League to honor John Moss

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The South Atlantic League will honor President Emeritus John Henry Moss throughout the 2008 season. The league's board of directors voted at the Baseball Winter Meetings™ in Nashville to retire the uniform number 50 throughout the South Atlantic League. According to South Atlantic League records, the only other number that is retired league-wide is the number 42, honoring Jackie Robinson, which was retired throughout Minor League Baseball in 1997.

The celebration of Mr. Moss's career will continue as the "2008 Celebration Tour" is hosted at each of the league's 16 ballparks. Each club will honor John Moss during a pre-game ceremony. A cast bronze plaque will also be installed in each stadium to honor the contributions that John has made to the Western Carolinas/South Atlantic League over the past 50 years. The "2008 Celebration Tour" is scheduled to begin in Rome, Ga., on April 18-19 and continue through Aug. 2, when the final celebration will take place in Charleston, W. Va. The complete Celebration Tour Schedule is included below.

A change has also been made to the league logo.

"To commemorate John's 50 years of service, we thought it was appropriate to change the league's logo to gold," said Eric Krupa, the new president of the South Atlantic League.

John Moss organized the Western Carolina League in 1947. He ran the league for two years before moving north and working in the Detroit Tigers farm system for the next 10 years. Upon returning to North Carolina in 1959, John was recruited to re-organize the Western Carolinas League. After the 1979 season, the league reinstated the South Atlantic League name, which had been dormant since 1964. John Moss retired as South Atlantic League president at the end of 2007.

John Moss "2008 Celebration Tour" Schedule

Date / Location / Club Name
April 18-19 / Rome, Ga. / Rome Braves
May 10 / Kannapolis, N.C. / Kannapolis Intimidators
May 17 / Columbus, Ga. / Columbus Catfish
May 23 / Eastlake, Ohio / Lake County Captains
May 30 / Hagerstown, Md. / Hagerstown Suns
June 7 / Asheville, N.C. / Asheville Tourists
June 13 / Charleston, S.C. / Charleston RiverDogs
June 17 / Greensboro, N.C. / Greensboro Grasshoppers
June 20 / Lexington, Ky. / Lexington Legends
June 27 / Hickory, N.C. / Hickory Crawdads
July 8 / Lakewood, N.J. / Lakewood BlueClaws
July 10 / Salisbury, Md. / Delmarva Shorebirds
July 17 / Greenville, S.C. / Greenville Drive
July 19 / Augusta, Ga. / Augusta GreenJackets
July 26 / Savannah, Ga. / Savannah Sand Gnats
Aug. 2 / Charleston, W.Va. / West Virginia Power