The Pirates Played Here
The main grandstand at Salem Kiwanis Field, Jul-2005.
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The ball field, the scoreboard, and the irresistible Blue Ridge Mountains.
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Quick Facts:
- Location: Boulevard & Florida Avenue, Salem, Va.
- Opened: 1932 as Municipal Stadium
- Home team: Salem-Roanoke Friends, Virginia League (1939-42); Salem Rebels, Appalachian League (1955); Salem Rebels (1957-59, 1961-63, 1967), Giants (1960), Pirates (1964-66), Appalachian League; Salem Rebels (1968-73), Pirates (1974-79), Redbirds (1980-86), Buccaneers (1987-94), Carolina League; Roanoke College Maroons, Old Dominion Athletic Conference
- Capacity: 5,000 (approx.)
This was the long-time home of the Salem franchise in the Appalachian and Carolina leagues. The shape of the grandstand, elongated rather than arcing around home plate, suggests that football may have been played here at one time. Indeed, site visitor Joey Philpott reports that a local high school used the park for football for a number of seasons.
Tragedy struck the ballpark 22-Aug-1974, when Francisco Alfredo Edmead, a Pirates player from the Dominican Republic, died of injuries suffered in a game against Rocky Mount. A plaque dedicated to Edmead is displayed above home plate.
In 1995, the Salem club, by then called the Avalanche, moved to the new Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium in the Civic Center complex just north of here. The complex also includes a football stadium and an arena.
Kiwanis Field, which was called Municipal Stadium until Memorial Stadium was built, is still used by Roanoke College and Salem High School, as well as for tournaments.
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This page updated 16-Jan-2006