Episode 162 — Stan Cole: Cooperstown, Campbell, & The Carolina League

[00:00:00] Stan: In different stages of life, you think of different things. And I have a job that, you know, pulled me away from my family for a good part of the year. And there was one night where all four of us were working a Buies Creek Astros game together. um, we weren’t You know, sitting again, I was in the press box.

[00:00:23] Stan: Catherine was at the entry to the stands. Claudia was down by the, by the gate. And Oliver, of course, was in the dugout. That was, for this time of life, that was really special. 

[00:00:42] Anna: What’s up bucket heads. Thanks for tuning in and welcome to episode number 162 of the baseball bucket list podcast. I’m your host Anna DiTommaso and each week on the show, I speak with a different baseball fan about their favorite memories, what’s left on their baseball bucket list and what the game of baseball means to them.

[00:00:59] Anna: This week, I sat down with Stan Cole from Buies Creek, North Carolina. Stan is a lifelong baseball fan who fell in love with the game as a kid thanks to am radio broadcast and the NBC game of the week. He’s also the associate athletic director for community and alumni engagement at my Alma Mater, Campbell University, where he’s worked for over three decades. 

[00:01:20] Anna: Stan. And I discussed the history of baseball at Campbell University. You’ll be surprised to hear some of the big names from this little school, including four current major leaguers. We also touch on a trip Stan recently took to the hall of fame for his 60th birthday, including what he thought of the museum and Cooperstown in general. Plus, we get the story of the Buies Creek Astros, who were briefly a Class A affiliate of the Houston Astros while the Fayetteville ballpark was being built. I really enjoyed this episode. 

[00:01:49] Anna: It was a ton of fun for me. I had a great time chatting Buies Creek and baseball with Stan. I hope you guys really enjoy it. Now without further ado, sit back, relax and enjoy some baseball banter with Stan Cole. 

[00:02:02] Anna: Stan, thank you so much for joining us today on the Baseball Bucket List. How are things in beautiful Buies Creek, North Carolina?

[00:02:10] Stan: Well, things are great here. We’ve had a break from the oppressive summer heat but it’s just turned kind of torrential rain for the most part but that’s good for the garden and good for the water levels. And so it’s, it’s nice. Usually this time of year very much mimics Texas. we say that we’re below the Mosquito Belt, and you, if you look at some of the hottest temperatures in the southeast, they run anywhere from like Columbia, South Carolina, east to Fayetteville, North Carolina, and then beyond that, east through Buies Creek through that little southern, southeastern part.

[00:02:45] Stan: So but that’s okay.

[00:02:46] Anna: I remember that weather well from, you know, my time there in the creek. And I know we’ll get into a bunch of stuff related to Campbell University where you’re sitting right now. But the first question I always kick the show off with is, how is it that you became a fan of the game of baseball?

[00:03:03] Stan: Well, Anna, I was born in 1964, so I’m the last year of the Boomers, I guess. And I don’t know what it was, just I don’t have this great epiphany of, of you know, or picture in my mind of, you know, standing outside and playing catch with my dad because, you know, he’s a full time minister and had different hours and stuff.

[00:03:24] Stan: But my earliest memories are maybe watching the major league game of the week on our black and white television set. It was in the den and right off our den was a screened in porch that led directly out to the backyard. And I would see what was going on on TV and then uh, would run out to the backyard in between commercial breaks and Mimic what I saw, whether it was a pitching motion, whether it was a batting stance, you know somebody like Carl Yastrzemski holding the bat way above his head.

[00:03:59] Stan: Seems like back then we got a lot of Reds and Orioles and a lot of the teams that were so good because it was one game. And you really had to look forward to it and you didn’t want to miss it. And then of course growing up I got my first bubble gum cards, probably 1970, 1971. And then reading the little facts in the cartoons and stuff on the back.

[00:04:18] Stan: Um, That’s where, I think it’s where it all kind of started and it just mushroomed from there.

[00:04:24] Anna: Where did you grow up? Or have you always been in the Carolinas or did you start somewhere else?

[00:04:29] Stan: Right. My, I was born in Columbia, South Carolina, but I basically went to elementary school in Salisbury, North Carolina, which is 40 minutes or 40 miles, I should say, north of Charlotte and middle school in Atlanta and then high school in Raleigh. And my folks actually still live in the house we moved into in 1979.

[00:04:50] Stan: Yeah. And since 1983, I’ve lived in Buies Creek all but two years, if you count four years of college. So, yes, very much a North Carolina person.

[00:05:00] Anna: Yeah, what is that like for someone, I mean, you, you just painted a very vivid photo for us of being a kid and listening to or watching the game of the week on TV, but obviously the Carolina is still yet to get a major league ball team. You have the Braves kind of close by, you have the O’s, you have the Nats, and from my time there, I remember those being the three teams that, that major league fans really paid attention to.

