Construction begins
Scranton Stadium

Scranton Pennsylvania


Photographs courtesy of
Nicholas E. Petula
"A History of Scranton Professional Baseball"

and the Lackawanna Historical Society
Running out of players, the 1945 Miners had to turn to a 16 year old (future Red Sox and Senators 12 year MLB veteran) Mickey McDermott (2-5, 3.39) and 18 year old future Yankees' Jim McDonald (7-3, 2.45) to hold down the fort until the big boys came home. The kids actually managed to keep the Miners near .500 as they finished with a 67-69 record. By 1946... the war was over. The players came home and the Miners decided it was time to change their name back to the Scranton Red Sox... a team which had made the playoffs every season it played in Scranton thus far. Those 1946 Scranton Red Sox would go down in history as one of the top 100 greatest Minor League teams in history. The 1946 team was led by Tommy Fine (23-3, 2.08) who had the best pitching performance in the history of this stadium. Little Mickey McDermott... now all of 17 returned and with a real team behind him, was superb going 16-6 with a 3.29 ERA. Future Boston Red Sox 4 time All-Star and 2 time 20 game winner Mel Parnell was unhittable going 13-4 with a record breaking 1.30 ERA. Don Carter put up a tremendous 15-7, 3.19 record and future Philadelphia Phillies' Jocko Thompson did a fine job holding up the back end of the rotation going 13-7 with a 2.60 ERA. At the plate, future 10 year MLB veteran of the Red Sox and Senators' Sam Mele was terrific batting .342 with 18 doubles, 18 triples and 6 home runs. Future Senators' Al Kozar provided some pop batting .316 with 22 doubles and a tying record 9 homers. Michael Ovaduke was also excellent batting .290 with 14 doubles, 12 triples and 8 homers.