June 28-30

The blast furnace was over for business with the start of the new week, on Monday evening I had a message from Jr. Tornado head coach Justin Esh. The JrT was scheduled to play at home on Tuesday night, the game time was being moved from 6:00 to 7:30 in an effort to avoid the peak heat (can't say I could argue with that strategy one little bit). On Tuesday night it was ninety (that's NINETY as in "9-0") degrees and sunny at game time with only a hint of a breeze coming in from right field. Conestoga Valley was the opponent, before the game they made a last-minute lineup change and their coach actually informed me of it personally (wow, what a concept!!!). The JrT took a 1-0 lead in the first, Ty Jenkins walked and scored on Alex Rodriguez' RBI hit. CV scored twice in the second and once in the third, in the bottom half Alex Ruiz doubled and touched home on Nolan Book's base hit making it 3-2. The JrT tied it 3-3 in the fifth when Cole Hatfield doubled and scored on an error but in the seventh CV put together a two-out two-run rally and took it 5-3. Chase Travitz started on the mound with Rodriguez, Ruiz (taking the tough-luck loss) and Book working in relief. On Wednesday I was with Jenny as we did our usual midweek lunch in Quarryville, in the evening I was at the professional ballpark on North Prince Street. The Long Island Ducks joined the Atlantic League as an expansion club in 2000, with Somerset (the last of the league's "original six") now in affiliated ball they are the league's senior franchise. The Ducks won the first game of this series on Tuesday by the eye-catching score of 19-18 (that is not a misprint), on this night the Stormers got even with a 16-8 win. Just about everyone in the lineup had a hand in the offense, Blake Gailen and Anderson De La Rosa each had a home run and three RBI while Blake Allemand also went yard and had two ribbies. Trayvon Robinson had a triple and three runs batted in, ex-Atlanta Braves property Cleuluis Rondon had a double and two RBI, Caleb Gindl had an RBI double and Kelly Dugan had four base hits and one RBI. Dominic DiSabatino started and went six innings on a hot night for the victory. Take care, thanks for reading.

June 26-27

Saturday lunch with Jenny and her mother, in the afternoon they came back to town with me for the evening's ballgame at the ballpark. This was the first time Helen was at my place since February 2020 (before The Madness began the next month), Jenny had been here in May when she had a medical appointment on a day I had a haircut. At the ballpark in the evening the Barnstormers put up another eight-spot on the way to a second straight win over West Virginia. The visiting Power (wearing "Charleston Charlies" uniforms in a nod to their city's baseball history) took a 1-0 first-inning lead, the Stormers replied in the bottom half on ex-MLBer Alejandro De Aza's two-run single scoring Caleb Gindl and Melvin Mercedes. WV tied it in the fourth, in the Stormer half Anderson De La Rosa walked and trotted home on Gindl's two-run home run making it 4-2. In the fifth the Power put three on the board to take a 5-4 lead but again the Barnstormers replied loudly in their half. Base hits from De Aza and Trayvon Robinson started the rally, Kelly Dugan's sac-fly RBI tied the score at 5-5. Blake Allemand drew a walk, De La Rosa followed with a two-run double to put the Stormers up by two. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases for Mercedes who drew a free ticket himself forcing De La Rosa home with the inning's fourth run making it 8-5. The Power scored a single run in the ninth but that was as close as it got, the final was 8-6. It was a night for newcomers on the pitching staff, manager Ross Peeples used five men and three of them were making their debuts. Ryan Evans (Grambling State product) was the winner in relief of starter Cody Boydstun (from Longwood University), returning veteran Scott Shuman picked up the save. The Stormers finished the series sweep on Sunday afternoon, I was in Rothsville for week #8 of street hockey at Lions Park. On this day Hillside beat Warwick and Ephrata outlasted Township via shootout but that was of little importance in light of what happened on my way home. There are several rural roads I use as shortcuts on my way to and from Rothsville, about two miles south of Lions Park I witnessed an approaching bicyclist wipe out violently and hit the pavement. I was about a quarter-mile away from him when he lost control, when I reached him I pulled up alongside to ask if he was OK and he was completely unresponsive. I noticed a pool of blood on the road right under his head and immediately called 911. Another motorist was right behind me at the time, he pulled over and we stayed with the man until the ambulance arrived. Rothsville has a volunteer fire company, the ambulance came from there and it arrived within ten minutes. They got the man on board and to the hospital, the initial thought was that he had broken his collarbone. Needless to say I hope he'll be OK but I'll probably never know for sure. All I can say is nobody with a conscience can see something like that and just walk away from it. Take care, thanks for reading. 

