Tombstone
Born: 1947 – Re-branded from Williamsport Grays
Affiliation Change: 1953 (Williamsport A’s)
Eastern League Championships: None
Stadium
Ownership & Affiliation
Owner: Detroit Tigers & Williamsport Boosters Association
Major League Affiliation: Detroit Tigers
Attendance
Tilting your mobile device may offer better viewing.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (3rd ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 2007
Background
The Williamsport Tigers were a Class A farm club of the Detroit Tigers during the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. The central Pennsylvania city is the birthplace of Little League Baseball (founded in 1939). With the exception of a fallow period for much of the 1970’s and 80’s, Williamsport has been a consistent fixture on the minor league baseball map since 1923. From the early 20’s until the beginning of the 1960’s, Williamsport’s ball clubs were traditionally known as the ‘Grays’.
Detroit’s relationship with Willliamsport began in 1946. Detroit replaced the departing Washington Senators as parent club of the Grays that summer. At the end of the 1946 season, the Detroit Tigers purchased 52% of the team’s stock and assumed controlling interest in the team. Detroit changed the name of the club to the Williamsport Tigers for the 1947 season. Despite the re-brand, many northeastern newspapers that covered the Eastern League beat continued to refer to the club as the ‘Williamsport Grays’ throughout the late 1940’s.
In 1950 the team apparently returned formally to the Williamsport Grays for one season before returning to the Williamsport Tigers moniker for its final two seasons in the Detroit organization.
End of the Tigers Era
The Tigers were typically one of the Eastern League’s weaker entries. The team never finished better than 4th place during the Detroit years. Things bottomed out in 1952 when the club finished 42 games below .500. Attendance peaked during the Tigers era with 102,714 fans spun the Bowman Field turnstiles in 1948. Attendance dipped steadily in each season that followed, hitting a low of 53,837 in 1952.
20-year old Jim Bunning made 15 starts for Williamsport during that grim 1952 season, posting a 5-9 record. Bunning went on to win 224 games during a 17-year Major League career from 1955 to 1971. He later represented Kentucky in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate from 1987 to 2011. While serving in the House in 1996, Bunning earned induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
A few hours after Williamsport played their final game of the 1952 season, the Detroit Tigers announced they were leaving town and would relinquish their ownership of the Eastern League club.
The team’s local boosters re-grouped and secured a tie-up with the Philadelphia Athletics for the 1953 season. After one summer as the Williamsport A’s in 1953, the club reclaimed its traditional ‘Grays’ identity in 1954 as a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate.
Links
##
