Luke DeCock on how many teams from North Carolina will advance to a Super Regional?

Joined now by an award-winning sports columnist for The Noobs at Observer. He's won many awards from several different places, not just for having one of the greatest bald spots in North Carolina sports media. Proud to join you there, my friend.

But he's won many awards for his writing as well. He is. Luke DeCock joining us. What's going on, man? Let me be funny and light coming in here. And I remembered like the last time you were on here, I think it was like you got you got you got caught in the crossfire of a, you know, a media row thing. And we had talked about it. And I was like, I'm on the spot. And I came up with something terrible. And now I feel bad because I was trying to be funny. And I just blew it. Well, we did discuss that at length, I believe, when you were on the ACC Now podcast.

That's correct. Which we discussed at length how I caught a stray from you anyway. All right.

Well, I know I get the joke, but man, if you didn't know what we were talking about, that sounds. Well, we'll stick to sports or we'll try to or maybe we won't. We'll see over under the eight teams from North Carolina that are playing in the NCAA baseball tournament over under the number that advanced to super regionals. I mean, I think I think one will squeak through somewhere. But it's just so hard when you're not hosting and college baseball is, you know, is not set up for people to skate through against really good teams and the national seeds or national seeds for reason. I mean, I think there's reason for people to be upset. You know, I mean, I think Campbell should have hosted in Fayetteville, and I think that would have been really cool. But I think, you know, wait, get through, probably hosting at home number one team in the country, and then maybe you get a second one through somewhere. But but and then maybe wait gets upset and someone else.

So I think the numbers, you know, if I were setting the line here, I'd probably put it at one and a half, maybe two and a half to get some action. But, you know, it's just it's just a setup that's tough. And, you know, quite frankly, the schools here weren't rewarded with with hosting.

And that's true. You know, you know, Duke had a shot and Campbell had a shot and just didn't work out that way. I just felt like with by pure numbers, we got to get at least two. I'm going to be disappointed with my three would be awesome. And anything above that would be ridiculous. But at one, I feel like will be disappointing to I'd be okay with. Yeah, that's fair.

I mean, the hard part is it's kind of like you expect ways to get through and then can you sneak another one or two through if wait doesn't get through, you know, and upsets do happen, then you're then you're really up against it there. What what is the why is home field advantage so prevalent in the college baseball tournament? I mean, I honestly I think it's whether you have, you know, playing baseball at this time of year, especially in this area, but even in the Midwest and deeper south, you just run into so many delays and you're pitching gets out of whack and it's just easier to be at home than it is to be staying in, you know, like look at the teams in the Lexington regional they're staying in dorms because there's no hotel rooms available because of a music festival like like who wants to sit there, you know, you get back after the game ends at 3am and you had to be back up at seven because you got a new like it's just it's just a hard it's a hard infrastructure of this is hard and you see it with the games that go past midnight and, and the weather delays, it's just it's just hard and the end because of that, it's easier to be, you know, I see, I think you see a lot less of that in the super regionals where you have two really good teams and, and, you know, you're going to play two or three games and it's not that big of it's not that marathon that the first the first weekend is you didn't even bother touching on the the arms plan to the home crowd I feel like that's always you know what pays after the the coastal Carolina series at state. I have dispatched forever with the idea of the arms and the home crowd and you know what I've seen state lose at home I've seen Carolina lose at home. I actually think if anything, if anything the umpires are trying to go across the other side of the line and not show favoritism in what I've seen over the years.

The old like teacher teaching their own student, I'm grading them a great I've been teaching their own kid they grade them even harder than the other students. I'm sure that you and Adam Gold have talked at length about sports gambling as the you know drip drip drip news process of like now it's here now it's there now it's there now it's there we're getting it it's coming, but it does look like we are closer than ever to actually getting sports gambling legalized for next year. What do you think the impact will be let's for two people in particular person who plays ACC basketball 20 year old guy or girl playing for NC State or Wake Forest. Is their life at all impacted by sports gambling being legal in state of North Carolina. Yeah, I think based on what we've seen elsewhere and other states have done this, when the people who are watching your games are actually betting on them, you know, physically present and and the people around you. I think you do see, you know, we've seen sort of anecdotally I don't know they was actually done a study, an increase in sort of social media view so I think players in basketball and football but especially basketball where the players are so identifiable, especially in this market are going to feel like they're under a bit more scrutiny and that's completely unfair obviously. Yeah, but I think that's one of the unintended consequences we've seen elsewhere, as this has become sort of the rule of the day as opposed to an outlier we've just seen a lot more abuse of athletes which is, which is dumb, but you know we also have the New York Post saying that Tom Morello's anti not be post was controversial.

