Rehoboth’s minor league baseball team
Rehoboth Beach had a low-level minor league baseball team for three years in the late 1940s, playing their games at a stadium in what is now a residential area in the Forgotten Mile off Route 1 between the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal and Dewey Beach.
Cape Gazette Publisher Emeritus Dennis Forney wrote a Barefootin’ column about the Rehoboth Beach Pirates back in 1997. At the time, he talked to several locals who reminisced about the short-lived club.
Forney’s column was sparked by a conversation he had with attorney Hal Dukes, who had recently worked on a settlement for a home on Guthrie Road, which is adjacent to the Spring Lake community today. Dukes recalled attending games at the stadium that once stood on that property and other neighboring streets such as Quillen Road. In 1997, the pitcher’s mound was still protruding from the ground, although long grown over.
The Rehoboth Beach Pirates’ inaugural season was 1947; they replaced the Centreville Orioles in the Eastern Shore League. They competed against other local teams in Seaford, Milford and Dover in Delaware and Salisbury, Cambridge, Easton and Federalsburg in Maryland. The club president was Ray Guthrie, which explains Guthrie Road. The stadium, which had a capacity of 500 to 600, was built by contractor Frank Quillen, which explains Quillen Road. Another street in the community is Daisey Road, which, you guessed it, is named after Dr. Orville Daisey who was also integral in bringing a club to Rehoboth. The club was a Class D affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1947 and 1948. They won the Eastern Shore League title in 1949, when they were known as the Sea Hawks.
