Good time to gather around the hot stove, for a little Hot Stove baseball talk, on a cold winter day…Former Greensboro baseball owner Steve Bryant is making baseball news and moves again, with the move of his Double-A franchise to Pensacola, Florida and the Kinston Indians from the Carolina League will be coming to Zebulon….
RALEIGH — Changes are coming, but there will still be baseball in Zebulon.
After the upcoming season, the Double-A franchise affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds will be replaced by the High-A franchise affiliated with the Cleveland Indians, currently operating in Kinston.
“To say that the Mudcats are leaving is not true,” Carolina Mudcats owner Steve Bryant said. “We feel strongly about our brand. While the Double-A team will relocate, the Mudcats are going to be here.”
Bryant is selling the rights to his Double-A franchise, which move to Pensacola, Fla., and buying the rights to the High-A team in Kinston, where Historic Grainger Stadium was recently featured in Durham-based Baseball America magazine’s Great Parks calendar.
Bryant said the sale of the Double-A team is a preemptive measure to avoid having to charter a plane on road trips farther than 500 miles away.
Only three of the other nine teams in the Southern League are within 500 miles of Zebulon, and Bryant.
Read more CLICK HERE from the News and Observer in Raleigh….