A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

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Mo’ne and Monarchs dazzle during barnstorming tour stop

It shouldn’t be all about Mo’ne Davis.

Heck, I’m sure she’d even say that.

A group of 13-year-old (maybe a few are 14, too?) kids from the Philadelphia area are embarking on a 23-day, 21-city journey as a tribute to Jackie Robinson, the Negro Leagues, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Mo'ne Davis delivers a pitch at Damaschke Field.

Mo’ne Davis delivers a pitch at Damaschke Field.

They are doing so in the luxury of a 1947 Flxible Clipper touring bus — one with no AC and all that good, modern stuff (such as electronics). This “barnstorming” tour has taken these kids through the Deep South, the Midwest, and back to the East Coast. When all is said and done, they’ll have traveled more than 4,000 miles together.

The team — named the Anderson Monarchs — had the chance to see some of the most historical spots with the Civil Rights Movement. They met African-American players who played during that era. They played against local teams in the cities they visited. They threw out first pitches at games.

The Monarchs even got the tour of the White House!

With what these kids are learning along the way, this tour shouldn’t be about Mo’ne Davis.

Riding in style in a 1947 touring bus.

Riding in style in a 1947 touring bus.

But, in a way, it is.

The intrepid group of kids visited my area Sunday, July 5. That came after a stop in Binghamton on July 4. They were at Oneonta’s historic Damaschke Field on a warm and sunny summer day to play one of the local traveling teams.

Damaschke Field is an historic spot. The former home of the Oneonta Tigers (New York-Penn League), and before that the Oneonta Yankees, Damaschke has seen a lot of incredible players start their professional careers.

Originally built in 1906 (the grandstand was added in 1939), Damaschke is a throwback field. It’s not the prettiest place, but it’s baseball in the truest form. Barnstorming tours came through here many years ago, so having one in the modern era — with a throwback feel — seemed fitting. 

So it made sense for this group to stop here. To see some history. And it was a good spot to stop before they continued to Cooperstown the following day.

And Mo’ne was front and center.

Despite being in the spotlight for the better part of a year, Mo'ne Davis seemingly stays grounded.

Despite being in the spotlight for the better part of a year, Mo’ne Davis seemingly stays grounded.

For those who aren’t sure who Mo’ne Davis is, well, do a quick Google search and at the top of the page it will show you that there is almost 6,000,000 results. At the top of the search is her Wikipedia page. Yes, a 14-year-old teen girl has a Wikipedia page.

Last summer, she took the sports world by storm as she became the first girl to earn a win and pitch a shutout at the Little League World Series. According to her Wikipedia page, she’s the 18th overall girl to play at the LLWS, the sixth to get a hit and the first African-American girl to play in the LLWS.

How to top that? Well, she’s also the first Little League player to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. All in a day’s work, right?

With everything that this tour is about, it shouldn’t be about Mo’ne Davis.

But those who come to these games make sure it is. 

Her star power draws people. Yes, she’s just 14 (she turned 14 in late June), but she’s been through more in the past year and change that most teens will see in a lifetime. She’s been under the spotlight and in the eye of the world.

Her smile is shy. She laughs with her teammates. On the field, she plays just like everybody else. She pitches like a fierce competitor. When not pitching Sunday, she played third base. There were times she seemed to let her eyes wander, almost to absorb the surroundings. From watching her, it seems like she would rather take photos with her teammates and with other kids, rather than adults and others who were enamored more by the name than who she is. 

The Monarchs -- not just Mo'ne Davis -- put on a fine baseball show, hitting, fielding and playing the game the right way during their stop in Oneonta.

The Monarchs — not just Mo’ne Davis — put on a fine baseball show, hitting, fielding and playing the game the right way during their stop in Oneonta.

Mo’ne walked a few times at the plate, too. Like many kids her age, she jogged down to first, almost upset with the free pass. Hey, she probably wanted to swing the bat and who can blame her?

