Charleston Charlies

The Charleston Charlies were a Triple-A minor league baseball team located in Charleston, West Virginia. The Charlies played in the International League from 1971 to 1983. The team was the relocated Columbus Jets. The Charlies were affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1971–76), Houston Astros (1977–79), Texas Rangers (1980), and Cleveland Indians (1981–83). The 1977 team won the Governors' Cup, awarded to the IL's playoff championship. The 1973 and 1978 teams won the league's regular-season title. The franchise relocated in 1984 to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, playing as the Maine Guides. Today, the franchise is known as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders.

Many Charleston residents fondly remember the logo of the Charlies, which was a baseball with a derby hat on and smiling while a cigar hung from the corner of his mouth. In the morning paper of The Charleston Gazette on the front page the day after a Charlies game, the logo would be displayed with a smile if the Charlies won or a frown if the Charlies lost.

The Charlies were owned by Bob Levine, who bought the Columbus Jets, moving them from Columbus, Ohio to Charleston in 1971 and renamed them Charleston Charlies in honor of his father, Charlie Levine, who was an avid baseball fan who watched the Charlies seated in a wheelchair, wearing a derby hat, and smoking a cigar. The elder Levine referred to himself as "Poor Charlie" during his earlier years as a scrap-metal dealer in Beckley, West Virginia. Charlie Levine died in 1981 at age 89 and Bob Levine died at age 87 in 2011.