Tombstone
Born: 1977
Moved: 1997 (West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx)
First Game: April 15, 1978 (W 4-2 vs. Nashville Sounds)
Last Game: September 1, 1997 (W 3-0 @ Chattanooga Lookouts)
Southern League Champions: 1990
Stadium
Tim McCarver Stadium (9,300)11980 Memphis Chicks Program
Opened: 1963
Demolished: 2005
Marketing
Mascot: Blooper (the Hot Pink Creature)
Ownership & Affiliation
Owners:
- 1978-1988: Avron Fogelman
- 1988-1989: Craig Stein & Steve Resnick
- 1989-1992: Mike Nicklous & Richard Addeo
- 1992-1997: David Hersh
Major League Affiliations:
- 1978-1983: Montreal Expos
- 1984-1994: Kansas City Royals
- 1995-1996: San Diego Padres
- 1997: Seattle Mariners
Our Favorite Stuff
Memphis Chicks
Logo T-Shirts
These colorful Memphis Chicks throwback tees recall summer evenings of the 1980’s when future stars like Bo Jackson, Tim Raines and Tim Wallach patrolled the diamond at Tim McCarver Stadium on their way to the Major Leagues.
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Background
The re-hatched Memphis Chicks (1978-1997) were a popular Class AA minor league baseball entry in southwestern Tennessee for two decades. The city’s previous ball club, Memphis Blues, left town amidst financial problems in late 1976, leaving Memphis as the largest American city without pro baseball in 1977.
Memphis real estate developer Avron Fogelman remedied that the following year with his acquisition of a franchise in the Class AA Southern League. Fogelman was a serial sports investor who also held a piece of the Memphis Tams of the American Basketball Association and owned the Memphis Rogues of the North American Soccer League. In 1983, he would become co-owner of the Kansas City Royals and the following summer would see the Royals become the new Major League parent club of the Chicks.
Fogelman was also a passionate collector and sports historian. Upon launching the team in late 1977, he presided over a name change for the city’s baseball stadium from Blues Stadium to Tim McCarver Stadium. The tribute was unusual in that Memphis native McCarver was not only still alive but, at just 35 years old, was still playing Major League Baseball. Born one year apart, Fogelman and McCarver were reportedly Little League teammates in Memphis decades earlier.
The team also adopted the name of Memphis old Southern Association ball club, the Memphis Chicks (1912-1960). McCarver had actually played for the Chicks during their final season in 1960. The original “Chicks” were short for “Chickasaws”, a Native American tribe native to the region. But the new Chicks of 1978 did not seem to claim the expanded Native American identity.
Montreal Expos Years
In their early years, the Chicks were a farm club of the Montreal Expos from 1978 to 1983. The Expos had exceptional minor league talent and future All-Stars such as Tim Raines and Tim Wallach came through town in the late 1970’s. These were also the peak years of Chicks attendance, with over 300,000 fans coming through the turnstiles each summer. The club’s 1980 mark of 322,000 fans was the most for a Memphis team since 1948.
Bo Knows Memphis
In 1983 Chicks owner Avron Fogelman became part-owner of Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals. The following year, the Expos left town and the Chicks became a Royals farm club.
The team’s moment in the national spotlight arrived in 1986 when the Royals signed Auburn’s Heisman Trophy winning running back Bo Jackson to a baseball contract. Jackson started his baseball career with the Chicks and landed the team on the cover of Sports Illustrated in July 1986. Jackson hit .277 with 7 homers and 25 RBIs for the Chicks in 1986 and was in Kansas City by the end of the summer.
Move To Jackson, Tennessee
Fogelman sold the team in 1988 and the team changed hands several times in rapid succession over the next few seasons. The Chicks won their only Southern League championship in 1990. David Hersh, the team’s final owner, purchased the club in 1992. Hersh made an aggressive push for a new ballpark to replace Tim McCarver Stadium, but failed to win over city leaders. Blocked in Memphis, he moved the franchise to Jackson, Tennesee in 1998 where it became the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx.
The Chicks were immediately replaced with a Class AAA expansion team in the Pacific Coast League, the Memphis Redbirds, who began play in 1998. Redbirds owner Dean Jernigan, who operated the club under an unusual not-for-profit model, was able to get the new ballpark built that Hersh could not. $80.5 million AutoZone Park opened in 2000.
Memphis Chicks Shop
Downloads
8-31-1991 Chicks vs. Huntsville Stars Scorecard
8-31-1991 Memphis Chicks vs Huntsville Stars Scorecard
Links
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7 Responses
I like the reference to the 1960 Chicks. The real reason they failed was that their wooden ballpark burned down. (Lesson make ballpark out of concrete metal.) They played in converted football stadium for a while but it didn’t work out. Right field home runs where considered doubles after a few games. Sporting News at the time had some pictures of the fire and the resulting converted ballpark.
I have a 1955 baseball that was used in play at one of the chick’s game with signaturs of players which I have no use for. Where could I give it that a person or organization would want it?
I have a 1949 Memphis Chicks scorecard that appears to have them playing a game against the New York Yankees, maybe an exhibition game(?). I have searched quite a bit but can find no references to any game between the two teams. Does anyone know of this game or where I could find references to it? Thanks!
Hi Clay,
I took a quick cruise through Newspapers.com, which is what we use a lot for research on this site, but didn’t find anything. Not the most thorough search though – it would help if you had a few more search parameters, such as an indication of what month the game was played?
Drew
I remember seeing Michael Jordan and the Birmingham Barons play at Tim McCarver stadium in 1994. He singled and struck out twice. Two things stood out in my mind: 1) the ballpark had a grass infield and an AstroTurf outfield and 2) players were allowed to smoke cigarettes!
It was actually a natural grass outfield and artificial turf infield. This was the brain child if Avron Fogelman because his KC Royals played on artificial turf and wanted his infielders to play on turf.