Big Don's Day

We move forward in the Friends and Family series as our fan that has been with us longer than almost anyone as Big Don joins us with his request for the series.

Big Don was the first person that I met through autographing/minor league baseball that became a fan of the blog and the support that he has given through the years has been very important in keeping things rolling along at TRS, even at times in the early to middle years that I wasn't sure that I was going to continue to write this little project.

Big Don asked two questions and with the increasing likelihood of a second batch of Friends and Family looming, I've decided to hold the second one for the potential next run.
Big Don asked this: As things stand today, the Hagerstown Suns likely have played their final game.
Do you have any particular memories of the franchise from games, autographing, people, etc?

Well, I have plenty of them and even though the team started here in 1981, the majority of my memories come from 2005 and after as the period of my second run in the autographing hobby.
But for this piece, I think I am going to stick to one day- I attended the first game in Hagerstown Suns history.

My dad came and took me out of school early for the day, which really wasn't like him at all.
That day is the only day that I remember him taking me out of school early or allowing me to stay home for a sporting event ( Note- The keyword here is ALLOWING as I used to find ways to stay home for the first round of the ACC basketball tournament and in the last two years of my school  terms, the NFL Draft when it was on cable and on a weekday)

The Muni didn't look a lot different than it does today other than the electronic scoreboard of the age and the higher hill in left field with the original left-field dimensions in play.
The Suns were a "co-op" team consisting of players loaned from the Indians, Pirates, Orioles, Twins, and I think players from two other teams and played in the Carolina League under an Oriole coaching staff that was led by future major league manager Grady Little.

I don't remember much about the game itself, which was a 6-2 win over the Peninsula Pilots, other than local pitcher Dane Anthony got the win and the first homer in Hagerstown Suns history was hit by shortstop Ron Wotus, who was dubbed "Boom Boom" by his next at-bat!
Wotus is the long-time coach for the San Francisco Giants and I think that homer was one of only two he hit for Hagerstown that season.

Those Suns were quite a power-hitting outfit as they hit 158 homers, which is a huge feat considering the Suns then used the original dimensions of Municipal Stadium in a park that would be a pitchers park in today's alignment.
Matt Tyner hit thirty-one homers, John Stefero smashed twenty-five, and Paul Croft added twenty to pace the Hagerstown attack that won the Carolina League's Northern Division and then topped Peninsula to win the Carolina League championship.
The Hagerstown Suns had won a championship in their first season and almost 40 years later as the team prepares for its likely end, it would be the only championship in team history.

The unlikely champions with players that weren't thought of as top prospects at the time (why else would they be sent to a co-op team, except for the Orioles ) did have a few players that would see some time in the majors.
Ron Wotus would have two brief stints with Pittsburgh (58 at-bats) and three of the Hagerstown catchers would eventually play in the bigs as Orioles backups as John Stefero (187 at-bats), Al Pardo (129 at-bats), and Carl Nichols (186 at-bats) would have short stays in the show.
Two pitchers on the 1981 Suns would make the majors with Ken Dixon having the most success with 26 wins for the Orioles in four seasons.
Ramon Romero threw sixty-four innings for the 1985 Indians, who lost 102 games as Romero would be traded to the Minnesota Twins in the off-season, but would never pitch in the majors again.

What I remember most about that day was the genuine excitement to have baseball in a baseball town.
I'm not sure if you are under 35 and have lived through the malaise of the last thirty years of Hagerstown baseball that you can truly understand what it was like at the Muni for those Carolina League and Eastern League seasons.
The stadium even then was well into the dark and damaged stage, but the crowds were very strong, and going to a game was fun.

The loss of Hagerstown baseball has felt inevitable for close to twenty years and I've always taken each season one at a time.
From ownership changes and threatened moves to pressure from MILB and the parent clubs ranging from the Blue Jays, Giants, Mets, and the current Nationals, one thing has always been consistent- the constantly dilapidated Hagerstown Municipal Stadium.
A new stadium has been mentioned for the Suns from the first day of the franchise and while you can blame the team for many things through the years, the lack of a stadium can only be blamed at the feet of the city of Hagerstown and Washington County.
The state of Maryland has its share as well as they contributed money to the following new facilities in the era following the 1981 Suns- Baltimore, Frederick, Bowie, Salisbury (Delmarva), Aberdeen, and Southern Maryland (Independent) all received funding for stadiums, while Hagerstown continued to patch and reupholster a stadium built in the Hoover Administration!

The stadium was the reason that the AA Suns left town, despite good attendance, and it's been downhill ever since as the cycle on this issue repeated itself over and over again.

Even today, there are still rumblings about a new stadium, even on the eve of Major League Baseball announcing that the Suns will be among the teams eliminated by their latest culling.
Any slim scrap of hope of that happening was likely ended by the Covid-19 crisis, but I must admit that I was hoping to see if the Suns could make through 2021 for a hoped-for reunion of the 1981 championship team.

Thirty-nine seasons is a long time between titles.
But as baseball prepares to pack up and leave Hagerstown ( and no matter the stadium situation, affiliated baseball will not return), if you are above a certain age there will always be one championship team from Hagerstown to remember- the 1981 Suns from a time that will be looked back on as the Golden Age of baseball in the Hub City.