Burlington Athletic Stadium
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Burlington Athletic Stadium (former Godfrey Schmieder Field) is a vintage baseball stadium in the central North Carolina Piedmont city of Burlington. It seats 3500 and serves as home field for the minor league Burlington Royals of the rookie Appalachian League. Originally built in Danville, Virginia, it was reconstructed in 1958 after being dismantled and moved south from its original home.
The ballpark was known historically as Fairchild Stadium after the adjacent Fairchild Park city recreation area and nearby World War II Fairchild Aircraft manufacturing plant. It played host to many games in the legendary original Carolina League, and appears momentarily in Ron Shelton's 1988 film homage to the minors, "Bull Durham." Current Major League Baseball stars who played for the Burlington Indians include Bartolo Colón, the Los Angeles Angels pitcher who won the 2005 Cy Young Award, and Manny Ramírez, Most Valuable Player in the Boston Red Sox 2004 World Series championship. Historic greats who once made Fairchild Stadium their home field include another Red Sox legend, Luis Tiant, and longtime New York Yankees pitcher and coach Mel Stottlemyre. Also, Chicago White Sox Player Jim Thome played for the Burlington Indians.
The park was also the site of the eight-hour and 15-minute, 27-inning marathon between the Burlington Indians and Bluefield Orioles on June 24-25, 1988. The WBBB-AM radio play-by-play call of that game by Indians' announcer Richard Musterer stands as the longest continuous single-game solo broadcast in baseball history.
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| Current ballparks in the Appalachian League | ||
| East Division | West Division | |
|---|---|---|
| American Legion Field • Bowen Field Burlington Athletic Stadium • Calfee Park • H. P. Hunnicutt Field |
Devault Memorial Stadium • Howard Johnson Field Hunter Wright Stadium • Joe O'Brien Field • Pioneer Park |
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