Latest posts
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Raleigh Team Names: Dogs
I originally planned to write a post about animal team names, and I’ll still get to that. But let’s focus on canis lupus familiaris. Our domesticated versions of the gray wolf. A vast majority of people like dogs, and even those who don’t are more “a-dog” rather than “anti-dog.” Popular critters. We’re probably talking about…
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Financial Might and the Trade Deadline
Make it to the end for my calculations of a Raleigh franchise’s financial profile! Monday August 3rd at 6pm is the deadline for teams to make trades this year. If you’ve never heard or considered what a trade deadline looks like for baseball teams, I’ll give a quick synopsis below. One of my favorite sites…
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Approaches to Baseball and Life
Are you only here for the Raleigh-specific chats? That’s okay by me, but this post veers into real baseball and philosophy. Beware! The term small ball refers to a strategy of maximizing the short-term practical moves you can make on a baseball field. You have a runner on first? Bunt the ball. That batter is…
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Raleigh Team Names: Trees
This is the first in a series of posts exploring team names in different categories. Don’t worry, we’ll get to the animals eventually. First up, though, trees! I’m going to ignore the city/region signifier, but if you’re interested in my take, check it out here. The short version is that I prefer Raleigh to Carolina,…
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RBC?
I’m writing this from an Airbnb in Chicago. It was my youngest’s first trip to Wrigley. We have the certificate to prove it. She was very proud of that parchment. Showed it to everyone- pacifier firmly in mouth. Her sister asked me why the team is named the Cubs and though it’s not the most…
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What Are Good Ballparks Made Of?
Though it is fun to talk about specific MLB parks, rank them, argue old vs. new, etc. Let’s talk more generally about the elements that make a ballpark good and how that might apply to our Raleigh ballpark. I have a few categories here, first up is access. (Heads up, this is a long one)…
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City Over Region for Team Names
Let’s chat about one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to naming sport teams: region over city. I think the regional association has a common-sense logic for attracting fans. In this state, the Panthers of Charlotte went with Carolina as the geographic signifier. I think Charlotte Panthers would’ve worked just fine and sounds…
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How a New Team Gets Players
When Raleigh gains an MLB expansion team it will pick its first cohort of players from existing MLB teams, free agents, and the amateur draft. It won’t be entering the fray alone, of course, there will be another team rounding out the 32 total. I’ll make a couple assumptions here about who that team will…
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What is Longleaf Baseball?
The purpose of this site is to inform and entertain on the subject of major league baseball in North Carolina. There is no major league baseball in NC, you say! Correct. However, our method will be to make two important assumptions. First, that MLB does come to North Carolina in the next few years. This…
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Is it good to be a fan of multiple teams?
Is it disloyal, hedging, or just good sport fun?