The Red Springs Twins

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

club was an American

minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

franchise representing

Red Springs, North Carolina Red Springs is a town in Robeson County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 3,087 at the 2020 census. Geography Red Springs is located in northern Robeson County. North Carolina Highways 211 and 71 are the main roads throug ...

, in the Class A

Carolina League The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 unti ...

. Affiliated with the namesake

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

, the Red Springs team existed for only season — — with the city billing itself as the "world's smallest baseball town."Carry, Peter, "A Bonanza in Red Springs," ''Sports Illustrated,'' July 28, 1969
/ref> Red Springs, in

Robeson County, North Carolina Robeson County ( )Talk Like a Tarheel
, from the North Carolina C ...

, then boasted a population of 4,040. (The 2000 census lists its population at 3,493 inhabitants.)

Tiny community outdrew larger city

The team, which played at Robbins Park, was created when the

Wilson Tobs The Wilson Tobs are an amateur baseball team playing in the Coastal Plain League, an NCAA-sanctioned collegiate summer baseball league. The team plays its home games at Fleming Stadium in Wilson, North Carolina Wilson is a city in and th ...

relocated after a 1968 season during which they drew 22,811 fans. In moving from Wilson (then a city of about 35,000) to Red Springs, the team was entering a market about one-ninth the size of its predecessor. Red Springs had previously hosted a professional team, the Red Springs Red Robins, in the Class D level

Tobacco State League The Tobacco State League was a Class D level American minor baseball league that played for five seasons (1946–1950) in Organized Baseball in the state of North Carolina. The Red Springs Red Robins won two league championships. History The ...

, from 1947 to 1950. Nonetheless, the Class A Twins were received enthusiastically in Red Springs in 1969 and drew 40,332Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., ''The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition''. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007 fans — almost doubling the Tobs' numbers from 1968. Owned by construction executive Matt Boykin, the Red Springs Twins were managed by former Major League

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

Tom Umphlett, a native

North Carolinian North Carolina ( ) is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia to the southwest, and Tennessee to the west. The ...

. They struggled in the standings, compiling the poorest

winning percentage In sports, a winning percentage or Copeland score is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the to ...

(.404) in the Carolina League among its ten member clubs. However, six future Major Leaguers were on the Red Springs roster. At the end of the year, the Carolina League contracted to eight teams, and the Red Springs franchise disappeared from the organized baseball map. The Twins moved their Carolina League

affiliate Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation platfo ...

Lynchburg, Virginia Lynchburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner and Abolitionism, abolitionist John Lynch (1740–1820), J ...

, for 1970.

Notable alumni

* Steve Brye * Ray Corbin * Pete Hamm * Dan Monzon *

Eric Soderholm Eric Thane Soderholm (born September 24, 1948) is an American former Major League Baseball third baseman who played for the Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, and New York Yankees from 1971 to 1980. Soderholm was selected with th ...

Bill Zepp William Clinton Zepp (born July 22, 1946), is an American former professional baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, he attended the University of Michigan and later played professional baseball for four years from 1968 to 1971, including stint ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Red Springs Twins' page
in

Baseball Reference Baseball Reference is a baseball statistics database maintained by Sports Reference. The site provides career statistics for Major League Baseball (MLB) players and teams as well as records, MLB draft history, and sabermetrics. History Founder ...

Carry, Peter, "A Bonanza in Red Springs," ''Sports Illustrated,'' July 28, 1969
1969 disestablishments in North Carolina 1969 establishments in North Carolina Baseball teams disestablished in 1969 Baseball teams established in 1969 Carolina League teams Defunct baseball teams in North Carolina Defunct Carolina League teams Defunct minor league baseball teams Minnesota Twins minor league affiliates Professional baseball teams in North Carolina

Twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two e ...

Sports clubs and teams disestablished in 1969

Tiny community outdrew larger city

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links