Tombstone
Born: 1946 – Western League founding franchise
Affiliation Change: 1958 (Pueblo Bruins)
First Game: May 1, 1947 (L 8-7 vs. Des Moines Bruins)
Last Game: September 15, 1957 (W 6-2 @ Colorado Springs Sky Sox)
Western League Champions: 1947 & 1949
Stadium
Ownership & Affiliation
Owner: Samuel T. Jones, Jr., et al.
Major League Affiliation: Brookyln Dodgers
Background
The Pueblo Dodgers were a Colorado-based farm club of the Brooklyn Dodgers for eleven seasons between 1947 and 1957. Pueblo was one of six founding members of the Class A Western League in 1947, initially competing against ball clubs from Iowa and Nebraska. The Denver Bears also provided an in-state rival. Over the years, the Western League grew to include clubs for Kansas, New Mexico and Texas as well.
Notable Names
During the circuit’s debut season, Pueblo won the Western League championship with a 4 games to 1 playoff victory over the Sioux City Soos. Future Hall-of-Famer Walt Alston managed Pueblo that summer. Alston would later go on to manager the Brooklyn/L.A. Dodgers to four World Series titles between 1955 and 1965.
Other notables who passed through Pueblo on the way to the Major League stardom included:
- Pitcher Clem Labine (Pueblo ’48)
- Pitcher Roy Face won 23 games for Pueblo in 1951 and later became a National League All-Star and World Series champion (1960) with the Pittsburgh Pirates
- First baseman Jim Gentile (Pueblo ’53-’54)
- Shortstop Maury Wills (Pueblo ’53 & ’56), a perennial All-Star who would go on to win the 1962 National League Most Valuable Player award as a Los Angeles Dodger
- 20-year old infielder Sparky Anderson (Pueblo ’54)
- 6-time Major League All-Star catcher John Roseboro (Pueblo ’55)
- Pitcher Larry Sherry (Pueblo ’56) would be named Most Valuable Player of the L.A. Dodgers 1959 World Series victory over the Chicago White Sox
Like Alston, Sparky Anderson would go on to earn induction to the National Baseball Hall-of-Fame as a field manager.
Demise
The Chicago Cubs replaced the Dodgers as Pueblo’s parent club for the 1958 season, resulting in a name change to the Pueblo Bruins. As the Dodgers had before them, Cubs also sent excellent prospects to Pueblo in 1958, including future Hall-of-Famer Billy Williams. But the Western League went out of business in early 1959, a victim of the massive contraction of the minor league system in the late 1950’s and 1960’s.
Links
Western League Programs
##
4 Responses
My husbands grandpa player with the Pueblo Dodgers team, was wondering where we could find information on him and his time with them he’s always talking about his wonderful past times and love of baseball and has passed it on to not only my husband, his grandson, but our kids his great grandkids!
Don’t know if I can answer many of your questions. I was pretty young back then. My father was the general manager for several years and would broadcast their games. I’m now 75 and was less than 10 when all this took place.
Gary Beatty ([email protected])
I have a pencil from 1951. Would any one be interested in it.
I found a 1953 Pueblo Dodgers official score book in my dad’s keepsake book. Any idea of who might be interested in something like this? It’s pretty cool. It’s in great shape. It cost 10 cents back in the day!