Don't Back Down

It's finally over. The Carolina Panthers have mercifully ended the season that at one point looked like it would never end. It went from 2-2 after four games to 4-4 after eight games and slid to 5-7 after twelve games.

What did the final quarter of the season hold? Amazingly, the team still had a chance at the playoffs. Though Tampa Bay sewed up the division fairly early on, and Atlanta floundered without Michael Vick - and got worse when Bobby Petrino bolted to return to college. Somehow after thirteen games, the Panthers just had to win out and get a little help to find themselves a wild card.

Read "Carolina Panthers: 2007 Wrap-Up" »

Over the weekend, the Charlotte Observer reported that since opening to paying customers on November 26 - nearly a month ago - the Lynx Blue line had taken some 12000 passenger trips. I'm thinking that's a misprint, but I haven't been able to find a retraction or a correction. Perhaps they meant to print that they are doing 12000 trips per day. But 12000 total would be, well, pretty bad, to say the least. They were supposed to do over 9000 per weekday, and 12000 total would just suck.

They did announce that there will be a couple more ticket vending machines added at the I-485 station, and even a pre-fabricated ticket booth for someone to dispense tickets. I can't imagine that they would need to do that if the ridership was so poor, unless they are following some strange publicity track of trying to convince people that ridership is so good that they need more when there really isn't anyone riding.

Read "Just How is the Lynx Blue Line Doing?" »

In various places around the world, they hold meetings with some regularity for people who have similar interests. Meetup has thousands of groups where you can get your group together and organized, but unfortunately they started charging people to organize things a while back, which means if you are just casually interested in getting things together, it may not be worth it.

Which leads me to my question in the title: Is anyone interested in a Charlotte Blog Meetup? It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Chow has dinners fairly frequently, and even if the food in our area may not be as interesting as his Dim Sum, it is certainly something we could check out. We could even just do coffee or something, though I don't really dig coffee, so I'd hope there were alternatives.

Read "Is Anyone Game for a Charlotte Blog Meetup?" »

On Saturday night in Wake Forest, the Independence Patriots, fresh off one of their closest games in recent memory, a 10-8 victory over West Charlotte last week, fell victim to New Bern, 28-17. The season that started with head coach Tom Knotts wearing a shirt with a large number 8 on it ended in much the same way (though he hid the shirt under another).

When the Patriots lost to Cincinnati Elder early on to bring an end to their 109-game winning streak, you knew that something was different. It just wasn't the same. When they lost to Butler late in the season, the winds of change were blowing. But the team still had a chance to keep one dream alive - the shot at a record eight straight state titles. Unfortunately, fate had other plans.

Read "Independence Patriots Miss Chance at Number Eight" »

The numbers are in, so what can we learn? After a monstrous opening weekend, which saw some 100,000 riders over the two-day free preview, the first day of paying riders (last Monday) saw somewhere between 4500 and 5000 "passenger trips", well short of the estimated 9100 per day during the first year. To be fair, it's the first day, and you have to give people a chance to step up to the new patterns - but that's pretty far off the mark.

Notably, if the ridership is so low in the opening days, that means the numbers will need to be made up somewhere in order to meet the average. It's also worth noting that that is a "weekday average". I haven't been able to find a good number for weekend averages, but you would have to assume that it would be lower. Naturally, on a Panthers home game, it might be higher, but other than that, there really isn't a lot of reason to use the train - and other cities severely curtail transit on weekends, so it seems logical.

Read "One Week of the Lynx Blue Line" »

The first quarter of the 2007 season for the Carolina Panthers ended with a 2-2 record. Probably not as bad as it could be, but not as good either. The second quarter started with two victories, and at 4-2, things looked good. But then the bye week came and things went bad quickly. Two quick losses left the second quarter with a 2-2 record, and at the end of the first half we were 4-4.

Would things get better or worse in the third quarter? If Jake Delhomme was playing, then chances are decent that it gets better. Though many don't like to admit it, Jake is one heck of a fourth-quarter player. His third quarter may not be great, but the second half is where he shines, and he can play with the best of them, ugly passes and all. Unfortunately, Jake is gone for the season, Vinny Testaverde is aging by the minute, David Carr seems to be a total bust and for whatever reason, the coaches don't want to play Matt Moore. Who knows what will happen.

