FOREST CITY, N.C.—The Economic Stress Index is an annual indicator of the depressed state of some of America’s struggling counties. It factors in unflattering criteria such as unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcy.

Understandably, no county is accepting of such a deflating designation without some indignation, and it’s often difficult to put a positive spin on a community or region that is unfortunate enough to be associated with the dreaded index.

This quaint little community of less than 10,000, located some 50 miles west of Charlotte and tucked away in the foothills of western North Carolina, is the hub of Rutherford County, which had the misfortune this year of ranking 13^th on the Economic Stress Index—essentially the equivalent of the Misery Index, an annual Forbes magazine study that measures the depressed state of the nation’s larger cities.

The ESI, a report compiled by the Associated Press, measures the spike in economic recession from one year to the next in counties with populations of more than 25,000. This year’s ranking, understandably, stung at the heart of a proud Forest City citizenry.

“The people here knew the economy was bad,” said Scott Bowers, sports editor of the local Forest City Daily Courier, “but I don’t think they realized it was this bad. The rating pretty much spelled it out for them. It’s been a rough year—really, a pretty rough decade.”

Once a vibrant community at the center of a thriving furniture and textile trade, Forest City has experienced increasingly hard times over the last generation, or pretty much since the textile trade packed up and moved away (often overseas), or plants in the area simply closed. It bottomed out in the last year when the local HanesBrand plant put 470 employees out of work almost overnight.

Unemployment in the community now officially tops 15 percent—and may actually be closer to 20 percent if you factor in those who remain part of the work force but are no longer eligible for benefits. For many who continue to live in Forest City and the surrounding area—roughly one in five—the days have become painfully long, lonely and depressing.

But for one night—actually, one magical, glorious summer—the Baseball Gods looked down on the good people of Forest City, raising the collective spirit of a town down on its luck. A sense of pride was restored to a community that has slowly, painfully been stripped of some of its dignity over the years.

In what may well qualify as the best feel-good baseball story of 2009—or any year, any level of the game—the town’s baseball team gave the people of Forest City something meaningful to rejoice about this summer. The Forest City Owls won the Coastal Plain League championship.

The feat in itself was noteworthy, considering the franchise had never previously won a league playoff game. But the ramifications were far more reaching—both from a baseball and human-interest context.

A league championship capped a magical season for the Owls, both on and off the field. The team set CPL club and individual records at almost every turn this summer while assembling an improbable 51-9 record. The crowning touch came Friday night in a pair of 5-1 wins over the Peninsula Pilots, completing an unbeaten run through the Coastal Plain League playoffs.

Not only did the Owls nail down their first league title and the town’s first meaningful baseball title ever, but they secured the equivalent of a national title, as well, as they were the No. 1-ranked summer college team in the country entering play that day (according to PG Crosschecker’s weekly Top 25 ranking of summer clubs), and needed only to close the deal against Peninsula to make it official.

They did, in convincing style, and there were few among some 3,000 rabid fans in attendance that were unaware of the national implications at stake.

It was all pretty heady stuff for a team that had never previously won a playoff game or ever beaten its final-round opponent—in any game, much less twice in one night. And for a little out-of-the-way community of less than 10,000, the feat was quite remarkable in its own right.

But it hardly tells the whole story of just how heart-warming this accomplishment was. This was a baseball story, but much more.

Forest City has had a checkered baseball history. Most prominently, it had minor-league teams (known as the Owls) that were members of the Western Carolina League from 1948-52 and Tar Heel League from 1953-54. Both were Class D leagues, the lowest level of the minors.

Forrest “Smoky” Burgess (no, Burgess was not named for the city), a catcher in the 1950s and 60s who once held the major-league record for career pinch-hits, is a Forest City product. So is current big league reliever Todd Coffey.

But beyond high-school and American Legion ball, there was no baseball of any real consequence played in Forest City for more than 50 years—nor was there really even a clamoring for it. Yet when the Coastal Plain League’s Spartanburg Stingers, purchased in 2004 by Ken Silver and drawing little more than 100 fans a game, went looking for a new home, they inexplicably settled on little Forest City, some 25 miles to the north and just across the North Carolina state line from South Carolina.

