By Tom Bone
For The Register-Herald
BLUEFIELD —
The Baltimore Orioles have operated a minor-league club in Bluefield for 53 consecutive years, probably a baseball record.
There will be no 54th.
Tripp Norton, assistant director for player development for the Baltimore franchise, announced at a news conference Saturday that the Orioles are reducing the number of their minor-league teams and are cutting out their local outpost.
The Bluefield Orioles will, for practical purposes, cease to exist when the Appalachian League regular season ends on Tuesday. The Orioles’ last games will be against their local rival, the Princeton Rays, in a doubleheader that will begin at 6 p.m. at Bowen Field.
“While it’s extremely difficult, we believe the decision to end our affiliation with Bluefield is in the best interest of the franchise, moving forward,” Norton read from a statement credited to the organization’s president of baseball operations, Andy McPhail.
“The history of Orioles baseball is not complete without Bluefield, and we have enormous respect and gratitude for the club and the community that helped launch the careers of legends such as Cal Ripken Jr. and Boog Powell,” Norton read.
Norton added his own comments. “It’s been really, really great. The way this community has treated our players (and) opened your homes and your hearts to them, that’s really an important part of our player development process,” he said.
He said the Orioles currently have seven minor league affiliates in the United States. Among their rookie-level teams, he said, “We’re going to cut back to just having just Aberdeen (Md.) in the New York-Penn League and Sarasota (Fla.) in the Gulf Coast League.”
He said, “With Aberdeen and its proximity to Baltimore, and with Sarasota, the new complex down there that’s going up, a $33 million renovation, we feel that those are the best two places for us to continue to develop our players.”
George McGonagle, president of the Bluefield Baseball Club that operates minor league baseball in Bluefield, and Appalachian League President Lee Landers said Saturday at the news conference that they have been working with other major league teams to find an immediate replacement for the Orioles and keep a Bluefield team in the Appy League.
“We met with a club yesterday (Friday) in Bluefield,” McGonagle said. “It’s something we don’t want to jump at real quick. Of course, the decision will be made by the board of directors of the Bluefield Baseball Club.”
“It’s been a week that I’d rather not have had,” McGonagle said.
Landers said, “I will do everything in my power to make sure that the league stays in Bluefield. That process has started.”
He called the Bluefield Orioles franchise and those who ran it “the pillars of the Appalachian League.”
His reaction to the Baltimore decision was, “It’s a loss. ... But we hope it’s a new beginning. We will work very hard with everybody to make it happen. And it will happen.”
Bluefield Mayor Linda Whalen said, “Certainly we’re very disappointed and sad that they (the Orioles) feel they have to end their relationship with Bluefield. ... I know the Bluefield Baseball Club has done everything it can to make the program successful for many, many years.
“This is not a reflection on the Bluefield Orioles,” she said. “This happens to be a financial decision made by the main office in Baltimore.”
McPhail’s statement included the comment, “On behalf of the Orioles, I wish to express our deepest appreciation to the town and residents of Bluefield for their support of the Orioles organization and over a thousand players who have worn the Bluefield Orioles uniform in the last 53 seasons. ...
“We hope and expect that the next organization in Bluefield enjoys as long and as productive a relationship as we have enjoyed.”
Norton said the link between Bluefield and Baltimore was a “historic” one. “It’s been the longest relationship between a major-league club and an affiliate in all of baseball,” he said. “We’re proud to be part of that distinction — and we’re real sorry that it’s over.”
Among the Bluefield Orioles who went on to prominence in Baltimore are two members of baseball’s Hall of Fame, Ripken and Eddie Murray.
— E-mail: tbone@
bdtonline.com
