Western Carolinas League

Western Carolinas League
Sport	Minor League Baseball
Founded	1963
Ceased	1979
No. of teams	14
Country	USA
Last; champion(s)	5 Greenwood Braves, Spartanburg Phillies
Official website	Official Website

The Western Carolinas League was a Class D (1948–52; 1960–62) and a low Class A (1963–79) full-season league in American minor league baseball. The WCL changed its name prior to the 1980 season and has been known since as the South Atlantic League, a Class A circuit with teams up the Eastern Seaboard from Georgia to New Jersey.

Originally called the "Western Carolina League", the 1948–52 WCL was a Class D league (equivalent to a Rookie-level league today) composed exclusively of teams located in the Piedmont and Blue Ridge sections of western North Carolina. It merged with the North Carolina State League to form the short-lived Class D Tar Heel League, which lasted only 1½ seasons (1953–54) before folding.

In 1960, the WCL was revived as a Class D circuit intended to house farm teams of the member clubs of a planned third major league, the Continental League. It featured teams in eight North Carolina locales: Gastonia, Hickory, Lexington, Newton–Conover, Rutherford County, Salisbury, Shelby and Statesville, but soon expanded to sites in South Carolina.

When the Continental League was torpedoed by the Major League Baseball expansion in 1961 and 1962, the member teams of the Western Carolinas League became affiliates of American and National League clubs. It was upgraded to Class A in the 1963 reorganization of the minor leagues. The first professional baseball team based in Monroe, North Carolina came into being when the Statesville Indians moved into town on June 20, 1969 and finished the year as the Monroe Indians. The team lasted just one season before being replaced by the Sumter Indians.

For nearly 60 years, 1948 through 2007, the WCL/SAL's dominant figure was league founder and president John Henry Moss, who started the WCL as a young man in 1948, refounded it in 1960 and then led it into the new century. Moss, also the longtime mayor of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, retired at the close of the 2007^[1] Sally League season and died, at age 90, on July 1, 2009.^[2]

Member teams

Western Carolina League (1948–52)

Western Carolinas League (1960–79)

League Champions

^[3]

South Atlantic Hall of Fame

The South Atlantic League Hall of Fame was founded in 1994 and includes Western Carolinas League alumni.^[4]

References

^ Baseball America, December 15, 2007
^ Weber, Bruce (July 14, 2009). "John Henry Moss, Head of Minor League for 50 Years, Is Dead at 90 (Published 2009)". The New York Times.
^ Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (Third ed.). Baseball America. ISBN 978-1932391176.
^ "Hall of Fame | South Atlantic League About". Archived from the original on 2013-03-15.

[1] Baseball America, December 15, 2007

[2] Weber, Bruce (July 14, 2009). "John Henry Moss, Head of Minor League for 50 Years, Is Dead at 90 (Published 2009)". The New York Times.

[encyc-3] Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (Third ed.). Baseball America. ISBN 978-1932391176.

[4] "Hall of Fame | South Atlantic League About". Archived from the original on 2013-03-15.

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