Tourists to Honor League Champions Asheville Blues This Season

As part of Major League Baseball’s The Nine initiative, the Asheville Tourists will pay tribute to the Asheville Blues franchise this season. A commemorative Championship Flag will wave atop McCormick Field in honor of the back-to-back Negro Southern League Championships won by the Asheville Blues in 1946 and 1947.

In addition, a re-creation of the Asheville Blues logo will be introduced this season. The modernized design is intended to honor the Blues players who made history in the face of racial segregation and exclusion, by bringing the logo back to life with a renewed look in connection with the original Blues uniforms. The Asheville Blues logo was designed by Asheville-based Sunrise Studios.

The Blues logo will be used on the Asheville Blues Jerseys and Caps, also designed by Sunrise Studios, that the Tourists will wear for one game in 2023. The uniforms and caps will be released this spring.

Asheville Blues T-Shirts, featuring the Blues logo, are available exclusively at TouristsTrap.com. All proceeds from the Blues T-Shirt sales will benefit the My Daddy Taught Me That organization, a youth development program designed to support young men through advocacy, education and mentoring.

More information on My Daddy Taught Me That can be found at MyDaddyTaughtMeThat.org.

The Asheville Blues were a member of the Negro Southern League in the mid to late 1940s and played their home games at McCormick Field through the mid 1950s. The Blues were founded by Clarence Moore, who purchased the franchise in 1944.

For the first two years of its existence, the Blues were Asheville’s only professional baseball team. Moore built the Blues into one of the most talented teams in the region. The Asheville Blues won the Negro Southern League Championship in 1946 and 1947. They nearly pulled off a three-peat, but finished as league runners-up in 1948, despite winning over 80% of their games.