Newburgh Hummingbirds

The Newburgh Hummingbirds were a North Atlantic League baseball team based in Newburgh, New York, United States that played for part of the 1946 season.

The Hummingbirds were charter members of the North Atlantic League, a Class D circuit which was one of many minor leagues to pop up after the end of World War II. However, the Birds seemed cursed from the start: the club had difficulty finding a home field, finally signing an agreement with Delano-Hitch Stadium (then called Recreation Park) just a week before opening day. Former Yankees third baseman Joe Dugan was offered the manager's job, but he turned Newburgh down; the position went to Frank Novosel instead.

The season itself started inauspiciously when only 259 fans attended the home opener on May 10; that Rec Park was not an enclosed facility did not encourage fans to buy tickets. Rain cancelled the next two days' games, then team president Leo Groom died suddenly. More rain deluged the Newburgh area, and the Birds didn't play again until May 17: a 4–3 win over Mahanoy City which was called after seven innings due to darkness. It would be the last game the Hummingbirds would ever play in Newburgh.

On May 20, the team's contract at the stadium was cancelled by the city's Recreation Commission, due to nonpayment of rent and the team's failure to install lights at the field. 23-year-old Francis Giegnas, Jr. became the Hummingbirds new president, but the Birds were without a home field; on May 23, the franchise became a road team, finally moving to nearby Walden, New York on June 10. The Hummingbirds drew nearly 1,000 fans to their opener in their new home (impressive for a town of just 4,000 people), but it was all downhill from there; Giegnas, unable to pay the team's bills, soon returned the franchise to the NAL.

In July, the league sold the club to former minor-league player Lou Hanales for $1,300 (plus assumption of the team's debts). Under Hanales (who became the Hummingbirds' manager and first baseman as well), attendance didn't get any better, drawing just 145 fans to a Booster's Night on July 12. In August, Hanales looked at moving the team to either Reading, Pennsylvania or Newton, New Jersey and/or signing an affiliation deal with the Brooklyn Dodgers; none of these came to pass. Looking for a fresh start, the club dropped the Hummingbirds name and were renamed the Keen Kutters, after a knife factory in Walden; Hanales also dropped admission prices from 80 to 60 cents. Nothing worked: the club would attract only 10,051 fans the entire season, or less than 200 a game.

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