Keep in mind again within the day once we returned to highschool and had been assigned the duty of writing about what we did throughout summer season break?
That’s type of what I really feel like proper now.
I can let you know that my pretty fiancée and I loved getting away for a number of days, however like all the time, it goes rapidly.
Now, it’s again to actuality.
Feeling a bit rusty as I try to put this factor collectively, so attempt to bear with the previous man.
I used to be gonna ask that age-old query, “Did you miss me?”
However that’s normally not an amazing concept, as a result of invariably the reply is, “Had been you gone?”
At any charge, the climate was, for probably the most half, implausible, and the visitors was something however.
Numerous of us drive like absolute maniacs and we did encounter highway development and several other lengthy backups to and from our vacation spot.
We did make it safely to Myrtle Seaside nonetheless, and again residence safely to Maysville as effectively.
The one sporting occasion we took in was a Myrtle Seaside Pelicans baseball recreation on Tuesday night, and the Carolina League crew dropped a 6-4 determination to the Fredericksburg Nationals.
The Pelicans, a Class A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, draw fairly first rate crowds to their previous ball park, and like most minor league groups, there’s loads of silliness on the sector between innings with followers getting alternatives to take part in numerous contests.
Essentially the most entertaining spotlight (and the one which drew probably the most applause) was the substitute for the batboy, the bat canine. The well-trained pooch got here onto the sector in the course of the backside of the primary inning, and dutifully picked up gamers’ bats and returned them to the dugout, delighting the group of 4,366 within the course of.
I get pleasure from attending minor league video games at any time when potential, and the expertise at Pelicans Ballpark was one other good one.
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MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL IN MAYSVILLE—I understand that is relatively far-fetched, however it will be great if our city had a minor league crew.
Sure, it will take a wholesome chunk of cash to get it going, beginning with a viable venue.
It could require traders with a imaginative and prescient of offering a correct place to play, and that may probably by no means occur.
My promise is that if I ever received a considerable sum of money in a lottery I’d give it a go. The one downside with that concept is that I seldom play the lottery.
You’ll be able to inform me I’m only a dreamer, but when a venue seating 4,000 or so folks was constructed right here, maybe Maysville may appeal to a Class A minor league crew. The ball park may be utilized by highschool groups, in addition to different occasions, and host the tenth Area event yearly.
In spite of everything, there was minor league baseball performed in Maysville prior to now, though it was greater than 100 years in the past.
The Maysville Rivermen didn’t have a season to jot down residence about in 1910, ending in final place within the Blue Grass League with a 37-85 file after transferring from Shelbyville.
The Rivermen had no concept on the time, however the crew’s
promising younger centerfielder, a lefthanded hitting and throwing 19-year-old, would go on to turn into one of many recreation’s immortal figures.
His identify was Casey Stengel.
Stengel started his lengthy and distinguished baseball profession in 1910, lengthy earlier than he managed the New York Yankees, and led them to seven world championships, together with 5 consecutive titles from 1949-1953.
Previous to his managerial profession, Stengel had a profitable big-league profession as effectively, hitting .284 with 1,219 hits from 1912-1925.
“The Ol’ Perfessor,” as he turned recognized later in his profession, Stengel turned one of the crucial endearing characters within the historical past of the sport, and plenty of of his quotes are legendary.
One among my private favorites: “By no means make predictions, particularly concerning the future.”
Following his ultra-successful managerial tenure in pinstripes, Stengel took on the problem of main the growth New York Mets. Of their first season in 1962, the Mets completed 40-120-1, which stays a Nationwide League file in futility.
Stengel remained a beloved determine and plenty of of his well-known quotes had been about dropping, together with “Can’t anyone right here play this recreation? The crew was additionally beloved by New Yorkers regardless of the losses incurred by the crew.
Stengel was elected to the Baseball Corridor of Fame in 1966, and handed away in 1975, on the age of 85.
In the summertime of 2005 after I started on the Ledger Unbiased, I wrote a number of articles about Maysville’s baseball historical past, and the analysis uncovered on the Kentucky Gateway Museum Middle was an eye-opening expertise.
There are additionally a few Stengel tales from his time in Maysville I didn’t discover 18 years in the past, however did just lately after conducting a web-based search.
The next info is from an article written by Tim Hagerty of the Sporting Information in 2015:
Stengel took the crew’s identify actually when a deep fly ball soared towards a close-by creek. He splashed ankle-deep in water and made the catch.
Hagerty additionally recounts this nugget:
When jogging in from Maysville’s outfield after innings, Stengel would slide into third base.
“League Park had an insane asylum simply past its outfield wall,” Stengel’s bio in The Infinite Baseball Card Set described. “Stengel, who was advised that he wanted to work on his sliding approach, would make a apply slide into third base. The inmates of the asylum watched from their home windows and cheered him on with enthusiasm—they thought he was one among their very own.”
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REDLEGS STILL RED HOT—On the threat of jinxing “America’s Staff,” it’s as soon as once more time to revel within the play of a relentless younger group of baseball gamers.
As that is being pounded out on the keyboard on Monday, June 19, the Cincinnati Reds are the speak of baseball.
The obvious purpose is the present eight-game successful streak, with all of these victories occurring on the highway.
The crew has collected 23 comeback wins as effectively, tops within the majors. With 37 whole wins, that equates to 62.2% of the Reds’ wins have been come-from-behind victories. Over the past 60 seasons, the one Nationwide League crew to complete a season with such a excessive proportion of their wins be of the comeback selection had been additionally the Reds, in 2005 (63%).
The first purpose for the America’s Staff nickname is the best way this crew performs the sport.
Their type of play is one which followers within the Queen Metropolis yearn for; they hustle always, they take the additional base at any time when they’ll, they’re second within the bigs in stolen bases, and so they by no means really feel like they’re out of any recreation.
If this crew can keep away from accidents to key gamers, and their bullpen retains acting at a excessive degree, the sky is the restrict, particularly contemplating the truth that the NL Central is a winnable division this season.
The return of Joey Votto will probably be fascinating to observe.
Can one of many all-time Reds greats discover his 2021 stroke, when he hit 36 residence runs and drove in 99 runs?
If he may even come near that form of manufacturing, the Redlegs will probably be much more to observe than they already are.
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“Journey is deadly to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and plenty of of our folks want it sorely on these accounts. Broad, healthful, charitable views of males and issues can not
be acquired by vegetating in a single little nook of the earth all one’s lifetime.”—Mark Twain
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“There comes a time in each man’s life, and I’ve had loads of them.”—Casey Stengel