Black Mountain's Past
around the horn in the swannanoa valley: A look back at more than a century of local baseball
Wendell Begley
Guest contributor
The Valley Echo
March 7, 2024
Photo courtesy of the Wendell Begley Collection
Take Me Out To The Ball Game …
It’s almost springtime and the awe of it all. In an earlier era, as the ever-prevalent spring sunrise penetrated a foggy Swannanoa Valley, younger folks knew the hot days of summer and “barnyard baseball” could not be far behind.
When the Asheville Tourists take to the plate in a few weeks, at 6:35 p.m., Friday, April 5, players and fans alike will celebrate the team’s 109th anniversary (when the name was first used). As many of the “seniors” amongst us revel in that love affair, I thought I would work in some home-grown local history regarding the split-ball and its players. So here goes ...
For well over a century, baseball has been played in the Swannanoa Valley. Initially, the games took place in cow pastures, old cornfields and churchyards. In 1915, organized baseball came to the area when the Asheville Tourists began playing at Riverside Park. After the flood of 1916, the local team moved to Oates Field (Southside Avenue) and finally McCormick Field. Both ballfields were in Asheville. McCormick Field, Asheville’s first baseball stadium, opened on April 3, 1924—100 years ago this April. I have included a picture of that inaugural event as the masthead of this week’s series. In that celebrated game, the Tourists beat the Detroit Tigers and Ty Cobb, 18 to 14!
Back then, in rural areas of Buncombe County like the Swannanoa Valley, it was every young boy’s dream to make the trip to Asheville and watch a Tourists ballgame. Surprisingly, before the ballpark’s last major renovations of 1992, McCormick Field was the oldest minor league park in the nation and the fourth oldest overall. Only Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Boston’s Fenway Park, and Yankee Stadium were older. Over the years, many ball players from the Valley were fortunate enough to visit McCormick Field. Way back then, the audience had the opportunity to watch such legends as Babe Ruth, Willie Stargell, Lou Gehrig, Dizzy Dean, Ty Cobb, Roberto Clemente and Jackie Robinson.
As we prepare for another season of “America’s Favorite Pastime,” I thought I would do a series on a few local players and a nearby “historic” ball field from yesteryear.
So it was in the Spring of 1964, as I prepared to finish my freshman year at Owen, I attended most of Owen’s Varsity baseball games. At that time, coaching legend Bill Rucker was at the helm. I have included a photograph (below) of that 1964 Owen High School baseball team. That 60 year-old picture sure brings back memories of old acquaintances.
Photo courtesy of the Wendell Begley Collection
1964 Owen High School Baseball Team
Sitting on the front row, left to right, are: Joe Brooks, Ronnie Craig, Luther Spivey, Arnold Gragg and Buddy Greenwood. Then, on the back row (l-r) are: Dale Crain, Doug Cline, Terry Ramsey, Jimmy Bell, Ted Bryant, and Steve Cline.
Photo courtesy of the Wendell Begley Collection
1921 Black Mountain Baseball Team
To go further back in history, I included a rare 1921 photograph featuring one of Black Mountain’s first baseball teams. Team members on that 1921 roster included, from left to right, front row: Roy Brown, Roy Moore, Charles Miller, Mike (Francis) Miller and Jesse Moore. On the back row, left to right, were Lawrence Brown, Doss Kerlee, Vincent Archer and Perry Priest.
I cannot end this bi-weekly series without describing what may have been the most unique ballpark in all N.C., or Eastern America for that matter. As fate would have it, the “skyline ballfield” was within a rocks throw of today’s historic Swannanoa Rim. During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the boys on the North Fork side of the Craggy Range would meet the boys on the opposite side of the mountain (Reems Creek) for a game of “hardball” on the green carpet called deer grass. To participate in the prearranged annual game, the young men from the opposite side of the Craggy Range climbed to the top of the Swannanoa Rim to a place where a natural plateau existed. The site was poised skyward at a breath-choking elevation of approximately 5,650 feet. The long-awaited annual event was staged on a sprawling, scenic meadow then called Craggy Flats or the Flats of Craggy. The occasion also served as a well-attended annual social get-together for both mountain communities.
Today, what may have been the East’s highest ballpark is better known as Craggy Gardens. Craggy Gardens is distinguished as one of the world’s largest natural rhododendron gardens. The best place to see the distant “gardens” from downtown Black Mountain (in a car) is to look up Broadway from the railroad tracks and red-light to the distant mountaintops (Swannanoa Rim). From this vantage point, the Great Craggy Range and Gardens are the highest mountains on the distant horizon (Swannanoa Rim). I have included two photographs below highlighting the historic “High Meadows.”
Photo courtesy of the Wendell Begley Collection
View of Craggy Gardens from Craggy Pinnacle
I took this photo from the summit of Craggy Pinnacle on the Swannanoa Rim. The view looks southwest half a mile to an immediate long ridge in the top right of the photo (Craggy Gardens). The old ball field sat squarely on the flattest and highest portion of that distant ridgeline. The playing field was just to the left of the Craggy Garden Shelter (white speck) on the crest of the Swannanoa Rim in the top right of the photo.
Photo courtesy of the Wendell Begley Collection
Craggy Gardens…All of Us in 2010
I took this photograph in 2010. The photo was composed at the actual site of the old baseball diamond near the Craggy Garden’s Shelter. Those folks featured in the picture were hiking friends, from left to right: Andy Linton, Homer Royal, Van Burnette, Mary Begley, Jerry West and John Buckner.
Photo courtesy of the Wendell Begley Collection
View of Black Mountain from Flats of Craggy
Lastly, the view in this photo highlights Black Mountain (distant buildings on the Valley’s Floor in the center of the picture) and the upper Swannanoa Valley. My photograph was composed from the nearby “Flats of Craggy” on the Swannanoa Rim near the legendary “Field of Dreams.” Cheers!
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Copyright: M. Wendell Begley, series 860, VE9, February 23, 2024