I’ve always loved baseball and know
quite a bit about it, but one thing I never knew about was the Denver Bears
baseball team. I thought I’d do a little
bit of a research project, then I happened to receive a Denver Bears shirt as a
gift, so I knew for sure I needed to do this.
I found out that Denver had various
teams over the years back to 1885. In
1955, Denver upgraded to a Triple-A team as the Denver Bears and started out as
an affiliate of the New York Yankees. This happened because the Kansas City Blues
were forced to relocate after the American League's Philadelphia Athletics
moved to Kansas City, Missouri, to become the Kansas City Athletics. Denver had no connection to the original
Blues, so because of the new location in the Rockies, the team became known as
Bears
The Bears played at what became known later as
Mile High Stadium the home of the NFL Denver Broncos, but it was originally
known as Bears Stadium, after the team. When Bears Stadium opened it held 16,000
and it was enlarged to 25,000 in 1963 and expanded through the years until it
reached a capacity of 76,000 in 1977. This ballpark was one of the largest
venues in history to host minor league baseball on a routine basis. The biggest
crowds were on 4th of July fireworks nights typically Crowds of
45,000 and more watched the fireworks games. On July 4, 1982, the Bears drew
65,666 for the annual Fireworks Game, a minor league record for a single game. Mile
High Stadium remained the home of Denver baseball until the opening of Coors
Field in 1995.
The Bears won the American
Association championship multiple times in 1971, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1983.and
1991 as the Zephers They also won the 1991 Triple-A Classic
In 1957, the Bears were affiliated
with the New York Yankees and under manager Ralph Houk won the American
Association championship and the Junior World Series. Many players would later
reach the majors and play in the World Series. In 1960, then as a Detroit farm club, they
finished first, but lost in the playoff finals. They had two League MVPs early
on including Marv Throneberry in 1956 and Steve Boros in 1960
The Denver Bears had some good
teams from the 1970s to the mid-1980s, producing such players as Andre Dawson,
Tim Wallach, Tim Raines, Graig Nettles, Terry Francona, Wallace Johnson, Danny
Morris, and Bill Gullickson. Denver players Richie Scheinblum (1971), Cliff
Johnson (1973), Roger Freed (1976), Frank Ortenzio (1977), and Randy Bass
(1980) were league MVPs. The managing careers of both Billy Martin and Felipe
Alou began with the Bears.
In 1984, the team name was changed
to the Denver Zephyrs, after the famous passenger train. Barry Larkin was
league MVP in 1986 along with Greg Vaughn in 1989, Jim Olander in 1991 and Jim
Tatum in 1992. Their only championship
under the new nickname was the 1991 American Association title They went on to
win the 1991 Triple-A Classic against the International League's Columbus
Clippers, 4–1.
The team remained in the American
Association through the 1992 season. In
1993, After 39 seasons of play, the Zephyrs relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana
where they continued as the New Orleans Zephyrs. The team made way for the
National League Colorado Rockies expansion team.
Over the years The Bears were
affiliates of many teams including
Milwaukee Brewers (1987–1992)
Cincinnati Reds (1985–1986)
Chicago White Sox (1983–1984)
Texas Rangers (1982)
Montreal Expos (1976–1981)
Chicago White Sox (1975)
Houston Astros (1973–1974)
Texas Rangers (1972)
Washington Senators (1970–1971)
Minnesota Twins (1965–1969)
Milwaukee Braves (1963–1964)
Detroit Tigers (1960–1962)
Unaffiliated (1959)
New York Yankees (1955–1958)
Some famous baseball people that
played or managed for the bears were
Andre Dawson
Bob Uecker
Johnny Pesky
Ralph Houk
Sam Suplizio
Terry Francona
Tim Raines
Tim Wallach
Tom Lasorda
Tony La Russa
Whitey Herzog
Billy Martin
Felipe Alou
I learned a lot about the Bears,
but what I found most interesting was the 1980 Denver Bears team that was
picked as number 37 of the Top 100 Teams in minor league history. The 1980
Bears were a member of the Montreal Expos family. They were part of the
American Association and they won the West Division crown and finished with a
Record of 92-44, .676, 21.5 games better than Oklahoma City
On April 19, eight days after the season
opened, they took over first place and remained there until they clinched the
title two weeks before the end of the season. The Bears were really good at
Mile High Stadium, winning 21 consecutive home games in mid-season. In May, in
one 19-game stretch, Denver pitchers had a 1.99 ERA and hurled 31 consecutive
scoreless innings. Denver led the
American Association in batting by a 17-point margin over Oklahoma City, .296
to .279. They also led in runs (865), hits (1,383), total bases (2,146),
doubles (231), home runs (146), RBI (806) and walks (567). The pitching staff
ERA was edged out by Springfield, 3.86 to 3.87, but led the league in shutouts
with 14. In the playoff, Denver met East Division winner Springfield. The Bears were upended, four games to one.
