CHARLESTON, W.Va — Just a couple of years after it appeared Charleston would lose its professional baseball franchise, the team has now made it to the post season. The Charleston Dirty Birds will take on the Lexington Legends Monday night in the opener of the southern division best of three series in the Atlantic League.
Rod Blackstone, also known at games as “The Toastman” said it’s a remarkable story.
“The future of professional baseball was in very deep doubt and how it was going to be. This has been a two year process and what better way to say we’re back and better than ever,” Blackstone said in speaking on 580 Live on MetroNews Flagship Station WCHS-AM.
The former West Virginia Power was among those teams across the country stripped of their affiliation with Major League Baseball. At the time, it looked like a death blow to the long tradition of baseball in West Virginia’s Capital City, but Blackstone said the arrangement put together in aftermath of the MLB action was a credit to the new team ownership and the current city leadership.
Blackstone said with new leadership and a new league, the team landed in a perfect place. He theorized had they continued the Major League tie, it might have created more problems than it solved.
“It was already an imposition, but it was a negotiated imposition. In this last process Major League Baseball decided it wanted to impose its will and that’s what happened,” said Blackstone.
He cited as an example the Myrtle Beach minor league franchise with MLB ties was faced with a difficult decision of building a new multi-million dollar stadium to meet facility standards. Blackstone said although it was a stressful two years, the product on the field is vastly improved with a number of former major league baseball players on the team and a competitive, highly entertaining brand of baseball.
“We’re seeing former Major League players every night, on our roster and the visiting team’s roster. The quality of baseball is higher,” he said.
The first game of the best of three series will be played in Charleston Monday night. Game 2 and if needed a Game 3 will be played in Lexington. Since the two teams have the same owners, an offer is being made to any Dirty Birds fan wanting to make the trip to Lexington for free ticket vouchers to the game there.
The name change, which happened just a few weeks ago from the West Virginia Power to the Charleston Dirty Birds created a stir with some. But Blackstone said grumbling over the name isn’t what matters to him. He’s just happy to still be watching professional baseball in Charleston.
“We’re going to show everyone who wonders that Charleston is a baseball town and that we care more about baseball and that wonderful experience than we do about whether the best name got chosen.,” he said.