Road Trip: Kannapolis, Andy Griffith, and the Tulsa Roughnecks?

   Now, I realize that perhaps you would associate North Carolina with Andy Griffith and his 1960s television show but I also am just as sure that you wouldn't associate the Tulsa Roughnecks with either of those, yet my final road trip of the season will connect a defunct North American Soccer League team from Tulsa, Oklahoma of all places with Mayberry.

Mount Airy, North Carolina under normal circumstances wouldn't be a place that you go out of your way to find.

Its population is about 10,000, it's not super close to any other attractions, the drive is pretty uneventful, and it's barely inside North Carolina from the Virginia line, so ordinarily there would be no reason to stop by.

But, driving to North Carolina to visit two new stadiums, Mount Airy was perfect to kill a little time before arriving at Kannapolis.

Our first stop for food as we moved down I-81 and we saw a billboard for "best Bar-BQ in Virginia".

We needed gas anyway, so the stop was Smiley's in Raphine, Virginia and it proved to be memorable if not great food.

Smiley's is located in the corner of a convenience store and literally had two tables in front of where you ordered.

When I ordered, the gentleman who took my order had oxygen hooked up to him, which I didn't think anything about- Until I saw him cooking our food and it hit me- This guy is hooked up to oxygen and that line has to run somewhere, so what if a spark hits the oxygen? 

It made me a bit uneasy and I walked to a door that was a bit open and behind it was an almost empty sports bar with plenty of tables and televisions.

Now we had a place to eat and with only a few truckers playing these very large slot machines, it was more than quiet for our meal.

I had ordered a small cheeseburger and some loaded fries, which literally proved to be a mixed bag since it was given in a brown paper bag.

The fries were terrific with pulled pork, melted cheese, and hot peppers and I really liked those a lot but the burger was cold and undercooked to the point that after a bite or two, I just threw the rest away.

I figured complaining wasn't worth the effort and besides it would just give Ollie the oxygen guy another chance to blow us all up again!

Then for about five minutes, it seemed like the whole place was going to be picked up and flown to Oz as the metal roof made such a racket with a sudden thunderstorm.

It only lasted five minutes and by the time we left the building, only a few puddles proved there was even a storm as the humidity dried everything up!

Earlier on the drive, we stopped at a few flea markets/antique malls including the one terrific one that touts itself as the largest in the nation, Factory Antique Mall, outside Staunton, Virginia.

I saw some neat items but nothing for the collection, although I did find a piece of Fiestaware for Cherie's Christmas (let's keep that a secret).

We had planned on a Mount Airy stop but the slow side roads once off the interstate slowed us down a bit and it was pretty clear that with most places in the tourist area closing at five o'clock, we were going to have to target one place to look and that was going to be all in "Mayberry".

The choice was the Mayberry Antique Mall, which is on the main tourist strip, so we were able to see shops like Floyd's Barber Shop, Snappy Lunch, and Walker's Ice Cream Shop which are based on the Andy Griffith Show.

The Griffith show is so big in Mount Airy because Andy Griffith was born and raised there and even though Griffith denied this, is thought to be the basis for Mayberry. 

The Mayberry Antique Mall was two levels and bigger than I thought it would be and I found two things for collections.

One of those things I bought for Rachel's Partridge Family collection, is a 45 record with its original dust sleeve.

I remember when I was a kid and I rarely even kept the dust sleeve, so finding one from 1970 was pretty rare, at least I think so anyway.

However, the other item was for me, and it was something that I'd never seen before, yet I didn't really collect.

I've always loved items from defunct leagues but I've never really collected any items from the North American Soccer League.

In the late '70s and '80s, commemorative Coke bottles for championship teams were often manufactured and depending on where you are, can be fairly easy to find.

Even on this trip, I saw many North Carolina, N.C. State bottles from their 1982 and 83 title teams among many others but when I saw this bottle, I had to have it.

