September 25-30

Friday night football at McCaskey as L-L league play got underway, the Red Tornado hosted perennial powerhouse Wilson. Before the game a friend from Wilson told me they were a bit banged up so maybe we were catching them at the right time. They had lost a non-league game at home the week before but even so I knew better than to put much stock in that theory especially since Wilson has not lost a league contest since 2007 and the last time JPM beat them was in 2003. Both streaks continued on this night as Wilson took an early 10-0 lead and never trailed, the final was 38-7. The lone score for JPM came in the second quarter on a Kobe Gantz TD catch from Jathan Gonzalez. The club plays its next three on the road, the next home game is on the 23rd of October against Cedar Crest. The Barnstormers saw their quest to repeat as ALPB champions come to an end on Saturday night in Waldorf, Maryland. They split the first two games of their playoff series with Southern Maryland at home on Wednesday and Thursday, the Crabs took two straight on their grounds to win the series. SM meets Somerset for the title and I would like to see the Blue Crabs win it strictly on principle (no disgrace in losing to the eventual champion). The rest of the weekend plus Monday was largely quiet, on Tuesday we were set for week #2 of street hockey but the weather had other ideas. I went to the rink after lunch to check things out after the long weekend, although rain was forecast for the evening hours I did the cleanup work just in case (besides, it had to be done and it wasn't happening by itself). Around 4:30 or so the rain arrived and stayed for the rest of the night, the games were postponed and rescheduled for October 5. On Wednesday we did our usual midweek lunch in Quarryville, in the evening we had four games at the rink. In the crossover games the Oil Riggers beat the Riot via shootout, the Unilords defeated the Hammerheads and the Steamers won over the Pub Dawgs. In the lone West game H&F Tire Service beat the Kings. There are three games on the schedule for Thursday but the forecast is not encouraging. There is a major storm system moving up from the south and another in the Caribbean region that may impact us heavily over the weekend, the next few days have the potential to be an adventure. Take care, thanks for reading

September 21-24

Monday morning lunch at the mall, after that I was at Reservoir Park to do some prelim work for the start of the new season. We have eleven teams total, one of the teams from the spring season had struggled with manpower and decided not to return for the fall so the West Division has seven clubs instead of eight. Everybody plays fourteen games including one each against the teams from the opposite division with the remaining games against divisional opponents. On Tuesday night the season started with two crossover games and two West games, in the crossovers the Steamers beat the Hammerheads and the Blues defeated the Riot. In the West the Killbots won over H&F Tire Service via shootout and the Misfits prevailed over the Kings. On Wednesday the three teams that had not played on Tuesday made their season debuts. In the West the Hammerheads beat the Pub Dawgs via shootout, in crossover play H&F Tire won over the Oil Riggers, the Killbots knocked off the Blues and the UniLords beat the Kings. The week wrapped up on Thursday with three games all of crossover variety, the Oil Riggers defeated the Pub Dawgs, the UniLords beat the Riot and the Steamers won over the Misfits. Of the seventy-seven total games on the schedule twenty-eight of them are crossovers, the bulk of those are within the first three weeks of the season (all the better to get them over with). The season continues with another 4-4-3 week beginning on Tuesday the 29th. Take care, thanks for reading.

September 19-20

Saturday lunch in Quarryville with Jenny and Helen, in the evening we were back at the ballpark. The Barnstormers had eleven scheduled home Saturdays, Jenny and her mother made it to nine (one was ruined by rain and the other because Jenny wasn't feeling well). Their personal tour of the Atlantic League was completed on this night, Long Island was the only opponent they had yet to see. This game started poorly for the Stormers as the Ducks scored three runs in the top of the first. Kevin Rivers' solo home run in the second got the Stormers on the board but by the seventh inning Long Island held a 5-1 lead. At that point it was getting late and Jenny was getting tired so we headed for the exits. When you get about five miles south of the city the radio broadcast signal fades out so I had no idea what was happening at the ballpark until I was back within range on the way home. The Barnstormers rallied for four runs in the ninth to tie the game, in the tenth the Ducks went back ahead 7-5. Refusing to be outdone the Stormers struck for three of their own in the bottom half and pulled out a wacky 8-7 win. With it all the game wasn't over until almost 11:00, four hours after it had started. On Sunday afternoon the regular season ended with a 1:00 game, with cool temperatures and low humidity in the forecast I elected to make an exceedingly rare daytime appearance. In the eleven-year history of the franchise this was just the fourth time I can remember being there for anything that started prior to 6:00, I'm just not crazy about afternoon heat and humidity. Before the game Pete Andrelczyk was presented with the club's community service award, fellow reliever Scott Gracey was named via fan vote the team's player of the year. Manager Butch Hobson was also honored for recently becoming the ALPB's all-time victories leader. The game itself was all Home Team from the word Go. Lance Zawadzki's first-inning home run put the Stormers ahead 1-0, in the fourth Brian Cavazos-Galvez doubled and scored on a wild pitch. A six-run fifth put the matter to bed, a Zawadzki RBI double was followed by a two run home run from Yusuke Kajimoto. Two more runners reached for Luke Hughes who went yard to make it 8-0. A two-run double by Kevin Rivers in the sixth and a Tyler Bortnick RBI double in the seventh closed out the scoring, Shunsuke Watanabe started and worked six innings for the 11-0 win. The club's final mark checks in at 75-65, the first round of playoffs starts on Wednesday the 23rd. Take care, thanks for reading.

