Night in the West End

When I decided to move to Greenville, one thing I was excited about was having a minor league baseball team here in town. Sure, there was one when I was in Jacksonville, but getting to the stadium and going to games always seemed like a chore and not like a time to have fun and watch some ball. In Greenville, they in the past few years have revitalized the West End of downtown with shops, the Reedy River Falls park and Fluor Field at the West End. The Greenville Drive, not the best team name but what can you do, is the Single A affliate of the Boston Red Sox. Prior to the Drive being in Greenville, the Braves had their AA affiliate there for years and years. Due to a quibble between the Braves and the City of Greenville over building a new stadium, the Braves up and moved to Pearl, Mississippi a few years ago. Funny thing is that Greenville DID build a new stadium. And when they learned it was going to be linked with the Red Sox, they made it a minor league replica of Fenway Park with the inside dimensions being the same, yet still allowing for the outside architecture to blend in with the existing buildings.

I went to a game between the Drive and the Kannapolis Intimidators, the Single A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. The Intimidators are leading their division of the South Atlantic League right now with an in-division record of 40-18. The Drive tried to make a valiant comeback late in the game, but ended up losing 8-6. The players that really stood out to me were Oscar Tejada for the Drive, who made some great plays at second. He has great range and is lightning quick. However, with Pedroia in Boston he looks to be trade bait or would have to shift to a different position. For Kannapolis, it was reliever Kyle Bellamy. He's not quite a sidearmer, but he gets really, really low in his delivery, had some nasty pitches and ended up getting the save. Overall, it's a really incredible ballpark and a great place to see baseball played. I'll leave you with some pictures that I took at the game.

Mail Day

I got a package from Joe over at The Average Joe yesterday and he filled in some needs from my list. Thanks Joe and I'll hopefully be able to fill in some of your needs and everyone should go over to his site and check if you have anything he needs.

Adam LaRoche is coming home

The Braves entered into the Trade Deadline fray and got fan favorite Adam LaRoche back from the Red Sox in exchange for Casey Kotchman. Adam was kind of in limbo on the Sox with no where really to play and with Victor Martinez coming in, they needed more of a bench player. I think Kotchman will do well in that role and Adam would not have. I never really warmed up to Kotchman and I'll be glad to see Adam back in in a Braves' uni.

[h/t ESPN]

I'M DONE! And a contest!

The last day of me taking the bar was Wednesday. Unfortunately, South Carolina doesn't give us our scores until October. Also, yes I have move from Florida to South Carolina for a myriad of reasons, but it also puts me closer to Atlanta and thus allowing me to attend Braves games. I haven't been to a game in 3 years so I'm looking forward to going to one soon. Also I'm in the process of unpacking everything and I'm having apartment issues so I'll be posting more, but they might be sparse here in the next few weeks.

Also, Ryan over at Trader Crack's is holding a great contest for a Razor Sports Icons cut signature. Head over there to check it out!

Hey Look! An Actual Card Related Post!

Yes yes, I'm actually posting about something card related. While everyone else is caught up in the mania that is 2009 A&G, I am still stuck on 2008 A&G. Hopefully I'll get my hands on some 2009 once things settle down and once I actually have a job that pays me money. I found a blaster at Target today when I went to pick up a few things. I was quite surprised to see a blaster still available, but it is right outside of a ritzy part of the Charleston area so cards might be below the people that normally shop there. Anywho, I ended up getting 6 cards I needed for the set (Needs List will be adjusted accordingly) as well as this

The material feels like it's from a wind breaker or something of that ilk. The box says that this pull is 1:1,000. Hey I'll take it. Pretty neat pull from a blaster. I always love the oddball inserts.

RIP Steve McNair

I never was a huge fan of Steve or anything, but he always seemed like he was a really nice guy and a pretty darn good football player. Such a sad way to go out.

(h/t News Channel 5)

Update on the Day Of Freedom

Boys and girls, while this is a day to recognize the freedoms in the country, my freedom will come in 25 days when I finish taking the bar exam. I'm studying hard and trying to kick as much legal butt as possible. I have bought 3 packs of cards in this time span: One of Topps series 2 a jumbo of OPC and a pack of 09 Goudey. Nothing in those was of note other than a few base set Braves. But I wish you all a happy 4th and look forward to picking every thing back up here in August. Until then I leave you with this which should be watched every July 4: