Wise Kraken 42.2032: Gabriels Partner Up

[aaronweiner]

This year, the two best players in the Carolina lineup are named Gabriel, and are both outfielders: .290 hitting Chet Gabriel, and .330 hitting Gabriel Delgado. Their play has paced the Kraken offense in a way that's unmatched in this year's version of the franchise. However, there are a lot of things you don't know about the Gabriels. They were both rookies last year. They're only about a year apart in age; Chet is the older at 24 years old. And the two are fast friends who are partnering up to start a business: Chet Delgado's, a barbeque joint in the heart of Charlotte. The name comes from using both their names while cutting out the Gabriels, which the two said they agreed on immediately.

"We didn't want to be linked just because we have the same name in our name," said Delgado in an interview. "We wanted to be linked by pork and mustard sausage."

The restaurant will be located at 7630 Tryon Street (US 29 in Charlotte) right near the Walmart Supercenter and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

"We're obviously not much involved in the day-to-day stuff, but we're just two friends who love barbeque and good cornbread," said Chet Gabriel, after a ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 22nd, an off day for the Kraken. "We fell in love with the North Carolina BBQ last year and we decided that we were going to put our names on it."

The restaurant offered a two-for-one special on Opening Day, with and will offer $3 off your order every time the Kraken win a game. The Charlotte Observer gave the place two stars, and the Yelp rating is three and a half stars. The restaurant has jersies from both players on the wall and a team ball signed by all the 2032 Kraken, and Kraken closer Rafael Mata and catcher Colby Stephens both signed autographs and ate a pulled pork plate hand-served by the two Gabriels.

"We thought about stealing the 2032 Kraken baseball, but we realized that it probably wouldn't buy us a two-meat combo," said a patron on Yelp. "Good pork and beans though."

[RonCo]

Just catching up on this...totally love it. Makes me hungry.

[aaronweiner]

This was easily my favorite team news of 2032.

[Lane]

Hopefully Chet Gabriel bats right before Gabriel Delgado so that your lineup card spells out the full name of the latter.