Middle Atlantic League (1947-1950)
Tombstone
Born: 1947 – Re-branded from Oil City Oilers
Folded: 1950
First Game: May 2, 1947 (W 8-4 @ Youngstown Colts)
Last Game: September 17, 1950 (L 5-0 vs. Butler Tigers)
Middle Atlantic League Championships: None
Stadium
Ownership & Affiliation
Major League Affiliation: Chicago White Sox
Owner: Oil City Athletic Club, Inc. (Bror Anderson, et al.)
Attendance
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Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (1st ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 1993
Editor's Pick
The Middle Atlantic League
1925-1952
A Baseball History
By William E. Akin
The small and midsized cities of western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia reached their peaks of population and prosperity in the second quarter of the 20th century. The baseball teams from these towns formed the Middle Atlantic League, a circuit that author William Akin argues was once the strongest in the low minors. This thorough history chronicles the MAL through three distinct phases from its 1925 inaugural season up through its decline and dissolution in 1952 as the country underwent seismic cultural and economic shifts following World War II.
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Background
Oil City, Pennsylvania hosted minor league baseball sporadically at the turn of the 20th century. After a 30-year layoff, pro ball returned to the city in 1940 and Oil City had a team each summer from 1940 until 1951, with the exception of a three-year hibernation during World War II from 1943 to 1945.
Oil City was a Pittsburgh Pirates farm club in the Class D Pennsylvania State Association from 1940 to 1942. When that circuit was unable to re-organize after the War, a couple of its former cities joined the re-constituted Class C Middle Atlantic League as baseball resumed all over the nation in 1946.
The postwar revival of pro baseball in Oil City was backed by a 485-member community group known as the Oil City Athletic Club, Inc. Members bought single shares of stock at $10.00 each in 1946 to get the ball club off the ground.
White Sox Farm Club
Oil City initially took back its old name (the “Oilers”) and partnership with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 1946 Oilers finished in last place in the six-team league. But in 1947, the ball club became a Chicago White Sox farm club and adopted a new nickname: the Refiners.
The Refiners did not develop a single player to play in the Major Leagues during their four-year run as a White Sox farm club. The only Refiner ever to appear in the show was player-manager Otto Denning who played 129 games for the Cleveland Indians in 1942 and 1943.
The Refiners ceased play after the 1950 season. The following summer, the Middle Atlantic League’s Youngstown, Ohio club hit financial headwinds and moved to Oil City midway through the season, finishing out the year as the Oil City A’s. The Middle Atlantic League folded after the 1951 season and that was the last appearance of pro baseball in the northwest Pennsylvania city.
Links
Middle Atlantic League Media Guides
Middle Atlantic League Programs
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3 Responses
MY brother in law Leon Stanley Conlee played for the Oil City Refiners in 1949. I am trying to get a photo of him from that time. Leon passed away in 1998 and his wife (my sister) in 2019. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
My grandfather James Davis managed them in 1950. I would love to see a photo of the team.
My grandfather owned stock in One of the oil city minor league teams. Do have a pic of him standing in background. He owned a billiards hall in Oil City at the time