Erie Cardinals
Professional baseball returned to Erie, Pennsylvania after a 14-year absence in the summer of 1981. Beginning in 1976, local businessmen Dave Masi and Joe Castelli worked for five years to secure a franchise for Erie. The club secured New York-Penn League franchise and a Player Development Contract with the St. Louis Cardinals and played at Erie’s Ainsworth Field for seven summers from 1981 through 1987. The Cardinals franchise departed for Hamilton, Ontario in 1988. However, the Erie Orioles immediately replaced the departing Cardinals. Thanks to successor clubs like the Orioles, Sailors and the SeaWolves, Erie has not missed a summer of professional baseball since the Cardinals’ founding in 1981, save for the onset of the the COVID-19 pandemic that cancelled the 2020 season.
