Shenk: How 'bout those Wilmington Blue Rocks?

History of original Wilmington Blue Rocks

By Larry (Baron) Shenk

Philadelphia Phillies

Wilmington sportsman Bob Carpenter had a vision of bringing minor league ball to his hometown. A January 1939 meeting at Shibe Park with owner/manager Connie Mack of the Philadelphia A’s helped bring the vision to life. The A’s would provide the players if Carpenter built a ballpark.

A plot of land at 30th Street and Governor Printz Blvd. was selected as the location for the new ballpark, Wilmington Park. It was ready for opening day of the 1940 Class B Inter-State League. The league expanded from four teams the previous season to eight and Carpenter was awarded a franchise known as the Wilmington Blue Rocks.

Carpenter served as president; Mr. Mack, vice president and his son, Roy, treasurer. The Blue Rocks name is attributed to the blue granite found along the Brandywine River. The name was chosen out of 5,000 entities in 1940.

It was submitted by Robert W. Miller, who lived in Wilmington, according to Elbert Chance’s book on the Blue Rocks. Wilmington was an affiliate of the Philadelphia Athletics from 1940-43 and the Phillies, 1944-52.

The Blue Rocks won their May 1 inaugural game, 3-1, over the Trenton Senators. Chief Bender, the outstanding pitcher on Mack’s staff, 1902-17, was the first manager.

Following the 1943 National League season, the Carpenter family purchased the Phillies. The Blue Rocks then became a Phillies minor league team. When the Inter-State League disbanded in 1952, the Blue Rocks franchise dissolved.

Wilmington was without a minor league team until 1993 when the Peninsula Pilots franchise was purchased by Frank Boulton and Bud Harrelson and moved to Delaware. The “new” Blue Rocks of the Class A Carolina League have been one of the most successful minor league franchises.

Wilmington Park

In addition to the Blue Rocks, the park was home to the University of Delaware Blue Hens football team (1940-52) and the Wilmington Clippers, a minor league football team. It also hosted the Inter-State League’s first All-Star Game, 1940. Boxing matches were held there, too.

The capacity for baseball was 7,000. Original dimensions: 355 to left, 420 to centre and 370 to right. Home plate was relocated in 1944, 324-439-369, but the park still played huge.

Many big-league exhibition games were played there, including a 1955 spring training game, with the Phillies hosting the Yankees. Phillies outfielders Del Ennis and Richie Ashburn were injured in a collision. Ennis broke a leg, Ashburn sprained his left knee which ended his club-record consecutive game streak at 731 games, a record that still stands.

The park was demolished in 1963.

Alumni

Outfielder Elmer Valo was the best A’s prospect to play in Wilmington, winning the batting title in 1940 (.364). He wound up playing 20 years in the majors, a career that included the A’s (15 seasons) and Phillies (2).

Best of the Phillies were pitchers Curt Simmons and Robin Roberts. Simmons went right from high school in 1947 to the Blue Rocks where he was 13-5. His pro debut on June 20 drew a record crowd of 7,062. After a 9-1 debut with the Blue Rocks the next year, Roberts was promoted to the majors. He won 286 games and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976.

Simmons and Roberts anchored the staff on the 1950 Whiz Kids who won the NL pennant. Two other teammates also played in Wilmington, second baseman Mike Goliat (1948) and Bob Miller (1951) when he was recovering from an injury.

Many more had brief careers in the majors.

One was outfielder Ed Sanicki who belted 33 home runs in 1946 and led the league with a franchise-record 37 the following year. He had limited appearances with the Phillies over two seasons, 1949 (13 a-bats) and 1951 (4). He is in the Phillies record book for hitting a home run in his first big-league at-bat as a pinch-hitter.

Spring Training

During World War II, the Office of Defense Transportation mandated that ball teams would hold spring training near their homes in order to conserve rail transportation, 1943-44-45.

In 1943, the A’s trained at Wilmington Park and the Phillies in Hershey, Penn. With Carpenter owning the Phillies, they held spring training in Wilmington, 1944-45. The Hotel Dupont was the spring training headquarters.

Memories

“As a kid I remember going to games but that was a few decades ago. Saw Simmons and Roberts pitch. You could easily tell they were going to be special big leaguers. They had an outfielder named Ed Sanicki, a right-handed hitter with power. There were stories that some of his massive home runs bounced off the Boulevard into a car dealer’s showroom window cracking the window. Dad paid for a few broken windows,” Ruly Carpenter, former Phillies owner.

“I remember my dad taking me to games when I was 5-6 years old. About the third inning, I was ready to go home. Five-six years later it was a different story. I became a huge fan. Saw Simmons in his first pro year. Then Roberts. He overmatched hitters and went right to the majors. Bob Carpenter signed a lot of players to big bonuses after he bought the Phillies. Most of them came to Wilmington rather than Terra Haute or other teams. He wanted to see them firsthand. There was also a local kid on the Rocks for a few years, Bill Jankowski. Saw him play many times” Lou Romanoli, University of Delaware infielder and perennial Delaware Semi-Pro League All-Star.

“Our family didn’t live far from Wilmington Park so I walked there to see the Blue Rocks. The best of all to watch, of course, in the late 1940s were pitchers Roberts, and before him Simmons. The Philadelphia Athletics trained in Wilmington during World War II and at one A’s game I sat close to a legend, Connie Mack, already in his 80s and nearing the end of a 50-year career, managing his A’s from a grandstand seat,” Harry Themal, retired News Journal editor.