July 16-20

With the ballclub on the road for a week it was a perfect time to get away for some R&R in the Southern Tier of New York State. On Monday morning my mother and I embarked on the drive north to Elmira, whenever we are there we stay with my cousin Roxanne. For my mother it's a chance to catch up with my father's side of the family, for me it's that plus some baseball at Dunn Field. The Elmira Pioneers (of the Perfect Game Collegiate League) were at home on Monday evening, they lost to the Newark Pilots 4-3. On Tuesday the daytime highs were in the 90s, in the afternoon I made the 55-mile drive east to Binghamton since the Pioneers were on the road. The Binghamton Mets hosted the Trenton Thunder in Eastern League action, game-time temperature at 6:35 was 97 degrees. Trenton won the game 5-4, there were fireworks afterwards but needless to say I was headed west on route 17 before they ever started. There was no game anywhere on Wednesday, we had a cookout in the evening at Roxanne's house with most of the family in attendance. On Thursday I drove north to Ithaca (the home of Cornell University), in the evening the Pioneers were back at home, The Newark Pilots were the opponent once again, there was rain in the forecast which arrived in the early innings. It never amounted to any more than a light mist, with temperatures down into the 70s it brought some much-needed relief. The game itself was one for the books, the Pioneers led by five runs in the ninth before Newark rallied to tie it. In the bottom of the inning the Pioneers pushed across the winner for a wild 11-10 win. The rain came harder overnight but by Friday morning it was gone as we packed up and headed south for home. We drove through varying degrees of rain most of the way, we got back to town around 3:30. In the evening I elected to stay in and relax, with rain still in the area it was a good night for it. Take care, thanks for reading.