Latest / The Erica Show / What's New With The Carolina Mudcats

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What's New With The Carolina Mudcats · The Erica Show

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  All right, it's Thereica do Long and Nick here. Nick Jordan, we
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  are talking with the Mudcats, which were so excited because y'all been in the
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  news a lot lately and you got some really cool events coming up. David
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  Lawrence, our general manager, our general manager from the Mudcats, we're so
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  glad to have you here. Well, thank you guys so much for having
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  me. It's a pleasure to be here with you guys, and we have
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  loved I know, I've been at the Mudcats many years, you know,
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  going to see the games or doing activities or bouncing on those little inflatable horses.
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  You'll still got that we do. Yeah, that is the best fun
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  I think I've had in a very long time at the station. So we
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  should you need to come back to that. We're gonna do that. We're
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  coming back to race. It's like a little bouncy horse and you race.
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  Yes, Yeah, it's a lot of need to We need to set that
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  up. Okay, Yeah, because you know, I was the coach for
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  my son's coach pitch team. They're the Brewers, which owns the Mudcats,
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  so there's a connection. Nick played baseball, like we're in perfect Okay,
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  that is absolutely perfect. That's awesome. A lot of cool events coming up.
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  So you've got your themed weekend, your hero's weekend, and so tell
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  us about that. Yeah, it's it's something we've done, you know,
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  for the last couple of years, and it's just it's it's been great because
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  we wanted to take not just one day, we want to take a whole
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  weekend and honor There's so many local heroes and so we want to have it
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  all encompassing. We do try to kind of space it out. So for
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  instance, this Friday, you know, we're focused on first responders and so
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  you know, everybody from police, fire, rescue, healthcare workers, I
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  mean, just everybody that's on the front lines. That's uh, you know,
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  that's what kind of the Friday focus is on. And so in addition
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  to to offering discounted tickets five dollars tickets for first responders seven dollars for their
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  immediate families, you know, we want to be able to provide kind of
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  some family fun for them to come out and but really spotlight them. We
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  you know, we have some throw out the first pitch, we have some
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  friendly competitions between you know, various groups, but it's it's really it's it's
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  for them, but it's for the fans to come out and acknowledge, you
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  know, all the work that they do. Uh. And and as part
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  of that, on Friday, the first one thousand are gonna get a cool
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  custom T shirt that honors first responders. So so that's Friday. Yeah,
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  no, it's it's it's great and again we we we can't thank them enough
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  and this is just a small piece of of of us trying to honor them.
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  Uh. And then it goes right into Saturday. And so Saturday we
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  do focus on on military and their families and so uh, the same offer
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  goes across the entire weekend in terms of the ticket opportunities. Uh, you
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  can go to Carolina Mudcats dot com to see all of that information, get
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  your tickets, uh and all that good stuff. But then on Saturday,
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  we we've done a cool kind of Camo Military Mudcats Jersey. So yeah,
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  so the first one thousand uh fans on Saturday are gonna get a chance to
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  to grab one of those. And so it's just, you know, it's
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  just it's just again a great weekend. And then last but not least,
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  as as as the husband of a teacher and my mom was a teacher.
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  Uh, you know, we we focus on teachers on Sunday, so that
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  game, you know, we honor teachers in some of their classes from across
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  the area. Uh. And just again, we want to spotlight all of
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  our heroes throughout the entire weekend. And I love that because yes, saluting
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  our heroes. And you know, your mom and your wife being a teacher,
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  have you had to have perfect grammar your entire life? Well I put
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  it like this that when I do things like this, the scrutiny gets even
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  even more intense as to you know, using proper grammar. But but yes,
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  yes it is. It is just something I I've learned to live with.
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  Well, you're safe for those we're very country. So we got there.
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  Well, no, and and and again growing up in eastern North Carolina
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  the same way. My my my accent. Sometimes I can kind of just
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  use that as an ex ex Well, that's just that's just how I talk.
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  You know, I ain't doing it wrong, that's right, that's right,
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  all right. So the first thousand people on Friday night get the T
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  shirts, first thousand Saturday night you get the jerseys. What are we doing
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  for teacher appreciation night. You know what, that's a great that's a great
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  question. You know. Uh, we we do something late in the season
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  as we get closer to back to school. We do some uh some pack
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  the book bags and some school supply drives. Uh. You know, but
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  because obviously for for most, not all, but many schools are out.
