Should be a great time in a great ballpark: BB&T Ballpark and the Winston-Salem Dash will host the 2012 California-Carolina League All-Star Game on June 19, 2012 as the two High Class A leagues will face off in the 16th edition of the game.
Next year’s contest will mark the first time Winston-Salem has hosted the All-Star Game under its current format and the seventh time overall. Winston-Salem hosted the Carolina League All-Star Game at Ernie Shore Field, the team’s old ballpark, six times, most recently in 1993. The 19-year gap between All-Star Games in Winston-Salem is the longest in franchise history. In addition to the game, Winston-Salem will also host the home run derby, a fan fest, and several other related activities.
“We are honored and excited to be able to bring this great event back to Winston-Salem,” Dash President Geoff Lassiter said. “When we opened BB&T Ballpark, we envisioned bringing major events like this to our city. The All-Star Game will be a great treat for fans to see future Major League stars at the best minor league ballpark in the country. We plan on making this event feel every bit as big as a Major League All-Star Game.”
“BB&T Ballpark is a tremendous facility and will be a great setting for this game,” Carolina League President John Hopkins said. “The Dash organization does everything first-class, from the White Sox exhibition to every regular season game. I have no doubt that the 2012 All-Star Game will feature a big-league atmosphere and be a resounding success.”
About the All-Star Game logo: The 2012 All-Star Game logo features a star in the Dash’s medium purple, beveled “All-Star Game” text that matches the distinct letterforms included in the Winston-Salem Dash’s primary and supplemental logos, and the speeding baseball used in each of the Dash’s current marks. The logo was designed in-house by the Dash’s Creative Services Manager, Caleb Pardick.
The 2012 All-Star Game logo also features a silhouetted version of the Winston-Salem city skyline, similar to what fans at BB&T Ballpark can see after nightfall at Dash games.
Included on the banner that “hugs” the lower portion of the logo is a stylized Moravian star. The Moravian star, which can be seen throughout the city of Winston-Salem, is used as a symbolic reminder of the city’s history.
The town of Salem was founded in 1766 by Moravians — a Protestant group originally from what is now known as the Czech Republic — and became an important commercial and cultural center in Piedmont North Carolina. In the late 1800s, the textile and tobacco industries, driven by some of Salem’s industrious businessmen, fueled the growth of the nearby town of Winston. In 1913, Salem and Winston merged to become today’s city of Winston-Salem. The team name, “Dash,” was inspired by that unification, and represents the bringing together of Winston and Salem, and also the bringing together of the greater Winston-Salem community around a baseball team.
The stylized Moravian star used in the 2012 All-Star Game logo includes 18 total points—10 yellow, 8 white—representing the 18 combined teams among the game’s participants from the California (10 clubs) and Carolina (8 clubs) Leagues.
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