Altoona Rail Kings

North Atlantic League (1996)
Heartland League (1997)

Tombstone

Born: 1996 – North Atlantic League expansion franchise
Moved: October 1997 (Huntington Rail Kings)¹

First Game: June 9, 1996 (W 7-4 vs. Welland Aquaducks)
Last Game: August 23, 1998 (L 5-0 vs. Anderson Lawmen)

North Atlantic League Championships: None
Heartland League Championships: None

Stadium

Veterans Field

Marketing

Radio Station: WRTA (AM 1240)

Broadcaster: Charlie Weston

Ownership & Affiliation

Owner: Eric Reichert

Major League Affiliation: Independent

Attendance

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Print Download

Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (3rd ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 2007

Baseball in Altoona

From the Mountain City to the Curve

By Dave Finoli

For 46 days in the spring of 1884, Altoona had the honor of having a major-league baseball team, the Mountain City. For the next 115 years, despite the fact that baseball flourished here in the form of the game that the men of the Pennsylvania Railroad played, professional baseball floundered as six teams came and six teams left. Finally, in 1999, Altoona proved it could support a professional team when the Eastern League’s Curve came to town.

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Background

The Altoona Rail Kings were a low-level professional baseball team that began play in 1996, amidst the “independent” baseball boom that saw non-Major League affiliated leagues and teams sprout up all across the United States. The Rail Kings formed in early 1996 and joined one what turned out to be one of the weaker collectives in the independent baseball movement: the North Atlantic League, a six-team circuit with clubs in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Ontario.

The 1996 Rail Kings season would mark the first time a professional baseball team played a full season in Altoona since the 1911 Altoona Rams of the Tri-State League.

In Competition

The Rail Kings finished the 1996 season with a 36-42 record, good for fourth place in the North Atlantic League. Altoona’s middle infield combo of Billy Reed (2B) and Karun Jackson (shortstop) were both named to the North Atlantic League’s post-season All-Star Team, along with pitcher Ray Schmittle.

The Rail Kings’ most experienced player that summer was 31-year outfielder Eric Yelding. A former Major League first round draft pick, Yelding played parts of five seasons in the Majors between 1989 and 1993. In 1990, Yelding’s only full season in The Show, he swiped 64 bases for the Houston Astros, ranking second in the National League in steals that summer. Yelding struggled in Altoona, hitting .211 in 32 games before parting ways with the team at mid-season.

The North Atlantic League dissolved amidst franchises closures and defections to other leagues following the 1996 season. The Rail Kings eventually fled to the Heartland League in the spring of 1997 when it became clear that the North Atlantic League was no longer viable. The move radically shifted the geography of Rail Kings’ baseball and created grueling new bus trips for the players and coaches. While the North Atlantic League featured teams in New England, New York and Ontario, Altoona’s opponents in the Heartland League played in Illinois, Indiana and Tennessee.

The Rail Kings completed their second and final season with a record of 36-36. The Anderson (IL) Lawmen eliminated the Kings in a 2-game sweep in the opening round of the 1997 Heartland League playoffs.

End of the Line

The 1998 expansion of Major League Baseball into Phoenix and Tampa Bay required a follow-on expansion of the affiliated Minor Leagues at each development level. In Class AA, both expansion teams were slated to join the Eastern League for the 1999 season. One expansion club went to the Erie SeaWolves, an existing franchise that played in the lower level New York-Penn League. Erie’s promotion to Class AA left Altoona and Springfield, Massachusetts to battle for the final expansion slot. In October 1997, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge signed off on $10.8 million in public funds to build a 6,000-seat ballpark in Altoona. This tipped the battle decisively for Altoona and the city secured the final Class AA expansion team days later. The Altoona Curve began play as a farm team of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the spring of 1999 and remain a popular attraction today, nearly a quarter century later.

This sequence of events made the Rail Kings obsolete in Altoona. Rail Kings owner Eric Reichert soon announced his team would move to Huntington, West Virginia for the 1998 season. The Rail Kings floundered in Huntington and went belly up midway through the 1998 schedule. The Heartland League itself disbanded at the end of the 1998 season as well.