July 27-31

Thursday evening at the rink for night #2 of summer dek hockey, the matchups (which occur again on August 8 and 17) featured Blue versus Orange and Gold versus Green. There was a threat of thunderstorms in the evening forecast on Friday, the youth tournament's championship game was scheduled for 7:00 at the ballpark. I had planned on going but did not, in the morning it was announced that game time was moved up to 5:15 because of the forecast and since the Lancaster team had been eliminated in the semifinals on Thursday I decided to forgo it and stay in (a smart decision, it rained during the evening but areas to the south were hit much worse than we were). On Saturday we had our usual lunch visit in Quarryville, Jenny said the soreness she had been experiencing since the surgery was just about all gone which is certainly excellent news. Sunday was the typically quiet day it is on an almost weekly basis, on Monday the new week started and the month ended with baseball on North Queen Street. The Barnstormers played in Waldorf, Maryland over the weekend, part of that series was the celebrated "first-half championship game" which fell victim to the weather on Friday. The league rescheduled that game for August 14 (a mutual open date for both teams) so it looks like the first-half title will be decided a mere six weeks after it was supposed to have ended. The New Britain Bees were the opponent on this night, the Stormers took a 2-0 lead in the first on RBI hits from Sean Halton and newcomer Steve Clevenger (ex-MLBer most recently with the Seattle Mariners). In the fifth inning the Bees took the lead with three runs, in the home sixth the Barnstormers put six on the board. Cole Garner was hit by the pitch to start the inning, Halton and Clevenger followed with singles to load the bases. Garrett Weber's RBI hit scored Garner to tie the game, Halton came home on a single by Nate Coronado (another new addition from the Colorado Rockies organization) to put the Stormers up 4-3. Two batters later Beau Amaral batted with the bases still loaded and went yard to right-centerfield, the grand slam home run put the Stormers up by five. New Britain picked up a run in the eighth to bring the final score to 8-4, John Anderson was the winning pitcher for the Barnstormers in relief of Jarrett Leverett. Take care, thanks for reading.

July 24-26

Monday lunch at the mall started the new week (as it almost always does), after supper I went up to the rink and did some prelim work in readiness for the start of the summer league. On Tuesday we played the first two of eighteen scheduled games. On this night Orange met Gold and Green played Blue, those pairings occur again on August 3rd and 15th. We had a 61% player turnout for the first night which isn't bad considering that some who signed up either had to work or are on vacation. The format is very different from our spring and fall seasons for the simple reason that the results don't matter, the summer season is for those who can't get enough of the game and just want to play for the fun of it. Had my usual lunchtime visit with Jenny on Wednesday, she's still having some soreness but it's not as uncomfortable as it had been which is a great sign. In the evening I was at the ballpark for a night of youth baseball. Every year the local newspaper sponsors a tournament that crowns champions in three age groups. The Midget Division bracket (ages 15 and 16) has been played on North Prince Street since 2007, eight teams (all from the Lanco Midget League) qualify. The first two quarterfinal games were played on Tuesday, on this night the other half of the bracket played its first-rounders. The second game of the evening was noteworthy, for the first time since 2014 the Lancaster Jr. Tornado advanced to the final eight. Five members of the team (Dylan Esh, Alex Dominguez, Mason Lee, Nate Santiago and Evan Proulx) played on the varsity at McCaskey in the spring, most of the others were on the JV squad (which I never get to see because their games are on another field at the same time the varsity plays). The boys won 8-0 which puts them into the semifinals on Thursday, the championship is scheduled for Friday (weather-permitting, the forecast for Friday and Saturday doesn't sound good at all). Take care, thanks for reading.

July 22-23

Spent some time with Jenny at her place on Saturday morning, she's still having fatigue and discomfort from the surgery (which is to be expected). After our usual lunch visit I came back to town and from there to Don's house in Landisville. He was just back from vacation, our meeting was to assemble the teams for our Summer draft league at the rink. We set it up exactly as we had it in 2016: four teams playing a nine-game schedule, we start on Tuesday the 25th and finish in August on the 22nd. The summer season is all about fun and recreation, there are no playoffs or championship involved. It's an opportunity for the participants to play with different people of various skill levels and maybe learn a little bit from each other. We had sixty-three individuals sign up, as a result three of the teams have sixteen players and the fourth has fifteen. We'll undoubtedly have some late additions and there are always a few who sign up to play but never show up, those scenarios are dealt with as they occur. I was finally back home by 3:30 or so, in the evening I was at the ballpark for game #2 with Long Island. Under usual conditions Jenny and Helen would have been with me but that was obviously not the case on this night. Jenny wanted to come but common sense prevailed, hopefully she's good to go for the next Saturday home date. They really didn't miss much, the Barnstormers trailed almost from the outset and lost 5-1. Long Island was up 4-0 in the sixth when Sean Halton doubled and scored on Cole Garner's RBI single, the Stormers managed only one other hit all night long. Rommie Lewis got the start and worked six innings in taking the loss. On Sunday I stayed indoors and out of the heat, at the ballpark the Stormers took the rubber game of the series 7-2. The ballclub hits the road for a week, they return home on Monday the 31st. Take care, thanks for reading.

