The history of professional baseball in Allentown, Pennsylvania dates back 138 years, starting with the formation of the Allentown Dukes in 1884 and continuing through the present with its hosting of the Allentown-based Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Triple-A Minor League affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball, who play at Coca-Cola Park on the city's East Side.
Professional baseball premiered in Allentown in 1884, when the Allentown Dukes completed one season in the original Eastern League. Four years later, the city fielded a Central League team, the Allentown Peanuts, which also folded after a season.[ citation needed ]
In the 1890s, a series of baseball clubs emerged in the city. The Allentown Colts played in the Pennsylvania State League from 1892–93. The next year, the team became Kelly's Killers, named for its player-manager, future Hall of Fame member King Kelly. Late in the season, Kelly moved the Eastern League's Binghamton Bingoes here as the Allentown Buffalos. Kelly, the era's most flamboyant figure, died of pneumonia that fall at age 35, and the Buffalos were dissolved.
In 1895, the Allentown Goobers returned to Pennsylvania State League play for one season. In 1898, yet another team was formed, re-using the name the Allentown Peanuts. The Peanuts played for three seasons in the Atlantic League, which succeeded the Pennsylvania State League in 1896. The league and the team were dissolved in 1900. [1] [2]
Over the next two decades, the city saw limited play. In 1908, Allentown hosted a team in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey League, and a Tri-State League club played here from 1912 to 1914. Then, in the 1920s, the name the Allentown Dukes was revived for a semi-professional team that played four seasons (1923–26) at Edgemont Field, a new ballfield at Second and Susquehanna Streets. On September 7, 1923 the Dukes played an exhibition game with the New York Yankees at Edgemont Field. The Dukes tied the score at 7–7 in the eighth inning. In the ninth, Babe Ruth struck out with the bases loaded, and the Dukes scored in the bottom of the inning to win 8–7. [3] [4] The semi-pro team led to the start of an Eastern League team under the same name in 1929. [5] League champions the next year, the team was renamed the Allentown Buffaloes in 1931. At the end of the 1932 season, the league collapsed, and the Buffaloes folded. [6]
In 1935, the city landed its first Major League farm team, when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved their Reading Brooks franchise here just six games into the season. The Allentown Brooks, like the Dukes and Buffaloes, played their home games at the Allentown Fairgrounds. The club, which was in the New York–Pennsylvania League (forerunner of today's Eastern League), finished out the 1936 season, but did not return the next year. [1]
In 1939, the Boston Braves established an Interstate League club, again using the name the Allentown Dukes, and a new park was built on the city's South Side, Fairview Field (now Earl F. Hunsicker Bicentennial Park). The team won the league championship that year. The next year, 1940, the league was upgraded from Class C to B, and the team became the Allentown Fleetwings, a St. Louis Cardinals franchise. The Philadelphia Phillies took over in 1941, playing a season as the Allentown Wings, but the franchise reverted to St. Louis the next year. [7] Renamed the Allentown Cardinals in 1944, the team played at Fairview Field until 1948, when St. Louis Cardinals owner Sam Breadon built a new park. Breadon Field, a steel and concrete stadium that seated 5,000 fans, was located just north of the city in Whitehall Township. [8]
The demise of the Interstate League at the end of the 1952 season resulted in a one-year lull for the franchise. In 1954, the Allentown Cardinals returned as a member of the Class A Eastern League. The team won the league championship in 1955, but had its final season the next year, 1956. Midway through the 1957 season, the Syracuse Chiefs, an unaffiliated Eastern League team, moved to Allentown on July 13 to finish out the season. The Allentown Chiefs were replaced a year later by a Boston Red Sox franchise. The Allentown Red Sox played three seasons at the Whitehall ball park, which was bought by Hess's department store owner Max Hess, Jr., and renamed Max Hess Stadium. When the Red Sox left at the end of the 1960 season, the stadium closed and was demolished in 1964. [9] Today, the site is the home of the Lehigh Valley Mall, which opened in 1976. The ballfield was located near the mall's entrance from MacArthur Road.
In 1997, professional baseball returned to the city with the startup of the Allentown Ambassadors, an independent team that played in the Northeast and Northern leagues. The club, which had its last full season in 2003, was based at Bicentennial Park in South Allentown.
The city unveiled Coca-Cola Park, a $48.4 million, 8,500-seat stadium, in 2008. [10] The stadium was constructed on Allentown's east side to serve as the home field for the Philadelphia Phillies' AAA-level Minor League baseball team, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. The IronPigs, a member of the International League, are the first Major League-affiliated club to play in the city since 1960. [11]
During Summer 2008, the Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum introduced an exhibit, "Play Ball! Baseball in America and the Lehigh Valley," celebrating the history of baseball in Allentown and the surrounding region. [12]
The Eastern League (EL) is a Minor League Baseball (MiLB) sports league that has operated under that name since 1938, with the exception of the 2021 season, during which the league operated under the moniker Double-A Northeast. The league has played at the Double-A level since 1963, and consists primarily of teams located in the Northeastern United States.
