Interstate League (1950-1952)
Piedmont League (1953)
Tombstone
Born: 1950
Re-Branded: December 22, 1953 (Hagerstown Packets)
First Game:
Last Game:
Governor’s Cup Championships (Interstate League): 1952
Piedmont League Championships:
Stadium
Ownership & Affiliations
Attendance
Background
The Hagerstown Braves were a powerhouse Class B farm club of the Boston/Milwaukee Braves during the early 1950’s. The club posted four straight winning seasons, won two pennants and one playoff championship.
Hagerstown won back-to-back Interstate League pennants in 1951 and 1952. The 1952 squad defeated the Lancaster Red Roses in the Governor’s Cup playoff to win the final championship of the Interstate League. The Interstate League folded four months later and the Braves accepted an offer to move to the Piedmont League, a Virginia-based Class B loop, for the 1953 season.
On The Field
Hagerstown’s field manager for most of the Braves era was Fred “Dutch” Dorman, a minor league legend who played parts of 28 seasons in the bushes without ever making it to the Majors. He amassed an incredible 2,226 minor league hits according to Baseball Reference. After leading Hagerstown to back-to-back pennants in 1951 and 1952, Dorman had a falling out with club owner Gene Raney in 1953. He resigned midway through the 1953 season after receiving a “sarcastic telegram” from Raney.
As good as Hagerstown was in Class B, the team was not a breeding ground for future Major League stars. A small number of Hagerstown Braves players, including Jesse Levan (’50), Mike Krsnich (’51), Bob Giggie (’52) and Earl Hersh (’53) made it to the top of the ladder, but none of them played more than a handful of games in the Majors.
Braves to Packets
Hagerstown finished 2nd place in the Piedmont League in 1953 with a 78-53 record. At the end of the season, the Milwaukee Braves declined to renew their affiliation with Hagerstown. The Washington Senators replaced Milwaukee as the team’s parent club for the 1954 season and the team changed its name to the Hagerstown Packets.
Both the Packets and the Piedmont League itself went out of business after the 1955 season.
Pro baseball returned to Hagerstown in 1981 with the arrival of the Hagerstown Suns of the Carolina League in 1981.
Trivia
Braves owner Gene Raney also owned the Raney’s Coliseum bowling alleys in Hagerstown during the 1940’s and 1950’s.
Hagerstown Braves Shop
Links
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One Response
I was there for a game in 1990 when the Orioles had their AA Eastern League team there. I enjoyed it there, but I was surprised to see a cinderblock wall for the outfield fence. I do not remember it being padded.