[00:05:26] Anna: But, did either, or I guess it would have only been the O’s and the Braves at the time, you know, kind of draw your focus, or did you just enjoy whatever game you could, you could come across on the TV?

[00:05:39] Stan: Well, you’ve got to remember too that AM radio was very uh, much a part of, of life back then. And now you have most AM stations have to power down at night, but back in the day, KMOX out of St. Louis. You could get Cardinals games into North Carolina. Cincinnati you know, Marty Brenneman, who was the longtime Reds broadcaster was actually the voice of the Catawba College Indians when I was living in Salisbury the first couple of years.

[00:06:09] Stan: Then he left to take a AAA the Tidewater Tides job and match that with the Virginia Squires of the ABA with Julius Irving playing there. And then, you know, a couple of years later, he’s Saying this one belongs to the Reds. You know, in the series when the Reds beat, beat the uh, red Sox in 1975. So those are the, those are the, the two teams really that um, from a radio standpoint, Cleveland as well was um, big into the Piedmont of North Carolina with their very powerful AM station at night.

[00:06:44] Stan: So you had a lot of people that were St. Louis Cardinals fans. ’cause you remember until That this expansion in the sixties. The southernmost city in the major leagues was Washington, D. C. with the Senators. And, you know, and you had to go to St. Louis you know, to, for the Cardinals. There was nothing in the, in the Southeast.

[00:07:05] Stan: So I think a lot of allegiances were formed over the radio and some of the incredible announcers very descriptive. You could picture in your mind what it looked like. And you know, and I, I picked up some of that. But you know, with us, it was a game of the week. And then my grandparents lived in Atlanta.

[00:07:22] Stan: So we’d go to Atlanta for two weeks every summer. I’d go to the cookie cutter baseball stadium, the old Fulton County stadium there and watch the Braves. But they were not very good post Hank Aaron. And and so you know, I kind of. enjoyed them as a uh, guilty pleasure. And then for the teams that you wanted to follow that were actually pretty good.

[00:07:44] Stan: The Pittsburgh Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles were my were that were the teams that, you know, and I didn’t want to punish myself by trying to following the Braves in the mid and late seventies.

[00:07:55] Anna: Yeah, I think, you know, what you just described of kind of falling in love with teams via broadcasters is so, I wish that that was still a larger part of the game today. You know, I, I find myself sometimes choosing to listen to a radio broadcast over the television broadcast just because I feel like you get so much more of an understanding as to what’s actually happening.

[00:08:20] Anna: And. Yeah. Yeah. I forget who says it, but there’s of course the famous quote that baseball is the only game you can see on the radio and I just, I just really, really enjoy it.

[00:08:30] Stan: You know, Ray Charles reportedly gave Vin Scully his highest compliment when he told Vin Scully one time that he made him see the game. And of course, you know, most of your listeners know Ray Charles, the great entertainer, was blind. But he was a big Los Angeles Dodgers fan. But Vin was so descriptive in how he talked.

[00:08:52] Stan: And I’m afraid that in broadcasting now the model has changed. been to have two or three heads in there and they’re just talking about any and everything and not really talking about the game or things that are going on around the game. There’s a lot of what ifs, there’s a lot of supposition and things like that.

[00:09:10] Stan: And what’s your opinion of this rather than letting the beauty of the game and letting it flow. Baseball has to breathe. And it’s a, it’s a sport where, you know, You know, the, the somebody’s gotta step out and, and uh, wipe the dust out of their eyes or not knock the dirt out of their cleats. You know, and I think that’s the beauty of the game is, is it is timelessness.

[00:09:34] Stan: It’s not a clock, there’s not a countdown. And, you know, horns aren’t going off and whistles. So I, I think that that lends itself to great descriptive broadcasting and because. Audio is not the preferred or the norm now for a broadcasting platform. Broadcasters aren’t taught as well to to be descriptive in how games are going.

[00:10:00] Stan: Making sure you let somebody know if they’re, how they’re standing in the box. Do they have an open stance? Do they have a closed stance? Is the pitcher pitching out of the stretch or is he a full windup? Those kind of things like that help paint the picture.

[00:10:12] Anna: Yeah, definitely. It’s an art form and I think you’re right that it’s a, you know, it, it seems to be kind of losing its luster a little bit, but I think you have a handful of broadcasters around who I think can, can kind of bring about a renaissance or at least I’m hopeful of that. But yeah. You and I had a chance to talk actually face to face for the first time in like, man, 15 years almost.