She gave high fives to her teammates and was part of the team — an important concept to always keep.

To be fair, her teammates and others truly seemed to understand the magnitude of how big Mo’ne is. A year removed from the “spotlight” and she’s still going strong. People clamor to see her. But her teammates — from the average eye — treated her just like a teammate. A friend. Not a superstar who graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. And good for them — it’s how it should be.

It shouldn’t be all about Mo’ne Davis.

This trip is special. It teaches these kids the history of the Civil Rights Movement. It teaches them the history of our country. It teaches them about such leaders as Martin Luther King Jr. Hopefully, it gives them an appreciation for what we have today, yet still reminds them that our country has a long way to go in many aspects. Visit the team’s website or the blog of the photographer following them on this tour, and you’ll see what these kids get to learn — an important aspect of this whole experience. 

Mo’ne Davis helps bring this tour and the team to the forefront. Every pitch she threw. Every time she batted. Every time she was in viewing — people took photos. They sought autographs. They wanted their photo taken with her.

Star power.

That night, she threw out the first pitch at an Oneonta Outlaws game. The Outlaws are a collegiate wood-bat league team. After her game, there were some from the teams looking to take a photo with her, too. They then had the chance to head over to one of the local baseball camps. 

And, I’m sure, if you spoke to Mo’ne, she could talk about this tour and what it means. What it’s like to spend this journey with her teammates, on this bus, and through all of these cities and all of those miles. I’m sure she could tell you stories of fun and learning and the experiences they’ve had together. In 20 years, I’m sure each of these kids will look back at this trip as something that helped shape them in life.

Maybe it shouldn’t be about Mo’ne Davis.

For her teammates, friends, and others associated with this tour, it probably isn’t, which is good. But for the places they visit and when the people come out to see this group — it is about her.

And for that, this tour becomes bigger and gets the word out there even more, which in the end is the most important aspect of it all. This trip isn’t just about baseball and getting more eyes to what these kids are doing and experiencing is important, no matter how it happens.

See a photo gallery of the images I shot on my Flickr page.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Notes from my Noodle: December 20 edition

There's nothing like a trip to the city during the holidays.

First, my apologies for a lack of a blog post the past couple of days. But it seems like, all of a sudden, I’m packed up with everything. I’m back, however, with some notes and such from recent things.

On Monday, I took my annual trip down to the city to New York City. I like to try and get down there during the Christmas season because it’s quite the place to be. From the lights to the decorations to everything else, it’s really quite magical.

For avid readers of the blog, you’ll remember I went out to Chicago earlier this year to see a friend, Brendan, graduate from the Navy’s basic training. He’s been in the Chicago area ever since, working through his schooling and such. He got liberty for a couple of weeks, however, and is home. So I took him with me to the city and met one of the finest guides one will ever have for the city — fellow geocacher Heather.

Brendan with his new buddy, Elmo!

Despite a delay in the train leaving Harriman, it was a fun day. A little colder than it was supposed to be, but still a fine day. We got to see a bunch of good things (including Rockefeller Center, as seen above). We had a couple of solid meals, saw some interesting things and I, of course, got a dirty dog on the street.

Why wouldn’t I, right?

With this season in full bloom, there were a lot of characters wandering around, looking to earn a few extra bucks by posing with people. It was quite funny to see. And, being it was Brendan’s first trip to the city in this time of year, he had to take advantage of this, no?

The hustle and bustle of the city was definitely there. That comes with people who still don’t have the thought of slowing down and peeking at things. But, I wouldn’t expect anything different.

We stopped and saw the building of the new skyscraper at Ground Zero and went inside and checked out the 9/11 memorial building. We were going to try and check out the new fountains and garden, but ended up having to look at it just from afar and above as the lines to get in were quite long and daylight was dwindling as we were thinking about that. I’ll hope to visit in the spring and see it closer.

We did, however, get to find a geocache this day. A regular-sized cache in the middle of the city, which was awesome.

