Welcome back. Glad you're here.

May has a way of sneaking up on you, and before you know it summer is right around the corner. Which means baseball season at Hunter Wright Stadium is almost here. Before the Axmen open their 2026 home schedule in June, it felt like the right time to take a long look back at what that little ballpark on the hill has quietly meant to professional baseball, and the legends who passed through it on their way to something bigger.

In today's post:

Long before Hunter Wright Stadium had its current name, before it became Ballad Health Field this season, it was just a small ballpark in the mountains where teenagers from across the country came to prove they belonged. For nearly four decades, that ballpark was the first stop for some of the most recognizable names in baseball history.

From 1982 to 2019, the New York Mets sent their minor league prospects to Kingsport, and the partnership produced results. Kingsport won two Appalachian League titles as the Mets, in 1988 and 1995. The most notable alumni who passed through on their way to the big leagues include Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Kevin Mitchell, Jose Reyes, David Wright, and A.J. Burnett.

Start with the most obvious ones: Strawberry and Gooden. If you were a New York Mets fan in the 1980s, these two names were religion. And their careers both have Kingsport in the first chapter.

Darryl Strawberry was the first overall pick in the 1980 draft. Upon signing with the Mets, he reported to the Appalachian League. In 44 games with the Kingsport Mets, he posted a solid batting line with five home runs and 20 RBIs, already showing what was coming.

Dwight Gooden was drafted fifth overall in 1982, and at 17 years old he was assigned to Kingsport. In his first two starts there, he struck out 18 batters in 13 innings before the Mets promoted him to Little Falls. Let that sink in: 18 strikeouts in 13 innings, from a kid who hadn't graduated high school yet.

When Davey Johnson was a roving instructor for the Mets in 1982, he first saw Gooden throwing in Kingsport. Johnson later said it was easy to put Gooden on the major league roster when the time came, because he'd seen what the kid could do from day one.

Two years after that Kingsport debut, Gooden was in New York winning the Rookie of the Year award at 19. The year after that he won the Cy Young with a 1.53 ERA. One of the most dominant two-year runs a pitcher has ever produced in the modern era, started at a 2,500-seat ballpark in Northeast Tennessee.

Then came the generation that followed. David Wright's professional career began in Kingsport after the Mets selected him in the 2001 draft. He hit .300 there and was already drawing attention for his plate discipline and instincts at third base. He'd go on to become the all-time Mets leader in RBIs and one of the most beloved players in franchise history.

Jose Reyes, signed out of the Dominican Republic as a teenager, went straight to Kingsport in the rookie league rather than the Dominican Academy. He won the Mets Minor League Player of the Year award twice before becoming a perennial All-Star. Wright and Reyes would eventually anchor one of the best left sides of an infield in baseball and come one game away from the World Series together in 2006. Their friendship started in the Appy League.

The Kingsport Mets era ended after the 2020 season when Minor League Baseball restructured and the Appalachian League converted to a collegiate summer format. In 2021, a new team was born. The Kingsport Axmen took their name from frontiersman Daniel Boone, who began the Wilderness Road right here in Kingsport. The Axmen won the 2022 Appalachian League title, the third championship for a Kingsport squad in league history.

The 2026 season opens at home on Thursday, June 4, with a three-game series against the Burlington Sock Puppets at Ballad Health Field. The roster will be filled with rising college freshmen and sophomores, nobody famous yet. That's the whole point. Some of them, years from now, will answer questions about how it all started and they'll say: Kingsport.

It's been that kind of place for a long time.

Recently, I had a battle with a family of Skunks under my deck. Long story short, I lost many battles but ultimately won the war. Thanks to the folks at Barnes Exterminating and their relationships within the wildlife resourcing world

In 1986, Scott Barnes left a job at a local pesticide firm with $3,000 borrowed from a bank, a new pesticide license from the state of Tennessee, and a makeshift office in the basement of his apartment in Gray. That was the beginning of Barnes Exterminating. Forty years later, the company has certified and bonded technicians serving East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, and a reputation that's been earned one service call at a time.

Since Scott's passing in 2014, the company has been owned and operated by his son Byron, who has continued what his father started. Honest work, local people, and a simple promise: you can always trust the man in the red truck.

Spring is peak season for pests in East Tennessee, and Barnes handles it all. Termite control, pest control, moisture management, crawl space work, insulation. Residential and commercial. If something is bugging you, these are the people to call.

Reach them at barnesexterminating.com or (888) 542-4376

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A few things worth getting off your couch for:

Tonight, Friday the 8th, Bo Compton returns to The Sports Mill for a live music night starting at 8 PM. Bo puts on a good show and it's a solid way to start the weekend.

Saturday, the Tennessee Plant Show's Mother's Day Weekend Celebration kicks off at 8 AM at MeadowView Conference Resort and Convention Center. Good timing if you're still looking for a Mother's Day gift that's actually thoughtful.

Also on Saturday, the Downtown Kingsport Association is hosting a Taylor Swift Eras sing-along brunch from noon to 3 PM, and the Downtown Kingsport Loft Tour runs from 2 to 5 PM. The Loft Tour is a genuinely cool look inside some of the more unique spaces in the downtown corridor.

84 Sugar Pine Lane, Gate City, Virginia.

81 acres of private mountain land, four surveyed parcels, miles of established trails, multiple build sites, and wildlife that reads like a field guide: deer, turkey, bear, bobcat, coyote. The kind of acreage that just does not come available very often at this price point.

The house is a well-maintained 2001 doublewide with about 1,976 square feet, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a gas fireplace, and a covered front porch with mountain views. New deck, newer roof, heat pump, and a whole-house Generac generator. It's move-in ready and honestly the least interesting part of the listing.

The barn is the story. Engineered and built for function: 36x56, concrete floor, mini split, walk-in cooler with a WiFi CoolBot system, beam and crane, and a 12x56 addition for heavy equipment. Inside the barn there's also a bunkhouse with a full bath, double queen bunks, and a kitchen. Someone thought this through.

Retreat, homestead, hunting property, or long-term land investment. Hard to be all four things at once, but this one pulls it off.

Full listing at sellstateline.com.

What do you think they're asking for 84 Sugar Pine Lane?

Vote down below

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This newsletter works best when it's a conversation. If you know a story that needs to be told, a person doing something interesting, or a place in Kingsport that matters to you, send it my way. Every documentary, every feature, every post starts with someone saying "you should look into this."

That's it for this week. Thanks for trusting me with your inbox. Let's tell some stories.

Talk soon,

Ryan