The
Charlotte Knights are a minor league baseball team
representing Charlotte, North Carolina
. The team, which plays in the
International League, is the
Triple-A affiliate of the
Chicago White Sox of the
American League.
The Knights currently
play in Knights
Stadium
, located in Fort Mill, South Carolina
; a suburb of Charlotte. However, plans are
underway for the team to move to a new stadium in downtown
Charlotte.
History
Professional baseball in Charlotte dates to 1901, with the
formation of the
Charlotte
Hornets. They were an independent team until 1937, when the
Washington Senators, now the
Minnesota Twins, purchased the team.
The Hornets would remain affiliated with the Senators/Twins for 35
years.
In
1940, Calvin Griffith, the son of
Senators owner Clark Griffith and
future owner of the Senators/Twins, built a 3,200-seat park in
Charlotte's Dilworth neighborhood, Calvin Griffith Park
. It would be the home of Charlotte baseball
for the next half-century.
After several years on the lower rungs of the minor league totem
pole, the Hornets joined the Class A South Atlantic League in 1954.
They had previously been members of the South Atlantic League in
the 1920s. The South Atlantic League became a AA league in 1963 and
renamed itself the
Southern
League in 1964. In 1972, the team renamed itself the
Charlotte Twins. Minnesota dropped its affiliation
after the 1972 season. Unable to link up with a new team, the Twins
disbanded.
The current incarnation of Charlotte baseball began in 1976, when
wrestling promoter
Jim Crockett,
Jr. bought the
Asheville
Orioles, the AA affiliate of the
Baltimore Orioles, and renamed them the
Charlotte Orioles. Griffith Park was fixed up and renamed
Jim Crockett,
Sr. Memorial Park
(popularly known as Crockett
Park). The team, popularly known as the
O's, won Southern League titles in 1980 and 1984. Eventual
major-league superstars
Eddie Murray
(the O's original first baseman in 1976),
Cal
Ripken (1980) and
Curt Schilling
(mid-1980s) played for the O's.
In March 1985, Crockett Park (mostly wood-framed) was destroyed by
a massive fire after a high school baseball game. An investigation
revealed that the cause of the fire was arson. The Crockett family
built a 5,500-seat makeshift stadium immediately afterward, which
served as the O's home for three years. In 1987,
George Shinn, founder of the
NBA Charlotte
Hornets, bought the team from the Crockett family. Later in the
year, he renamed the team the Knights and switched the team's
affiliation to the
Chicago Cubs.
The team
moved to Knights Castle, a temporary
8,000 seat stadium located on Deerfield Drive in Fort Mill, South
Carolina near the construction site of Knights Stadium. The stadium was built for the 1989 season
and was demolished following the final game that year to make room
for Knights Stadium in Fort Mill in 1990.
In 1993, Charlotte acquired an International League franchise as
the AAA affiliate of the
Cleveland
Indians.
This expansion team took the Charlotte
Knights name, with the former AA Knights of the Southern
League relocating to Nashville, Tennessee
and ultimately Mobile, Alabama
to become the current Mobile Bay Bears. The new AAA
Knights, led by future major-league stars
Jim
Thome and
Manny Ramírez, won
the International League title in 1993. Much of the core of that
team, including manager
Charlie
Manuel, played a role in the Indians' World Series teams of
1995 and
1997.
For the 1996-1997 seasons, the Knights were the AAA affiliate of
the
Florida Marlins. Before the 1998
season, Shinn sold the Knights to N.C. businessman Don Beaver, who
negotiated a AAA affiliation agreement with the
Chicago White Sox. The Knights won another
International League title in 1999 as the White Sox' top affiliate.
Notable former Knights under the White Sox affiliation include
former White Sox' and current
Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jon
Garland and former White Sox' and current
Minnesota Twins third baseman
Joe Crede. This agreement has recently been
extended to ensure that professional baseball will remain in the
Charlotte area for many years to come.
Recently, the Charlotte City Council and Mecklenburg County
Commission approved a land-swap agreement which, barring potential
legal action, will permit construction of a
new AAA-sized stadium in downtown
Charlotte.
If built, it will be located near Bank of America
Stadium
, home of the Carolina
Panthers. The team's attendance has sagged in recent
years, and it was hoped that bringing the Knights back to the city
would increase attendance.
Affiliations
Titles
- Charlotte Hornets - North Carolina League
Championship 1902, 1916, 1923
- Charlotte Hornets - Piedmont League
Championship 1931, 1938
- Charlotte Hornets - Tri-State League
Championship 1946, 1947, 1952
- Charlotte Hornets - Southern League
Championship 1971
- Charlotte O's - Southern League Championship
1984
- Charlotte Knights - Governors' Cup, International League
Championship 1993
- Charlotte Knights - Governors' Cup, International League
Championship 1999
Current roster
Alumni
As the Hornets
As the O's
As the Knights
Coaches
References
- Tom Sorensen, "Out with the O's, in with the New: Team Is
Knighted," The Charlotte Observer, December 9, 1987.
- Brown, Gord. DigitalBallparks.com. 31 January 2008.
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