Category: Carolina League

Prince William Pirates Carolina League Baseball

Prince William Pirates

May 24, 2014

This Carolina League baseball team, based in Woodbridge, Virginia, served as a Class A farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates for three summers from 1984 to 1986. Future superstars Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla came up through Prince William’s Davis For Park Stadium during the Pirates era. In 1987, the New York Yankees replaced Pittsburgh as Prince William’s parent club with a corresponding name change. The Carolina League franchise remained in Woodbridge through several more name changes over the decades, finally moving away to Fredericksburg in 2020.

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Owner Conway Twitty on the cover of a 1980 Salem Redbirds baseball program from the Carolina League

Salem Redbirds

May 4, 2014

Carolina League (1980-1986) Born: 1980 – Re-branded from Salem Pirates Rebranded: 1987 (Salem Buccaneers) First Game: April 11, 1980 (W ?-? vs. Alexandria Dukes) Last

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Raleigh Cardinals Carolina League Baseball

Raleigh Cardinals

April 6, 2014

Raleigh, North Carolina hosted a franchise in the Carolina League from the formation of that loop in 1945 until 1971.  Raleigh’s final decade in the loop was turbulent, as the ball club changed Major League affiliations and identities six times between 1962 and 1971.  The Raleigh Cardinals were the city team for the summers of 1964 and 1965.

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1969 Peninsula Astros baseball program from the Carolina League

Peninsula Astros

December 7, 2013

The Peninsula Astros were one of nine different minor league baseball teams to rotate through Hampton, Virginia’s War Memorial Stadium during the 30 summers between 1963 and 1992.  They were also one of the least durable. The Astros lasted just a single season as a Houston Astros farm club in the summer of ’69. The Philadelphia Phillies took over as parent club in 1970 and, strangely, kept the Astros name for one more summer. In 1971 the team belatedly became the Peninsula Phillies.

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Julio Franco Peninsula Pilots

Peninsula Pilots

November 26, 2011

Carolina League (1976-1992) Born: 1976 Moved: October 1992 (Wilmington Blue Rocks) First Game: April 16, 1976 (W 7-3 vs. Salem Pirates) Last Game: September 8, 1992

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