Baseball, Life, and Other Stuff

A Brief, but Nice Chat with Nick Arata

When Martha and I recently went out to Municipal Stadium in Hagerstown to see the Suns play, we had the opportunity to chat briefly with former New Market Rebel Nick Arata.  Nick, who didn't know us, was happy to see Rebel fans nonetheless and fondly recalled staying with Mona Wolfe.  He was glad to hear that we had beaten Luray several times.  He thanked us for "remembering him" (how humble and gracious!) and we hope to get out again to see Nick.  As of 7/30/09, Nick is hitting .223 in 66 games for the Suns.  For more of Nick's stats and for the Suns remaining schedule, in case anyone would like to come see Nick play go to the Suns website.

Adding to my ACL Collection

No, I'm not talking about operations on my knee, of which I've had none so far.  I'm talking about "applied color label" soda bottles.  Those old bottles take me back to the days of my childhood when vending machines actually contained bottles and the bottles featured all kinds of pictures and designs.  These illustrations were not paper labels nor decals, but applied directly to the glass.

ACL bottles are hardly made any more, but I did find two different bottles at Godfather's Pizza in New Market.  Sun Drop soda has been around for some time and I have an older bottle in my collection as you may see from the photo below.  As for the soda itself, it's not bad stuff; sort of a poor man's version of Fresca for those of you who remember that soft drink.  (Does anyone call them "soft drinks" anymore?  Is my age showing again?)

Big Red soda is the kind I really would have been attracted to as a child since it is very, very red and it looks delicious.  Looks are, indeed, deceiving.  Big Red seems to contain all of the red flavors including cherry, watermelon, and bubblegum.  There may be some raspberry in there too, but the bubblegum flavor tended to overwhelm everything.  Anyone of those flavors would have been superior to the combination, but Big Red is at least much better than cough syrup and was worth drinking to get the bottle.  I will not be adding a six-pack to my collection, however.

One nice aspect of collecting ACL bottles is that there is no such thing as a "complete set" and therefore, folks can collect what they want and not feel compelled to obtain every known bottle because no one knows how many different ACL bottles are out there.  This is a relief since collectors can be a pretty (okay, very) compulsive bunch.

Did anyone out there have a favorite soft drink as a child that is no longer available?

 

Some favorites.  The new Sun Drop and Big Red bottles appear at center.

The Pinnacle of American Cinematic Art

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of the pinnacle of American cinematic achievement.  Sure, Titanic won a boatload of Oscars and Casablanca was a classic, but nothing committed to celluloid has ever surpassed the excellence of the film to which I allude.  It was 31 years ago tomorrow that Animal House was released.

Gone With the Wind was nice, but we already knew how the War Between the States turned out, so there was no suspense there.  Who could have anticipated, however, the way in which Delta House would try to have its charter reinstated?

Slumdog Millionaire was a sweet story about a kid persevering against the odds, but was his story any more inspiring than Bluto's 7 years of college?

Love Story was a movie about . . . a love story, but it wasn't nearly as endearing as the love that Boone and Katie shared.

There are more laughs per square foot in Animal House than in any other movie.  I know I start laughing as soon as the opening music begins to play and I keep laughing right through the final credits.  I invite you to view what is perhaps my favorite scene in which Tim Matheson as Otter, presents a courtroom defense that leaves the legal maneuvers of Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch appear to be the mere ramblings of a court-appointed public defender:

Cows: Comedians of the Animal World

Humor is very subjective.  What one person finds funny may offend another.  Even worse, it may bore another.  I think we can agree, however, that animals are often funny and that cows are the comedians of the animal world.

Cows are not much on verbal or situational humor, but they do great physical comedy.  For one thing, cows can stick their tongues up their own noses.  That's funny.  Especially, when they look right into a video camera and do it.  Cows are masters of deadpan humor.  No matter what prank they are pulling, they always wear that dull, "Who me?" look.  Cows run funny.  Well, a cow doesn't run, so much as she gallumphs around, her udder careening off in a totally different direction than the one in which most of the rest of that cow wants to go.  "Udders" and "rudders" are similar in name only.

