| Sport: | Baseball |
| Classification: | High-A (2021–present) Class A (1946–2020) |
| Teams: | 12 |
| Country: | United States |
| Champion: | Greenville Drive (2023) |
| Most Champs: | Greenville Drive (5) |
| Website: | www.southatlanticleague.com |
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 history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganization of the minor leagues. The league temporarily operated for the 2021 season as the High-A East before reassuming its original moniker in 2022.
A number of different leagues known as the South Atlantic League (SAL) have existed since 1904. The most recent SAL adopted the moniker in 1980, having previously been the Western Carolinas League, founded in 1963. All of these have been nicknamed "Sally League".
There have been several South Atlantic Leagues in the history of minor league baseball, spanning from 1904 to the present with a few breaks. The league ran from 1904 to 1917 as a class C league, then started up again in 1919, also class C. This time it ran from 1919 to 1930, moving up to class B beginning in 1921. William G. Bramham became league president in mid-1924 and served until 1930. The league was restarted again as a class B from 1936 to 1942, shut down as a result of World War II, and returned in 1946 as a class A league. The AA Southern Association (which never integrated) died after the 1961 season and so the SAL was promoted to AA in 1963 to take its place; a year later the name was changed to the Southern League. Out of the 51 seasons of operation, Augusta, Georgia competed in 46, Macon, Georgia was around for 46, and Columbia, South Carolina was in 45. Charleston, South Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; and Columbus, Georgia; each competed for at least 29 years also, making for a relatively stable lineup.
The South Atlantic League name went unused for 16 years, but in 1980 the Western Carolinas League brought back the name when it sought to change its identity. For nearly 60 years, 1948 through 2007, the dominant figure in the WCL/SAL was league founder and president John Henry Moss, who started the WCL as a young man in 1948, refounded it in 1960 and then led it into the new century. Moss retired at the close of the 2007[1] South Atlantic League season. He died at age 90 on July 1, 2009, at Kings Mountain, North Carolina—a town where he had also been mayor for 23 years.[2]
In 2005, the SAL had the highest attendance in 101 years with over 3,541,992 fans (while minor league baseball set a second straight record with 41,333,279 attendees). When the league last played a season, in 2019, it had 14 teams, divided into two divisions of seven clubs.
The start of the 2020 season was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic before ultimately being cancelled on June 30.[3] [4]
As part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganization of the minor leagues, the South Atlantic League was promoted to High-A and temporarily renamed the "High-A East" for the 2021 season.[5] Following MLB's acquisition of the rights to the names of the historical minor leagues, the High-A East was renamed the South Atlantic League effective with the 2022 season.[6]
In July 2024, MiLB announced that the Hub City Spartanburgers will join the South Atlantic League in 2025, replacing the Hickory Crawdads.[7]
Notes: • An "^" indicates that team's article redirects to an article of an active team in a different league
PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:Past from:01/01/1980 till:12/31/1984 text:Anderson Braves (1980–1984) bar:2 color:Full from:01/01/1980 till:end text:Asheville Tourists (1980–present) bar:3 color:Past from:01/01/1980 till:12/31/2020 text:Charleston Royals / Rainbows / RiverDogs (1980–2020) bar:4 color:Past from:01/01/1980 till:12/31/1992 text:Gastonia Cardinals / Expos / Jets / Tigers / Rangers (1980–1992) bar:5 color:Full from:01/01/1980 till:end text:Greensboro Hornets / Bats / Grasshoppers (1980–present) bar:6 color:Past from:01/01/1980 till:12/31/1987 text:Macon Peaches / Redbirds / Pirates (1980–1987, 1991–2002) bar:6 color:Past from:01/01/1991 till:12/31/2002 text:Macon Braves (1991–2002) bar:7 color:Past from:01/01/1980 till:12/31/1982 text:Shelby Pirates / Mets (1980–1982) bar:8 color:Past from:01/01/1980 till:12/31/1994 text:Spartanburg Phillies / Traders / Spinners / Suns / Phillies (1980–1994) bar:9 color:Past from:01/01/1981 till:12/31/1986 text:Florence Blue Jays (1981–1986) bar:10 color:Past from:01/01/1981 till:12/31/1983 text:Greenwood Pirates (1981–1983) bar:11 color:Past from:01/01/1983 till:12/31/2004 text:Columbia Mets / Capital City Bombers (1983–2004) bar:11 color:Past from:01/01/2016 till:12/31/2020 text:Columbia Fireflies (2016–2020) bar:12 color:Past from:01/01/1984 till:12/31/2015 text:Savannah Cardinals / Sand Gnats (1984–2015) bar:13 color:Past from:01/01/1985 till:12/31/1991 text:Sumter Braves (1985–1991) bar:14 color:Past from:01/01/1987 till:12/31/2020 text:Charleston Wheelers / AlleyCats / West Virginia Power (1987–2020) bar:15 color:Past from:01/01/1987 till:12/31/2000 text:Fayetteville Generals / Cape Fear Crocs (1987–2000) bar:16 color:Past from:01/01/1987 till:12/31/1992 text:Myrtle Beach Blue Jays / Hurricanes (1987–1992) bar:17 color:Past from:01/01/1988 till:12/31/2020 text:Augusta Pirates / GreenJackets (1988–2020) bar:18 color:Past from:01/01/1991 till:12/31/2008 text:Columbus Indians / Red Stixx / Catfish (1991–2008) bar:19 color:Past from:01/01/1992 till:12/31/1995 text:Albany Polecats (1992–1995) bar:20 color:Past from:01/01/1993 till:12/31/2020 text:Hagerstown Suns (1993–2020) bar:21 color:Full from:01/01/1993 till:end text:Hickory Crawdads (1993–present) bar:22 color:Past from:01/01/1995 till:12/31/2020 text:Piedmont Phillies / Boll Weevils / Kannapolis Intimidators / Cannon Ballers (1995–2020) bar:23 color:Past from:01/01/1996 till:12/31/2020 text:Delmarva Shorebirds (1996–2020) bar:24 color:Full from:01/01/2001 till:end text:Lakewood/Jersey Shore BlueClaws (2001–present) bar:25 color:Past from:01/01/2001 till:12/31/2020 text:Lexington Legends (2001–2020) bar:26 color:Past from:01/01/2001 till:12/31/2003 text:Wilmington Waves / South Georgia Waves (2001) bar:27 color:Past from:01/01/2003 till:12/31/2009 text:Lake County Captains (2003–2009) bar:28 color:Full from:01/01/2003 till:end text:Rome Braves / Emperors (2003–present) bar:29 color:Full from:01/01/2005 till:end text:Greenville Bombers / Drive (2005–present) bar:30 color:Past from:01/01/2009 till:12/31/2009 text:Bowling Green Hot Rods (2009) bar:30 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:Bowling Green Hot Rods (2021–present) bar:31 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:Aberdeen Ironbirds (2021–present) bar:32 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:Brooklyn Cyclones (2021–present) bar:33 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:Hudson Valley Renegades (2021–present) bar:34 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:Wilmington Blue Rocks (2021–present) bar:35 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:Winston-Salem Dash (2021–present)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:01/01/1980TextData =
fontsize:L
textcolor:black
pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center)
text:^"South Atlantic League Timeline"
See main article: List of South Atlantic League champions.
See main article: South Atlantic League Hall of Fame.
The South Atlantic League Hall of Fame was started in 1994.