William L. Grayson Stadium is a stadium in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

. It is primarily used for

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

, and is the home field of the Savannah Bananas of the

Coastal Plain League The Coastal Plain League (CPL) is a wood-bat collegiate summer baseball league, featuring college players recruited from throughout the nation. The league takes its name from the Class D level Coastal League which operated in the area from 19 ...

collegiate summer baseball league. It was the part-time home of the Savannah State University college baseball team from 2009 to 2011. It was also used from 1927 until 1959 for the annual Thanksgiving Day game between Savannah High School and Benedictine Military School. Known as "Historic Grayson Stadium" it was built in 1926. It holds 4,000 people. It also served as the home of the

Savannah Sand Gnats The Savannah Sand Gnats were a minor league baseball team based in Savannah, Georgia. They were a member of the A-level South Atlantic League. The Sand Gnats were an affiliate of the New York Mets in their final nine seasons. The team relocated ...

from 1984 to 2015.

History

Originally known as Municipal Stadium, it first served as the home field of the minor league Savannah Indians. In 1932, it hosted the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

for spring training. The park underwent major renovations in 1941, following a devastating hurricane in 1940.

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (cloc ...

veteran General William L. Grayson led the effort to get the $150,000 needed to rebuild the stadium. Half of the funds came from the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA). In recognition of Grayson's work, the stadium was renamed in his honor. The first integrated

South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its ...

game took place at Grayson Stadium on April 14, 1953. The park went through a two-year renovation process that started prior to the 2007 season. Grayson Stadium was the venue for the 2017 GHSA Baseball Championships for Class 1A Private, Class 2A, Class 3A, and Class 5A. It was also used for the 2018 and 2019 GHSA Baseball Championships.

Timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1926 till:2045 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:powderblue from:1926 till:1928 text:Savannah Indians (1926-1928) bar:2 color:powderblue from:1936 till:1942 text:Savannah Indians (1936-1942) bar:3 color:powderblue from:1946 till:1953 text:Savannah Indians (1946-1953) bar:4 color:powderblue from:1956 till:1958 text:Savannah Athletics (1956-1958) bar:5 color:powderblue from:1959 till:1959 text:Savannah Redlegs (1959) bar:6 color:powderblue from:1960 till:1960 text:Savannah Pirates (1960) bar:7 color:powderblue from:1962 till:1962 text:Savannah White Sox (1962) bar:8 color:powderblue from:1968 till:1969 text:Savannah Senators (1968-1969) bar:9 color:powderblue from:1970 till:1970 text:Savannah Indians (1970) bar:10 color:powderblue from:1971 till:1983 text:Savannah Braves (1971-1983) bar:11 color:powderblue from:1984 till:1995 text:Savannah Cardinals (1984-1995) bar:12 color:powderblue from:1996 till:2015 text:Savannah Sand Gnats (1996-2015) bar:13 color:powderblue from:2016 till:2021 text:Savannah Bananas (2016-Present) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:10 start:1926

References

External links

The Savannah Bananas

* Stadium Journey: Grayson Stadium {{coord, 32, 2, 41, N, 81, 4, 44, W, display=title Minor league baseball venues Baseball venues in Georgia (U.S. state) Works Progress Administration in Georgia (U.S. state) Savannah State Tigers baseball Negro league baseball venues still standing 1926 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Sports venues completed in 1926 College baseball venues in the United States Boston Red Sox spring training venues