Hunter Wright Stadium - Kingsport Mets

Kingsport Mets

Hunter Wright Stadium 800 Granby Road Kingsport, TN 37660	Opened: 1995	Capacity: 2,500	Elevation: 1,389'

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Hunter Wright Stadium Facts & Figures

Construction cost: approximately $2 million

Named after Hunter W. Wright, who served five terms (10 years) as Kingsport's mayor, with his tenure spanning from 1985-1995. The city's Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to approve a citizen's petition to name the stadium in Wright's honor in a meeting held on April 18, 1995. The petition was backed by 500 people and approved by the seven-member board in a 4-0 vote with three abstentions.

Owned by the City of Kingsport.

Located 1¼ miles from I-26 and 4 miles from the Tennessee-Virginia border.

Also serves as the home field for the Gate City (VA) High School Blue Devils baseball team.

Replaced J. Fred Johnson Stadium as the home for professional baseball in Kingsport. The old stadium, which dates to around 1939, still stands and is used as it's found on the campus of Dobyns-Bennett High School and their baseball team, nicknamed the Indians, plays home games there. (Of note, the Dobyns-Bennett program is recognized as the all-time winningest high school baseball team in the USA.) Johnson Stadium is roughly five miles southeast of Hunter Wright Stadium.

Stadium Firsts

The first game played here was a college one, as Tennessee and Virginia Tech met on April 25, 1995 before a sellout crowd of 3,000. The Volunteers beat the Hokies, 10-8, in what was dubbed the Hokie-Smokey Classic, with future Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey starting and earning the win for Tennessee, which scored one of its runs when future major league star Todd Helton stole home. Dickey also gave up the ballpark's first home run, to Virginia Tech's Bo Durkac in the bottom of the 1st inning (the Hokies were the home team), and shortly afterwards a power outage caused by a blown fuse delayed the game for 20 minutes in the 2nd inning.

First pro game: June 27, 1995; the Kingsport Mets beat the River City Rumblers, 3-0, with 1,523 as the announced attendance. The game was played in an even 2 hours.

The first two games the Kingsport Mets were scheduled to play in the stadium (on June 21-22, 1995) were postponed due to rain. The Bristol White Sox were the opponent for the two openers that never were.

Official stadium firsts (all of which occurred on 6/27/95, unless noted):

Pitch Batter Home Run (6/28) Winning Pitcher Losing Pitcher Save

Hans Beebe Gerald Roberson Jarrod Patterson Hans Beebe Scott Adair Michael Blang

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