Porcupines Nana Embraces Pineville

Headline: “Porcupine Nana” Embraces Pineville, Baseball History Through Porcupines

In a single-story ranch house on the edge of downtown Pineville, it’s hard to not hear something to laugh about.

Louise Hair, longtime Pineville resident and first-year Pineville Porcupines host, makes it her mission to laugh as often and as loudly as possible.

“There’s not enough laughter in the world,” Hair said.

“I try to laugh as much as I can.”

Hair was born in nearby Indian Land, growing up on a farm with five sisters. Meeting her future husband, Bobby, was another anecdote to laugh about. Living at the end of a farm road, any prospective guest would have to make a multi-point turn in front of the house in order to leave the way they came.

“When Bobby came the first time, he didn’t know he’s about to turn around and go right back by the house,” Hair said. “He brought my cousin with him to see where I live.”

“I looked at the one and I said, ‘I believe he’s interested,’ so I chased him until he called me.”

After marrying at age 20, the Hairs moved to Bobby’s hometown of Pineville. At the time, Bobby’s father worked in the pharmacy and Bobby worked in the post office. The Hairs raised their family in the area, with daughters Tina and Margaret Ann graduating from South Mecklenburg High School.

Hair has watched Pineville grow from a small satellite of Charlotte to the bustling suburb it is now, keeping her local attachments alive despite the rapid changes.

“When we built a house here, you could back out in the street,” Hair said. “It’s not zoned for residential anymore, but business instead.”

The home itself is a shrine to baseball in its own right. Bobby collected memorabilia from his beloved Dodgers, as well as from players that the Hairs befriended, including former Major Leaguer Paul Byrd, who came through Charlotte when the Charlotte Knights were affiliated with the then-Cleveland Indians. (Not to be outdone, Byrd likely places second in the memorabilia room behind Elvis Presley in total appearances.)

Amidst the growth, and after Bobby’s passing in 2022, Louise’s daughters wanted to keep her house the bustling launchpad it once was, a prospect that led them to the Pineville Porcupines. After discussions between Louise, her daughters, and the Porcupines, the team matched her with pitching coach Clayton Lanser.

“I don’t have anyone coming in and going out, so Clayton fills that role,” Hair said.

Now, Lanser and Hair bustle back and forth, between team events and the Pineville Methodist Church respectively. The symbiotic relationship has kept both comfortable and humored, to the point where a batch of strawberries and bananas requested by Lanser got left behind in the shuffle and were quickly turned into baked goods).

This is not the first time local baseball has made its home in the household – when the Knights played across the state line in Fort Mill, the Hairs worked with the team, Louise as a seamstress and Bobby as stadium staff.

“[The Knights] just called me up from over there, because it was just right down the street,” Hair said. “I’d go there, pick up whatever they wanted, and I’d fix it.”

As the Knights moved uptown and the Porcupines filled the local baseball vacuum, Hair has rekindled her love for the sport, even visiting the press box for Porcupines home games and adopting the moniker “Porcupine Nana,” making the trip to Jack D. Hughes Memorial Park head to toe in the maroon and blue of the Porcs.

As the action rushes across the basepaths in “the Jack,” keep an ear out for the loudest laughter in the city – you’ll find Louise Hair, as lively as ever pulling for her hometown team.