Want a pro baseball team?

[MikeD83]

6 minutes ago, joande said:

Your newspaper:

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/databases/article251183669.html

For first time, Wake County tops Mecklenburg County in estimated NC population

North Carolina has a new population leader.

Mecklenburg County is no longer the state’s most populous county, new U.S. Census Bureau estimates show.

After years of creeping up on Mecklenburg, Wake County, which includes Raleigh, finally overtook it — 1.13 million to 1.12 million.

The change came after Wake grew by 1.75% from 2019-20 and Mecklenburg grew by 1.41%, according to annual population estimates released Tuesday. The census bureau has yet to release an official population count, which will be detailed in the 2020 Census.

That’s fine, but one county or city does not make a metro. The larger Charlotte area is a more populace area. A potential MLB team isn’t looking at one city or county alone. They are going to look for a market that can put 1,500,000+ butts in seats in a season. I don’t know if that is Charlotte or Raleigh. 

[YoungPanthers89]

Only if its in Raleigh

[PNW_PantherMan]

I don't live in the area anymore, but it would be cool to see the Carolinas get a MLB team.  I'd probably adopt them.  The Mariners are impossible to love, given that I didn't grow up here.

[Mr. Scot]

43 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

If I'm being completely honest, neither do I. Haven't really been much of a baseball fan since I was a kid playing Little League.

But I figure there are a fair number of people here who do.

Maybe if the Carolinas got a team, I'd be interested again.

Edited May 11, 2021 by Mr. Scot

[jayflip]

That would be rad for you guys. 
 

Baseball is becoming relevant again with the emergence of some young superstars bringing the energy and shitting on the unwritten rules. 

[kungfoodude]

25 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

If I'm being completely honest, neither do I. Haven't really been much of a baseball fan since I was a kid playing Little League.

But I figure there are a fair number of people here who do.

Maybe if the Carolinas got a team, I'd be interested again.

Nah. I went on strike from MLB in either 98 or 99 for what I perceived to be issues with the sport that would hurt it's popularity and competitiveness in the long term. Some of them came to pass, while others actually improved. Either way, once you don't watch for years and years, you don't even recognize the names or faces anymore, so there isn't much of an attachment. Especially not having a home team. 

I have always hated watching soccer because of the flopping and extra time nonsense. Even if they fixed all those issues, I am not sure that I would be interested in watching after not being a fan for so long.

[kungfoodude]

51 minutes ago, joande said:

Your newspaper:

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/databases/article251183669.html

For first time, Wake County tops Mecklenburg County in estimated NC population

North Carolina has a new population leader.

Mecklenburg County is no longer the state’s most populous county, new U.S. Census Bureau estimates show.

After years of creeping up on Mecklenburg, Wake County, which includes Raleigh, finally overtook it — 1.13 million to 1.12 million.

The change came after Wake grew by 1.75% from 2019-20 and Mecklenburg grew by 1.41%, according to annual population estimates released Tuesday. The census bureau has yet to release an official population count, which will be detailed in the 2020 Census.

Not super surprising because quite a bit of Charlotte sprawl is people fleeing across the border to SC. The sprawl in the Triangle is pretty ridiculous. I think the surrounding counties makes it far and away the most populous area of NC, even if you expanded the CLT sprawl to SC and the surrounding counties.

[Mr. Scot]

3 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Nah. I went on strike from MLB in either 98 or 99 for what I perceived to be issues with the sport that would hurt it's popularity and competitiveness in the long term. Some of them came to pass, while others actually improved. Either way, once you don't watch for years and years, you don't even recognize the names or faces anymore, so there isn't much of an attachment. Especially not having a home team. 

I have always hated watching soccer because of the flopping and extra time nonsense. Even if they fixed all those issues, I am not sure that I would be interested in watching after not being a fan for so long.

I tried (really hard) to get into soccer back when the US was in the World Cup semifinals or whatever years back. I just couldn't do it.

Baseball? Might take a while to get my feet wet again.

[Proudiddy]

55 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

 

12 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

If I'm being completely honest, neither do I. Haven't really been much of a baseball fan since I was a kid playing Little League.

But I figure there are a fair number of people here who do.

Maybe if the Carolinas got a team, I'd be interested again.

TBH, I kept up with it almost as religiously as football and basketball growing up, but it fell by the wayside as I got older.  I hardly have kept up with it in adulthood, aside from maybe league leaders and playoffs here and there.  It's boring to keep up with from a distance, but man, is it a beautiful experience and qorth following in-person.  That's why I'm all for it...  and I think once a team is in place here, people will go all in to support it and fan out just like they have for all of our pro teams.  I know I will.