June 25

Friday night at the ballpark on North Prince Street, the Barnstormers were back home from a two-week road trip to host another of the Atlantic League's new franchises. In the winter of 2021 minor league baseball at the affiliated levels underwent a massive reorganization, the fallout included the elimination of over forty established franchises including many of long tenure. In turn the Somerset Patriots and the Sugar Land Skeeters entered the affiliated ranks from the Atlantic League creating two openings which were quickly filled with new additions in Lexington, Kentucky and Charleston, West Virginia. Charleston has a long history in MiLB, the city hosted a Triple-A club known as the "Charlies" in the 1970s and '80s. Most recently the "West Virginia Power" has played at the low-A level as an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, the new ALPB team in Charleston has retained that identity. On this night at the ballpark the Stormers broke on top 2-0 in the first inning, Caleb Gindl's leadoff home run was followed by a Melvin Mercedes double and Trayvon Robinson's RBI single. The Power got on the board in the third, the Stormers got that run right back in the bottom half on a Blake Gailen round-tripper. In the top of the fourth WV tied the score 3-3, in the bottom half the Stormers retook the lead on Anthony Peroni's RBI hit scoring Blake Allemand who had reached on a fielders choice. The lead grew to 6-3 in the sixth on LaDarious Clark's two-run home run, in the seventh Trayvon Robinson put the ribbon on the package with another two-run shot onto the picnic deck in the right field. The final score of 8-3 gave starter Anthony DiSabatino the victory, he was supported in relief by newcomer Jordan McCrum (University Of Pittsburgh), former Minnesota Twin Gabriel Moya and returnee Garrett Granitz. The series continues through Sunday afternoon. Take care, thanks for reading.

June 23-24

Wednesday night baseball at McCaskey, the Jr. Tornado hosted Cocalico in a game rescheduled from June 8. Cocalico represents the school district of the same name based in the northeastern part of the county in the borough of Denver. On this night the weather was of no issue whatsoever, it was 77 degrees and sunny with just a slight breeze out to right field. The game was scoreless into the bottom of the fifth inning when the JrT exploded for five runs. Kye Watson started the rally with a triple, Orion Frailey was hit by the pitch and Alex Ruiz walked to load the bases. Nolan Book's RBI single scored Watson, Frailey raced home on a wild pitch to make it 2-0. Alex Rodriguez drew a walk to reload the bases, Ty Jenkins followed with a base hit scoring Ruiz. Dean Davis walked to force Book home with run #4, Chase Travitz hit a sacrifice fly scoring A-Rod to make it 5-0. The JrT added a run in the sixth when Ruiz tripled and scored on an error, the final score was 6-0. Lars Holland pitched five innings for the win with Ruiz working the last two in relief. It was a great victory for the ballclub but I'll probably remember it for an altogether different reason. When I went to the visiting dugout before the game they told me the head coach had not yet arrived and he had delegated no responsibility to anyone else. The de-facto assistant coach had no idea what the starting lineup would be, I asked him to have someone bring it to me when it was established. After the head coach arrived and the game started (ten minutes late) nobody from their side favored me with any information of any kind. I did the only thing I could do: when the JrT was at bat it was business as usual, when the visitors were up it was the PA equivalent of Radio Silence. I would have been very happy to introduce their players and acknowledge them but I couldn't because I didn't know who any of them were. I realize it was an amateur athletic event but that doesn't mean you should take an amateur attitude about it, I guess it didn't matter that their kids played in anonymity while the other team got all the attention. To borrow an old expression: "Que Sera Sera" Take care, thanks for reading. 

