The High Point Rockers will play their first game before a home crowd Thursday night.
Team officials say a capacity crowd of about 5,000 people are expected at BB&T Point stadium for the debut game against the defending Atlantic League champions, the Sugar Land Skeeters.
Christian Heimall is the team's assistant general manager. He says he's glad that the long wait for baseball in High Point is almost over.
”The idea started about two years ago, and it's been nothing but pure excitement and pure joy and anticipation for all of this," he says. “For it to finally be here, it's palpable. It's all kinda been leading to this point.”
Heimall says the team will contribute to the region's deep heritage of minor-league baseball that includes the Greensboro Grasshoppers and the Winston-Salem Dash.
“We're not only in a region that knows and loves baseball, we're in a state that has incredibly talented baseball players,” he says. “You look at our roster, and we've got guys who are from North Carolina, they live here in North Carolina, they played at ECU or NC State.”
The Rockers are a AAA minor-league independent team. It's a little different from other high-level minor-league teams. For example, if you look at other AAA teams in the state, the Charlotte Knights or the Durham Bulls, those players are being developed for major-league teams affiliated with them - the Chicago White Sox for the Knights and the Tampa Bay Rays for the Bulls.
The Rockers though are not affiliated with any major-league team, so if the players advance to the majors they could do so with any team that's interested in them.
There are more than half a dozen former major-leaguers on the Rockers roster.