Jim Mandelaro

In Silver Seasons: The Story of the Rochester Red Wings, Jim Mandelaro & Scott Pitoniak chronicle the history of baseball in Rochester, New York. Mandelaro and Pitoniak trace the sport in Rochester back to the 1820s, detailing early games among the city’s elite as well as pre-Civil War winter games on the frozen Irondequoit Bay. The city struggled at times to field a team following the Civil War, though the Rochester Baseball Association joined the International Association, the first minor league, in 1877 (pg. 6). Subsequent struggles in the late nineteenth century included contract disputes and indictments against players for Sabbath-breaking (pg. 10). The Red Wings gained their name as the farm team for the St. Louis Cardinals, who developed a team to develop players of their own since they could not bid against other major league teams for established talent (pgs. 22-23). Despite years of solid performance, in 1956 the Cardinals decided to drop the Red Wings. They put the franchise, the facilities, and the surrounding real estate up for sale for $550,000 (pg. 101). Determined to keep baseball in Rochester, Morrie Silver ran a pledge drive and secured the funds for the team to remain with Silver heading up Rochester Community Baseball, Inc. The sale of stock enabled Silver and Rochester Community Baseball to finalize the purchase from the Cardinals, while in 1960 the team found a new sponsor in the Baltimore Orioles (pg. 111). Further stories include a thirty-three inning game between the Red Wings and the Pawtuxet Red Sox in 1981 (pgs. 180-190). Mandelaro and Pitoniak’s account ends prior to the Minnesota Twins’ sponsorship of the Red Wings from 2003-2020 and the new Washington Nationals sponsorship. They discuss the renovation of Silver Stadium in the 1980s amid the backdrop of a fight over control for the team and its location (pgs. 191-208), but end with the preparations for the construction of Frontier Field in 1996 (pg. 226). Since publishing the 1996 edition, Mandelaro and Pitoniak published a second edition in 2010 that includes more details about Frontier Field and the team’s connection to the Twins. Fans of baseball and Wings fans in particular will find this interesting, especially for all the details and statistics they present. Silver Seasons is the definitive history of the Rochester Red Wings.… (mais)