Cows are NOT funny, however, when they become uppity and decide that their pasture is not good enough for them and make their way down to say, the C. & O. Canal two days before some major event, say such as Becky's graduation from college in May.

Generally, however, a cow is always good for a laugh, so as you drive around the countryside, be sure to keep your eyes open for some bovine hijinxs that may well be taking place in a pasture near you.

A Holstein, a Jersey, and a Hereford walk into a bar, see . . .

Abner Doubleday's Dismay

Saturday night Martha and I decided to do something different:  We went to a ball game!  We headed out to Municipal Stadium in Hagerstown for the first time this year for Abner Doubleday Bobble Head Night.  At first, I thought we were there on the wrong night and that a concert was taking place, there was such loud music being played constantly.  I soon realized that the music was played between innings and between batters and between pitches and between breaths, ostensibly to liven things up.  Perhaps there was a giant game of musical bleachers taking place, because as constant as the music was, it was accompanied by a steady stream of people heading off to concession stands everywhere.  The guy in front of us could not have seen more than 4 innings total.

I almost left my seat in the first inning to render aid to the public address announcer.  When he announced the Suns' leadoff batter, he did so with such painful straining that I thought that the poor man must be suffering from a sudden attack of stomach cramps.  Then I realized that this was his "style."

In the second inning, with the Suns now trailing 4-3, someone in the booth decided that it would be "clever" to insult the visiting Asheville Tourists by playing songs that compared their players to girls.  One batter walked to the plate to the accompaniment of "Dude Looks Like a Lady."  They tried this with cleanup hitter Kiel Roling who already had hit a 3-run homer in the first.  Striding to the plate to the tune of Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely," Roling promptly lovlied one out of the deepest part of Municipal Stadium in left center, a shot that cleared the back wall which stands some 15' high.  It is the longest home run that I've ever seen hit there and while I didn't see it, I'm pretty sure that the ball took one bounce and landed in Pennsylvania.

Of course, only Martha, myself, and about three other people saw the home run as everyone else was either not supervising their kids in the playground or marching off to the concession stand.  I wanted to take a look at my Abner Doubleday Bobble Head while at the game, but I didn't want him to see what was going on at this concert/parade/eat-a-thon and so he stayed in his box until we got home where he bobbled his disapproval.

Abner Doubleday is obviously not happy with what has been done to his game.

July 17th Still Echoes in Bedford

Last Friday, July 17th, marked a WWII anniversary of a different kind.  By noon on June 6, 1944, the citizens of Bedford, Virginia knew that the invasion of Normandy had begun.  They had to wait almost 6 agonizing weeks, however, before specific news of their sons and husbands arrived in Southwest Virginia.  It was on July 17th that the terrible telegrams began to arrive.  For full commentary on what the citizens of Bedford experienced, please go to the article in the Augusta Free Press.

We owe it to those families and to ourselves to remember.

Mid-Atlantic Classic Moves, Less Than Classy

The Mid-Atlantic All-Star Game, held Wednesday at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, Maryland was a great game (the CRSCBL won, 2-1) played in a great park by two evenly matched teams.  Our seats were fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed the company of the many New Market fans who filled our section.  Yet, most, if not all of us in that section left the stadium with a sour taste in our mouths and the reason was simple:  VBL Head Coach Lance Mauck and his assistant Mike Bocock of Luray refused to ensure that every player would make an appearance.  This game represented the pinnacle of their baseball careers, at least so far; yet 7 players did not appear at all, while 3 more made only token appearances.  Neither Rockbridge's lone representative, Alan Watts, nor either of Fauquier's players, Anders Oster and B. J. Martin, saw any action.

Mauck was quoted by Harrisonburg's Daily News Record as saying that he was going to play to win and that, therefore, not everyone would get in.  Playing to win is a commendable trait in a manager.  (Although bunting with 0 outs in the 6th inning of a tie game is hardly a strategy conducive to winning.  Nor is leaving a left-handed hitter in the game to face a southpaw hurler with the bases loaded and Kenny Mickens, a right handed hitter with a .518 OBP and a .558 SLG%  on the bench.)

