Tombstone
Born: 1949 – Re-branded from Providence Chiefs
Folded: June 21, 1949
First Game: April 30, 1949 (W 6-5 @ Manchester Yankees)
Final Game: June 20, 1949 (L 26-8 @ Portland Pilots)
New England League Championships: None
Tombstone
Ownership & Affiliation
Owners: Charles Pine, et al.
Major League Affiliation: ?
Attendance
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Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (3rd ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 2007. Page 429.
Background
The Providence Grays were a forlorn minor league baseball outfit in the Class B New England League for a few months during the summer of 1949. The team ran out of money and folded after just two months of play, foreshadowing the disintegration of the rest of the New England League at the end of that summer.
The Grays replaced Providence’s earlier entry in the New England League, the Chiefs (1946-1948). The ‘Grays’ moniker was a nod to various earlier and prouder Providence ball clubs that used the name between 1878 and 1930. The original Grays were a Major League entry in the National League from 1878 until 1885. The 1914 edition of the Grays won the International League pennant with a roster that included Babe Ruth and Carl Mays.
Grays management hired former Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox catcher Frankie Pytlak as manager. Providence opened the season on the road on April 30th, 1949 with a victory over the New York Yankees’ farm team in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Barely a month later, the local stockholders who comprised Providence Baseball Club, Inc. ran out of has. The New England League took over the club on June 2nd. Pytlak resigned on June 8th. The orphaned Grays muddled along for a few more weeks until league officials euthanized the team on June 21st. The Grays sat in 7th place in the 8-team NEL with an 18-30 record at the time of their demise.
Trivia
As of 2020, the 1949 Grays are the last pro baseball club to claim Providence as their home city. But the team actually played in nearby Cranston. The New England League also had a club in neighboring Pawtucket, the Slaters, from 1946-1949 that served as a rival to the Chiefs/Grays.
In Memoriam
Grays manager Frankie Pytlak passed away on May 8, 1977 at age 68. New York Times obituary.
Links
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