Gastonia Grizzlies
Encyclopedia
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|colspan=2| Gastonia Grizzlies
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|| Founded || 2002
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|| Home Field || Buddy Lewis Field at Sims Legion Park
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|| Based in || Gastonia, North Carolina
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|| Colors || Black, Gold and White
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|| League || Coastal Plain League
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|| League Titles || 2011
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|| Head Coach || Jason Plourde
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|| Managing Partner || Jesse Cole
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The Gastonia Grizzlies are a collegiate summer baseball team playing in the Coastal Plain League
. The team plays home games at Buddy Lewis Field at Sims Legion Park in astonia, North Carolina].
The Grizzlies are Gaston County's hometown team! The team is known for crazy promotions, the Donut Dog, All You Can Eat & Drink Tuesday's, Weiner Wednesdays, Dancing players, Dunk the GM and Dunk the Intern and their famous fireworks shows! The Grizzlies have been known for other unique promotions including: Grandma Beauty Pageant, Dig for the Diamond, Salute to Underwear Night, Flatulence Fun Night and Midnight Madness Night.
The Grizzlies drew 51,910 fans, breaking the previous attendance record by over 9,000 fans. The Grizzlies had eight games over 3,000 fans including the teams first sell out on June 4, 2011 with 4,089 fans. The Grizzlies also hosted the first ever Great Community Give Back Game on July 31, 2011 where the teamed up with sponsors to provide free tickets to the entire community and free dinner for the first one thousand fans. 3,224 fans packed the house and received giveaways throughout the game.
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! Season !! Total Att. !! Openings !! Game Average
|-
| 2011 || 51,910 || 27 || 1,848
|-
| 2010 || 42,758 || 27 || 1,574
|-
| 2009 || 39,296 || 24 || 1,637
|-
| 2008 || 29,310 || 25 || 1,172
|}
|-
! Date !! Attendance
|-
| June 4, 2011 || 4,089
|-
| August 4, 2009 || 3,788
|-
| July 31, 2010 || 3,604
|-
| July 3, 2009 || 3,514
|-
| August 2, 2011 || 3,472
|-
| July 3, 2010 || 3,365
|-
| July 17, 2011 || 3,359
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|- align="center" bgcolor="#dddddd"
|colspan=2| Gastonia Grizzlies
|- align="center"
|colspan=2|
|- align="center" bgcolor="#eeeeee"
|| Founded || 2002
|- align="center"
|| Home Field || Buddy Lewis Field at Sims Legion Park
|- align="center" bgcolor="#eeeeee"
|| Based in || Gastonia, North Carolina
Gastonia, North Carolina
Gastonia is the largest city and county seat of Gaston County, North Carolina, United States. It is also the third largest suburb of the Charlotte Area, behind Concord and Rock Hill. The population was 71,226 as of Gastonia is the largest city and county seat of Gaston County, North Carolina,...
|- align="center"
|| Colors || Black, Gold and White
|- align="center" bgcolor="#eeeeee"
|| League || Coastal Plain League
Coastal Plain League
The Coastal Plain League is a wood-bat collegiate summer league, featuring college players from throughout the nation. The league takes its name from a Class D minor league baseball league which operated in the same area from 1937 to 1952. The modern league was formed with six teams in 1997...
|- align="center"
|| League Titles || 2011
|- align="center" bgcolor="#eeeeee"
|| Head Coach || Jason Plourde
|- align="center"
|| Managing Partner || Jesse Cole
|- align="center"
The Gastonia Grizzlies are a collegiate summer baseball team playing in the Coastal Plain League
Coastal Plain League
The Coastal Plain League is a wood-bat collegiate summer league, featuring college players from throughout the nation. The league takes its name from a Class D minor league baseball league which operated in the same area from 1937 to 1952. The modern league was formed with six teams in 1997...
. The team plays home games at Buddy Lewis Field at Sims Legion Park in astonia, North Carolina].
The Grizzlies are Gaston County's hometown team! The team is known for crazy promotions, the Donut Dog, All You Can Eat & Drink Tuesday's, Weiner Wednesdays, Dancing players, Dunk the GM and Dunk the Intern and their famous fireworks shows! The Grizzlies have been known for other unique promotions including: Grandma Beauty Pageant, Dig for the Diamond, Salute to Underwear Night, Flatulence Fun Night and Midnight Madness Night.
Midnight Madness
The inaugural Midnight Madness game took place on July 9, 2010 against the Forest City Owls. The first pitch was at Midnight with festivities before the game including bed races, eating contests, players in the dunk tank, Home Run Derby and a live band in the Beer Garden. The game drew 3,150 fans with the last fan entering the ballpark at 1:39AM. The game won best promotion at 2010 Summer Ball Conference. The 2011 Midnight Madness was even a bigger success drawing more fans than the previous year.2011 Season
2011 was the most successful season in the Grizzlies ten year history, both on the field and off the field. Before the season the Grizzlies teamed up with the City of Gastonia to provide over $200,000 of renovations at Sims Park including a new concourse, beer garden, group area and fans in the grandstand.The Grizzlies drew 51,910 fans, breaking the previous attendance record by over 9,000 fans. The Grizzlies had eight games over 3,000 fans including the teams first sell out on June 4, 2011 with 4,089 fans. The Grizzlies also hosted the first ever Great Community Give Back Game on July 31, 2011 where the teamed up with sponsors to provide free tickets to the entire community and free dinner for the first one thousand fans. 3,224 fans packed the house and received giveaways throughout the game.
CPL Champions
The 2011 Grizzlies entered the CPL playoffs as the 6 seed and went on to upset the #3 seed Thomasville Hitoms, the #4 seed Forest City Owls in the Semifinals and the #1 seed in the nation the Edenton Steamers to win the Pettit Cup Championship. Michael Heesch was named Rawlings Defensive Player of the Year by finishing the season at 9-0 including three shutouts in the CPL playoffs. Heesch in addition to RHP Derek Epps were named to the Perfect Game Summer Ball All American Team. The Grizzlies finished the year as the #30 ranked team in the country by Perfect Game.Attendance
The Grizzlies set the franchise attendance record in 2011 with 51,910 fans. The team averages 1,848 fans per game for the season. The team's single game attendance record was set on June 4, 2011, with 4,089 fans, making it the first sell out in franchise history. The Grizzlies have broken the attendance record for four consecutive seasons.Highest single-season attendance figures
{| class="wikitable"|-
! Season !! Total Att. !! Openings !! Game Average
|-
| 2011 || 51,910 || 27 || 1,848
|-
| 2010 || 42,758 || 27 || 1,574
|-
| 2009 || 39,296 || 24 || 1,637
|-
| 2008 || 29,310 || 25 || 1,172
|}
Highest single-game attendance figures
{| class="wikitable"|-
! Date !! Attendance
|-
| June 4, 2011 || 4,089
|-
| August 4, 2009 || 3,788
|-
| July 31, 2010 || 3,604
|-
| July 3, 2009 || 3,514
|-
| August 2, 2011 || 3,472
|-
| July 3, 2010 || 3,365
|-
| July 17, 2011 || 3,359
|-