The Hickory Crawdads are a Minor League Baseball team in Hickory, North Carolina, USA. They are a Class A team in the South Atlantic League, and have been a farm team of the Texas Rangers since 2009. Previously, they were a Class A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Crawdads play home games at L.P. Frans Stadium. Opened in 1993, Frans Stadium seats 5,092 fans. The Crawdads mascot is Conrad the Crawdad. Conrad was named in a contest won by Ryan Windam, a native of Hickory, North Carolina. Canio Costanzo, media director and radio announcer for seasons 2000-2003, announced the teams longest game on 8/13/2000. The home game, against the Asheville tourist, lasted 5 hours and 16 minutes and ended with a 1 run defeat with a score of 4 to 3. Canio won Media Director of the year in 2002. The Crawdads won the South Atlantic League Championship in 2002, and again in 2004. Andrew Buchbinder, formerly a radio announcer for the Bakersfield Condors of the ECHL and the Bakersfield Blaze of the California League, became the Crawdads radio announcer for the 2009 season.
Read more about Hickory Crawdads: Notable Alumni, Roster, Mascot
Famous quotes containing the word hickory:
“Lincoln, six feet one in his stocking feet,
The lank man, knotty and tough as a hickory rail,
Whose hands were always too big for white-kid gloves,
Whose wit was a coonskin sack of dry, tall tales,
Whose weathered face was homely as a plowed field.”
—Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943)