Grand Rapids Jets

Central League (1948-1951)

Background

The Grand Rapids Jets were a minor league baseball club that competed in the Class A Central League from that organization’s formation in 1948 through the circuit’s final season during the summer of 1951.

Prior to the Jets’ arrival in the spring of 1948, the furniture city hadn’t seen men’s professional baseball since the Grand Rapids Colts of the Michigan State League played their final inning in 1941. However, Grand Rapids did have the Grand Rapids Chicks of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League who played for 10 seasons between 1945 and 1954. The Jets would share Bigelow Athletic Field with the Chicks during the summers of 1950 and 1951.

In Competition

The Central League opened its debut season with six cities in April of 1948. The Jets were one of two league members, alongside the Saginaw Bears, who failed to secure an affiliation with a Major League parent club. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Grand Rapids and Saginaw were the worst teams in the league that summer. The Jets finished in last place at 52-86, 37 games behind the Flint Arrows.

The Jets’ on-going independent status did not hurt the team’s performance in 1949 though. After a solid 3rd place finish at 70-66, the Jets caught fire in the playoffs. After knocking off 2nd place Flint in the semi-final round, the Jets bested the 4th place Charleston Senators 4 games to 2 in the finals.

In 1950 the Jets secured a player development tie-up with the Chicago Cubs which would last for their final two seasons in the Central League.

Demise and Aftermath

The Jets played their final games, a doubleheader against the Dayton Indians, at Bigelow Field on September 8th, 1951. After dropping the early game 4-0, the Indians were winning the nightcap 4-3 in the ninth inning when the field plunged into darkness. After a 30-minute delay, officials banged the rest of the game as well as the next day’s scheduled season finale. It was sad and strange ending to the Jets four-year run.

The Central League was a small congregation, never growing beyond six member clubs. With several clubs in financial straits, Central League president Thomas J. Halligan threw in the towel in February 1952. Grand Rapids went down with the ship. Halligan cited the expansion of the Detroit Tigers’ radio broadcast network into the Central League’s four Michigan member cities of Grand Rapids, Flint, Muskegon and Saginaw as one of the economic headwinds that killed the league. The Tigers reportedly rebuffed a plea from Halligan to either cease the game broadcasts or pay $40,000 to subsidize the Central League clubs.¹ASSOCIATED PRESS. “Class A Central League Decides to Suspend Operations This Year: May Resume in 1953”. The Times-Recorder (Zanesville, OH). February 6, 1952

Five months after the Central League disbanded, Bigelow Field sustained heavy damage to its clubhouses and grandstand from a fire July 1952. The stadium was not rebuilt. The disaster caused the Grand Rapids Chicks to move to a local high school field for their final two seasons before closing their doors in 1954.

After the demise of the Jets and the Chicks and the loss of Bigelow Field in the early 1950’s, professional baseball did not return to Grand Rapids until 1994. That summer saw the opening of the $6.5 million Old  Kent Park (now known as LMCU Ballpark) and the arrival of the terrifically popular West Michigan Whitecaps of the Class A Midwest League. The Whitecaps continue to play in Grand Rapids to this day.

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