July 21

When I posted my most recent entry here (July 17-20) I was notified that it was the 1000th post in this blog since I started keeping it in November of 2010. I actually started an online blog in January of that year, when the original blog's hosting site became unmanageable I started this one here at blogger.com. That original blog regrettably no longer exists online but I was able to preserve it in print, maybe someday I'll publish my memoirs and it will come in handy. I can't imagine who would buy that book but I know this blog has an audience so one never knows. The steamy weather conditions that moved in earlier in the week were still with us on Friday, in the evening the Barnstormers opened a series with the Long Island Ducks. On the 14th in York the Revs played at home for the first time in eleven days (a seven-day road trip followed by the four-day All-Star break), on this night the Stormers were returning home from a similar absence (the A-S break followed by a week-long roadie). The ballclub lost two more players during the break as Caleb Gindl (San Francisco) and Vladimir Frias (Arizona) were signed back into affiliated ball. As a result the Stormers had four new players in the lineup including a returning favorite and two others making their season debuts. The returning favorite was Cole Garner, a member of the Stormers' 2014 championship club who spent part of '16 in the ALPB with New Britain, his solo home run in the second inning gave the Barnstormers an early 1-0 lead. Garrett Weber and Josh Bell (activated from his coaching position) followed with back-to-back singles, Weber scored on Anderson De La Rosa's RBI double. Bell came home on a single by new addition Beau Amaral (from the Cincinnati Reds organization and the son of ex-bigleaguer Rich Amaral) to make it 3-0. In the fourth the visiting Ducks posted a single run, the Stormers replied in their half when Garner singled and scored on De La Rosa's second RBI double of the evening. Rico Noel's solo shot in the seventh put the cap on a 5-1 victory, Jarrett Leverett went six innings for the win with support from Daniel Moskos, Scott Shuman and Anthony Carter. The organization is celebrating Farm Show Weekend, similar to the theme used when the All-Star Game was played here in 2016. There were a good number of agriculture-themed exhibits and farm animals displayed around the ballpark, a appropriate motif for our area (as opposed to some others I know but that's a rant for another time). Take care, thanks for reading.

July 17-20

Not much going on Monday or Tuesday save for the morning rounds, on Wednesday Jenny and her mother were in town. Several months ago Jenny had an MRI which revealed the need for a surgical procedure, I won't go into details except to say that it is something reasonably typical for a woman in her mid-40s (Jenny was born in 1972). I was with her for a while in the morning at the hospital before they took her in, the procedure was scheduled for 11:30. After supper I went back to see how she was doing, Helen told me they didn't get started until after 1:00 and Jenny had only gotten out of recovery and into her room about an hour before I arrived. I only stayed for about forty-five minutes, Jenny was completely out of it and in obvious need of sleep. She knew I was there because we talked but when I went back on Thursday morning she unsurprisingly had no recollection of me being there the night before. They were in the midst of getting her discharge in order, we left the hospital at 12:15 and immediately headed to her house so she could get some rest in her own bed. In late afternoon I made the drive west across the Susquehanna River for the evening's ballgame in York. I texted Jenny to see what was happening, she was awake but she had slept most of the day and was planning to go back to bed after her supper. The game itself was over almost as quickly as it started, the Revoultion scored in each of the first four innings and routed the Sugar Land Skeeters 11-2. In the first Travis Witherspoon singled and scored on Alexi Casilla's RBI double, a sac fly by Michael Burgess plated Casilla to make it 2-0. Jared Mitchell's solo home run in the second extended the lead to three, in the third the Revs added four more. Casilla started the inning with a triple, Isaias Tejeda followed with an RBI double. Luis Cruz reached on a fielders choice, Mitchell doubled and a two-run single from ex-Tampa Bay property Dayron Varona upped the lead to six. Ryan Dent's RBI single scored Varona to make it 7-0. The onslaught continued in the fourth when Casilla singled, Burgess got a base hit and Cruz chased them both home with an RBI triple. Mitchell followed with a double scoring Cruz to make it 10-0. The Revs' final run came on a solo home run by Tejeda in the the sixth, the Skeeters broke the shutout with two in the ninth but at that point the issue had been long decided. Victor Mateo worked six innings on a steamy 97-degree night for the win, he was supported for an inning each by Luke Westphal, Curtis Partch and former Texas Rangers property Joe Van Meter. As it stands I won't be back in York until late August, between now and then most of their home dates coincide with games here in Lancaster. Take care, thanks for reading.