[00:10:35] Anna: A couple of weeks ago, I made my pilgrimage back to Buies Creek. For listeners who don’t know, I, that was where I did my four years of college. I played soccer at Campbell University and Stan has been a big part of that school for for many many years. So Stan, why don’t you tell listeners what your role is at at CU?

[00:10:59] Stan: Sure. I’m in my 36th year working here. This is my 40th year out of the 42 um, being in Boys Creek. And um, I was hired as the old sports information director. They call it athletic communications now or, or strategic communications, things like that. But I was an old print media guy. That was hired to come back here and manage our media relations.

[00:11:22] Stan: And I worked in that in that part of of the athletics operation for 34 years and then here the last I’ve transitioned into what I like to call a hybrid position between alumni relations and community relations and um, and athletic communications. I host a podcast with called Tales from the Creek with Campbell alumni.

[00:11:47] Stan: I, and it’s centered for our athletes, athletics alumni. I write feature stories because there’s not as many print reporters to go out and pitch a story to anymore. And um, you know, look after our Hall of Fame, um, making sure that stays on schedule. and then just, you know, kind of everything else that needs to be done.

[00:12:07] Stan: So one thing I really missed from the old part of the job was the fact that we were getting from event to event to event to event. When you have 21 Division I varsity sports you’ve got multiple events per day all throughout the week. And big picture items things like this where you got to really go talk to somebody.

[00:12:26] Stan: They take up a lot of time and we just didn’t have time to do that. So I’m really enjoying this part of my new role.

[00:12:31] Anna: Yeah, it seems like a natural fit for you. I mean, I think that it’s something that you really excel at and Man, it was good to be back home, so to speak, a couple weeks ago. Much has changed in the Creek. Much has stayed the same, but it’s still just, you know, making that turn on to Leslie Campbell. It’s still, it’s still gave me that same feeling.

[00:12:52] Anna: So I was glad to be back.

[00:12:54] Stan: Well, it’s good to have you back here. That’s that’s the neat thing is that you know, I’ve been here a while and oftentimes folks will come back and there may not be a familiar face, especially in the summertime. And then that just gives you something in common to talk to. And, and uh, you know, and that, that’s a very rewarding part of the job is, you know, I’ve been here a long time and it’s really neat to see people like yourself circle back and come back and revisit the spot.

[00:13:24] Anna: For sure. All right. So one of the things that had changed. Since I had spent time at Campbell was the ballpark on campus, and I know there’s a good story behind that But I know you are a very big fan of history in particular Sports history and so since this is a baseball show I want to back all the way up to try to get some of the lesser known history of Campbell University and it’s Baseball centric, stories, I guess.

[00:13:58] Anna: Heh

[00:13:59] Stan: Well, sure. I mean, you know, baseball being the oldest professional team sport in our country, you know, it just trickled down. And as you know, every small town had a semi pro team where they would pass the hat. And things like this will Bowie’s Creek Academy, now Campbell University, was founded in 1887 by James Archibald Campbell who is a Scotsman who decided to open a school so that the farmers in Harnett County could have a place to send their kids.

[00:14:37] Stan: There were no public schools in that time in this county. And so that was the educational option. And then with education comes extracurricular activities. So, you know, we don’t know exactly when the first team. started here because the school was just a, you know, one through 11 at that time until the mid 1920s.

[00:15:06] Stan: But we do know that the first junior college year was 1926 1927. And the most interesting thing to me about that is that a future major leaguer appeared in our first Junior college baseball game. His name was Woodrow Upchurch, Woody Upchurch. At the time, he was 15 years old and in the seventh grade, and he was pitching against, you know, people that, you know, may have graduated from high school.

[00:15:38] Stan: Things were a little different as far as eligibility requirements and things of that nature, but you know, he pitched in uh, in that game and then. Within a decade, he was making his major league debut for the Philadelphia Athletics. And the really cool thing to me about Woody’s story is that he is from Buies Creek, was born here.

[00:16:01] Stan: died here. He’s buried in Buies Creek Cemetery, and he was our first Major League Baseball player to come out of here. His grandfather had something like 16 of his grandchildren all were matriculated through Buies Creek Academy, later Campbell Junior College, Campbell College, now Campbell University. So uh, and then just Two really interesting little nuggets to me about Woody is the fact that he came up in 35 and pitched a few games in 36 and that was it.

[00:16:35] Stan: You know, then he went on to play for Middletown teams or something like that, but Woody pitched against Murderer’s Row. He pitched for Connie Mack. He was not pitching, but he was at the ballpark and on the bench when Joe DiMaggio hit his first major League home run. Even though he was only in the majors for you know, for parts of two seasons.

