whitehourseview

I've watched the Drive web cam for a few months. It has been cut off at around 5pm (or 6pm for Eastern Daylight Time) since I've watched it. That's nothing new. Some evenings, it's been strange to see a bright sun over the field from the web cam.

Well the only reason I'm partial to the name "Bombers" is because it honors the Doolittle raiders who trained in both Columbia and Greenville before their 30 seconds over Tokyo in 1942. I just think it's sort of nice to remember the sacrifice those fellows made for us.

Dr. Townes still keeps office hours at Cal - Berkely. As far as I know, he is in good health, good enough to work reguraly. I believe the last time he was in Greenville was a year or two ago to speak at Furman, not long after he won the Templeton Prize, and yes I understand that is coming to the statue unveiling. Does anyone know where the Gen. Nathaniel Greene statue is going? I've heard in front of the G'ville News building, but don't see where it will fit. I just ordered a recent biography of General Greene and have read several books concerning him recently, looking forward to his contributions being further recognized. Dr. Townes grew up, by the way, on a rural farm, near where St. Francis hospital is today, near Hwy. 123.

Odd...I grew up not far from where Shoeless Joe's house is. My uncle was friend with a relative of Jackson's growing up. I'm glad the house is getting some recognition and that it is being moved from a depressed part of town to somewhere will it be seen and appreciated. The moving of the Cherrydale Mansion was done quite well, over a similar distance, about 6 years ago for Furman. I expect the Jackson house, a smaller facility, will be done with the same care. And nothing against the folks from WYFF, but often I wish that the Greenville station was like WLOS out of Asheville with thier local emphasis. But that's just me.

Where can you order tickets from the website? I don't see the link anywhere on the site.

The Greenville Municipal Stadium site is up for sale: http://www.greenvillenews.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../603310339/1070 I suppose the city needs the revenue, especially after the eminent domain late unpleasantness, I was sort of hoping that the Muni stadium site could be a 40 acre sized park with playing fields, walking trails, etc. Oh well...

Does anyone want to guess how much parking Greenville High will have available after their renovations are through? At anywhere from $2 to $5 a pop, that could go a long way towards funding their student groups and athletic teams. Article from WYFF about parking: http://news.yahoo.com/s/wyff/20060330/lo_wyff/3366458 Quote: I've long told folks who were worried about this that there were similar concerns about the Bi-Lo center, but no one really thinks about parking being too much of a problem for the Bi-Lo Center or the Peace Center.

My Father is working to do a lot of the fundraising for the Hollis plaza. It's a big deal to a lot of the old Parker High folks, especially since their school is no more.

Well, it's not just Allen Temple that I'm concerned about, with the Drive being good neighbors. Though they are primary due to being next door. I hope ballpark patrons do not take advantage of nearby Pendleton St. Baptist, the next door Episcopal church and Second Presbyterian' parking and facilities are cause distrubancies. The potential is there and due diligence will have to be done constantly to make sure that this is not a problem.

Well on the raw surface of the matter, it doesn't really matter; but at the same time, it matters A LOT. For many folks who are baseball fans, a stadium brings up images of the the "cookie-cutter" stadiums that were nearly identical at construction in the late 60's and also share the identity of nearly all of them being torn down post-haste. Fulton-County, Busch, Riverfront, Three Rivers, Oakland-Alameda, Jack Murphy, etc. are nearly identical in design and for the most part were built with tax payer money to house multiple sports, were usually located next to interstates and were islands in a parking lot sea. They were functional, yet lost money, were not "fan comfortable", poorly run by local governments, and represented the worst part of ugly modernism. That is what the word baseball "stadium" means to most folks. Ballparks have the image of urban, neighborhood recreation centers. Islands of grass, community and relaxation in the midst of often disjointed and alienating urban life. If nostalgia didn't mean much to people, then the Drive staff would not work build a park that was a minature version of a Boston structure that opened the same day the Titanic sunk. Cruise lines would not dare build a ship that resembled the Titanic: too small, too cramped, poor amenities for folks today. Yet there is something comforting about a "Ballpark" that a "stadium" could never capture. As far as a park being built with more distracting amenities than just a place to watch 18-24 year old single A dudes play ball, that's the way the minor league action goes in the "marketing age". Only a handful of folks will go to a game to just 9 innings of low level pro ball. With everything from Netflix to free downtown concerts competing for the entertainment attention, the Drive owners have been forced to come up with an affordable, family - friendly, comfortable place for 3 - 5 thousand folks to enjoy 3 hours or so worth of entertainment 40+ times a spring and summer. By all accounts, the Drive staff are doing an excellent of running their business and are bringing in a form of popular, enjoyable, family entertainment. It's Greenville, so we don't have to worry about the city spending tax dollars to build and run a stadium like what happens in other locales, so we can rest assured that there are personal financial reasons for the stadium to continually reinvent themselves every season so that they will draw crowds, much like the locally owned Greenville Grrrowl has had to do this season after a couple seasons of near fan neglect, which they paid for at the box office. I had concerns that the new team would run rough shod over the four churches schedules, four institutions which had served that part of downtown for decades. But by all accounts, they are bending over backwards to accomadate the churches with employment fairs at the next door AME church, making the ballpark so that sound and light are enclosed, etc. They appear to have a desire to be good neighbors. It's a great example of how nostalgia-based, family entertainment can really help out a local community. When's the first pitch again?

