Red Springs, North Carolina, will most likely never be the home of minor league baseball. The small town is 23 miles southwest of Fayetteville, smack in the middle of Interstate 95 and State Road 401. However, 55 years ago, the city was the “World's Smallest Professional Baseball Town."
The town had not housed a minor league baseball team in almost twenty years. It was home to three textile mills, a weekly newspaper, a radio station, two restaurants, and no hotels. The town closed up early and was “so quiet that you could hear yourself walk.”
Why would a major league baseball team place a farm team in a town of just over 4,000 residents? Even by 1969 standards, these communities were part of minor league baseball’s past. However, it was a premonition by a baseball owner who thought it might be worth giving it another shot.
The city still retained its old minor league ballpark, built in 1942 for the Red Springs Red Robins, a team in the semi-professional Twin States League. It had been built within two months under the watchful eye of Tom Cope, a leading sportsman in the county. The 2,500-seat ballpark featured two dress rooms with hot and cold showers, men's2 and women's restrooms, concession stands, a press box, and box seats.
It was 300 feet to left and right field and 350 to center field. A green 9-foot fence surrounded the field, and wiring was installed with the hopes of adding lighting after the conclusion of World War II. A crowd of 1,500 was on hand to watch the Robins defeat the Second Regiment baseball team 11-4. Cope looked at his stadium with pride and quipped, "Best this section of the state."
The ballpark seated 2,500 and featured a playing field among the best in the league. Lights were added to the stadium before the 1947 season when the Robins joined the Class D Tobacco State League. The club affiliated itself with Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics. Improvements on the ballpark took place the following year to make it one of the most “viable and suited Class D parks in the country.”
The umpire's dressing room received new locker rooms, the team offices were refurbished, a new equipment room, a drainage system, and a new concession were installed. The ballpark received box seats from Philadelphia's Shibe Park placed at field level to increase capacity.
An assemblage of 12 local businessmen formed the Red Springs Baseball Club to increase attendance to 40,000 for the 1948 season. They did not reach that goal as the high point mark in this category was in 1949 when 33,303 fans watched games at Robbins Park. However, the club did capture the 1948 and 1949 Tobacco State League championships.
The Robins remained in the league until it dissolved in 1950 due to a shortage of skilled players available for service and the high costs of maintaining a professional league. Attendance in the loop dropped 25 percent, and most clubs operated at a loss. The organization would live on and join the semi-pro Eastern Carolina League for the 1951 season and then jump to the Strawberry League for a few seasons before disbanding in 1954.
Jump ahead to 1969, when Matt Boykin, owner of the Wilson Tobs in the Carolina League, decided to take an innovative approach. He had lost money the past 12 seasons at Fleming Stadium and relocated his club to Red Springs, a much smaller market of around 25,000 people.
It was a bold move for the Minnesota Twins affiliate in the Carolina League. Boykin was excited; he felt the small community of 4,000 people would embrace his ball club since there was nothing else to do at night. He explained in length to Sports Illustrated writer Peter Cary when he came to town in July for a story.
“This is the solution to the survival of the low minors. Last year, I had to compete with two community centers, a bowling alley, two swimming pools, five movies, and a drive-in restaurant on every corner. Here, baseball is the only thing to do, and there's a bunch of little places like this with ballparks that can be fixed over. We should forget the big towns and go to the small ones.”
At the time, Red Springs was the smallest town to host a professional baseball club. It was one-seventh the size of Newport News, home of the Peninsula Pilots, with a population of 134,000. However, interest from the area was strong; demand for tickets and advertising was brisk in the months before the start of the baseball season.
A total of 350 season tickets were ordered for $12,000, 2,500 in program ads, and $4,000 for billboard fence ads were also secured within days of announcing the team’s arrival in town. Boykin added that people would call up and demand a sign in the outfield, but when there wasn’t any space left, they would opt for an ad in the game day program.
Team manager Tom Cope, who also served as the general manager of the Red Robins during their time in Weed Loop (that is what newspapers at times referred to), helped make a lot of this happen. He sold tickets and scorecards and secured 27 businesses to place ads on the outfield walls.
The old ballpark was refurbished with $10,000 from the Office of Economic Opportunity, adding extra bleachers, a new scoreboard, fresh paint, upgraded concession stands, and a new infield. In April, the city put up a hand-painted sign at the town’s entrance on Highway 71, proudly announcing it as the world's smallest professional town.
