Greg Maddux was not highly recruited back in the day. He wasn’t even the top pitching prospect in his own family as his brother Mike was bigger, stronger and considered to be more suited for a long career in Major League Baseball.
The cover of S.I summed it up best during his prime when they put him n the cover with the tagline, Looks like an Account, Pitches like an Assassin.
Travis Leath found this one a couple of years back and shared it with me.
Going to Baseball games ⚾️ wasn’t part of my Family life as a child but I more than made up for it later on. This was especially true when it came to the end of Madduxs time in The Show.
Maddux sits #8 on the All-Time Wins List in the History of the game.
In 1985, Maddux pitched for the Peoria Chiefs and it was during a visit to the Illinois city years later that I ran into someone who was working at the Stadium and we started up a conversation about Maddux. I was proud to say that I owned a jersey from every team that my Hero had pitched for and by the end of our long chat, the gentleman had created a retro 1985 Chiefs jersey that Maddux had worn.
The thing that made me appreciate Maddux was the fact that he knew that he was never going to be Big and Strong so it was about being Smarter. The stories that came up over the decades were endless and my favorite was the day that he called pitches for Brad Penny when they were teammates on the Los Angeles Dodgers. Back in 2006, when Maddux joined LA late in the season it was Penny that gave up his #31 jersey to the right-hander and then let Greg call his pitches during some of his starts.
In recent years, Emma Leath became the All-Time wins leader in the history of Carroll County High School Softball. It was very easy to call her the Greg Maddux of Softball because of her ability to win despite an average playing weight of 110 pounds 💷.
Location, Location, Location was the answer for Maddux and Leath. It was such a treat to have a great seat 💺for both carrers.
Lee Corso made people smile and that has been in short supply the past twenty years or so. Even better, he didn’t step on anyones back in order to do so.
The band at Florida State University spelling out his name down in Tallahassee and the class on display up in Columbus, Ohio was refreshing to say the least.
The World 🌎 needs more people like the retiring Corso !
Russell Smoot and his family surely enjoyed the moment and the outcome of the game between #1 & #3.
Last season started out in a rough manner when returning Junior Corrie Delp suffered a freak accident in practice that took her out for the season. This year, Delp is back on the court, alongside her fellow Seniors, Brooke Webb, Laiken Burnett and Callie Harris.
The band is back together and if Thursday night is a sample size, the Lady Cavaliers will be in tune during the 2025-2026 season. Two members of the foursome have realistic shots at reaching landmark personal goals in addition to chasing team success.
After traveling to Abingdon and Staunton River for pre-season scrimmages, the team remained road Warriors in their 3-0 sweep of Pulaski County. The scores were 25-17, 25-17, 25-13 with the closeout set including a 12-0 run, courtesy of a scoring spree of the serving arm of Claire DeHaven.
Veteran Coach Cindy Edwards was both appreciative of the victory and the opportunity to play her entire team.
” I thought it was a good way to start the season,” said Edwards. ” The best part being I was able to play everyone.”
Take the long way home could serve as the theme song 🎵 as the Lady Cavaliers play next at Marion High School on Tuesday September 2nd, with the Junior Varsity team set to play first, starting at 5:30pm.
Coach Edwards puts the time in with All ages of Lady Cavaliers, not just the Varsity players.
Nikki Heflin is coaching the Junior Varsity team this season after the retirement of 10 year Coach Jason Petty. The Junior Varsity team fell 2-0 at Pulaski County High School in the opening match but Heflin saw positive results.
“The effort shown during the game is something to be proud of. The team did not give up and fought for every point,” said Heflin
” Losses are just learning opportunities. As a team we will figure out where they can improve, and come back stronger next game!”
Thursday night, September 4th will be the fifth time the teams hit the court but the first time playing on The Hill.
Take the Long Way Home, indeed.
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Sitting here in Cameron Indoor again watching Day 2 of the Volleyball 🏐 tournament with Duke, Houston, Florida International and Bryant University. An opportunity to help our friend and partner, Allen Worrell presented itself.
Allen had a 20 hour day yesterday between covering the Flea Market and the road Football game, so I’m creating an actual story for The Carroll News right now. I have written about the match in four or five stories for our site but none of them are Grown-up ones.
The story above this note 📝 is a work in progress, not quite done yet.
Florida International University 25, Bryant University 18 in the opener.
What I had planned on doing today was writing ✍ a story about this year’s Senior Class. A fair amount of time and energy has been spent around these four Seniors and in some instances, their Families.
Three years worth of breaking bread 🍞 with the Delp family up in Lynchburg at the State Track 👣 Meets.
Corrie Delp
Four years of hanging out with the Harris family, enough to know that Callie Harris truly is Half Pint, from Little House 🏠 n the Prarie.
