Tombstone
Born: 1984 – Re-branded from Winston-Salem Red Sox
Re-Branded: November 18, 1994 (Winston-Salem Warthogs)1Atkinson, Charlie. “Winston-Salem Fans Can “Root” For Warthogs”. The News & Record (Greensboro, NC). November 18, 1994
First Game: April 11, 1984 (W 3-2 vs. Durham Bulls)
Last Game: September 10, 1994 (L 7-3 @ Wilmington Blue Rocks)
Carolina League Champions: 1985, 1986 & 1993
Stadium
Ernie Shore Field
Opened: 1956
Marketing
Team Colors: Purple & Green
Ownership & Affiliation
Owner: Dennis Bastien
Major League Affiliations:
- 1984: Boston Red Sox
- 1985-1992: Chicago Cubs
- 1993-1994: Cincinnati Reds
Background
The Winston-Salem Spirits were a Class-A minor baseball team in the North Carolina city of Winston-Salem between 1984 and 1994. The Spirits served as a farm team to the Boston Red Sox (1984), Chicago Cubs (1985-1992) and the Cincinnati Reds (1993-1994) during their 11-season run.
Key players that played at Winston-Salem during the Spirits era include: Mike Greenwell (1984), Jamie Moyer (1985) and Joe Girardi (1987).
The Spirits won back-to-back Carolina League titles as Chicago Cubs farm club in 1985 and 1986. They won a third and final crown as a Reds affiliate in 1993.
Spirits To Warthogs
In the fall of 1994 team officials held a Name The Team contest to give the Spirits a fresh identity. The contest generated over 1,000 entries with a heavy emphasis on tobacco themes. Nominees reportedly included the Air Pollution, Ballbusters, Baptists, Boll Weevils, Boys of Summer, Cigarettes, Cigars, Coon Dogs, Dirt Dobbers, Foot Hillers, Smokers, Smokies, Smokin’ Joes, Spitoons, Ticks, Tobacconeers, Wannabes, Wildebeasts, Wombats and Wooly Worms.2Atkinson, Charlie. “Winston-Salem Fans Can “Root” For Warthogs”. The News & Record (Greensboro, NC). November 18, 1994
Ultimately, the Warthogs emerged as the winner and the Winston-Salem Spirits identity and it’s once-novel purple-and-green color scheme was retired.
Trivia
The purple-and-green clad Spirits appear as one of the Carolina League opponents in the 1988 Kevin Costner classic Bull Durham.
Winston-Salem Spirits Shop
Links
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4 Responses
The color scheme was blue and green. There was definitely no purple involved. I took a look at Bull Durham and I can understand how you could see it as purple, but it was definitley blue. Basically the same color as Crash’s sleeves in the scene against the Spirits. You can see the blue and green better if you look at any 1988 Spirits baseball cards on ebay.
Darrell – Interesting take. Last year, I started footnoting various areas of Fun While It Lasted to indicate where the data came from, such as attendance figures, stadium capacities and team colors. I’ve never listed team colors on the site by eye-balling them and simply giving my own opinion. I’ve only taken them from official sources like media guides, game programs or press releases. So I can see that I’ve listed the Spirits colors as Purple & Green, but the site is 11 years old now and that entry comes from some forgotten source before I started footnoting. All of which is a long way of saying: I feel like this info probably came from a Spirits souvenir program or some other team source. But I don’t have one in house right now to check.
If you enlarge the main image of the team’s 1989 yearbook at the top of the post, it’s kind of a trippy effect. To my eye, both the pennant and the cap look purple. But to your point, the logo on the front of the jersey looks blue. And then having the blue Cubs logo alongside for comparison still doesn’t clear it up for me.
Trivia!
Andrew
Drew – Thanks for the reply! Over two years later, I randomly came across your page again and saw that you replied to my comment within the hour. Please accept my long overdue thanks. I would be very interested to know where the Purple reference came from, but as a kid who was there from 1985 through 1994, I can tell you that it was definitely blue and green. There is currently a Spirits hat for sale on eBay and although it is obviously a recent remake, you can tell that it is blue and green (and not purple). They used blue and green until 1990 when they changed to a new logo, and the colors changed to blue and red (which you can also confirm on eBay).
Watched the W-S Dash today and couldn’t help remembering the Spirits and delightful Ernie Shore Field. Their mascot Slugger was kind of scary for kids at first, looking like a giant ball player with a faraway expression. Nice that their memory is preserved here.