September 17-18

Had lunch with Jenny and her mother on Thursday, Helen turned 78 on the 15th. The annual Solanco Fair opened earlier in the week, after lunch we went to the fairgrounds and walked around. A lot of the merchants offer small giveaway items, I always take the opportunity to stock up on pens (for the street hockey rink) and pencils (for basketball season at McCaskey). On Thursday evening the Barnstormers continued their homestand, the Long Island Ducks (fresh from a series in York) were the opponent. This final regular-season series is virtually meaningless since the Atlantic League playoffs are set, the Ducks meet Somerset in the semifinals while the Stormers match up with Southern Maryland. On this night the Barnstormers trailed 1-0 in the third, an RBI double by Zach Collier tied the score. Run-scoring hit by Lance Zawadzki and Anderson Feliz put the Stormers up 3-1 but Long Island rallied back in the sixth to tie the game. In the seventh Kent Matthes delivered a solo home run to put the Barnstormers back ahead 4-3, that would prove to be the final score. Starting pitcher Edwin Carl (recently added from the American Association) worked seven innings for the win in his Stormers debut, Scott Gracey and Scott Patterson (save) pitched an inning each. On Friday I was absent from the ballgame because that night at this time of year means high school football. McCaskey was playing at Reading High and of course anytime I'm in Reading for anything other than hockey I invariably run into people I know. It's often been said that in football you can't win if you can't score and you can't score if you don't have the ball. That was it in a nutshell for JPM, through the forty-eight minutes of play McCaskey had offensive possession for only fifteen. In the third quarter Jathan Gonzalez found Kobe Gantz in the end zone for a touchdown but it was the lone score for JPM in a 26-7 loss. The club's record drops to 1-2, league play begins at home on the 25th against Wilson (never a easy assignment under the best of circumstances). Take care, thanks for reading.

September 16

Wednesday night baseball in Lancaster as the Barnstormers hosted the Blue Crabs in the series finale. The Crabs won the first-half division title but have fallen back somewhat in the second half, for the Stormers it has been quite the opposite. A win (or a York loss) on this night would clinch the second-half title, a Stormers playoff berth and a postseason rematch with Southern Maryland in the first round. SM put two on the board in the first but Lance Zawadzki's sac fly RBI in the bottom half made it 2-1. The Crabs went back up by two in the third, a Mike McDade sacrifice fly brought the Stormers back to within 3-2 after three. Single runs for the Crabs in the fifth and seventh made it 5-2, a solo home run by Juan Apodaca brought the Stormers within striking distance at 5-3 as the game moved into the eighth inning. In the bottom of the eighth the Barnstormers put together an incredible four-run rally. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out for Kevin Rivers, his base hit scored one run to make it 5-4. Anderson Feliz followed with a two-run single to give the Stormers the lead, Apodaca's fielders choice groundout scored the final run. The 9-7 lead was preserved by Marcus Walden who worked a scoreless ninth to pick up the save for winning pitcher Pete Andrelczyk, Nate Reed had started and pitched the first six innings. The victory puts the Barnstormers in the postseason for a second straight year and the fourth time in five seasons under manager Butch Hobson, the win was also Butch's 1800th as a manager in professional baseball. His managerial career began back in 1987 in the New York Mets organization, from 1992 to 1994 he was in the big leagues as skipper of the Boston Red Sox. The Barnstormers open a now-meaningless series against Long Island on Thursday. Take care, thanks for reading.