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  Uh you know, we're we're we just didn't want to forget them, of
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  course, so we wanted to honor them and and and have them come out
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  and just enjoy the day. If you're a teacher, you get discounted beer
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  for the summer. You know what you can't do. I can tell you
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  there's not enough probably to to supply what they need after after finishing up a
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  year and and and having a little bit of a break before going back to
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  it. By the way, we have a school drive coming up in August.
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  We want to see money out there. Let's do it. Let's partner
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  up. You give something amazing, you give us the dates and and we'll
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  figure out how to make it happen. Because again we we we try to.
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  Yes, it's it's it's a focus on heroes, but just the overall
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  Mudcats experience. You've been out there. You've seen it. You know,
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  it's it's focused on family and fun and and affordability. You know, Uh,
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  plenty of places to park, plenty of choices for food and beverages,
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  as you alluded to, both alcoholic and non alcoholic. Uh, something for
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  everyone. But but it is it's just family fun, you know. Baseball
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  is a great backdrop. Uh, We've we've had a great first half of
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  the year so far. We we won the first half, so the Mudcats
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  have now secured a playoff spot in September by winning the first half. So
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  the product is great. But but it's it's the socializing. You know,
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  it's the family, it's the fun. It's it's getting out and having a
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  good time and just enjoying yourself. Well, it's a fun night out.
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  And it's kind of like the best way to fall back in love with baseball
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  because you're not like driving out to the city. You're not spending a crazy
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  amount of money, you're not hung up on well I spent all this money,
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  I better see a good game. First of all, you go sit
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  and it's just family and community driven and on top of that, the team's
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  good. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's certainly the bonus. But you you
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  you hit it. I mean it's uh, it's just getting getting out with
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  your family, getting outside. Yes, we realize that that it's it's it's
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  hot in the summer, especially this week. Uh. In fact, uh,
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  let's see tomorrow we have an eleven am game. It's only supposed to
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  be about one hundred by the end of the day. But we the good
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  part of that is it's splash Day. So we have brought out or we're
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  bringing out a ton thousands of area camps and they're gonna do a splash day.
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  So we've got a dump tank, we've got water guns, we've got
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  encouraging folks to you know, put on your bathing suit and just come out
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  and beat the heat. But again, it's it's it's about family. Yeah,
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  it's it's just it's it's fun, that's it. And speaking of family,
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  so the fourth of July, if you grew up around here, you're
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  always trying to find the spot to go and watch the fireworks and do stuff
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  like that. And you've got a special weekend with postgame fireworks. That's right.
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  So this Friday is still a regular Friday for us, even though it's
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  it's Hero's Appreciation. So there is Friday Night fireworks this Friday, but that's
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  just a prelude to next week's July fourth, fifth, and sixth. So
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  that's Thursday, Friday, Saturday next week. For the fourth of July,
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  every night we're going to do a fireworks show post game. Again, it's
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  something that at least around the fourth the Mudcats have been doing for thirty plus
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  years. And it's again plenty of places to park, plenty of room.
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  They tend to be one of our biggest sellout type nights of of the season,
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  so we do have tickets, and having it spread out over three days
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  gives kind of everybody a choice. Hey, if you got something on the
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  fourth, come the fifth or the sixth. If you've got something the fifth
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  or the sixth, come out on the fourth. And so every night will
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  be a spectacular fireworks show post game. And of course, well that's gonna
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  be a lot of fun. Of course, No. I was just gonna
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  say, there's nothing better than baseball and fireworks for the Fourth of July.
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  That's about as America as you can get. What's what position did you play
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  growing up? Nick? I suret stop. Well, I was like picture
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  and catcher because I didn't like to run a lot, but I was a
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  good one though. That's great. That sounds like me right there. All
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  right, David, we've we've had fun talking about these things, but now
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  we've got to ask you the hard hitting questions. Okay, are you guys
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  in the new stadium yet? We are not. We are. We are
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  in Zebulin, So we're still at five County Stadium. We're here for the
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  remainder of this season, we are here for all of next season in twenty
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  twenty five, and then in twenty twenty six. That's the plan to move
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  into a brand new downtown Wilson Stadium. It's about twenty miles east of where
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  we currently are. But no, we have not moved yet. They broke
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  ground back in May, so there is progress, but it is not built
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  yet. It's not ready for baseball or fans or that sort of thing,
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  but it will be by twenty twenty six. And this is going to be
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  a multi purpose like facility right where they'll have it like a hotel, eating
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  all kind of stuff, so it really can be a fun family outing when
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  you come to the game. Yes, that's correct. The city of Wilson
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  has done an amazing job with their planning. They have some outside developers that
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  are developing the retail and the space living space around the stadium footprint. UH.
