Reintroducing the Luckies Ledger for 2024
A breakdown of the Luckies Ledger for new subscribers prior to the season opener on May 25th
Welcome in, new and old subscribers. We are only one week away from the first Reidsville Luckies game of 2024! Apologies in advance, as this edition is going to be a little bit all over the place.
The purpose of this post is to inform subscribers of how the Luckies Ledger will work in 2024, the second year of this website covering Lucky City’s favorite baseball team. For newcomers, the Luckies are a summer collegiate baseball team in the Old North State League that play their games at Jaycee Park.
I am Jay Ramey, the color commentator for the Luckies. I commentate with the play-by-play man and commentator for the 2023 All-Star game, “the Voice,” Joe Dexter, and our stat guy and longest tenured Reidsville Luckies fan, “Santa” Eric Smith. After every game, I write a recap for this newsletter.
Recaps for home games include a Lucky of the Game, a Moment of the Game, some news around the league, and a schedule update. For away games, I do a much shorter recap and do not award a Lucky or Moment of the Game. But, there is a segment called “Extra Bases,” which can be anywhere from a short story about the league or a player, to an update about a rival team or divisional standings, to an exclusive interview. For example, one of my Extra Bases last year was an interview with two-time World Series runner-up and Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Bernie Carbo.
Most Luckies Ledger editions will include a pre-game or post-game interview with one of the players. Speaking of players, this article about returning Luckies players needs a sad update. TJ Highsmith, the runner-up in the ONSL Home Run Derby, has been removed from the Luckies roster. This is a tough blow, as Highsmith led the team with four Lucky of the Game wins and tied with Travis Hammond for most Moment of the Game wins at three. Also, sources say that Jonathan Sendziak, the only pitcher who was slated to return, has been told by his UNCG manager not to pitch in the summer. That leaves us with Gavin Fleming, Sam Melton, Cole McLain, Jacob Trivette, and Ryne Rodrigues as familiar Luckies in 2024.
In other news, Joe Dexter and I are planning on doing a Reidsville Luckies podcast, Luckies Insider, this season. The dates for the podcast releases are to be determined, but will likely be on days that the Luckies are not playing. The podcast will review the week for the Luckies, go around the league, and answer subscriber messages. Luckies Insider will air on RoCo Radio and will be published on the Luckies Ledger.
If you have the Substack app and have any ideas for the L||L, shoot me a message.
Finally, I thought a fun way to end this post would be to circle back to the part about Fleming, Melton, McLain, Trivette, and Rodrigues returning. I think that we need a name for the five guys who are participating in their second year as Luckies, and I wanted you readers to vote on it. I’ll outline the options, and then you can vote at the bottom.
Vermilions — One of the main Lucky colors is red, and vermilion is a shade of red. Vermilion starts with V, the Roman numeral for five, and five Luckies are returning. The V standing for five is subtle enough to where players can leave and rejoin the Luckies, and we can use this nickname for players in their second year with the Luckies for years to come.
The Horseshoes — Horses are loyal, and horseshoes are a symbol for luck.
Reidsville’s Returners — They play in Reidsville, and are returning to the team.
Loyal Luckies — The problem with this is that it insinuates the other Luckies aren’t loyal, so I’m not a huge fan of this one.
Familiar Five — This one sounds cool, because they would be familiar to Luckies fans, but I would like for this nickname to extend to players who return in 2025 and so on. Keeping it at familiar five doesn’t allow other players to get in. Jay Allred, a 2022 player for Reidsville, returned midyear in 2023, and if that happened again, the Familiar Five would have more than five members. Also, players leave midyear, so the number could dip.
Please vote in the poll below, and feel free to leave a comment if you have any other ideas.