![]() She and her late husband Ron ran the Asheville Tourists from 1980 until 2005, when they sold the team to an entertainment group who eventually sold it to DeWine's family business. We all knew where this was headed, years before it got here," Carolyn McKee said from her McCormick Field box seat, three rows from the field watching the Tourists host the Bowling Green Hot Rods. It's never comfortable to exist among hints of extinction. But the resulting feelings among those with deep roots down on the MLB farm make plenty of sense, too. Few would disagree that the MiLB business model needed upfitting. Those landlords explain that their decisions are made in the interest of keeping baseball healthy - a new world of round numbers and better environments to both play and watch the game. It scrambles to find the funding to meet the demands of its new landlords located a world away, at Rockefeller Center, the headquarters of Major League Baseball. Shoring up defenses against a massive reshaping and shrinking of minor league baseball - in 2020, MLB eliminated 40 affiliated MiLB teams, reducing the total from 163 to 120 - has become a full-time job for places like Asheville. These days, avoiding that kind of split of team and town is becoming more and more difficult. "I am proud of everyone here for recognizing that and doing what they needed to do to keep us all together." "I think it is impossible to think of Asheville without this team and this team without this town," Tourists president Brian DeWine said in the days between the securing of that money and Opening Day, a harrowing span of three weeks. In the minors, still an American map-covering world of goofy mascots, quirky ballparks and a bottom line that remains totally dependent on the number of people who pass through the turnstiles, that $37.5 million check - or more accurately, a bunch of $1.9 million checks written over 20 years - will protect a town's little slice of the national pastime. In the big leagues, that price tag will get you one year of service from Mike Trout. The Tourists, the High-A affiliate of the Houston Astros, are staying put - thanks to $37.5 million in updates required by Major League Baseball, which took over operations of the minors in 2020. "Honestly, dude, back then, over the holidays, I thought this might be the last season we have this team in Asheville, so that's why I bought the tickets. ![]() Tourist (a bear with a Hawaiian shirt and a suitcase), that he was born and raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains. "Hell, man, I bought these tickets all the way back in December, you know, just in case," said Dewayne Johnston, explaining, from beneath the well-worn brim of a baseball cap featuring mascot Ted E. That boost came from a feeling not typically associated with the beginning of baseball season: But on April 6, at McCormick Field, home of the Asheville Tourists, the smiles and hugs and shouts of "Play ball!" from the standing room-only crowd of 4,271 featured a little extra emotion. Opening Day for any team at any level of the professional baseball ladder is always an exercise in good vibes. The beauty - and madness - of minor league baseballĮSPN senior writer Ryan McGee - author and co-host of Marty & McGee - wrote a memoir about his summer spent as an intern with the Asheville Tourists, a minor league team in western North Carolina. “The colours are opposite of each other, and the Prospect Icon is still the same icon Minor League Baseball has been using for decades, but that new container shows that while there is a new alignment with Major League Baseball, we are still our own fun-centric brand.You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser The previous logo was more upright but we definitely wanted to have that similar container shape as Major League Baseball to show the alignment while still having our distinct brand,” Hunzeker explained. ![]() Several teams were moved to MLB partner leagues, others were removed altogether, while a few independent league teams made the shift over to MLB affiliated baseball for the first time.Īt first glance, you may not notice much difference to the logo, personally my first thought was “oh, they darkened the colours”, but the biggest change when comparing side-by-side and what will make the largest impact is the overall shape of the logo. The change to the logo comes after an off-season in which Minor League Baseball was completely restructured and realigned with teams shifting across all levels from league to league, and even from class to class. ![]()
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