Victoria Toros
|
Jackson Mets Founded in 1974 Jackson, Mississippi |
|
| Class-level | |
|---|---|
| Current | Double-A (1974–1990) |
| Minor league affiliations | |
| League | Texas League |
| Division | North Division |
| Major league affiliations | |
| Current | New York Mets |
| Minor league titles | |
| League titles | 1981, 1984, 1985 |
| Division titles | 1981, 1983–1987 |
| Team data | |
|
Previous names
|
Victoria Toros (1974) |
| Colors |
Blue, orange, white |
| Ballpark | Smith-Wills Stadium |
Blue, orange, white
The Jackson Mets were a professional baseball team based in Jackson, Mississippi, from 1975 through 1990. As of 2010, they were the longest-tenured club to be based in the Jackson metropolitan area. For their entire sixteen seasons of existence, they competed in the Texas League as the Class AA affiliate of the New York Mets, until the club moved to Binghamton, New York, for the 1991 season.
The Jackson Mets came into existence in 1974 when the New York Mets moved their AA club, the Victoria Toros, after only one year in Victoria, Texas. Civic leaders in Jackson had mounted a campaign to build a new stadium for a minor-league club. At the time, Jackson had not fielded a club since the Jackson Senators last played in the Class C Cotton States League in 1953. Previous minor-league teams based in Jackson had played downtown at a field on the Mississippi State Fairgrounds, but the new park, which would be named Smith-Wills Stadium, was constructed on Lakeland Drive just east of Interstate 55 in the more suburban area of northeast Jackson. When the team opened play in 1975, the park still had no lights, an unpaved parking lot, no roof on its press box, and was temporarily locating its club offices in a trailer. In their first few years in Jackson, the Mets drew an average of 1,600 fans a game.
In one of the more interesting moments in franchise history, on the evening of 22 June 1978, Mets outfielder Mookie Wilson married Rosa Gilbert at home plate in Smith-Wills Stadium. The ceremony concluded with the couple walking back to the dugout beneath an archway of bats held aloft by Mets teammates. Wilson would become one of at least a dozen Jackson Mets players to wed girls they met during their tenure in Jackson.
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