Tri-City Atoms
The Tri-City Atoms, representing Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Washington, were managed in back-to-back summers by Cal Ripken Sr. and Hall of Famer Duke Snider, and both men won the pennant and the league's Manager of the Year award. The club represented Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, cities that grew rapidly around the Hanford Site, the Manhattan Project's plutonium plant. The Atoms name is generally tied to Hanford, though no announcement explaining the choice has been located.
Professional baseball came to the Tri-Cities in 1950, when a club joined the Class B Western International League and opened Sanders Field on Clearwater Avenue in Kennewick. The league reorganized under a new name in 1955, and the Tri-City club stayed. In 1961, under a different nickname, the Baltimore Orioles' affiliate finished 49-90, last in the league; Steve Dalkowski, the Orioles' legendary wild fastball pitcher, went 3-12 that year with 196 walks in 103 innings.
The Atoms name arrived in 1965, with Baltimore as the parent club and Cal Ripken Sr. as manager. The Atoms went 81-58, won the first half of a split season, and swept second-half winner Lewiston three games to none in the playoff for the title. Outfielder Dave May hit .335 with 23 home runs and 105 RBI; he later made the 1973 American League All-Star team and was the player Milwaukee traded to Atlanta for Hank Aaron. SABR's history of Sanders Field notes that the manager's five-year-old son, Cal Ripken Jr., was at the ballpark that summer.
The Los Angeles Dodgers took over in 1966 and sent Snider, who went 57-27 for the league's best record and a second straight title. Ted Sizemore hit .330 while catching in his first pro season and was the 1969 National League Rookie of the Year. Roy Gleason hit 16 home runs; he later became the only player with prior major league experience deployed to Vietnam. After a 37-47 season in 1967, Don LeJohn's 1968 club went 45-30 for the third title in four years, with third baseman Ron Cey (.299 in his pro debut), Joe Ferguson (12 home runs) and pitcher Doyle Alexander on the roster.
The team became the Tri-City A's in 1969. The ballpark was renamed Sanders-Jacobs Field for Tom Jacobs, the club's longtime president and general manager, who died in 1968, and it was torn down after the 1974 season.
