New York-Penn League (1967-1998)
Tombstone
Born: 1967 – Affiliation change from Oneonta Red Sox
Affiliation Change: October 7, 1998 (Oneonta Tigers)
First Game: June 23, 1967 (W 7-6 vs. Jamestown Braves)
Last Game: September 5, 1998 (W 10-3 @ Hudson Valley Renegades)
NY-Penn League Champions: 1968, 1969, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1988, 1990 & 1998
Stadium
Damaschke Field (4,200)11995 Hudson Valley Renegades Program
Ownership & Affiliation
Owners: Oneonta Athletic Corp. (Sam Nader, Sidney Levine, et al.)
Major League Affiliation: New York Yankees
Background
The small town of Oneonta, New York was, for over three decades, one of the first stops on the minor league ladder for the greenest of New York Yankees prospects. The O-Yanks played in the Class A New York-Penn League, playing 70-odd games each summer between June and September. The short season was designed to ease recent high school and college grads into the grind of 140 game seasons on the upper rungs of the minor league ladder. Most players were between 18 and 22 years old.
The Yankees were locally owned by the Oneonta Athletic Corporation through their entire existence. One-time Oneonta Mayor Sam Nader and his long-time friend and business partner Sid Levine headed up the group, which bought the former Oneonta Red Sox franchise in late 1966 for a reported $10,000 (Oneonta Daily Star 6/8/2013).
Oneonta dominated the NY-Penn League from the late 1960’s until the end of the 1980’s, winning 11 championships in 23 seasons between 1968 and 1990.
The 1990’s were leaner, but the O-Yanks added a 12th and final crown during their final summer as a Yankees farm club in 1998. This final title offered an anti-climactic conclusion to the Yankees long run in Oneonta. Scheduled to play a best-of-three championship series against the Auburn Doubledays in September 1998, a series of powerful storms hit New York and rendered both Damaschke Field and Falcon Field in Auburn unplayable. The entire series was washed out and the teams were declared co-champions.
Departure of the Yankees & Aftermath
The New York Yankees left town at the end of the 1998 season, moving their NYPL operation to a new ballpark on Staten Island. Nader and Levine hung on in Oneonta for another decade, inking a new affiliation with the Detroit Tigers in October 1998. The duo finally sold the team in 2008, when Levine was 95 years and old and Nader was 89. After one final summer at Damaschke Field, the new owner moved the former Oneonta franchise to Norwich, Connecticut prior to the 2010 season. It remains there today and is now known as the Norwich Sea Unicorns.
Trivia
Future Pro Football Hall-of-Famer John Elway played 42 games for Oneonta during the summer of 1982. Elway hit .318 with 4 homers and 25 RBI as a 22-year old outfielder. It would be his only season of professional baseball. He was the #1 overall pick in the NFL draft the following spring.
During the 1985 Major League Baseball season, both the American League Most Valuable Player (Don Mattingly) and the National League MVP (Willie McGee) were Oneonta Yankees alumni.
Damaschke Field was a dry facility for the entire time that Nader and Levine owned the New York-Penn League franchise. “I drink beer, hell yes, but I don’t sell it,” Nader told The New York Post in 2001. “I’ve been to ballgames my whole life and invariably it is my misfortune to sit by some guy who had a grog full. His fly would be open and he’d have a dirty mouth and I’d have my family with me. Baseball and beer are not synonymous.”
Oneonta Yankees Shop
In Memoriam
Oneonta Yankees co-owner Sid Levine passed away in his sleep in September 2012 at age 99. Oneonta Dailey Star obituary.
Downloads
8-3-1981 Yankees vs. Elmira Pioneers Roster Sheets
8-3-1981 Oneonta Yankees vs. Elmira Pioneers Roster Sheets
1989 Yankees vs. Welland Pirates Game Notes
https://funwhileitlasted.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/1989-Oneonta-Yankees-vs.-Welland-Pirates-Game-Notes.pdf
Links
New York-Penn League Media Guides
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5 Responses
For many years Oneonta would play one regular season game at Doubleday Field in nearby Cooperstown.
If you want to see more , visit my Facebook page Oneonta Yankees, all 32 years of programs, pictures and other assorted memorabilia, please like the page when you are there…
When I was a boy in the late 60’s I went to an Oneonta Yankee game and there was a Down syndrome boy there in a Yankee uniform in the crowd. Then later in my 40’s in 1998 I went back again and there was the same person … still in uniform..
I or at least I’ve thought he was. It was … very sweet. Anyone know this man?
Back in the 80s I would occasionally take in a game with my farther and my son. Those were great times. It was very inexpensive for tickets when you actually had to pay. One of the banks would pick up the tab. Food was cheap, people were friendly and you could even Winn prizes. What ever player got a home run would get a subway of his choice. It was a great place to spend a few hours watching potential major league players. Good times, good friends and great memories.