It’s opening week of baseball and softball in Wellsville!!
By Kathryn Ross,
I love to hear the crack of the bat. I heard it for the first time this year just after the Fishing Derby closed. I’d stopped in Island Park to write a story. I was parked across from Hank Sinkey Field where a Little League team was practicing.
You can’t see the field from there. They put up 4-feet-by-8-feet sponsorship signs on the fence blocking the view from the cheap seats. I wish they’d left them empty and found some other way to advertise their sponsorships. We older citizens like to sit there in our cars and watch our grandchildren, grand nieces and nephews and other youngins playing ball. It is easier and a lot more forgiving than climbing up the bleachers to find a hard metal seat.
Just a thought, find another way to advertise, and open the fences back up. It might be more profitable for the passing of buckets and the snack bar.
I never really got to play organized sports in high school or elementary school. We just had intramurals. I got my love of the crack of the bat from the corner lot where it didn’t matter if you were a boy or a girl. We just needed enough bodies to make up two teams. Gail’s Dad, Bob, was often our all-time pitcher, which helped with having enough kids to play ball. It meant better pitching too.
Our best outfielder was my dog Bucky. He was great when he brought the ball back when I called, but more than one run was scored when he danced around in the outfield with the ball.
I remember a baseball game between Gail, myself and our other best friend Noreen when we couldn’t find a baseball, softball or even a rubber ball to play with. So, we used a croquet ball. After we hit it with a wooden bat we kind of vibrated to first base.
I got to like softball watching my great niece Heather Matta Vogel playing high school and women’s softball on Quackenbush Field. Heather was a dedicated player, aggressive and competitive, not to mention a dang good player. She was coached by the best, Frank Cady. He was my English teacher and I think he was a great coach there to.
Heather played in the women’s softball league for a few years before she gave birth to our family’s latest baseball superstar, Tyler. He currently plays for the SUNY Niagara Thunderwolves and is pitching well in his first year of college baseball. His high school team brought home county, district, and state flags, banners, and trophies.
This summer he will once again put on a Hornell Steamers uniform. Wish it was any other team. It’s hard to see him playing for a Hornell team.
I’m kind of a Yankees fan. Mostly because of its history as a New York team and all the wonderful players who have worn pinstripes over the years.
Yep, I love the crack of a bat, the warm summer sun, the smell of popcorn, and the rattle of ice in a cup of coke.
This Saturday marks another one of my favorite events, the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby. Hum Dan Fogelberg’s song. The run for the roses is the most exciting two minutes of sports in the history of sports. I watched Secretariat on TV, beat Sham to the finish line in ‘73.
A few years later I got to see Big Red in person at Claiborne Farms in Kentucky where he lived out his life. He ran from the top of a shallow hill in his paddock to the fence at the bottom of the pasture where I was standing. That was the last time I saw him run. Secretariat was put down due to laminitis, a painful hoof disease, in the Fall of 1989.
In 52 years, no other horse has beaten the records he set in the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. After he died, they weighed and measured his heart. It was 2 ½ times larger than a normal horse’s heart.
Summertime is full of sports and activities we can enjoy and do. If you want to see some good baseball, head for Hank Sinkey Field on a Saturday or on a weekday evening and see future stars in the making. Or just drop into Island Park and enjoy the coolness under the trees. Listen to the children on the playground and for the crack of the bat.
