Pittsfield Rangers

Eastern League (1972-1975)

Tombstone

Born: 1972 – Re-branded from Pittsfield Senators
Affiliation Change: 1976 (Berkshire Brewers)

First Game: April 22, 1972 (L 4-3 vs. Sherbrooke Pirates)
Last Game: September 1, 1975 (W 5-4 vs. West Haven Yankees)

Major League Affiliation: Texas Rangers

Stadia

1972-1975: Wahconah Park

1972-1975: Bleecker Stadium

Ownership & Affiliation

Owners:

1972-1973: Pat McKernan
1974-1975: Lynn “Spike” Herzig

Attendance

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Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (3rd ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 2007

Background

The Pittsfield Rangers were a Class AA Eastern League farm club in Western Massachusetts for four summers in the early 1970’s. The franchise was formerly known as the Pittsfield Senators (1970-1971) but re-branded when their Major League parent club, the Washington Senators, moved west to become the Texas Rangers in the fall of 1971.

Future Major League All-Stars that played in Pittsfield during the Rangers era included Roy Howell (’72-’73), Bill Madlock (’72), Jim Sundberg (’73), Roy Smalley (’74) and Len Barker (’75). Madlock went on to win four National League batting titles between 1975 and 1983. Len Barker pitched a perfect game for the Cleveland Indians in 1981.

The Rangers advanced to the Eastern League championship series in back-to-back summers. In 1973 Pittsfield lost to the Reading Phillies 3 games to 1. In 1974, they were swept by the Thetford Mines Pirates in a best-of-three series.

Attendance Woes at Wahconah Park

The 1970’s was a grim time for the minor league baseball business overall and Pittsfield was no exception. The city led the Eastern League in attendance in 1965 (79,001 fans) when the franchise was a shiny new Boston Red Sox farm club. But by 1972 and 1973, Pittsfield ranked last in the eight-team circuit in average crowd. Pittsfield’s box office was even punier in 1974 (29,234) and 1975 (34,878). Only the addition of a dreadfully unpopular franchise in Thetford Mines, Canada spared the Rangers the indignity of finishing last in the attendance column in those summers. From 1972 through 1975 the Pittsfield Rangers played a handful of games each summer at Bleecker Stadium in nearby Albany, New York to try to expand their audience.

A further financial dagger occurred one week into the 1975 season. Vandals broke into Wahconah Park and tore down 33 advertising billboards screwed into the outfield fence. The ads remained down for most of the summer and many of the team’s local commercial sponsors reportedly balked at paying their sponsor fees.

The Texas Rangers pulled out of Pittsfield at the end of the 1975 season and shifted their Class AA operations to San Antonio in the Texas League. Pittsfield’s baseball future appeared in serious jeopardy. But in November 1975, Pittsfield Rangers owner Spike Herzig managed to secure the Milwaukee Brewers as a new Major League parent club. The team was renamed the Berkshire Brewers and played one more season at Wahconah. The franchise left town for Holyoke, Mass. in 1977.