Utica Blue Sox

Did You Know?

• Acclaimed author and journalist Roger Kahn wrote about his year as a part owner of the team for the 1983 championship season.
• Kahn's book about the team, Good Enough to Dream, was published in 1985.

History

Baseball arrived in Utica in 1878. The city had a team in the New York State League from 1899 until 1917, then went without professional baseball until 1939, with one exception: in 1924, the Utica Utes of an earlier New York–Pennsylvania League moved to Oneonta in the middle of the season. The first team to carry the Blue Sox name traces back to the Utica Braves, a Class C Canadian–American League club created when Amby McConnell and Father Harold Martin relocated the Auburn Bouleys to Utica.

The Braves began as a Boston Braves farm team in 1939 and kept that nickname through 1942, also affiliating with the Detroit Tigers in 1941 and the Springfield Rifles in 1942. In 1943, Utica jumped to the Class A Eastern League and became a Philadelphia Phillies affiliate. The Blue Sox nickname appeared in 1944, inspired by the Phillies’ unofficial “Philadelphia Blue Jays” label. During the 1940s, the Blue Sox played at McConnell Field in the northern part of the city, named for the owner and former local pro player.

Many Blue Sox from that era later formed the Whiz Kids, the 1950 National League champion Phillies. Future Philadelphia stars included Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn, who arrived in Utica as a catcher but was shifted to center field within a month by manager Eddie Sawyer to take advantage of his speed. Stan Lopata and Granny Hamner also played for both Utica and Philadelphia in the late 1940s. Sawyer, who managed the Blue Sox in 1945 and 1947 before managing the Phillies for seven more years, once said, “We had great ballclubs in a bad ballpark.”

Ashburn recalled the unusual field layout, with center field facing west: “The sun would set over it. I never got a hit up there in the first five innings in 150 games, and I still hit .300.” Murnane Field was regarded as one of the worst layouts in the New York–Penn League, with right field sloping sharply downhill by the time it reached the fence. The Blue Sox name was revived in the Short-Season A New York–Penn League. A new franchise began in 1977 as the Utica Blue Jays, playing at Murnane Field and serving as the first affiliate in the Toronto Blue Jays organization from 1977 to 1980.

That team included Toronto’s first-ever draft pick, Tom Goffena, as well as future major leaguers Jesse Barfield, David Wells, and Paul Hodgson.