# Hagerstown Flying Boxcars

The Hagerstown Flying Boxcars are a professional baseball team that began play in 2024 in Hagerstown, Maryland. The franchise competes in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball in the North Division and play their home games at Meritus Park.

## History

The team's creation was announced on September 1, 2021, with the intent to start playing in 2023. The delay to 2024 was announced in March 2022 based on the time needed to complete the stadium.
Flying Boxcars was announced as the team name on July 20, 2023. The name honors Fairchild Aircraft's production of C-82 and C-119 cargo planes at the Hagerstown Regional Airport. Fairchild Aircraft was at one point the largest employer in Washington County, Maryland, of which Hagerstown is the county seat. The Flying Boxcar became synonymous with Hagerstown, so much so that Hagerstown was occasionally referred to as the "Home of the Flying Boxcar." The name was chosen through a name-the-team contest, with the other choices being Battle Swans, Diezel Dogs, Haymakers, and Tin Lizards.
The Flying Boxcars unveiled team logos in September 2023 showing a pilot wearing an aviator hat and baseball uniform astride a C-119.
In November 2023, the club held a contest to name the team's mascot. The mascot was unveiled in February 2024 as Stryker, a fictional man whose parents were technicians at Fairchild Aircraft in Hagerstown, where the Flying Boxcars namesake C-119 plane was manufactured. Stryker was also a test pilot for Fairchild before enlisting in the Air Force when he one day embarked on a mission in the late 1960's and never returned until over a half-century later when he landed at Hagerstown Regional Airport with a new mission; to tell the story of Fairchild, and to bring back baseball to Hagerstown.
In February 2024, the club announced a partnership with Meritus Health that included Meritus becoming the sports medicine provider for the team as well as Meritus acquiring the naming rights for the stadium, naming it Meritus Park.

## Management

The locally based ownership, Downtown Baseball LLC, consists of Howard "Blackie" Bowen (President), Don Bowman, James Holzapfel, and Frank Boulton.
In April 2023, David Blenckstone was named the team's general manager and first employee. Blenckstone stepped down as athletic director at St. Maria Goretti Catholic High School after 13 years. Blenckstone worked for 14 years for the Hagerstown Suns, a team his father owned from 1986 to 2001. He was the Suns' general manager from 1996 to 2001.
On November 13, 2023, Mark Mason was named the team's first-ever manager.
On February 20, 2024, the team announced that Enohel Polanco would be the team's hitting coach and Manny Corpas would be the team's pitching coach for the 2024 season.
In October 2024, the Boxcars announced that they would retain Mason as manager and Polanco as hitting coach for the 2025 season, and that Arthur Rhodes would be the team's pitching coach. Rhodes was selected as Eastern League Pitcher of the Year in 1991 while pitching for the Hagerstown Suns.

## Black-Eyed Brawl

The Flying Boxcars have promoted an intrastate rivalry with the south division Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. The rivalry is named the "Black-Eyed Brawl" after Maryland's state flower the Black-Eyed Susan. The rivalry includes a trophy which will be awarded to the team that wins the season long series. The rivalry's inaugural edition was won by the Flying Boxcars, ten games to eight.