Despite a whole lot of precipitation, they managed to squeeze in all the games in the third day of the Babe Ruth Mid-Atlantic regional, a baseball feast that gets tastier each minute. Both local teams could reach Monday's semifinals at the Gillette Road complex - though it might not entirely be up to them.
Valley began the day at 2-1, and in control of its fate after dumping 17 runs on previously unbeaten South Colonie (from the Albany suburbs) Friday night. If Valley could beat St. Mary's (Maryland) today, it would have a Monday ticket.
But St. Mary's had other ideas. It bolted to a 3-0 lead, watched Valley rally with three runs in the fifth inning, then answered with a tally in the bottom of the sixth and held on. St...

CATEGORY: General Sports

TAGS: Babe Ruth, tournament, standings, Pepper, lacrosse, rain

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By defying a tournament-long trend, the hosts from North Syracuse find themselves still in the fight to win the Babe Ruth Mid-Atlantic Regional baseball championship for players ages 13 to 15.
Late Saturday night, the tournament took yet another sharp turn when 2-0 Lou Gehrig, from the northern suburbs of Buffalo, gave up nine runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and fell to Jack Kroft, from Northern New Jersey, 11-5.
Instead of a sure spot in the semifinals, Gehrig now was 2-1, throwing Pool A wide-open - and giving North Syracuse, at 1-1, a clear path to get into Monday's final four.
The only problem was that, in each of the first three days of the tournament, a team that had played twice on the same day always won in the morning, then lost a few hours later...

CATEGORY: General Sports

TAGS: Babe Ruth, North Syracuse, semifinals, baseball, Favre

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At high noon tomorrow, at the Gillette Road complex, North Syracuse and Nottingham (N.J.) duke it out for the Babe Ruth Mid-Atlantic Age 13-15 Regional baseball championship.
This is not a recording - but it sure is familiar.
Many of these very same players met in this very same championship round in the 14-year-old division a year ago, in New Jersey. Nottingham won that time, and ever since North Syracuse has plotted its revenge.
Better yet, North Syracuse will get a chance to win it at home. Before the tournament started, players and coaches alike said not having to board buses and fight traffic and getting to sleep in their own beds would decrease the stress level...

CATEGORY: Baseball

TAGS: Babe Ruth, North Syracuse, semifinals, Nottingham

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It took a while today for the clouds to gather and overwhelm the skies in Central New York. But when it came to North Syracuse and its quest for the 2008 Babe Ruth 13-15 Mid-Atlantic Regional championship, the overwhelming force came while the sun was still shining bright.
Worse yet, it came from the same Nottingham team from New Jersey that had beaten them in the 14-year-old Babe Ruth division for this same title a year ago.
Though it turned out to be a 12-1 decision, it wasn't so one-sided most of the way. Still, the first two innings set the tone.
Mike Parsons and Riley Moonan began the bottom of the first inning with back-to-back walks...

CATEGORY: Baseball

TAGS: Babe Ruth, final, Nottingham, North Syracuse

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They say that a person who takes a few days off from any occupation refreshes body, mind and soul so that, upon their return, they are energized again, and ready to tackle any new task.
Well, I'm not there yet. A couple days more before going back to the office, for a grind guaranteed not to let up for the rest of 2008 - and the early part of 2009, for that matter.
Oh sure, there was a trip home to see the family in Buffalo and attend the 08/08/08 wedding of my cousin, Sarah - a simple and classy affair, with a great reception at the Holiday Inn on Grand Island, with a great view of the Niagara River at sunset.
Mostly, though, I've tried to avoid responsibility, gathering in lots of hours of rest before that rest becomes rare...

CATEGORY: General Sports

TAGS: return, Favre, Olympics, PGA, Harrington, baseball

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So now Michael Phelps has more gold medals than any other Olympian. His blaze through Beijing is rather simple in execution – swim, win, break a world record, go to the top of the medal podium, hear the national anthem, then repeat until everyone else that ever entered a pool is a distant memory.
The superlatives that have flown out in the course of this Olympic blitz are just as staggering as Phelps’ own performance. Some have gone so far as to suggest that Phelps is the greatest Olympic athlete ever.
Okay, hold on there.
No doubt, Phelps is great, even transcendent in his talent. Even with the shadows cast in earlier decades by Johnny Weismuller, or Mark Spitz, or Matt Biondi, he stands as perhaps the greatest swimmer we’ve ever seen...

