The Battle of the Blues

There is a basketball games taking place this evening between two local universities. Each of these schools is an equal distance from the south Durham Wal-Mart. As a former Durham resident, it is safe to say that this Wal-Mart, which is located on the worst road in all of central North Carolina, could very well be the center of hell.  

The picture below was edited out of the final edition of Dante's of The Inferno.  

Drive north from Wal-Mart and you will run into a small, elite private school that was featured on Manny Ramirez's rookie card. He did not actually attend the school. Some say it's because the Indians drafted him in the first round and paid him a huge bonus.  

It's more likely that Manny did not attend the school, because the chapel (shown in the background) has a statue of a man smoking a cigar in front of it.  

No, seriously. 

Drive south from the Wal-Mart and you will reach a large, public liberal arts university. Some of the student work and grading leaves a lot to be desired......

One of these schools will win a basketball game this evening.  

One will have a chance to win a basketball championship on Monday evening.  

Neither team will win their Division Title. 

Neither team will win their League Title. 

Neither team has won the National Championship, yet.  

Neither will win the Final Stretch Championship. 

The Durham Bulls, another local team that wears blue, won all of these championships within the last calendar year.  

The Triple-A Intercontinental Champion Durham Bulls are up for 2 #MiLBYs, including Best Team!

The accolades speak for themselves:
- Triple-A East Southeast Division title ✅
- Triple-A East League crown ✅
- Triple-A National Championship ✅
- Triple-A Final Stretch Winners ✅

— Durham Bulls (@DurhamBulls) October 12, 2021

It appears that these two colleges, centered around a Wal-Mart in south Durham, are both really playing to see which of them is the second best sports team in town to the Bulls. Did I mention that there is no Wal-Mart in downtown Durham near the Bulls stadium?

Shall we look at some baseball cards?  

It appears that Topps has recognized the greatness of the Durham Bulls and placed half of their team from last season into the 2022 Topps Heritage set. Better yet, a fair number of them signed autographs and I have spent some time working on tracking them down during the past week.   

Shall we look at these highly successful, championship-winning players?  

First up is Shane Baz. The guy has a championship ring from the Durham Bulls and appeared in the playoffs last year for the Rays. While the two local college teams playing basketball this evening have lost several games this year, Shane Baz has never lost a Major League game.  

2-0.  

Perfect. 

Look at that blue hat. Beautiful.  

Next up is Vidal Brujan.  He also has a championship ring from the Durham Bulls. While the two blue schools are often ranked, Vidal has been ranked in the Baseball America Top Prospects list every single year that he has been in the Minors. 

Have the blue schools been ranked every year that they've played basketball? 

No.  

Advantage Vidal. 

Next up is outfielder Josh Lowe who has a championship ring with the Durham Bulls from last season.  

Josh got one at-bat last year in the Majors and got a hit.

He's perfect.  

Are the blue schools perfect at sports?  

As I recall.....

No.  

Last one.  

Joe Ryan played in the Majors last season after he was traded for Nelson Cruz.  

Was anyone from a blue school traded for Nelson Cruz?

No.

If you are staying up to watch the battle for the second-best-blue-team from the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metro area, I hope your team wins.  

The Bulls Collection of Players Named Lowe.

A few years back the Durham Bulls, really the Rays, had two players with the last name Lowe.  

There was Nate Lowe.  

Who is now on the Rangers.  

There was also Brandon Lowe.  

Who is now the Rays starting second baseman.  

The Bulls did not field a team last year due to the pandemic, so they did not have a chance to put a player with the last name Lowe on the field.  Naturally, when the 2021 season started the name Lowe reappeared on the roster.  This time it's outfielder Jose Lowe.  

He is leading the International League in slugging.  I am not calling it Triple-A East, or whatever Rob Manfred renamed the league.  

He's been a good player and is way more affordable than Wander Franco or Vidal Brujan.  

So, here is the card.  

This is one of those cards that Topps rushed to produce.  Yes, it is clearly airbrushed, but the metal bleachers in the background are a clear giveaway that this is a picture from a high school baseball game of some sort.  I think it would actually be cooler if the parents/spectators in the background were in lawn chairs.  

Whoever is behind his left shoulder is not even watching the game.  

There are not many Josh Lowe cards out there.  Like many other prospects on the Rays, they get the first Bowman card and then they are ignored until they are suddenly playing well in the Majors.  It's the same thing that happened to the two other Lowes, although Nate was not a serious prospect.