Community Spotlight

A community movement is only as strong and talented as its members. Here are the people who have given the most time and energy to our movement to bring Major League Baseball to Raleigh and make our city and region better along the way. Keep an eye out as we'll be adding more to this page as the campaign moves forward.

Ronnie Morales | West Raleigh

Ronnie is the executive director of West Raleigh Baseball Association, one of the area's top baseball clubs since 1958. He is a former player who spent time in the White Sox farm system and is leading the MLB Raleigh's push to revitalize the Boys Club's baseball field in East Raleigh.

Napoleon Wright | Becauseus

Napoleon is one of the creative leaders in the Raleigh community. His work with non-profits & students is just the tip of the iceberg. He's also a talented DJ, a designer, a videographer, a break dancer & a recording artist. He is working on music, design & community engagement for MLB Raleigh.

Joseph Giampino | SPCLSIGNS

Joseph is the most sought after sign artist in the Triangle. His work with companies, non-profits, and community organizations can be seen throughout the region. He was formally one of the hottest DJ's on the east coast and is a pretty talented baseball to boot. Joseph painted the scoreboard for the MLB Raleigh field revitalization @ the Raleigh Boys Club.

Brian Chiarizia | Rebuild Fabrication Co.

Brian is one of the city's most talented designers and craftsmen. He has done buildouts for some of your favorite Raleigh restaurants and breweries, working alongside companies such as Two Roosters, Trophy, and Apex Outfitters. Brian is a huge baseball fan and went above and beyond to build out the dugouts for Raleigh Boys Club's field revitalization.

Dawood Bogart | Sign Scientist

Dawood is the owner of Sign Scientist in Raleigh. He's the go-to guy for vehicle wraps and large custom graphics in the Triangle. Dawood isn't a huge baseball fan, but he's a big fan of helping his community and good design. He stepped up and donated his time to help us print affordable signage for our MLB Raleigh events.

David, Chris & Woody | Trophy Brewing Co.

David Meeker, Chris Powers and Woody Lockwood are the owners of Raleigh's favorite brewery, Trophy. They were amongst the first people we pitched this community movement idea to. They were not just supportive, they offered up their brewery for an event and even brewed a baseball themed beer for the launch, and donated a portion of each beer to fixing up the Boys Club's baseball field.

Tyler Northrup | Carolina Sandlot Collective

Tyler is the leader of Raleigh's growing sandlot movement. He has helped organize the sandlot clubs to help and promote the MLB Raleigh movement. Member of the Sandlot have been some of the most consistent volunteers at our community outings.

Maggie Kane| A Place at the Table

Maggie and 'Place at the Table' worked with MLB Raleigh on our 'Plate for Plates' campaign in which we sold our 919 plate hats, with each sale going towards buying a meal at her restaurant for someone in need.

Rashad Herndon | Raleigh Boys Club

Rashad Herndon is in charge of youth programs at the Raleigh Boys Club. He also runs the baseball program there. Before launching MLB Raleigh, we walked Rashad through the vision, and asked how we could partner to help them out. He laid out the idea for the community coming together to help rebuild their baseball field and dugout.

Adam & Marc | Longleaf Swine BBQ

Adam Cunningham and Marc Russell own one of Raleigh's best new BBQ joints, Longleaf Swing BBQ. When they heard about MLB Raleigh's community-led movement, Adam and Marc were quick to offer to help. They came out to sell their delicious BBQ at the MLBR launch party at Trophy Brewing, donating $1 of every plate to the community cause. Oh and BTW, they sold out in a few hours!

Brent Miller| Family Style NC

Brent was one of the first people to reach out after MLB Raleigh went live. He was quick to offer his service of family friendly event activities and set up the ``Create your own baseball card`` and ``make your own crackerjacks`` stations at our opening event.

Jared Plummer | Two Roosters Ice Cream

Jared is the owner of Raleigh's famous 'Two Roosters Ice Cream' and was another one of the first businesses willing to help out. He provided ice cream for the opening event and Trophy Brewing and donated a portion of the profits to help us fix up the Boys Club field.

Will Feichter | Myriad Media

Will is the owner of Myriad Media in downtown Raleigh and was one of the first to catch wind of the project in it's infancy. Will worked with the initial team to connect them to others in the community who would be interested in helping push it forward. Will and Myriad has also provided video for MLBR events.

