Burlington Rangers

Carolina League (1972)

Tombstone

Born: 1972
Folded:

First Game:
Last Game:

Carolina League Championships: None

Stadium

Fairchild Park

Ownership & Affiliation

Owner: Briggs Miles

Major League Affiliation: Texas Rangers

Attendance

Burlington Rangers attendance records are now complete.

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Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (3rd ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 2007

Background

North Carolina’s Burlington Rangers were a One-Year Wonder in the Class A Carolina League during the summer of 1972. The team was a Class A farm club of the Texas Rangers, who were playing their debut season in Major League Baseball that summer after relocating from Washington D.C. in late 1971.

Texas intended their Carolina League operation to be in Durham, North Carolina in 1972 . But Durham’s proposed local ownership fell apart during the winter. Briggs Miles of Winston-Salem stepped into the void, hastily organizing a replacement team at Burlington’s Fairchild Park. Burlington was a mainstay of the Carolina League during the 1960’s with a succession of farm clubs run by a group of community stockholders. That group, Alamance Baseball Club, Inc., finally left the scene after the 1971 season opening the door for Miles’ operation.

In addition to Texas Rangers prospects, the 1972 Burlington Rangers also featured a few assigned players from the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

Dark Days

The 1970’s were a bleak period throughout much of minor league baseball. Evidence of the industry’s decline can be found in this telling line from Burlington Daily Times-News sports editor Bill Hunter‘s re-cap of the 1972 Carolina League All-Star Game hosted by the Burlington Rangers at Fairchild Park:

Attendance last night was 915, least in the history of the event, but not by much. Local officials were pleased with the turnout.

The Carolina League only had six teams in 1972, down from eight a year earlier and on its way to just four by the middle of the decade. Bowie Kuhn, the Commissioner of Baseball, was in Burlington for the All-Star game and local reporters quizzed him on the “dim future” of pro baseball. One topic was the so-called “Houston Proposal’. The plan, put forward by Houston Astros owner Tal Smith, would do away with the single-A tier of minor league baseball entirely and send all low level prospects to complexes in Arizona or Florida.

The festivities kicked off with a luncheon at Huey’s Restaurant in Burlington. Bowie Kuhn delivered a speech. So did Negro League legend Buck Leonard, who was set for induction into the Hall of Fame the following month. Local baseball fans could enjoy lunch and the remarks from Kuhn and Leonard for $2.00 per person.

1972 Season

Burlington itself had a terrific team that summer. The Rangers won the Carolina League’s first half title, thanks in large part to a virtually un-hittable reliever named Steve Foucault who entered the All-Star Break 9-0 with 12 saves and a 0.24 ERA. The All-Star Game would be Foucault’s final appearance in Burlington. He had already received the call up to Triple-A Denver and would be in the Major Leagues with Texas by the following summer.

In September 1972, the Rangers faced the Salem Pirates in a best-of-three Carolina League championship series. After winning Game One in 11 innings before an announced crowd of just 287 at Fairchild Park, the Rangers dropped the final two games of the series on the road.

Despite an exciting team, the locals really didn’t respond and the Rangers pulled only about 400 fans per game. Pro baseball left Burlington at the end of the 1972 season and did not return for 14 years.