My Personal Blog

Tomorrow is opening night of my tenth season podcasting Covenant softball, and in this entry, I reveal my favorite moment from my years of podcasting softball. It was Super Saturday in 2017.  It was the finale between Covenant and New Life Blue.  Covenant trailed by one heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, needing one run to tie and two to win it all.  And to their advantage, Covenant had the heart of their batting order due up. Jeff Newell started things off and got a bloop single.  That set the stage for then-rookie sensation Corey Sternthal.  On a 2-1 pitch, Corey Sternthal blasted one over the fence in right center field to end the season and win Covenant its first championship. My call of that moment: THAT’S A FLY BALL!  IT’S GOING BACK… THEY’VE DONE IT!  COVENANT HAS DONE IT!  COVENANT IS THE NEW LAWRENCE-MERCER COUNTY CHURCH SOFTBALL LEAGUE CHAMPION!  HOW SWEET IT IS! And with that, I am ready to shine as the new season begin...

As opening night approaches for my tenth season podcasting Covenant softball, I reveal my number two favorite moment from my years of podcasting softball. The year was 2018.  It was opening night at White Chapel Field in New Wilmington between the Covenant Speed/Power and the Bethany Colts.  The doubleheader was the only one played that day.  Eric Bombeck and Matt Durisko combined to baffle the Colts in the doubleheader, not allowing a single run throughout.  It was the first time that Covenant began the season with two shutout victories.

As I reach the homestretch towards my tenth season of podcasting Covenant softball, I reveal my number three favorite moment from my years of podcasting. It was the day before my 30th birthday in 2015, when Covenant hosted the Bethany Colts for a doubleheader at what is now Family Life Stadium.  This was the game where I became an adopted member of the team.  You will recall that this early podcast was one where I used pencil and paper scoresheets to score the games.  I saw for the first time a Covenant player hit a home run, and it was Jeff Newell who hit the home run on the way to a win for Covenant to snap a three game losing skid.

As the countdown to my tenth season of podcasting Covenant softball reaches the homestretch, I reveal my number four favorite moment from my podcasting years. In the 2017 season, at what is now Family Life Stadium, we played the Grace Chapel Blues in a doubleheader.  In one of the games, Matt Durisko hit not one, not two, but three home runs on his way to being named player of the game.  No player on the team up to that point had ever hit three home runs in one single game.

As I close in on my tenth season podcasting Covenant Speed/Power softball, I begin the top five with my number five favorite moment from my podcasting years. The 2020 season was shortened on account of the global Covid pandemic.  However, we were able to have a season and on Super Saturday, the Covenant Speed/Power defeated the Lebanon Raiders in the finale 20-0.  With the final hit, Gray MacKenzie scored the final run to win it.  My call of the moment was: And for the first time since 2011... WE HAVE A DYNASTY!  WE HAVE A DYNASTY!  THE COVENANT SPEED/POWER HAS WON ITS FOURTH CONSECUTIVE LAWRENCE-MERCER COUNTY CHURCH SOFTBALL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP!  HOW SWEET IT IS!  OH, WHAT A PARTY THEY'LL HAVE ON WINDSOR COURT! That latter sentence was the scorn of criticism from officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Health because of the pandemic.  I shot back by saying that if you won a championship would you not have a victory celebration?

As we reach the halfway point of the countdown to my tenth season of podcasting Covenant Speed/Power softball, I reveal my number six favorite moment from Covenant softball. Following a loss in the opening game of a June 12, 2017 doubleheader to New Life Blue, Covenant came back to salvage a split of the dooubleheader with a win.  For a while it looked as if New Life Blue would win the doubleheader, but Matt Durisko and Tyler Allen would not be denied the opportunity to bring the team back in the win column, and they took advantage of the opportunity. Following the split of the doubleheader, in the postgame huddle, I told the team that we still had twelve more games to prove that we could be a championship caliber team.  And for 111 consecutive games that we played from that point on until July 12, 2022, we did not lose another game, which included five consecutive championship finals games.

