HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — It’s been 40 years since the Huntsville Stars came to town and the excitement from that 1985 team still remains.
The hunger for professional baseball filled the appetite of Huntsville and the Tennessee Valley. Passion and excitement for the sport still burns strong many years later.
“It was something that the community could rally around, the full community, north, south, east, west, Madison, North Alabama, everybody came into see those games,” Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said. “It was something it was a community feel, not just for Huntsville but for North Alabama.”
Fans came out in droves to Joe Davis Stadium, a tribute to the mayor who’s work brought the team to the Rocket City.
Mark Mincher, the son of the Stars first general manager and legendary Huntsville baseball player, Don Mincher, remembered the line from the first night the team was in town.
“That first night I mean we didn’t know what to expect I mean you knew it was going to be a big crowd but we didn’t know,” Mincher said. “I was working the main gate and then we had the season ticket gate but the line would be from you know all the way out on the Parkway, people just waiting to get in and so it was just like oh my goodness.”
The first team was a loaded roster with Jose Canseco, Terry Steinbech, Charlie O’Brien, Luis Polonia, Stan Javier, fan favorite Rocky Coyle and more. Just over a calendar year after the Huntsville City Council voted to bring the team to town, they won the Southern League championship.
“It was the perfect storm as Larry Schmittou told Don Mincher when Don was the general manager ‘You blew it, you don’t have your best team and your greatest player your first year’ and that’s really what happened,” Huntsville sportswriter Mark McCarter said. “It was this perfect storm of the excitement of the team with Canseco hitting a lot of homeruns, a lot of personable players in the mix and then just the novelty of here’s pro baseball.”
Support poured in from all over the community, with area businesses spending heavily to get their name on the outfield wall and season tickets becoming a popular item. The first voice of the Huntsville Stars said this made the first season so easy.
“It was easy that first year people were ready to go. We had 39 fence signs that were for sale and I know I sold 13 of them in on meeting with an advertising agency and boom they just snapped them up,” Davis said. “Season tickets went crazy so people were very exciting and got involved early.”
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