There’s a new baseball team down in Gastonia, North Carolina, and being that it is playing in the independent Atlantic League, it is barely a blip on the radar screen of sports.
Before we take a look at this story, kudos to the new name and logo that is being used by the team ! It pops on both ends, especially when you consider that it operated for one season as a basically no-name organization.
What makes this a story is the path that led to Ghost Peppers 🌶 baseball. Just a few short years ago, the folks at ESPN were in town to celebrate the history being made as the Honey 🍯 Hunters were becoming the very first baseball team at any level to have the majority owner be an African American.
Michael Jordan and Ervin Magic Johnson are two former African American athletes who have made the transition from star player to ownership. In Johnson’s case, there would appear to be no limit to what all he can own part of nowadays. Magic was even part of the celebration, flying in to Charlotte and making the short drive over to the ballpark.
Back in August of 2022, I went down to Gastonia to see what all of the fuss was about. That day began with a game in Hickory and ended with one in Charlotte, which leaves three minor league teams inside of roughly 50 miles.
Here is the computerized explanation for what took place…
This story is borderline unbelievable to me in that such a groundbreaking story would be aloud to end in such a manner. The fact that nobody in the community stepped up to see if they could salvage the situation before it ended in such a sad manner is a surprise, to me anyway.
The new owners kept the GM and coaches, so that points to that group being knowledgeable. Does the fact that the AAA Charlotte Knights play in a new stadium 🏟 just 22 miles to the east have a bearing on the story ?
A successful businessman with respect for the game and its history. It was the St Louis Cardinals that were the Gas House Gang back in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Hickory sits just 39 miles above Gastonia and is still part of the official MLB minor league system. The city of Gastonia has to play a major role in the long-term life of an independent team, and the hope will be that the Ghost Peppers 🌶 can stick around for a while. That really is a cool name, or maybe a better line would be a Smoking Hot 🔥 name.
Gastonia is currently hosting the Charleston Dirty Birds 🐦 in a six game set. If that name sounds familiar here, it’s because they play in a ballpark ( Go Mart) where West Virginia Tech University plays occasionally each season.
Charleston had to rebuild its history as well as back in the day they were the Charleston Charlies of the AAA International League.
Yes, baseball ⚾️ is truly a business when it was once just a game.
