Ottawa Giants

From BR Bullpen

Team History[edit]

The Ottawa Giants played in the International League for the 1951 season. The Triple-A team, formerly the Jersey City Giants, was moved to Ottawa following the 1950 season due to poor attendance. They were owned by their parent club, the New York Giants.

The team went 62-88 in its only season, finishing seventh. Ottawa had one of the best pitching staffs in the International League. Alex Konikowski led the league in ERA (2.59) and shutouts, and George Bamberger tossed a no-hitter on June 17 against the Maple Leafs in Toronto. As a squad, they batted .229, 22 points below the league average and scored 457 runs, 75 less than the seventh-best offense and 206 less than the sixth-best offense. They also struck out a league-high 766 times. No Ottawa player hit more than six homers. Although Lansdowne Park had spacious power alleys, the lack of offense could not be blamed entirely on the ballpark. The New York Giants sent most of their hitting talent to their other AAA affiliate, the Minneapolis Millers.

Ottawa drew a reasonable 117,411 fans, nearly twice the attendance of the Jersey City Giants in 1950.The team was sold on January 23, 1952 to the Philadelphia Athletics and were renamed the Ottawa A's, as the Giants decided to only operate one AAA affiliate moving forward.

Year-by-Year Record[edit]

Year Record Finish Manager Playoffs
1951 62-88 7th Hugh Poland

Further Reading[edit]