Disco Turkeys to play in historic Johnstown tournament

The Disco Turkeys were approved by unanimous vote recently as the new franchise to represent North Carolina annually at the All-American Amateur Baseball Association (AAABA) Tournament in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Held since 1945, with tournament games at The Point in Johnstown regularly drawing 6,000 to 8,000 fans, this year's tournament will be held from Aug. 2 - 8. The Disco Turkeys will take on a field that includes 15 other elite wood bat teams from across the US and Canada. The other new franchise this year is the Capital City Reds from Canada's capital of Ottawa. Many of the teams in the tournament will be champions of their respective collegiate summer leagues, the majority of them concentrated in the Rust Belt from the Buffalo, New York area stretching west into Ohio. Another regular tournament contender is the New Orleans Boosters franchise. The Disco Turkeys' tournament roster must include at least 50% of their players with North Carolina addresses to maintain eligibility.

The Winston-Salem-based team will play a schedule of roughly 40 games in North Carolina and Virginia before automatically advancing to the tournament. Regular-season action features a handful of marquee matchups against regional powers from the Coastal Plain League.

The AAABA counts MLB Hall-of-Famers like Barry Larkin, Reggie Jackson, John Smoltz and others as alumni. More locally, Wake Forest's head baseball coach Tom Walter, a Johnstown native, is included in the AAABA Hall of Fame. 

Check out this video from The Tribune-Democrat of the final out from the 2018 AAABA Tournament: