Binghamton Triplets

Binghamton was affiliated with the New York Yankees from 1932 to 1961 and 1965 to 1968; the team also had brief affiliations with the Kansas City Athletics in 1962 and 1963 and the Milwaukee Braves in 1964. The Triplets played in the former New York–Pennsylvania League from 1923 to 1937, the Eastern League from 1938 to 1963 and 1967 to 1968, and the modern New York–Penn League from 1964 to 1966. They won league championships in 1929, 1933, 1935, 1940, 1944, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1965, and 1967. The Triplets moved to Manchester, New Hampshire after the 1968 season and became the Manchester Yankees, and the city was without a team until the Class AA Binghamton Mets began play in 1992.

The Triplets played their home games at Johnson Field in nearby Johnson City, New York until the team disbanded in 1968; the old ballpark was then torn down to help construct New York Route 17. The team wore caps with an intertwined 'T' and 'C' logo (similar to the original Minnesota Twins cap insignia); the letters stood for 'Triple Cities' (i.e., Binghamton, Johnson City, and Endicott). While the Triplets were a Yankee farm team, the parent club—featuring such legends as John Malangone, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and Mickey Mantle—played one exhibition game each year at Johnson Field.

The Yankees bought the Triplets in 1932, but by 1961, after a decade in the red, the Yankees ended their association with the team.^[1] As a result, the baseball club became community owned operating as the farm team for the Kansas City Athletics’s. A Board of Directors was formed and appointed local Binghamton businessman Lou Rappaport as President, and former Business Manager of the Yankees, Jerry Toman as General Manager.^[2]

Rappaport and Toman led the effort of selling state approved stock certificates (which allowed fans to buy into the team) and made a deal with WNBF-TV to broadcast the games.

However, stock sales did not do as well as predicted and Kansas City withdrew from the Triplets in their third year. No other major league team signed on and the Triplets dropped from the Eastern League to the NY-P league, where they were picked up by the Milwaukee Braves for the 1964 Season, and remained with the Braves when they moved to Atlanta in 1965.^[3]

Ultimately, ticket sales continued to dwindle, radio rights were not longer being purchased, and Rappaport was putting in thousands of dollars of his own money to keep the team afloat, which was deep into the red. Not to mention the looming threat of the Johnson Field being torn down to make way for Express Highway 17.

But in 1966, to everyone's surprise, the Yankees came back elevating the team back to the Eastern League. Sadly, the city of Binghamton would not approve a new stadium and 1969 was the final year of The Triplets.^[4]

"Supporting a ball club is like marriage," Mr. Rappaport said. "It's for better or worse. You can't drop your wife off when you want to. You love her all the time.

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