as the " O's " ), won Southern League titles in 1980 and 1984. Eventual major-league superstars Eddie Murray (the first baseman of the 1974-75 Asheville O's, then 1976 Charlotte O's) and Cal Ripken (1979-80) played for the O's during this period. On March 17, 1985, Crockett Park (mostly wood-framed) was destroyed by a massive fire after a high school baseball game. An investigation revealed that the cause of the fire was arson. (either a juvenile set flame to the park, or Jim Crockett Sr. had some wrestling debts unpaid.) The Crockett family built a 5,500-seat makeshift stadium immediately afterward, which served as the O's home for the next two seasons. After the 1987 season concluded, George Shinn, owner and founder of the NBA Charlotte Hornets, bought the team from the Crockett family. He renamed the team the Charlotte Knights out of a naming contest. The Knights played in the makeshift stadium on Magnolia for the 1988 season, with future Major League players like Curt Schilling, Gregg Olson, Steve Finley, Pete Harnisch, Jeff Tackett, and a host of other players. This however was just a temporary measure in Shinn's big plan to build a bigger ballpark, and after failed plans to construct it next to the new Hornets arena out on independence, he decided on building it in Fort Mill SC. The Knights switched the team's affiliation to the Chicago Cubs in 1989, playing at "Knights Castle" which was demolished after the season ended, as the new ballpark "Knights Stadium" opened in 1990, and would be the home of a Knights franchise for the following 23 years, but Shinn didn't stop there. What do you need in a bigger ballpark? A bigger level team, AAA level that is, so in 1992, the AA Knights franchise was sold to Nashville when the '92 season ended (the Knights became the Nashville Express 1993-94 (Nashville TN), Port City Roosters 1995-96 (Wilmington NC, AA - SL of the Mariners), then Mobile Bay Bears 1997-201? (Alabama) ) In 1993, Charlotte got a new AAA International League expansion franchise, which was affiliated with the Cleveland Indians from 1993 to 1994, the Florida Marlins from 1995 to 1998 and the Chicago White Sox from 1999 - Present. The team played in York County, South Carolina until 2013, when BB&T Ballpark was built in uptown Charlotte. References External links A more detailed review, from which much of this