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The North Carolina Baseball Museum, located at the Historic Flemming Stadium in Wilson, includes displays about the incredibly talented players hailing from the Old North Sate.

The idea came about at a traditional Hot Stove banquet before the museum was built in 2002. To this day, the museum annually hosts the Hot Stove Banquet to discuss the successes of the sport in North Carolina, where they have yet to miss a year.

The museum highlights over 400 major leaguers and the seven national Hall of Famers, Luke Appling, Rick Ferrell, Jim “Catfish” Hunter, Gaylord Perry, Buck Leonard, Enos Slaughter, and Hoyt Wilhelm, with ties to North Carolina.
Displays from college baseball, collegiate summer leagues, minor leagues, and majors can be seen at the museum. Without a major league team, the state has had the most history through college and minor league teams and players.

“The heritage of baseball in this state is built on minor leagues,” Museum Curator Marshall Lamm said. “With so much baseball history in North Carolina, it is shocking the closest major league team is in Washington or Atlanta.”

The museum tries to display every baseball player from North Carolina who managed to make it to the majors and play at least one game, one of which being Washington Native Ryan Zimmerman. Zimmerman was born in Washington in 1984 before moving to Virginia Beach where he grew up. He played college baseball at the University of Virginia before he was drafted by the Washington Nationals fourth overall in 2005 before making his major league debut in September of that year. Zimmerman played from 2005-2021 all with the Nationals earning a career batting average of .277, 284 total home runs, and 1,061 RBI’s.

The museum also displays many artifacts including a wooden bat from the late 1860’s. It is one of two eighteenth century artifacts displayed.

The North Carolina museum of baseball is a great experience for all baseball fans of all ages. Lamm mentioned the museum will only be growing over the next few years.

“Our display will be adding new players every year as we constantly have a lot of talent coming out of the state,” Lamm said. “It is part of what makes the sport so special to this state.”

The museum is open 10 a.m.-4 pm. Thursday-Saturday and from 1-5 p.m. on Sunday. It’s closed Monday-Wednesday and admission is free.