September 14-15

Monday morning lunch at the mall, in the evening the Barnstormers returned home for the final seven days of the regular season. Coming into play on Monday the Stormers' magic number to clinch a playoff spot stood at four, any combination of Lancaster wins and York Revolution losses totaling that number would eliminate the Revs from playoff contention. The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs (the first-round opponent for the Stormers/Revs survivor) were in town for a three-game set. In the Monday opener the Barnstormers took a 2-0 lead in the second on RBI hits by Brian Cavazos-Galvez and Luke Hughes, a Kevin Rivers home run in the seventh made it 3-0. The Crabs broke the shutout with a run in the ninth but the Barnstormers held on for the 3-1 win, Pete Andrelczyk won it in relief of starter Daniel Moskos with Marcus Walden recording the save. Meanwhile in York the Revolution defeated the Long Island Ducks, at game time on Tuesday the Stormers' magic number stood at 3. On this night the Blue Crabs went up 2-0 in the top of the first, the Barnstormers replied emphatically in the bottom half. Jerry Owens singled and scored on a triple by Zach Collier, Kent Matthes' RBI hit scored Collier to tie the game. RBI singles Lance Zawadzki and Charlie Cutler gave the Stormers the lead, a fifth run scored on a Yusuke Kajimoto infield groundout. Owens capped the uprising with a two-run double to make the score 7-2. The teams traded single runs in the fourth, the Stormers' coming on an Owens triple and a Tyler Bortnick RBI single. Another hit from Bortnick (who started the season in Lancaster and recently returned from a stint in the Seattle Mariners system) in the fifth gave the Barnstormers a 9-3 lead. Starting pitcher Joe Gardner was touched for two runs in the eighth but from there Scott Patterson and Al Yevoli combined to close the door on a 9-5 Barnstormer win. In York the Revolution lost to Long Island, that result clinched a playoff spot for the Ducks and knocked the Stormers' magic number down to 1. The Stormers-Crabs series concludes on Wednesday with a possible clinching scenario in place. Take care, thanks for reading.

September 11-13

Jenny was in town on Friday, we had lunch at the local sub shop. In the evening it was football night at McCaskey, the Red Tornado hosted York in high school football's version of the War Of The Roses. I graduated from McCaskey way back in the stone-age era of 1974, in 1988 I came back to do the PA for football and I'm now into my 28th year on the mic at the stadium. JPM won in York in 2014, I was absent because that was the week I had my heart issues (incidentally, there have been no no recurrences since). On this night in Lancaster the Red Tornado led early and won going away 31-12. It was 14-0 after one quarter thanks to TD runs by QB Jathan Gonzalez and halfback R.J. Godwin, York got on the board just before halftime to make it 14-6. Fullback Carlos Lugo rushed for a score in the third quarter, Randolph Speller's TD run in the final quarter put the game out of reach. Placekicker Nick Allen added a late field goal, he was also 4-for-4 on extra-point attempts. The win brings the record to 1-1, the boys travel to Berks County for the final non-league game at Reading High on the 18th. The rest of the weekend had little going except lunch with Jenny on a chilly, rainy Saturday. Talked to Don on Sunday, we start street hockey season on September 22. Take care, thanks for reading.

September 6-10

The warm weather was still out in force on Sunday, I went to Jenny's place for a lunch visit since we missed out on Saturday. On Monday evening the Barnstormers played the final game of the weekend "wraparound" series against Camden. There was precious little offense from either side on this night, the teams combined for a total of seven base hits. A Barnstormer error contributed to a Camden run in the second, that lead held until the fifth when Anderson Feliz tripled and scored on a Juan Apodaca two-run homer. Those runs were all the Stormers would need as they held on for the 2-1 win and a four-game series sweep. Starting pitcher Madison Boer (recent addition from the Minnesota Twins organization) worked six innings for the victory, Marcus Walden saved it. The ballclub hits the road for six days, they return home on Monday the 14th. The middle of the week was uneventful save for Wednesday lunch with Jenny, on Thursday we had some solid rain for the first time in weeks. The weekend is expected to be much cooler with a chance of more rain on Saturday. Take care, thanks for reading.

September 5

It was very warm at Rossmere Stadium on Friday evening but that was a mere prelude to Saturday afternoon at McCaskey. The Red Tornado hosted Harrisburg in a 1:00 kickoff, the first Saturday afternoon game at JPM since 2010. The popular reason given for this game not being on Friday was apparently the visitors being unwilling to play a night game (why that would be is anybody's guess especially considering the weather). It was close to ninety degrees at game time and the press box was a sauna bath, I don't know how any of the players could have been comfortable in uniform on the field. It was not a good day at all for JPM, Harrisburg scored first and built a 20-0 halftime lead. In the third quarter another H-burg score extended the lead before the Red Tornado broke through on an 18-yard touchdown from quarterback Jathan Gonzalez (a member of the '14-15 junior varsity basketball squad). Harrisburg added two more TDs in the final period and rolled to a 40-6 decision, their second win in two seasons over JPM. The Red Tornado stays at home for week #2 against York on the 11th. The game ended around 4:45, I went home and took a shower because there was absolutely no other choice. At 5:45 I went over to the ballpark, the Barnstormers hosted the Camden Riversharks in game #2 of a four-game series. The Stormers won the opener on Friday, on this night they made it two in a row. An RBI double from Zach Collier and and a Kent Matthes base hit gave the home team a first-inning 2-0 advantage but the Sharks came back to tie in the second. Another RBI double by Collier in the bottom of the inning made it 3-2 Stormers, Camden scored single runs in the third and fourth to go ahead 4-3. That score held up until the bottom of the eighth inning, back-to-back home runs from Lance Zawadzki and Luke Hughes put the Barnstormers ahead 5-4. In the ninth Scott Patterson retired the side in order to save the win for fellow reliever Al Yevoli (recently added from the Chicago Cubs organization). Jenny and her mother were supposed to come into town for the football/baseball doubledip but it did not happen, Jenny had called on Friday night and said she planned on sleeping in because she wasn't feeling well. I can't say I blame her, between football and baseball it would have been a long day in the heat. I'd rather she be healthy than ill any day. Take care, thanks for reading.

