Tombstone
Born: 1961 – The Allentown Red Sox relocate to Johnstown, PA
Moved: October 18, 1961 (York White Roses)
First Game: April 23, 1961 (L 14-11 @ Williamsport Grays)
Last Game: September 4, 1961 (W 5-3 @ Binghamton Triplets)
Eastern League Championships: None
Stadium
Ownership & Affiliation
Owner: Joe Buzas
Major League Affiliation: Boston Red Sox
Attendance
Johnstown Red Sox attendance records are now complete.
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Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (3rd ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 2007
Background
The Johnstown Red Sox were a Boston Red Sox farm club that operated for just one season during the summer of 1961. The Sox finished fourth in the 6-team Eastern League with a 61-79 record.
Nine members of the 1961 Johnstown Red Sox eventually made it to the Majors. By far the most successful was knuckleball artist Wilbur Wood. Wood started 10 games for Johnstown as a 19-year old teen in 1961. He was in in the Majors with Boston by mid-summer.
One & Done
Legendary minor league baseball man Joe Buzas operated Johnstown. He brought the team over from Allentown prior to the 1961 season, but departed for York, Pennsylvania in October 1961 in yet another intra-state shift. In comments to The Gazette and Daily of York that month, Buzas cited the Boston Red Sox dissatisfaction with the bizarre dimensions of Johnstown’s Point Stadium as one factor for the move. The ballpark had a vast center field, some 400′ deep. But the left and right field porches were only about 260′ down each foul line.
After the departure of the Red Sox in late 1961, pro baseball did not return to Johnstown for 34 years. The Johnstown Steal of the independent Frontier League set up shop at Point Stadium in 1995. The city had a Frontier League team from 1995 until 2002.
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2 Responses
My buddy and I went by Point Stadium in Johnstown in 2008 after going to a ECHL hockey game the previous night @ the Cambria County War Memorial Arena. It’s crazy how short it was down the lines along with the huge screen on top of the LF fence. Just an FYI-high school football (Johnstown and Bishop McCourt) was also played at the Point.
I had a tryout in Johnstown Summer of 1961. The Manager was a lifer, Eddie Popowski, later a coach with the Red Sox. He and a coach or two first had me run, then sent me to CF to run down fly balls. It went great. Then moved me to LF. All was good till a line drive down the line. I knew the wall was close, but just as I reached up and gloved it, the 260’ brick wall came into play ! Held on, but the stars came out that day ! Great memory