Tombstone
Born: 1991 – South Atlantic League expansion franchise
Moved: November 1991 (Albany Polecats)
First Game: April 12, 1991 (W 7-5 @ Charleston Rainbows)
Last Game: September 5, 1991 (L 8-1 vs. Greensboro Hornets)
South Atlantic League Championships: None
Stadium
Ownership & Affiliation
Owner: Richard Holtzman
Major League Affiliation: Montreal Expos
Attendance
The Good News: the Sumter Flyers’ 1991 attendance of 45,639 marked a single-season record for the city’s Riley Park, surpassing the mark of 45,290 set by the 1986 Sumter Braves.1McLendon, Kevin. “Records fall in Flyers’ finale”. The Item (Sumter, SC). September 6, 1991
The Bad News: Sumter’s attendance still ranked next to last in the 14-team South Atlantic League in 1991. Sumter bested only Gastonia, North Carolina at the turnstiles.
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Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (1st ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 1993
Background
The Sumter Flyers were a One-Year Wonder in the Class A South Atlantic League. The Flyers arrived in February 1991 several months after Sumter’s previous Sally League club, the Sumter Braves, left town for Macon, Georgia.
The Flyers’ owner Richard Holtzman was a Chicago real estate investor who owned numerous minor league baseball clubs around the country during the late 1980’s and 1990’s. Holtzman originally wanted to place his new club in Montgomery, Alabama, but when that didn’t pan out he fell back on Sumter, South Carolina’s Riley Park for the 1991 season. The Flyers would serve as a farm team for the Montreal Expos.
The Flyers had a record of 64-75 during their only season in Sumter. Twelve Flyers players eventually saw time in the Major Leagues, including – remarkably – nine members of the pitching staff. The best known of the bunch were Rondell White and Shane Andrews, Montreal’s two first round selections in the 1990 Amateur Draft. Andrews eventually played parts of seven seasons in the Majors from 1995 to 2002, including a 25-homer season for the Expos in 1998. White played 15 seasons (1993-2007) and was a National League All-Star selection in 2003.
Move to Georgia
The Flyers drew 45,637 fans to Riley Park in 1991 for an average attendance of 702 per game. Holtzman and team General Manager Scott Skadan told The Sumter Item that the ball club had a bad season financially and lost money. When a sweeter deal became available in Albany, Georgia, Holtzman pulled out of Sumter and moved the team south in November 1991.
The franchise was know as the Albany Polecats from 1992 to 1995. In 1995, Holtzman sold the club to Peter Kirk who moved the ball club to Salisbury, Maryland. The franchise operates there to this day and is now known as the Delmarva Shorebirds.
In Memoriam
Flyers pitcher Kevin Foster, who won 10 games for Sumter in 1991 and later pitched in the Majors, died of renal cancer on October 11, 2008 at age 39.
Links
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One Response
Actually attended a Sumpter Flyers game while down in SC during Labor Day weekened in 1991. (It was during their final homestand ever.) I remember that announced attendance was 407. Definitely brought a program home. But doubtful that I still have it.