Myrtle Beach Blue Jays

South Atlantic League (1987-1990)

Tombstone

Born: October 1986 – The Florence Blue Jays relocate to Myrtle Beach
Re-Branded: 1991 – Re-branded as Myrtle Beach Hurricanes

First Game: April 8, 1997 (W 3-1 vs. Savannah Cardinals)
Last Game: August 29, 1990 (L 13-1 vs. Columbia Mets)

South Atlantic League Champions: 1987

Stadium

Coastal Carolina Stadium (3,500)

Ownership & Affiliation

Owner: Winston Blenckstone

Major League Affiliation: Toronto Blue Jays

Attendance

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Print Download

Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (3rd ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 2007. Pages 621 – 634.

Background

This Class A farm club of the Toronto Blue Jays marked the first time that minor league baseball came to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Or, at least, near Myrtle Beach. The Blue Jays played on the campus of Coastal Carolina University about 12 miles away from the Grand Strand.

The club was owned by Baltimore oxygen salesman Winston Blenckstone, who purchased the Sally League’s unloved Florence Blue Jays for $200,000 in October of 1986 and moved the club to Myrtle Beach.

Future Heisman & Cy Young Winners

A number of notable Toronto prospects came through Myrtle Beach during the Blue Jays/Hurricanes era. This group included future American League Cy Young Award winner Pat Hentgen and first baseman Chris Weinke, who never made the Major Leagues but went on to win the Heisman Trophy eight years later as a 28-year old quarterback at Florida State

Other notable future Major League stars that played in Myrtle Beach included Derek Bell, Carlos Delgago and Mike Timlin.

Jays to Hurricanes to Pelicans

The Blue Jays home debut on April 8, 1987 against the Savannah Cardinals drew a standing room-only crowd of 4,030, but attendance quickly settled in at less than a thousand a night. Myrtle Beach’s attendance was among the worst in the South Atlantic League, just as it had been in Florence previously. By April 1989, Blenckstone was frustrated and threatening to move his ball club if city leaders wouldn’t commit to a $2 million new stadium. Blenckstone ultimately hung in for four more summers. He re-branded the team as the Myrtle Beach Hurricanes in 1991, but that did nothing to change the club’s box office fortunes. In late 1992, with stadium negotiations going nowhere, Blenckstone pulled up stakes and moved the franchise to Hagerstown, Maryland.

Pro baseball returned in 1999 with the completion of the $12.8 million BB&T Coastal Field ballpark project and the formation of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans of the Class A Carolina League. The Pelicans begin their 22nd season of play in the spring of 2021.