Key West Cubs

Florida State League (1975)

Background

Key West, Florida had a fitful run with minor league baseball during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The southernmost outpost of the U.S. played host to four iterations of a Class A Florida State League franchise in the years 1969 to 1975. The San Diego Padres backed a Key West club in 1969. After a summer without baseball in 1970, the FSL returned to Wicker Stadium in 1971 with the Key West Sun Caps, who became the Key West Conchs in 1972.

The Chicago Cubs became the parent club of the Conchs for the 1974 season and stocked the team with pitching prospects, many of whom would later go on to Major League stardom: Bruce Sutter, Donnie Moore, Mike Krukow and Dennis Lamp.  Nevertheless, the team was terrible and finished dead last at 37-94.

During the winter of 1974-75, the ball club was officially re-branded, dropping the traditional Conchs name in favor of “Key West Cubs”. The change was either ignored or accepted half-heartedly.  The team’s 1975 game program (pictured above) still features several ads exhorting “Go Conchs!” and the club’s local ownership is listed as the Executive Members of the Key West Conchs.  The septuagenarian President of the Key West Cubs ownership group with Dr. Julio DePoo, founder of Key West’s private DePoo Hospital.

Demise

Unlike the 1974 Conchs squad, the roster of the 1975 Key West Cubs featured no big names who went on to make a splash in the Bigs. But the team was much more competitive, finishing the campaign at 65-69.  Meager crowds doomed to club at Wicker Stadium. The team relocated to Pompano Beach prior to the 1976 season and pro baseball has never returned to Key West.

In Memoriam

Key West Cubs manager Walt Dixon passed away on September 25, 2003 at the age of 82.

Catcher Mike Gordon died of leukemia on May 26, 2014 at age 60. Brockton Enterprise obituary.

Links

Florida State League Programs

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