April 8-9

A busy Saturday started early with that 11:00 ballgame at McCaskey, the Red Tornado hosting Exeter. We all know that baseball is a sport played independent of any time element, as a result each individual game develops its own pace and could conceivably go on forever. On this day the teams were tied 7-7 through eight innings of a game that featured nineteen hits plus twenty-one other baserunners who had reached via walks or being hit by the pitch. The game started ten minutes late (for whatever reason) and at 2:40 it was still going, at that point I had no choice but to make my apologies because I simply could not stay any longer. Pulling the chute like that is something I would never do under normal circumstances but this was an exception because of my plans for the evening. From the ballfield I went south for Jenny and her mother, once we got back to town I took the fastest shower in the history of mankind. Marty met up with us at my place and shortly before 4:00 we headed north to Allentown for our annual visit to PPL Center for AHL Phantoms hockey. This was my third time there with Jenny and Helen, our previous visits were both on Sundays but since the Phantoms only had two Sunday home dates in 2016-17 (neither of which worked for us) I selected this 7:00 Saturday game when tickets went on sale back in September. The Springfield Thunderbirds (the Florida Panthers AHL affiliate) were the opponent, on this night in Allentown the Phantoms prevailed 4-2. Corban Knight, T.J. Brennan, Andy Miele and Scott Laughton scored for the Home Team, Alex Lyon picked up the win in goal. The Phantoms roster features five players who have also played for the Royals: Martin Ouellette (serving as Lyon's backup), Maxim Lamarche, Tyrell Goulbourne, Reece Willcox and Radel Fazleev (who played one game in Reading in January). The night finally ended with my return home after midnight which was fine because absolutely nothing happened on Sunday. The Royals finished their regular season on Saturday night with a win in Norfolk, the club's final record is 41-25-6. The boys meet the Brampton Beast in the first round of playoffs, the series begins on Thursday the 13th at the Arena. Take care, thanks for reading.