I'm not sure you know we're just living in a very weird timeline. And then, what about fan who goes to a game at PNC Arena, but doesn't but isn't it better like obviously you're impacted if you want to bet and now you can great then like you love it you the game experiences changed hopefully enhanced for you, presuming you win every now and then. But, person who isn't placing a bet and just wants to keep going to a Canes game at PNC Arena. How are they impacted by sports gambling. You know I think the only thing that they're going to notice is just the prevalence of the advertising. Yeah, you know we've seen it, you know, even on television during the playoffs if you're watching the hurricanes on the road, you know there's a lot of draft Kings ads and Kevin week, you know, taking up his stick while talking about drafting, you see it during golf tournaments where they're you know running fan duel or draft Kings specials for that tournament, you're just gonna see more of that in the building now, I mean this is a huge, I mean one of the reasons why the hurricanes and the Panthers and Charlotte FDA and the Hornets have all pushed for this is it's a huge in the building and sponsorship revenue drivers, you know these companies whoever the hurricanes end up partnering with to open a physical sports book at PNC, whether that's MGM or fan duel or whoever is going to pay them a lot of money to do that. And then they and other gambling providers now have access to this market, they're going to want to advertise to this market on television in the arena.

Those are all revenue streams that weren't there or, you know, aren't there right now, but will be whenever this actually goes into effect and look, you know, yes, it does feel like this is imminent, but it felt that way last summer. Yeah, we still found a way to screw it up so I am not going to believe it actually passes until it is signed on the governor's desk, and the balloon is up until that moment comes. So I am not putting it past our legislature to screw this up again.

That's true. I mean, I mean, you've seen crazier things it'd be like somebody you know, switching parties and or something like that you know that that could never happen. Unbelievable.

As somebody who I won't claim to know your side in that political issue of gambling, but as somebody who enjoys placing a bet on a game of chance. Have you driven to Danville yet. Oh, I'm curious. I'm actually very curious to go check it out and see whether it's like trailers or a tent or like a converted warehouse. I think it's a big tent right now.

I think it's like the world's worst wedding reception right now. But technically, I've been in casinos that are tents that are out the back of like riverboats that are technically tents but like you don't really feel it. So I'm open to the idea that I could believe I was actually in a casino. I think, you know, like the meal, the dining areas at a golf tournament are in those big metal and canvas heavy canvas.

You know, you can you can put enough stuff up in there where you can feel like you're actually indoors. Well, I think for work purposes, you and I probably need to check that out just so that we can, you know, to you can tell your audience what the options are as North Carolinians right now until until we get more so. Yeah, I think we could actually just drive across the border and just place a couple bets on our phones and then expense that. Absolutely.

I'm sure I'm sure your employers would love that. I meant to ask one other question on baseball. I don't I also don't know where you stand on the bring Major League Baseball to North Carolina, either Charlotte or Raleigh or somewhere else. But do you think if we did get an MLB team, it would impact the interest in college baseball that we have around here?

No, I don't necessarily think so. I mean, I think that the interest in college baseball around here is very strongly school focused. And to me, it's the people who care very deeply about NC State College Baseball or Carolina College Baseball are people who are really, really big state or Carolina fans, at least the ones I know. You know, I don't get the sense there's many people who are saying, oh, stay home tonight and Carolina's home tonight and Duke's home tonight.

Which one should we go to? Right. I don't think there's that conversation happening. So I don't think it would have that big of an impact. I think where it would have a massive impact obviously is, you know, the Bulls and Mudcats and sort of other baseball, the wooden bat leagues.

You know, I think then, you know, if that were to happen, you would have this sort of 10,000 pound gorilla throwing its weight around. And that would, you know, basically be the end of what has been a century plus minor league tradition in this area. But obviously that's what happens when you bring a major league team in if that were ever to happen. And, you know, maybe the wooden bat leagues survive because there is that connection to college basketball. You know, the bigger problem is, and this is one of the big issues with baseball here is when you don't have those Fortune 500 headquarters.

