Pawtucket Slaters

New England League (1946-1949)

Tombstone

Born: January 19, 1946 – New England League founding franchise
Folded: December 6, 1949

First Game: May 8, 1946 (L 9-7 @ Lawrence Millionaires)
Final Game: September 8, 1949 (L 10-6 @ Springfield Cubs)

New England League Championships: None

Stadium

McCoy Stadium
Opened: 1942

Ownership & Affiliation

Owners:

1946-1948: Varnum Barber, et al.
1948-1949: Boston Braves

New England League Franchise Fee (1946): $1,500¹

Attendance

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Print Download

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

Background

The Pawtucket Slaters were a Class B farm club of the National League’s Boston Braves for four summers following minor league baseball’s grand resurgence at the end of World War II.

Slaters President Varnum T. Barber laid down a payment of $1,500 for one of eight original spots in the newly formed New England League in January 1946.¹ASSOCIATED PRESS. “New England League Set With Eight Clubs”. The Courant (Hartford, CT). January 20, 1946 The Slaters immediately linked up with the Braves. Two years later, the Braves purchased the Pawtucket club outright and operated the Slaters directly for most of their final two seasons.

The Slaters geographic rival was the Providence Chiefs, a Cincinnati Reds farm club, who played in nearby Cranston, Rhode Island. (The Chiefs became the Grays for the 1949 season). But their arch competitive rival was the powerhouse Nashua Dodgers, a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team that won three straight league titles from 1946 to 1948. Nashua eliminated the Slaters in the New England League playoffs in all three of those seasons.

Demise & Epilogue

The New England League started the 1949 season with eight clubs in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. But the league endured a brutal summer that saw four of the eight clubs disband without completing the schedule. The Slaters managed to survive the season, along with Nashua, Portland and Springfield. But after the Brooklyn Dodgers announced their intention to cease backing the circuit’s three-time champion Nashua franchise in early December 1949, the New England League’s fate was sealed. Officials of the remaining three clubs, including the Slaters, voted to disband less than a week later.

After the Slaters and the New England League closed up shop, it was seventeen years until pro baseball returned to McCoy Stadium with the formation of the Pawtucket Indians of the Eastern League in 1966.

Outfielder Chuck Tanner, who joined the Slaters as a 19-year old for the 1948 season, went on to manage the Pittsburgh Pirates to the 1979 World Series championship.