The Ottawa Lynx were a Minor League Baseball team that competed in the Triple-A International League (IL) from 1993 to 2007. The team's home field was Lynx Stadium in Ottawa, Ontario. Over 15 seasons, the team was an affiliate of the Montreal Expos (1993–2002), Baltimore Orioles (2003–2006), and Philadelphia Phillies (2007). At the time, it was the only IL franchise in Canada.
Allentown is the county seat of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the third-most populous city in Pennsylvania with a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 census and the most populous city in the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th-most populous metropolitan area in the nation as of 2020.
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The Lehigh Valley is a geographic and metropolitan region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh and Northampton counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bounded to its north by Blue Mountain, to its south by South Mountain, to its west by Lebanon Valley, and to its east by the Delaware River and Warren County, New Jersey. The Lehigh Valley is about 40 miles (64 km) long and 20 miles (32 km) wide. The Lehigh Valley's largest city is Allentown, the third-largest city in Pennsylvania and the county seat of Lehigh County, with a population of 125,845 residents as of the 2020 census.
Curtis Thomas Simmons was an American professional baseball left-handed pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1947 to 1950 and 1952 to 1967. Along with right-hander Robin Roberts, Simmons was one of the twin anchors of the starting rotation of the "Whiz Kids", the Philadelphia Phillies' 1950 National League (NL) championship team. A three-time MLB All-Star, he also played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and California Angels.
Coca-Cola Park is a baseball park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It is the home field for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Triple-A level Minor League Baseball affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Bicentennial Park is a baseball and softball stadium in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The park, originally named after the bicentennial year in which it was renovated, was officially renamed Earl F. Hunsicker Bicentennial Park after Hunsicker's death in 1987; it was renamed ECTB Stadium at Earl F. Hunsicker Bicentennial Park in 2005. ECTB is an acronym for the Elite Championship Tournament Baseball, a youth baseball organization.
The Lehigh Valley IronPigs are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. They are located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and they are named in reference to pig iron, used in the manufacturing of steel, for which the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania is well known. The IronPigs play their home games at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown.
The Allentown Cardinals were a minor league baseball team. Affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals, they played in the Class B Interstate League between 1944 and 1952; then in the Class A Eastern League from 1954 to 1956.
The Allentown Red Sox (A-Sox) were a minor league baseball team, affiliated with the Boston Red Sox and based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, that played from 1958 through 1960 in the Eastern League. At that time, the Eastern League was officially Class A, but, prior to the minor-league classification realignment that took place in 1963, that level was almost equivalent to Double-A.
The Ottawa Voyageurs, previously the Ottawa Rapidz, were a professional baseball team based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada under the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball or Can-Am League.
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Sports in Allentown, Pennsylvania has a rich tradition at all levels, including professional sports, the Olympics, and high school levels. While most Allentown residents support professional sports teams in New York City or Philadelphia, Allentown itself also is home to two major professional sports teams, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Triple A team of the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball, and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League, the primary development team of the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Lehigh Valley Multi-Purpose Sport Complex was a partially built, 6,400-seat stadium that was slated to be built in Williams Township, Pennsylvania, near Easton. The stadium was never completed, and the partially constructed building was demolished in 2005.
Breadon Field was a minor league ballpark in Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania, located on the east side of MacArthur Road, about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) north of the U.S. Route 22 interchange outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania.
The St. Louis Cardinals, a professional baseball franchise based in St. Louis, Missouri, compete in the National League (NL) of Major League Baseball (MLB). After decades of early futility in the National League, St. Louis baseball encountered a renaissance with 11 World Series titles and 18 National League pennants since 1926. Sam Breadon's purchase of the majority stake in the club in 1920 spurred this revival; he then assumed the role as team president and assigned the young, enterprising Branch Rickey as his business manager, functioning as a prototype of today's general manager. In his tenure as owner until 1947, Breadon's Cardinals won nine NL pennants and six World Series titles. During this era in Cardinals franchise history, they also totaled 2,898 wins and 2,171 losses in the regular season for a .572 winning percentage.
The Slatington Dukes were a minor league baseball team based in Slatington, Pennsylvania. In 1932, the Dukes played a partial season as members of the Class D level Interstate League, joining the league when the Tamaqua Dukes team relocated from Tamaqua to Slatington during the season, only to have the league fold less than two weeks later. Slatington hosted Dukes' home minor league games at Victory Park.
