July 8-9

According to the newspaper the Saturday high was 101 degrees, the evening thunderstorms helped to cool things down somewhat on Sunday (if you call the high 80s cooler). Jenny and Helen came into town for the ballgame on North Prince Street as the BSers finished their series with Long Island. Barnstormers mascot Cylo was celebrating his birthday, a number of his friends were in attendance as well. The game started at 6:05, the BSers won it 5-4 on a ninth-inning home run to complete a four-game sweep. Monday was a quiet day except for some big news from Reading as the Royals announced an exclusive affiliation agreement with the NHL Washington Capitals. The deal also includes the Caps' AHL club in Hershey which is something many in the Royals fanbase have wanted for a long time. It makes sense from a geographic standpoint as player movement between Hershey and Reading would involve a mere forty-mile drive on route 422 as opposed to a plane trip to Canada or New England. I'll admit I'm not a Washington fan but at the ECHL level that matters little since most of the club is under ECHL contract (in the past we've been associated with Los Angeles, Toronto and Boston). It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out when the new season starts in October. The R-Phils finished a road trip on Monday, the All-Star break is upon us but in Reading it's just beginning as we'll host the game for the first time since 1974. Take care, thanks for reading.