Hawkins Stadium

Albany New York

Former home of the Albany Senators
(Double-A)

All photographs in this series appear courtesy of
Chris Hunter of the
Schenectady Museum and
Science Center

from the G.E. Collection of Historic Photographs

(special thanks to Stephen L.J. Russo)
As a new decade came to Albany, the 1930’s wouldn’t be quite so kind to the Senators ballclub. They would return from their 1929 Championship 97 win season by posting 91 losses. Harold Yordy returned but seemed to lose all his power during the off season as he hit only 7 HRs all season long. Future footballer, Bruce Caldwell of the NY Giants would play a little baseball and was simply amazing, batting .380 with 19 2Bs and 17 HRs in only 321 At Bats. His 17 HRs would lead the team but the 321 At Bats wasn’t enough to secure the batting title. Arthur Young was even more impressive when in only 250 At Bats he batted a whopping .428! Again, it was only ½ the number of At Bats needed to secure the title away from Johnny Gill. Future Brooklyn Dodgers’ Buzz Boyle would bat .335 on the season with 49 2Bs, 22 3Bs and 8 HRs to take over the all time triples record from Frank Parenti (16). In 1931, the Senators began to right the ship... still falling well below .500 but finishing closer at 62-76, behind future Yankees 3 time All-Star Red Rolfe (13 2B, .333). 1932 brought 6 time St. Louis Browns All-Star George McQuinn (25 2Bs, .345) and 4 time All-Star and 3 time 20 Game Winner Bobo Newsom (7-7, 5.28) to Hawkins Stadium. The Senators were pressing hard to take over 1st and by July 17th were solidly in 2nd with a 47-32 record. That’s when the Great Depression took down the Eastern League for good. The league disbanded, never to return and the Albany Senators of the E.L. were gone… or were they? What looked to be a summer without baseball, would turn around in a huge surprise to fans of Albany Baseball as the Reading Keystones announced that they would be moving from Lauer Field to Hawkins Stadium in August. The team would go 21-31 at Hawkins Stadium for a final record of 50-66. Nothing special but Albany was thoroughly glad just to have baseball again. The Albany Senators would continue on in the Triple-A International League for the next 4 seasons. 1933 brought the Senators to within 4 games of .500 despite being a revolving door of 54 players who put on and then took off an Albany Senators uniform. While that may sound hard to believe there actually was a little bit of consistency thanks in part to 3 future MLB All-Stars who would stay around long enough to help the Senators to be competitive. Future 4 time Chicago Cubs’ All Star Stan Hack (28 2B, 8 3B, 6 HR, .299), Chicago White Sox’ All-Star Mike Kreevich (31 2B, 12 3B, 9 HR, .292) and future Brooklyn Dodgers All-Star Babe Phelps (15 2Bs, 12 3Bs, 10 HRs) would go on to become the 5th, 6th and 7th All-Stars produced by Hawkins Stadium.