On the surface, the move was a head-scratcher—considering the modest size of Forest City and a flagging economy in the area. Perhaps most curious, the town didn’t even have a suitable baseball facility to house the transplanted Owls. But that’s when this remarkable rags-to-riches story began to take on legs.

Bob McNair is the owner of the NFL’s Houston Texans. He has been a highly-successful businessman since moving to Houston in 1960, but coincidentally grew up in Forest City, and once played American Legion baseball on the town’s old Legion Field.

McNair has never forgotten his Forest City roots, and was only more than willing to provide a significant share of the funds used to construct a new baseball facility in his old hometown, one that would house these Forest City Owls.

The team’s new McNair Field, located on McNair Street just a couple of blocks off Main Street in the heart of Forest City, isn’t your typical summer-college league ball park, either. Nearly $4 million was spent to construct the immaculate facility, and a state-of-the-art scoreboard, capable of flashing video images, and a sprawling concourse in and around the grandstand, are some of the facility’s many modern conveniences.

McNair was one of about 3,500 patrons on hand May 29, 2008, when he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at new McNair Field. The ball park quickly became a symbol of pride to the folks of Forest City, and they have shown their support since by routinely packing the place, night after night. The Owls have averaged roughly 2,200 fans a game in their short existence, and more than 3,000 were there Friday to cheer on the Owls to a league title.

“It’s really quite an unbelievable story how baseball has caught on here the way it has, especially when you look at the economy in the area and the other dynamics involved,” said CPL commissioner Pete Bock. “We knew that a facility would have to be built in order to make all this happen, and thank goodness for someone like Bob McNair”

“Admittedly, it was a risk to bring a team here. But the area has a history of baseball, and as we looked at the whole region, we saw it as a great opportunity to give the people of the region something to latch on to. From our experience with Edenton (the smallest city in the CPL with a team), we knew that a lot of the same dynamics that you had to deal with there were in place here, and we were confident it would work. Baseball’s been so important to Edenton that a city-council meeting was moved to a different night because of a game, and the people here have embraced baseball in much the same way.”

The support that the town folk of Forest City have shown for their Owls is little short of amazing—particularly when put in the very real context of the sour economy that has gripped the area.

“The people here have been looking for something positive for some time, and the baseball team has provided it,” Bowers said. “They’ve really taken to this team. It’s become a great source of community pride.”

As the town paper's sports editor, Bowers has a pulse on the community. But he also knows a good story when he sees one, and he actively cheered his team on to a championship Friday—journalistic integrity, be damned.

“This team has given us something to rally around,” said one elderly fan in attendance. “The town doesn’t have much to offer in the way of family entertainment, especially for some of our younger people. We don’t even have a movie theater here. But you now see parents regularly coming to the park with their kids, or dropping them off to come to Owls games. It’s provided a great outlet for people of all ages, and given us something positive to get behind.

“This is still a very proud community. Despite all the adversity we’ve encountered, we’ve never really lost our sense of community spirit.”

Indeed, Forest City was gearing up the next day for its annual car show, one of the largest in the Southeast. More than 500 automobiles of all makes and models were scheduled to parade through Forest City’s quaint downtown. In just a few weeks, country singer LeAnn Rimes is set to appear in Forest City—on stage at McNair Field—and the town is already abuzz.

Though it’s highly improbable that Rimes’ appearance will turn a profit for the producer, Charlotte-based Audio Ethics, Inc., that’s of little consequence to company president Donnie Haulk—just another ex-Forest City resident who hasn’t forgotten his roots.

This year’s record-breaking Owls team has only added to the Forest City dynamic. The Owls set a blistering pace throughout the Coastal Plain League’s regular season, convincingly winning both Western Division half-season titles while setting a league-record with 46 victories overall.

With their fast start, the Owls quickly moved near the top of the weekly PG Crosschecker summer-league rankings, and eventually ascended to No. 1 in late June. They remained there for four straight weeks.

