The 2015 Major League Baseball season will enter one of its most critical stretches of the year in September.
With the October post-season quickly approaching, teams from the American and National leagues begin their sprints to the finish in hopes of capturing an elusive division title or gaining a playoff position as a wild card.
Naturally, as the stakes in the playoff race begin to rise, so follows the interest of sports enthusiasts across the country. That got me thinking, “Wouldn’t it be cool to catch an MLB game in downtown Raleigh right about now?”
Before I go any further, let me give a bit of background about my own baseball fanhood. I would classify myself as a casual MLB fan. I keep up with the Atlanta Braves throughout the year, and I always tune into their games if they make it into the playoffs. However, rarely do I ever sit down and watch a full Braves game during the regular season. I just don’t have the patience to watch a game that has such small bearings on the season as a whole.
All that being said, Sunday night I turned on my TV and found myself enthralled by ESPN’s night broadcast of the San Francisco Giants vs. Pittsburgh Pirates game at PNC Park.
The stadium was sold out with a sea of black and gold on hand to witness a regular season game against two of the best teams in baseball. The Pirates faithful certainly showed the national audience why they are considered some of the best fans in the game. I especially enjoyed the vast amount of crossbones flags flying in the stands. And that’s when it began — I finally started to feel like I was falling in love with the MLB again.
Watching that game got me thinking, what has kept me from really immersing myself in Major League Baseball? Besides, it’s not like I don’t enjoy watching a good baseball game. Catching the Wolfpack down at Doak Field in the springtime is one of my favorite sporting events to attend. So why is it that the MLB doesn’t cause the same amount of stir for me?
I came to this simple conclusion: I’ve never had that special attachment to an MLB franchise like Pittsburgh natives have with their Pirates.
Growing up in Charlotte, I naturally gravitated toward the Atlanta Braves as my favorite MLB franchise because of their self-proclaimed status as the “South’s Team.” As a kid, I even went out to Turner Field for a couple of games with my family. Yet still, I haven’t built that emotional connection with the Braves like I have with other professional sports franchises.
Perhaps that relationship with the Braves community has been stymied as a result of my own lack of connection with the city of Atlanta. I just don’t have the same feelings for Atlanta like I do other Southern cities like Charlotte, Raleigh and even Memphis or Nashville, Tennessee.
I suppose another contributing factor comes from my own love for the Carolina Panthers and simultaneous disdain for the Atlanta Falcons. Disliking the Falcons because they’re a division rival makes it a little harder for me to support another Atlanta team in a different sport.
Honestly, I don’t think I’m the only one out there that’s experiencing these types of feelings. I think there are a lot of avid baseball fans in the Carolinas that find themselves indifferent about the MLB because they don’t feel drawn in by a franchise like they do with the Carolina Hurricanes, Carolina Panthers or Charlotte Hornets.
For quite some time, there have been talks and rumors that the MLB might be interested in expanding the league up to 32 teams. If these talks ever do come to fruition, I believe that targeting a city in the Carolinas as a potential destination would be a very wise decision.
Specifically, given the fact that it would probably be quite difficult for the city of Charlotte to support three professional teams and the already loyal following of the Durham Bulls in the Triangle, I think that the city of Raleigh would be an ideal destination for an MLB expansion club. Granted, I know that this will probably never happen, but hey, one can dream.
