The top photo shows the Wall as a whole while the lower one focuses on one of the players. Love the look !
One other thing that was way cool was the back drop…
Happy 40th Anniversary to Rick and Donna Nester today, roughly five months after Lin and I celebrated the same.
Relationships are a Big Part of the Softball story !
One of the chapters in the book 📖 will be about the otherside of the diamond 💎, as Baseball has been part of the experience as well.
An eighteen year run 🏃♂️ alongside of Lawrence ” Big Picture ” Nesselrodt, a twelve year run with the Valley Baseball League, making the loop of the Major League Baseball stadiums 🏟 and the incredible ” Rookie ” season just completed by Casey Burcham at Carroll County High School are a few of the topics in this part.
Being a minority owner of one of the top Summer League teams, owning a team outright for one season and creating another team in the same league will be highlighted. Being a witness and minority contributor to the Super Man type efforts of Burcham and his Bunch will fill more than a few pages.
Baseball and Softball are similar in a number of ways but worlds apart in others. Baseball is quite possibly still America’s game, not by the wide margin that it once was but still atop the food chain. Softball has made tremendous strides as of late but it remains a blip on the radar for most folks. Knowing this, makes it so easy to want to promote the sport in every way possible.
Baseball is played in the same manner at every level and in five decades of being around the sport, I’ve never seen anyone hit the ground running like Burcham did in his first year. While the season ended one game short of the State Tournament, that shouldn’t take anything away from the rocket like start.
Greg Maddux and Tim Tebow, two people that I admire greatly both wore the uniform and I was blessed enough to join them in various Stadiums during their careers.
Will something happen today in the Border town of El Paso that will warrant being part of the story ? Maybe, Maybe not but but that’s the beauty of the game of baseball – anything can happen on any given day…
My back to back Seattle Mariners No Hitters are prove of that. Separated by a few years, Randy Johnson and Chris Bosio tossed No-No’s with both games taking place in the old Kingdome. The crowd both nights 🌙 was under 20,000 and the gems 💎 were the first two in team history.
The answer is Yes, El Paso presented something new to me ! Your food is served to you in an actual Dog 🐕 Bowl!!
The writing ✍ on this site has been ongoing for almost two decades now but the streak part is still in year two. The self challenge is to make everyday a little bit better for someone by using words in a positive way.
Don’t know if it will see 800 or not but we will do our best !
Have a Blessed Day 🙌🙏
After the conclusion of the 2011 Softball season I had a lengthy conversation with Lady Panthers Head Coach Alan Knight about what goals remained after 30 years of coaching at the school.
At that time the Softball field at PCHS did not have a permanent fence. The home games were still be played with a temporary fence, similar to one you might see at a Tee-Ball game. One has to remember that all the school had back in 1981 was a backstop and a home plate.
Over the years the program was able to add dugouts and a press box but the snag with the fence was the area behind was the Junior Varsity Football practice field.
In a lifetime of marketing and promotional tasks, our youngest daughter and I took on the largest challenge to date. Rebecca Carter has since added McDowell to her last name but in a 15 year stretch of accomplishments together, the Panther Palooza sits at the top of any list. The followup ceremony where we were officially added Alan F Knight Field at the Lady Panthers Softball Complex to the park was simply magical.
I believe that it was legendary golfer Lee Trevino that was asked about how much pressure he felt when he stood over a putt that was worth $100,000 difference in prize money ?
Trevino explained that the real pressure comes from standing over a putt that decides a $50 bet and you only have $25 in your pocket.
The Got Fence campaign was not the biggest project that we have spearheaded over the years, but as Trevino explained so well, it came at a time where there was less than no cash to spear.
The trade off would be a guarantee for a new fence around the field if we could put Coaches name on the front and dedicate the outfield fence to my parents. Once the agreement was approved, I contacted a contractor to find out was it would cost to simply have someone come out and do it. The answer was $28,000.00 back then.
We were highly motivated to create a plan that would cover the costs being that we had nowhere near that amount of money at the time. The Panther Palooza is a HUGE part of this story on so many levels and recapping it will bring joy to my heart ❤.
The fifteen years spent with Rebecca, working on one project after another, was the most enjoyable time of my life, by a wide margin. We both knew that at some point the run would end as our now mid thirties Kiddo would marry and raise a family 👪 of her own.
The breakdown to the Panther Palooza is relevant to everything that happened afterwards in both Page County and Carroll County as well out on Orcas Island 🏝. Looking forward to laying out the blue print !
A.S.P.N on The Hill 