Tombstone
Born: 1968 – The Wilson Tobs relocate to Red Springs, NC
Folded: 1969
First Game: April 16, 1969 (L 3-1 vs. Kinston Eagles)
Last Game: September 1, 1969 (L 5-1 @ Thomasville Hi-Toms)
Carolina League Championships: None
Stadium
Ownership & Affiliation
Major League Affiliation: Minnesota Twins
Owner: Matt Boykin
Attendance
Background
The tiny town of Red Springs, North Carolina hosted this Class A farm team of the Minnesota Twins during the summer of 1969. Red Springs (pop. 3,383 in the 1970 Census) was the smallest community in the United States to host its own pro baseball team that summer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Red Springs lasted just that one season in the Carolina League, earning a place in our One-Year Wonders file.
The arrival of the Twins drew some national notoriety to Red Springs when Sports Illustrated scribe Peter Carry spent a week in town profiling the team. Carry’s article A Bonanza in Red Springs ran in the July 28, 1969 edition of SI. The article largely ignored the team’s on-field exploits. Carry focused instead on owner Matt Boykin’s seeming euphoria at the team’s reception in Red Springs after moving from much larger Wilson, North Carolina in late 1968, and the boredom experienced by many of the ballplayers and their wives in “The World’s Smallest Professional Baseball Town”.
Despite Boykin’s assurance that he would turn a profit in Red Springs1Carry, Peter. “A Bonanza in Red Springs”. Sports Illustrated. July 28, 1969, the team was contracted at the end of the season as the Carolina League shrank back to eight teams. The Twins moved their Carolina League operations to Lynchburg, Virginia for the 1970 season.
On The Field
The Twins posted the worst record (57-84) in the 10-team Carolina League in 1969 under field manager Tom Umphlett.
Six Red Springs Twins veterans ultimately advanced to the Major Leagues, including:
- Outfielder Steve Brye
- Pitcher Ray Corbin
- Pitcher Pete Hamm
- Infielder Dan Monzon
- Infielder Eric Soderholm
- Pitcher Bill Zepp
Brye and Soderholm enjoyed the longest Major League careers, each playing up for 9 seasons. Soderholm was the last active Red Springs Twins player in professional baseball when he played his final season for the New York Yankees in 1980.
Trivia
Red Springs had one other brush with pro baseball aside from the Twins. The Red Spring Red Robins played in the Class D Tobacco State League from 1947 until 1950.
Voices
“Man, it’s tough here. There are only three single girls in the town and they all have to be in by midnight. There’s a girl works in one store who’s engaged, but we think maybe she’ll go out.”
– Ray O’Neill, Pitcher (1969 interview with Peter Carry of Sports Illustrated)
Links
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