[00:16:59] Stan: You know, Jimmy Fox was a teammate and it was almost like a Forest Gump experience for, for a uh, baseball player, in that depression era. And then, you know, if you fast forward some we had another, a couple of more very good junior college pitchers in Jim Perry who went on to a long major league career.

[00:17:20] Stan: Our baseball stadium now bears his name. He won the 1970 Cy Young Award with the Minnesota Twins and Cal Koontz, who was a member of the Mason Mets in 69. 10 year major leaguer, Jim Perry’s brother, Gaylord, eventually became a hall of famer. He actually enrolled at Campbell, but he never played sports here because he had already signed his his deal with the Giants.

[00:17:47] Stan: And and was, you know, so he was professional and he wanted to play on the basketball team. But the but the word got back to the to the giant scout who had signed him and they weren’t about ready to risk that bonus baby turning his ankle during basketball season. So both Jim and Gaylord Perry attended Campbell.

[00:18:05] Stan: Jim graduated from here and has been involved with us as a long time benefactor and an interested fan in what we do here and that’s really cool.

[00:18:16] Anna: And what is the mascot’s name? The uh, Campbell Camel.

[00:18:20] Stan: You know, it’s funny, the mascot is named Gaylord, and people are not certain if that has anything to do with Gaylord Perry, but that makes the best story. And Gladys is the female mascot, named after a professor here back in the days as well. But they, you know, they walk around in little furry camel outfits at ballgames here.

[00:18:44] Anna: Yeah. I love it. So you mentioned Campbell’s first major league player, Woody Upchurch, but I mean, here in recent years, We’ve seen kind of a large burst of success from the baseball program and, you know, Campbell goes from being a smaller school that people from a specific region may have stumbled across to being something that people all across the country have started to maybe learn a little more about and I mean, as far as I know right now, we have three major league And MLB Cedric Mullins, of course, with the Baltimore Orioles got Ryan Thompson, who was a Tampa Bay Ray I got to see him pitch in the world series in 2020, which was pretty cool.

[00:19:30] Anna: And of course, Zach Netto, who went, exponentially high. So why don’t you talk about kind of the last couple years of the baseball program and kind of the trajectory that it’s been on.

[00:19:42] Stan: Sure. Well, you know, Zach was drafted in the first round after the 2022 season. And less than a year after he made his minor league debut, he or his professional debut. He was in the bigs. You know, he was playing for Campbell in the NCA regionals in May of 2022, and one year later, he was starting for the Angels, which is mind blowing, and um, you know, kind of an under recruited guy out of South Florida but he always looked the part and people, baseball fans know that thing, he just, there’s something about him you know, Cedric Mullins came here for one year out of Lewisburg Junior College, and there was a 15th round pick of the Orioles and quickly moved up into the to his position as the starting center fielder.

[00:20:34] Stan: And he’s been an all star and a silver slugger. Should be a gold glove winner. He’s amazing. And then Ryan Thompson was with us for two years as a junior college transfer. And then was originally drafted by the Astros rule five to the Rays. Then he signed with the, with the D backs last year.

[00:20:52] Stan: And it’s crazy. You know, this guy’s pitched in two world series in the last five years. And So they started it. Then Alan Winans who came up and was originally drafted by the Mets and then picked up by the Braves. He started games last year and then he just started a game back in Atlanta, or back for the Braves against the Mets last week.

[00:21:09] Stan: So, to have four guys from a school that has less than 3, 000 students appear in a major league uh, uh, game, And honestly, it was the first time since 1962 that four Campbell. players had appeared in the bigs in the same year. And that year, 1962, there was a guy named Mark Prince who made his one and only professional appearance for the Chicago Cubs along with Cal Coons Gaylord and Jim Perry.

[00:21:35] Stan: So to have four guys from a small school like that, you really kind of pinch yourself and say, is this really happening? but it’s really neat. You can pull up your phone and just go into ESPN and check the box scores and see how Zach or Ryan or. Or Cedric did the night before.

[00:21:50] Stan: That’s the first thing I do every morning. Especially see how Cedric’s doing.

[00:21:54] Anna: Yeah. I, I like to keep my eye on them too, because I mean, it’s just really cool to have a connection like that and, and to be able to say like, Hey, that guy played at the same school that I played at. It makes me feel maybe a little better than, than I really was. But I loved when Ryan Thompson was with the Rays because that was just.

[00:22:15] Anna: Extra cool to me to have a guy from my school on my favorite team And then of course I was I was heartbroken when he got released but it was cool to see him back in the world series like you like you mentioned just Just three years after his first round with the Rays

[00:22:31] Stan: Well, the deepest connections in sports, and I think in human relations anyways, are personal connections. And when you know somebody, when you’ve been around them, you know, for instance, Ryan Thompson worked our baseball camp in the, in the summertime, and, and my son, You know, Ryan Thompson, soft top toss to my son.

