The Games of Summer

Baseball tourism is on the rise nationwide, with fans signing up to tour legendary ballfields, taking in multiple games on a single roadtrip. With 10 minor league stadiums and nine other ballfields hosting all-star collegiate ball in the state every summer, North Carolina could inspire a baseball roadtrip of its own.

(Fleming Field)

From the Mudcats to the Crawdads, North Carolina has some of the best minor league baseball in the nation and is the only state where all five classifications are played: AAA, AA, Class A Advanced, Class A and Rookie League.

A good place to start a roadtrip to see homegrown baseball might be Fleming Stadium, location of the N.C. Baseball Museum and home to the Wilson Tobs, playing in the Coastal Plain League (CPL).

The team name is a tribute to the town's tobacco heritage and the 1938 ballfield, beautifully restored, is one of the state's baseball treasures. Ted Williams played there, as did many other greats.

Pride of place goes to the Durham Bulls, playing ball for more than 100 years in another tobacco town.

Today, the Bulls play Triple-A ball in a posh new stadium (below) designed by the architects of Baltimore's Camden Yards.

The snorting bull seen in the movie Bull Durham has been put out to pasture (actually it hangs in the concourse) but a new bull stands atop the 32-foot-tall left field wall, known as the "Blue Monster." Whenever the Bulls score, the bull snorts steam and shakes its tail. If a player hits it, he wins a steak dinner.

The Durham Bulls Athletic Park has been named as one of the top facilities in professional baseball by Baseball America magazine.

The old Bulls ballfield (above) a few blocks away - the one featured in Bull Durham - has been renovated for use by high school and collegiate baseball teams. Rumor has it that a baseball museum may be located here in the future.

The Bulls play in the International League as an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Their only in-state IL rival is the Charlotte Triple-A team, the Charlotte Knights, an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. Right now, the Knights play in a field just over the state line in Gold Hill, SC. (The exit is easy to find from I-77, since its marked by a large water tower shaped like a baseball.) Plans call for the Knights to move to a new downtown ballfield withing the next few years.

The Carolina Mudcats, the state's sole Double-A team and an affiliate of the Florida Marlins, play in Five County Stadium, in Zebulon, out on the eastern edge of Wake County. Here, you can sit down to a full-course meal featuring braised red snapper or rack of lamb at Cattails, the white-tablecloth restaurant on the stadium's upper level.

The Mudcats may not be the only team with a chef, but I'm pretty sure it's the only team with a wine sommelier working in its ballpark.

Minor league teams tend to have colorful names which can lead to some juicy headlines in the local press such as "Crawdads Squash 'Hoppers." That's the Hickory Crawdads beating the Greensboro Grasshoppers.

The Grasshoppers used to be the Bats, but the vampire thing didn't work out for them. They play in a new stadium in downtown Greensboro, NewBridge Bank Park, which seats 8000 fans. Visions of MLB dancing in Triad heads, perhaps?

Affiliates of the Cleveland Indians opt for more straightforward names. The Advanced Class A team playing in Kinston calls itself the Indians. Or, if you're a fan, the K-Tribe.

The K-Tribe plays at Kinston's Historic Grainger Stadium, the Carolina League's second oldest ballpark which opened in 1949.

The Winston-Salem Dash, formerly the Warthogs, also have a new downtown stadium. Previously they played at historic Ernie Shore Field on the Wake Forest University campus.

A Class A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, the Drive have plenty of regional rivalry in the Carolina League, playing against the Kinston (NC) Indians and the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.

The Pelicans play in a stunning new stadium next to Broadway at the Beach, just blocks from the ocean.

Another former Cleveland Indians affiliate, formerly the B-Tribe, in Burlington, NC, recently joined the Kansas City Royals organization. The new Burlington Royals play in the Rookie League. B-Tribe gear is now on sale!

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The Asheville Tourists, formerly the Moonshiners, is a farm team for the Colorado Rockies. They've added a luxury clubhouse and a tiki bar to the amenities at historic McCormick Field, built in 1924. This was the location used for the record-setting homerun hit by "Crash" (Kevin Costner) in Bull Durham.

The Kannapolis Intimidators have a whole different vibe going, but it seems to work for them. Named for the late Dale Earnhardt, a former owner, the team came out on top in the South Atlantic League in 2005.

With the cool names come some winning mascots. Homer the dragon, mascot of the Charlotte Knights, Wool E. Bull in Durham, Hickory's Conrad the Crawdad, and Zebulon's Muddy the Mudcat are kid favorites. Meanwhile, Winston-Salem's beloved tusked Wally the Warthog has been replaced in the mascot roster by an angry baseball and a red dog with a bad haircut.

Kids and baseball seem to go together. The teams all host family nights where the kids can run the bases and meet the players. Most also have playgrounds and kid's clubs.

Ball clubs are famous for their promotions and giveaways. 2 For Tuesdays, Thirsty Thursdays, Dollar Nights and Friday night fireworks are standard at ballparks across the state. Regular fans end up at the end of the season with a collection of balls, miniature bats and helmets, jersies and a wide variety of other mementoes from team sponsors.

And don't forget the beanbags, the bobbleheads and -that fan favorite-the foam finger.

Sanctioned by the major leagues, the games attract scouts looking for the next Mickey Mantle or Sammy Sosa.

In fact, Sammy Sosa played with the Gastonia Grizzlies, now a CPL team, early in his career.

Eleven of CPL's 14 teams are in North Carolina:

• the Gastonia Grizzlies,
• the Asheboro Copperheads,
• the Morehead City Marlins,
• the Outer Banks Daredevils (under new, local ownership),
• the Fayetteville Swampdogs,
• the Thomasville HiToms,
• the Wilmington Sharks,
• the Forest City Owls,
• the Wilson Tobs and
• the Edenton Steamers.

Two of the CPL's teams are in South Carolina:

• Columbia Blowfish
• Florence Red Wolves

The Edenton Steamers play in historic Hicks Field, featured in the film Dog Days of Summer.

The Wilson Tobs play their home games in venerable Fleming Stadium, the flagship park of the CPL and location of the North Carolina Baseball Museum.

USA Baseball selects and trains the USA Baseball National Team to represent the United States in international competitions including: the Olympic Games, the Pan American Games, and the World Championships. Players selected are the cream of collegiate programs across the United States, as well as top professional players.

The action in Cary begins when the National Team arrives in July. Games will include part of the Annual USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Series, as well as exhibition games as Team USA prepares for the FISU World University Baseball Championships.

USA Baseball moved its national headquarters to North Carolina a few years ago from Tuscon, Arizona. CEO Paul Seiler hopes it will be easier to draw fans in Cary, where summer is relatively mild compared to that of USA Baseball's former home in Tucson.

"The Triangle is a great baseball hotbed," says Seiler. "It's what summer is about in the East, sitting in the bleachers and watching the sun go down. That's impossible in Tucson, with temperatures that go up to 115 degrees in the middle of the summer."