For one more day, there is a minor league team that goes by the name of the Kannapolis Intimidators. For one more day, the team bought by the late Dale Earnhardt will sport his nickname as their own. (Interesting Fact: Dale died at Daytona about six weeks before a game was played as the KANNAPOLIS INTIMIDATORS). For one more day, those two words synonymous with one another actually go together.

Tomorrow starts a new day and a new era. Change is inevitable and it’s time for a fresh start. On my grandmother’s 91st birthday, the Kannapolis minor league baseball team rebrands with a new name they will adopt in conjunction with opening a new stadium for the 2020 season. As always, we are curious to see the logos, uniforms, and even the mascot. We are very hopeful that all these factors could make this our new home ballpark. We love the small town atmosphere Kannapolis has always offered and are optimistic the infrastructure will be in place to make the new ballpark a wonderful BALLPARK ADVENTURE.

​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.

The 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. 

The 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).

We 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...
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A 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. 

In 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.