The countdown to my tenth season of podcasting Covenant Speed/Power softball continues with my number seven favorite moment from my podcasting career. In 2017, when Covenant had its home opener against the First Assembly Falcons, then-rookie Corey Sternthal took his first career at bat in the Lawrence-Mercer County Church Softball League, he set the tone for what has been up to this point an amazing career by hitting his first career home run, leading the way to a big win by Covenant over First Assembly.

As the countdown continues to my tenth season podcasting Covenant Speed/Power softball, I want to reveal my number eight favorite moment in my years of podcasting Covenant softball. In 2019, in a game against the Covenant Tabernacles, came one of the funniest moments ever.  Pastor Rick Stauffer swung the bat so hard that the ball actually exploded!  The moment was captured on video.  I thought that it was the funniest moment I had seen and should have been sent to America's Funniest Home Videos. If Jim Bombeck still has the video, he should send it to Alfonso Ribiero with the possibility that it could win $20,000 or even $100,000.

As I approach my tenth season podcasting Covenant Speed/Power softball, I reveal my number nine favorite moment from my years of podcasting. In 2018, in a game at White Chapel between the Covenant Speed/Power and the New Wilmington Angels, Jeff Newell hit for the cycle.  He started with a grand slam, then proceeded to hit a single and a triple.  When he doubled in the fifth inning, he had made team history in the process becoming the first player on the team to hit for the cycle on his way to being named Player of the Game.

As I begin my tenth season of podcasting Covenant softball starting on May 23, I want to begin a countdown of my ten favorite moments from Covenant softball. My number ten favorite moment from my podcasting years is from the finals of Super Saturday 2018 when an undefeated Covenant Speed/Power team squared off against a New Life Saints team that had to get to the finals the long way after losing in the winners bracket semifinals to the Rams of St. John's by a 2-1 score. After four and a half innings, Covenant led it by a score of 9-4 and needed to score five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to retain the championship.  And Covenant proceeded to do that.  With the score 12-4 and a runner on with one out, Dan Vanderslice came up to bat and with one swing of the bat, hit a two run home run to end it all.  This was my call of that final blow: "And the 2-1... THAT'S IT... THAT'S GOING TO BE IT!  IT'S OVER!  COVENANT HAS RETAINED THE CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE LAWRENCE...

It was 11 years ago this past week that three women who had been held captive for ten years by Ariel Castro were rescued by Cleveland's finest. So where are the people involved in the Miracle in Cleveland now? Let's start with the survivors themselves. Michelle Knight has written two books and has legally changed her name to Lilly Rose Lee. Amanda Berry has co-authored a book and is now a regular contributor to WJW TV in Cleveland where she shines a light on missing persons. Gina DeJesus has co-authored a book and now does her part to care for animals. Some of Cleveland's finest police officers have been promoted (some multiple times), some have since retired, and some have sadly passed away. The man who helped the Cleveland Police Department solve the case, Charles Ramsey, is now a motivational speaker and has also written a book about his sudden rise to fame with the title of his viral interview "Dead Giveaway".  In 2019, Ramsey and Berry reunited for an exclusi...

It has been nearly two weeks since this year's nominees for the 2024 Mancini Awards for excellence in high school musical theater in Beaver, Butler, Lawrence and Mercer Counties were released by the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School in the Beaver County Times.  And once again, there are no nominees from Mercer County. I'm sorry Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, but I am not buying the fact that there continues to be constant snubbing of Mercer County schools among the nominees each and every single year.  Allow me to tell you the reasons why: The Mancini Awards, named for Aliquippa native Henry Mancini, are meant to reward excellence in high school musical theater in Beaver, Butler, Lawrence and  Mercer counties. The constant snubbing of schools in Mercer County among the nominees year after year after year smacks of deceptive advertising practices by using the Beaver County Times to promote these awards (which not many people in Mercer County are abl...