I understand the reasons why Jim Goodman asks Durham to think of itself as part of a larger region. For the circles that Goodman moves in, it makes perfect sense.
But for most of the rest of us, it doesn't. And when I see things like this, it gets me hopping mad.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Sporting goods companies and organizations that sponsor high school baseball nationwide asked a federal court Monday to overturn a new city law that bans metal baseball bats in prep games.
A lawsuit against New York City was filed by USA Baseball, a Raleigh, N.C.-based national governing body for several baseball associations, and The National High School Baseball Coaches Association, based in Tempe, Ariz., along with four sporting goods companies and several fathers of ballplayers.
I started reading this article because I really don't like metal bats. They're just a crutch to make high school games seem more like the major leagues, and so that little league outfielders don't get bored standing around while one kid after another whacks grounders in the infield. In college, with the strength of the players, they're downright dangerous.
But that aside, USA Baseball is in Durham. DURHAM! Their office is INSIDE the Durham Bulls stadium, for chrissakes, and no one calls that the "Raleigh Bulls" stadium. I can be somewhat forgiving when they make this generalization for companies in RTP, and even though if you wanted to provide a better byline from RTP, Durham would make more sense, Raleigh is at least forgivable. But USA Baseball isn't even remotely close to Raleigh. They're as deeply embedded into Durham as can be.
It would be one thing if this were at least consistent. But you know, Durham worked really hard to recruit USA Baseball here. They're exactly the kind of organization we like to have around here. They fit the general image of the city, which also happens to be home to Baseball America, the undisputed must-have magazine for baseball fanatics. They really belong to us, not to the Triangle as a whole or that Raleigh-Durham figment. They are, in fact, as much a part of Durham as Duke is. But did anyone see any bylines for the lacrosse scandal filed from Raleigh? Did anyone talk about Duke as a Raleigh-based university? It would, in fact, make a lot more sense to talk about UNC being based in Durham than USA Baseball being based in Raleigh. (The Old Well is roughly 4 miles from the Durham city limits, and Chapel Hill has roughly 24% of Durham's population. USA Baseball is roughly 11 miles from the Raleigh city limit, and Durham has roughly 60% of Raleigh's population.)
I've been meaning to write a longer post on this for a while, but it's time for the place called "Raleigh-Durham" to disappear, except as the name of an airport and a census bureau designation. I'll write a longer post later, but the bonds that hold the two cities together are really rather tenuous, and declining in importance. Kevin alluded to this last month as well, and people have been whispering about it for a while, but it's frankly time to start talking frankly about drawing the lines between us and our fine and wonderful neighbors to the east.
And it's time for national writers to get a freakin' clue. Durham isn't Raleigh, part of Raleigh, or a suburb of Raleigh, okay? It's as much a suburb of Raleigh as Baltimore is a suburb of Washington, or Providence is a suburb of Boston. Connected economies, distinct places. Get it right, okay?
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