Velvet Leonard Photo 📷 of Dakota Walls Racing 🏎 , both the current Lady Cavaliers and the returning Alumni.

  The effort to gather up all the information available to me and start the transcribing has officially begun. The Alumni game event was the ideal cap for telling a story about how Cavalier Park came to be, from the beginning to the current day facility.

   There is still a bit of circling back to check with some folks about what they would like to submit and hopefully we will pick up a few more items here in the next few days.

The interactions with Eddie Vaughn, Brad Nester,  Darrin Mathews and Justin Quesenberry added layers to an already neat story. Cheyenne Strickland Marinus provided such a great look into the mindset of what it takes to be a Student Athlete at both the High School and Collegiate level.

    Looking forward to seeing what the next few months hold in regards to the story !

  From 10:00 am until just past Noon, I had the privilege of conversing with a trio of local Leaders. The meeting meant way too much to try and shortened it into a paragraph or two, so let’s leave it at I left the conference room better than I entered it.

  Most doubters believe that I am on a Fool’s errand as I try to navigate through life on the Good Ship 🚢 Lollipop 🍭. Maybe that is true but it helps to know that I’m not alone !

Plenty of great information about the History of Cavalier Park was gathered for sure but it takes a back seat to the level of Fellowship !

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.