Author: Around the Valley in 60 Days

Trying to find Positive in a World 🌎 that needs more of it!

Our Boo Ridge prep crew was in a word was Marvelous !!! Photo 📸 Credit to Samantha Lark Smith.

We started around 2 p.m., and we are departing seven minutes ahead of Vickey’s 6:30 pm. cutoff

Ron Cochran has been busy !

Thank you to Ryan McCafferty for stopping by to absorb the work in progress, and we look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow morning. We are always grateful when the local newspaper 📰 covers are Special Olympics events!

Dr Samantha Reed will be the one that I will have the honor of introducing tomorrow when it’s time for our National Anthem to be performed !

The Boss is heading out now, but Bob and I will try to finish up this story !

We have a number of Bob’s, and we call this one, Scary Bob…

Standing next to Vickey Ritchie is about as cool of a place as I’m allowed to stand, and I will be here ready to go in roughly 12 hours !

Today, we had so many people give of their time ⏲️ as has been the case all week long. While I could list everyone that was here today, it would short change those who covered the first six shifts.

Vickey Ritchie is our leader here on The Hill, and Special Olympics Basketball is better for it !

Diamonds 💎 are Girls Best Friend : Softball is very much about Father’s and Daughters. Now we take a look at our Travis Leath and his ” Little ” Kiddo, who has grown up right in front of our eyes.

One of the numerous things hanging on the wall in my homemade office is this piece presented to me by Travis Leath. The fact that the new scoreboard is in the background just adds another dimension to the respect and appreciation that is shared between two softball junkies.

Emma Leath never weighed above 115 pounds, at least not in the six years that I have known her, yet she managed to absolutely dominate from inside the circle across her four seasons at Carroll County High School. After she graduated from The Hill, her father went from being the most supportive Dad to being the assistant coach alongside Rick Nester.

This created two issues, with the first being that he was trying to replace the beloved Jeff Tobler and second, he was trying to fill the cleats of one of the most determined athletes who I have met.

Travis is the definition of ” Love for the Game,” and it becomes apparent every time we speak about softball. Our paths don’t cross that often, but when they do, it is invigorating.

There will be plenty more on these two !

Diamonds 💎  are a Girls Best Friend : The keepsakes from the opening chapter are now 40+ years old and a little knicked up, but it’s still the starting point of my relationship with the game of Softball.

https://aroundthevalleyin60days.blog/2025/06/25/diamonds-are-a-girls-best-friend-the-keepsakes-from-the-opening-chapter-is-now-40-years-old-and-a-little-knicked-up-but-its-still-the-starting-point-of-my-relationship-with-the-game-of-softball/

Diamonds 💎 are a Girls Best Friend : Why stop chasing ball parks just because you completed the Major League Baseball loop ?

Every one of these 10 treks holds a memory or two. Triple A baseball went from three leagues down to just two, and that left these teams in the PCL.

El Paso might have the single greatest marketing concession stand item of all time ! The mascot is the Chihuahuas and they serve you some items in an actual dog bowl 🥣.

The little known fact about baseball played out west is the altitude that many of these parks sit at and how it affects both the batting averages and the pitchers earned run averages.

5,110 feet is the ( The Lab ) level above the sea in Albuquerque as one example. The nickname of the park is just another way that the folks at the AAA level work to make things fun !

This particular loop ended when I attended a game in the suburbs of Houston, at the home park of the Sugarland Space Cowboys. Finding a way to tie in both NASA and Texas into the team name….