Laiken Burnett will go down in the History of my sports writing ✍ career as the Athlete that I watched compete the most and by a wide margin. Three JV sports as a Freshman and six or seven Varsity ones since then.
Senior Sisters !
Last but not least, Brooke Webb. Brooke is the one that always has a smile on her face that makes you think that she knows something that you don’t.
Brooke Webb
Yes, this group of Student Athletes and their families represent my first 🎓🎓🎓 graduating class at Carroll County High School.
If I only knew a way to insert a picture of the four by their little blurb… Hint to the Parents….
Marion Harris, by way of Michelle Nicholson, gave us a photo that replaced the Logo.
Florida International finishes off the sweep of Bryant, 25-14 being the score of the close out set. 25-13 was the opener with 25-19 being the middle one.
Fun note – the Lady Panthers who aren’t on the floor are very animated when there team is serving !!
Stephanie (Ali’s Mom 👩)
Allen will have plenty of pics to choose from !!
Today’s Freebies – Team Photo 📷 and Friendship Bracelet !
It’s time for Houston versus Duke and the Lady 👩 Cougars look like they got Mad Skills. We might be having an early dinner 🍽.
Thank you to Cindy, Nikki, Marion Harris and both Mom’s ❤. Those are great team pics and I would love for some of them to appear on our site, anytime possible!
Houston wins the opener, 25-19 after a late run.
We have been able to add 2 of the 4 Individual Pics !!
Houston 25-13 in second set…(6:06 pm)
All four Pics in place now !
Houston leading 24-23 as Duke hangs tough in 3rd set.
Cougars end the day 26-24.
Thank You to everyone who pitched in today 🙏❤💕
Post matches Dinner !
Great fellowship moment as one of the Houston Mom’s and her four children stopped by our table and shared our Pizza 🍕!
Back in 2015, Lawrence Nesselrodt went into the Davis and Elkins Hall of Fame and it brought back a great line from comedian George Lopez.
” Oprah Winfrey made $180 Million last year ( back then)”, Lopez said with his famous rolling of his eyes 👀. ” Oprah, take a knee Sister, you are just running up the score.”
I made the drive over that Saturday evening and was thinking the same thing in regards to Ness and his one for the thumb, enough already. Just kidding though, as I could not be happier that the School he graduated from back in 1983 was finally able to salute his career in Baseball.
You can check out the link above to see the complete list of Hall of Fames, plus his Bio shows his accomplishments that took place during his stay in the Valley Baseball League.
Laurel Fork’s Rick Nester snuck through the process and managed to trim the deficit to 5-1 by getting yours truly inducted to the Carroll County High School Hall of Fame last year.
I hear that Rick Nester still has people that won’t speak to him because of his nomination and he was banned from attending the ceremony that night on The Hill. It was okay that Rick wasn’t in the building but sadly it kept his Bride away too.
The Valley Baseball League is where we first met and we were both involved in some pretty serious runs 🏃♂️. Ness inside the chalk, mine in the promotional area.
When the late Bruce Alger was still with us, the two of us would hang around Rebel Park before and after games and discuss our plans for running the league as President and Vice President.
The link above is something I wrote about Bruce Alger, the morning he passed away.
The beautiful thing about the life of Bruce Alger is that he made it to the Top of the Mountain ⛰ and served as the Man in charge of the VBL.
For the twelve years that I was part of the VBL, I didn’t hide from the fact that I was qualified to run the league. This came from taking the time to experience EVERY aspect of the league.
● Four years of working alongside Alger in New Market, including the Webcasts.
● Minority owner of the Luray Wranglers during their dominant run in 2008.
● Creating the Around the Valley Blog for the sole purpose of getting the league 24/7 positive coverage.
● Creating the Awesome Loop called Around the Valley in 60 Days. Pretty proud of that one
● One year of coverage from the position of Sports Editor for a weekly Newspaper 📰 inside the only County where three teams reside ( Shenandoah County)
● Six years of nightly coverage as a writer for the Northern Virginia Daily
● 2009 season in Waynesboro, were I acted as a filler until we could get new members of the Community to own the team and I believe that 16 years later it still exists.
● Host Family 👪 a number of years, for the Luray Wranglers. To not do that part, would prevent you from understanding how vital it is.
● Meal Provider on multiple occasions, once again, a huge part of the process.
● Getting Chris and Crystal Graham involved with the league. This relationship lasted a long time and at one point, they were behind three teams Websites.
● Brokering the deal when the owner of the Fauquier Gators passed away suddenly and the team needed a new home. Getting my Hero and Friend, Jay Neal into the VBL and being the person responsible for putting the team in Strasburg makes me smile. Everytime they Win the Championship, the smile gets brighter.
Getting to exchange messages and stories with Ness for the past 20 years has been a Blessing. We both love 💘 the game, just from different angles.
Ness is the one that empathizes, Leave It Better Than You Found It. We both accomplished that with regards to the VBL.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 