A few days before the season opener, an open house drew 300 fans, sparking speculation that opening day would see a strong turnout for the Red Springs club. The new club sparked interest in surrounding communities, and a crowd of 3,000 was expected for the home opener.
On opening night, 2,185 people watched the Twins lose to Kinston 3-1 in 10 innings. It was the first professional game since the 1950 season and included members of the 1913-1915 ball clubs, the first professional clubs in town. The local Robenson newspaper stated that the crowd was polite and respectful until the bottom of the ninth when many returning from their cars saw the home team tie the game at one.
Crowds continued to show up for the following games, and by the 15th game of the season, attendance had reached 12,918 fans. In comparison, the club attracted 22,400 fans in Wilson for the whole season in 1968. This was highlighted when 4,157 came out to a July contest that more than doubled the size of the town’s population.
Ticket prices were 99 cents, and start times were pushed back from 7:30 to 8:00 pm to adhere to local tobacco farmers’ schedules. Many of the fans were tobacco farmers who enjoyed a relaxing night at the old ballpark after braving the hot summer heat in the tobacco fields. Cope told The (Raleigh) News and Observer why he thought crowds were high at games.
“We’ve had a lot of response from surrounding towns. There was no city within a hundred miles of us with a pro team; we feel we can draw well from this whole area.”
However, playing in such a small town had its downsides, primarily felt by the players. Most of them lived in an old Victorian mansion, with limited activities available within a 30-mile radius.
There was only one television station that came in somewhat clearly during the day and at night; the majority of religious programs and beer had to be purchased across the county lines, and there was almost no social life for players at night.
When the season was over, the ball club sported a 57-84 record and attracted 40,332 fans for 66 games, for an average of 572 fans a game. At the time, an average rate of 450 was considered good for the league, and Red Springs attracted about 17 percent of its population. They doubled the input of Burlington’s 22,000 and were almost even with Lynchburg’s number of 42,286 from a population of 54,000.
Sadly, that would be the final season for minor league baseball in Red Springs. The Minnesota Twins relocated the club to Lynchburg after the Chicago White Sox pulled out of town. Cope was surprised by the decision, according to a 1970 report in the Charlotte Observer.
“The people from Minnesota gave us every indication that we were doing fine. We were not told that we were lacking in any way.”
George Brophy, Minnesota’s assistant director of minor league operations, was quoted in the same article saying the reason for leaving Red Springs was that the young players didn’t like it there.
“It was tough for them to find places to live, even tougher to turn something up in the afternoons, you can go down to the barbershop and watch haircuts for entertainment.”
It was 13 miles across the county line to purchase beer in a can or on tap, 16 miles to the nearest motel, and the local cafe had to stay open late on game nights to serve post-game meals to both clubs.
Player Danny Monzon was one of the players who seemed to enjoy his time that summer. He remembers hanging out at the local stores downtown to talk baseball with people who were true fanatics of the game. He also added that Robbins Park was a bad place to play.
There was hope that the town would reach an agreement with another parent team in either the Carolina or Western Carolinas leagues, but no other organization was interested in placing a team in Red Springs. Boykin turned a profit in town and even turned down the general manager position with the Twins affiliate in Orlando. Perhaps even a few businesses felt somewhat bitter with Boykin about the club’s demise.
Baseball continued at Robbins Park with Little League, Junior League, and Senior League ball. Pembroke State University of the North Carolina Collegiate Summer League used the ballpark after its playing field was turned into a parking lot in 1973. By this time, the stadium had a capacity of 2,000, and the lights were no longer in minor league condition.
By the mid-1980s, the grandstand would be razed. The outline of the ball field is still visible and perhaps part of the original fencing as well. The site of baseball dating over 80 years is now called Tom Cope Memorial Park, the town’s major baseball guru who passed away in 1975. It is home to the Red Springs High School Red Devils baseball team and is considered by a few as one of the best high school fields in the state.
Even if the Twins decided to remain in Red Springs, who knows how long the minor leagues would have lasted. Still, the fan and business support was strong enough that there could have been another year. It was most likely the last of its kind. If the grandstand remained, it would be prime for a franchise in the Old North State League.
For one season in 1969, Red Springs was the smallest professional baseball town. A fleeting moment that resulted in blackberries growing in parts of the outfield only a year later. It has been 55 years since the Red Springs Twins walked off the field at Robins Park, but it was an interesting experiment during minor league baseball's speculative days.
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Follow all of Marc’s stadium journeys on Twitter @ballparkhunter and his YouTube channel. Email at Marc.Viquez@stadiumjourney.com
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