Western Carolinas League (1960-1979)

Background

The Western Carolinas League formed as a Class D baseball circuit in that formed in 1959. After meetings in spring of that year,³Western Cities Discussing Pro Baseball, AP via The Robesonian, May 27, 1959Pro Baseball,  the league was officially in business on December 17, 1959,  with the intention of providing farm clubs to the Continental League, a proposed third addition to the ranks of the Major Leagues that would bring top-flight baseball to cities such as Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, Toronto, and New York (to replace the recently departed Dodgers and Giants). The Continental League intended to throw its first pitch in April 1961. The Western Carolinas League would get underway a year earlier in the summer of 1960.

The American and National Leagues ultimately scuttled the challenge posed by the Continental League with pre-emptive expansion. The Continental League disbanded in August 1960.⁴Continental League Dies, But Majors Vote Expansion, AP via The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, VA, Aug. 3, 1960  But the Western Carolinas League opened for business that summer with eight clubs in North Carolina.

That number was reduced to six teams in 1961. And those clubs began pursuing American and National League affiliations. Four of the six club in the 1961 WCL secured Major League parent club partnerships.  But 1962 saw a step back, as the WCL fielded just four clubs and only the Salisbury Braves (hitched up with the expansion New York Mets) had a Major League tie-up.

Surviving the 70’s

Minor league baseball re-classified its Class structure prior to the 1963 season and the Western Carolinas League shifted from the abandoned Class D designation to Class A. The league grew back to eight clubs in 1963, six of whom had Major League affiliations. 1963 also saw the WCL expand into South Carolina for the first time.

For the next 16 summers the WCL carried on a rather precarious existence, never expanding beyond its North Carolina and South Carolina homeland. In both 1975 and 1976 the league operated with just four member teams. But fortunes began to improve by the late 1970’s as the league built back to six teams. In 1979, the league added a notably strong new expansion club in Greensboro, North Carolina operated by Nashville’s Larry Schmittou, one of the top minor league promoters of the late 1970’s and 1980’s.

1980 Re-Branding

The Western Carolinas League re-branded itself as the South Atlantic League in 1980. Expansion beyond the Carolinas coincided with the new name as a team in Macon, Georgia was added for the 1980 season. The South Atlantic League thrives today with 14 franchises and has expanded as far afield as Kentucky and New Jersey.

Western Carolinas League Franchise List

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