The Traverse City Beach Bums were a professional

baseball team Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding te ...

based in the

Traverse City, Michigan Traverse City ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was ...

suburb of Blair Township from 2006-2018. The Beach Bums played in the independent

Frontier League The Frontier League is a professional independent baseball league with teams in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Eastern Canada. Formed in 1993, it is the oldest currently running independent league in the United States. The le ...

. The Beach Bums were established in 2006 when the

Richmond Roosters The Richmond Roosters were a professional baseball team based in Richmond, Indiana from 1995-2005. The Roosters played in the independent Frontier League, which at that time had no affiliation with Major League Baseball. The Roosters began play ...

franchise was purchased and moved from

Richmond, Indiana Richmond is a city in eastern Wayne County, Indiana. Bordering the state of Ohio, it is the county seat of Wayne County and is part of the Dayton, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 36,812. Situa ...

. The Roosters had begun playing in the third season of the Frontier League and existed from 1995-2005. The Beach Bums played their home games at

Wuerfel Park Turtle Creek Stadium (formerly Pit Spitters Park and Wuerfel Park) is a 4,660-seat multi-use entertainment facility in Blair Township, Michigan, in the United States that hosted its first regular season baseball game on May 24, 2006, as the tenan ...

in Traverse City, named for then owners John and Leslye Wuerfel. The Roosters played at

Don McBride Stadium Don McBride Stadium is a baseball ballpark built in 1936 at the corner of Northwest 13th Street and Peacock Road in Richmond, Indiana. It is named after Joseph Donald McBride, the former director of the Richmond Parks Department who oversaw develop ...

in Richmond. In 2018, the franchise was sold to the owners of the

Midwest League The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganizat ...

West Michigan Whitecaps The West Michigan Whitecaps are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. They are located in Comstock Park, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids, and play their home games at LMCU Ballpark. ...

who folded the Frontier League affiliation and launched a new team in the

Northwoods League The Northwoods League is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league. All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. The league is amateur, and players are not paid, so as to maintain their college el ...

, the Traverse City Pit Spitters. The team is represented in the Frontier League Hall of Fame by Beach Bums pitcher Scott Dunn and Traverse City 1B Chase Burch.

Richmond Roosters

The Richmond Roosters joined the Frontier League in 1995, and played at the historic McBride Stadium, which opened in 1936. The Roosters were led in the 1995 season by

Morgan Burkhart Morgan Burkhart (born January 29, 1972) is a former first baseman/designated hitter in Major League Baseball who played for the Boston Red Sox (–) and Kansas City Royals (). He was a switch hitter and threw left-handed. He is currently the batt ...

, who would become the second Frontier League player to make a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

team when he joined the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

in 2000.

Brian Tollberg Brian Patrick Tollberg (born September 16, 1972) is a former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played from 2000 through 2003 for the San Diego Padres. Listed at 6' 3", 195 lb., Tollberg batted and threw right handed, He was born in T ...

of the

Chillicothe Paints The Chillicothe Paints are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Chillicothe, Ohio, in the United States. The team is a member of the summer collegiate Prospect League. The Paints previously played in the professional independent Frontier Lea ...

was the first league alumnus to make the majors, beating Burkhart by a week in the 2000 season. Burkhart won three league Frontier League MVP awards (1995-1997) and the league MVP award is now named after him. Richmond won back-to-back Frontier League championships in 2001 and 2002, led by player-manager Fran Riordan. In 2001, the Roosters upset the league-best Paints 2-0 in the best-of-three championship series to capture their first Frontier League title. The team repeated as Frontier League champions in 2002, again upsetting the league-best

Washington Wild Things The Washington Wild Things are a professional baseball team based in Washington, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The Wild Things are a member of the Frontier League, an independent baseball league which, as of 2020, is an official Partner Le ...

