98 years of "touring" sounds like a lot of miles

Welcome everyone, to this Wednesday edition of The Fitted Diaries. This cool little guy you see on the cap before you, represents the Asheville Tourists of the South Atlantic League. the SAL is a host league of members of the single A level of Minor League Baseball. The Tourists, who have been in existence since 1915, have recently endured a re-branding process. The changes include, but are not limited to: color way, logos, jerseys, and mascots. The mascot, named Ted E. Tourist, has been re-designed to look like THIS, the jerseys like THIS, and the caps including the one above like THIS. All in all, I think the changes were for the better, as the old set up was beginning to become slightly overlooked and deemed bland among baseball fans. One thing that cannot be erased, as old logos and mascots change, is the incredible history the club claims. As the title of todays post infers, the team has been around for nearly 100 seasons. The Tourists, who have been an affiliate of the Colorado Rockies since the 1994 season, and have also claimed the Rangers, Orioles, Reds, White Sox, Astros, Pirates, Phillies, Dodgers, Cardinals, and the Red Sox as parent organizations previously. If that doesn't serve as a role call of success, I don't know what does. The club has called McCormick Field home since way back in 1924. Yes everyone, that's the Coolidge administration. The old ballpark, which underwent renovations in 1959 and 1991, is a cozy 4,000 seat facility. A little know fact about the park, is that it was the sight of a scene from the 1988 movie Bull Durham. The ballpark is home of what may be the most unintentionally sarcastic scoreboards in all of baseball. The road area reads Visitors...The Home portion reads Tourists... Genius! One things for sure, with the prestigious history this club has endured, it will keep the fans coming for years to come as one of North Carolinas largest "Tourist" attractions shall we say. The cap shown, which is the home cap of the team, features a navy blue brim and crown, with a caricature of the man on the moon as assumed by most with glasses and a Tourists cap on his head. Not that the team needed it, but this re-branding has certainly given the club new life and with any luck another 98 years of baseball in Asheville.