[00:22:51] Stan: And you know, and my son just thinks that Ryan Thompson is the greatest thing in the world because of that small little interaction you had. And in a small school like Campbell you know, you run across and you see people and so I think that no matter who your, your fans are just, or who your heroes are, if you actually get to see them, touch them, talk to them, hear what they have to say in person, that makes such a a deeper impact and connection for for both people.

[00:23:22] Anna: Definitely so. Uh, The last little tidbit I want to touch on in relation to Buies Creek is of course the, the famous Buies Creek Astros. And I know that that’s a long story, but can we get the Cliff Notes version for folks who, who aren’t familiar with why the Houston Astros had a, a farm team in Buies Creek, North Carolina?

[00:23:44] Stan: Well, the Astros owned, they owned their their high A team and they were wanting to place it in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which is about a half hour from here. Uh, It’s where Fort Liberty, one of the largest military installations on the East Coast is located. And it was a good market for a team.

[00:24:04] Stan: Well, the ball, the downtown ballpark in Fayetteville was not going to be ready for two seasons, and they had an old ballpark that hosted an old South Atlantic League team, but had been occupied basically by American Legion teams and summer wood bat teams since the nineties. it didn’t have the bells and whistles they wanted.

[00:24:25] Stan: So the Astros just decided we’re going to look around and find a place. And we’re not going to worry about marketing. We’re not going to worry about concessions. We’re not going to do, you know, worry about making a lot of money like that. We just need a place for development. And They looked around and we’re the closest Division 1 program to that area and to Fayetteville.

[00:24:43] Stan: And so the, the folks with the Astros says, hey, we’d love to come you know pay you to host our team for a couple of summers. And um, we were in the midst of a couple of fundraisers at the time we wanted to put the artificial surface on our field to, to make the maintenance easier.

[00:25:00] Stan: And we wanted a big video board. And we’d raised money for about one of those and uh, there was a, there was a price tag that our AD at the time said, okay, it’ll cost you this amount. And the Stros came back and they said, well, we’re going to do about half of that. But the fact of the matter is in Buies Creek, there’s not a lot of there’s not a lot of people hanging out in the summer that would want to be part of a part time, full time grounds crew.

[00:25:24] Stan: And you know, come pull tarp at 10 a. m. and things like that. And they certainly weren’t going to ask the players to do that at this level. Now, you know, that’s a couple of generations ago. That was part of the deal. So it worked out. We got our artificial turf, we got our video board and in April of 2017, You know, we got our taste and it was our, my former boss, Ricky Ray kind of, he was our deputy at the AD at the time.

[00:25:51] Stan: He oversaw the operations. He has background in minor league baseball And we just kind of ran a scaled down thing, tickets, concessions you know, and then, you know, we ran the game, you know, so it was a really Amazing to sit down there and see guys like Kyle Tucker Yordan Alvarez come through Buies Creek and then the player, the teams that they were playing in the Carolina League at the time.

[00:26:14] Stan: And and to have that baseball in Buies Creek when the summertime’s here, it gets a little, it gets a little sparse with the students gone. So um, that was an exciting time and the community really embraced it.

[00:26:27] Anna: I can imagine so. I mean, I think that that’s one of the coolest stories that I’ve, I’ve ever heard in relation to just. You know, baseball tying into another part of my life that if only I could have found a way to get down there that two summers, but I mean you just rattled off some, some very impressive names and of course 2017 is the first year the Astros won a World Series and then of course have just been dominant ever since and so What a huge part in developing the franchise.

[00:26:57] Anna: It looks like Campbell University played so That’s just a super cool story. Especially when we were face to face. You were telling me that your son got to play catch with Kyle Tucker, too And that’s just super super cool.

[00:27:11] Stan: My, my job involves a lot of game management or did previously. And, you know, I’d be you know, whether it was statistics or some other operation game or sometimes public address. The whole family, my wife, Claudia was a, was a ticket taker. Our daughter, Catherine was home from college at UNCW and she worked as a usher.

[00:27:32] Stan: Oliver, our son was a bat boy. And then I did PA for you know, about two years. 30 to 40 percent of the games over those two years. And so there were times where all of us were at the ballpark and I wasn’t pulled away from the family, which was a really, really neat thing to see. And everybody, most everybody that was coming in the summer were friends and neighbors, and then a whole lot of baseball fans that just wanted to come in and see uh, really high level games.

[00:27:59] Stan: And they didn’t throw a lot of, you know, there weren’t a lot of walks back then. They were throwing a lot of strikes and without all the breaks for the, the on field activities in between, you were in and out in two and a half hours. And it was, it was pure baseball. That’s for sure.