Scott Misner | Misner & Associates PR

Scott Misner owns a local PR firm and has been involved in working to build momentum around MLB to the Triangle for years. His survey at UNC Chapel Hill was one of the first of it's kind showing that residents were in support of bringing MLB to Raleigh.

Jed Gant | Myriad Media

Jed has worked with Will to help connect the MLB Raleigh group with businesses and stakeholders who are interested in being part of the movement and has been a vocal supporter since day 1.

Nick Neptune | Dix Park Conservancy

Nick was the director of events for Transfer Food Hall, and has since moved on to work for the Dix Park Conservancy. Nick was integral in spreading the word by curating a giant MLB Raleigh promotion wall inside the food hall. He has been a vocal supporter since day 1.

Jason Queen | Transfer Food Hall

Jason has been a big supporter of the MLB Raleigh community group and offered up his popular food hall as a place to promote the idea with a 24/7 large display right at the hall's entrance. He's even offered up his space for future events.

Sam Ratto | Videri Chocolate Factory

Sam is a huge baseball fan, and also the owner of one of Raleigh's most popular establishments (Videri Chocolate Factory). Sam was one of the first people to sit down and hear the idea prior to launch, and then became an important connector to many others in the Raleigh business community.

Taylor Medlin | Raleigh Architecture

Taylor heads up one of Raleigh's most influential architecture firms and is a huge supporter of the MLB Raleigh movement. Taylor volunteered his time and skill to build a giant, life-sized baseball card photo-booth for MLB Raleigh events.

Gino Reyes | The Creative Offices Of

Gino, one of Raleigh's top designers and branding consultants, was onboard with MLB Raleigh since day 1. He worked with Taylor on the design of the life-sized baseball card photo booth and helped plan the 919 Team Name/Logo event at The Little City Brewery.

Enoch Marchant | Nice Price Books & Records

Enoch was another one of the early member of the community initiative. He has helped spread the word by handing out stickers at his business, helped with research of history of baseball in NC, and has been a messaging and logistics consultant along the way.

Mark Hahn | SixFour3 Softball

Mark was the former owner of Grand Slam USA baseball facility and currently running SixFour3 Softball Facility in Wake Forest. Mark has done promotions with his customers, helping introduce them to MLB Raleigh and promoted the movement with banners hung all over his facility.

Benjy Capps| Miracle League of the Triangle

Benjy reached out the movement early, connecting us with his Miracle League group and helping us coordinate volunteer outing to bring Raleigh residents to help with Miracle League games on multiple occasions.

Anthony Guerra | Oakwood Pizza Box

Anthony is a huge baseball fan and reached out early to get involved with the community movement. He was one of the first businesses in Raleigh to hang the pennant, and can be seen rocking the ``MLB Raleigh`` hat while cooking up some of the best pizza in the Triangle.

Brittain Peck | Designer

Brittain Peck is one of the most sought after designers in the Triangle, and offered up his skill to help us in our ``919 Team Concept`` event, creating the ``Raleigh Q's`` concept which pulled from the Carolina's history in BBQ.

Paul Tuorto| Design & Branding

Paul Tuorto's work has been a catalyst in making the local brands stand out here in Raleigh. Paul donated his time and skills to create an updated version of the ``Raleigh Capitals`` team concept for our ``919 Team Concept`` event at Little City Brewing.

Britt Davis | Designer

Britt Davis is a NC State grad whose design work has made waves all over the nation. At the time she was working with the Atlanta Falcons, but since has started her own brand 'Lckr Room'. Britt joined up to provide the ``Raleigh Owls`` concept for the ``919 Team Concept`` event a couple years back.

Raul Contreras | Designer

Raul was a member of the Sandlot Collective, but also had a great design portfolio that focused on sports. He created the 'Carolina Capitals' concept for our '919 Team Concept' event a couple years ago.

Blair Torres | Designer

Blair is an NC State grad who works in design for SAS. Blair gave up her time and showcased her skills when she created the ``Raleigh Hounds`` concept for the '919 Team Concept' Event at Little City.

Luke Woody| Design & Branding

Luke Woody is the designer that created the Carolina Sandlot's famous Raleigh Reapers logo and concept. He entered that concept into our '919 Team Concept' event, but added a few twists to the design.