Owensboro Oilers

The Owensboro Oilers were one of the more stable teams in the Kitty League, fielding a club every season from 1936 to 1955, save for the seasons lost when the league shut down for World War II.

The Oilers started life as the Portageville Pirates of Portageville, Missouri. After posting a 26-35 record in 1936, the team picked up and moved to Owensboro on July 17 of that year and finished the season there, still using the Pirates name. The name changed to Oilers in 1937 and remained so for the rest of the club's existence.

The Oilers won the Kitty League regular season in 1946 and 1949 and the postseason playoffs in 1946. They played in the postseason every year from 1946 to 1951 and appeared in the championship series again in 1951, where they were swept four games to none by the Fulton Railroaders.

Some recognizable names passed through Owensboro as players or managers. Wally Schang, a catcher in the majors from 1913 to 1931 for the Athletics, Red Sox, Yankees, Browns, and Tigers, was considered one of the best backstops of his era both offensively and defensively and won four World Series; he managed the Oilers in the abbreviated 1942 season. Travis Jackson, a shortstop for the New York Giants from 1922 to 1936 and a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, managed the Oilers in 1950. Tony Kubek, the 1957 American League Rookie of the Year with the Yankees, a four-time All-Star and three-time World Series champion, played for the 1954 Oilers; he is also in the Hall of Fame as a broadcaster. Chuck Tanner, an outfielder for the 1946 and 1947 Oilers, had a respectable seven-year playing career with four teams but is best known as a manager, leading the great Pirates teams of the late 1970s, including the 1979 World Series champions.

The Oilers were affiliated with the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Boston Braves, Cleveland Indians, and Pittsburgh Pirates during their run, and passed into history along with the rest of the Kitty League after the 1955 season.