[00:28:13] Anna: Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry. I missed it But I just love that that story exists and that that you know is another component of Campbell’s history Speaking of history I mentioned before briefly that I know you’re a big time history buff and I know that recently here just a couple of weeks ago Really you and Claudia made a journey up to Cooperstown And so I’d love to hear your take on Obviously the Hall of Fame, but just Cooperstown is a, is a city, a town to visit too.

[00:28:44] Stan: Sure. Well, like James Taylor said, said in my mind, I’m going to Carolina. Well, in my mind, I went to Cooperstown a whole lot of times, but I just turned 60 this past spring, and Claudia said, you’ve never been to Cooperstown. I want to take you there for in the summer. And we loved going on these big trips, and we made a lot of stops along the way.

[00:29:05] Stan: We stopped by Woodstock. We went up to the Hudson River Valley to see some artists homes and studios. But, you know, Cooperstown is such a great, if you think about a little New England village that sits at the you know, south tip of Lake Otsego. And, you know, the fact that the Baseball Hall of Fame is there is really, really cool.

[00:29:29] Stan: But, in of itself, the town is just so, so neat as well. You know, it just, you know, right there around the Hall of Fame, of course, a lot of merchandise and souvenir stores and, and collectibles and, you know, it’s, and it’s apparent. And then, of course, they’ve, out from town, they’ve built the uh, Field of Dreams, where all the Little League and, and the young kids come in and play in the summer.

[00:29:51] Stan: And so, if you go to Cooperstown in the summer, be prepared To share your Hall of Fame experience with a bunch of 10 year old kids. And that’s a beautiful thing there too, because, you know, a lot of them don’t have a sense of the history and the sense of the game. But generally there’s somebody there explaining a little bit about it and, you know, they’ve got interactive exhibits now and all, but.

[00:30:15] Stan: It was something, Anna, you know, between reading books and having some coffee table books about baseball history and stadiums and ballparks and, you know, reading as extensively I have on the game, it was I spent seven hours. I went through it twice and just, just kind of absorbed what I could. You couldn’t, you can’t read everything.

[00:30:40] Stan: Every little placard, every little note and get through it before they’d kick you out at night, but just the feel of the place you walk in and, and, you know, there’s Jackie Robinson’s Jersey, you know, and, and, you see Willie Mays’s glove that he made the catch in 54. You know, Hank Aaron’s uniform, Babe Ruth’s uniform.

[00:31:01] Stan: I love the All American Girls Baseball League exhibit. The special exhibit on the soul of baseball. Um, One of my great interests is, is the integration of baseball, integration of sports, and to, to see What is there? Old score, scorecards from Roberto Clemente’s final game when he got his 3000th hit and, or Hank Aaron’s 715th home run.

[00:31:24] Stan: You know, I’m a, I’m a pencil scorecard guy. And to see those things like that, that are, that are preserved are just incredibly interesting. And then if you, you know, when you, the place shuts down, there’s some good restaurants there. beautiful countryside there. We just thoroughly enjoyed the Cooperstown experience.

[00:31:46] Stan: And Claudia would like to go back sometime soon and take our grown kids with us and we can walk through and, and compare notes because um, they’ve certainly heard me talk a lot about baseball and baseball history through the years.

[00:32:01] Anna: I’m sure. It sounds like you basically got kicked out, right? Like they were like, all right, we’re, we’re shutting down. You’ve got to leave. I want to know, did Claudia stay with you for all seven hours or did she peel off and go do her own thing at a

[00:32:14] Stan: You know, she’s an artist and a lands, and she especially loves landscapes and seascapes and, and she’s fascinated by the sky. And um, so that’s a, an area that we’d never traveled through. So she took her camera and she went, got in the car and went, drove You know, it’s 31 miles or something like that around the lake.

[00:32:36] Stan: The Fenimore Museum is there which is an incredible museum of American art. with really great permanent collection and visiting collection as well. So she took a whole lot of pictures of sky and she’s already done a couple of paintings um, from, from some of her work that she did that. And then just driving up through we avoid, we tried to avoid the interstate as much as possible.

[00:33:00] Stan: And so we went up through, you know uh, the Western part of Northwest part of Virginia through Leesburg Leesburg and then cut across Maryland through. Pennsylvania and then up into the, you know, to the Catskills. And and then there’s, you know, she would have enjoyed it, but she wouldn’t have enjoyed it to the deep seven hour trip that it took, took me.

[00:33:24] Stan: But, um, you know, I, I didn’t go back and say, oh gosh, I wish I had gone and done this. Cause I, like I said, I walked through, you know, all three floors three times. The only thing I’d change about it is I don’t think You know, just because of my little niche interest, the writers and broadcasters for um, portions, not quite big enough for my taste.

