La Western Carolinas League fu una lega minore del baseball USA. Fu attiva come Classe D nel 1948-52 e nel 1960-62 e nel basso livello della Classe A fra il 1963 e il 1979. La WCL ha cambiato il suo nome all'inizio del 1980 in Class D (1948-52, 1960-62) and a low Class A (1963-79) full-season league South Atlantic League, un circuito oggi di grande successo con squadre dall' dalla Georgia al New Jersey. Originariamente chiamata "Western Carolina League," nel 1948-52 la WCL comprendeva solo squadre delle contee di Piedmont e Blue Ridge dell'ovest della Carolina del Nord. Si fuse poi con la per formare l'effimera , di classe D, che visse solo due stagioni prima di fallire. Nel 1960, la WCL rinacque nel circuito Class D con farm teams della . Quando la CL fu fatta naufragare dall'espansione della Major League Baseball, i membri della Western Carolinas League divennero affiliati alle squadre della MLB. Nel 1963 fu promossa a classe A nella riorganizzazione delle leghe minori. (it)
The Western Carolinas League was a Class D (1948–52; 1960–62) and a low Class A (1963–79) full-season league in American minor league baseball. The WCL changed its name prior to the 1980 season and has been known since as the South Atlantic League, a highly successful Class A circuit with teams up the Eastern Seaboard from Georgia to New Jersey. Originally called the "Western Carolina League", the 1948–52 WCL was composed exclusively of teams located in the Piedmont and Blue Ridge sections of western North Carolina. It merged with the North Carolina State League to form the short-lived Class D Tar Heel League, which lasted only 1½ seasons (1953–54) before folding. In 1960, the WCL was revived as a Class D circuit intended to house farm teams of the member clubs of a planned third major league, the Continental League. It featured teams in eight North Carolina locales: Gastonia, Hickory, Lexington, Newton–Conover, Rutherford County, Salisbury, Shelby and Statesville, but soon expanded to sites in South Carolina. When the Continental League was torpedoed by the Major League Baseball expansion in 1961 and 1962, the member teams of the Western Carolinas League became affiliates of American and National League clubs. It was upgraded to Class A in the 1963 reorganization of the minor leagues. The first professional baseball team based in Monroe, North Carolina came into being when the Statesville Indians moved into town on June 20, 1969 and finished the year as the Monroe Indians. The team lasted just one season before being replaced by the Sumter Indians. For nearly 60 years, 1948 through 2007, the WCL/SAL's dominant figure was league founder and president John Henry Moss, who started the WCL as a young man in 1948, refounded it in 1960 and then led it into the new century. Moss, also the longtime mayor of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, retired at the close of the 2007 Sally League season and died, at age 90, on July 1, 2009. (en)
The Western Carolinas League was a Class D (1948–52; 1960–62) and a low Class A (1963–79) full-season league in American minor league baseball. The WCL changed its name prior to the 1980 season and has been known since as the South Atlantic League, a highly successful Class A circuit with teams up the Eastern Seaboard from Georgia to New Jersey. (en)
La Western Carolinas League fu una lega minore del baseball USA. Fu attiva come Classe D nel 1948-52 e nel 1960-62 e nel basso livello della Classe A fra il 1963 e il 1979. La WCL ha cambiato il suo nome all'inizio del 1980 in Class D (1948-52, 1960-62) and a low Class A (1963-79) full-season league South Atlantic League, un circuito oggi di grande successo con squadre dall' dalla Georgia al New Jersey. (it)