Friday night at Truist Field, the Charlotte Knights will play the Norfolk Tides. That is the game on the schedule. The real reason to be there is everything happening around it.
Friday is the Knights' Vs. Cancer game, and it is one of the best nights this ballpark puts on all year. The Knights are teaming up again with Great Clips and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, and the whole evening is built around the fight against pediatric cancer.
Gates open at six. The first thousand fans through them get a Vs. Cancer placard to hold up during a pre-game moment of silence, and if you have never been in a ballpark when a few thousand people go quiet at once for a reason like this one, it stays with you. Then, at the end of the fifth inning, there is a Home Run for Life ceremony on the field. It is the kind of moment nobody in the ballpark forgets.
The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation will be on the concourse all night for anyone who wants to give. Great Clips will be there too, cutting hair and raising money right on the concourse. There is a 50/50 raffle running all week, a mystery jersey sale starting Tuesday with some autographed ones in the mix, and a Vs. Cancer auction of signed memorabilia online through the 26th, plus a silent auction at the ballpark on game night. There will be a check presentation, a post-game lantern ceremony, and fireworks to close it out.
Here is the number that ought to land. Since 2017, Great Clips salons around Charlotte have raised $275,000 for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. That is haircut by haircut, a coupon at a time, this community deciding that kids fighting brain tumors are worth showing up for. This year's in-salon fundraiser ran from late June through the middle of July, and Friday is when the check gets handed over.
I write a lot about wins and losses in this space. The Knights out-hit Durham all weekend and lost the series, and they will spend six games trying to make that right against Norfolk. Friday is one of those six. But it is also the one where the final score is the least important thing on the field.
Come out Friday. Bring the kids. Hold up a placard. This is what a ballpark is for.