Skip to main content

FIELD NOTES: Baseball realignment not quite a homerun

Die-hard baseball fans have known for a couple of years that a significant restructuring of the minor leagues was coming this season, pending a renegotiation of the master agreement with the majors. It was understood that 40 or so of the less-viable teams would be contracted, with each Major League team claiming one squad in Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, and Low-A for a total of 120 minor league affiliates. There was also speculation about a geographic realignment of the leagues to reduce travel costs and facilitate roster moves to and from the parent teams. The extent to which this realignment occurred was a surprise to many, though, myself included.

The Charlotte Knights, an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, have played in the International League (IL) since their elevation to Triple-A in 1989. Under the new alignment, the IL is gone, replaced by the generically named Triple-A East. The Knights will play in the Southeast Division of the Triple-A East, along with their former IL rivals the Durham Bulls, Gwinnett Stripers, and Norfolk Tides. Three new teams, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, Nashville Sounds, and Memphis Redbirds, will join them. Nashville and Memphis came over from the also-disbanded Pacific Coast League, and Jacksonville was promoted from Double-A.

Aside from the fact the Knights will now regularly play a team called the Jumbo Shrimp, this seems like a pretty good arrangement. As a “traditionalist,” I’m not happy they eliminated the International League, which was older than the American League, but I hold out a flicker of hope the “Triple-A East” moniker is just a placeholder and a better name for the league will be forthcoming. Heck, even “Eastern League” would be less generic. 

The 2021 schedule was also just released and, while it is absurd, we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt as a nod to the impact of COVID-19. The Knights will only play teams from within their division this season, and the number of games with each team is all over the place. They will play Jacksonville a whopping 42 times (get ready to hear Jumbo Shrimp a lot), but Nashville just 12 times. They don’t play Memphis at all. That kind of schedule disparity could lead to some interesting (as in controversial) results. A limited number of fans will be allowed at Charlotte’s Truist Field, 700 for the opening series with Durham that starts April 13. That number should increase as the season progresses and the pandemic (hopefully) wanes. 
 

Of course, if you aren’t interested in the Knights, you have several other options. The Cannon Ballers will christen their brand new stadium in downtown Kannapolis on May 4, and teams in Columbia, Hickory, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Fayetteville are all less than a two-hour drive from Wadesboro.

Note: After this article was completed, the start of the Triple-A season was pushed back to May.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Don't Listen to the Old Man in the Pickup Truck

As economic development director for Anson County, I strongly urge you to vote FOR the Mixed Beverage* Election November 8th. But, more importantly, I encourage you to listen to the voices of the young professionals upon whom the future of the county will depend. If you look closely at the lower right-hand corner of the blue and white signs urging a FOR vote on Mixed Beverages, you will see they are paid for by YP Anson. So what is YP Anson? Is it some political action committee funded by out-of-state alcoholic beverage manufacturers and casino owners? No, it's Young Professionals Anson, an organization made up of and funded entirely by local business people and community members under the age of 40.  They are the bankers, real estate agents, lawyers, shop owners, entrepreneurs, factory managers, and tradespeople who will lead Anson County into the next decade and beyond. Most of them were born and raised here, left to get a college education, and chose to return and raise a family...

FRIDAY MATINEE: Midnight Mass (🍺🍺🍺🍺)

I held off writing this review until I had seen all seven episodes of the new Netflix limited series “Midnight Mass.” I’ve been burned in the past by shows that start out well and then devolve into silliness as they progress. While “Mass" doesn’t completely stick the landing, I think even the East German judge would give it a solid 9. Taken as a whole, I think it is as effective a piece of horror as the combined “It” movies from a few years ago, and right on par with “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.”  The story revolves around a man returning to his childhood island home after a prison stay for a drunk driving accident that killed a teen girl. Coincidentally, it is the same day the island’s beloved elderly priest, Monsignor Pruitt is supposed to return from a trip to the Holy Land. Unfortunately, the priest has taken ill and is being treated on the mainland. A temporary priest arrives to take his place.  The story takes a little while to get going, and anyone who’s familiar with t...

FRIDAY MATINEE: Ghostbusters: Afterlife (🍺🍺)

I was surprised by the raucous crowd in the theater last night for a showing of Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The original Ghostbusters was always a perfectly okay movie to me. I liked it, didn't love it. The tone didn't resonate with me. It wasn't quite funny enough to work as a comedy, and it definitely wasn't scary enough to work as a horror film.  I first realized that other people had different ideas about it as a cultural touchstone when the 2016 remake, featuring an all-female cast, was received with violent rhetoric usually reserved for religious extremism and SEC football. It seems that a relatively significant group of teenagers from the 1980s consider it one of the greatest motion pictures of all time, right up there with Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. Our Town Cinemas was packed with those die-hards, their children, and (gasp!) grandchildren last night.  Apparently, they got what they came for since they gave the movie a standing ovation at its completio...