July 10-16

In the world of baseball mid-July signals the All-Star break, the big league game was in Miami on the 11th. The following night was the Atlantic League's showcase event, it was hosted by the Somerset Patriots. The Barnstormers were represented by Anderson De La Rosa, Sean Halton, Vladimir Frias, Garrett Weber and Scott Shuman, the York Revs sent Travis Witherspoon, Isaias Tejeda, Michael Burgess, Alonzo Harris, Chase Huchingson and Brad Allen. The four-day break in the ALPB schedule meant that little was happening around here until Friday when play resumed and I made a trip west across the river. The Revolution played at home for the first time since July 2 as they opened a series with the Bridgeport Bluefish. In June I was in York four times in a fifteen-day stretch but this was my first time back since June 23 (that was the suspended game with the Stormers). There was rain in the forecast for later in the evening, little did we know that events on this night would play out eerily similar to that game on the 23rd. The visiting Bluefish scored single runs in the first and third, in the fourth the Revs got on the board on a Jared Mitchell double and a Witherspoon RBI sac fly. Bridgeport led 3-1 in the seventh when a light mist began to fall, within minutes the rain was coming in earnest and the game went into a delay. Unlike that Friday night in June this game resumed, in the home seventh Witherspoon singled and scored on a wild pitch to make it a one-run game. A three-run Bluefish eighth appeared to settle the issue but the Revs chipped away in their half, Harris walked and scored on a Tejeda hit to bring the club to within 6-3. Bridgeport added a run in the ninth, the Revs scored twice more in their half on RBI hits by Luis Cruz and Alexi Casilla to bring the final to 7-5. One-time Houston Astro property Jay Gause started for the Revolution and suffered the loss. I plan to be back in York on the 20th, the Barnstormers return home the next night. Take care, thanks for reading.

July 7-9

Friday night baseball in Lancaster as the Atlantic League's War Of The Roses reconvened, the York Revs were in town for the opener of a three-game set. About a half-hour before game time the skies darkened to the west and the tarp was rolled out, moments later the deluge began and delayed the scheduled 6:30 start until almost 8:15. The Revolution took a 1-0 lead two batters into the game, Alonzo Harris started it with a base hit and scored on Alexi Casilla's RBI single. In the Barnstormer first Rico Noel walked and touched home on a Sean Halton base hit, in the third Halton hit a laser-beam solo home run to dead center to put the home team up 2-1. In the visiting fifth Casilla drew a one-out walk, Michael Burgess followed with a towering two-run shot to right field putting the Revs back ahead 3-2. That would prove to be the final score as Frank Gailey worked five innings for the win with Brad Allen recording the save, Bryan Evans started for the Stormers and suffered the loss. On Saturday we had our usual lunch visit with Jenny, in the evening we were at the ballpark for game #2. We must be in monsoon season around here because (for the second straight night) a quick storm roared through around 6:00 or so. It was a fast-moving system that disappeared almost as fast as it had arrived, the game started reasonably on time at 6:40. The Revs once again took an early lead in the first, Harris singled and scored on a Burgess fielders choice grounder to make it 1-0. In the Stormer second Garrett Weber and Trayvon Robinson reached on back-to-back singles, they both scored on Tyler Clark's base hit to put the Stormers up 2-1. A two-run Caleb Gindl home run in the third extended the lead to 4-1, in the Revs fifth Jared Mitchell singled and touched home on Alexi Casilla's RBI hit to bring the visitors back within two. In the seventh Casilla continued his hot night with a two-run homer to tie the game at 4-4. In the bottom of the ninth the Barnstormers walked it off, Tray Robinson batted with one out and sent the crowd home happy with a game-winning solo home run to right field. Neither starting pitcher (ex-Atlanta Brave property Steve Janas for the Revs, ex-Rev Rommie Lewis for the Stormers) was around at the end, Anthony Carter won it in relief with Jose Arredondo taking the loss. The series ended in the afternoon heat on Sunday, the Revs leaving town with a win and an 8-5 lead in the season series for the Community Cup. Take care, thanks for reading.

July 1-6

The first day of the second half of 2017 fell on a Saturday, it a date that is noteworthy for our Neighbors To The North. Canada celebrates each year on July 1, the holiday is called Canada Day and in 2017 it is the 150th anniversary of the nation's independence. In the morning I was with Jenny for lunch, in the evening we were back to the ballpark. On this night the Barnstormers dropped a 5-1 decision to the Somerset Patriots. The Pats scored four in the second and a single in the fifth, the lone run for the home team came in the eighth. Vladimir Frias started the inning with a double, two batters later Lastings Milledge singled him home to break the shutout. John Anderson (chiefly a relief pitcher) made the spot start and took the loss. The series wrapped up on Sunday in the afternoon heat and the first half of the league schedule ended as well, the Stormers record stands at 38-31 (tied for first place in the division with Southern Maryland, also at 38-31). Back in May the Stormers and Blue Crabs were rained out of a game in Waldorf, it was rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on July 29. The series itself begins the night before, under the circumstances the league has decreed the game on July 28 as "first-half game #70". That game decides the first-half title and the playoff berth that goes with it, the weird part is that the teams will be about twenty games into the second-half schedule before the first half is officially concluded. The early part of the new week was largely uneventful, both the Barnstormers and the York Revs were on the road and with dek hockey season over there was little else going on. On Tuesday the U.S. of A. celebrated its 241st birthday, on Thursday Jenny was in town for a doctor appointment and we had our Wednesday lunch a day later than usual. Take care, thanks for reading.