Amore: Nothing seemed to go right in 1952 when Hartford Chiefs left
From Don Amore at the Hartford Courant on May 15, 2016:
As Ray Crone remembers it, he always seemed to be pitching on the last day of the season. When he put on the uniform of the Hartford Chiefs for the last time, he knew he had to throw strikes and work quickly.
“I knew all anybody cared about was getting out of there,” Crone said.
It was a warm, muggy late summer afternoon, about 70 degrees and overcast when Crone started the first game of a doubleheader on Sept. 7, 1952. The Chiefs, in seventh place, were playing the Schenectady Blue Jays, so called because their parent club, the Philadelphia Phillies, had tried vainly to rebrand as Blue Jays a decade earlier.
The Chiefs were the Eastern League affiliate of the Boston Braves, who owned both the franchise and Bulkeley Stadium and let both fall into disrepair. Only 35,000 fans came to the games that year, 461 on the dreary last day.
Read the full article here: http://www.courant.com/sports/baseball/hc-last-days-of-the-chiefs-0515-20160514-story.html
Originally published: May 19, 2016. Last Updated: May 19, 2016.