Pensacola’s Love For Baseball Runs Deep

The western gateway to the Sunshine State has an epic history in America’s oldest pastime. From spring training camps to minor league teams, the sport has connected Pensacola’s community and fostered enduring legacies of its own. Whether cheering big-league icons like Babe Ruth and Ted Williams or rooting for high school future stars, the city’s love affair with baseball runs deep.

The Studer family’s acquisition of an independent professional baseball team in the early part of the new century ushered Pensacola into affiliated baseball and set the stage for its current success story. After purchasing the Pelicans, who played at a local college facility as a member of the new Southern League, the Studers worked tirelessly to promote and expand the franchise, even at times covering opposing players’ salaries to ensure that the team’s roster remained competitive.

Home runs may not have been a priority in the Deadball Era, but strategic play was. Managers like John McGraw and Connie Mack, pitchers such as Big Six Mathewson and Three Finger Brown, and fleet-of-foot base runners like Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson built their legacies in Pensacola by devising and executing defensive plans as meticulously as a general would plot a military strategy.

Today, Pensacola’s Blue Wahoos, a Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, continue to bring a passionate and enthusiastic crowd to Bayfront Stadium each night. The ballpark’s beautiful design, unique promotions and exceptional fan experience have also garnered the Blue Wahoos recognition in the industry, including being named a Best Double-A Ballpark in 2021 and a Ballpark of the Year in 2012. From the dugout to the stands, the Blue Wahoos create an electric atmosphere that brings generations together each night for an evening of entertainment and competition.