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.
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