THEY WERE REALLY BEARS
"Perhaps the most remarkable minor league team ever assembled was the 1937 Newark Bears, every member of which, including seven pitchers, two catchers and the manager, went up to the majors.
The Bears, a Yankee farm club, had a 109-43 record and won the International League pennant by 25 1/2 games. They then won the playoffs in straight games and took the Little World Series. With eight .300 hitters, the team had a batting average of .299 and led in fielding with .970.
It had the league's leading pitcher in Joe Beggs, most of whose later major league career was with Cincinnati. Beggs won 21 and lost 4. Atley Donald, later a Yankee, had 19-2. Charles (King Kong) Keller, later a Yankee slugger, led the league in hitting with .353.
Oscar Vitt, who managed the team, went up to Cleveland the following year. Other members of the team included such men as Joe Gordon, George McQuinn and Buddy Rosar."
-Baseball Digest, November-December 1954
HAVING A HECKLE OF A TIME
"International League players heaved a sigh of relief when Newark dropped out of the circuit, for it was generally agreed among them, past and present, that no arena in the country, past or present, was a match for the Bears' stadium in producing hecklers.
Bill Skiff, one of the last managers of the Newark team, was recalling his experiences here.
'We were in second place in 1948, but that didn't stop those grandstand jockeys. They were critical if you were leading the league by ten games, and I was coming off the third base coaching line in the second inning one day when a fan behind the dugout shouted, 'Hey, you bald-headed coot!'
'I paid no attention and ducked into the dugout. In the fifth inning, the same fan bellowed, 'You bow-legged so-and-so!' I didn't look up, just kept on about my business, and that must have exasperated him, because when I came back after the eighth inning, he said, 'He's not only bald and bow-legged, but he's deaf, too.' I just about made it into the dugout before I started laughing.' "
-Hy Goldberg, Newark News (Baseball Digest, October 1955)
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