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  There's plans for a hotel UH to be part of the stadium, actually
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  be part of the structure of that. So it is it's the the city,
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  the developer UH and then the Milwaukee Brewers who who who owned the team
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  UH have done a great job in in kind of this master plan UH to
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  set up downtown Wilson, UH with with part of that being a multi purpose
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  baseball facility. That's awesome and even more reason to go to a game now.
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  You know, if you've been going to the games, you have nostalgia
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  about it. You only have about a year and a half to see a
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  game there. Yeah, that's that's correct. We've you know, we we
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  we have had a phenomenal history with our fans, with our teams, with
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  our partners, with the community. UH. And so certainly UH, yes,
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  there's there's there's a season and a half left, you know, UH
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  at five County Stadium. But again as a as a move that's about twenty
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  minutes, you know, twenty miles. We understand for some you know,
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  it might be a little further for others, it won't be that much different.
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  And so but yeah, we were excited about the future, but we
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  we're still excited about, you know, the current scenario, which is continuing
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  to finish out at five County Stadium and provide that same, you know,
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  awesome family experience for everyone. Absolutely. David Lawrence, general manager with the
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  Mudcats, which we want to come out and throw a first pitch. Y'all
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  haven't asked to ship what happened there? When do you want to? Soon?
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  Okay? In fact, we can set up the in between inning.
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  Okay, the kind of bounce the horse. Yes, you don't want to
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  raise me bro wipe you in front of you. You ain't seen me go.
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  I am competitive. I will take you down. I'll drop kick you.
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  In fact, we'll let we'll let Muddy kind of be the you know,
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  the the starter and kind of you know, make sure that yeah,
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  pace you guys out so you know, even if it has to separate you
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  play referee or umpire in this case, keep you guys separated if you get
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  a little too heated. Yeah, I used to. They used to cheat
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  back in the day. And I know a couple of people try to knock
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  us out, you know, knock our horse over. I may have done
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  out of time or two. Well, there's there's there's still lots of competitiveness
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  even on the on the on field games like this. So we'd love to
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  have you guys ask and before we go. For fans that want to meet
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  the players, is that ever an option? How do they see the players
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  or do they just stand there at the end. You know, that's a
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  great question. I mean, you know, minor league baseball in general,
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  you're you're seeing at our level, you're seeing kids, and they are they're
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  eighteen nineteen, you know, twenty twenty one years old. Uh, and
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  this is many of their first professional sports endeavor. You know, they're getting
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  paid for it. They you know, they're they're they're on the field,
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  but they're they're gracious. I mean, they are down to earth. And
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  I can tell you this team in particular, they stop for every autograph,
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  every picture. Before the game. It's a little tough as they're getting ready,
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  but after the game they're accessible. There're spaces along the area where they
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  kind of come and go into their clubhouse area and they stop for everybody.
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  I mean, one of the things that we've seen this year. After every
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  game, we allow kids to run the bases, so they get to come
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  out on the field. They run the bases every game. It doesn't you
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  know, there's one exception, and that's on Sundays and we let them actually
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  come on the field and play catch after the game. But every other game
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  they can come out and run the bases, and many times the players are
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  still hanging around a little bit, they'll stop and sign autographs, take pictures.
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  I mean, total accessibility. That's what That's what mudcats baseball, that's
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  what minor league baseball is really about. And you're seeing these folks that in
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  a couple of years there's gonna be some of them playing in the major leagues.
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  Right by the way, the last time we came out to run the
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  bases, it was Burger our general manager here. We all needed oxygen after
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  those bases we went on. It was hot and we were like, oh
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  my gosh, we we you know what we uh speaking uh what a what
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  a better what a better weekend to try to come out and run the bases
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  than our heroes weekend. There's plenty of e ms, there's plenty of rescue,
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  there's plenty of folks out there, especially on Friday night. Come out
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  and and and they'll take care of you if you need a little, uh,
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  you know, little help afterwards. Well, thank you so much.
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  It's really great to talk to you. Hey, thanks for having us and
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  uh and again we appreciate all you guys do. Thank you so much. Thank you