Sims Legion Park, Gastonia, N.C.

Sims Legion Park

Exterior of the stadium at Sims Legion Park, Aug-2005.

The seating, as seen from down the third-base line.

A look out from just in front of the press box.

Quick Facts:

Location: Marietta and Boxwood Avenues just south of I-85, Gastonia, N.C.
Opened: 1972 (stadium built 1977)
Home team: Gastonia Cardinals (1977-82), Expos (1983-84), Jets (1985), Tigers (1986), Rangers (1987-92), Western Carolinas/South Atlantic League; Gastonia King Cougars, Atlantic Coast League (1995)
Capacity: 4,500

Sims Legion Park was dedicated by the local American Legion post in 1972, and its proximity to I-85 made it a natural choice for expansion into a full-fledged stadium when the Western Carolinas League expanded in the late 1970s. Unfortunately, there is no direct access from I-85; traffic has to head north on US 321 for a block, turn right, cross a railroad grade crossing, and then head south on Marietta Avenue over the freeway to get to the field, which is visible from the highway.

I showed up at 8:00 on a Sunday morning and found several players lounging on “the best seats in the house”, a sofa installed in the middle of the sheltered main seating bowl, in front of the press box. The players had a game an hour later, and the field was being worked on in advance of the game. There are also aluminum bleachers flanking the main bowl, mostly on the third-base side.

As of 2005, Sims Legion Park was host to a team in the Coastal Plain League, a summer college wood-bat league. The independent Atlantic League placed a team in Gastonia for 2021, but that club is playing at a new park being built just to the west of downtown.

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