On a normal day in the Golden Bears 🐻 press box its just my partner Sam and myself working.
This weekend we had a production company in the house with us as they were broadcasting our Play- In games on a local streaming service.
The team of three included a producer , cameraman and the “Talent”…. Calling the on air personality the Talent is our way of making sure we don’t take ourselves too serious.
On your left is the Producer, Nick Elkins and on the right is Bill O’Brien.
We love having the extra coverage for our program so both Sam and I were trying to offer up all the inside information on our club to Bill in hopes of adding to the quality of the broadcast.
By the end of the first day we were straight up having fun with Bill and his friends ! Bill was knowledgeable and was appreciative of our inside scoops so we were looking forward to having another go at it on Saturday.
Today we hit the ground running 🏃♂️ with Bill, enough that we started swapping stories back and forth. The story that set Bill apart was him running for Mayor of Beckley a decade ago and winning the position.
That story was amazing on its own but he added that his campaign budget was $3.00!!!! That would have been interesting if he ran for Mayor in 1855 but it was 2014.
When I was young, a lifetime ago, my Dad would say, that’s as phony as a $3.00 bill. Back then I didn’t understand what he was talking about????
It turns out it wasn’t what he was talking about, it was who he was talking about ! I was able to hang out with 3 Dollar Bill and there was nothing phony about him !
Every now and then you meet someone for the first time and your immediately take a liking to them and that was the case this weekend when Indiana University, Perdue University at Columbus (IUPUC) came to Beckley to play our Golden Bears 🐻.
Bickel is the Head Coach of the Crimson Pride and is simply a wonderful human being. His demeanor just screams Likeable as does his coaching style and it only takes a few minutes to realize it.
The Batting helmet I am holding is a gift 🎁 for the museum at the house and Coach was kind enough to have his Coaching staff collectively autograph it as well.
One never knows who you will meet on a given day but every now and then you strike Gold. Before meeting Coach, the only thing I knew about Columbus, Indiana was that I loved Otter Creek Golf ⛳ Course. Now I know that the Baseball ⚾️ team has an Awesome Head Coach 👏!
High Noon is the estimated time for today’s First Pitch between West Virginia Tech University and Indiana University, Purdue University @ Columbus (IUPUC). WVU-T captured the opening game Friday by a score of 10-4 and now need to win one more to advance to the River States Conference tournament next week in Chillicothe, Ohio.
Waking up to all of the Prom photos 📷 from last night on The Hill put me in a reflective mood for sure. Prom in many ways signals that the end is near, not the end of the story but the end of one chapter of the story.
The thought train 🚆 started rolling down the tracks quickly and brought me to realize that here in a few hours I will be calling Golden Bears 🐻 Baseball ⚾️ for the final time today. If we win one of the two games then the team moves on the final eight up in Ohio next week and if they were to drop both games then their season would reached the end. Either way, the chapter closes at the end of the day today and what a chapter it has been!
Sixteen seasons ago Lawrence Nesselrodt accepted the Head Coaching job at WVU-T, which at the time was located in Montgomery, West Virginia. I still remember the day of the very first home game when I drove to Montgomery to support the man 👨 I tagged as “Big Picture” Nesselrodt. Making the drive 🚗 from Luray, Virginia, I pulled into the campus only to find out that there was no baseball field there and the games were played at East Bank Middle School.
So the journey began at East Bank Middle School 🏫 and today it ends at Linda K Epling Stadium 🏟 in Beckley, West Virginia. There has been home games played in a number of home parks and stadiums along the way, heck, the University itself moved during this stretch.
What started in Montgomery is now located in Beckley and if you have never been to Montgomery it would be difficult to truly appreciate just what the transition was from one to the other.
The program has also changed Conferences along the way before landing in RSC a few years back. The league itself has expanded to a record high 12 teams this season which in turn created the format that has us playing the games this weekend.
In years past, the Top Six teams advanced to Chillicothe but this year the decision was made to hold play-in weekend series across the league. The irony of this is that the Golden Bears 🐻 would have advanced to the tournament in Chillicothe this season after finishing up in the #6 spot in the league. But with the new format, the team had to requalify for the event through a weekend series.
The world 🌎 of N .A .I .A Baseball ⚾️ is a very unique place and books 📚 could be written on the subject and probably should be one day. But for the teams in the RSC, Chillicothe is the Promise Land. The Golden Bears 🐻 have made it up there one time and actually advanced to the Championship game before losing in the ninth inning. The next step 🚶♂️ from Chillicothe is the NAIA World Series and as the old joke about the Lottery goes – you can’t Win if you don’t play. One cannot dream about the World Series without first getting a ticket to Chillicothe !
Hopefully that ticket 🎟 gets punched here in a few hours, whether it be in Game 2 (Noon) or Game 3 (if necessary) at 3:30 pm.
16 years is a decent amount of time in one’s life and its been quite the ride with Lawrence “Big Picture ” Nesselrodt and for the past few years, Legendary Joe Goddard !
It’s time to get ready to head over to the Stadium 🏟 and see just how many Golden Bears 🐻 can find their way to 🏡 🍽….
A.S.P.N on The Hill 