Sportsnut, at that time I'm thinking they were a Pittsburgh affiliate, the name of their South Atlantic team (Gastonia) were the Pirates. In the early 70's they became the Gastonia Rangers (Texas Rangers affiliate). In the late 80's they were affiliated with the Montreal Expos, and then Hickory took them away from Gastonia and turned them into Crawdads. I think the Crawdads are with the Rangers, too. One time they were with the Chicago White Sox. Always wondered if my friend Cheerduck had anything to do with them moving to Hickory.
Postscript: This is a guess but the influence for the Milwaukee Braves type uniforms worn by Gastonia Post 23 might have been Tony Cloninger, a local guy who pitched for the Braves and moved with them to Atlanta, and much later was a bullpen coach for the Yankees. He was popular in Lincoln and Gaston counties. Post 23 kept those uniforms for a number of years. They looked good.
I have a friend who pitched for Gastonia Post 23 in the late 60's. I'll ask him if he knows why they wore that style.
Remember him saying one of the best hitters he ever faced was Ronnie Collins who played for a legion team, back then, called Greensboro Cone. He said this guy Collins was younger than a lot of players but was a man among boys. I saw Collins hit a home run in Gastonia.
I think the best hitter I can recall in legion baseball was from your area, Alec Zumwalt, who played for Kernersville. Cherryville tried to pitch down and away from him and he golfed it out of the park lol. I saw that.