The team’s No. 1 national ranking became a rallying point—for the team, and for the entire Forest City fan base. Soon, media from as far away as Raleigh-Durham, some 200 miles to the northeast, was picking up on this remarkable story. A TV crew from Raleigh’s WRAL-TV descended on little Forest City, wanting to get a first-hand glimpse of what all the excitement was about.

Though Owls head coach Matt Hayes, who served as a volunteer assistant at Indiana University this past season and played a hand in three Hoosiers becoming first-round draft picks, tried not to let his team get too caught up in all the pomp and circumstance surrounding his No. 1-ranked team, he admitted his team (and the town) drew inspiration from the lofty ranking.

“We were all aware of the ranking,” said Hayes, who will return to a coaching job at nearby Limestone (S.C.) College this fall. “In some ways, it made my job coaching these kids more challenging, but there’s no question they were aware of it, and even motivated by it.

“Perhaps the best part of all, the town picked up on it. It was a great source of pride to the people here to be ranked No. 1 in the country. I may be biased, but this has been the best story, the best feel-good story in baseball this year. This has been a magical summer. The best summer of my life.”

The summer-college ranks have been dominated over the last quarter-century by the prestigious Cape Cod League, which celebrated its 125^th year of existence this summer. The Cape has such a foothold that it annually attracts the cream of the crop from the nation’s college ranks, and historically has dominated the four-year-old PG Crosschecker summer rankings.

With rosters replete with early-round draft picks both years, Yarmouth-Dennis of the Cape League was the No. 1 team in the nation in both 2006 and 2007. The Red Sox appeared primed to finish No. 1 again this year when it went on a late-season hot streak to supplant Forest City in the No. 1 spot.

But Y-D, needing to validate its regular-season success by winning the Cape League’s six-team playoff to secure a final No. 1 ranking, was unexpectedly knocked off in the semifinals, opening the door for the improbable Forest City Owls to move back to No. 1.

On pure talent, the Owls do not match up with Yarmouth-Dennis or Bourne, the Cape Cod League’s eventual playoff champion—or probably any Cape League team, for that matter. But the PG Crosschecker summer-league rankings are not strictly about talent, and the Owls overall record and sheer dominance of the Coastal Plain League (not to mention the overall strength of the CPL) weighed heavily in their favor.

“This is the best, most-balanced team we’ve probably ever had in our league, certainly in the eight years I’ve been here,” said CPL assistant commissioner Justin Sellers.

While most Cape Cod League teams recruit their players nationally, most of Forest City’s players come from schools in a reasonably-close geographic proximity to Forest City—and the Owls even had a significant local connection this summer, notably the team’s two mainstays on the pitching staff, righthanders Ryan Arrowood and Spencer Patton.

They were front and center Friday, with Arrowood pitching eight scoreless innings in the opener after taking over in the second inning of a game that was suspended by rain a day earlier in Hampton, Va., after one inning. Peninsula led 1-0 at the time the game resumed, but Arrowood, a rising sophomore at Appalachian State, stymied the Pilots the remainder of the way, allowing just two hits.

Patton, a rising senior at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, then put the finishing touch on Forest City’s fairytale season, by striking out 11 over eight innings in the nightcap as the Owls again won 5-1 to win the CPL’s Petitt Cup.

The victories by Arrowood and Patton pushed the combined records of the two pitchers on the season to a perfect 23-0. Arrowood had set a league mark with his 10-0 record during the regular season, and he added two more wins in the post-season. Patton also chipped in with a pair of post-season wins to push his overall record on the summer to 11-0, but of possibly greater significance he had set a league record by striking out 110 batters during the regular season. He added 17 more in his two playoff starts.

Friday’s triumph by the Owls was particularly sweet for the two ace pitchers. Arrowood attended Rutherfordton-Spindale High, one of three high schools in the immediate area, and was the North Carolina 3-A player of the year in 2008. Patton’s grandfather lives in Forest City.

In fact, it if wasn’t for the constant badgering of his grandfather, Patton probably would never have played for the Owls. Two summer ago, when the team was still in Spartanburg, Patton’s grandfather asked Hayes to give his grandson a chance to play on the team—and wasn’t prepared to take ‘no’ for an answer. His persistence paid off.

