Rome Braves

Did You Know?

• The Rome Braves won the South Atlantic League Championship in their inaugural 2003 season, defeating the Lake County Captains 3–1.
• The 2016 Rome Braves roster included future major leaguers Ronald Acuña Jr., Austin Riley, Mike Soroka, and Max Fried.
• The franchise moved to Rome after failed attempts to get Macon to build a new ballpark, with a SPLOST tax funding AdventHealth Stadium.

History

The Atlanta Braves' Class A affiliate in the South Atlantic League traces its lineage to the Greenwood Braves, founded in 1968. That team, part of the Western Carolina's League from 1968 to 1979, won three league titles and featured future major leaguers including Brett Butler, Steve Bedrosian, Brian Snitker, Dale Murphy, Earl Williams, and Rafeal Ramirez. The franchise moved to Anderson, South Carolina, where it drew strong attendance before owner Ted Turner relocated it to Sumter, South Carolina, after the 1984 season. The Sumter Braves hosted future Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine early in his career and played from 1985 to 1990. Brian Snitker managed the Anderson team to a 72–70 fifth-place finish in 1982 and the Sumter team to a 77–60 third-place finish in 1986.

Team mascot

Before the 2024 rebrand, the Rome Braves had three mascots: Romey, a tall blue furry humanoid with yellow hair; Roxie, a shorter lighter-blue humanoid with a large yellow ponytail added after 2005; and Roman, introduced in 2015, a blue furry humanoid with a baseball head wearing a Roman soldier helmet. After the team became the Rome Emperors, a new mascot named Julius, an emperor penguin, was introduced.