Heather with Cirque du Cache.

Heather (and her husband, Jim, who met us later for dinner) are mega fans of Cirque du Soleil, mentioned a new cache. Of course, it has a Cirque theme — called Cirque du Cache.

This was a fun cache to do and it’s always nice to snag a cache in the city.

What was really cool about this cache was that once you opened the cache, you signed the log and all, but there was also this piece of fabric. And you could draw something on it. Very neat stuff and very well thought out. The best part is that it was in a high-traffic area, so it was pretty fun to retrieve the cache, walk away a little bit to check things out and then put it back. Fun times.

In all, it was a lot of fun to head down to the city and see things. I got to also see a former co-worker and catch up a little bit and it’s really nice to see things all lit up.

I even got one of the thickest hot chocolates I’ve ever had (thankfully it was small, because it was rich!) while we hung out a little bit at Bryant Park.

Bryant Park is a great little spot in the city.

***

Speaking of geocaching, two of us worked to organize and run an annual ornament exchange event. It was quite the success, too, which is always nice. Having halfway decent weather recently probably didn’t hurt us, either!

A large turnout at our holiday event.

We had about 55 people to the event, by far one the largest since this annual event started four years ago, and also one of the largest turnouts of any of event in our small area.

I co-planned the event with Beth, who had a successful game she created for the event. But, more than that, was her Toy Drive idea. It seemed that most people brought unwrapped toys and filled the large box her and her brother and sister-in-law brought. They then delivered the toys to the local Salvation Army, making sure that the toys would remain in our area.

So as fun as the event was (the spot we held it was excellent as well), it’s even better to know that our geocaching community was good enough to give back to the community during this holiday season and thought about others in need.

As this week continues, if you have the chance to give to an area Toys for Tots or something else, try and remember that there are people out there that have it worse than many of us. So if you can give at all, try and do so this holiday season.

***

Eddie Edwards vs. Sami Callihan delivered on a recent 2CW card.

For the final part of this Notes From My Noodle, I want to turn to 2CW, an independent wrestling federation out of the Syracuse area. Several of us have gone to a bunch of their events, but basically in Binghamton. We took the trek to Syracuse on Friday to see one of their biggest events of the year and to see a match that indy fans have wanted to see — Eddie Edwards vs. Sami Callihan.

Each time we’ve gone to watch 2CW, I thought the federation has delivered some great entertainment, good matches and a well-planned event. But this event was really solid (seeing matches such as Brodie Lee vs. Jay Freddie was outstanding and many other matches were excellent). And it was capped by Edwards vs. Callihan, a match that made me really want to drive to Syracuse.

I have seen Eddie Edwards many times. He’s athletic and works stiff — in other words, believable beyond belief to the point where some of the things he does really make you wonder how these guys do it.

Callihan, well known among the independent fans, is also a top-notch talent.

A five-star match was predicted. And these two delivered. It was a high-paced match, full of athleticism and character. Say what you will about professional wrestling — no matter if the outcome is determined or whatever — you have to be athletic and be able to tell a story inside that ring. These two did it.

The card, overall, was excellent. I would make the trip to Syracuse to see these guys again.

A funny afterthought. We stopped at a convenience store down the road from Syracuse to grab something to drink and something to snack on. While there, Sami Callihan came in. I noted that we had traveled a couple of hours to see that match because everyone was talking about it.

He asked me if it was worth it?

I told him they delivered and it was worth it. We chatted with him for a few moments and he shook hands a couple of times and thanked us for coming. I’ve talked to a few of these others and they, too, are very friendly with fans. That’s a good thing. Independent wrestling survives on smaller fanbases and these guys have the hope to, one day, make it big. Being friendly and outgoing will hopefully help them in their quest to reach the top.

Until then, it’s my hope they keep working local promotions so, when I can get away and go, I get the chance to see this top-notch and affordable entertainment.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Roller derby action hits the area!

