A Night With the Outerbanks Daredevils

By Bill Jordan
Updated: January 11, 2010

Loyal Baseball Reflections readers may have noticed my absence from these pages in the past half year. I took a leave due to the fact that I got married in July and had to make sure to get fully adjusted to life as a husband, working full time and going to graduate school at night before committing to come back to Baseball Reflections. I hope that I will now be able to contribute at least once a week mainly with reviews, predictions and thoughts on the Cleveland Indians as I had in the past.

: Image by awirtanen via Flickr

Speaking of getting married, on our honeymoon to the Outerbanks, we spent some time relaxing as most would imagine, but we also took in some baseball as well. There is a college summer league team down there called the Outerbanks Daredevils where we were able to take in a game.

The original plan was to travel to the nearest minor league team, the Carolina Mudcats, the AA affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, but that was about three hours away from where we were staying, so we settled for this instead.

Watching the Daredevils was seeing baseball in its purest form. These athletes were still in college and were playing during the summer as a way to stay sharp and on top of their game.

The Daredevils play at a local high school stadium where they had a packed house, of what seemed like mostly local people, for the game. It was so hard to find a spot at the high school that some were forced to park on the sidewalk in front of the school.

With bleachers on both sides of the field and no assigned seats, one has to get there a good amount of time before the game starts to make sure they have a seat. The atmosphere is such that kids can play catch inside of the park’s grounds while the game is going on while their parents watch the game. The pitchers warm up virtually right next to where the bleachers are located, so it is very easy to watch the development of some of these young players as they prepare to step on the field.

Tickets were reasonably priced as was the merchandise. If one were to simply look at the stadium operations of the game, they would think they were at a high class minor league organization. There were on field promotions, a mascot and giveaways just as one might expect there to be at any professional game.

The merchandise was high quality and reasonably priced and it was obvious that the locals had ingrained the team as a part of their community as many called the players by their first name, despite there not being a scoreboard boasting who was on the field.

Attending a Daredevils game is a great way to spend an evening on the Outerbanks after a day in the sun. The team plays 28 games during the summer and is seems to be run very well. In a place where one may feel like they are getting away from their normal baseball routine, it is a great way to get the fix for America’s Pastime in while on vacation.