Tombstone
Born: September 8, 1983 – The Lynn Pirates relocate to Burlington, VT
Affiliation Change: September 15, 1987 (Vermont Mariners)
First Game: April 13, 1984 (W 10-2 vs. Reading Phillies)
Last Game: September 13, 1987 (L 3-2 & L 5-1 @ Harrisburg Senators)
Eastern League Champions: 1984-1985-1986
Stadium
Centennial Field (5,700)
Ownership & Affiliation
Owner: Mike Agganis
Major League Affiliation: Cincinnati Reds
Attendance
Tap (mobile) or mouse over chart for figures. Tilting your mobile device may offer better viewing.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (1st ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 1993
Background
The Vermont Reds were a superb Class AA minor league baseball club in the college town of Burlington during the mid-1980’s.
The team served as a farm club for the Cincinnati Reds and helped to develop much of the talent that would fuel Cincinnati’s 1990 World Series championship team:
- Jack Armstrong (Vermont ’87)
- Norm Charlton (Vermont ’86)
- Rob Dibble (Vermont ’86)
- Barry Larkin (Vermont ’85)
- Paul O’Neill (Vermont ’84)
- Chris Sabo (Vermont ’84-’85)
The franchise arrived in September 1983 from Lynn, Massachusetts. In Lynn the team suffered through four years of monolithic indifference as a Mariners and Pirates farm club. Burlington mayor Bernie Sanders, the future U.S. presidential candidate, took a hands-on role in recruiting Lynn’s owner Mike Agannis to move his ball club north.
The Reds provided plenty of thrills for Vermonters, winning the Eastern League championship series in each of their first three summers in Burlington and losing in the finals in 1987.
The End
Cincinnati moved their Class AA operations to Chattanooga of the Southern League in 1988 after their initial four-year player development contract with Vermont expired. And soon afterwards the city of Canton, Ohio lured Agannis west with the offer of a new $3 million, 5,700-seat ballpark. (Agannis would similarly jilt Canton seven years later for a still bigger and swankier $31 million stadium in Akron, Ohio).
Burlington got one more season of Class AA pro ball in 1988 with the Vermont Mariners. The Mariners were a stop-gap club that operated for just one season while Agannis shuttled back and forth to meetings with his Ohio suitors. (The V-Mariners did offer Vermonters the chance to enjoy an 18-year old Ken Griffey Jr. for 17 games at the very outset of his Hall of Fame career).
After several summers without pro baseball, the Vermont Expos (1994-2005) of the New York-Penn League set up shop at Centennial Field in 1994. The franchise continues to exist today as the Vermont Lake Monsters.
Trivia
The Vermont Reds/Mariners appeared in the Eastern League Championship Series in all five years that Burlington had an Eastern League franchise from 1984 to 1988. The Reds won in the 1984, 1985 & 1986.
After Cincinnati left town in September 1987, sports columnist Kevin Iole columnist published his a roster of the best Vermont Reds players by position in The Burlington Free Press (9/19/1987). They were:
- Outfielders: Jeff Boever, Kal Daniels* & Tracy Jones
- First Base: Terry Lee
- Second Base: Jeff Treadway
- Shortstop: Barry Larkin
- Third Base: Lenny Harris
- Catcher: Terry McGriff
- Designated Hitter: Lloyd McClendon
- Staring Pitcher: Scott Terry (RHP) and Norm Charlton (LHP)
- Bullpen: Jeff Gray (RHP) & Rob Murphy (LHP)
Links
“How Bernie Sanders brought professional baseball to Vermont“, Tim Hagerty, The Sporting News, November 10, 2015
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