Roller derby comes to Oneonta!

Have you ever seen roller derby?

The roller derby I remember was on an oval track with banks in four corner areas. There were high-speed chases and crashes and some brutal stuff. Roller derby, apparently, is still around.

But it’s on a flat track.

I noticed this a few months back, but thought I’d have to travel to watch it. That’s until one of the area places got a team. The Oneonta Derailing Darlings made their home debut this past Friday.

It was too interesting to not go see it.

First, I was shocked at the crowd. I realized people would go watch, but there were several hundred people packing into Interskate 88 to check out the hometown’s new sensations.

So the gals took their warmups and such and then did a quick “jam” to explain the rules. Basically, the person doing the scoring gets a point for each opponent she passes during the two-minute jam. The jammer who is in front can call it off whenever she wants, too, so if one team’s jammer is in the penalty box, for example, and the on-track jammer scores a bunch of points — she can stop the jam before the other team’s jammer returns.

Collision!

Strategy!

The game isn’t as fast as I remember. It has some quickness, but not like the old-school teams who used to be on TV. That being said, it was pretty entertaining.

There were a few decent wrecks. And some pretty sweet moves.

As someone who has never roller skated (I’ve roller bladed, though), this was interesting to watch for sure.

There were some bad things — like the opposing team’s coach, whose piercing screams didn’t seem to form any words, broke any nearby glass and shattered people’s ear drums. Seriously, you can hear it some in the video I took below. It was obnoxious and I believe I wasn’t the only one hoping some vocal chords would implode.

Besides that…

It was pretty entertaining. I thought it dragged a little too long. Halves are supposed to be 30 minutes, but with stops and jams stopping and breaks, it took a while. It started at about 7:15 and we walked out about 9:35. That’s a little too long when a lot of people are standing and all. My only other complaint is the amount of whistles. It was like field hockey. But I think if I learn the rules a bit better, those whistles will make sense.

Jonna, of Tattooed Mommie, who once played roller derby commented recently with a link to the flat-track rules. If anyone is interested, you can check ’em out at the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association.

The rules of the game seem easy enough and it wasn’t too hard to follow along with. And these gals really put forth quite the effort. For $10, I can’t complain for the entertainment value and I’d go back for sure. It was fun to watch.

Now, for my end.

This sport is TOUGH to photograph! I have a couple of photos in this post and more can be seen in its set on my Flickr, but wow… tough. I had a tough time keeping focus and many photos came out soft. There’s no place to bounce the flash really, so I needed to have it pointed. Other people taking photos were there and using an off-camera flash, which is smart. Alas, I don’t have the equipment needed to do that. So I’ll have to think about what I can do the next time. I also realize I can sit much closer than I did, so I will be trying things a little differently next time.

I hope this team succeeds and they keep getting support. This area can use things like this. It’s cost-effective entertainment and it’s worth going to see. I’ll look forward to when their full schedule comes out to see when they are home again.

Oh yeah — Oneonta lost the game. But had some good moments. I have a feeling with time, this team will be competing with anyone.

Below is a video I shot at the event. It’s not too light, but it gives you an idea of what we were watching.

***

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

The Champs! (Again!)

Thetford's/Legends 2011

It wasn’t easy. And, truthfully, that made it all the more sweeter.

For the second straight year, our team won the Oneonta City League men’s softball championship. The boys from the Therford’s Towing/Legend’s Filling Station crew showed some determination to rally and win Game 3 to clinch the title.

But boy it’s wasn’t easy!

We battled Mother Nature. We battled ourselves. We battled a hell of a good team. In the end, we won those battled and walked away with our second straight championship.

The opening game was a 6-3 victory on August 4 (yes, two weeks ago!). We led, 6-1, going into the seventh and the opposing team scored twice in the seventh. But it was one of those games where you never felt like you were in trouble.

After a rainout August 9, we looked to wrap things up last Thursday (August 11).

