Wilmington Sharks (Coastal Plain League) @ Buck Hardee Field at Legion Stadium (Wilmington, NC)

If you couldn't tell from the past few posts, collegiate summer baseball has expanded greatly in the Cape Fear area (i.e. southeastern North Carolina) in the past few years with the Old North State League adding a trio of teams: the Shallotte Shallywags, Cape Fear Ghost Crabs, and Oak Island Loggerheads. However, these three don't represent the entire story of summer league baseball in this part of North Carolina, as there is one more team in the area - with much more history than the others.

The Coastal Plain League is another summer wood bat league (y'know, like the ONSL and the Cape Cod Baseball League) that was founded in 1997 by an executive who wanted summer baseball closer to his home (somewhere in the South I guess). Named after a former minor league, it has grown considerably in its almost three decades of existence, and for long time readers, I've actually mentioned it quite a few times around here already, as its teams have also spawned two “alternate” forms of baseball: Banana Ball (which has been featured on this blog four different times before) and Cosmic Baseball.

Six teams were founded alongside the league: one of them being the Wilmington Sharks. As one of the founding members of the CPL, you may not be surprised to learn that they’re tied for the most championships in the league; however, what may surprise you is the years those titles were won: 1998, 1999, and then 2024¹.

Like a lot of summer baseball teams, the Sharks play at what is essentially a community field. I couldn’t find any information on when Buck Hardee Field actually opened, but apparently it received its current name back in 1981. In all honesty, there isn’t much to say about the place as it’s very similar to other community fields (y’know, like the ones on Cape Cod), but one thing that is different from the Cape: I believe alcohol is available at a bar area down the right field line (in other words, it's very similar to Bill Smith Park).

Unlike Oak Island, however, there is a very large reserved grandstand behind home plate, and while general admission seating is available, I THINK this grandstand is reserved seating only (i.e. you're not supposed to sit here on just a GA ticket). One other interesting note: similar to Shallotte and Oak Island, the first and third base paths are part of the infield grass and not dirt basepaths.

If you've been reading the last few posts on this blog, then you're already aware of how my family does vacations down to the Carolinas every other year; however, what I didn’t mention is that the last two trips, I’ve done a day at a Sharks game. In fact, I WANTED to see the Sharks face the Bananas in 2022, but was unable to for multiple reasons (one of them being weather)². This year, I had a game during our week lined up for a visit, but then I found out about the Old North State League and the Cape Fear Ghost Crabs, and since Wilmington is a bit of a hike from where we stay (among other things), I felt that only one trip would be feasible (that plus the game was at 10 AM on a rain-threatened day).

Both times I’ve seen the Sharks live...they’ve lost. I can't recall too much of what happened in the first game, but the second game (from which the photo above was taken) ended early due to mercy rule. Had I gone to the game I intended to see, I would've seen a THIRD loss, as the Sharks lost to a team of players from a small summer league based in Myrtle Beach (the Beach Collegiate Baseball League - don't look them up on Yelp). However, I found out that they had a game at the same time as the Loggerheads game I went to, but I didn't even know about it until I was already at that game - though I felt fine skipping the Sharks for various reasons (even though Wilmington did win their game against the team that I saw beat them in 2024)³.

MERCH

As I recall, merch is based in a small shack on the concourse. While it doesn’t stray far from your standard fare of hats, shirts, and baseball novelties, some of the more interesting things I've found here include a broken bat and a special anniversary shirt.

There is one unfortunate situation with the Sharks that I have to mention: I’ve found that hats are oddly hard to come by here. One year, I was told they were waiting on some players from the College World Series to arrive before they would sell hats, and the other time, only the largest size was available (which SORTA works for me, but I'm not a fan of it personally). Like some other summer league teams (i.e. several teams in the Cape League), the Sharks have the habit of changing their hats every year, which makes trying to pin them down more annoying. In fact, this difficulty in getting hats even extends to their online store: I tried ordering a hat one time only for them to email me saying the hat I ordered was sold out. However, I found out after I got back from the Loggerheads game that player hats were available online, so I decided to order some⁴.