The real problem is that there was no VBL policy in place that would save any manager from himself and mandate that every player make an appearance.  If the desire is to have VBL fans attend the game or to watch at home, then it is more than prudent to give those fans a specific rooting interest in the game and that means the opportunity to cheer for their home town representative.

Furthermore, playing everyone is the right thing to do. Winning a meaningless game is nothing compared to knowing that everyone who played, could, 50 years from now, take from his shelf a DVD of this contest and show his grandchildren that yes, he did play in an All-Star game that was on TV.  The CRSCBL manager did not take home any trophy and some VBL players did not take home the memories that should have been theirs.

Mid-Atlantic Classic Tonight!

The Mid-Atlantic All-Star Game will air on MASN beginning at 7:00 tonight.  The game features a squad of Valley Baseball League taking on a squad from the Cal Ripken Senior Collegiate Baseball League which is located in the Baltimore/Washington area.  The VBL squad was selected from among the all-stars who appeared in the leagues all-star game which was held on Sunday in Woodstock.

Congratulations to Rebels Brian Burgess, Zach Helgeson, Kenny Mickens, and Richie Gonzalez for making the team!  Congratulations as well to Trey Alger who will don a Rebels uniform for the first time to serve as bat boy for the VBL stars.

Further congratulations go to Bruce Alger and Bob Douglas of the CRSCBL, who have been working since December to bring tonight's contest to fruition.

An amazing number of Rebel fans will be in attendance, so those of you watching on MASN should listen for those cowbells and shouts of "GO REBELS!" whenever one of our boys toes the rubber or steps to the plate.

Click here for the MASN press release that includes details about tonight's game.

South Wins 1-0 Thriller

The South squad scored only one run, but it was enough to defeat the North squad in yesterday's Valley Baseball League All-Star game.  Three Rebels figured prominently in the affair.  Richie Gonzalez scored the only run, having reached on an error.  Eric Alessio started and allowed just one hit in two innings while Brian Burgess retired the side in order.

Harrisonburg's Bobby Brown took the South MVP honors with a 2/4 effort and the game's only RBI, but Alessio was my MVP.  Eric was the only hurler on either side to hurl more than one inning and how does a pitcher not get MVP consideration in a shutout?

Brian Burgess who closed the game readily admitted to being nervous.  "I've never seen so many guns," he said referring to the radar guns that a score of scouts hoisted in unison to clock every pitch of the game.

The boxscore will give fans all the details.  Now the march to the playoffs begins!

 
Rebel All-Stars from l. to r., Zach Helgeson, Head Coach Lucas Jones, HR Derby participant Sanchez Gartman, Brian Burgess, Eric Alessio.  Seated Kenny Mickens and Richie Gonzalez.
(Shadows across the faces occur when the team PR guy rather than the team photographer takes the photos.)

A Wonderful Parent Weekend

It was great to meet and talk with so many parents of New Market Rebel players this past weekend.  I spoke with the Owens, the Weiners, the Kivetts, the Hammonds, the Livelys, Lynn Helgeson, and Jake Pierce's mom and grandmom, as well as two fiancees and a long-time girlfriend!  Everyone seemed to enjoy Saturday's celebration in the Community Park and I saw many parents lining Congress Street as the Rebel float went by.  As an adopted son of New Market, I certainly hope that you all had a good time and will return soon.  (Surely, you'll be back for the playoffs!)

Though Sunday's rain forced a postponement of the game against Staunton, it did not deter the fun and fellowship that took place during the picnic.  Parents, if you haven't figured this out by now, be advised that whenever there is an official Rebel gathering, there is always plenty of food!

I am also happy to report that the Old-Timers Workout, went extremely well.  Everyone had fun and no one got hurt!  It was especially gratifying to see General Manager Bruce Alger there.  He puts in so much work at Rebel Park so it was nice to see him get a chance to play at Rebel Park.

To Bruce and the entire Rebel organization:  Congratulations on a job well done!

Rebel G. M., Bruce Alger shows some seriously excellent form during Old-Timers' BP.  Mo would be proud!
(Photo courtesy of Melissa Dodge.  For more photos of the entire Parent's Weekend check out the photo page on the Rebels' website.