It was a bigger bottle than the standard bottle, it was Dr.Pepper rather than the usual Coke, and it was painted white rather than clear.

Now, the bottle was empty whereas most bottles for sale have forty-year Coke in them but when I looked at the bottle closer, it was a commemorative bottle for the 1980 Tulsa Roughnecks of the NASL with one of the cooler logos that you'll see.

I paid more than I would ever expected for an NASL item but not exorbitant at $12 and it was just something I wanted with the cool Roughneck logo.

The Tulsa Roughnecks would win the NASL in 1983, one year before the league would go under, and to this day (if you consider the NASL a major league), the Roughnecks are the smallest market to win a major league title and are the only pro team to win a pro title from Oklahoma.

When I was paying for the bottle and record, I had to be original.

I asked the cashier a question that I was wondering about (wondering in my own sardonic way of course) "Does anyone ever come here and ask about the Ken Berry statue or where's the Ken Berry stuff?"

The cashier looked at me very puzzled and said "Why no sir, you are the first person to ask that".

This is exactly the reaction I had hoped for.

Ken Berry was the star of Mayberry RFD, a spinoff of the Griffith show, that ran after Andy Griffith had taken his show off the air, featured most of the supporting characters of the Griffith show, and was part of the 1971 CBS mass canceling of their rural-based lineup.

And I would wager that no one comes to Mount Airy, North Carolina looking for Ken Berry or Mayberry RFD...

After leaving the Mayberry Antique Mall, the other stores were closed but we walked through the main street and there were a few other similar stores, which (among other reasons) makes a Mount Airy return one that I would love to make again to see the other sites.

The remaining stores catered to Andy Griffith fans with shops based on the show such as Snappy Lunch, Floyd's Barber Shop, Opie's Candy Store, Snappy Lunch, and Walker's Soda Fountain.

It's too bad we got there too late for these shops because they would have been fun to see.

I did get a few pictures of the Andy and Opie statue that was donated by the TV Land network a few years back and is located outside the Andy Griffith Museum and Theatre before we left town.

I'd love to take Cherie there some time as I think she would really enjoy it, assuming she could get through the travel to get there.

It's about ninety minutes from Mount Airy to Kannapolis and the two-year-old home of the former Intimidators, now the Cannonballers awaited.

The new stadium, Atrium Health Ballpark, replaced the old one, which will always be special in my heart for the hottest stadium that I have ever visited.

Parking wasn't super easy to find around the downtown stadium but it could be found and they are building some high-rise condos beyond right field so people living there could watch the game from their balcony.

The Cannonballers employees were very nice and helpful as we entered, asked questions, and took pictures of the field.

The surrounding area does have some stores, shopping, etc. and Kannapolis has one of those rules that forces businesses to conform to their downtown design and feel so that the new buildings blend into the existing buildings rather than standing out.

All and all, while I thought Kannapolis's new park was visually nice, it had the feel of quite a few new parks that use a retro look yet the feeling is more sterile and corporate than the feeling of an older stadium.

I do think it is a substantial improvement over their old hotbox but there weren't that many fans in the seats, although it was a Tuesday night, and the promised around-the-ballpark "happenings" were a mixed bag as some areas looked to be doing well but others a block had many empty storefronts.

We drove an hour or so to spend the night with the Parrish family in Waxhaw outside of Charlotte to conclude our day.

I'll be back at another time for my visit to the other new park in North Carolina, Fayetteville, and the day and night ending the trip.

Road Trip: Kannapolis/Asheville

Since my original plans for today (A trip to Mahoning Valley) have gone awry (Fred Landucci's having vehicle issues, best wishes there, my friend), I have some extra time to write and decided to work on another road trip installment.

Tuesday would be the only two-game day of the trip and it started with me meeting Skylar at the desk.
Skylar had been so helpful on the phone in getting us an extra day at the hotel without having to switch rooms and I wanted to thank her for her helpfulness.
After a few minutes of chatting with her, which I would wind up repeating each day after this during our stay, Our day would begin and it would start with an early morning goodbye to the hottest ballpark that I've ever visited.

