B, equivalent to Class A today) Piedmont League. In 1935, the Bees were the Class B, Piedmont League affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, and in 1936, the Bees left Charlotte and became the "Rocky Mount Red Sox" in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. For just one season in 1936, the Charlotte Hornets were a member of the independent Carolina League with players like "Alabama Pitts", and "Struttin Bud Shaney", who was quite a character. Affiliation with the Senators/Twins (1937–1972) The team was purchased by the Washington Senators in 1937. The club would remain affiliated with the Senators/Twins franchise for 35 years. In 1938 the team was managed by Calvin Griffith, the adopted son of Senators owner Clark Griffith. In 1940, Calvin Griffith built a 3,200-seat park in Charlotte's Dilworth neighborhood on Magnolia Avenue and named it Clark Griffith Park. It officially opened in 1941, and was the home of the Hornets for the next 31 years. The Ballpark would keep the name Griffith Park for the Charlotte Orioles inaugural season in 1976, before being renamed in 1977 as "Jim Crockett Memorial Park" or simply referred to as "Crockett Park" named after Jim Crockett, the O's owner's (Francis Crockett) husband. (Now back to the Charlotte "Hornets" history.) Following a three-year break during World War II, the Hornets returned to competition now in the Tri-State League (Class B) through the 1953 season when it rejoined the Class-A South Atlantic League. It remained in the league, which was upgraded to Class AA in 1963 and renamed the Southern League the following year, through 1972. (In 1971 the Hornets played in the Dixie Association, a merger of the Texas and Southern leagues.) In 1972, the Twins also placed a Class A Western Carolinas League franchise, the Charlotte Twins, alongside the Double-A Hornets' franchise; it lasted only one season. Through the years, the Hornets won championships in the North Carolina League (1902, 1916 and 1923), Piedmont League (1931 and 1938) Tri-State League (1946, 1947 and 1952) and Southern League (1969,1971). The mainstay of the Hornets through the years was Phillip "Phil" Howser, who became Charlotte General Manager in 1935 and except for three years in the early 1940s when he worked in the Washington Senator's front office, ran the Charlotte operation until January 1970. Sometimes he served both as president and general manager of the club. Howser worked his entire 39-year baseball career for the