April 1-3

Sunday afternoon: the ladies and I were in Hershey for our final AHL game of the season, the visiting Binghamton Senators won in overtime shootout 6-5. Spoke with Don Tankesley on Monday and firmed up the street hockey league schedule format, we'll have fourteen teams in three divisions. The East and West Divisions each have four teams and will play an interlocking schedule, the Midwest will have six teams. Tuesday was a big day for pro sports in Reading as the Royals opened their playoff series with Elmira and the Reading Phillies hosted Lehigh Valley in an exhibition game at the ballpark on Centre Avenue. LV is the Philadelphia Phillies' AAA affiliate, they began operations in Allentown in 2008 and this exhibition game is an annual occurrence. No less than thirteen former R-Phils are on the LV roster (such is the progressive nature of minor league baseball), the R-Phils' roster features eleven returnees from 2010. In many ways this game is largely meaningless, it's just one final opportunity for the players to get some work done before the season starts for real (case in point: three pitchers listed on the Reading roster pitched for LV in this game and one player appeared as a pinch-hitter on two separate occasions). For the record the R-Phils won 7-6, the season starts at home on April 5 against Portland. When I got to the car I put the Royals game on radio and heard they were up 3-1 with two minutes to go, an empty-net score cemented a 4-1 win. Game #2 is on Wednesday night at the Sovereign Center and I'll be available to work, I just hope my return isn't a jinx after a great win on Tuesday. Take care, thanks for reading.