September 4

The opening week of high school football season always coincides with the Labor Day holiday weekend, on Friday night I was at Rossmere Stadium for the Lancaster Catholic Crusaders home opener. Dallastown (from York County, about ten miles south of York proper) was the opponent as I began my twentieth year on the PA for LCHS. I took on the Crusaders in 1996, at that time we had no lights at McCaskey Stadium so there were never any conflicts (LCHS played Friday nights, JPM played Saturday afternoons). That changed in '99 when JPM joined the Friday Night Club but the good folks at LCHS have always understood and are glad to have me there when I am available. I arrived at the stadium at 5:30 and learned that the game was in a lightning delay. The rules on that are very explicit: when there is lightning in  the area the teams are not allowed on the field even to warm up much less play the game. The game finally got started at 7:45 and didn't wind down until almost 10:30. Dallastown scored first but missed the extra point to lead 6-0, the Crusaders responded quickly on their next possession. Quarterback Brian Downey found wideout Andrew Bertz over the middle for a 76-yard catch-and-run TD, kicker Connor Rathsam added the PAT for a 7-6 Crusader lead at halftime. In the third quarter Dallastown scored twenty unanswered points, in the closing moments Downey hit Christian Sweigart in the end zone for a cosmetic score to bring the final to 26-14 in the visitors' favor. LCHS is at home again on the 11th but I am absent for the game at McCaskey, my next time at Rossmere is on October 9.Take care, thanks for reading.

September 2-3

Jenny was in town for a Wednesday morning appointment, it was a followup to the sleep test she had in July. I took her home and we did our usual midweek lunch. In the evening the Barnstormers opened their homestand with that makeup doubleheader against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. The Crabs were in town for a series in early May, this was their first time back since then. In the Atlantic League doubleheader games are seven innings as opposed to the regulation nine, that is the case throughout the affiliated minor leagues as well. The night got underway at 6:00, the Stormers scored in the first inning on a Kent Matthes sac fly RBI. The Crabs tied it in the third but a Charlie Cutler sac fly in the fourth broke the deadlock, Jerry Owens' RBI single made it 3-1 Barnstormers. SM got one back in the fifth but that would be all as the Stormers took the opener 4-2, Daniel Moskos won it with Marcus Walden picking up the save. Despite the shorter game in terms of innings it still took until 8:30 for the opener to be completed. The nightcap got started at 9:10, I watched the first two innings and called it a night. Saw on the Internet where the Barnstormers completed the sweep, they trailed 4-0 in the fourth but rallied back to win 5-4. The second game ended five hours and fifteen minutes after the opener had started, I know how that feels because I once lived that life. The series ended with a single game on Thursday night but I was not there, we had our fall season street hockey meeting at the rink. There were about nine teams represented but there are always those who never attend but get in anyway. We would like to start the week of September 14, we'll see how it pans out. Take care, thanks for reading.

September 1

The final one-third of 2015 is upon us, it's hard to believe it's already September (although it felt more like July with daytime temperatures in the low 90s). The Barnstormers were scheduled for a home game on this evening but it was postponed under unusual circumstances. The ballpark hosted professional soccer games on Saturday and Monday, over the weekend it was announced that the Tuesday ballgame would be postponed to allow proper time for converting the field back to baseball configuration. With no game in Lancaster I elected to spend the evening on the other side of the river, the Revolution returned home to open a series against the Camden Riversharks. The Atlantic League season ends on the 20th and the second-half division races are far from decided. The Revs are currently second in their division with the Barnstormers holding the top spot. The Stormers could qualify for the postseason either as the second-half champion or as a wild-card, for the Revs it's largely division title or bust. On this night at Santander Stadium the Revolution suffered a critical loss as the visiting Riversharks took an early lead and held on for the 4-2 win. It was 3-0 Camden in the fourth when Brandon Boggs went yard with a man on to cut the deficit to one but an insurance Shark run in the seventh ended the scoring, Rommie Lewis started for the Revolution and took the loss. The series continues through Thursday before the Sharks come to Lancaster for the weekend. Take care, thanks for reading.