June 21-22

The new week began with miserably hot weather, temperatures hit the low-90s on Monday afternoon. I took care of what I needed to do over lunch and was glad to be home when I was finished. Evening thunderstorms ushered in cooler temperatures overnight into Tuesday, in the morning Jenny and Helen had an appointment in Willow Street. It was still raining when I left the house to pick up lunch and take them home, in early afternoon the rain moved out as I was heading back to the city. Got word that the ballgame at McCaskey was on as scheduled, on this evening the Jr. Tornado hosted Penn Manor. The field was in remarkably good condition despite only the pitchers mound and home plate having been covered by tarpaulins, at 6:00 game time it was 64 degrees and overcast with winds out to left at sixteen MPH. During the second inning the clouds broke and we had sunlight for the rest of the game. The JrT spotted PM a first-inning run before scoring three of their own in the bottom half. Kye Watson started it with a triple to right-center, he would score on Landis Fluck's RBI groundout to tie it 1-1. Alex Ruiz doubled to left and scored on Nolan Book's RBI single, Nolan touched home on an RBI groundout by Ty Jenkins to give the JrT a 3-1 advantage. The ballclub added a run in the fourth on back-to-back doubles from Jenkins and Dean Davis to make it 4-1, that would be the final score. Chase Travitz was the starting pitcher but didn't figure in the decision, Alex Rodriguez (whose nickname unsurprisingly is "A-Rod") was the winner in relief with Nolan Book working the last inning. It's the ballclub's first win after three rather one-sided losses, they are right back on the field on Wednesday night versus Cocalico. Take care, thanks for reading.

June 18-20

Jenny was in town on the weekend babysitting her friend's three daughters, on Saturday her mother and I joined her at her friend's house. The occasion was the middle daughter's fourth birthday, since they now live in a house with a yard instead of an apartment the party was held at their address. The birthday girl (her name is Shania, pronounced "shuh-NYE-uh") is a fan of a particular well-known animated character, I was able to find a balloon featuring that character at a local store. The look on Shania's face when we gave it to her was absolutely priceless, she didn't leave that balloon out of her sight the rest of the day. The oldest daughter will be seven in July, the youngest will turn one year old in January of '22. On Sunday we were back in Rothsville for week #7 of street hockey, this was the first official day for the new format. It was another very warm day, temperatures were in the 80s with intermittent cloud cover. The turnout was much better than in recent weeks, perhaps the mere fact that everyone plays just one game made a difference. One of the players commented that playing just once makes sense since we're playing at the hottest time of the day on the hottest days of the year. The only real adjustment was the introduction of stop-time on all whistles, we're still playing three ten-minute periods but no longer using running time unless the game becomes uncompetitive. On this day Township rallied to defeat Warwick and Hillside beat Ephrata, we started at noon and were finished before 2:00. Take care, thanks for reading.

June 14-17

Tuesday night on the PA at McCaskey for the Lancaster Junior Tornado's first County Midget League home game. Under normal circumstances I would have other commitments at this time of year that would preclude me from any personal involvement, in past seasons I'd be lucky to see one or two games as a spectator. Since those other commitments have yet to return I have the time to give and besides: it's for the kids so Why Not? The boys had not played since their first game on June 1 in Mount Joy, two other games were postponed including a home game which has not yet been rescheduled. The team's presence in the league is under the auspices of the city's recreation commission, although the team utilizes the high school's nickname and facilities plus the coaching staff and a number of the players it would be incorrect to refer to the Jr.Tornado as "McCaskey" because the school itself is not directly involved. On this night the "JrT" (if you will) hosted Strasburg/Willow Street, at 6:00 game time it was a comfortable seventy-seven degrees with winds out of the northwest at seven MPH. In the home first Kye Watson singled and advanced to third on Landis Fluck's base hit, Alex Rodriguez' RBI groundout gave the JrT a 1-0 lead. SWS tied it in the fourth, put five on the board in the fifth and added two more in the seventh, the final was 8-1. Chase Travitz was the pitcher of record with relief support from Rodriguez and Nathan Book. On Thursday the ballclub played in Ephrata, after supper I made the twelve-mile drive northeast. Ephrata (like SWS) is a regular crossover league opponent for McCaskey during high school season, they also play at their district's high school field. On this night the JrT scored in the fourth when Landis Fluck singled, stole second and touched home on Alex Rodriguez' RBI hit. That would be the lone run in a 10-1 loss, Alex started on the hill with Lars Holland, Tobe Kuntz and Braulio Rivera working in relief. The boys are next scheduled for the 22nd at McCaskey versus Penn Manor. Take care, thanks for reading.

