the rest of the season, finishing 15 games ahead of Asheville. However, Charlotte was eliminated in the opening round of the league playoffs, losing three games to one to Spartanburg, which had finished 27 games behind the Hornets in regular league play. The Hornets were managed by 27-year-old Cal Ermer, who also hit. 297 and led the league's second basemen in fielding (.971) in his last season as an active player. Later he served for nearly two years (1967 and 1968) as manager of the Minnesota Twins. The Hornets' Francisco "Frank" Campos led the league in batting (.368) with only 20 strike outs in 566 plate appearances. Catcher Bob Oldis and outfield Bruce Barmes also were standouts. Oldis played parts of seven seasons in the Major Leagues as a catcher, and later was a longtime MLB coach and scout. A host of major league stars played for the Charlotte Hornets including Van Lingle Mungo (1929), Early Wynn (1939), Harmon Killebrew (1956), Tony Oliva (1962) and Graig Nettles (1967). Another player, Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, appeared as a right fielder in a single major league game on June 29, 1905, but he never had an at bat, nor a fielding play. His unusual story came to the attention of author W. P. Kinsella and was popularized by his novel Shoeless Joe and the subsequent 1988 film Field of Dreams. Graham's character was played by Burt Lancaster and Frank Whaley as older and younger Graham. In 2001 as part of the 200th anniversary celebration of Minor League Baseball, Bill Weiss and Marshall Write, two veteran chroniclers of minor league teams, researched and rated the best Minor League teams of the Twentieth Century. The 1951 Charlotte Hornets ranked 36th and the 1931 Hornets 56th. History since 1976 The next era of Charlotte baseball began in 1976, however the three years prior, (1973-75) the stadium sat empty and deteriorating. In an effort to save the iconic stadium from being knocked down for warehouse space, and return baseball to Charlotte, Wrestling promoter Jim Crockett, Jr. and the Crockett family, bought the Asheville Orioles, the AA Southern League affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, and renamed them the "Charlotte" Orioles. The stadium was refurbished in time for the 1976 season. In 1977 the ballpark was renamed Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Park (more commonly known as Crockett Park), after the patriarch of the Crockett family. The team, ( known