CATEGORY: General Sports

TAGS: Phelps, Olympics, heroes, medals

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At a venue called the “Water Cube” in Beijing where swimming world records melted like ice cubes under the mid-summer sun, it was quite fitting that the United States broke one more in taking the 4x100 medley relay title on Sunday at the end of the Olympic meet.
Michael Phelps swam the butterfly leg, gave his team the lead, watched freestyle anchor Jason Lezak close the deal over the Australians in second place.
Officially, with that win, Phelps entered the books with his eighth gold medal achieved in Beijing, done in a span of eight days, with seven world records broken...

CATEGORY: General Sports

TAGS: Phelps, Olympics, gold medals, meaning

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It took 9.69 seconds on a sticky Saturday night, and 19.30 seconds just four nights later, to turn the Beijing Olympics into the breakout party of a wondrous Jamaican named Usain Bolt.
And thank goodness that happened. There was much more to these games than Michael Phelps, beach volleyball and carping about gymnastics judges, though you had to turn to MSNBC or USA to find this stuff out.
As Phelps was finishing his eight-for-eight run, the media crowd fell over each other proclaiming his greatness, one going so far as to make the laughable claim that he saved the Olympics...

CATEGORY: Running

TAGS: Bolt, Olympics, sprints, records

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As the sun sets on a lovely Friday evening, I will walk into a Buffalo establishment called the Steer, on Main Street - and suddenly it will be 1993 again.
Yes, thanks to the hard work and efforts of Tony Notaro, the Maryvale High School Class of '93 is reuniting 15 years later, through a social outing tonight, a picnic tomorrow and various activities on Sunday that I can't stay for because of the press of business back here.
As of this moment, and likely right up until the festivities, a full rush of emotions and feelings are flooding through my body - nervous and excited, fearless and scared, all at the same time.
You see, when high school days ended in that maroon-and-white suburban enclave, I made a decision, conscious or otherwise, to leave it behind...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: high school, reunion, thoughts

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A couple of days ago, I wrote with trepidation about what my 15-year reunion of the Maryvale High School Class of 1993 would look and feel like. Turns out, there was absolutely nothing to worry about.
From the moment I ascended the stairs at the Steer, a cool Buffalo establishment right down Main Street from UB's South campus, and got the first warm "It's Phil!" greeting, it was like being with family again.
What we quickly discovered was that 15 years had completely erased whatever lingering doubts or small resentments had existed.
We had all grown up, moved on, found careers, started families, and turned out quite well...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: Maryvale, reunion, thoughts

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So the Summer Olympics have ended in Beijing. By all accounts, the Chinese ran an efficient games and its people treated everyone quite well. Whether the nation changes and finds out that total freedom is not a bad thing is another matter.
Yet it can be said, without dispute, that if you had a rooting interest in those with Central New York ties, it was a particularly great 17 days.
It started with Lopez Lomong, the inspiring Sudanese refugee who came of age at Tully, carrying the U.S. flag at the opening ceremonies. So what if Lomong didn't make the 1,500-meter final - his mere presence elevated these Olympics, as he proved to be a a remarkable ambassador on and off the track...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: Olympics, local heroes, medals, convention

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Perhaps more than any American sport other than baseball, college football touts tradition, nostalgia and yearly ritual as a selling point – which is both an asset and a liability.
It’s great in that you can count on frenzied crowds and enthusiastic Saturday afternoons (and evenings) of pulse-pounding action. Plus all those fierce rivalries that cap the journey, from Harvard-Yale and Ohio State-Michigan to Alabama-Auburn and Army-Navy.
Yet it’s bad in that the season always seems to end without satisfaction, thanks to the antiquated bowl system, the ever-changing BCS and the endless debate about which conference trumps the others...

CATEGORY: Football (American)

TAGS: college football, preview, analysis

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A day later, the mind and the heart still marvels at what we all saw in a football stadium in Denver - and it had nothing to do with the Broncos.
We see it every four years - the presidential nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties getting up in front of thousands of partisans and millions watching at home to accept their bid and tell their story.
See it long enough, and often enough, and even one of the great rituals of our democracy becomes a numbing routine, especially with staged conventions planned to the nth degree so that absolutely nothing comes as a surprise.
Yet nothing in our recollections could possibly prepare for the flood of pride and emotion so many Americans felt when, just after 10 p.m...

CATEGORY: Government

TAGS: Obama, acceptance speech, history, Palin

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