A trip to the "Gates of Hell" in Kannapolis for the last time to Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium and an 11;00 start time gave me a chance to work on the Intimidators team set.
Kannapolis is in the process of building a new stadium for the 2020 season, so this is the last time I can have the privilege of setting my rear on fire and having my sandals melt.
Usually, I'm sad to see a stadium go and I'm also usually not a huge fan of downtown stadiums, but I'll make an exception in this particular case!

Kannapolis had not released a 2018 team set in a befuddling decision, so I was pleased to see the team decide to have one for this season.
Kannapolis had already visited Hagerstown before the set came out, so everyone on the team was a need.
I decided to do Kannapolis rather than visiting Lexington (at Kannapolis, you have to pick one side or the other) mainly due to the Carolina League schedule for 2020 (Both team's affiliates have their High A teams there) which could repeat the 2019 one, which saw the White Sox team in Winston-Salem open in Frederick and never return, while the Royals team in Wilmington come to Frederick throughout the season.

And it was one of those typical draining hot days that seem to be 10 degrees hotter on concrete without shade.
Because of the heat and its effect on Fred, Lefty and I made sure Fred was in the area of some shade, which shrinks rapidly as the morning moves on, and descended to the field to start working on Kannapolis, who made the strange decision to wear their black jerseys on a day like this.
I did pretty well, only missing the starting catcher and a coach or two.
However, the two highlights had nothing to do with autographs.
The first was when we walked along a grassy berm that you need to traverse to reach the Kannapolis bullpen and walking down we saw a drainage pipe that leaked water and made a small area quite muddy.
I managed to see this on my way over, but the klutz that I am, slaps both feet into it as I chase a player to sign.
I had mud all over my legs and sandals, so a restroom stop to get as much as I could off of me was a must, and a shower before the second game in the evening was as well.
As for my sandals? Well, I always try to buy the type that is worn by fishermen and beachgoers that are made to deal with water, mainly because in this hobby, you can be caught in thunderstorms and downpours very quickly, so that was as easy as rinsing them out in the shower to be as good as new.

The other was encountering a local nicknamed "Radar Rock".
This guy had something to say about everything.
"Where are you from"?
"Maryland"
"Why are you wearing a Mets hat?"
"It's not a Mets hat, it's a New York Giants hat"
"It's not the Giants, they are blue and white"
"New York BASEBALL Giants"
"Why not the Brooklyn Dodgers"
"I don't like the Dodgers, I like the Giants"
"Why do you root for them, they aren't from where you are".
FAR FAR too much time listening to this guy, while I am trying to work on players to sign.
The guy never shut up and I just couldn't get away from him fast enough!
Maybe it was trying to get away from him that caused me to hit the mud! Ha Ha!

It was getting hot and Fred was beginning to wear out, but before we left, Fred ran into Blair Jewell, a former employee of the Harrisburg Senators and now with the Intimidators.
While Fred talked to Blair, Lefty and I went down to field level and added the two pitchers that were charting.
Fred reports that the Intimidators' upcoming name change will be a "more normal name than the goofier names" that have been more prevalent in minor league baseball over the last few years.
The day after our visit, the team announced that their new stadium will have netting that will run the entire length of the grandstand.
The addition of more and more netting to stadiums will not only affect my hobby, but it could also affect how other fans decide to spend their dollars.
It will be very interesting to follow over the next few seasons how the new netting at the parks that implement netting affects attendance either positively or negatively.

We returned to Asheville from Kannapolis for lunch and some downtime at the hotel before a trip to McCormick Field for the evening.
The food was a return to Rocky's Hot Chicken after a successful debut during Fred and I's trip in 2018.
I ordered a chicken sandwich this time and even though I still don't think Rocky's has the heat that they advertise, it's still top-notch chicken.

