Minor league baseball-loving friends, rejoice. The Fireflies have landed in Columbia.
Baseball is back in Soda City with the arrival of the Columbia Fireflies. A Mets Class A affiliate, the Fireflies are playing some great ball in Spirit Communications Park.
The brand-new, gorgeous ballpark is a cornerstone in the redevelopment of a huge chunk of property right in downtown Columbia that used to be the grounds of the State Hospital. While the area is still in the earliest part of development, the stadium will soon be surrounded by dozens of restaurants and shops.
Much of the fun at a minor league baseball game is in all the kooky games, contests and promotions that are held between innings. In this regard, a Fireflies game entertains in a big way. Between innings you can watch silly running races and kooky costume contests. Who knows - you might even get a chance to be a lucky contestant.
Wondering why is the new team called the Fireflies? They're named after the amazing synchronous fireflies of Congaree National Park, just a few miles outside of Columbia. There are only a very few places in the entire world where this amazing natural display occurs, and Congaree is one of them. On warm early summer nights, hundreds of fireflies will blink at the very same time through the giant trees of Congaree's old growth flood plain forest, creating an almost unbelievable natural light show. So after seeing the Fireflies play, consider heading down the road to Congaree to see their namesake fireflies light up the blackwater swamp of South Carolina's only national park.
