CAROLINA BASEBALL: GAME 14
Asheville Tourists
Dad and I travel to the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina to see the Asheville Tourists, the High-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. The Tourists play at McCormick Field, a ballpark built in 1924 that has hosted Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, and many more baseball greats. Their opponent: The Rome Braves.
We approached McCormick Field via tree-lined suburban streets, winding and rolling through these hilly parts, the view largely covered by canopies of foliage. How could this be the way to a ballpark?
But suddenly, there it was, a fine little field hidden around a corner and nestled into the hillside. Built in 1924, McCormick Field — home to the High-A Asheville Tourists — is the third-oldest ballpark in Minor League Baseball. Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jackie Robinson played here. In the 1940s, it was home to the Asheville Blues of the Negro Southern League — one of the few such ballparks remaining in the U.S. McCormick Field’s impressive history continues: From 1956-58, it was turned into a speedway, and NASCAR held one of its top-tier races there. And finally, while most ballparks on this trip had corporate naming sponsorships from the banking and healthcare industries, Asheville’s ballpark is named for biologist Dr. Lewis McCormick, a local luminary who fought to decrease area houseflies by promoting the fly swatter in the early 1900s.
Ted E. Bear, one of two Tourists mascots, greeted fans at the gate.
McCormick Field seats 4,000. Aside from its mountain air and intimate setting, it’s notable for having an outfield wall with the highest point in professional baseball — 42 feet in right-center field, where it’s 320 feet from home plate. The smarter play is over the significantly smaller 36-foot fence in straightaway right, just 297 feet from home.
Pro baseball in the area began in 1897 with the Moonshiners (hence, Mr. Moon), Redbirds, and Mountaineers. But Asheville teams have played under the Tourists moniker in 10 different leagues and five classifications, off and on, for more than a century. The name originally came about because none of the team’s players were actually from Asheville, and local sportswriters and fans began calling them “tourists.”
Asheville began play in the South Atlantic League in 1976 and won championships in 1984, 2012, and 2014. They have been affiliated with 11 different MLB teams — switching to the Astros for a third time in 2021 after seven years with the Colorado Rockies.
The visiting Rome Braves were just finishing their meals. But Dad was ready.
The Tourists entered the game in fifth place in the seven team High-A East South Division (the antiseptic name assigned to the South Atlantic League for the 2021 season). They entered the contest 25 1/2 games behind the first-place Bowling Green Hot Rods. The Braves were just a couple of games in front of the Tourists, also facing a sub-.500 season.
I went into the team shop by the front gate with a need to possess a classic Mr. Moon hat. But as with the Down East Wood Ducks, late-season supplies were low, and my size was not available. I settled for a shirt.
McCormick Field had a good variety of food stations open, many named with moon-based puns.
I chose the Philly cheesesteak with chipotle sauce. Cheesesteak sandwiches were the most consistently great food items at the ballparks we visited, and this one was one of the best.
After a scoreless first inning, Asheville starter Julio Robaina, a 20-year-old from Cuba, gave up three runs on five singles. The Tourists answered in the bottom half with a two-run shot to center by right fielder Wilyer Abreu, who would hit 16 homers in 82 games with the Tourists in 2021.
Rome added another run in the fourth and led 4-2 through five.
Both Asheville mascots worked the crowd throughout the night, particularly Mr. Moon. Earlier in the trip, in the late-summer heat, some mascots had not made an appearance, and others only briefly. But here, with the cooler mountain air, Mr. Moon stayed up all night.
The teams each scored two in the sixth on sloppy pitching by both middle relievers — walks and hit batters.
More walks in the seventh led to two more runs for the Braves, who took an 8-4 lead.
The Asheville Tourists own the trademark for “Thirsty Thursday,” and on this Thursday night, the fans had clearly taken advantage of the incumbent Thursday deals for cheap beer. By the bottom of the ninth, much of the crowd remained, and they were in high spirits.
Wilyer Abreu
Tourist batters hit a single and a double, then took advantage of a passed ball to score a run. The next batter, catcher Yanier Diaz, blasted a ball over the center-field wall to make it a one-run game. Abreu returned to the plate for another chance at heroics. The crowd rose to its feet, frenzied.
And on a 2-0 count, Abreu crushed his second home run of the game, tying it in the bottom of the ninth.
But just like that, in the top of the 10th, Asheville reliever Freylin Garcia unraveled, balking on consecutive batters and sending the extra-inning complimentary second-base runner to third and then home. The well-oiled home crowd groused and grumbled, especially after the second, with several fans exclaiming angrily in grief and disbelief, their bellows traveling efficiently beneath the rafters.
Later in the inning, left fielder Shean Mitchell added a two-run homer off Garcia, and that would do it. The Tourists brought brief hope to the now-dwindling crowd with one run in the bottom of the 10th, but no more. Rome 11, Asheville 9.