June 11-13

Quiet weekend except for Saturday lunch with Jenny and Sunday hockey in Rothsville. The weather on Sunday was nowhere near as oppressive as the previous week but that didn't stop what was probably an inevitability. We had discussed some possible changes in light of the fact that we're moving into the summer months and hotter weather, the events of this day underlined the need for them. All four teams were badly undermanned, one team played with no substitutes and three of their guys couldn't stay for their second game. It was decided that the two rematches on this day would be cancelled completely and all future dates would be reduced to one game per team. All season long we've allowed guys to jump on and play for other teams if they were shorthanded since the league first and foremost is for FUN, so far eighteen of the sixty-two players have played for more than one team and five guys have played for three teams (nobody has made it to all four as of yet). Perhaps the rigors of playing twice a day in the hotter weather is simply too much since most of the guys are over forty and many are in their 50s. Another factor is how people will commit to playing but then show up infrequently or not at all, there are guys who played on opening day on May 2 who haven't been seen since. What it all means is that the schedule is reduced from twenty games to fourteen, every team has played ten games with four remaining and the last date is still July 18 as planned. For the record Hillside defeated Township via OT shootout and Ephrata won over Warwick. With it all I was home about an hour earlier than I would have expected but I believe the new format will be for the better. Take care, thanks for reading.

June 7-10

Tuesday night at the ballpark for the start of a new series, the Stormers hosted one of the league's newest teams. The Gastonia (North Carolina) Honey Hunters are one of three new clubs debuting in the Atlantic League, they replace the now-defunct New Britain franchise. Gastonia has a long and decorated history in affiliated minor league baseball, the city last hosted a pro club in 1992 and in recent years a summer college league team has played there. On Tuesday night the opener of the series began forty minutes late thanks to a quick-moving rainstorm, by the time it ended five hours and five minutes later at 12:15am it was beyond description. Any attempt to recap it with any kind of play-by-play would be sheer buffoonery, all you need to know is Gastonia won 16-14 (that is not a misprint). The teams combined to score thirty runs on twenty-nine base hits, the pitching staffs (eight Hunters, five Stormers) issued thirty-five (that's 35) walks and hit three batsmen. The Barnstormers got home runs from former Milwaukee Brewer property Blake Allemand (a solo shot in the second inning), Kelly Dugan (with a runner on in the third) and Trayvon Robinson (with a runner on in the sixth) but it was nowhere near enough, ex-Minnesota Twin property Andro Cutera started and took the loss. On Wednesday in game #2 the Honey Hunters took a 3-0 first-inning lead and were never headed in a 10-3 decision. The Stormers' three runs came in the third on a LeDarious Clark RBI hit and a two-run single from Kelly Dugan, Dominic DiSabatino started on the mound and took the loss. On Thursday night the downbeat continued as Gastonia completed the series sweep with a 16-3 win, the Hunters were up 8-0 in the fourth and the outcome was never really in doubt. The Stormers got RBI hits from Melvin Mercedes and returnee Devon Torrence, the third run scored on a home run by fan favorite Blake Gailen. It was noteworthy because it was Blake's 100th home run as a Barnstormer, he came to Lancaster in 2012 and in-between affiliated assignments has played parts of eight seasons in a Stormer uniform. Starting pitcher Dan Taggart (Adelphi University product) was of record as the Stormers finish the homestand 2-4 and it isn't difficult to pinpoint the problem. The club's ERA ranks last in the league and the staff leads the league in walks and hit batsmen. The ballclub hits the road for a four-city twelve-game road trip, they come home on Friday the 25th. Take care, thanks for reading.

June 5-6

Saturday night: back at the ballpark for Revs/Stormers Round II, the Barnstormers rebounded from the lopsided Friday game with a tough extra-inning win. This was one of those wacky games that crop up in the Atlantic League on occasion and it started much like Friday's game as the visitors from West Of The River took a quick 4-0 lead in the first inning. By the fourth inning it was 6-3 Revs, the Stormers put four on the board in the fifth to forge ahead 7-6. The Revolution tallied single runs in the sixth and seventh to go up 8-7, in the bottom of the ninth the Stormers forced extra innings on a game-tying base hit by returnee Melvin Mercedes. The Revs scored twice in the top of the tenth but the Stormers responded with three in their half to ultimately prevail 11-10, the tying and winning runs scored on a base hit from ex-Washington Nationals property Anthony Peroni. Offensive contributions for the Revs included returnee Carlos Franco with a home run and two RBI, fellow veteran Wellington Dotel had four hits and two RBI, former Yankee farmhand Rashad Crawford went yard twice and had three ribbies. For the Stormers ex-Texas Ranger property LeDarious Clark had a big night with a double, two longballs and three RBI, one-time AZ Diamondback farmhand Kelly Dugan had a two-run double. As you might guess the starting pitchers were long-gone by the time the game ended, Yoel Espinal (Texas) was the winner and Bubby Rossman (LA Dodgers) suffered the loss. The series wrapped up in the afternoon heat on Sunday, the Stormers won 12-11 (!!!) to take the series two games to one. I spent the afternoon in the heat of Lions Park in Rothsville, after a week off for the holiday we were back for street hockey week #5. On this day (and for a second consecutive week of play) the four games were split across the board. Ephrata and Township traded regulation wins, Warwick and Hillside split with Hillside's win coming via OT shootout. We had planned to play one of the games postponed on May 9 but with temperatures in the 90s we decided to reset it for the 27th (when these particular matchups happen again) and hope for less-oppressive heat on that day. Nobody complained about it in the least, by the time the day was over everyone was wiped out just having played twice. Take care, thanks for reading.