What's bad about a corporate name for the ballpark? Better than the taxpayers funding a private entertainment venue.

Eh, it's a mascot. If kids get a laugh out of it and think it's funny and want mom to take them to see the mascot, that's cool, especially knowing a 5th grader got credit for it. I just think it odd that the 1. the team name is a concept, not something tangible and 2. the mascot has nothing to do with the name - probably because how do you personify "Drive"? Again, the team is going to be getting a lot of money from me and I'll probably get a chuckle or two out of the Frog-thingy, so I'm down with that. Look for me at the ballpark with a Greenville Bombers cap on, probably having a good time this April, especially since I'm taking some graduate classes which means tickets will be $3 for me. I can put up with a lot for $3 professional baseball in a state of the art ballpark.

For what it's worth, I am as deeply in love with the West End ballpark as you can be, and am especially happy that it is a privately financed stadium by some enterprising folks. But I deeply, deeply loathe the name "Drive", even joined in the chorus of letters in the G News about it when it was announced. I look around the South Atlantic League and see snappy names based on history that are unique: Augusta Greenjackets - a green hornet based on the Master's championship jacket is perfect, Greensboro Grasshoppers - not an insect but a small cannon used by American soliders at the nearby Revolutionary battle of Guilford Courthouse, Kannapolis Intimadators - every dude with a #3 on his back window from Maine to California is immediately a fan of your team, Savannah Sand Gnats - pretty much sums up my opinion of Savannah and I still like it, Charleston River Dogs - not sure what makes a pooch a River Dog but I like it All of the above are plural entities that at least have some tangible, populist connection to their town. Drive? eh-eh. I thought names like Copperheads, or Bears to recognize local animals would be good. The name "Bombers" not only has historical connections to Columbia, but to Greenville as well, as the Doolittle, "30 seconds over Tokyo" Raiders did some training in Greenville as well. It's a nice tip of the hat to the "Greatest Generation" and I wished they had kept the name. I even bought a Greenville Bombers fitted hat (at 50% off!) from the Drive store recently just so I wouldn't go along with the Drive name - though I like the Drive logo - go figure. I have nothing against the organization, wish them decades of success and hope it's a real boom to the community, but Reedy Rip'it?

The ballpark was Meadowbrook park. It wasn't too much different than Spartanburg's Duncan Park, but it burned shortly after the '72 season, and followed by 12 years of no minor league ball in Greenville until the Braves came. Players such as Nolan Ryan and Tommy Lasorda played on that old field for Greenville while they were coming up. Declining attendance as the city's population moved east and south ended the run at that old field. Which is why Greenville Municipal Stadium was built in Mauldin where the population was moving towards. New urbanist commerce and philosophy have of course moved the minor league ballpark to the westend, a place where no one would have dreamed of it going 20 years ago. It's kinda fun to learn about history based on where developments go. You can almost learn the whole history of the South by it. Take Cherrydale shopping center for example. Originally it was a small farm run by early settlers along the Wagon Road leading north. Then college president, James Furman, built a plantation there in the mid-1800's as a retreat from the town of Greenville, with slaves and the whole bit. After the Civil War, the plantation was subdivided to become a textile facility as the economy became more manufacturing based. In recent years of course, the land has become a service economy/retail outlet for a booming middle-class Southern economy. That's the whole history of the South in one, what? 10 acre spot of land?

Thanks Traveler, I am the guy that started the Greenville group on Flickr, FWIW.

Long time lurker, first time poster here. I was wondering several things abou the Greenville area. 1. What will become of the Greenville Municipal Stadium? Seems the facility and the land around it would make a tremendous park. 2. Is the northern Italian styled building that was advertised to be built where GQ fashions were and the Greenville Drive store is now still going to be built? I've long thought that Greenville need some type of signature building to make up its town "square. thanks.