The Bradenton Growers were a professional baseball team based in Bradenton, Florida. A charter member of the Florida State League, they played from 1919 to 1926. The ballclub was founded by team president and majority owner Robert M. Beall, Sr., founder of the department store Bealls. The Growers originally played their home games at Ninth Street Park and moved into McKechnie Field, then known as City Park, when it was constructed in 1923.[1]
They wore short-billed caps and their white uniforms bore an elegant B over their hearts. While the primary color of the Growers' uniforms is not known, baseball historians from the Manatee Adult Baseball League feel that the color of the uniforms was green and that their design was based the design on the uniforms worn by the 1919 University of Miami baseball team.[3]
Legacy
The Growers would be the last Florida State League team based in Bradenton. The city would not be home to another FSL team for the next 84 years. Finally on April 8, 2010, the Bradenton Marauders, the High-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, began play at McKechnie Field.[4] On June 28, 2009, members of the Manatee Adult Baseball League, dressed in Growers uniforms for a game at Tropicana Field following a between the Tampa Bay Rays and Florida Marlins. On May 31, 2012, the Bradenton Marauders dressed on Growers uniforms during a 2–1 win over the Fort Myers Miracle for Turn Back the Clock Night at McKechnie Field.[5]
