March 29-31

The baseball club at McCaskey started its season with a non-league road win on the 27th, on the following Wednesday league play began at home against Manheim Township. A storm system moved through from the west in early afternoon, for a while it looked like the game might be in jeopardy. At 4:30 (two hours before game time) I got word that we were still on, I went over to the ballfield shortly after 5:00. Tyler Horst is back as the program's head coach, when I saw him I said that needless to say it felt damn good to be back. The local newspaper recently did a season preview story around the fact that since there was no season in 2020 it is difficult to make any predictions, the last time anyone played the current seniors were sophomores. The writer forecasted Township to be among the favorites in our division and on this night MT showed it, they scored twice in each of the first two innings and won it going away 8-0. The Red Tornado had a baserunner in each inning but recorded only two base hits and could never gain any momentum. A.J. De Los Santos started on the mound and worked into the fourth inning, he was followed by Albert Rosario, Xavian Padilla, Kolby Esh and Alex Ruiz. It was an unusually warm night for late March, game time temperatures were in the low-60s with almost no wind. There was some light mist falling during the later innings, not more than two minutes after the game ended it opened up and poured. The rain stopped almost as quickly as it started, after I had everything packed away upstairs my walk to the car was no problem at all. I was home right around 9:00 which gave me plenty of time to get a shower, grab a snack and write this blog post. The next home game is on April 7 against Warwick. Take care, thanks for reading.

March 26-28

Friday the 26th: JPM was scheduled to host Governor Mifflin in the first game of baseball season but the rains from Wednesday and Thursday had done their damage, as a result what would have been a great day for a ballgame was ruined. The game was postponed due to wet grounds, there was no immediate word of a makeup date. The club has a full schedule of twenty games (ten home and ten away), the next home date is on March 31. The home portion of the slate features each of the five division opponents along with crossover games with Solanco, Lampeter-Strasburg and Lebanon, Harrisburg and Mifflin are the opponents for the two nonleague games. The league recently announced that (like basketball season) only divisional games will count towards postseason playoffs which essentially means that half of the overall schedule counts only towards district playoff eligibility. It is what it is but at least there will be a season, it's been a long time since May of 2019. Take care, thanks for reading.

March 22-25

Monday night: back at LCHS in the neighborhood they call Rossmere for the state semifinal playoff game, on this night La Academia's wonderful postseason run ended with a tough overtime loss. Nativity Blessed Virgin Mary was the opponent making the seventy-mile trip south from Pottsville. The game was a thriller just about all the way, in the extra period Nativity outscored "The Academy" 11-3 and won 72-64. The visitors brought an enthusiastic busload of fans which helped to make the atmosphere very raucous, something we regrettably didn't see much of during the season since at McCaskey no fans were permitted and most other places were "parents-only" or something similar. It's obviously a disappointing way for Jerry's squad to end the season but the fact that they made it this far is something to be very proud of. The program is only in its second year of existence and in its first season as a member of the PIAA. I was only aboard the train for the last two games (I guess you could say I was riding in the caboose) but it was a pleasure nonetheless. The Class-1A state championship game was played on Thursday afternoon in Hershey, Nativity won the title and I've always felt that there is never any shame in losing to the eventual champ. Jenny and I had lunch on Tuesday because she had a doctor appointment in Quarryville the next day. Wednesday was a miserable rainy day but Thursday was much nicer until the evening hours when another rain shower passed through. Take care, thanks for reading.

March 1-21

The third month of 2021 began on a Monday, the first three weeks of it were very slow and unnoteworthy. With the end of basketball season at McCaskey we're back into The Black Hole, the morning errand run is about all that goes on. The baseball team at JPM began practice on the 8th, the first home game is scheduled for Friday the 26th. They were supposed to have a scrimmage at home on the 16th, early in the afternoon a round of rain blew through. I don't know if the scrimmage went on or not, I elected to stay in because standing outside in the dampness and wind didn't appeal to me (at a regular game I would have been upstairs in shelter in the press box). On Thursday the 18th I had an afternoon internet message from former McCaskey basketball star Jerry Johnson. Jerry graduated from JPM in 2001 as the program's all-time leading scorer, a distinction he still holds twenty years later. These days Jerry is the athletic director and head basketball coach at a small charter school here in Lancaster called La Academia. The school has been around since the mid-90s, in 2019 they established a basketball program and they play all their games on the road because their school has no gymnasium. Jerry's squad qualified for district playoffs at the single-A level and won the championship, on Friday the 19th they were playing their first official "home" game in the state tournament. Jerry worked out a deal with Lancaster Catholic HS to serve as host, he called me because he needed a PA announcer. Jerry's assistant coach is former JPM teammate Dustin Salisbery (Class of 2003), Dustin's son Damajh is on the roster along with former McCaskey player Kevin Polite. At the game on Friday night a limited attendance was permitted, Jerry's parents were there along with a number of others with past McCaskey connections so in many ways it felt like The Band was back together. In the game itself La Academia won 55-50 over Phil-Mont Christian Academy (from the northern suburbs of Philadelphia), that puts them into a semifinal matchup on Monday the 22nd back at LCHS. On Saturday Jenny had an afternoon appointment at the hair salon in Quarryville, we had our usual lunch date as well (that's something NOBODY will take away from us no matter what BS they try to pull). Take care, thanks for reading.