After some hotel time, we went to McCormick Field for the Tourists and the visiting Lakewood Blue Claws.
Since Lakewood comes to Hagerstown fifty times a season, Lefty and I concentrated on the Tourists.
I was surprised to see a very big crowd on a Tuesday without a strong promotion.
The crowd was so strong that every time (Three in fact) that Lefty and I got into a bit of a roll getting players to sign, we would have to move because someone needed their seats.
I didn't mind moving because the seats were paid for and the crowd was large.

The only time that moving bugs me is in this situation that occasionally happens in Hagerstown- no one in the entire three-row area and here comes a dude with seat 1,2,3,4 who wants to show his wife/girlfriend/kids how he made these guys move because he paid for these seats.
Of course, you move for them, but there are only 75 other seats with no one in them (if there were said people, you wouldn't be able to walk up and buy front row, seats 1-4 would you?) would it kill you to sit in row two for 15 minutes until the game starts?
It really wasn't a problem though under these conditions and the usher was very nice each time, so other than not getting a lot of cards signed, it wasn't so bad.
I did get the often-injured and not-expected-to-be-in-town Riley Pint to sign his SAL top prospect card, so a disappointing total, but not a complete defeat.

The post-game didn't bring a lot of success either as there was an absence of local graphers and being that Asheville made one visit to Hagerstown and the one game that I managed to see was rained out, I just didn't know many of the players facially.
I'm not sure that I added more than two or three players tops.
All and all, the Asheville trip was the most disappointing trip from a graphing perspective although it was fun being in a crowd that was excited about baseball rather than Paw Patrol, bobbleheads, or fireworks!

Road Trip:Kannapolis

Fred Landucci and I got into our car for the little under an hour drive to Kannapolis NC and the home of the  Kannapolis Intimidators.

Readers might remember my trip last year which readers might remember had me feeling like a day spent in one of those coal blasting furnaces that NFL Films always show on the highlights of the 1970's Pittsburgh Steelers.
We arrived just before first pitch, so there was no time to graph the home team or the visitors, the Greenville Drive, who saw in West Virginia and will not visit Hagerstown.

The day (being in April) was far cooler than that and the Intimidators gave us very good seats.
Fred was very excited to see Blair Jewell working for Kannapolis and she was excited to see him through their various interactions throughout the day.
Blair worked for a few years with the Harrisburg Senators and with Fred being a season ticket holder there, they got to know each other well.
It's always nice seeing baseball friends from previous stops and it's especially nice when it's someone that you liked a lot in their previous spot.

This day featured one of the ugliest uniforms that I've ever seen as Kannapolis used a "Paw Patrol" theme.
I didn't take a picture of these beauties, but I'll have one for the future as Fred bought two of these, so I'm sure he'd be happy to send a picture of them.
The stadium had a good crowd (I'd guess around 1,100) and the family sitting behind us (they were so nice and I wrote their names down, but my roster sheet disappeared-Sorry), said that this was the biggest crowd that they had ever seen there.
I believe them, since the Intimidators actually finished behind the Hagerstown Suns last year in attendance (Blame TebowMania) and how often does that happen?
Answer:Very Rarely and the team employees doesn't like the circumstances of how that happened-Want a laugh or an uncomfortable feeling in Kannapolis? Ask a higher up employee about Hagerstown beating them out and take your chances!

Kannapolis also had cheap concessions and long lines in them as I waited for two soda's.
I suppose the team didn't expect a crowd like this and seemed a bit on the understaffed side.
The game was a pummelling with Kannapolis winning going away 11-1 as another Red Sox farm team that seems to be not up to the usual level with Boston making so many trades that sent young talent away from the system.
I didn't get many cards signed,but I did add Alex Schreff ( a high Boston pick) on his Bowman card that I missed in West Virginia because I missed pulling his card and Kade McClure (from Mentor,Ohio home of Mitch Trubisky) of the Intimidators, who was a fourth pick out of Louisville as they went to the clubhouse,
Fred walked down to the field to meet outfielder Luis Gonzalez, who was the player jersey that he purchased, and had Gonzalez sign the two Bowman cards that I had for me.

