After 60 years, the Olean (N.Y.) Oilers (summer collegiate; NYCBL) are back on the field, not as an MiLB affiliate but as a summer-collegiate squad.
The original Olean Oilers played in the the Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York (PONY) League from 1939 to 1951 and 1955 to 1956, and in the New York-Pennsylvania League from 1957 to 1958.
The new summer-collegiate team is owned by a local nonprofit — the same nonprofit working to restore Bradner Stadium, the team’s original home, as the new home of the Oilers. (The team is playing this season at a local college field.) Bradner Stadium is one of the more interesting venues in baseball: opening in 1928, the triangle-shaped facility put a diamond in one corner, leading to short fences in right and faraway fences in left. The current renovation plan looks like it’s more suited for football and soccer than for baseball, so we’ll see if fundraising efforts are successful.
The Oilers, by the way, dropped a 5-2 decision to the Hornell Dodgers.
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