June 4

The fourth day of June was a red-letter day for area baseball fans, for the first time since September of 2019 there was game action at the ballpark on North Prince Street. The Atlantic League Of Professional Baseball began play in 1998 with six teams, a two-team expansion in 2000 grew the league to eight and it's been that way ever since. Franchises have come and gone over the years but two of the constants have been (since 2005) the Lancaster Barnstormers and (since 2007) the York Revolution. On this night the geographic rivals met in the Stormers' home opener. The league schedule had actually started the previous week, both clubs entered with seven games already in the books. Each team's long-standing manager has returned to the dugout, Mark Mason for the Revs and Ross Peoples for the Barnstormers. The pregame ceremonies were the high point of the evening so far as the Stormers were concerned, the Revs scored early and often in a lopsided 18-2 victory. The major factor in this game was Barnstormer pitching, seven pitchers combined to issue seventeen walks and two hit batsmen, ten of those nineteen runners scored and six of them reached with the bases loaded. Returning veteran Melky Mesa had two base hits and five RBI for the Revs, former Cleveland Indians property Nellie Rodriguez hit a three-run homer and ex-St. Louis Cardinal farmhand Edwin Figuera had three hits and two RBI. The Stormers scored both of their run in the fifth inning on RBI hits from returnees Trayvon Robinson and Anderson De La Rosa. The starting pitchers were involved in the decision, returnee Duke Von Schamann for the Revs and former San Diego property Dominic DiSabatino for the Stormers. The series continues with games on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Take care, thanks for reading.

May 24-June 3

I recently noticed the total pageviews on this blog had surpassed 26,000 since it started in November of 2010. I've always said I appreciate my audience although I really don't know who reads the useless tripe and drivel I talk about. Here of late the posts have been infrequent simply because: what do you write about when there just isn't a whole hell of a lot going on? The last week of May had one major event that really had little to do with me. Jenny is in town often to babysit her friend's daughters, on Saturday her friend moved into a new address. The old apartment was on the extreme opposite side of town from where I am, the new place is less than a mile away. It's much nicer all the way around since Jenny won't have three flights of steps to deal with at the new place and for me it's much better simply because it's only about a five-minute drive on streets that generally have light traffic. The ironic part of it all is that the new place is literally across the street from where Jenny's brother lives, his wife is Jenny's friend's aunt. The month of June arrived on a Tuesday, noteworthy because it was the opening date for the county Midget Baseball league. The league did not operate in 2020 because most every team uses school facilities that were not made available thanks to THE BS (capital letters intended). The Midget level is 17-and-under, the teams are basically each participating district's high school team minus the graduated seniors plus any players from non-participating districts added on a "co-op" basis. Case in point: the McCaskey team (officially known as the Lancaster Junior Tornado) has two players from Manheim Township and one each from Manheim Central and Columbia since those districts are not playing in the league this time around. It's a twelve-game schedule, each team plays each opponent once. On this night the Tornado opened league play on the road in Mount Joy against Donegal. The Donegal school district is one of the county's smaller jurisdictions, in high school play they and McCaskey are seldom opponents. I made the trip northwest about fifteen miles from the city because it was an opportunity and a pleasure to be out of the house in the evening for a change, unfortunately the results were not kind. The Tornado fell 11-3 in a game called in the sixth inning due to approaching darkness. The Good Guys tallied twice in the fourth on a two-run single by Alex Rodriguez scoring Landis Fluck and Alex Ruiz, in the sixth Tobe Kuntz hit an over-the-fence home run to left-center for the third run. Orion Frailey was the pitcher of record with relief help from Rodriguez and Ty Jenkins. The team was scheduled for games on the 3rd and the 8th, both are postponed because the opponents are still involved in high school district playoffs. As it stands the next game isn't until the 15th at McCaskey. Take care, thanks for reading.