The Bradford Bees were a minor league baseball team based in

Bradford, Pennsylvania Bradford is a city in McKean County, Pennsylvania, McKean County, Pennsylvania. It is located close to the border with New York (state), New York state and approximately south of Buffalo, New York. Bradford is the principal city in the Bradford, ...

. The team was a charter member of the Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York (PONY) League and played 18 seasons from 1939 to 1957 (the team sat out the 1943 season due to World War II). Over the course of the team's history, the team also played under the names Bradford Beagles, Bradford Blue Wings, Bradford Phillies and Bradford Yankees. In its last season, the Beagles split their schedule between Bradford and Hornell after the

Hornell Dodgers The New York Collegiate Baseball League (NYCBL) is a collegiate summer baseball league founded in 1978 and sanctioned by the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball, National Amateur Baseball Federation and Major League Baseball. Each NYC ...

had ceased operations; in Hornell, the team was known as the ''Hornell Redlegs''. As the Bees, the team won the league title in 1941. The Blue Wings also won a league title in 1949. Bradford no longer hosts baseball at the professional level, nor does it host summer baseball as a few other former PONY League markets that have shrunk to the point where they can no longer support the professional game have done.

Notable alumni

Hall of Fame alumni

Warren Spahn Warren Edward Spahn (April 23, 1921 – November 24, 2003) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). A left-handed pitcher, Spahn played in 1942 and then from 1946 until 1965, most notabl ...

(1940) Inducted, 1973

Other notable alumni

Roy Face Elroy Leon Face (born February 20, 1928), nicknamed The Bullpen Baron, is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. During a 17-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he pitched primarily for the Pittsburgh Pirates. A pioneer of ...

(1949-1950) 6 x MLB All-Star *

Frank McCormick Frank Andrew McCormick (June 9, 1911 – November 21, 1982) was an American baseball first baseman who played fifteen seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed "Buck" in honor of Frank Buck, he played for the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelph ...

(1951) 9 x MLB All-Star; 1940 NL Most Valuable Player *

Jim Owens James Donald Owens (March 6, 1927 – June 6, 2009) was an American football player and coach. He was the head coach at the University of Washington from 1957 to 1974, compiling a record of in 18 seasons. Owens played college football at the U ...

(1951) *

Jack Sanford John Stanley Sanford (May 18, 1929 – March 7, 2000) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from through . Sanford was notable for the meteoric start to his career when, he led ...

(1948) MLB All-Star; 1957 NL Rookie of the Year *

Carl Sawatski Carl Ernest Sawatski (November 4, 1927 – November 24, 1991) was an American professional baseball player and executive. In the Major Leagues, he was a catcher for the Chicago Cubs (1948, 1950 and 1953), Chicago White Sox (1954), Milwaukee Brave ...

(1945) McKean County, Pennsylvania Defunct baseball teams in Pennsylvania Defunct New York–Penn League teams Baseball teams established in 1939 Baseball teams disestablished in 1957 Boston Bees minor league affiliates Boston Braves minor league affiliates Cincinnati Reds minor league affiliates New York Yankees minor league affiliates Philadelphia Phillies minor league affiliates 1939 establishments in Pennsylvania 1957 disestablishments in Pennsylvania {{Pennsylvania-baseball-team-stub