Tombstone
Born: 1984 – Affiliation change from Waterbury Angels
Moved: March 1987 (Williamsport Bills)
First Game: April 12, 1985 (L 4-1 vs. Reading Phillies)
Last Game: August 30, 1986 (L 4-3 @ Albany-Colonie Yankees)
Eastern League Championships: None
Stadium
Ownership & Affiliation
Owners: John McGee, et al.
Major League Affiliation: Cleveland Indians
Attendance
Background
The Waterbury Indians were a two-year entry in the Class AA Eastern League in 1985 and 1986. This marked the second time that Cleveland sponsored an EL farm club in the Brass City, following the original Waterbury Indians of 1968-1969.
Team owner Northeastern Baseball Inc., headed by a young attorney named John McGee, was a group dedicated to bringing Minor League Baseball to Scranton, Pennsylvania. By early 1985, Northeastern Baseball had deposits for over 2,000 season tickets and a pledge from Lackawanna County officials to break ground on a $13 million ballpark once a franchise could be secured. Northeastern Baseball’s ultimate goal was Class AAA baseball, but no franchises were available in the Northeastern U.S. Instead they used their season ticket pledge money to purchase the Eastern League’s sad-sack Waterbury Angels franchise for $350,000 from its local owners, the DiVito family, in January 1985.
Scranton’s ballpark wouldn’t be ready until 1987. (At least that was the plan – it wouldn’t actually open until 1989). Northeastern installed its General Manager-in-waiting, Bill Terlecky, to operate the club in Waterbury in the meantime. The Waterbury Indians were a lame duck outfit from Day One.
Top Players
Waterbury 3rd baseman Cory Snyder (.281, 28 homers, 94 RBIs) earned Eastern League MVP honors during the 1985 season. Snyder was in the Majors with Cleveland by the following summer and went on to a 9-year Major League career.
Reliever Doug Jones was a 28-year old minor league journeymen with four games of Big League time. He had a strong season at Waterbury (9-4, 3.65, 7 saves) in 1985 and then became one of baseball’s all-time league bloomers. Promoted to Cleveland in 1986, he became a five-time Major League All-Star. When Jones finally retired at age 43 in the year 2000, he was the oldest player in Major League Baseball and ranked 12th all-time in Major League saves.
Starting pitcher John Farrell (Waterbury ’85-’86) pitched nine years in the Majors and managed the Boston Red Sox to victory in the 2013 World Series.
End of the Line
Waterbury had been one of the worst draws in the Eastern League for many years by the time Northeast Baseball purchased the team in 1985. The team’s obvious intention to leave the city as soon as possible did pro baseball no additional favors. The Indians labored to draw 300-400 fans a night at 5,000-seat Municipal Stadium in 1985 and 1986.
Meanwhile the Scranton project took several crazy turns. A year after buying Waterbury for $350,000, Northeast Baseball struck a deal to buy the struggling Maine Guides of the International League. The deal would give Northeast Baseball their coveted triple-A level club for Scranton. In return, they would give their Eastern League franchise (Waterbury) plus $1 million to Guides owner Jordan Kobritz. Kobritz would move Waterbury to Old Orchard Beach, Maine. But the Eastern League refused to approve the sale of Waterbury to Kobritz in late 1986. Kobritz then reneged on the sale of the Guides to Northeast Baseball. The parties spent the next year in a series of courtroom battles over ownership of the International League franchise. Northeast eventually wrestled control of the Guides from Kobritz and triple-A baseball finally arrived in Scranton in April 1989.
The legal chaos combined with the raised the prospect that both Northeast Baseball, the Cleveland Indians and the Eastern League would have to return to Waterbury for a third season in 1987. It was a prospect that none of the parties relished. Instead, the Eastern League made the unusual decision to allow Northeast Baseball to relocate to Williamsport, Pennsylvania just 40 days before the 1987 opened.
Affiliated minor league baseball has never returned to Waterbury since the Indians departure in March 1987.
Voices
“I hate Connecticut with a passion. I can’t wait to get out of here. I’ll never come back – unless they force me to.”
-Cory Snyder, 3rd Baseman & Eastern League MVP 1985 (1985 Los Angeles Times Interview)1Crowe, Jerry. “Hit and Run: Cory Snyder Makes a Dash Toward Cleveland After Compiling Some Impressive Batting Statistics With Double-A Waterbury.” The Times (Los Angeles, CA). August 31, 1985
“Waterbury sucked. That sucked.”
-Bill Terlecky, General Manager 1985-1986 (FWiL interview 2019)
Waterbury Indians Shop
In Memoriam
General Manager Bill Terlecky (Waterbury ’85-’86) died of cancer at age 65 on October 3, 2019. Wilkes-Barre Citizens Voice obituary.
Links
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