second run for 1960-61. The Reds era in Columbia was highlighted with pioneer and Hall of Famer Frank Robinson's birth into professional baseball. The slugger played in Columbia in the 1954 and 1955 seasons before breaking into the Majors as a 20-year-old the following year. He would go on to hit 586 homers in the bigs en route to 12 All-Star appearances and a trip to Cooperstown.
Succeeding the Reds era in Columbia, the Midlands went through their longest
professional baseball drought. From 1962-1982 Soda City awaited a team to relocate to the Midlands. The Mets answered that prayer, moving from Shelby, North Carolina to Columbia and eventually renaming the team the Capital City Bombers. While the Bombers were in Columbia, they accomplished a lot. The team won three South Atlantic League titles and groomed a generation of New York Mets talent including Todd Huntley, Jose Reyes and David Wright. In 2004, the team packed up its bags and moved up-state to Greenville to become the Drive. Capital City was left without baseball or hope for professional baseball for a full decade. It took a lot of hard work from Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin and other members of city council, as well as Hard Ball Capital to put together a game plan to build a new stadium that could generate tax dollars for the city and keep up with a fast- wave of new stadia across America. After the turn of the century, gone were the old ideals of match-stick parks where everyone sat in a grandstand behind home plate and scored games with a pencil and paper. The new ballpark in Columbia needed to be something modern, with amenities, such as a 360-degree concourse for fans to roam during the game, a kids zone with inflatables and games to play, luxury areas with craft beers and air conditioning for hot summer days and more standing room only space than old ballparks deemed necessary. It took some time behind the scenes, but eventually, a deal was struck. In 2014, the city announced that it would have a new team. The stars aligned that the Savannah Sand Gnats would relocate to Columbia in 2016 to become the Columbia Fireflies, named after the fireflies of Congaree Forest that are one of the only species of fireflies in the world to blink in unison. The team was affiliated with the New York Mets from 2016-2020, just like the Bombers and Mets that had inhabited the Midlands for the previous 20 seasons of professional baseball in the region. Following the pandemic-lost season, the Fireflies became affiliated with the Kansas City Royals to embark upon the current era of baseball in Columbia. Since the switch to becoming a Royals’ affiliate, the Fireflies have already provided us with some incredible moments. One of those was Darryl Collins’ walk-off grand slam, the first walk-off homer in Columbia Fireflies history in front of an Independence Game crowd during the 2021 season. What special moment might happen at the ballpark this Independence Day? New history is being written as you read this text. Let’s play ball!
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