Western Carolinas League
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The Western Carolinas League was a Class D (1948-52, 1960-62) and a low Class A (1963-79) full-season league in American minor league baseball. The WCL changed its name prior to the 1980 season and has been known since as the South Atlantic League, a highly successful low Class A circuit with teams up the Eastern Seaboard from Georgia to New Jersey.
Originally called the "Western Carolina League," the 1948-52 WCL was comprised exclusively of teams located in the Piedmont and Blue Ridge sections of western North Carolina. It merged with the North Carolina State League to form the short-lived Class D Tar Heel League, which lasted only two seasons (1953-54) before folding.
In 1960, the WCL was revived as a Class D circuit intended for farm teams of member clubs of a planned third major league, the Continental League. When the CL was torpedoed by the Major League Baseball expansion in 1961-62, the members of the Western Carolinas League became affiliates of MLB clubs. It was upgraded to Class A in the 1963 reorganization of the minor leagues.