Things didn’t go according to plan and hope.

They jumped out on us and we looked bad. We had more physical errors in that game than we had done all season in a game. Worse yet, we made several mental errors that hurt. It was easily our worst game of the season.

Still, we started pounding the ball and held a five-run lead entering the bottom of the sixth inning.

Things, again, went wrong and we ended up trailing by one at the end of that inning. An inside-the-park homer by Justin tied the score. Alas, they had last cracks and scored once, forcing the game three.

I was thankful we would have last cracks at the plate in Game 3. The benefit of being the top seed shined through!

Then that game got rained out this past Tuesday. Sheesh.

Finally, a beautiful night came Thursday and we were all set to play. Again, it started rough. A couple of bloop hits and a home run put us down, 3-0 right away. We closed to within one when Dylan smacked a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning. But Miller’s kept ahead of us. A run here, a run there.

It was 6-4 heading into the bottom of the sixth.

Two outs came quickly on a pair of groundouts before Marc hit a hard shot to second base, which got the second baseman on his heels. The hard bounce went high and clipped the glove as Marc was safe at first.

Then Dylan came to bat.

As I coached third base, I turned and walked toward the outfield. To myself, I said: “Dylan, if ever a homer was needed, this is the spot to do it.”

Dylan, for the record, is one of our top power hitters.

One pitch, one swing, 6-6.

The fences on the main field in Oneonta are, I believe, an ASA legit 265 feet. This ball landed 25 beyond. It was a shot. And it energized us. At the same time, there was a little deflation in the other team.

To the top of the seventh we went!

A quick out started the inning before their leadoff hitter singled for the fourth time. Alas, the next two players grounded out and to the bottom of the seventh we went.

Dean, who had a two-run double earlier in the game, flied out to left on a sharply hit ball to lead off the inning. To be fair, the left fielder made a nice play, tracking down the ball and reaching low to snag it before the ball could touch the grass.

Justin followed with a four-pitch walk.

And the first two pitches to Jeremiah were balls as well. Conventional wisdom says to take a strike, right?

Not so, apparently, for Jeremiah. He sent the opposite way for a dinker. The outfielder was back a bit, but was speedy enough to likely grab it on one bounce. Justin was motoring to third. As I watched the play unfold, the outfielder bobbled it.

Now or never.

So I started waving Justin to keep going. His eyes grew wide as he made the turn and headed home. The outfielder grabbed the ball and threw, but the catcher came out from the plate to grab the ball as Justin slid home safely in front of the tag as the Thetford’s/Legends bench emptied in celebration.

Truthfully, this is how softball should be — especially in a championship series.

Though Miller’s was the third seed this season, they were easily the second best team in the league. They were our equals to be sure when it came to head-to-head competition.

The season series? Including the finals, we won the series, 3-2. The combined score of our five games? We won that, 45-40.

Consider this: We outscored opponents this year, 382-125. Take away the games with Miller and we outscored the rest of the league, 337-85. That really shows how equal our teams were. We played each other well and they were all close. The games were intense and a lot of fun. It’s softball.

I anticipate, as long as the teams remain somewhat the same, the two of us will continue this rivalry well into the next few years. Over the past two seasons, our team is a combined 35-4. Of those four losses, three of them come to this Miller team.

But next year is far away. As the bats, balls and gloves get put away for a season and the page turns on another season, we celebrate as champions once again. Since starting a team back in the early 1990s, we’ve won three championships. One in the now-defunct Brookside League and two in Oneonta. We’ve been to many more finals, but lost. Still, it’s fun to win these titles when they come as they are hard to come by.

