The New Orleans Pelicans baseball team was founded in 1887, joining the Southern Association in 1901. From 1915 to 1957, The Pelicans played their home games at Heinemenn Park, later known as Pelicans Stadium. For 2 seasons, the Pelicans played in City Park Stadium, later known as Tad Gormley Stadium, until the team was moved to Little Rock at the end of the 1959 season.
The Pelicans won the Southern Association in 1910 behind "Shoeless" Joe Jackson's league-leading .354 batting average. In 1926, the great Satchel Paige finished his season pitching for the "black" Pelicans team. Evidently, there was concurrent to the "white" and "black" Pelicans teams a "creole" Pelicans team as well. In the '50's, the Pelicans were coached by future Pittsburg Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh. Other notable Pelicans players included Hall-of-Famers Dazzy Vance, Joe Sewell, Bob Lemon, and Earl Weaver.
In 1977, the Pelicans’ name resurfaced with the former triple-A Tulsa Oilers spending a single season playing home games in the Superdome. Affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals, the team included future World Series heroes Tony LaRussa and Dane Iorg.
The following UNO documentary sports some great photos from the Pelicans' storied history...
Does anyone have the Pelicans baseball logo from 1977? It was a bit different than the ones that I find from back in the day in 1887. I don't seem to remember what that cap color was, red I think, but I know it had "PELS" on it.
ReplyDeleteThe logo was much more modern and was one of the best ones that I've seen. I'll check at a later date for any posts.
Thank you
Rich