Yuma Sun Sox
The Yuma Sun Sox were Yuma, Arizona's professional baseball club in 1955 and 1956, the last of three names the city tried in the 1950s and the only one that produced a pennant race. Yuma had played as the Panthers from 1950 to 1952 in two short-lived circuits before sitting out two seasons.
The Sun Sox were admitted to the Class C Arizona-Mexico League just days before the 1955 opener, after promoter Dick King assembled a club on short notice, and they finished second at 83-57, three and a half games behind Cananea. Player-manager Whitey Wietelmann, a former Boston Braves shortstop, went 21-13 as a pitcher. More than 79,000 people came through the gates.
In 1956 the Sun Sox became a Cincinnati Reds affiliate, won the second-half title and were swept in the final by Cananea. Outfielder Walter Tyler hit .392 with 208 hits to lead the league. Attendance fell by more than half, and the club dropped out before the 1957 season owing about $3,000 and unable to secure a lease on the municipal park.
Wietelmann went on to spend decades with the San Diego Padres as a coach, scout, equipment manager and clubhouse cook. Yuma is often cited as the sunniest city in the United States, which explains the name.
Arizona's first league in organized baseball opened in 1928 as a Class D circuit with four clubs, in Bisbee, Miami, Phoenix and Tucson. It became the Arizona-Texas League in 1931 and the Arizona-Mexico League in 1955, and ran, with gaps, through 1958, eventually reaching into Texas, New Mexico, Nevada and northern Mexico.
