The venerable Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina has hosted auto racing since 1939, earning it the reputation of NASCAR’s longest-running weekly race track. But for the first time in its 86-year history, baseball was played at Bowman Gray this 4th of July weekend.

The Carolina Disco Turkeys, a barnstorming summer collegiate team, hosted three games at the track from July 2-4 – the first two against the Uwharrie Wampus Cats and the final game on the 4th against the Winston-Salem Moravians, a club owned by the Disco Turkeys organization. This last game is the one I attended and experienced, and it was perhaps the best 4th of July ballgame I’ve ever been to.

It was truly bizarre to see the baseball setup at “The Madhouse.” On the asphalt behind home plate, a parked stock car reminded you that you are indeed at a racing venue and not a ballpark. The infield was strangely all-grass, with no dirt anywhere except for the pitcher’s mound. Part of the outfield even encompassed the asphalt racetrack, forcing the players to field balls on the sometimes slippery track. Occasionally, the outfielders jumped the barricades which made up the extremely short right-field wall, either to attempt to rob a home run or to retrieve one that had already landed. And by golly, there were A LOT of homers.

The atmosphere at this extremely strange series was amazing, but relaxed. It felt like a step back in time to days gone by when baseball games weren’t the loud specactle they sometimes are today, with no loud music between pitches or batters. The PA announcer wasn’t formal either – he was very straightforward and laid back, talking to the fans as if he were sitting amongst them. To the 500 or so fans in attendance, it made us all feel like one big family that had come together to witness a true baseball oddity.