Some of the important people that
season were
Billy Gardner The Bears were
managed by 53-year-old former major league infielder. He played for ten years in the majors
(1954-63) with the Giants, Orioles, Senators, Twins, Yankees and Red Sox,
batting .237. Gardner managed Minnesota and Kansas City later on in his career.
20-year-old second baseman Tim Raines, beat
out Oklahoma City’s Orlando Gonzalez by .0002, .3543 to .3541. for The American
Association batting title. He also set a
league record by stealing 77 bases. which would have been higher, but he spent
18 days with Montreal in July-August. He was chosen as The Sporting News Minor
League Player of the Year. In 1981 he moved up to the majors where he stayed
for 19 years, the first ten with Montreal.
Designated Hitter Randy Bass (.333)
completed the Triple Crown for the Bears, leading the league in home runs (37)
and RBI (143), as well as in runs scored (106) and slugging percentage (.644).
His home run total topped the minors. He
was voted the American Associations Most Valuable Player and was the National
Associations Minor League player of the Year. He then went to Japan where he
starred for 5 seasons for the Hanshin Tigers of the Central League. He won the
Triple Crown in 1985 and 1986
Shortstop Jerry Manuel (.277)
didn’t make much of a mark as a major league player, but he was a very successful
manager. He was appointed manager of the
Chicago White Sox on December 4, 1997 and managed them for 6 seasons followed
by 3 seasons with the New York Mets
Third baseman Tim Wallach hit
.281-36-124, led the American Association in total bases (295) and was second
to Bass in homers, RBI and slugging percentage (.576). He was Montreal’s first round selection in the
June 1979 free agent draft after a stellar collegiate career at Cal State
Fullerton. He was the Expos third
baseman for 12 years. In 17 major
league seasons he batted .257 in 2,212 games.
There were nine .300 hitters in the
American Association and Denver had four of them. In addition to Raines and
Bass were center fielder Art Gardner (.317) and right fielder Dan Briggs (.316).
Both later made it to the major leagues.
Denver’s leading pitcher was
26-year-old right-hander Steve Ratzer (15-4, 3.59) who led the league in wins
and win percentage (.789). He started the season in the bullpen and was a
perfect 6-0 with two saves before moving into the starting rotation where he
went 9-4. He was chosen as the American Association Pitcher of the Year, He
made only a brief appearance in the majors for Montreal in 1980-81.
Right-hander Bill Gullickson. He started the season going 6-2, 1.91 with
five complete games and two shutouts in nine starts, striking out 64 and
walking 29 in 66 innings. On May 30 he was promoted to Montreal and finished
the season with a 10-5, 3.00 record, winning nine of his last eleven starts. He finished his major league career with a
record of 162-136, 3.93.
The Bears top reliever was
27-year-old, 5’8’’ left-hander Jamie Easterly who had a 9-8, 3.63 record with
15 saves. He pitched 13 years in the majors with a 23-33, 4.62 record and 14
saves.
Jim Burris was the executive Vice
President-General Manager. He was named The Sporting News Minor League
Executive of the Year. He had been president of the American Association in
1961-62 before it suspended operation and had been the Bears GM since 1965.
Denver placed seven players on the
14-man American Associations All-Star team: Raines, Manuel, Wallach, Bass, Art
Gardner, Briggs and Ratzer. The Bears swept the Topps American Association
Player of the Month awards: pitcher Hal Dues in May, Wallach in June, Raines in
July and Bass in August.
Tim Raines and Randy Bass helped
the 1980 Denver Bears win the regular season championship with ease. and helped
the team compile the American Association’s best record in the last 60 years.
If you want to read more about the Denver Bears and the 1980
team Here’s a link
Top 100 Teams | MiLB.com History | The Official Site of Minor League Baseball
