Delmarva Shorebirds

Frank Perdue's desire for a professional baseball team based in Maryland's Eastern Shore was the driving force in bringing a franchise to Salisbury. Joining the Maryland Baseball Limited Partnership, owners of the Bowie Baysox and Frederick Keys, set the concept in motion.^[1] By Autumn 1995 Maryland Baseball purchased the Albany Polecats from Richard M. Holtzman, relocated the franchise to Salisbury and renamed it the Delmarva Shorebirds.^[2] The name "Shorebirds" refers to the marine waterfowl of the Delmarva Peninsula. The team name was chosen by 7-year-old Katie Duffy of Newark, Delaware.^[3]

The Shorebirds' first-ever game at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium was a 4–2 win over the Columbus RedStixx before a crowd of 5,787 on April 17, 1996. After fulfilling its two-year Player Development Contract with the Montreal Expos, it officially became an affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles on September 26, 1996.^[1]

In 2006, 7th Inning Stretch LLC, owned by Tom Volpe, purchased the team from Comcast Spectacor, a Philadelphia sports and entertainment company.^[4]

The Shorebirds hosted the 2011 South Atlantic League "Strike Out Hunger" All-Star Game on June 21, 2011.^[5] The Shorebirds partnered with Perdue Farms, the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore and Delmarva's three food banks: Eastern Shore Branch of the Maryland Food Bank, the Food Bank of Delaware, and the Eastern Shore Branch of the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia; to help "Strike Out Hunger".^[6] Perdue and the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore donated $20 to the food banks for each strike out by a Shorebirds pitcher during the Shorebirds 2011 season.^[7]

The Kyle Moore-managed Shorebirds in 2019 clinched their first postseason berth since 2005 by winning the SAL Northern Division first-half title with the minors' best midseason record at 48–21. A franchise-best 90–48 finish made them the 14th SAL team since 1980 to reach 90 wins in a regular season and the first since the Augusta GreenJackets in 2006.^[8][9] The season ended when the Shorebirds were swept by the Hickory Crawdads in the best-of-three SAL Northern Division Championship Series.^[10]

In conjunction with Major League Baseball's restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the Shorebirds were organized into the Low-A East at the Low-A classification.^[11] In 2022, the Low-A East became known as the Carolina League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization, and was reclassified as a Single-A circuit.^[12]

The Shorebirds can be found on Fox Sports 960 AM, the Shorebirds' Flagship Station since 2005.^[13] Will DeBoer has been the radio voice of the Shorebirds since 2017^[14] but is being replaced for the 2021 season by Sam Jellinek. Mitchell Speltz is the current voice of the Shorebirds. Former announcers include Randy Scott, Bret Lasky and Brendan Gulick.