Bisbee Copper Kings
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The Bisbee Copper Kings are a semi-pro baseball team located in Bisbee, Arizona. They were founded in 2006 as the Bisbee Kings by Bob Lipp. The team played in a loose league organization known as the Border Series, and won the league championship in 2006.
In 2007 the team was renamed the Bisbee Copper Kings. It was purchased by Bisbee businessmen Frank Barco and Tom Mosier and played the season in the 4-team Centennial League. The Copper Kings compiled a 18-12 record against teams from Casa Grande, Phoeniz, San Luis and Tucson.
The 2008 Copper Kings play in the six-team Pacific Southwest Baseball League, comprised of the Copper Kings, the Casa Grande Cotton Kings, the Lake Havasu Heat, the Phoenix Garden of Gears, the San Luis Bandidos and the Tucson Nationals.
Warren Ball Park, built in 1909 by the Calumet and Arizona Mining Company, is the Copper Kings' home field. Constructed of adobe and steel, Warren Ball Park is the oldest surviving professional baseball park in the United States.
The Copper Kings' lineage can be traced back to 1949, when the Class C Bisbee-Douglas Copper Kings replaced the Bisee-Douglas Miners, alternating home games at Warren Ballpark and Copper King Stadium in nearby Douglas. From 1950-51 the Copper Kings, playing in the Arizona-Texas League (1950) and Southwest International League (1951), were affiliated with the Brooklyn Dodgers. They returned to the Arizona-Texas League in 1952. They remained with the Arizona-Texas league until the 1955, when they joined the Arizona-Mexico League. The minor league Copper Kings played their final games in Bisbee in 1955, becoming the Douglas Copper Kings for the last three years of their existence.
Syd Cohen, the last pitcher to strike out Babe Ruth while in a Yankee uniform and the last pitcher to give up a home run to the Bambino, managed the Copper Kings during their during their 1951, 1952 and 1953 seasons. Clint "Scrap Iron" Courtney, a future big league catcher for the Yankees, Browns, Orioles, White Sox and Senators started his feud with future Yankee player and major league manager Billy Martin while playing behind the plate for the Copper Kings.
Another Copper King who started his career as a catcher was future major league pitcher Earl Wilson. A 22-game winner for the 1968 Detroit Tigers, Wilson was the starting pitcher for the Tigers in game three of the World Series that year. In 1962, while playing with the Boston Red Sox, he pitched a no-hit, no-run game in which he also hit the game-winning home run.
