Sad to see Kinston's long pro baseball run end

There’s something special about minor-league baseball and the folks who embrace it as part of fabric of the small town. A classic old ball park attracts fans trying to catch a rising star who might just be the next Jim Thome. For many, it's just a terrific inexpensive option for some good family fun.

We just lost that tradition in Kinston.

Next season, the high-Class A Carolina League franchise that has been in Kinston since 1978 will move to Zebulon and become the Carolina Mudcats. The Double-A Southern League franchise that has been the Mudcats since 1989 is moving to Pensacola, Fla., next season. Unless Kinston manages to find another team, there will be no pro baseball at Grainger Stadium next season.

Kinston's long history of pro baseball that began in 1908 is over ... for now. 

Twenty-one years ago (has it really been that long?), I had the pleasure of covering a couple of hundred Kinston games while I was sports editor of the Kinston Free Press. I was there for the start of possibly the last chapter of Kinston professional baseball in 1987, when the franchise's long and productive affiliation with the Cleveland Indians began.

Sadly, I was there when it ended Friday night on a rainy night with a miserable result: an 11-3 Kinston loss. The Frederick Keys' victory, sparked by a seemingly never-ending 11-run inning, earned the Carolina League title with a 3-1 series victory and provided a frustrating farewell to Grainger.

My younger son still was eight years from being born when I covered the Kinston Indians for the final time. At least he got a chance to experience possibly the last taste of what minor-league baseball once was in Kinston.

The turn of events is frustrating, but frankly not surprising. As the country's smallest city with a full-season minor-league team, the fact that Kinston was able to keep a team that long is a testament to the commitment of the owners, the town and the Cleveland organization.

The team's owner, Cam McRae, hadn't made money for years and you can't really blame him. To his credit, he's trying to find another team for Kinston.

It was the second time a deal was in the works to move the franchise to Zebulon. Before Steve Bryant bought the Columbus (Ga.) Mudcats in 1989 and made them the Carolina Mudcats, it looked like the Kinston Indians franchise would be headed there. Unfortunately, it's actually has happened this time.

When I covered the team, it never was called the K-Tribe as it has been in recent years and it simply was Grainger Stadium. But the team departs what has become known as Historic Grainger Stadium, a facility that is much nicer than the one I saw in my last previous Grainger Stadium visit in 1990.


Most of the off-the-field characters have changed.

I wasn’t able to hear the classic phrases of longtime scoreboard operator Delmonte Miller on Friday night. Is it really a Kinston game if we don’t hear cries of “ham and cheese” from Del? That was his way of yelling for a double play when an opponent had a runner on first with less than two outs.

I didn't realize until last week that Delmont died a few years ago of a heart attack. When I got to the stadium Friday night, I was thrilled to discover that the press box was named after Del. Bryan Hanks' blog noted a nice column by one of my former sportswriters at the Free Press, Todd Murray, about Delmont.

I sat with Del in the press box from August 1986 until the end of the 1990 season. There were lots of good stories to cover there as the general manager at the time, North Johnson, now the GM of the Triple-A Gwinnett Braves, had the franchise thriving.

North is a terrific guy and the team really had some of its best years after he took over control from Gary Fitzpatrick, whose idea of the way to boost attendance was to threaten to leave. Fitzpatrick once waited around 30 minutes to announce that a game was rained out so he could get the extra concessions revenue.

I remember interviewing Mike Hargrove at the airport in the winter of 1987 before he was about to take his first managing job at any level: Leading the first edition of the Kinston Indians.

No, this isn't my trading card, I just
I just found this image on the Internet.

Late in the '87 season, Hargrove got an enigmatic addition to the team, an outfielder then known as Joey Belle. He hit his first professional home run (in the Durham Athletic Park that you see in the movie "Bull Durham") the night the Indians clinched the second-half title. While all of Belle's new teammates celebrated in the dressing room, he sat quietly in a chair outside of the dressing room.

Belle had his share of run-ins with sportswriters, but I got along with him fine. On one particular afternoon in the 1988 season, I sat in the Kinston Indians office and watched a few innings of a Cubs game with him. A couple of weeks later, he abruptly left the team after hitting .301 with eight home runs in 41 games. Any other player would have been released on the spot. But the Indians, although suspending him, stuck with talented outfielder and the rest is history ... as Albert Belle.

That 1988 season, which included Grainger playing host to the Carolina League All-Star Game, was the highlight of the four full seasons I covered the club. I had a terrific rapport with the manager that year, Glenn Adams. I knew I was going to get some terrific quotes from Glenn when his first words to me were, "R.L., what the hell do you want?"

Adams had a solid team, although there ultimately weren't that many future major leaguers. Belle had the best big-league career and, sadly, the player who later made the second-most news was sidewinding pitcher Steve Olin, who died in a boating accident during spring training in 1993.

The most fun name to learn to spell was Hawaiian pitcher Carl Keliipuleole, who came out of the bullpen to the tune of the "Hawaii 5-0" theme song. PA announcer Jim Kelso would precede the song by saying, "here comes Hawaii 5-4" (he wore No. 54).

It's always more fun to cover a team that's winning, and there was plenty of that. Kinston dominated the league, sweeping both halves to finish the regular season 88-52. Kinston won a close, intense first-half race with the Durham Bulls in the year that "Bull Durham" was released. Kinston didn't put away the first-half title until beating Durham on the last day of the first half at Grainger, then coasted to the second-half title.

A curious question was asked of me before that first-half clinching victory. We had extensive coverage daily leading up to that game, and so had the TV stations. A fan came up to me before the game and asked, "Who are we playing tonight?" That was just a reminder that minor-league baseball is more like a night at the movies than a topic for the water cooler.

The Indians beat the Lynchburg Red Sox in the Carolina League championship series 3-2 to win the Mills Cup and Kinston's first league title since 1962. The Kinston Indians would add league titles in 1991, 1995, 2005 and 2005 before falling two wins short this season.

Earlier this season, Thome hit his 600th major-league home run. I saw many of the 33 games he played for Kinston in the 1990 season. Many Kinstonians probably had the same feeling seeing Thome hit No. 600 as I did: It is neat to see a player you saw in Class A ball reach a milestone such as that.

Will there be other future major-league stars who will first call Grainger Stadium home? I certainly hope so, although it seems more likely that Kinston will get a team in the wooden-bat amateur Coastal Plain League.

So long, Kinston Indians. Lenoir County and anybody who has ever enjoyed a night at Grainger will miss you. I know I will.