Richmond Virginians

International League (1954-1964)

Tombstone

Born: 1954 – The Baltimore Orioles relocate to Richmond, VA
Moved: 1965 (Toledo Mud Hens)

First Game: April 20, 1954 (L 4-3 vs. Rochester Red Wings)
Last Game: September 11, 1964 (L 7-6 @ Columbus Jets)

Governors’ Cup Championships: None

Stadium

Parker Field

Ownership & Affiliation

Owners:

1954-1955: Harry Seibold
1956-1958: Richard Reynolds, Jr., Lewis Markel, Dan Friedman, Jack Bernstein, E. Claiborne Robins & Fritz Sitterding, Jr.
1959-1962: New York Yankees
1962-1964: Romeo Champagne

Major League Affiliations:

1954-1955: Independent
1956-1964: New York Yankees

Attendance

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Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (1st ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 1993

Best Seller

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Baseball and Richmond: A History of the Professional Game, 1884-2000
by W. Harrison Daniel & Scott P. Mayer

Background

The Richmond Virginians were a hard-luck Class AAA minor league team in the International League from 1954 until 1964. The ball club came into being thanks to a chain reaction of franchise relocations and sales that started with the move of American League’s St. Louis Browns to Baltimore, Maryland in late 1963.

The arrival of Major League Baseball in Baltimore displaced the city’s minor league club, the Orioles of the International League. The Orioles moved south the Richmond, but the Virginia capital already had a bush league club – the Richmond Colts of the lower-level Piedmont League. Colts owner Eddie Mooers sold his franchise to Harry Seibold in December 1963. Seibold simultaneously acquired rights to join the International League, contingent upon provision of a suitable ballpark for Class AAA baseball. Richmond’s Parker Field was upgraded during the winter of 1953-54 to became the home of the city’s new triple-A ball club – the Richmond Virginians.

1954-1955: Early Struggles & IRS Seizure

The Virginians first two seasons were rough. The team had no Major League parent club in 1954 and 1955 and lacked badly for talent. Future Hall-of-Famer Luke Appling managed the club, which finished 7th in 1954 and 8th in 1955. Owner Harry Siebold took a financial beating and lost the ball club to an IRS seizure for back taxes in the fall of 1955. The team was sold in a tax auction to a consortium of local businessmen for $20,000 that November.

New York Yankees Partnership

The new management struck a deal to become a farm club of the New York Yankees. The Vees’ on-field fortunes improved. The team had a winning season in 1957 – something that happened only twice in the club’s 11-year existence. In 1959, the Vees made it to the Governors’ Cup championship series but lost to the Havana Sugar Kings.

The Vees went into a permanent state of decline in the 1960’s. Attendance bottomed out in 1962 at 101,853 fans, down 60% from the franchise’s 1957 peak. The New York Yankees, who took over direct ownership of the club in 1959, sold it off to a New Hampshire grocery store baron with the delightful name of Romeo Champagne. Champagne operated the club for two more cellar-dwelling campaigns in 1963 and 1964 and then sold it off at the 1964 Baseball Winter Meetings to new owners who moved the team to Toledo, Ohio.

Move to Toledo

The former Virginians franchise is still active today in the International League as the Toledo Mud Hens.

After a summer without baseball in 1965, the International League returned to Richmond in the 1966 with the arrival of the Richmond Braves (1966-2008).