This Thursday, July 19th, the Asheville Tourists will transform into the Asheville Hippies for one night only in 2018. The team will wear customized “Hippies” uniforms as they take on the professional baseball team from Greenville, SC.
This is the second season where the Asheville Hippies make a one-night “Peace Love Baseball” cameo. In 2017, the Hippies took on the Greenville professional baseball team on a Thirsty Thursday and the game went to extra innings before the Hippies fell short.
The individual game worn jerseys are currently available for fans to bid on with proceeds benefiting Vs. Cancer which supports patients locally in Western North Carolina. For more information on Vs. Cancer and Asheville pitcher Will Gaddis’ fundraising commitment to this organization click here. Bids on the game worn Hippie Jerseys may be placed at AshevilleHippies.com. The auction will run until Sunday, July 22nd, at noon.
What started as a Twitter troll attack when the Greenville baseball team referred to the Tourists as the “Asheville Hippies” resulted in a friendly challenge offered by the Asheville Tourists and accepted by Greenville. It was determined that whichever team won the majority of the head-to-head contests in 2016; the other would succumb to wearing a specialty jersey for one game in 2017. If the Tourists won the 24-game series Greenville would become the “Rednecks” and if Greenville won the series the Tourists would become the “Hippies.”
The series ended in a 12-12 split. The Tourists considered this a loss and chose to execute their end of the bargain. Greenville respectfully declined.
Asheville decided to bring back the Hippies in 2018 in large part due to the success of the promotion both in the community and the amount of money it raised.
“Last season we raised over $2,200 for the Asheville Tourists Children’s Fund,” said Tourists president Brian DeWine. “We decided to poke a little fun at ourselves and we’re happy to do it again.”
Asheville won the season series over Greenville 12 games to nine in 2017. Asheville has not lost a season series against the Greenville professional baseball team since 2009. Asheville Hippies t-shirts, caps, and other Hippies merchandise are available for fans to purchase at TheTouristsTrap.com.