Fred was getting tired and after the game wanted to get on the road, since our hotel was 90 minutes or so away,so we didn't add anyone postgame.
We drove a bit and decided to stop in Shelby NC (Home of Kenny Powers,Professional Baseball Player, A lot of you, Ah never mind) for a late dinner.
We chose a place called Fatz, which is a southern chain that I had never visited before.
With a name like Fatz, one would assume that it would be fast food or hamburgers, but it was more of a sitdown place..
Our waitress, Shelby (Shelby from Shelby which is kinda neat) was interested in us not being from the area and told us the origin of her name (named after the car and not the town) along with her saving for a car.
I had a shrimp Po'Boy, which was tasty although it fell apart a bit as I dined on it.
I was pleasantly surprised, although I must say Bad Daddy's in Winston-Salem was a bit better.

Finishing the drive to Asheville and settling into our hotel for the evening ended a long,but fun day with Fred.
Day one was in the books and day two would see a curveball and a resulting change of plans.

Road Trip:Charlotte

My final day of my trip with Fred Landucci finished off in Charlotte before I went home for two days of somewhat rest before my final trip of the season.

Before that trip (I just arrived home from that one-look for trip stories as the week goes by) though,lets finish up this one with my good buddy Fred.

I liked our hotel in Kernersville,but we had lots of time to kill and not a lot of ways to kill it.
So,the solution?
We drove and talked a lot and it's always good time to talk on the road.
I've always thought (and heard before,it's not original thinking) that you really get to know a person on the road and on the rare occasion that you are on the road with someone that you dislike that you can either grow to like them a little or worse-a minute can seem interminable.

So,we drove,looking for things to do.
Stop number one-The world's hottest ballpark in Kannapolis NC.
I wrote about the heat on the seat in Kannapolis when Mike Oravec and I visited the area and Mike and I have tried to get across to people just how hot that place is.
You never are quite able to get the point across,so I walked Fred down to where we were and explained before he sat down-Now this is 11 AM,not 2 PM,so we had three more hours of sun on the seat,look where the sun is now and imagine where it is over the three hours to come and the temperature is 85 right now-add about 10 more degrees.
Now sit down and tell me.
Fred sat down and in about five seconds hollered "MY ASS IS ON FIRE"!!!
I couldn't stop laughing!
We walked around the stadium as Fred's ass tried to cool itself before he went to the team shop to buy a hat from the team.
I'm glad someone now knows a small fraction of what we dealt with that day!

We had considered the NASCAR Hall of Fame,but Fred thought that it would likely be expensive and with neither of us being huge NASCAR fans,it would likely be more money (not to mention the always present parking fees) than it would be worth.
We started driving with good conversation,stopped at Cabela's that ended with this classic conversation.
Me: Hi,I'm looking to take my friend someplace inside and cool so the heat doesn't get to him.
Any place close like that?
Jeremy: Well,there's Carowinds next door.
Me:The amusement park?
Jeremy:Yes.
Me:That's outside and I'll pay through the nose to do it.
Jeremy: Uh huh.
Me:Walking away,shaking my head..

The resulting nothing of that conversation meant that we just kept on driving,enjoying the weather and finally arriving in Blythewood South Carolina at the Lizard's Thicket.
The Thicket is a local chain with most of them located in the Columbia South Carolina area and features homestyle cooking and Fred decided on it off this exit over the other entry-Groucho's Deli.
I thought the food was good with lots of southern style options.
I chose the meat loaf and it was very good with southern slaw (a cole slaw variation) and fries.
It might not be for everyone,but if you like hearty comfort food,The Lizard's Thicket might be for you...

We drove back to Charlotte to wait for the Charlotte Knights and found a great spot in a parking deck across from the ball park.
Fred and I waited as long as we could before waiting in the line.
The noted Southern humidity was going to be a factor and I didn't want Fred to be worn out with such a long drive home.

