3 minute read
Campbell was also in double fi gures with points. Clay County’s Grant Strong poured in a game- high 32 points and was later named Mr. Basketball in Class A.
incorporate it the absolute best that we could and say thank you to veterans and thank you to the area for being such a wonderful community to us,” Foster said. “We hope everyone loves this new name, new logo, new team, new league just as much as we do.”
Other names considered included Highlanders, Aviators, Capitols and Big Rigs.
“We all fell in love (with Flyboys),” Foster said. “It was well received by everyone involved.”
The Flyboys was a rebranding of Greeneville’s baseball team due to the Appalachian League losing its affi liation under Major League Baseball’s plan to contract minor league affi liates from 162 to 120.
The 10 cities that were in the Appalachian League prior to contraction make up the new Appy League. Those include Greeneville, Bristol, Elizabethton, Johnson City and Kingsport in Tennessee, Bluefi eld, Danville and Pulaski in Virginia, Princeton in West Virginia and Burlington in North Carolina.
Greeneville is one of four Appy League franchises operated by Boyd Sports. Elizabethton, Johnson City and Kingsport are the others.
It was also revealed at the press conference that the new Appy League would be part of the Prospect Development Pipeline run by MLB and USA Baseball. College freshmen and sophomores make up the Appy League rosters, and USA Baseball and MLB will select the players and coaching staff s.
Top performers from the Appy League will advance to the Cape Cod League as juniors. Top performers from the Cape who remain in school will advance to the MLB Draft League as seniors and could be drafted in the MLB draft that is being moved from June to August.
Greeneville’s past two affi liated entries in the Appalachian League were the Astros from 2004-2017 and the Reds in 2018 and 2019.
The team was still named the Reds in 2020, but the minor league baseball season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
FIRST GAME
With players in the new Appy League reporting just a day before the season got underway, managers were kind of throwing everything on the fi eld in the June 3 openers to see what did and didn’t work.
For fi ve and a half innings, it looked as if the Flyboys’ season would get off to a winning start. But the Elizabethton River Riders erased a 2-0 defi cit with three runs in the sixth inning and two in the seventh for a 5-2 victory at Northeast Community Credit Union Ballpark in Elizabethton.
SEE FLYBOYS ON PAGE 11E
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN/IVAN SANDERS, ELIZABETHON STAR Greeneville Flyboys starting pitcher Bryce Mayer pitched two hitless, scoreless innings in a 5-2 season-opening loss at Elizabethton on June 4.
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