New England League - Return To Professional Status

Return To Professional Status

In 1946 with the postwar baseball boom, the New England League was restored to an "affiliated" eight-team, Class B circuit, but only half the teams had ties to a major league organization. Four of the six 1945 New England League teams made the crossover to so-called organized baseball in 1946: the Pawtucket Slaters (Boston Braves), Lynn Red Sox (Boston Red Sox), Cranston Chiefs (Independent) and Lawrence Millionaires (Independent). They were joined by the Manchester Giants (New York Giants), Nashua Dodgers (Brooklyn Dodgers) and 2 other independent teams: the Portland Gulls and Fall River Indians. Its most notable member, the Nashua Dodgers, was a Brooklyn farm club where, in 1946, African-American players and future Dodger greats Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella made their debuts as part of the handful of men who broke the baseball color line. The players succeeded on the field and were very complimentary in remarks about their Nashua experience in later years. It should be noted, however, that they faced taunts and racial epithets in visiting ballparks, even though New England was far removed geographically from the supposed locus of racial tension, the Southern United States.

In 1947 the Cranston Chiefs had a working agreement with the Cincinnati Reds, and the Fall River Indians had the same arrangement with the Chicago White Sox, which basically meant those organizations provided those teams with a few players each. The still independent Lawrence Millionaires cancelled their home game against Pawtucket on July 14 and became the Lowell "Stars" the following day playing in Pawtucket, wearing the uniforms of a popular semi-pro team of the same name. A name-the-team contest never panned out, and the press began calling the team the Lowell Orphans. After August 18 they were orphans indeed, as they became a "road" team. Following the 1947 season the franchise was moved to Springfield, Massachusetts as a farm team of the Chicago Cubs, and the Springfield Cubs became the only New England League team to survive the 1949 season, as one of the Cubs' two Class AAA team from 1950-1953.

Nashua was the most successful member of the postwar league, winning three consecutive playoff championships from 1946-48. But by the middle of 1949, it became clear that the New England League was not viable. The league began the season with its usual complement of eight teams. The Providence Grays, of Cranston, Rhode Island, dropped out of the league on June 20. In mid-July the New York Yankees announced they were withdrawing their support of the Manchester, New Hampshire, team, forcing the franchise to suspend operations. The unaffiliated teams in Lynn, Massachusetts, and Fall River, Massachusetts, then also announced they were suspending operations, and on July 20, 1949, the New England League closed out their "first half" with Nashua in first place, followed in order by the other surviving teams: Pawtucket, Portland and Springfield. The "second half" season of 38 games resumed with the four remaining teams and concluded with Pawtucket in first place, followed by Portland, Springfield and Nashua. Both halves combined shows Pawtucket as the best team some 10½ games above second-place Nashua. The Brooklyn Dodgers refused to allow Nashua to participate in any playoffs, wanting to pull the plug on the Nashua operation immediately, thus giving the Portland team a much-undeserved first-round bye in the playoffs, which saw Springfield defeat Pawtucket, 2 games to 0, then Portland taking Springfield in seven games. The league's final regular-season champ was the Pawtucket Slaters, a farm club of the Boston Braves, but the Portland Pilots, a Phillies affiliate, won the playoffs, thus bookending the championship earned by the Maine city's entry in the NEL's maiden season 63 years earlier.

Too often it is written that televised major league games killed the New England League, but that is foolishness. In 1949 a black-and-white TV with a little seven-inch screen cost about a month's pay for the average worker. The two Boston and two Providence stations did show the Boston Braves and Boston Red Sox home games, but the high cost, low quality, and limited range of the broadcasts had little effect on life in 1949. Without doubt television did impact American life and minor league baseball in the 1950s as the technology and range advanced. Major League broadcasts were very limited outside major league markets; thus, the effect on minor league baseball had more to do with lifestyle changes and alternate entertainment opportunities. But consider that even at that time during most of the baseball season all television had to offer were reruns.