We have a lot of Fortune 500 companies, but they're satellite offices predominantly. When you don't have those big sort of quote unquote anchor tenants who buy a lot of seats and have a huge marketing budget and put their names on things. You know, baseball is a very cost intensive sport. You got to sell 81 home games. You need to sell everything from the urinals to the to the to the to the entrances to the snack stands. I mean, it is a it is a very, very revenue intensive sport, which is, you know, one of the reasons why the A's management has done such a terrible job. That's a different story. But it's a it's a really tough go in a market that doesn't have like a Bank of America or AT&T, a big corporate anchor tenant.

You know, it's like I haven't tried to have a mall in the old days without a Macy's or about. Yeah. So, yeah, you brought up the A's. Did you see the video of the person who ran on the field and like a security couldn't be bothered to go get them? Like they made a full lap around and then just jumped off.

And like it was almost as if nobody noticed. I mean, you got to keep the fans in the get put fans in one half somehow. I mean, that's probably as entertaining as anything else going on. You know, the sad situation.

Yeah. And you're a little bit like this. You're you are more of a pure sports fan than I am. And but you share some of my sports is a human drama.

It is theater type things. I would love to be living in Oakland right now. And I'd love to be going to these games more than I would if they were, you know, second in their division and like playing decent baseball, but nothing like setting the world on fire. Watching like a collapse, a meltdown, the sad ending of stuff like, again, I don't wish that on anybody, certainly not the players. But but it's it's different. It's a different scene watching sports like that. I would I would be so intrigued to be to go to a game right now, get down as close as I could and watch it. You know, but that's and that sometimes that's the good part. Like when I look like now you say you're a Cubs fan, like being a Cowboys fan or a Yankees fan.

There's nothing notable about that. But when I was growing up, I mean, I would come home from school and I would turn on the Cubs on WGN because they're all day games. And it'd be the sixth or seventh inning and the upper deck at Wrigley, you know, Wrigley now is Epcot for drunks.

It's basically, you know, it's a it's a giant frat house slash mall slash Dave and Busters. But in those days, in the 80s, they would rope off the upper deck. So a guy would hit a foul ball up into the right field stands and it would bounce around up there because there was literally no one up there, not even ushers. It was just roped off because they're only getting eleven thousand people a game. And that was the Cubs baseball I grew up with walking up to the bleachers. You know, if you were to, say, have an unscheduled absence from school, sure, you could walk up to the bleachers with your friends and buy a ticket and walk right in. Now you have to buy tickets six months in advance.

You know, it's like trying to go to a Taylor Swift concert in the summer. But back then, you know, it was a disaster. The Wrigley's owned it.

They didn't put any money to the team. They had to make the playoffs in 40 years. And that's why the 84 Cubs remains the sort of transcendent sporting experience of my life, because it was this this, you know, moribund decrepit franchise that was known for losing.

Suddenly had this incredible team and figured out a way to win. That and the Lee-Elias speech, of course, those were the two. Luke DeCock, news and observer columnist. If I were a better radio host, I would have sent this over to you earlier so you could have like, you know, an award winning columnist answer to this. But instead, I'm going to put you on the spot. It's not summer in North Carolina until blank.

And I'll let you think of it while I fill with the question for a little bit. It's not, you know, summer in North Carolina until NC State has gotten screwed in the NCAA baseball tournament. It's not summer in North Carolina until your shaboomie comes out. I would say it's not summer in North Carolina until somebody says this is the year the Panthers are going to make the playoffs. Ah, OK. All right.

But it's not summer in North Carolina until the top 25 hole comes out in Carolina. There we go. Love it. Love it. Absolutely.

Good answers. We appreciate it. Hopefully I'll be in here some the summer and we'll get to talk some more. If not, I will see you around the way, man.

We have to do our annual interview from the beach. Make sure we do that. Absolutely. I will. Maybe I'll just even if gold is here, I'll just come in and do that interview with you from the beach. I'll make sure to do that. Yeah. And you're welcome any time. Appreciate it, dude.