The Gastonia Grizzlies were a

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

team playing in the

Coastal Plain League The Coastal Plain League (CPL) is a wood-bat collegiate summer baseball league, featuring college players recruited from throughout the nation. The league takes its name from the Class D level Coastal Plain League which operated in the area f ...

. The team played its home games at

Sims Legion Park Sims Legion Park is a 3,000-seat baseball park in Gastonia, North Carolina that is the home field for Gaston College baseball. It has hosted the Gastonia Grizzlies of the Coastal Plain League, as well as American Legion baseball. The Grizzlies ...

Gastonia, North Carolina Gastonia is the most populous city in and the county seat of Gaston County, North Carolina, United States. It is the second-largest satellite city of the Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte area, behind Concord, North Carolina, Concord. The po ...

, where they were known for their unique promotional events and fireworks shows. It was reported in October 2020 that the team was moving to Spartanburg, South Carolina starting with the 2021 season. The team's new name was announced as the Spartanburgers.

Home field

The Grizzlies played all their seasons at

, from 2002 to 2020. A new ballpark was built in Gastonia in the team's final years, but it was not guaranteed to be a new home for the Grizzlies. City officials favored a partnership which brought an

Atlantic League The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB) is a professional independent baseball league in the United States. It is an official MLB Partner League based in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States, and the headquarters are loc ...

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

to the new ballpark. Grizzlies ownership said they would not share the stadium.

Midnight Madness

The inaugural Midnight Madness game took place on July 9, 2010 against the Forest City Owls. The first pitch was at midnight with festivities before the game including bed races, eating contests, players in the dunk tank, home run derby and a live band in the Beer Garden. The game drew 3,150 fans with the last fan entering the ballpark at 1:39am. The game won best promotion at 2010 Summer Ball Conference. The 2011 Midnight Madness was even a bigger success drawing more fans than the previous year.

2014 season

2014 was the most successful season in the Grizzlies thirteen-year history, both on the field and off the field. The Grizzlies drew just under 60,000 fans, breaking the previous attendance record that has been set for four straight years The Grizzlies also set the single game attendance record with 4,381 fans; along with two other games over 4,000 fans.

Awards

Prior to the 2014 season, the Gastonia Grizzlies were named ''

The Gaston Gazette ''The Gaston Gazette'' is a daily newspaper based in Gastonia, North Carolina. The newspaper was owned by Freedom Communications until 2012, when Freedom sold its Florida and North Carolina papers to Halifax Media Group. In 2015, Halifax was acqu ...

'' "Person of the Year". Normally the award goes to an individual but the Grizzlies continued community impact helped earn them the honor. The Coastal Plain League congratulated the Grizzlies with the title of Organization of the Year in 2012. The Grizzlies also received multiple Promotion of the Year awards at the National Summer League Conference.

CPL Champions

The 2011 Grizzlies entered the CPL playoffs as the 6 seed and went on to upset the #3 seed Thomasville Hitoms, the #4 seed Forest City Owls in the Semifinals and the #1 seed in the nation the Edenton Steamers to win the Pettit Cup Championship. Michael Heesch was named Rawlings Defensive Player of the Year by finishing the season at 9-0 including three shutouts in the CPL playoffs. Heesch in addition to RHP Derek Epps were named to the Perfect Game Summer Ball All American Team. The Grizzlies finished the year as the #30 ranked team in the country by Perfect Game.

Attendance

The Grizzlies broke their own attendance record for 10 straight seasons. The team averaged 2,053 fans per game for the season. The team's single game attendance record was set on May 31, 2014, with 4,381 fans. The Grizzlies would go on to sell out two other games in 2014.

Highest single-season attendance figures

References

External links

Official Site

Coastal Plain League
{{North Carolina Sports Coastal Plain League Gastonia, North Carolina Amateur baseball teams in North Carolina 2002 establishments in North Carolina 2020 disestablishments in North Carolina Baseball teams established in 2002 Baseball teams disestablished in 2020