Blue Wahoos Celebrate Pensacola's Rich Baseball History With Throwback Jerseys In Team Store
Pensacola’s extensive history with organized, professional baseball goes all the way back to the late 1800’s. That legacy is now celebrated in a special way at Blue Wahoos Stadium. Replica uniform jerseys of many of Pensacola’s previous minor league teams are available at the Go-Teez Bait and Tackle Team Store,
Pensacola’s extensive history with organized, professional baseball goes all the way back to the late 1800’s.
That legacy is now celebrated in a special way at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
Replica uniform jerseys of many of Pensacola’s previous minor league teams are available at the Go-Teez Bait and Tackle Team Store, located on the second-level concourse behind home plate.
The apparel is called “Hometown Heritage Collection,” honoring teams which forged a special part of baseball history in this community. Blue Wahoos team owner Quint Studer believed throwback uniforms would be a way to celebrate and educate the city’s long-standing baseball support.
“It’s very nostalgic and for me, it’s also been nice to learn the names of these teams and the history of baseball in this area,” said Hannah Gardner, the Blue Wahoos merchandise manager, who arranged for the design and production of the apparel.
Available for purchase are replica jerseys which begin two centuries ago with the Pensacola Dudes. They were the most recognized of the first organized teams in Pensacola – a team that played a game on Oct. 12, 1890 against a team from Mobile that attracted hundreds of spectators and chronicled in “Baseball In Pensacola, America’s Pastime & The City of Five Flags,” authored by Scott Brown.
Other former Pensacola teams recognized with jerseys are the Pensacola Seagulls – the most successful of local teams in the former Negro Southern League – the Pensacola Senators and the Pensacola Pelicans.
In addition, there is a T-shirt available honoring the Pensacola Fliers, who had a 30-plus year legacy in affiliated baseball that ended after World War II.
The replica jerseys, produced by OT Sports, are $98 apiece and are available in various sizes. The Fliers throwback is a T-shirt and priced cheaper. The items have become a conversation starter.
“People are asking all the time about the jerseys and what the names mean,” Gardner said. “They were actually easy to get done, because you’re going through the same approval process (with Major League Baseball) as Blue Wahoos merchandise we may sell.”
The top selling jersey so far has been the Pensacola Pelicans, the Independent League team from 2002-2010 that ushered professional baseball back to the community, prior to the arrival of the Blue Wahoos in 2012.
“That’s the jersey people remember and know the best,” Gardner said.
A look at the teams represented with the throwback apparel.
PENSACOLA DUDES – Team’s history dates back to 1890. John Merritt, founding member of the Pensacola Chamber of Conference and Rotary Club of Pensacola, among other business endeavors, played second base for the Dudes. Team became the most famous of the late 18th century teams in Pensacola.
PENSACOLA FLIERS --Originally formed in 1909 as the Flyers and a championship team in 1910, the team became the Pensacola Fliers in the Southeastern League. The Fliers played an exhibition game against New York Yankees on March 31, 1929 in Pensacola with Yankees’ legends Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the lineup. The Yankees won 12-2 and Ruth signed autographs for nearly everyone. The Fliers later became affiliate of Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938 led by then-Pensacola legend Wally Dashiell.
PENSACOLA SEAGULLS – The team was a feeder affiliate for Negro Southern League 1920-1936, a league which has a museum in Birmingham. The Seagulls existed well beyond the time when Negro Leagues ended and professional baseball became integrated. The team traveled in an air-conditioned bus and played games as far as San Francisco – something unheard of at the time. One of the most famous Seagulls players was Johnny Joe Lewis, a Booker T. Washington High grad, who became a Pensacola pioneer for baseball players and African-American athletes in Pensacola when he made his MLB debut with the St. Louis Cardinals in April 1964. Two years later, Tate High grad Don Sutton made his MLB debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers to launch his Hall of Fame career.
PENSACOLA SENATORS – This was the last affiliated team before the Blue Wahoos. The Pensacola Senators were formed in 1961, the same year the Washington Senators joined the American League. That season, the Pensacola team, affiliated with the big-league team in the Class D Alabama-Florida League, finished second in its debut season. The team was disbanded after the 1962 season, bringing a lengthy gap until the Blue Wahoos arrived in 2012.
PENSACOLA PELICANS – The team was formed in 2002 as a member of the Southeastern League of Independent Baseball Teams and made its debut at the Pensacola State College ballpark. Later that season, as the team faced financial problems. Quint and Rishy Studer bought the team and began a journey that led to the Blue Wahoos and the bayfront stadium at Community Maritime Park. In 2003, the Studers paid for upgrades to the UWF baseball field and renamed it Pelican Park for the summer season. Former Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds star Bernie Carbo was the Pelicans manager that season.
PENSACOLA DONS – Though the Dons don’t have a throwback jersey for sale, the team’s legacy is noteworthy. The Dons ushered in newly-built, Admiral Mason Park in 1957, which was downtown and near where Bayfront Parkway now exists. The team played in the Alabama-Florida League. The Dons star was pitcher Bo Belinsky, who later made his MLB debut with the Los Angeles Angels and on May 5, 1962, Belinsky threw the first no-hitter at Dodger Stadium.