) |
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Team data | |||||
Name | Delmarva Shorebirds | ||||
Previous names | Albany Polecats (1992–1995) [1] Sumter Flyers (1991) | ||||
Colors | Black, orange, white | ||||
Ballpark | Arthur W. Perdue Stadium | ||||
Owner(s)/ Operator(s) | 7th Inning Stretch LP | ||||
General manager | Chris Bitters | ||||
Manager | Felipe Alou Jr. |
The Delmarva Shorebirds are a Minor League Baseball team based in Salisbury, Maryland. They are members of the Carolina League and the Single-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. Their home games are played at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium. The Shorebirds were members of the Class A South Atlantic League (SAL) from 1996 to 2020 and the Low-A East in 2021, though this was renamed the Carolina League and reclassified as Single-A in 2022. They won two SAL championships, in 1997 and 2000. Also in 1997, the Shorebirds received Baseball America's Bob Freitas Award for Class A baseball.
Frank Perdue's desire for a professional baseball team based in Maryland's Eastern Shore was the driving force in bringing a franchise to Salisbury. Joining the Maryland Baseball Limited Partnership, owners of the Bowie Baysox and Frederick Keys, set the concept in motion. [2] By Autumn 1995 Maryland Baseball purchased the Albany Polecats from Richard M. Holtzman, relocated the franchise to Salisbury and renamed it the Delmarva Shorebirds. [1] The name "Shorebirds" refers to the marine waterfowl of the Delmarva Peninsula. The team name was chosen by 7-year-old Katie Duffy of Newark, Delaware. [3] The team's geographic appellation is a portmanteau of the states that govern counties on the peninsula: Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia (abbreviated VA).
The Shorebirds' first-ever game at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium was a 4–2 win over the Columbus RedStixx before a crowd of 5,787 on April 17, 1996. After fulfilling its two-year Player Development Contract with the Montreal Expos, it officially became an affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles on September 26, 1996. [2]
The Shorebirds hosted the 2011 South Atlantic League "Strike Out Hunger" All-Star Game on June 21, 2011. [4] The Shorebirds partnered with Perdue Farms, the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore and Delmarva's three food banks: Eastern Shore Branch of the Maryland Food Bank, the Food Bank of Delaware, and the Eastern Shore Branch of the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia; to help "Strike Out Hunger". [5] Perdue and the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore donated $20 to the food banks for each strike out by a Shorebirds pitcher during the Shorebirds 2011 season. [6]
The Kyle Moore-managed Shorebirds in 2019 clinched their first postseason berth since 2005 by winning the SAL Northern Division first-half title with the minors' best midseason record at 48–21. A franchise-best 90–48 finish made them the 14th SAL team since 1980 to reach 90 wins in a regular season and the first since the Augusta GreenJackets in 2006. [7] [8] The season ended when the Shorebirds were swept by the Hickory Crawdads in the best-of-three SAL Northern Division Championship Series. [9]
In conjunction with Major League Baseball's restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the Shorebirds were organized into the Low-A East. [10] In 2022, the Low-A East became known as the Carolina League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization. [11]
The Shorebirds can be found on Fox Sports 960 AM, the Shorebirds' Flagship Station since 2005. [12] Will DeBoer has been the radio voice of the Shorebirds since 2017 [13] but is being replaced for the 2021 season by Sam Jellinek. Former announcers include Randy Scott, Bret Lasky and Brendan Gulick.
Players | Coaches/Other | |||
Pitchers
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Infielders
Outfielders
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7-day injured list |
Salisbury is a city in and the county seat of Wicomico County, Maryland, United States. Salisbury is the largest city in the state's Eastern Shore region, with a population of 33,050 at the 2020 census. Salisbury is the principal city of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is the commercial hub of the Delmarva Peninsula, which was long devoted to agriculture and had a southern culture. It calls itself "The Comfortable Side of Coastal".
The Bowie Baysox are a Minor League Baseball team located in Bowie, Maryland. They are the Double-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, and play in the Eastern League. Their home ballpark is Prince George's Stadium.
The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a part of the U.S. state of Maryland that lies mostly on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay. Nine counties are normally included in the region. The Eastern Shore is part of the larger Delmarva Peninsula that Maryland shares with Delaware and Virginia.
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Arthur W. Perdue Stadium is a baseball stadium in Salisbury, Maryland. It is the home of the Baltimore Orioles Carolina League affiliate Delmarva Shorebirds. Named for the founder of Perdue Farms, Arthur Perdue, it features the Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame. The stadium seats 5,200 fans and opened in 1996.
The Eastern Shore Baseball League was a class D minor league baseball league that operated on the Delmarva Peninsula for parts of three different decades. The league's first season was in 1922 and the last was in 1949, although the years were not consecutive, and featured teams from Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. The first incarnation lasted from 1922 to mid-1928, the second from 1937 to 1941, and the third from 1946 to 1949. Though the level of play was competitive and many future major leaguers gained experience in the ESBL, funding the league remained a constant problem for the rural franchises.
The Salisbury Indians were a United States minor league baseball team which played in Salisbury, Maryland. The team began operation in 1922 as a founding member of the Eastern Shore League, which operated out of cities on the Delmarva Peninsula.
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The Albany Polecats were a minor league baseball team in Albany, Georgia. They were a low-A-class team that played in the South Atlantic League and were a farm team affiliated with both the Montreal Expos and the Baltimore Orioles during the franchise's tenure in Albany. They played all of their home games at the Paul Eames Sports Complex. While at Paul Eames Sports Complex during their tenure, the stadium was dubbed "Polecat Park," even though the venue was officially named after Paul Eames, a minor-league baseball legend. During the team’s four years in the South Atlantic League, the Polecats never finished higher than eighth overall in the fourteen-team league. Subpar performance coupled with poor attendance proved too much to bear for the struggling franchise. Prior the 1996 season, the Albany Polecats were sold and moved north to Salisbury, Maryland, where the franchise became the current-day Delmarva Shorebirds.
Below are select minor league players and the rosters of the minor league affiliates of the Baltimore Orioles:
Arthur W. Perdue (1885–1977) was an American businessman and the founder of Perdue Farms along with his wife Pearl in 1920. The business was started in his backyard, and at the time only produced table eggs from chickens, but eventually grew into a $4.1 billion company.
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