Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League (1954-1961)
Midwest League (1962-1981)
Tombstone
Born: 1954
Re-Branded: Fall 1981 (Burlington Rangers)
First Game: April 20, 1954 (L 3-1 @ Quincy Gems)
Last Game: September 1, 1981 (vs. Clinton Giants)
Three-I League Championships: None
Midwest League Champions: 1965 & 1977
Stadium
Community Field (3,500)11978 Cedar Rapids Giants Program
Dimensions (1978): Left: 330′, Center: 372′, Right: 320′21978 Cedar Rapids Giants Program
Ownership & Affiliation
Owners:
Major League Affiliations:
- 1954: Independent
- 1955-1959: Chicago Cubs
- 1960-1962: Pittsburgh Pirates
- 1963-1967: Kansas City Athletics
- 1968-1974: Oakland Athletics
- 1975-1981: Milwaukee Brewers
Background
The ‘Bees’ have been Burlington Iowa’s hometown ball club on three occasions over the past century. The original Bees played in the Mississippi Valley League from 1924 until 1932.
In 1954, the Burlington Flints, in need of a re-boot following a grim last-place campaign in the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League in 1953, switched back to the Bees nickname. When the Three-I League folded in early 1962, the Burlington Bees jumped to the Midwest League.
The franchise continues to play in the Midwest League to the present day. But Burlington abandoned the Bees identity in 1982 to take on the identity of the team’s new parent club that year, the Texas Rangers. The team changed names three more times in the next ten years as Major League parent clubs cycled in and out of town. Eventually team officials grew tired of this merry-go-round. They took back the historic Bees moniker in 1993 and stuck with it.
This FWiL entry will cover the Bees era from 1954 through 1981.
Key Players
The Bees developed two future Hall of Famers and one near miss during the 1954-1981 era.
Outfielder Billy Williams hit .304 with 10 homers for the Bees in 1958 as a 20-year old Chicago Cubs prospect. A 6-time National League All-Star with Chicago, Williams was inducted into the Hall in 1987.
The Kansas City (later Oakland) Athletics moved in as Burlington’s parent club in 1963. The A’s run lasted 12 seasons (1963-1974), a stretch that still stands as the most durable partnership Burlington has maintained with a Major League sponsor. The most dazzling visitor of the A’s era was 18-year old southpaw Vida Blue, who brought his 100 MPH fast ball to town in 1968.
Blue fanned 231 hitters in 152 innings for Burlington in 1968. It’s unclear where Blue’s 13.68 strikeouts per nine innings in 1968 ranks all-time among minor leaguers, but only one Major League pitcher (Gerrit Cole, 2019) has ever posted a higher single-season K/9 ratio. On June 19th, 1968 Blue spun a 7-inning complete-game no-hitter during a double-header with the Appleton Foxes.
Blue was in Oakland full-time by the age of 20 in 1970. In 1971, he won both the American League Cy Young and Most Valuable Player Award. By 25, Vida Blue was a three-time World Series champion with 70 Major League victories. He would ultimately win 209 games in The Show, but only 39 came after age 30 as drug problems cost him jail time in 1983 and a full-year suspension in 1984. Blue earned Hall-of-Fame votes during his four years on the ballot during the early 1990’s, but never enough for enshrinement.
By the time Paul Molitor came through Burlington in the summer of 1977, the Bees were a Milwaukee Brewers farm team. Milwaukee’s 1977 1st round draft pick tore up the Midwest League in his pro debut (.346, 8 HRs, 50 RBI). Molitor helped the Bees sweep the Waterloo Indians in two games in the Midwest League championship series that September. The 21-year old leapfrogged directly from Class A to the Majors the following spring, joining Milwaukee for the start of the 1978 season.
Molitor went on to join the 3,000-hit club and earned World Series Most Valuable Player honors with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993. He entered the Hall of Fame in 2004.
End of an Era
Burlington’s player development contract with the Milwaukee Brewers ended in September 1981. The same month, the Texas Rangers inked a deal as Burlington’s new parent club. Shortly thereafter, the team adopted the ‘Burlington Rangers’ identity, bringing the second Bees era to an end after 28 seasons.
Trivia
On July 20th, 1975, Bees pitcher Abelino Pena hurled a 7-inning perfect game in the nightcap of a doubleheader in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Depending on whom you ask, the Dominican southpaw was either 19 (Cedar Rapids Gazette 7/21/1975) or 22 years old (Baseball-Reference.com) that night. Either way, Pena never won another pro game after 1975 and was out of baseball entirely by the following summer.
Burlington Bees Shop
Downloads
9-5-1978 Bees vs. Appleton Foxes Midwest League Championship Series Game #2 Rosters & Notes
9-5-1978 Burlington Bees vs. Appleton Foxes Roster Insert
Links
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