CAROLINA BASEBALL: GAME 2
Gastonia Honey Hunters
The brand-new Gastonia Honey Hunters take on a former Minor League team, the Lexington Legends, at the newly opened CaroMont Health Park in Gastonia, NC. The teams play in the independent Atlantic League, considered to be the finest independent league in the country.
A few days before our trip, Charlotte Fox46 anchor Ann Wyatt reached out to see if we could do an interview for a piece about our trip. Soon after, reporter Will Lewis contacted me. He wanted to meet me at the airport to get shots of Dad and I meeting for the first time in more than two years, then going out to the original Game 1 in Gastonia. But when Dad’s flight got delayed, all of those plans fell through. Will and I then arranged to meet in Gastonia two nights later for our new Game 2.
After an exciting first game in Greenville and a rewarding day sightseeing in Charlotte — not to mention the promise of seeing 15 more ballparks on an epic travel trip — we were pretty excited as we drove west from Charlotte, straight to CaroMont Health Park.
I dropped Dad off at the front gate, parked the car, and arrived to find him talking to Gastonia’s on-field host, Josh Johnson, and a camera operator. “They’re going to have you throw out the first pitch,” Dad said. My mind began to spin, and not just from the humidity. Things were happening fast.
The five of us walked upstairs to the concourse, then down to the field-level gate and out onto the field. Other Honey Hunters personnel introduced themselves to us, and soon Dad and I were getting mic’d up for the interview.
It went great. Our words came out smoothly — dare I say, eloquently. When it was over, it was clear to all who had heard it that we had given the perfect interview — a masterful summary of our trip and an evocative description of what it meant to us. Bystanders wept.
And then we all learned that the memory card on the camera was full, and none of it had been captured.
The camera operator pulled out his iPhone. We gave it another go. It went well, too. We won’t win the Interviewees-of-the-Year award that would have been ours if not for the lost footage, but we soldiered on.
>> See the full Charlotte Fox 46 story about our trip!
Next, I was directed to Gastonia Manager Mauro “Goose” Gozzo, who had been asked to chat with me. Gozzo was in his first year with the Honey Hunters after spending 2019 managing the New Britain Bees, an Atlantic League team in Connecticut that became a collegiate summer league team in 2020. Drafted in the 13th round of the 1984 draft by the New York Mets, Gozzo spent 12 seasons in professional baseball as a pitcher, putting up a respectable 3.83 ERA in the minors — even going 12-1 in 1989 at the Double-A and Triple-A levels for Toronto. But he struggled in the majors with a 5.30 ERA in 48 appearances for four different teams.
I told Gozzo about the trip, and he was plenty cordial and seemed interested enough. Then I mentioned that I had come to the game two nights before, when High Point Manager Jamie Keefe got tossed after, as I said it, “losing his mind out there.” I chuckled a little, thinking this might break the ice on our courtesy chat. But Goose’s face darkened. “We played a bad game that night,” he said. I suddenly remembered that the Honey Hunters had blown a lead spectacularly, giving up eight runs in the eighth inning and committing three errors on the night. And… that was pretty much the end of our chat.
I then met Chuck Stewart, Gastonia’s hitting coach and third-base coach. Drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1982, Stewart spent three years in the minors as a catcher but did not get past A-ball. He later coached at the high school level in Fort Lauderdale and worked as a professional hitting instructor. Stewart coached for five other independent teams before joining the Honey Hunters in 2021. Tonight, he would be catching my first pitch.
Gastonia hitting coach Chuck Stewart
Jake Skohl, who played six years in the minors with the Rangers/Yankees
Gastonia would be taking on the Lexington Legends, a team that had played in Minor League’s South Atlantic League from 2000-2019, when Major League Baseball reduced the number of affiliated teams from 160 to 120, and the Legends did not make the cut.
The Honey Hunters were also new to the Atlantic League in 2021 — a brand new team playing in the new CaroMont Health Park, at the center of Gastonia’s redevelopment plans. Gastonia was once a Minor League town, too, with teams playing in 1966-1968 (the Pirates) and 1977-1992 (Cardinals, Expos, Jets, Tigers, Rangers). The Gaston County King Cougars played in the independent Atlantic Coast League, which folded one month into its first season in 1995. Gastonia was then home to the Grizzlies of the collegiate Coastal Plain League from 2002-2020,
The Honey Hunters name is meant to represent “fearless, determined, and resilient.” But it also pays homage to Ransom Hunter, Gaston County’s first freed slave and an African-American landowner. The owner of the Honey Hunters, Brandon Bellamy, is the only African-American majority owner in professional baseball.
After a period of waiting that may have been 15 minutes or 15 hours, it was time to throw out the first pitch. I met another gentleman who had also been invited to throw out the first pitch. He worried about blowing it, and asked if I would like to go first. I smiled. Sure, I’ve got this. I played baseball through high school and am comfortable on the field. I’ll show the way.
The PA announcer called out my name and summarized our trip for the crowd. I walked out to the turfed mound, from the shadows of the stands into the sun. The Fox46 camera operator had his iPhone trained on me, ready to record this key moment for the story.
It is here that I need to mention that the Atlantic League had begun an experiment earlier in the year on behalf of Major League Baseball to move the mound back by one foot, from 60 feet, six inches, to 61 feet, six inches. The goal was to reduce the number of strikeouts in the game.
So when I say that I proceeded to bounce the first pitch — and not just by a little, but by a good six feet — just know that small differences such as this can throw off the timing of even the most finely tuned athlete. Another potential factor might be that I let my hubris get to me and tried to throw an actual, proper pitch for the first time in 30 years — not one of those weak lobs anyone can throw; and that doing so off the mound sent me on a mid-motion downward trajectory for which my body and its lost muscle memory were entirely unable to compensate. But I’m pretty sure it was the new distance.
I slumped toward the plate, shook Stewart’s hand, and accepted my souvenir ball with embarrassment. My first-pitch companion then stepped up to the mound and lobbed a perfect strike.
The ballgame began soon after, and I can’t really say that the two starting pitchers fared much better from the mound than I did. Gastonia pitcher AJ Merkel, in his first year of independent ball, gave up four runs on back-to-back homers in the top of the first. Not to be outdone, Legends starter Davis Feldman gave up six runs on four hits, including a homer to right-center by Emmanuel Tapia, another former Minor Leaguer trying his luck in the Atlantic League. At this rate, the final score would be 54-36.
Time for dinner! Dad and I both chose the recommended pimento cheeseburgers (with bacon) and waffle fries. Nothing too exotic, but those were some tasty little cheeseburgers! I added a Catawba CLT IPA for a perfect ballpark combo.
The teams traded more runs throughout the middle innings. After six, Gastonia led 11-8.
With the high-scoring game stretching on into the night, another beer was required. I chose the Long Leaf IPA from Appalachian Mountain Brewery.
Over the final three innings, Gastonia’s lead dripped away, one run per inning, until Lexington tied the game, 11-11, in the top of the ninth. The teams would go to extra innings.
In the top of the 10th, Lexington converted a walk and three singles into four more runs. Gastonia answered with two runs of their own but fell short, 15-13. Just your average four-hour baseball game with 28 runs on 27 hits in the hitting-happy Atlantic League.