Tampa Tarpons (1957-1988)

Florida State League (1957-1988)

Background

Dating back to 1919, Tampa’s various minor league baseball teams were traditionally known as the ‘Smokers’. The last edition of the Smokers closed for business midway through the 1954 season, leaving the Cigar City without baseball for nearly three years.

Miami businessman Bill McDonald filled the void in 1957, launching his Tampa Tarpons in the Class D Florida State League. The Tarps debuted in Tampa on April 12, 1957 with a 9-4 loss to the St. Petersburg Saints. The 4,186 locals on hand were treated to a pre-game fireworks show, comedy shtick from Max Patkin, the Clown Prince of Baseball, and a malfunctioning recording of the Star Spangled Banner that “played over and over again as puzzled fans stood at rigid attention”. (Tampa Bay Times, 4/13/1957)

The Tarpons had early on-field success as a Philadelphia Phillies farm club, winning two Florida State League crowns in the first four seasons of play. But the Tarps were best known for their three-decade partnership with the Cincinnati Reds. Cincinnati moved its spring training operations to Tampa’s Al Lopez Field in 1960 and the following spring the Reds replaced Philadelphia as the Tarpons’ Major League parent club. Many of Reds’ greatest stars from the Big Red Machine years of the 1970’s began their path to the Majors at Al Lopez Field.

Top Players

Tampa’s first summer as a Cincinnati farm club was its finest. With former Reds ace Johnny Van Der Meer installed as field manager, the 1961 Tarpons won their third (and final) FSL crown with a 90-44 record. 20-year old Pete Rose hit .331 and set a league record with 30 triples. Future Reds All-Star Lee May also made his pro debut with the ’61 Tarps as an 18-year old fresh out of high school.

Other future stars who saw time with the Tampa Tarpons over the years included:

• Outfielder Jim Wynn (Tarps ’62)
• Future Hall-of-Fame catcher Johnny Bench (Tarps ’65)
• Outfielder Hal McRae (Tarps ’65)
• Shortstop Dave Concepcion (Tarps ’68)
• Outfielder Ken Griffey Sr. (Tarps ’71)
• Pitcher Mario Soto (Tarps ’76)
• Outfielder Paul O’Neill (Tarps ’83)
• Reliever Jeff Montgomery (Tarps ’84)

A local player worth noting from the early days of the Tarpons was pitcher Harry Coe. Coe dominated the Florida State league during the Tarpons first season in 1957, compiling a 26-3 record with a 1.36 ERA while averaging over 8 innings per start. The next summer, Coe went 18-12 with a 2.41 ERA for the Tarps.  He then retired from baseball at age 25. Coe remained in Hillsborough County and became a circuit judge and, later, the county’s top prosecutor. In 2000, at age 67 and still in public office, Coe committed suicide while under scrutiny from local media related to his gambling addiction and financial problems.

In 1974, 21-year old outfielder Randy Poffo led the Tarpons in RBIs (66) and tied for the team lead in homers (9). It would prove to be Poffo’s final summer in professional baseball. But he went on to achieve fame via a different path: as pro wrestling legend Randy “Macho Man” Savage.

Pursuit of Major League Baseball

By the early 1980’s competing groups in the Tampa Bay region began a hot pursuit of Major League Baseball. St. Petersburg officials sought to build a downtown domed stadium to lure an existing MLB franchise. The rival Tampa Bay Baseball Group (TBBG), led by auto dealer Frank Morsani, sought to build a domed ballpark in Tampa, utilizing land that included the site of Al Lopez Field. Morsani nearly acquired the Minnesota Twins in 1984 in this effort and also made a run at the Texas Rangers in 1988. Meanwhile, St. Petersburg broke ground on its stadium, the Florida Suncoast Dome, in 1986. In 1988 the Chicago White Sox used the threat of an imminent move to St. Petersburg to leverage city and state officials back in Illinois to build the team a new ballpark.

With so much promise and uncertainty around Major League Baseball in the 1980’s and the future of Al Lopez Field uncertain, the Cincinnati Reds left town after the 1987 season, moving their spring training operations 25 miles away to Plant City and their Class A minor league operation to Greensboro, North Carolina.

Brothers Mitchell and Bunny Mick, local owners of the Tarpons since 1965, sought to hang on in Tampa. They would be due a seven-figure territorial payout if and when a Major League team arrived in Tampa or St. Pete to displace them. The brothers inked a deal for the White Sox to replace Cincinnati as the Tarpons’ parent club in 1988. But in June 1988, the Tampa Sports Authority voted 9-0, over the objections of the Micks, to demolish Al Lopez Field in 1989. Five months later, the Micks sold the Tarpons to the White Sox who relocated the Florida State League franchise to Sarasota for the 1989 season.

Aftermath & Revival

There was no pro baseball in Tampa from 1988 through 1993. St. Petersburg’s Florida Suncoast Dome opened in 1990. Existing Major League teams continued to flirt with St. Petersburg to extract richer concessions from their local legislators but always left the Floridians at the altar. In June 1991, Major League Baseball awarded its first expansion franchises since the 1960’s to Denver and Miami. The Tampa Bay Baseball Group sued Major League Baseball for reneging on an alleged agreement to provide an expansion franchise to the Bay Area, a suit that dragged on for over a decade before reaching settlement.

In March 1995 Major League Baseball finally awarded an expansion team to the Bay area. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays began play at Tropicana Field (the former Suncoast Dome) in 1998.

Meanwhile, the Florida State League returned to Tampa in 1994 with the Tampa Yankees, who initially played on the campus of the University of South Florida. In 1996, the New York Yankees opened Legends Field, an 11,000-seat facility for their spring training home and Florida State League operations.

In 2018 the Tampa Yankees re-branded themselves, adopting and re-invigorating the old Tampa Tarpons identity.

Long-time general manager Mike Moore (Tarps ’71-’88) went on to serve as President of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL), the governing body of Minor League Baseball, from 1991 until 2007.

Trivia

Larry Jensen, Cincinnati’s 2nd round choice in the 1973 MLB Amateur Draft, pitched three no-hitters for the Tarpons across 31 starts he made for Tampa in 1973 and 1974. Despite Jensen’s Florida State League dominance, he never made it past double-A ball and was out of the game by the end of 1976.

Tampa native Marc Bombard, 250 pound southpaw, spun a 1-0 perfect game victory over the Lakeland Tigers at Al Lopez Field on June 6, 1974. More than 5,000 fans enjoyed Bombard’s gem, courtesy of a free ticket promotion from Planters Peanuts.

In Memoriam

Outfielder Randy Poffo (Tarpons ’74), AKA pro wrestler Randy Savage, died of a heart attack while driving on May 20, 2011. The Macho Man was 58 years old. New York Times obituary.

Downloads

7-9-1975 Tarpons vs. Key West Cubs Roster & Games Notes

Links

Florida State League Programs

##