8/26/2019 0 Comments Bulls and Hoppers WeekendBY: MATTHEW PRESLAR— DURHAM BULLS --Although major division rivals of our Charlotte Knights, we like to make a yearly check in at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP). This visit we scheduled as an overnight so we had time allowed to check out the town around the ballpark. First off, I want to point you to Tobacco Road Sports Cafe. Tobacco Road is a pregame destination for many Bulls fans and you can actually enter the stadium for the game from the patio of the restaurant. We visited Tobacco Road three times during our short time in Durham. Tobacco Road appeared to be the only LATE NIGHT eatery open after the game in the immediate area around the park. The premium sandwiches offered at GREAT prices made this a great value well beyond expected for this upscale casual sports bar.
During our extra time in Durham, we explored the former industrial area. The AREA is dubbed Tobacco Road for a reason. Several brands of tobacco had factories just past the park into the downtown. You can essentially turn and look and see buildings for several different tobacco companies, including “Bull” Durham.
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8/2/2019 1 Comment Chicago Cross Town SeriesBY: MATTHEW PRESLARThe time had finally come for the main event of Ballpark Adventures’ big summer trip. The South Siders were coming across town to Wrigley as the Cubs were hosting the White Sox; our two favorite organizations going to battle for city supremacy. Our anticipation was at record high. While we considered visiting other attractions in the morning, we decided to rest up during the early portion of the day to make sure we were at our best for the evening. Game time was 7:05 with gates at 5:00; however by 4:00 we returned to an already busy Gallagher Way! We didn’t want to miss any of the experience. The party had started more than three hours before first pitch.
7/26/2019 0 Comments Wrigley Field TourBY: MATTHEW PRESLARChicago got really real on the early morning of June 17. This was the main “site seeing” day of our time in the Windy City. We had plans later that day to see the Art Institute and take a Chicago River/Lake Michigan architectural boat tour. The morning, however, started with a tour of “The Friendly Confines” of Wrigley Field.
7/12/2019 0 Comments THEIR FIRST MAJOR LEAGUE GAMEBY: MATTHEW PRESLARThe point of our big summer trip was to treat my baseball fan babies to their first major league game. It’s a long story that started with Katelyn telling someone who offered to take her to an Atlanta Braves game last summer, “I think Matt would rather take us.” We decided to make it a double and visit Chicago.
A treat for them and a treat for me as a step dad was to spend Father’s Day afternoon at a Major League Park: Guaranteed Rate Field as the White Sox hosted the New York Yankees. One big reason to get to Chicago was to see the players we had seen as White Sox minor leaguers passing through North Carolina (Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Kannapolis). 6/9/2019 1 Comment 2019 BIG ADVENTUREBY: MATTHEW PRESLARWe finally made it. For us, the school year ended last Friday, June 7. Colin had his fifth grade promotion ceremony which was the official culmination of the year. Now we can start packing for OUR BIG TRIP.
This trip is so awesome that I’ve been afraid to publicly mention it. Any baseball person is superstitious by nature. Like a pitcher throwing a no hitter, never mention the no hitter in the dugout. It’s bad luck. But here we are, it's close enough. The ultimate goal is to get to CHICAGO. Very close to home, we have three White Sox affiliates (Knights, Dash, Intimidators). Within four hours of home we have two Cubs affiliates (Smokies, Pelicans). We love them all. As much as North Carolina is billed as part of “Braves Country”, maybe we are really an extension of Chicagoland. Anybody in the area with knowledge of minor league baseball will understand what I mean. The easy route would be to fly to Chicago, but we would rather get in the car and see what else we can along the way. My wife, Rebecca, who SHOULD BE a travel agent, and I sat down and looked at the Chicago MLB schedules and lucked into a dream scenario. The rest of the adventure is just icing on the cake. Here’s a schedule of Ballpark Adventures in the ten days ahead... 5/31/2019 0 Comments MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND 2019BY: MATTHEW PRESLARA weekend with no baseball to umpire at home, so what do you we do? We see what makes the best quick baseball road trip, of course! We looked for a multiple site stop within comfortable driving distance. This is harder than it seems as minor league schedules rarely have “next door neighbors” playing at home at the same time.
Surprisingly we ended up with three options from which to choose. With the quality of baseball on similar par, we had to look for other factors in making our decision. The single greatest aspect that clinched the decision was a very affordable hotel within walking distance of the stadium. This would allow us to base there for two nights and really relax at the game. By happenstance, this team was also hosting a single ticket double header on Saturday. The winner was a return trip to SRP Park in North Augusta, South Carolina. 4/24/2019 0 Comments INAUGURAL GAME AT SEGRA STADIUMBY: MATTHEW PRESLARIn 2017 we stumbled on the Greeneville Astros, a Rookie League club based in East Tennessee. That fortunate accident birthed our love for minor league baseball and our appreciation for the Houston Astros Organization. 2017 was also a breakthrough year for the entire franchise. At the major league level, years of frustration were erased when Houston finally won the World Series. That year also marked when the organization pulled their Advanced A affiliation out of the California League and became an expansion team across the country in the Carolina League.
The team picked the city of Fayetteville, NC as home. Fayetteville hasn’t hosted affiliated minor league baseball since the Cape Fear Crocs (Low A, South Atlantic League) moved north after the 2000 season. The Astros have signed a 30 year lease with the city and are the owners of the franchise. For two years, the now Fayetteville Woodpeckers played as the Buies Creek Astros at nearby Campbell University. Finally, the home of the Woodpeckers was to open in 2019. With our increasing relationship for the entire organization and our gratefulness for their investment in North Carolina, we cleared our schedule to take part in the INAUGURAL OPENING DAY. BY: MATTHEW PRESLARAn impromptu free Saturday afternoon led us to check around the area for our first game of the season. The best choice was a return to Winston-Salem to see the Dash. The Dash are in the A Advanced Carolina League and one of the three Chicago White Sox affiliates within an hour and a half of our home (Low A Kannapolis, AAA Charlotte).
While we always keep an eye on the promotions, Winston-Salem was an early season destination because two highly ranked prospects were surprisingly assigned there out of spring training, Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal. These two position players are #4 and #5 prospects in the organization and top 44 in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline. Scouting grades, early season statistics, and biographical information for each is listed below. 4/4/2019 0 Comments A RARE DAY OF PERFECTIONBY: MATTHEW PRESLAR A pitcher throwing a perfect game is one the most rare feats in all of sports. To complete a perfect game, a pitcher must retire each and every batter faced from start of game to finish. In most professional and college games (9 innings x 3 outs), this requires winning 27 consecutive battles with opposing batters, all the while being at the mercy of your fielders and umpires to be perfect on your behalf as well. Per Wikipedia: “Over the 140 years of Major League Baseball history, and over 210,000 games played, there have been 23 official perfect games by the current definition. No pitcher has ever thrown more than one... By contrast, there have been spans of 23 and 33 consecutive seasons in which not a single perfect game was thrown.” These statistics show how rare it is to pitch a perfect game. In fact, in Major League Baseball, there have been 24 cycles recorded (a batter hitting a single, double, triple, and home run in a single game) since the last Perfect Game in August, 2012.
At this time I want to introduce you to Jake Kuchmaner. > READ JAKE'S ECU BIO HERE BY: MATTHEW PRESLARWith travel ball organizations playing until November and school ball training kicking off early January, baseball is nearly a year round sport. As an umpire, I enjoyed the seven week offseason, but I am already busy preparing for the new baseball year… and the best part of it: OPENING DAY!
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