The game wasn't as important as the guest of the day-former Tiger and Twin ace Jack Morris.
Fred would make a mistake,but his mistake would turn out to be a blessing in disguise as I'll say shortly.
There are signs all around the Charlotte stadium,take all metal items out of pockets and listed a bunch of those kinds of things to remove-including pocket change.
Fred didn't do that and left change in his pockets,setting the alarm off  and taking about five minutes to complete.

That was frustrating a half hour later when Morris went to the field for a pre-game interview and for the 1st pitch-the line was cut off right in front of me!
That meant that I could either graph the Charlotte Knights or remain in the line for Morris.
I needed Morris on his 1988 and 1990 Score's and my hope was that I could get Morris to sign one and get back in the line to get the second.
The cut off spoiled that plan and would have meant our Charlotte departure would be far longer.
As I talked to the lady in charge about our drive home etc,she offered this "tell him that and see what happens,he did sign two for someone early over the protests of the handlers".
By the way,the handlers in Charlotte were great for this-they aren't all great,as you'll see in a future post.
When Morris came up and I stepped up,I put two cards in front of him and asked "Mr,Morris,could you please sign two? We have close to a seven hour drive after this"
His response: "Guess you better start going then" and added a smile.
I said "As soon as you sign,we are gone!"
Things happen for a reason sometimes-had Fred prepared better in the security portion,we would have been closer in line,gotten one item early and maybe not gotten our second.
Funny,how things bounce sometimes.

That wasn't quite true even as Morris signed both,but it was close as after a few pictures of the field and a run to the gift shop (Rachel had selected Charlotte as her trip shirt) before leaving.
Charlotte did a great job in making their stadium (the NFL Panthers play down the street) safe,easy to find and with easy access to the freeways to move people away,Charlotte might be the easiest big city stadium that I have seen yet to get in and out of.

That was about as exciting as it got on the way home.
Fred and I stopped at another Cookout for dinner before leaving the area.
As I noted earlier,Cookout is good,cheap and filling,so you can't beat it for road eats!

Thanks to my good friend Fred Landucci for a great trip and great time!
Fred has been a great friend to me and my family and I hope to take trips with him next year as well!
The plan was to work on more posts and start the final trip of the year with Mike Oravec next,but a little thing called Kyrie Irving getting traded has gotten in the way.
My take on the massive deal sending Irving to the Boston Celtics on the next post....

Road Trip:Kannapolis

The second day of the trip featured my first visit to Kannapolis NC, home of the low A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox and the team that was owned by and named after the late NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt as the Intimidators.

The Intimidators (On this very field in full Vince McMahon voice) defeated the Hagerstown Suns four times in two days in June to complete a collapse that saw the Suns first half lead evaporate in the North Carolina heat and give Kannapolis-not Hagerstown the first-half championship in the South Atlantic League.

The Parrish's accompanied Mike Oravec and myself to Kannapolis and my expectations weren't high.
I had read reviews of the imaginatively named Intimidators Stadium that weren't glowing, but Bob talked to us before the game and described it in even worse terms.
Bob would later tell us that he likely "undersold" the place without realizing it.

Pulling into Kannapolis, it's clear that this was a suburban stadium that was placed near the highway, and hoped that time would fill things in around it.
That didn't happen and that is why Kannapolis is rumored to be considering a new ballpark in their downtown.
I'm not a huge fan of downtown parks, but I'll take an easy to get into and easy-to-get-out-of suburban park every time.
You walk into the stadium under a small area that resembles a carport more than anything that oversees the field and that's the last shade that you will see in Kannapolis.

