N.C. Museum Celebrates State's Rich Baseball History

• Catfish Hunter, a pitcher with five World Series rings;

• Buck Leonard, legendary star of the Negro Leagues;

• Gaylord Perry, winner of two Cy Young awards with over 3,500 career strikeouts;

• Enos Slaughter, whose "mad dash" home from first won the '46 World Series;

• Rick Ferrell, catcher at the first All-Star game in 1933;

• Luke Appeling, ace batter for the White Sox for 20 years;

• Hoyt Wilhelm, whose knuckleball won 124 games out of the bullpen?

All have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

And all are natives of North Carolina.

The N.C. Baseball Museum in Wilson immortalizes each with a separate exhibit.

"We call them the Magnificent Seven," says Kent Montgomery, member of the museum's guiding committee and one of its founders.

Opened in February 2004, next to historic Fleming Field, the museum showcases 3500-square-feet of baseball memorabilia from across the state, and hopes to add an additional 1600 sf as soon as funding is found.

Montgomery says the space is needed to display all the memorabilia donated to the museum.

"Our collection is priceless," he says. "And there's so much more. I've got memorabilia from the eight players in the All-American Women's League born in North Carolina that I'd love to have on display. They played professional ball, too."

Montgomery hopes N.C. baseball enthusiasts will continue to step up to the plate and donate to the museum.

"Our goal is to have something on every player from North Carolina who made it to the Bigs," Montgomery says.

Sandra Homes, executive director of the Wilson Visitors Bureau, says the museum has sparked tremendous interest. "Every time I take a group in there, they are overwhelmed," she says.

Find a baseball game near you..

The N.C. Baseball Museum at Wilson's historic Fleming Field. Photos by Renee Wright, copyright 2006 ARR.

Where were the Hall of Famers born?

• Appeling-High Point;
• Ferrell-Durham;
• Hunter-Hertford;
• Leonard-Rocky Mount;
• Perry-Williamston;
• Slaughter-Roxboro;
• Wilhelm-Huntersville.

The museum is open year round and is run by volunteers.

For more information call (252) 399-2261 or 399-2262

Directions: Exit 121, 1-95, take 264 Hwy. East, go 6 miles, turn right on Ward Boulevard. Go to the second light, turn left, take the third right on Stadium Street.

Other players featured in the museum are Clyde King and North Carolina native, Trot Nixon.

King, a former pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, also managed several teams, including the New York Yankees.

The Nixon memorabilia on display is from his successful years as a Boston Red Sox outfielder.

The North Carolina Baseball Museum features both individual and team memorabilia from youth, high school, collegiate, Minor League, Semi-Pro, Negro League and American Legion baseball.

More NC baseball trivia:

• George Herman Ruth hit his first professional homerun at an exhibition game in Fayetteville where he was first dubbed "The Babe."
• The first recorded baseball games in North Carolina date to the Civil War. Union prisioners in the POW camp at Salisbury marked July 4, 1862 with a ballgame.
• Buck Leonard, called "the Black Lou Gehrig," was born and died in Rocky Mount.
• In 1949, North Carolina had 49 teams playing in 8 different professional leagues.
• Greensboro's War Memorial Stadium, former home of the Greensboro Bats, was built in 1926 in memory of Guilford County residents who died in World War I. The facility contains original seats from Yankee Stadium (circa 1920) and Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia ( circa 1924).
• "Moonlight" Graham, who played in a single major league game during his career and inspired the novel "Shoeless Joe" and its film adaptation "Field of Dreams," was born in Apex. Dirt from the "Field of Dreams" built for the film in Dyersville, Iowa, was spread across the pitchers mound in Five County Stadium in Zebulon, NC.
• On June 24, 1988 the Bluefield Orioles defeated the Burlington Indians 3-2 in a 27-inning marathon at Burlington Athletic Stadium, one of the longest games on record. The game lasted eight hours and 15 minutes. Played before curfew rules, the game ended at 3:27 a.m.

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