[00:33:42] Stan: And if I went back, I’d like to go and spend some time in the baseball library, which I didn’t get a chance to do this time. But the museum, everything is just, you know, it’s everything you would expect it to be if, you know, from a, you know, a ticket a ticket Box from an old ballpark or the, or the cornerstone from Ebbets Field, you know, it’s just, you know, you think about all the people that have walked past that and the things that have happened in the time since that was, those were still there.

[00:34:13] Anna: I mean, it’s a national treasure. There’s, there’s no doubt about it. So I’m, I’m glad that y’all made that happen. And I know you’ll be back up there before too long. You’ll take the whole fam and that’ll be another good trip. But what comes to mind if I ask you what your favorite baseball memory is?

[00:34:32] Stan: Oh, golly. There’s so many. I mean, when you get to be 60 years old you know, Right. In different stages of life, you think of different things. And I have a job that, you know, pulled me away from my family for a good part of the year. And there was one night where all four of us were working a Buies Creek Astros game together. You know um, we weren’t You know, sitting again, I was in the press box.

[00:35:03] Stan: Catherine was at the entry to the stands. Claudia was down by the, by the gate. And Oliver, of course, was in the dugout. That was, for this time of life, that was really special. You know, and then I think, When we moved to North Carolina in the late 70s that next spring, Miles Wolf brought the Durham Bulls back to Durham in the Carolina league.

[00:35:26] Stan: And, uh, they were, you know, Class A affiliated, the Braves, and a lot of the players that came through and were part of how good the Braves were in the, in the nineties came through Durham. that was, I was getting my driver’s license. I had some freedom. Uh, We lived, you know, 20 miles away. I have these incredible memories of get hopping in the car and just going and watching a Durham Bulls game by myself in this old ballpark that was later, you know, memorialized or whatever by, by, you know, popularized by Bull Durham.

[00:35:56] Stan: That’s a great thing. And then, you know, Playing, playing catch with the kids. My wife’s a great batter. And then I was always traveling with the basketball team. And so the only time I could really help out with my kids rec sports was in baseball season and Catherine was a baseball player.

[00:36:13] Stan: Then later softball and Oliver played baseball rec league and all this. And so, you know, there’ll be times where we would have a practice and we’d stick around and I’d throw some BP for not only Oliver, but Catherine and Claudia as well. you know, those are, those are the incredible memories.

[00:36:30] Stan: And then as far as professional players, one of my jobs before I took the job here at Campbell was working for a publishing company that produced the Durham Bulls game program back in the late eighties. And I got to interview two heroes and write stories on those. Um, Phil Necro and Willie Starge were both roving minor league instructors at those times.

[00:36:54] Stan: And if you know, the Chris Farley episode from Saturday night live, when he was interviewing Paul McCartney and he just couldn’t questions. I had to really, I was glad I had questions prepared because these are two guys that you’d grown up seeing on TV or in person. And you know, they were larger than life and, but then you sit down to them and you find out they’re just regular people too.

[00:37:18] Stan: And I think that’s, those are kind of my. Some of my, some of my best memories.

[00:37:23] Anna: What you were talking about with the Durham Bulls, it resonates so much with me because during my time at Campbell, obviously not the same ballpark, they now have that beautiful state of the art Durham Bulls athletic park. They’re obviously a triple A team now, but affiliated with my Tampa Bay Rays, even when I was back at Campbell, that was also the ballpark where I learned.

[00:37:43] Anna: to go to games by myself. I uh, would try to wrangle some of the other girls from the team, but I couldn’t sell them on minor league baseball. And so often if I wanted to go see the Bulls play, I had to make that drive by myself. And that’s one of my, my greatest joys now, even at this age is, is To just go catch a ball game by myself, and so I’m grateful for the Bulls being there and, you know, giving me that opportunity when I was younger.

[00:38:09] Stan: You know, North Carolina has long had an incredible minor league baseball tradition. If you think about you know, the mill factories uh, the Carolinas, you know, Joe Jackson was from Greenville, South Carolina, just down I 85 from Durham. And, you know, And at one time, until the major leagues decided that they were spending way too much money on trying to stock six and seven teams, North Carolina had had minor league affiliates at every level from Rookie League to A, High A, Double A and Triple A.

[00:38:43] Stan: And that was amazing. And, and you could go and take a ballpark tour of North Carolina. And I’m a, you know, I love major league ball and I love, you know, big league ballparks, especially the older ones. But there’s something very, very special that you get at a minor league game that you can go in and plop down 15 and literally touch your heroes, you know, they may come by and hand you a ball or, or, you know, or, you know, wave at you.

