Springfield Ponies was the primary name of minor league baseball teams based in Springfield, Massachusetts that played between 1893 and 1943. The team competed as the Ponies through its history except for single seasons as the Maroons (1895), Tips (1915), and Green Sox (1917); and three seasons each as the Rifles (1932, 1942–1943) and Nationals (1939–1941). The team played its home games at Pynchon Park (also known as Hampden Park).
7-519: The team was a member of several baseball leagues, including three that were known as the Eastern League. The team's longest tenure was in the second Eastern League , in which it played from 1916 to 1932. During most of its history, the team had no farm-team arrangement with a Major League Baseball team, as much of its history predated formal affiliations. When operating as the Rifles, the team
14-553: A year in which the team's nickname was not Ponies: 1895 as Maroons, 1915 as Tips, 1917 as Green Sox, 1939–1941 as Nationals, and 1932/1942/1943 as Rifles. Eastern League (1916) The Eastern League was a Minor League Baseball sports league that operated from 1916 through mid-season of 1932. The successor to an early 20th-century edition of the New England League , it was not related to two other like-named leagues: an earlier Eastern League founded in 1884 that
21-482: The Eastern League admitted teams from Pennsylvania and Virginia . The league consisted of eight teams annually during its existence. The New Haven franchise, owned and operated by George Weiss during 1919–1929, won four of the league's 17 championships, although under multiple nicknames. Weiss would go on to a Baseball Hall of Fame career as a top executive with the New York Yankees . This edition of
28-520: The Ponies in 1897. Prior to 1893, teams from Springfield competed in six minor league seasons, each in a different league: These early teams were simply known as Springfield or the Springfields. The teams of 1879, 1885 and 1887 failed to complete their seasons. The following table lists each season between 1893 and 1943, when teams from Springfield competed primarily as the Ponies. † designates
35-509: The team's managers were later inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in recognition of their major-league playing careers: Roger Connor (manager in 1902–1903), Billy Hamilton (manager in 1914), and Rabbit Maranville (manager in 1941). Two fellow inductees played for Springfield late in their careers: Dan Brouthers (1896–1899) and Jim O'Rourke (1903, 1907). Brouthers had a .415 batting average in 126 games for
42-816: Was absorbed into the International League , and a later Eastern League that began as the New York–Pennsylvania League in 1923. The Eastern League of 1916–1932 was a mid- or higher classification league, beginning in 1916 as a Class B circuit and upgraded to Class A in 1919. Its president, Tim Murnane , a former sportswriter, and many of its original member clubs were inherited from the New England League, which ceased operation in 1915. While most of its teams were centered in New England and upstate New York , in its later years
49-701: Was affiliated for one season with the New York Yankees (1932) and for one season with the New York Giants (1943). When operating as the Nationals, it was affiliated with the Washington Nationals for the 1939 season. The team finished atop league standings three times at the end of a full regular season (1895, 1908, 1911) and once at the end of a truncated regular season (1932). The team won playoff series twice (1895 and 1927), although it played mostly in leagues without postseasons. Three of
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