From 1974 to 1977 I cut my teeth on the PA for the local rec softball league at Bing Conlin Field in Lancaster. Every holiday weekend (Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day) plus a few others featured tournaments with some of the best teams along the Eastern Seaboard. A typical weekend had me there on Friday from 7:00 to about midnight, Saturday from 9:00 until past midnight and Sunday from noon until well into the evening hours (and if Monday was included that was usually from 11:00 into the evening itself). It was an endurance test no matter how you looked at it. These days a league based in the southern end of the county plays its games at Garrett Park in Willow Street, about six miles south of the city proper. Back during the winter I was contacted by a Conlin Field alum who is still active with the league at Willow Street, they were hosting the Pennsylvania State Class C Championships on this weekend and he asked if I'd be available to work the PA. Past experience had me knowing exactly what I was getting myself into and it did not disappoint. There are two fields at Garrett Park, on Saturday there were seven games played on each field involving all eleven teams entered. The first games began at 8:00 in the morning, the last game ended twelve hours and thirty-five minutes later. On Sunday we started at 9:00 with two games on each field, in the afternoon the losers-bracket final and the championship game were played on the main field where the PA setup was located. They had a canopy set up over the PA/scoreboard table which helped somewhat with keeping me protected from direct sunlight but it was still scorching HOT, temperatures both days were well into the 90s. There were a number of people from The Old Days in attendance, many were surprised to see me there and everyone seemed to appreciate my presence. Two local teams met in the championship, Kelly's (from the hosting league) defeated the Rays (from a league based around the Ephrata area). With it all we were done around 4:45 on Sunday, I came home and immediately turned on the air-conditioning (I actually slept with it on overnight into Sunday which is something I generally don't do but after twelve-plus hours in the heat I figured I deserved it). The entire weekend was a definite throwback for me, doing tournaments like that was commonplace when I was much younger but "When I Was Much Younger" is the operative phrase involved. Take care, thanks for reading.
