Charlotte Knights

Charlotte Knights
Charlotte Knights
League	International League
Division	South Division
Year founded	1976
Major League affiliation	Chicago White Sox
Home ballpark	Knights Stadium
Previous home ballparks	Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Park
City	Fort Mill, South Carolina
Current uniform colors	green, navy blue
Previous uniform colors
Logo design	A navy blue horse head with green hair centered above the "Knights" wordmark.
Division titles
League titles	1993, 1999
Manager
Owner

The Charlotte Knights are a minor league baseball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The team, which plays in the International League, is the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox major-league club. The Knights currently play in Knights Stadium, located in Fort Mill, South Carolina. The Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners have begun pursuing a new downtown stadium for the AAA Charlotte Knights.

History

The Knights were created as the Charlotte O's in 1976. At that time, they were the AA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles and played in the Southern League. The creation of the O's followed a 4-year absence of minor-league baseball in Charlotte. Charlotte had been a single A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins from the 1940's until 1972.Eventual major-league superstars Eddie Murray, 1976, Cal Ripken, Jr, 1980, and Curt Schilling (mid-1980's) played for the O's. Eventual major-league All-Star Eddie Murray was the O's original first-baseman. The O's were owned by the Crockett family, who had made their fortune in professional wrestling. In fact, wrestling announcer Tony Schiavone actually started out his career as the announcer for the O's (and after leaving wrestling, has been affiliated with the Atlanta Braves), and through the Crockett family entered the wrestling business. The team originally played in Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Park,(formerly Griffith Stadium during the Twins affiliate era, named for the Twins owner Calvin Griffith) commonly referred to as Crockett Park. In the late 1980's, the stadium (mostly wood-framed) was destroyed by a massive fire after a high school baseball game. The Crockett family built a temporary grandstand on the same site for the 1988 season In 1989, George Shinn (who would later own the New Orleans Hornets NBA team) bought the team from the Crockett family. In 1989, the team was renamed the Knights and was now the AA affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.

The team moved to suburban Fort Mill when Knights Stadium opened in 1990, located just off Interstate 77, next to the practice facility of Shinn's NBA team. (The arena next to Knights Stadium was renamed RLJ Arena in 2002, and became the Bobcats Training Center in 2004.) In 1991, Charlotte was awarded an International League franchise. They would become the AAA affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. Their first year in the International League was in 1993; that team included current major-league stars Jim Thome and Manny Ramírez. For the 1996-1997 seasons, the Knights were the AAA affiliate of the Florida Marlins. Before the 1998 season, George Shinn sold the Knights to N.C. businessman Don Beaver, who negotiated a AAA affiliation agreement with the Chicago White Sox. Notable former Knights under the White Sox affiliation include current White Sox pitcher Jon Garland and White Sox position player Joe Crede. This agreement has recently been extended to ensure that professsional baseball will remain in Charlotte for many years to come.

Affiliations

• Baltimore Orioles 1976-1988
• Chicago Cubs 1989-1992
• Cleveland Indians 1993-1995
• Florida Marlins 1996-1998
• Chicago White Sox 1998-present

Titles

The Knights have won the Governors' Cup, the championship of the IL, 2 times.

• 1993 - Defeated Rochester
• 1999 - Defeated Durham

Alumni

As the O's

• Eddie Murray
• Cal Ripken, Jr.
• Curt Schilling

As the Knights

• Joe Borchard
• José Canseco
• Mark Clark
• Livan Hernandez
• Charles Nagy
• Manny Ramírez
• Jim Thome
• Sammy Sosa

External link

• Charlottte Knights web site

Chicago White Sox Franchise
AAA	AA	A	Rookie
Charlotte Knights	Birmingham Barons	Winston-Salem Warthogs Kannapolis Intimidators	Great Falls White Sox Bristol White Sox

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