Casty's Lines (June 17, 2009)

Baseball beat

Interleague play began its two week session this past weekend and I'm still not keen on the idea of the two leagues facing off during the regular season. I guess that it's great for the fans to see the Yanks-Mets and Bosox and Philly, but what about the Nats and the Rays or Marlins up against the Blue Jays? My argument is that some teams play quality teams and some play inferior teams, so the schedules are not equal in determining a champion. Nuff said.

Former Tiger great Bobby Massaker is elated that his Detroit Tigers are running roughshod over the rest of the AL Central. Also enjoying the view from atop the standings are former Tiger standout and police chief Rick Rosengrant, former Elk Lake coach Nasser and former TAHS educator and coach Jack Tinner.

As expected, Chris Sedon was selected in the recent baseball draft. The former Coughlin High School, Lackawanna College and Pitt slugger was selected in the 10th round by Detroit. Sedon will probably start out in the NY-P League with the Oneonta Tigers. It was 10 years ago this month that Elk Lake's Chris McGee was taken in the 15th round by the Milwaukee Brewers. McGee spent four years in the minors with stops at Ogden, Beliot, High Desert and Elmira before hanging up the cleats in 2003.

Local attorney Jim Davis was a Washington Senators fan growing up as a youth in the D.C. area, but it's next to impossible to root for the inept Nationals; who are currently 16-45 on the season. Although the Nats are not much to write home about, Jim's grandson (Steve's boy) is knocking the cover off the ball up in New England.

TAHS was well represented in last Monday's WVC All-Star Softball Classic in Dallas. The Tigers had Casey Hampsey and Julia Sherry as players and John Keefe, Ron Hampsey and Bob Hedegty as coaches for the West squad. Back in 1985, I had the opportunity to coach an all-star game at Artillery Park in Kingston. That year we were represented by starting shortstop Steve King, firstbaseman Keith Watkins and outfielder Rick Zika. Hopefully, John and the gals fared better than I did as we dropped a 6-5 decision to the East.

Little League playoffs

The next few weeks I'm going to feature several local Little League teams that made some "noise" in the post-season tournaments. Because I was too lazy and busy to get down to the local newspaper office to do a little research, I'll start with a team that I'm familiar with as a player. It was back in the summer of 1960, when a group of Roosevelt Trail League youngsters won more games in the tournament than ever before. There was a team that went farther (all the way to Williamsport for the state finals), but they did not win as many games as the 1960 edition of RTL.

The squad was managed by Rev. Norman Robinson of Wyalusing  and assisted by Russ Turner of Gay-Murray's. The team consisted of Wyalusing's John Armitage, Randy Welles, John Bodnar and Bruce "Moose" Fowler. Camptown was represented by Theron Hitchcock, Wes Skillings and Jesse Kisner, while Turrell Motors had Chippy Smales,Bob Hains and Dave Brown on the squad. Gary Eveland and I represented Gay's, Gary Woodruff was from Laceyville and Tony Litwin was the lone all-star from Meshoppen. Turrell's Dale May and Wyalusing's Royal Champluvier were alternates.

Unlike today's format, back then it was "one and done." One loss and you were sent packing. No seeding games and no double elimination. One loss and it was sayonarra.

RTL opened with a 15-0 win over Christy Mathewson as "Moose" threw a no-hitter and struck out 15 batters. Welles hit a homer and Litwin had three hits to pace the attack. Next was a hard fought 5-3 win over Susquehanna County with Armitage picking up the win. Al Reimel had three of Susky's five hits while the hot hitting Litwin had a homer and a single.

The third RTL win came at the expense of the neighboring Bob Horlacher League to the tune of 12-1. Hitchcock tossed a three hitter en route to the win. Welles and Litwin each had two hits as the winners took advantage of multiple RH miscues to score eight runs in the second inning. Win number four brought the boys the District 15 title. I started on the mound and was staked to a six-run lead, but it got a little tense so I got the hook and Armitage picked up the win in a 12-3 victory over Potter-McKean.

District 13 champion Big Valley was victim #5 as Fowler tossed a four-hitter in the 8-1 RTL win. Litwin's three-run blast in the first inning set the stage, while Kisner, Welles, Armitage and Casterline added rbis. District 14 champ Shippensburg lost in extra innings to the locals as Hitchcock picked up the mound win. The one thing that I remember about this game is that it was delayed by rain and they had to go back to Shippensburg on Wednesday night and return on Thursday to finish the game.

Some 300 teams had started the single elimination tournament in Pennsylvania and we were down to the final four as we headed to a place called Wanamie to take on Plains. The winner would head to Williamsport for the state final. Fowler started ,but he left with a sore arm in the fourth and Plains ahead 4-2.It would be the end of the line for the RTL boys as they could not overcome the deficit and lost 6-2 .Plains would lose in the state finals to Levitttown, which went on the win the World Series Championship that year. Despite the loss, the RTL All-Stars would churn out six wins before losing in the Eastern finals. Next summer, I'm hoping to have a little get together for the boys from the "Summer of 60"as we look back on those cherished memories from 50 years ago.

Ramblings

Tunkhannock Library superstar Judy Cooper is looking forward to the 50th reunion of the THS Class of 1959. It's going to be held at the Triton on Founder's Day evening. Looking back at the 59ers, we see that the Tiger was "out of the cage" barely. As you may or may not recall, there was a tradition at THS regarding the Tiger and the cage. If the Tiger teams during the course of the year had more wins than losses, the Tiger was out of the cage, If,heaven forbid, the reverse was true the Tiger would be caged for a year.

The football team went just 2-7-1 but the (1) was a 13-13 tie on Thanksgiving with heavily favored Clarks Summit. It was Coach Charlie Shaw's first season at the helm and the schedule was upgraded from years past. The hoopsters didn't fare much better with a 3-16 record, but the spring sports bailed them out. The volleyball team in Coach Ernie Holdredge's maiden season went only 3-0, but won the D-12 title. Bob Eggleston was the key man and earned "Athlete of the Week" honors from the Scranton Times. In track and field the thinclads of Coach Dave Sechrist went 6-0 to capture the D-12 crown. Jack Bowman, Gregory, Bob Daniels and Frank Miner won the mile relay, while Eggleston won the high jump and tied Lew Marabell in the pole vault. Jim Borgeson put on an impressive performance and set a school record in the shot with a toss of 47-6 1/4, while Miner coasted to the win in the 880.The baseball team put them over the .500 mark with a 13-2 record and another D-12 championship. Seniors Rich Montross, Alvie Cook and Bob Shafer led the way for the hardballers and brought the season's overall total to 27-25-1

Hats off to the record setting quartet of Jack Welch, Phil McCarthy, Dave Bell and Rob Parry for scorching the Shadowbrook layout with a 91 in the recent Tunkhannock Kiwanis Golf Tournament. It's the highest score ever recorded in the annual event. Records are made to be broken, but I'm not too sure about this baby!

It's good to see the wifffle ball games up and running again at Nole Yard. I noticed that this year they have added seats in the right field pavillion to accommodate the overflow crowd. Perhaps luxury boxes by the jacuzzi aren't far behind.

Trivia

Good guy Gary Cobb knew that Gary June was the volunteer first base coach for the 1982 Tiger baseball team that won the Lackawanna Baseball championship.

No trivia this week and no column next week as I'm off to the 42nd annual Pine Forest Football Camp in the Poconos. I'll be back for the July 1 issue.