Bluefield Orioles

Appalachian League (1958-2010)

Tombstone

Born: 1958
Affiliation Change: September 7, 2010 (Bluefield Blue Jays)

First Game: June 27, 1958 (L 6-5 @ Wytheville Cardinals)
Last Games: August 31, 2010 (L 10-4, L 5-0 vs. Princeton Rays)

Appalachian League Champions: 1962, 1963, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1982, 1992, 1996, 1997, 2001

Stadium

Bowen Field
Opened: 1939

Ownership & Affiliation

Owner: ?

Major League Affiliation: Baltimore Orioles

Appalachian League Baseball

Where Rookies Rise

By Allen LaMountain

Long-time Appy League beat writer Allen LaMountain wrote this exhaustive chronicle of the Rookie circuit in 2014, offering a history of each city in the circuit and profiles of dozens of the future Major League stars and Hall-of Famers who got their first taste of pro ball in places like Bluefield, Elizabethton, Johnson City and Kingsport.

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Background

For more than half a century, the border city of Bluefield, West Virginia served as an entry-level farm club of the Baltimore Orioles. As a member of the Rookie level Appalachian League, Bluefield largely hosted Baltimore’s first-year prospects, many of them still teenagers.

During the league’s 80+ year history, only the Elizabethton Twins (12) have won more Appalachian League titles than the Bluefield Orioles (10). But Bluefield has the most championships (14) of any city in league history when you count several crowns won by Bluefield’s earlier Appy League entries, the Blue-Grays (1946-1955) and the Dodgers (1957).

Road to The Show

Some of the future Major League stars who played at Bluefield’s Bowen Field during the Orioles era included:

Pitcher Dean Chance (Bluefield ’59), winner of the 1964 American League Cy Young Award
Outfielder Boog Powell (Bluefield ’59), 1970 American League MVP and 2-time world champion
Mark Belanger (Bluefield ’62), an 8-time Gold Glove Award winner at shortstop for the O’s
Pitcher Sparky Lyle (Bluefield ’64), 1977 American League Cy Young Award winner
Outfielder Don Baylor (Bluefield ’67), 1979 American League Most Valuable Player
Infielder Bobby Grich (Bluefield ’67), six-time All-Star with Baltimore and the California Angels
Infielder Doug Decinces (Bluefield ’70), member Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame
First Baseman Eddie Murray (Bluefield ’73),
Pitcher Mike Boddicker (Bluefield ’78), 1983 ALCS MVP for Baltimore
Shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. (Bluefield ’78)
Relief pitcher Arthur Rhodes (Bluefield ’88), ageless reliever pitched 20 years in the Majors
Reliever Jim Johnson (Bluefield ’02-’03), stalwart Baltimore reliever of the 2010’s

Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken, of course, went on to become Hall of Famers and both were stars of Baltimore’s 1983 World Series championship team.

End of an Era

On August 28, 2010 the Orioles announced they would depart Bluefield at the end of the Appalachian League season after 53 years. The Bluefield-Baltimore partnership was the longest continuous partnership between a Major League club and a Minor League affiliate at the time. But by 2010, Baltimore had a glut of entry-level developmental teams, including a training complex in the Dominican Republic, a Gulf Coast League entry in Florida and an in-state short-season Class A farm team at Aberdeen, Maryland.

Less than two weeks after the Orioles withdrew, the Toronto Blue Jays took over as Bluefield’s new parent club in September 2010. The team played as the Bluefield Blue Jays through 2019. The 2020 season was lost to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the fall of 2020, Major League Baseball began its seismic re-organization of Minor League Baseball by re-classifying the Appalachian League as an amateur summer circuit for collegians. As part of the move, all Appy League clubs lost their Major League affiliations and re-branded themselves.

The former Bluefield Orioles will be known as the Bluefield Ridge Runners when the Appalachian League returns to the field in 2021.