There are just three of us — me, Marc and Leap — who have been part of all three titles. It’s a pretty cool feeling, too, to have the three of us still together on this squad. A couple of the guys — Luke and Gideon — each joined the year after we won our first title in 2001. Over time, we added cogs. Dylan, Sully, Dean and Matt all came along in key spots and became integral parts of the team. Justin had played with us for 4 or 5 seasons, but his travel from an hour away got to be too much (who can blame him?) But this year, he was looking to play a bit more and joined back up with us and played the final 11 games. It was nice, too, as he was on a few of those teams that lost in the finals. So it was a swan song. Kyle played a few seasons with us, missed last year because of an internship and returned this season to play some quality ball. Mison and Riley joined us last season and have become big parts of this squad. Tim was the “free agent” pickup we needed as he filled in a lot of roles for us and had an excellent season. Trent helped us in some key times when we needed players this year and his raw ability should blossom in the future, helping the squad continue to move forward.

It was a season I won’t forget.

No matter where my current job search takes me — whether I remain in the area and continue to play softball here, or move on and this was a swan song — this team is one I’ll always remember.

We don’t get rings like the big boys, however. So the memories, photos and whatever else will suffice. We’re getting t-shirts, however! We have to have something to show off the accomplishment!

Great job by the boys of Thetford’s/Legends. What a ride it was. And what a way to win it.

(Note on the photo: This was taken mid-season. Someone took the team photo of us with the championship trophy — if I can get it and get permission to use it on the blog, I’ll switch it out with this one).

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

Day Zero Project: Completed No. 85

Chatting during the reunion.

A Day Zero Project goal of P.J.’s has been completed!

Goal completed: Organize and hold a family reunion.

Date completed: August 13, 2011.

Number: 85  (remember, these goals will not all be done in order. It’s a random list where the numbers actually are).

Description: Basically, I wanted to start something for a family reunion. The idea was to get the family from my mother’s and father’s side of the family to come together for a reunion. As anyone who has tried to do these knows, it isn’t easy to try and get all schedules together. But with the help of my mother, my brother, their significant others and a few others, we pulled it off.

Why I wanted to do it: I won’t like — in the past, I haven’t always been the most “family oriented” person. Not that I didn’t love family, but that I’ve missed some family functions and gatherings. And, to be honest, it was time to start seeing family at something other than weddings and funerals. Too, a bit before my father died, he had said that family is important (he was a fan of gatherings such as this) and said I needed to make sure to find a way to start getting the family together (he always thought we should have a yearly reunion). So, that was fuel for me to go at it.

How I did it: A few years ago, I got talking about this with my cousin Lauren. She kind of gave me a push to see if I could get it going. The push that was needed was to see if we could get our family (who, for the most part, is in the Philadelphia area and New Jersey). She said she and her family would come and build from there. It took longer than expected as I realized you couldn’t do this in two months. So we skipped a year and aimed for this year. We got some initial feedback on everything and then finally came up with a date.

Considering we were using a city park in Oneonta, we needed to reserve the pavilion. But, you can’t do that until March, so we needed to wait until then to make sure of the date. When that was done, we put it all in motion. Figured the food, some other things and started getting headcounts. We have a Facebook group just for this (which I’ll keep for future reunions) and some family members have connected. With the help of the family in this area (a shout out, of course, goes to my mother, brothers Pat and Joe, sister-in-law Jenn and Pat’s favorite dudette (inside joke) Dawn), we got everything together we needed. Family from afar came up with help as needed, some wonderful food and an amazing time.

This reunion, in my eyes, was a resounding success. I’ve learned a lot (I will be doing another blog post this week about the reunion and will expand there), but with nearly 50 people there, it’s something I know I want to do again, yearly if possible. There are things that will be fixed and tweaked, but knowing more now, I hope the event will just continue to grow!

About P.J.’s Day Zero Project: Day Zero is a project where people come up with 101 things to do over 1001 days. I started the project on Oct. 10, 2010 with an anticipated finish date of July 8, 2013. Goals will not be revealed until they are completed. A private list is at the Day Zero website and the list will be made public upon completion of the project. It’s my thoughts that if things are kept private, should I not do them, change or find a way around it, I’d only be cheating myself.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.