The new week began with damp and rainy weather, the entire week's schedule at Garrett Park was postponed. Had an EKG done on Tuesday at a local heart facility in preparation for what is to come in July, I had a silent heart attack back in 2014 from which there have never been any reoccurrences but they thought the EKG was a good idea anyway. Little else happened until Friday evening when the Stormers returned home from a three-city road trip, the Long Island Ducks were the opponent. Friend and colleague John Witwer has been the Stormers' PA announcer since the franchise began in 2005, on this night he was away on one of his extremely rare absences. The organization contacted me to sub in for him and everybody seemed to be satisfied, Stormers play-by-play broadcaster Dave Collins (who I have known since 1993 when we were both in the Eastern League) said my presence on the mic legitimately made him happy. I've been doing the ballgames at McCaskey for ten years but this was my first pro game since it all ended Up North in 2012 and I'll admit it was satisfying especially when you're working with good people in a place where THE GAME is what matters. In the game itself the Stormers won 8-2, Mason Martin's solo home run in the first was followed by two more in the second on a wild pitch and a Yeison Coca RBI single. Joseph Carpenter's RBI hit and a bases-loaded walk to Coca made it 5-0 in the sixth, Nick Lucky's three-run bomb in the seventh put the game away. LI broke the shutout in the ninth but it mattered little, Keylan Killgore won it with relief from Jackson Rees, Phil Diehl and newcomer Gerson Moreno. Take care, thanks for reading.
