Boyce Cox Field at DeVault Memorial Stadium

From BR Bullpen

Boyce Cox Field at DeVault Memorial Stadium
Location {{{location}}}
Tenants
Bristol White Sox

Boyce Cox Field at DeVault Memorial Stadium in Bristol, VA, was the home of Bristol affiliated baseball from 1969 through 2019. After that and the Coronavirus pandemic-canceled 2020 season, MLB's 2021 Minor League Reorganization made the Rookie-Advanced Appalachian League a collegiate wood-bat circuit.

Bristol's long Appy League history includes 24 of its 1911-1955 seasons as a Class D league. The financially troubled loop shut down after that but was resurrected in 1957 as a short-season circuit. Bristol was not in the new group, but returned when then-new and then-named Randolph Stadium landed this franchise as a Tigers' team.

Randolph was renamed in 1983 for long-time Appy President Charlton Ross "Chauncey" DeVault. Cox - a Bristol, TN, native - played 1942 and 1946 (the interruption was World War II) for the Twins, helped bring Little League to town and in 1984 became president of the then-Bristol Tigers.

The Bucs returned 60 years after ending an affiliation that included baseball history in a different Bristol ballpark: May 13, 1952, Ron Necciai struck out 27 batters in a single 9-inning game for the then-Bristol Twins. No other professional has ever done that, but he lasted just six weeks in the big leagues.

"Twins" - referring to two Bristols straddling the Virginia-Tennessee line - far pre-dated Minnesota big-league baseball.