3-1 in a best of five series for the title. Growth in the Frontier League challenged the small Richmond franchise and the ownership group elected to sell the franchise at the conclusion of the 2005 season. The last home game for the Roosters was a 9-3 loss to the

Evansville Otters The Evansville Otters are a professional baseball team based in Evansville, Indiana. They compete in the West Division of the independent Frontier League. Since their establishment in 1995, the Otters have played at historic Bosse Field, which o ...

on September 2, 2005, and the team finished the season on the road with the last Richmond game being a 9-8 road loss to the

Florence Freedom The Florence Y'alls are a professional baseball team based within the Greater Cincinnati region in the city of Florence, Kentucky. The Y'alls are a member of the West Division of the Frontier League, an independent baseball league. Since 2004, t ...

on September 5, 2005.

Traverse City Beach Bums

The Beach Bums were Traverse City's first professional baseball team since 1914. Predecessors included the semi-professional Traverse City Hustlers of the 1890s, and the Class D minor league

Traverse City Resorters The Traverse City Resorters were a professional minor league baseball team located in Traverse City, Michigan, United States, playing in the Class D Michigan State League and the precursor West Michigan League from 1910 to 1914. The Resorters p ...

(1910-1914). Following the 2004 season, the Frontier League granted a franchise for Traverse City, however the league was not sure whether to consider the team for expansion or relocation. Then, in 2005, the Richmond Roosters were purchased and the franchise moved to Traverse City. The move and a slow start in Traverse City led to a 7-year franchise absence from post-season play. The Beach Bums advanced to the 2010 Frontier League championship, dropping the series 3-1 to the

River City Rascals The River City Rascals were a professional baseball team based in O'Fallon, Missouri, in the United States. The Rascals were a member of the West Division of the Frontier League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball. From the 1999 ...

. Enrique Lechuga (10-3, 2.88 ERA), closer Scott Mueller (4-4, 2.04 ERA, 14 saves), and Chase Burch (.299 BA, 19 HR, 88 RBI) paced Traverse City. The team then established consistency with players such 2012 Frontier League MVP Jose Vargas (.290 BA, 29 HR, 100 RBI) but lost in the division series in 2012 and 2013. The Beach Bums added to the franchise championship history in 2015, advancing from a play-in game to take the title in a best of five series sweep, defeating the

3-0. The 2015 Bums were led by pitchers Ian MacDougall (10-6, 2.51 ERA), Kramer Champlin (10-6, 2.05 ERA) and Andrew Brockett (3-0, 1.54 ERA, 21 saves), along with 3B Jose Vargas (.314 BA, 10 HR, 51 RBI) and OF Brandon Jacobs (.320 BA, 17 HR, 54 RBI). Declining attendance led to the team being sold at the conclusion of the 2018 season to owners of the West Michigan Whitecaps. The franchise left the Frontier League to join the summer collegiate baseball Northwoods League, and the team's name was changed to the Traverse City Pit Spitters. The stadium was renamed to

Turtle Creek Stadium Turtle Creek Stadium (formerly Pit Spitters Park and Wuerfel Park) is a 4,660-seat multi-use entertainment facility in Blair Township, Michigan, in the United States that hosted its first regular season baseball game on May 24, 2006, as the tenan ...

after the sale. The franchise's final Frontier League professional game was a 9-2 loss to the

Windy City ThunderBolts The Windy City ThunderBolts are a professional baseball team based in the Chicago suburb of Crestwood, Illinois, in the United States. The ThunderBolts are a member of the Frontier League, which is a partner league of Major League Baseball. Sinc ...

, played at Wuerfel Park on August 31, 2018, before 3,142 spectators.

Season-by-season records

References

{{reflist

External links

Traverse City Beach Bums

Frontier League

Beach Bums page at OurSports Central
Sports in Traverse City, Michigan Former Frontier League teams Defunct baseball teams in Michigan Defunct independent baseball league teams Baseball teams established in 1995 Defunct Frontier League teams Baseball teams disestablished in 2018