Utica Blue Jays

New York-Penn League (1977-1980)

Background

Professional baseball returned to Utica, New York for the first time in 27 years when the Utica Blue Jays arrived in the summer of 1977.  The New York-Penn League expanded from six to ten teams that summer, thanks in part to Major League Baseball’s own expansion, which saw the addition of Seattle and Toronto to the American League.  Utica would serve as a farm club for the new Toronto Blue Jays.

Weirdly, Utica would serve as Toronto’s only farm team during their 1977 expansion season, despite the Class A NY-Penn League being one of the lowest rungs on the Minor League developmental ladder.²CANADIAN PRESS. “Blue Jays affiliate”. The Advocate (Red Deer, AB). September 22, 1977 Toronto added a triple-A farm team at Syracuse in 1978 but wasn’t until 1980 that Toronto finally built out a complete farm system with the addition of a Class AA operation in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Big Birds

The U-Jays original out-of-town owner was 32-year old Fred Nichols of Connecticut, who also owned the Asheville Tourists in North Carolina and the Daytona Beach Islanders in the Florida State League.  Later on, the club passed into the hands of Joe Bellino of New Jersey.

Outfielder Jesse Barfield played for the U-Jays as a 17-year old draftee fresh out of high school in 1977.  Barfield was the lone prospect on the U-Jays of 1977-1980 who went on to star in the Major Leagues.  Barfield was an All-Star for Toronto in 1986, leading the American League in home runs and outfield assists.  He was considered to have one of the best outfield arms of the 1980’s.

Jays To Sox

At the end of the 1980 season Toronto pulled its farm club out of Utica.  Team owner Joe Bellino travelled to the Baseball Winter Meetings searching for a new parent club but was unsuccessful.  Bellino changed the ball club’s name to the Utica Blue Sox, which had been the name of Utica’s Eastern League club from 1944 to 1950, and operated the team as an independent club during 1981.  The Blue Sox would remain a rare independent team for the next five summers under multiple owners, before finally regaining a Major League parent in 1986.

Utica Blue Jays Shop

Links

New York-Penn League Media Guides

New York-Penn League Programs

###