The South Atlantic League, known by baseball people as the SALLY League, is one of the oldest of the Minor Leagues. It has the distinction within baseball of having produced more Hall of Famers than any other of the Minor Leagues.

It boasts the two oldest Pro ball fields in America; one of them most likely the oldest continual ball field period. There is a Currier and Ives contemporary print made during the Civil War that shows Union Prisoners of War playing baseball in Asheville, North Carolina on the spot that McCormick Field is today.

McCormick Field is the home of the Asheville Tourists and lays claim to being the oldest continual ball field in America. It is also one of my favorite places to haunt during the summer months. If you are ever fortunate enough to be in Asheville on a Thursday when the Tourists are playing at home, then go check out the Thirsty Thursday where you get a 22-ounce beer for a buck and get to watch the wildest fans in the game letting their hair down.

John Henry Moss is the President of the South Atlantic League and has been since Jesus played there in 3 BC. It is a league filled with tradition and has produced some of the greatest ball players to ever step onto a Major League field.

What follows is a brief history of the teams of the Sally League, and please bear with me as I build this tribute to the finest of all the Minor Leagues.