Duke University Football pulling off a monumental upset under the shadow of the Golden Dome capped what I still consider the greatest ” Loop ” that I have created over the years.

Why ? Starting with the people that were involved, Alan Knight, Rob Sisk ➕ my Wife Linda and one of my Sons, Christopher. Then you add in the fact that involved four 🇺🇲 States inside of 48 hours and a 3 Wood carried through the Airport on the way home, and you have the making of a story.

  When the Fighting Irish first entered into the agreement of playing five games against Atlantic Coast Conference football opponents, I promised myself that when it was Duke’s turn to go up to South Bend that I was going to be there.

Rob Sisk had recently moved from Waynesboro, Virginia to Notre Dame so his travel was local. Chris and Alan were going to arrive from Virginia while Linda and I from the San Juan Islands 🏝.

  Duke was supposed to get blown out by the Irish so the game itself was just a reason to sit in the most historic football stadium 🏟 in the Country, on a College campus, anyway. Alan had grown up rooting for the Irish to there was an interest on his part.

Not wanting to make the trip just for one lopsided College Football game, I started to look for ways to expand the trip.

  Wrigley Field on a Friday afternoon with the bonus being it was the Cubs – Cardinals. The Midwest version of Yankees – Red Sox became the initial add on to the Trek. Rob rode the train 🚆 over and joined us while Lin stayed at the Hotel 🏨 to fulfill her work obligations.

  Rob headed back to Indiana and we swung by the Hotel to grab Lin for the next leg. It turned out that the Milwaukee Brewers were playing a night game so we headed North.

We stayed until the final out, in part because we were resting 😴 our eyes in between innings. Then we started the drive back to our Hotel 🏨, back at O’Hare Airport. Highlight was Milwaukee had a player named Chris Carter !

  It was Saturday morning by the time we entered the Hotel 🏨 but it was just for a quick nap because to complete The Four Corners we needed to play Golf ⛳ in Michigan before the Irish – Blue Devils kicked off.

Lin and Chris were sleeping in the back seat on the drive over on the Turnpike and woke up at the Welcome to Michigan sign. We had picked out the very first course across the Border, rented some clubs and headed to the 1st tee. The highlight was hitting the 3-wood in the bag 🎒 so well that I bought it from the course owner for a crisp $10 bill. Getting it back to Washington State was an adventure all to itself.

  We made it back to Touchdown Jesus and the Golden Dome just before kickoff and met up with Rob and a friend of his. The six of us sat down and just started telling stories about the adventure. The game itself was an afterthought because we were just enjoying the company.

Duke messed with our fellowship a bit by somehow making a game of it. Daniel Jones was a walk – on Redshirt Freshman at the time and he was making history.

We said our Goodbyes to Rob and headed back towards the Airport in time to take another nap before Alan and Chris flew back to Virginia while Lin and I headed back towards our Island 🏝.

Everything about the 36 hours left an impression on me and everything since has been about trying to create memories that will last a lifetime. Just a perfect combination of the right people and the right circumstances.

Daniel Jones became Danny Dimes when he was drafted by the New York Giants. Rob and his family 👪 still live outside of South Bend. Coach is still at Page County High School and Chris is raising four of our nine Grandchildren.

Photo Credit : John Leonard ( All Things Valley League)

   During the 2007 Valley Baseball League season, my efforts to promote the VBL through our website was in full swing. Lawrence Nesselrodt and his Waynesboro Generals would eventually end the season with the Championship but the night that opened my eyes 👀 took place just before then.

Waynesboro was hosting the Haymarket Senators at Kate Collins Field and per the norm, I was at the park hoping to strike up a conversation about the game of Baseball. Ness had a tough as nails 💅 closer by the name of Jimmy Stanley that season and as luck would have it, I ended up sitting and talking with his Father that night.

  Waynesboro was having its way with Haymarket that night and about halfway through the game, I started cheering for the visiting team, leading Mr Stanley to question my motivation for suddenly switching sides.

Realizing that Dad had driven in from Kentucky to see his Son pitch and knowing that Ness would not use his closer if he had an eight run lead was the reason why I wanted Haymarket to make a game of it.

  Mr Stanley smiled and proceeded to share a thought with me that has stuck like glue for nearly two decades now.

” Jerry, its okay if I don’t get to see my Son pitch tonight, I have been watching him play baseball for most of his life. Tomorrow the team has an off day and they are hosting a Family picnic for all of the players and coaches ➕ anyone related to them that can make it. Now, if you told me that I would miss out on spending the day with my Son and his friends, that would be a disappointment.”

  Remember what the Big Picture looks like in life and it can help bring clarity to your outlook. Your children are the easiest thing to be proud of in life, make sure that you take the time to enjoy the journey.

In a lifetime of criss crossing North America, finding every ballpark that I could find in search for a story, that two hours with Mr Stanley still makes me smile. Take the time to enjoy your Family, not just when they are playing a ball game.

Now, in 2009 the Generals would become my team but I refused to call myself the Owner, instead I went with Caretaker. The search for a new local owner would prove to be vital to the success of the organization.

  Looking back, even today, that conversation was as memorable of a moment as I have from Waynesboro.

  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.

  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.

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.

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.

https://goldenbearathletics.com/staff-directory/lawrence-nesselrodt/23

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 Ultimate Tip of the Cap to New Market’s Mr. Bruce Alger.

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.

  10 of the 50 Baseball stories will be about the 20 years Ness and I have spent together. It will be a serious challenge to trim it down to 10 because Lawrence Nesselrodt is Baseball, as the Beatles would sing, 8 Days a week.

Krukie, as he was known to many, created the most outrageously funny moment in Baseball history when he faced Randy Johnson in the MLB All-Star game.

  Just two kids from Nowhere, West Virginia chasing a life in Baseball.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/jJ3rcwJ3zNk