Former West Haven Yankees Owner Says City's Neglect Forced Exit
- Dominic Konareski
- Jun 24
- 3 min read
The West Haven Yankees still stand as one of the most successful minor league affiliates of the New York Yankees to this day despite their departure from Connecticut nearly a half-century ago. Four minor Eastern League titles in 8 years and numerous star and hall of fame players went through the West Haven system.
Lloyd Kern and Robert Zeig purchased the New York Yankees Double-AA farm team, after responding to an advertisement in The Wall Street Journal in 1977. The rights to a Yankees minor league team just over two hours outside the Bronx would be worth a small fortune today, but the buying price of the West Haven Yankees in the 1970s was an estimated $32,000. Kern would end up seeing the Yankees win two championships, and the year they didn’t win it all, the Yankees finished with the best record in the Eastern League.
The West Haven Yankees, despite having one of the highest attendance numbers in minor league baseball by 1979, would relocate post-their 1979 championship season. A later interview conducted in 2011, with former owner Lloyd Kern blamed the City of West Haven for the move.
Kern stated that he and Robert Zeig decided to leave West Haven due to the city not upgrading the lighting system or improving the clubhouse facilities.
Quigley Stadium finished being constructed in 1947, and was sold to the City of West Haven in 1951. West Haven has owned the stadium ever since, lacking to maintain it with a noticeable dip being after the West Haven A’s (Oakland AA) left at the conclusion of the 1982 season.
Since the departure of minor league baseball in ‘82, Quigley Stadium has sat left neglected and in a way lost in time. It is host to a semi-pro summer baseball league and occasional high school games, but otherwise sits vacant and deteriorated.
A 1988 New York Times article showcases Quigley Stadium six years after minor league baseball left. The article also states, according to former West Haven Mayor Azelio M. Guerra (D), that the city loses $75,000 a year to maintain it.
The stadium has and still circulates in rumors about the land being sold or the University of New Haven buying it to make way for a possible sports complex. UNH recently purchased North End Field, which isn’t even a mile drive away from Quigley, from the city for $500,000 earlier this year.
Prior to the 2023 election, Dorinda Borer (D) said that the stadium is “underutilized” and that she had interest in applying revenue from the North End Field sale to Quigley Stadium, with even showing intent to make it a historic landmark - although she did want the implications to be further studied. Borer later said that she no longer sees the city investing revenue from the North End Field sale into Quigley Stadium.
Once again putting the stadium into limbo with an uncertain future.
That seems to be the tell all of Quigley Stadium, politicians on both sides express support and interest into revitalizing the stadium, just to later change their mind. Meanwhile, Quigley Stadium sits putting the city more in debt as officials are yet to actually do something other than giving a quote or two.
The once 4,000 seated Quigley Stadium is surely a symbol of what minor league baseball was before its popularity boom in later decades. The old former train car recycled wooden bleachers have been long foregoned since the 80s, replaced with aluminum seating that better fits a football stadium rather than baseball.
The neglected field, which today has a boarded up concession stand and a press box with graffiti marks that isn’t even connected to electricity, sits inside what was once one of the most popular stadiums along the East Coast.