Patton not only spent the 2007 season with the team, but ended up playing two more years after the team was conveniently re-located in Forest City.

“My grandfather was pretty persistent,” Patton recalled. “Heck, I was just a small-time, junior-college player from Illinois at the time, and they didn’t have to take me. But they gave me a chance, and then invited me back to play two more seasons. I’m very grateful for the opportunity I’ve had.”

More than any Owls player, Patton was able to shed perspective on just how far the franchise has come from its dark days in Spartanburg to the impact the team has made on the community of Forest City, in light of the team’s remarkable on-field success in 2009.

“It’s ridiculous how we’ve gone from one extreme to another,” he said. “This has just been a fantastic summer, a fantastic experience—for everyone involved.”

All in all, it was an invigorating summer for Patton’s hopes to one day play professional baseball and more than made up for his disappointment of not being drafted in June after pitching poorly during the spring on a weak SIU-Edwardsville team that was in the process of transitioning to Division I status.

“I didn’t have a great spring,” said Patton, whose fastball was clocked at a steady 90-91 mph Friday. “But to be honest, I’m not a metal-bat kind of pitcher. This summer has given me a lot of confidence that I can be successful against a high level of competition. I couldn’t have asked for more.”

The Coastal Plain League was the brainchild of Bock, who had the foresight 13 years ago to start a summer league in the Carolinas and has overseen its rise to prominence to a point where only the Cape Cod League is acknowledged as being a clearly superior and more respected summer league.

The CPL, with 14 franchises in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia and eyeing at least a 15^th team in 2010, has sent 33 players to the big leagues, including 2009 all-stars Kevin Youkilis (Boston Red Sox) and Ryan Zimmerman (Washington Nationals). Mark Reynolds (Arizona Diamondbacks), currently second in the major league in home runs, also played in the league.

Bock was on hand Friday to witness Forest City’s stunning and successful run to a league title, and also present the Owls with the league’s championship trophy. He spoke with equal parts pride and amazement at the incredible story that was unfolding before his very eyes.

In a way, it was an ironic twist for Bock and this author to witness the Owls put a finishing touch on a truly remarkable 2009 season.

Back in the early 1980s, the two of us had the occasion to work almost side-by-side—Pete as the general manager of the recently-revived Durham Bulls of the Carolina League, myself as the founding editor of Baseball America. The principal owner of both entities was baseball entrepreneur Miles Wolff.

I make reference to this happenstance because Wolff was a part-time author before jump-starting his fledgling baseball empire—re-creating the Bulls and acquiring Baseball America—and his signature novel was appropriately called “Season of the Owl.”

I later mentioned to Pete, in light of the amazing success story authored this season by the Forest City Owls, how appropriate it would be for Miles to write a sequel to his original novel. After all, this was storybook material. And a non-fictional story, to boot.

There was a sense of urgency to wrap up the Coastal Plain League playoffs Friday as several Owls players were set to start school Monday. The first game of the best-of-3 final series, scheduled Wednesday in Hampton, Va., was rained out. A re-try the next afternoon produced only one inning, and it was determined then that the balance of the series would be moved to Forest City—a 7-1/2 hour bus-ride away.

Despite a 1-0 deficit as Game One was resumed in the second inning, the Owls left little doubt that a championship celebration was at hand. Arrowood and Patton made sure of it.

Owls second-year center fielder Wade Moore (North Carolina State) hauled in the final out of the clinching win, setting off a wild, on-field celebration. “The team’s PA announcer, obviously caught up in the emotion of the moment, proclaimed: “It’s a national championship in Forest City, North Carolina.”

Despite repeated requests not to go onto the field to share in the team’s celebration, fans paid little heed to the public announcement. This was their team, and they wanted to celebrate right along with it.

It was particularly poignant when a number of the well-wishers, some with tears in their eyes, approached Hayes, threw their arms around the Forest City coach, and simply said, “Thanks. Thanks for what you’ve done for our town.”

For one night, one glorious summer night in a little town in need of a shot in the arm, all the troubles of the world that had unfairly been heaped on Forest City didn’t seem to matter.