There are plenty of steps here as in you walk down (and up) two long levels of steps to get from the top level to the field in an attempt to autograph.
On this day, there was a doubleheader between the Intimidators and (surprise) the Hagerstown Suns because while we were getting a 30-minute thunderstorm that cleared out in Augusta on Saturday, these two teams were getting rained out in Kannapolis.
As a result, a meet the team scheduled was first postponed to between games and then pushed to after the doubleheader.
We didn't find that out until after the initial game, so our mistake was graphing the Suns rather than Kannapolis before game one.
Both teams enter the field via clubhouses that reside beyond left centerfield and walk across the outfield to their dugout.
Graphing access isn't that bad here, so you can get some things finished.

The stadium's playing surface itself reminded me of some of my visit to Lexington, but what the seating portion reminded me of was Charleston, but the seats seemed to be a little farther away from the field than in West Virginia.
You could see plenty though and I have no complaints about the sightlines at all.
The food was OK, I had a hot dog, fries, and a soda for eight dollars, which is not oppressive for a ballpark at all.
Not a lot of choices, but the price was right.
The crowd here rivaled the Muni and for now, Kannapolis is the only team that Hagerstown is outdrawing,
Although that comes down to one fact-Hagerstown had Tim Tebow hit their town for four games and Kannapolis didn't get them at all.

However, what was oppressive was the heat.
Remember the shade comment above? This is how bad it was.
We sat just a few rows from the field on plastic seats and when you sat down,it felt like your bottom was on top of a working oven.
I'm not exaggerating and it gets worse.
Most times in these situations, you get more comfortable, but that's not the case here!
The slightest move and you were warmed again!
I've never felt anything like this at a ballpark and I can only imagine that if the plastic seats were that hot- what on earth could the metal bleacher seats feel like?
If you go here, consider bringing a stadium seat or at least a blanket!

The best part of the game was sitting around and talking baseball with Mike, Bob, Will, and Tucker.
Tucker tells me that his goal is to be a general manager for a major sports team.
He has the knowledge for sure and I loved talking baseball along with a lot of NFL draft talk as well.
It's been a long time since I've been around someone of his age who has this much on the ball.

After game one (another Kannapolis win), we decided to work on our Intimidators team set (I am working on two others for traders) on their side and add the 2017 White Sox first-round pick Jake Burger on two baseballs for Fred and Michael Landucci.
I was very glad that I was able to get those finished for them as they do so much for me.
Mike then made a friend as he was accused of stealing a ball left lying around by some kid and verbal hi-jinks ensued!
By now, everyone was hot, tired, and hungry, so we were picking up dinner before we went back to the house, but first, the boys wanted Icee's from a local store named QT.
They raved about their Icee and they did have a good one in Cherry Limeade.
They didn't have a grape and it wasn't quite Thornton's from my Louisville trip, but it was in the ballpark!

We stopped at Penn Station, which is a sub-chain that I've seen plenty of times, but never stopped to try.
Mike graciously paid for all of our dinners (what a guy!) and I ordered a Reuben, which has always been a favorite, as long as I don't have to have it on rye bread!

We watched the Futures game on "tape" and saw what we think proved to be the last game that Eloy Jimenez played as property of the Cubs, as Jimenez was traded to the White Sox as part of a package for veteran pitcher Jose Quintana.
If only I was able to discuss that trade with Tucker on that day!
The Reuben was top notch and I might be willing to try Penn Station on another day/trip.

I forgot to tell you one thing more about the Parrish's- they are a Strat O Matic family!
Yep, I took Tucker on with my 2010 Giants against his Nationals with the old dice.
I mostly play the PC game now due to the speed of the game and not having to keep stats, but there is so much to be said about the dice and card game for sure.
Lots of fun and when the evening wound down, I was exhausted and went to sleep far earlier than the previous night.

Good company, good times, and a better-than-expected ballpark as well.
I found myself liking Kannapolis more than I thought I would and I'd come back -but I'd try to add a few provisions for a return-mainly let's try to go earlier in the year or if in the summer season, gotta make it a night game. It's just too much sun...

I'll be back tonight with the boxing challenge with bouts from HBO, and Fox and two key fights from the United Kingdom.....