The Richmond Virginians was the name of a minor league baseball franchise that played in Richmond, Virginia , from 1954 through 1964. The team competed at the Triple-A level as members of the International League , and were affiliated with the New York Yankees for nine of their 11 seasons.
16-736: The minor-league Virginians were the transplanted version of the International League edition of the Baltimore Orioles , who were uprooted from their Maryland home when the St. Louis Browns of Major League Baseball transferred there for the 1954 season. (The 1954 transfer was the second time the Orioles had moved to the Virginia capital. The Orioles played there during 1915–1917 when the Federal League ,
32-556: A championship spree, seldom seen in major or minor league baseball ever since. Featuring another future Hall-of-Fame pitcher in Lefty Grove , the Orioles improved on that in 1920 by winning 110 games, including the last 25 of the season. In 1921 , the Orioles won 27 straight games (a record for consecutive victories by a minor league team that would stand until the Salt Lake City Trappers won 29 in 1987 ). The Orioles won
48-605: The 100 greatest minor league teams of all time . After the 1953 season, the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore and took the name of the Baltimore Orioles. The last minor league/International League Orioles team (of 1916–1953) re-located to Richmond (coincidentally just as had the earlier Orioles team in 1914), this time as the Richmond Virginians from 1954 to 1964, later relocating as today's Toledo Mud Hens franchise in northwest Ohio since 1965. The Orioles won
64-682: The Boston Red Sox ) later in the 1914 season and many of his other players, and eventually temporarily relocate the team to Richmond, Virginia , as the Richmond Climbers , for the 1915 and 1916 seasons. After the Federal League's demise, Dunn returned with an Orioles team in 1916. This team, later in the 1919 I.L. Baseball Season won the International League pennant with 100 victories, the first team to win that many games and went on
80-681: The Double-A Eastern League with the creation of the Richmond Flying Squirrels —formerly the Connecticut Defenders of Norwich, Connecticut —an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants . Baltimore Orioles (minor league) The city of Baltimore, Maryland , has been home to two Minor League Baseball teams called the Baltimore Orioles , in addition to the three Major League Baseball teams that have used
96-484: The " Junior World Series " that year, four games to two, against Louisville . Six years later, with the shackles of war-time baseball cast off, in 1950, under manager Nick Cullop , Baltimore won the league championship again, only to lose the "Junior World Series" to the Columbus Red Birds of Ohio, four games to one. In 2001, the Orioles teams of 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, and 1924 were recognized as being among
112-690: The 1964 season, the Virginians were transferred to Toledo, Ohio , and were renamed as the Toledo Mud Hens . Richmond was without baseball in 1965, but gained its longtime IL franchise, the Richmond Braves , when the Atlanta Crackers transferred there the following season. After 43 seasons in Richmond, the club moved to Gwinnett County, Georgia , for the 2009 campaign. In 2010, Virginia's capital joined
128-491: The Eastern League (renamed the International League in 1911 , and not to be confused with the present day 'Double AA' level, minor league Eastern League ). This Orioles team stayed mediocre for the first few years of its existence, but after the arrival of Jack Dunn (1872–1928), as manager, it won the Eastern League pennant in 1908 . This E.L./I.L. Orioles team played at the old American League Park (a.k.a. Oriole Park) at
144-564: The League by 20 games over the second place team, and had a home record of 70 wins and 18 losses. Despite their impressive record, however, they lost the " Little World Series " to the American Association's champion Louisville Colonels , 4 games to 1. The Orioles actually led the fourth game, 12–4, but a riot broke out among the Louisville home crowd in the top of the 9th inning, and the game
160-663: The major league team, but the club's attendance figures were usually in the bottom tier of the league. At one point, the Virginians were the only minor league affiliate of the Yankees allowed to keep their nickname instead of adopting the Yankees name. For instance, the Columbus Confederate Yankees , based in Columbus, Georgia , were forced to adopt the "Yankees" name, but made use of the Confederate flag on its uniforms. After
176-609: The name (the first of which played in the American Association in 1882 to 1891, then joined the National League from 1892 to 1899, the second being the American League charter franchise which played for two seasons in 1901 and 1902, and the modern AL team since April 1954.) "Orioles" is a traditional name for baseball clubs in Baltimore, after the state bird of Maryland , with the colors of black and orange/gold/yellow. It
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#1732847871489192-505: The old 1922 football bowl of Municipal Stadium on 33rd Street Boulevard (also known as "Baltimore Stadium"), the team seemed to have a hard time recovering from that loss, playing lackluster ball through the rest of the season and losing their last game, only to strangely "back into the championship" when the second place team, the Newark Bears , also lost their recent games. The Orioles, under manager Alphonse "Tommy" Thomas , went on to win
208-572: The outlaw "third major league", chased them temporarily from Baltimore.) The Virginians were unaffiliated with a major league farm system during 1954 and 1955, and—despite being managed by a Hall of Famer , Luke Appling —they wallowed at the bottom of league standings. The team's fortunes improved in 1956, when it affiliated with the New York Yankees . The Virginians, the Yankees' sole Triple-A farm club after 1958, sent several key players (including Tom Tresh , Al Downing and Joe Pepitone ) to
224-517: The southwest corner of Greenmount Avenue and 29th Street in the Waverly neighborhood of northeast Baltimore. The 1914 season featured the professional debut of local son, George Herman "Babe" Ruth , but competition from the Baltimore Terrapins of the new Federal League challenge for major league status, with their more modern steel-beamed ballpark across the street, forced Dunn to sell Ruth (to
240-718: Was forfeited to Baltimore, 9–0. The I.L. Orioles continued to roll over International League opposition for several more seasons straight through to the 1925 Baseball Season . The team entered the Governors' Cup playoffs in the International circuit in 1936, 1937, and 1940, but did not win another pennant until the "war year" of 1944 . The team was leading the League on July 4 of that year, when their home wooden and steel beamed stadium, Oriole Park (formerly Terrapin Park of 1914), burned down. Even after relocating several blocks northwest to
256-526: Was used by major league teams representing the city from 1882 through 1899 in the old American Association and the original National League two decades after its founding in 1876, and by a charter team franchise member of the new American League from 1901 through 1902. The original American League franchise was replaced by a team in New York City in 1903 and eventually became known as the New York Yankees . In 1903 , an Oriole minor league team joined
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