Read "Carolina Panthers: 2007 Third Quarter Review" »

In the North Carolina 4AA Semifinals, the Independence Patriots took on the West Charlotte Lions for bragging rights of the city, and to see who would represent the Western half of the state next week in the championship. It was also a rematch of their game earlier this season, where the Lions did well, but ultimately they couldn't stay with the Patriots for the whole game.

In the end, it was a game for the ages. The Big I, which routinely scores dozens of points per game and humiliates their opponents was played tough by West Charlotte, and this one came down to the final seconds.

Read "Independence Beats West Charlotte, Heads for Number Eight" »

Over the weekend, the Lynx Blue Line opened for business to a standing-room-only crowd. Well, opened for business isn't completely accurate, since the rides were free, but you get the idea: The trains started running. After nearly a decade since the transit tax was enacted with this end in mind, and some $462 million, Charlotte now has light rail service.

The 9.6 mile route roughly parallels South Boulevard from Seventh Street Station all the way to the I-485 Station at the end of the line. Dual tracks run the length of the line, and Park-and-Ride lots sit at the last seven stations (from Scaleybark through I-485), so that you can park your car and get on the train without having to deal with Uptown traffic. Whether you agreed with the plan or not, the train is here. Let's take a look to see what it was like.

Read "Lynx Blue Line Preview Smashes Expectations" »

Darius Thomas, the quarterback of the West Charlotte Lions, passed for a near-record 501 yards in leading his team to a 49-27 victory over Richmond Senior. The performance ranks third all-time in Mecklenburg history, behind Thomas' own 512-yard performance earlier this season and that of one Chris Leak, who threw for a 585-yard monster back in 2002.

Speaking of Chris Leak, it is his Independence Patriots - well not his, but his former - that will face the West Charlotte Lions after the Patriots demolished East Burke 48-28. It seems like the Big I machine is rolling once again, after the end to the long victory streak in Cincinnati earlier this year and a loss to Butler not long ago. Reports of their death may have been a bit premature.

Read "Lions and Patriots Are On Next Week" »

My parents were in town for the holiday and we decided to go visit The Billy Graham Library. For anyone who doesn't know, the library isn't really a library in the classic sense - it's more like a presidential library, that acts as a memorial. For Ruth Graham (Billy's wife), it really is a memorial - her grave is actually on the grounds, in a prayer garden.

There is a bookstore at the end of the tour, which actually gives a vague unsettling feeling. It's almost like a tourist trap, where you end up in the gift shop once you're done. I understand and all - there isn't an admission fee, and it's really nicely done, but still - you're just dumped there, which just sort of stinks.

Read "The Billy Graham Library" »

Last year, the Butler Bulldogs cruised to a 21-0 lead during the regular season over the heavily favored Independence Patriots. Then in a stunning comeback, the Patriots pulled out a victory. In the rematch during the playoffs, the Patriots cruised to a victory - apparently the Bulldogs were just worn out from their earlier near miss, and had nothing left.

This year, Butler was able to pull off the upset - if it was indeed an upset, since Independence had already lost once - and they won the game they had wanted to win all year long. But when the teams met in the playoffs, would they be able to do it again? Could they take two games from the Patriots in one year? Well, no. It was mostly a rehash of last year's playoff.

Read "Patriots Bury Butler in the Playoffs (Again)" »

The first round of the 2007 playoffs are done and there are no big surprises - the Butler Bulldogs have won, setting up a meeting next week with their rivals the Independence Patriots, and the West Charlotte Lions continue their stellar season as well, meaning they could meet the winner of that game later, should everything play out.

Butler took on Lumberton, and handled them easily, winning 49-6 behind a great performance from the defense, who turned in a monstrous effort with six turnovers. The offense wasn't great, and in fact Lumberton had some early chances to get back in the game, but the defense stepped up to kill the threat. Leading 21-0 at halftime it was never really close, and now the Bulldogs can look ahead to their rematch with the Big I.

Read "Butler, Independence and West Charlotte Advance" »