New York-Penn League (1968-1979)
Tombstone
Born: 1968
Died: 1979
First Game: June 22, 1968 (L 9-7 @ Geneva Senators)
Last Game: August 30, 1979 (L 6-3 vs. Geneva Cubs)
New York-Penn League Champions: 1975
Stadium
Ownership & Affiliation
Owners:
- ????-1978: Newark-Wayne Community Baseball, Inc.
- 1979: Lou Haneles & Mal Fichman
Sale (1979): $1.00 (Newark-Wayne Community Baseball to Haneles & Fichman)11Fleisher, Mark. “Unfounded Rumor”. The Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY). January 13, 1979 [/mfn]
Major League Affiliations:
- 1968-1969: Seattle Pilots
- 1970-1978: Milwaukee Brewers
- 1979: Independent
Attendance
Background
When this scorebook (top right) showed up in the mail this week, I assumed it was from Newark, the hardscrabble New Jersey city across the Hudson from Manhattan. But upon further review, it turns out that this program is from the small town of Newark in Western New York (pop. 9,500) which hosted New York-Penn League baseball from the end of the 1960’s until the late 1980’s.
The ball club owed its unusual name to its original Major League parent club, the Seattle Pilots. The Pilots, a doomed American League expansion club, lasted for only one season in 1969. But the Co-Pilots actually began play a year earlier and were the only ball club active in the nascent Seattle Pilots farm system during the summer of 1968.2Ross, Charley. “Wayne County Welcomes Class A Baseball Tonight.” The Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY). June 25, 1968
After the Pilots relocated to Wisconsin in 1970 and became the Milwaukee Brewers, the Co-Pilots retained the now obsolete name for another decade, mostly as a Brewers farm club.
The Co-Pilots played at Colburn Park, a no-frills 2,000-seater with wooden bleachers. Looking at photos today, it’s almost inconceivable that this was a pro ballpark.
Notable Names
The NY-Penn League operates near the bottom of Major League Baseball’s developmental ladder. Most of the Co-Pilots players were teenagers straight out of high school. Only a tiny number among the men who toiled for the Co-Pilots during the 1970’s ever saw time in the Major Leagues. Still, the Brewers developed a number of future stars in Newark who contributed to Milwaukee’s strong clubs of the early 1980’s, including:
- Robin Yount (Co-Pilots ’73)
- Jim Gantner (Co-Pilots ’74)
- Moose Haas (Co-Pilots ’74)
The End
After the 1978 season, the Brewers pulled out. A Florida-based duo, Lou Haneles and Mal Fichman, bought the Co-Pilots from Newark-Wayne Community Baseball, Inc. for the sum of $1.00 in January 1979.3Fleisher, Mark. “Unfounded Rumor”. The Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY). January 13, 1979
Operating without a Major League parent club in 1979, Haneles and Fichman ran an ad in The Sporting News that winter that read “Play Pro Baseball in 1979”. The pair cobbled together a roster of cast-offs and broken toys that managed a respectable 32-39 record in the summer of 1979. No player on the 1979 independent squad ever appeared in the Major Leagues. The Co-Pilots disbanded after the 1979 season.
The New York-Penn League returned to Colburn Park in the mid-1980’s with the Newark Orioles (1983-1987).
Newark Co-Pilots Shop
Links
New York Penn-League Media Guides
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4 Responses
Apparently, the failure of the Co-Pilots didn’t totally dampen the NYPL’s enthusiasm for having a team in a dying Upstate town of 9,000…the Orioles were back in there 1983-1987.
I was fortunate to play in what you decribe as a crummy little ball park in 1972 and again briefly in 1973 at which time I was given my unconditional release to open up the roster for Robin Yount who had held out prior to signing and reporting to Newark.I have both pleasant and unpleasant memories of my time in Newark and as a Co-Pilot.I would never refer to Colburn Park as crummy,quaint perhaps with large mosquito’s hovering about in the thick muggy nights of my youth.I briefly lived my childhood dream in Newark,NY.
Thank you for this. It always nice when someone speaks kindly of your hometown. I was born and grew up in Newark. So many fond memories of attending Co-Piolot games with my dad as a kid. The players were bigger than life as far as we were concerned.
I was the groundskeeper at Colburn Park from 1970 thru 1975 and your description of Colburn Park is perhaps fitting, but I was never concerned about bad hops in the wooden bleachers. The playing field was as good as there was in the NY-Penn at that time, due primarily to the grounds crew’s hard work and attention to detail. The facilities may not have been been much, but I did not have much control over that. Our grounds crew transformed Colburn park every night in the 30 minutes we had before game time. At game time, the playing field was impeccable, and many times was praised by visiting players and managers. Home plate was smooth and hard and the batters boxes held up all game. The mound was perfect and the infield was smooth and well watered, maybe a bit hard as Robin Yount would constantly tell me. Times were different then. Players made $600 a month and lived with families in the community. The original uniforms for the Co Pilots were worn from 1969 thru 1975 at least. Now 8th grade travel teams get 2 or 3 uniforms a year. I remember Mike Duncan, and I agree with him that there were probably many good times and bad for a rookie in minor league baseball in 1972, but I bet when he was called to the mound at Colburn Park, there wasn’t a big hole in front of the rubber.