July 11

Many years ago there was a movie called "The Long, Hot Summer", this day in Baseballtown was The Long, Hot Afternoon. We got underway beneath the blazing sunshine at 12:05, game time temperature was 87 degrees. As the day wore on the temperature reached the low 90s, the heat index approached triple digits. In my booth in the press box I have a fan to circulate the air conditioning but it was still warm, I can tell you that as a spectator I would not have been there. We had a little under 7000 hearty souls who were in attendance, most of them youngsters from area summer camps. The R-Phils were looking for a win to cap off a four-game series sweep, in the ninth inning they led 6-3 before Trenton rallied to tie the game. On we went into the eleventh inning before Matt Rizzotti ended it with a walk-off homer for the 7-6 win. Paco Figueroa had two hits and two RBI, Freddy Galvis had a two-run single and Tuffy Gosewisch had a sacrifice fly RBI. The ballclub used seven pitchers as B.J. Rosenberg worked the first three innings, he was followed by Chris Kissock, Brad Lidge, Joe Savery, Josh Zeid, Jake Diekman and winning pitcher Derrick Loop. Lidge was in town on rehab assignment, he is the fourth Philadelphia Phillie to play in Reading this season. He worked one inning and retired all three batters he faced, two by strikeout. With it all the game wound down at 3:35 (and not a moment too soon). The Eastern League All-Star break is at hand, the game is in Manchester, NH on Wednesday the 13th. The R-Phils will be represented by Matt Rizzotti, Michael Spidale and Austin Hyatt. The boys will be on the road after the break, we're back home on Thursday the 21st. When I got home there was a message from Jenny, Helen went into the hospital earlier in the day with chest pains. She went in one day last summer with a similar ailment, it turned out to be a bad reaction to a medication. We'll just keep a good thought and hope for the best. Take care, thanks for reading.