OLEAN - Without a cash-strapped Olean Police Department, the Olean Exchange Club and James F. “App” Driscoll, Olean may never have had minor-league baseball team of its own.

The Olean Oilers Class D Pony League baseball team called Olean’s Bradner Stadium home from 1939 to 1962, when the team disbanded. A farm club for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Oilers brought regular minor-league baseball games to Olean, along with annual exhibition games featuring the major-league Dodgers.

For a town loaded with sports fans, it couldn’t get much better. But according local historian Eileen Smith, it took a needy police department and a well-attended exhibition game held as a fundraiser to convince investors and league officials Olean could support a ball team.

In 1938 the Police Department wanted a two-way radio for the police station, but they didn’t have the money. The Olean Exchange Club stepped in and organized an off-season exhibition game as a fundraiser for the department featuring the St. Louis Cardinals. But the Cardinals needed someone to play against.

The Exchange Club went to App Driscoll for help. Mr. Driscoll is an Olean baseball legend. He organized and managed the Olean Nationals, the Polish National Alliance and the Polish Nationals baseball teams in the 1920s and ‘30s.

The Exchange Club asked Mr. Driscoll if he could organize a local all-star team to face the Cardinals in Bradner Stadium. Mrs. Smith said he gathered the best players from the Nationals, the Smethport Quaker State baseball team, the Sinclair team and the Wellsville team to meet the Cardinals.

The Cardinals beat the area all-stars 14-6 in Bradner Stadium on Aug. 8, 1938. But the game was heavily attended, grossing more than $4,600. The ticket receipts assured the Olean Police Department would get its first two-way radio, but more importantly for Olean’s sports history, it convinced many that a minor-league baseball league could succeed in the region.

Mrs. Smith said the exhibition game laid the groundwork for the Penn-York Conference and the Pennsylvania, Ontario, New York (PONY) League that brought the Oilers and Brooklyn Dodgers to Olean. The Oilers formed in 1939.

Mrs. Smith has chronicled the history of the league on her Web site www.northoleanhistory.com.

“Olean was the scene of the start of the circuit,” Mrs. Smith wrote. “On Nov. 28, 1938, 21 men sat down at a table in Olean to discuss the formation of a Class-D baseball league that would bring organized baseball to thousands of fans in southwestern New York, northwestern Pennsylvania and southern Ontario.”

Mrs. Smith said many major-league ball players began their careers in the PONY League.

“The PONY record books look like a who’s who in the majors,” she said.

Hall of Famer Warren Spahn became a legend pitching for the Milwaukee Braves, but he got his start playing professional baseball for Bradford’s PONY League team. Yankee’s second-baseman Bobby Richardson started his career with the Olean Oilers, as did Salamanca native Paul Owen who went on to work in the Philadelphia Phillies front office.

Olean City Historian David Deckman said the Oilers’ association with the Brooklyn Dodgers let Olean be part not only of baseball history, but national history as well. Every summer the Dodgers played exhibition games at Bradner Stadium with the Oilers. Like most kids growing up in the 1940s, Mr. Deckman said he attended as many games as he could sneak into. It was a gamble each time he scaled Bradner’s fence to find a spot in the bleachers. Mr. Deckman said two city policemen attended each game, trying to keep kids like him from sneaking into Bradner.

But he vividly remembers one exhibition game with the Dodgers played in the summer of 1947. Earlier that year, the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in the majors. Mr. Deckman said that summer when the Dodgers and Robinson came to Olean, it seemed everyone in the Twin Tiers attended the game.

“It filled the place,” Mr. Deckman said. “That was a big controversy at the time because he was the first colored ball player in the major leagues and he was coming to Olean.”

Mr. Deckman said though he can’t remember the score, the Dodgers won with some assistance from Robinson, who hit a home run during the game. He said the Dodgers accounted for more than one home run during the game.

“They knocked balls over the home-run fence and they made it all the way to Olean Creek,” Mr. Deckman said.

Mrs. Smith said the Oilers played a big part in the career of Dodgers coach and scout Jake Pitler. Pitler managed the Oilers from their opening season in 1939 until 1943. Under his leadership the Oilers won the PONY League pennant in 1939 and 1940.

Mrs. Smith said Pitler also coached third base for the Oilers. She said he was fiery and outspoken and his antics on the field helped fill Bradner’s stands.

“A memorable game occurred in Olean on Tuesday, May 30, 1939,” she wrote on her Web site. “A near-riot capped a twin bill with Bradford. It was some time before (Olean) Police Chief Jack Dempsey and his officers could restore order.

“Bradford manager Johnny Rosar and Pitler tangled after the latter protested a decision of the plate umpire. Pitler went down and the players poured onto the field. And so did the fans. More than 6,000 saw the two games, one game was played at Bradford and the night game played in Olean.”

Mrs. Smith said another likable character on the Oilers’ roster was batboy Johnny Fusco, who became an overnight Olean legend for getting ejected from a game for expressing his feelings toward an umpire. Fusco is the only batboy in the PONY League to earn the distinction of getting tossed out of a game, Mrs. Smith said.

Mrs. Smith said the PONY League had many ups and downs, as did the Oilers. World War II forced Hamilton and Bradford out of the league. Lockport fell out at the end of the 1950 season and was replaced by Corning. In 1952 and 1953 the league operated with only Batavia, Bradford, Corning, Hamilton, Hornell, Jamestown, Olean and Wellsville fielding teams.

Ticket receipts dwindled with each passing year for the struggling league. The Oilers disbanded after the 1962 season. PONY League records show they ended that final season in a third-place tie with Auburn. The Oilers’ record for the season was 62 and 57.

(Contact reporter John Eberth at jeberth@oleantimesherald.com)

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dick ross wrote on May 4, 2009 8:28 PM:

" enjoyed the article'as i was the oiler batboy in 1950 when we won the playoff with hornell dodgersand don zimmer i must refute mrs.smith statement that johnny fusco was the only batboy ejected from a game; as i was ejected from the final playoff game with hornell in hornell ,whenwe won the championship,but olean mger len shulte intervened and got me reinstated as the fan crowd in hornell really got down on the home plate umpire. i also rode in the jeep with johnny price (baseball clown of baseball) in part of his show,i remember much of the 1950 season and a lot of mem orries of the history of bradner stadium in the late 1940s and early 1950's. my telephone is 716-372-6186 if you have any questions. ( p.s. carrol anstaett,local financial advisor,was THE CATCHERfor olean in 1950.) "

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