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5/4/2021 1 Comment

Hometown Baseball in our NEW Hometown.

BY: MATTHEW PRESLAR

The plan for the future was to one day settle in a small town that was home to minor league baseball. The setting would need to be one that fit our personality: a smaller town in a growing area and preferably a new stadium that would indicate a stable baseball market. In our years of ballpark visits we saw many areas to help us build a template.

Under normal circumstances our world would not have had a 2020. Everything would have remained as planned and our schedule for this new life would be in seven to ten years. The children would be through with high school and hopefully much less on the payroll. Rebecca and I would still be young enough to enjoy a fresh start. We talked often of where we might be in ten years. 

​BUT LIFE HAPPENS AND YOU STILL HAVE TO MAKE YOUR WAY!

Even in the wake of the unusual, we need to see inconveniences as opportunities. Income changes, work schedule changes, and habit changes aren’t always negative, just different opportunities. 

Amidst the medical uncertainty and political turmoil, somehow the real estate market was doing very well. We learned we could make an outstanding profit on our house so we decided our future may be NOW. We began to research selling our home in Union County, NC and exploring the idea of finding that small town minor league market.

To our surprise, we didn’t have to look very far! Just an hour away from our Union County home is Kannapolis, North Carolina. While we have been to baseball games in Kannapolis, this small town hadn’t been on our radar until 2020. 
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The organization rebranded to the Cannon Ballers and built a beautiful new stadium, Atrium Health Ballpark. While still residing at our home an hour away, we bought into Kannapolis baseball and became season ticket holders for what would have been a ONE HOUR drive for that many ball games... WHAT WE WERE THINKING???

2020 happened resulting in several job difficulties. Problem? No, opportunity! Our future plan presented itself NOW, but could Kannapolis check all our boxes? New stadium indicating baseball stability, CHECK! Growing area which makes owning real estate a great investment, CHECK! A wife and children that never ask why, but why not? CHECK! 

Finally... here we are, on the morning of opening day, May 4th (please keep your Star Wars jokes). We own a beautiful home less than ten minutes away from Atrium Health Ballpark. We have great neighbors and love everything about life at the moment.

Even though not “K Town” by birth, we are the new generation that will make this town a great place to live!
1 Comment

5/3/2021 0 Comments

The Weekend I Went PRO!

BY: MATTHEW PRESLAR

The last weekend in April turned out to be my best “working weekend” of baseball yet. I umpired at two BRAND NEW professional venues, even before the pro players have taken the field.

​My ballpark adventure started Friday night in Gastonia, NC. Working a Perfect Game tournament, I was on the plate for the VERY FIRST baseball game played at FUSE District Stadium. FUSE will be home of the Gastonia Honey Hunters and will play in the independent Atlantic League.

​FUSE is a turf field and meant to host a wide array of events. Being multipurpose makes for a lot of quirks for a baseball stadium. However, FUSE is unique and out of the mold of new ballparks being built today. My two Friday night games were both decided by one run, which made for some good, competitive baseball to commemorate “Opening Night.”

While it was quite an honor to work opening day at FUSE, Monday was even better… 
My family recently moved to Kannapolis, NC with affiliated Minor League Baseball and the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers being a large selling point. Rumor began to get out that a high school game may be played at Atrium Health Ballpark. And you see where this is going...

I was assigned the game between A.L. Brown High School and Northwest Cabarrus High School, the two schools in the city limits of Kannapolis. Three college games had already been played at the stadium. While these games were really fun to watch from our season ticket seats, it surely didn’t compare to working the bases for THE FIRST high school game played in the BRAND NEW stadium, beating the pro guys to the field by eight days.
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The environment had a pro feel and the town came out in full force. Supporters for both schools and baseball supporters in general made up the 1,400 in attendance; nearly full capacity under the current world climate. The game itself was great, no matter the venue. The game was a pitchers’ duel holding scoreless through five innings. Northwest scored in the top of the 6th to go up 1-0. This score held until the bottom of the 7th. A.L. Brown tied the score at 1 with a potential winning run being thrown out at home. With 2 outs and a runner at 3rd, from the middle of the infield, I called a balk for the pitcher not coming set before delivering his pitch. This sent the winning run in from 3rd and ended a great game. The game was full of great moments and will go down in the memories of the players, coaches, umpires, and the city of Kannapolis in general.
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