[joande]

Yeah, it depends on how you look at it. I've always been jealous of the pro teams in Charlotte. I can only hope that a pro baseball can land in the triangle area.  I'm glad we have the hockey team!

[Captain Morgan]

Baseball games are a lot more fun to watch in person instead of on tv.  Went to a few Braves games in my lifetime, and loved the experience.  Wasn't a Braves fan.

One time the Cardinals were in town (late 80s), and my boss was from St. Louis, so we drove down for the game (he drove, I made sure the beer didn't melt all the ice in the cooler.)

We were walking around the stadium and found a door without a knob or handle on our side that didn't close all the way, so we decided to investigate.  Found ourselves on a private level and soon found what I guess was the office of the Braves, or the broadcast facilities anyway.

For some reason we went in.  We could see the cameras for TBS  There was a security guy, and my boss said "hey we work at the Cardinals radio affiliate in some town, and Jack Buck (the Cardinals legendary announcer, and father of Joe) said any time we're in town to come by and say hi."

Security guy looks at his clipboard and says "You're not on the list.  But I'll check."

A few minutes later, he came back and said "follow me."  

We were escorted by the tv crew to the radio booth, and got to stand behind Jack and the color guy while they finished calling the inning.  They were treated like royalty, with the Braves bringing in ice cream and all kind of stuff for the visiting announcers.

During the commercial, he turned around, shook our hands and told us we had to go now.

We did, but now we had to find our way off of this secret level, and we're walking along this level with no one else on it, when one guy is walking towards us.

My boss, wearing a Cardinals hat, says "that's Ted Turner."

I was wearing a Cincy hat.  I looked up and sure enough, there he was, striding towards us.  As he passed, he looked at our caps and said "come on, guys, this is Atlanta."

We said some unintelligible things and found our way back to our seats.  

Good times.

 

[Mr. Scot]

14 minutes ago, Proudiddy said:

TBH, I kept up with it almost as religiously as football and basketball growing up, but it fell by the wayside as I got older.  I hardly have kept up with it in adulthood, aside from maybe league leaders and playoffs here and there.  It's boring to keep up with from a distance, but man, is it a beautiful experience and qorth following in-person.  That's why I'm all for it...  and I think once a team is in place here, people will go all in to support it and fan out just like they have for all of our pro teams.  I know I will.

When I was about 9 or 10, my best friend's family took a trip to watch a Cincinnati Reds series and took me along.

Amazing lineup that year. They had Tony Perez, Joe Morgan, Dave Concepcion and Pete Rose manning the infield, Johnny Bench catching, Cesar Geronimo and Griffey Sr in the outfield. Got to see Tom Seaver pitch too.

Pretty sure they won the series that year. I was too young to truly appreciate just how good a team I was watching.

[Carolina Cajun]

As a die hard astros fan, I want it just so I can catch some astros games, that would be amazing.

[Mr. Scot]

3 minutes ago, Captain Morgan said:

Baseball games are a lot more fun to watch in person instead of on tv.  Went to a few Braves games in my lifetime, and loved the experience.  Wasn't a Braves fan.

One time the Cardinals were in town (late 80s), and my boss was from St. Louis, so we drove down for the game (he drove, I made sure the beer didn't melt all the ice in the cooler.)

We were walking around the stadium and found a door without a knob or handle on our side that didn't close all the way, so we decided to investigate.  Found ourselves on a private level and soon found what I guess was the office of the Braves, or the broadcast facilities anyway.

For some reason we went in.  We could see the cameras for TBS  There was a security guy, and my boss said "hey we work at the Cardinals radio affiliate in some town, and Jack Buck (the Cardinals legendary announcer, and father of Joe) said any time we're in town to come by and say hi."

Security guy looks at his clipboard and says "You're not on the list.  But I'll check."

A few minutes later, he came back and said "follow me."  

We were escorted by the tv crew to the radio booth, and got to stand behind Jack and the color guy while they finished calling the inning.  They were treated like royalty, with the Braves bringing in ice cream and all kind of stuff for the visiting announcers.

During the commercial, he turned around, shook our hands and told us we had to go now.

We did, but now we had to find our way off of this secret level, and we're walking along this level with no one else on it, when one guy is walking towards us.

My boss, wearing a Cardinals hat, says "that's Ted Turner."

I was wearing a Cincy hat.  I looked up and sure enough, there he was, striding towards us.  As he passed, he looked at our caps and said "come on, guys, this is Atlanta."

We said some unintelligible things and found our way back to our seats.  

Good times.

 

Heh