[00:39:13] Stan: And that, you know, that’s priceless to me because, Professional sports is kind of is trying to it feels like at least in person wise is trying to to price out the average fan And there’s not too many families of four from a middle income family That can afford to go to a whole lot of major league baseball not to mention football basketball games hockey games as well So minor league baseball is really To me, the what really is the, can be the gateway for people to become big baseball fans because it’s there and it’s, I love college baseball, but there’s no substitute for the crack of the wooden bat versus the ping of the metal bat.

[00:39:55] Anna: Yeah, that’s right. And I think that’s why the, the Buies Creek Astros story is so so cool. And my, from my perspective is, especially for you, you know, you, you grew up going to Carolina League games and then to, to have one literally a team for two seasons in your own backyard. I mean, it just gave you, and then you were a part of it, your whole family was a part of it.

[00:40:16] Anna: It was just kind of this huge full circle moment of all of the awesome things about not only minor league baseball, but also Campbell. So I think that’s why that story just like really, really resonates with me. 

[00:40:29] Anna: But, What’s left on the Baseball Bucket List? What’s the, the number one thing that you want to check off, place you want to go, person you want to meet, something like that?

[00:40:38] Stan: You know, I, I think, uh, if you’ll indulge me, um, my A, my bucket, my unattainable bucket list was, I believe that, um, Baseball in New York City from, uh, 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke in and broke the color barrier until the Giants and the Dodgers left for the West Coast is the golden age of ballpark New York City baseball.

[00:41:03] Stan: So if I could, if I had my wishes, I’d go see games at Ebbets Field, Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium back then. Claudia loves Chicago. We’ve not been to a Cubs game together. There’s so many interesting things from what I’m, you know, Chicago in the summer is supposed to be the greatest place in the world.

[00:41:21] Stan: And then you don’t wanna be there in the winter. I’ve been there at both, but a Cubs game with Claudia. and then as far as ballparks go, I really want to go see a game, um, in Pittsburgh San Francisco and Seattle as well. And Not necessarily because of whatever, you know, the, you know, the, the, uh, ballparks businesses are named after, but, um, just the locations and where they’re placed.

[00:41:49] Stan: Cause you know, I grew up in the cookie cutter stadium era, you know, and I went, I’ve been to games at Riverfront and, and, uh, a bunch of games in Atlanta, you know, St. Louis, you didn’t know if you were in Philadelphia or St. Louis or, you know, or, uh, or, or Pittsburgh or Cincinnati. But ballparks are getting to be a lot more similar now in design and construction, but location is really cool.

[00:42:13] Stan: Uh, and we, of course, we’ve been to Camden plenty of times, but, uh, that’s, that’s, I guess that’s my, uh, that’s my bucket list as far as destinations. And, and it’s, uh, you know, not necessarily places to go, but places to go with people you want to spend those time, uh, time with.

[00:42:28] Anna: That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. It’s all about who you’re watching the game with. Stan, I’ve so enjoyed this. I cannot thank you enough for making time. Before I let you go, where do people go to either follow you online?

[00:42:41] Anna: Maybe they want to check out some of the tales from the creek. Where should we send them?

[00:42:45] Stan: Sure. Our website is go camels. com and I basically we post the tales from the creek podcast. You can drop in under fans and then podcasts along the, search bars. And that, that, that, that’s the spot. I’m not a big poster, so to speak on social media. But we, we share those podcasts that way.

[00:43:07] Stan: you, you can find me on Facebook, but I’m not really that interesting there. Although I did post a couple of really cool collages that are hosted, that are at the hall of fame of Sandy Koufax, an old baseball card and one of Phil Negro’s jerseys. But yeah, you can go to go camels. com and um, follow our podcasts you know, and there are a multitude of sports.

[00:43:27] Stan: And so uh, we enjoy it and, and I enjoy a good story. And thanks for having me on to share a little bit of my story.

[00:43:35] Anna: And that will wrap up this episode of the baseball bucket list, podcast, special things to Stan Cole for joining us today and sharing those stories and memories. If this sounds like something you’d like to do, if you think you might like to be a guest, on the show. Had the baseball bucket lists.com/podcast and fill out an application. I’d absolutely love to hear from you. 

[00:43:53] Anna: While you’re there, make sure to spend some time on the site, sign up for a free membership, build your own baseball bucket list, track your ballpark visits and connect with other fans. If you find yourself enjoying the show each week, please take a moment to rate and review it in the podcast app of your choice. It goes such a long way in helping new listeners find the show. And I would really, really appreciate it. That’s it for this week. Thanks so much for listening. We’ll see you. Next episode.