The phrase from a long time ago started with the Old Yankee Stadium 🏟 being called the House 🏠 that Ruth Built. Now, Babe Ruth didn’t actually ” build ” Yankee Stadium but I loved the reference so over the years, I added to it.
Welcome to Lucas Oil Stadium, the House that Peyton Manning built and Welcome to Safeco Field, the House that Ken Griffey Junior built.
Well, Joe Goddard, the man who I introduce at every home game that I announce for the West Virginia Tech Golden Bears 🐻, as the Legendary Joe Goddard actually built a Field for his High School.
Thanks to Chris Graham at the Augusta Free Press and in the link above, the local Newspaper 📰 in Beckley, West Virginia, this story was read across an entire region.
It has been nothing short of a privilege to soak in the thoughts of Joe Goddard over the past decade. Each Spring, Goddard and I serve as the little voices in the ear of Skipper Lawrence Nesselrodt as he leads our Golden Bears. Goddard helps with the X’s and O’s while I assist with the things that take place outside of the chalked lines.
When Joe first told me the story about turning down an opportunity to continue his professional Baseball career within the San Diego Padres organization, I hung on every word.
Returning to West Virginia to teach and Coach was the better fit. The problem was the School didn’t have a Baseball field at the time. Not to worry, Joe fired up his tractor and started to plow down some acreage. He had his little Girl with him at the time so Joe had to get creative while he built his field. Taking a rope, Joe tied a sled that was dragged behind him and Father 👨 and Daughter spent quality time together ❤.
That little Girl 👧, is all growed up now and has turned out just fine. She calls Joe, Dad and her patients call her Doctor !
Megan Gordon is still hard at her dream of making Page County the best it can be. The Mother of Kate and Maddie Gordon, both former Lady Panthers Softball players that played four seasons in High School and then another four years of Division 1 ball.
Coach Alan Knight and Megan Gordon
Back at our second OneofUs.Care Banquet we were able to honor 🎖the efforts of Mrs Gordon and the list of accomplishments was impressive back then and still continues to grow everyday.
Her daughters played back to back for Coach Knight and each Gordon girl has at least one Ring 💍 in their jewelry box. Like Assistant Coach Ralph Viafora, Mom stayed heavily involved with the program after she no longer had a child wearing the colors.
Lady Panthers
We will be sharing as much of her story as we can in the book 📖. Having a reason to spend time with such a focused young Lady is priceless !
For the serious Baseball ⚾️ fan, the game stands on its own. Cheering on your team, the strategy involved and Hot Dogs 🌭 can be all it takes to get a fan to grab their car keys, wallet and head to the Stadium. Baseball is Old School and appreciated by the masses.
The part of the game that fascinates me is the marketing side of the business. Over the decades I have entered the turnstiles at over 300 different facilities to watch either a Softball or Baseball game and each time I’m looking for a reason to want to come back.
At the Major League level, the game stands on its own merit but the further one goes down the ladde from MLB, the harder the marketing department has to work. They have to compete with a 100 different things that a family 👪 can go do so there is a need to add additional features to the night.
Arizona (MLB) has a swimming pool in centerfield but it is designed for the folks with too much money. Las Vegas (AAA) has a swimming pool as well but it allows an individual to purchase a ticket.
Many parks now have small amusement parks behind their outfield fence while others depend upon live concerts and post-game fireworks. Mixing things up at the Concession stands is a must and some do it well.
Going to highlight some of my favorite features from along the journey, including new scoreboards in Nashville and Sugarland, cool names that match their home towns and my favorite play on serving food.
When your team is named after a small dog 🐕, you have to sell food inside an actual Dog 🐕 Bowl 🥣, right ?
Once I realized that my Love for writing ✍ wasn’t ever going to provide food for my growing Family, I turned my focus towards the other end of the Newspaper building. Circulation and Transportation is the back porch of the Newspaper 📰 world but it treated me well for a lifetime.
But the passion for telling a good story increased every time I would listen to a Jimmy Buffett song 🎵 and then reached another level when I discovered the work of Aaron Sorkin. From town to town, State to State, wherever I was working I would eventually gravitate towards the Sports Reporter who had the local beat.
One day I tried to stop and count how many times that I’ve had something printed in a Newspaper, Magazine or On-line. Once the count reached two dozen, it made me smile and think all the way back to when my second Editor told me that I would never be taken seriously in this business because I was incapable of writing ✍ MEAN.
Some newspaper articles were one and dones, other relationships lasted for years. I even managed to spend a year as the Sports Editor for a weekly paper in Shenandoah County ( Free Press ). Five years as a ” part timer ” for the Northern Virginia Daily up in Strasburg created north of 500 By Lines. Covering Indiana High School Basketball for the Greenfield Daily Reporter was beyond exciting.
The best part about the journey was the relationships that developed over the years at the various papers and no particular order, I will list a few.
Chris Graham, Bill Meade, Rob Sisk, Jim Sacco, Chuck McGill, Allen Worrell and his non-brother, Craig Worrell. Seven names, seven different people who all have played a role in the journey.
In regards to Craig Worrell, our paths crossed for the first time near the end of his time as the Sports Editor for the weekly newspaper in Galax. But he makes this list because while we didn’t work side by side, I have never met a Man who served one Community or in his case three, that managed to remain such a revered sole. The business doesn’t make that part of the Day 2 Day operation, so to not include someone who survived in that manner would be an oversight on my part.
Allen Worrell at the Carroll News has been a treat to work alongside the past five years and we have developed a friendship along the way. The word Friend is a sacred word to me so if I use it, please believe it matters. There have been a couple hundred By Lines in the newspaper and our ability to partner on things has been Amazing! One common denominator we share is that neither one of our Wives read our work but we would be lost without them.
Allen reached another level in my book with his coverage of the season finale of the recent Baseball season. That was a truly great story. Bonus points for Allen because he has a Plucky Sidekick in his office 🏢, Mr David Broyles.
Jim Sacco is no longer in the Business but our time working together at the daily Newspaper up in Waynesboro was a match made in heaven. Sacco would eventually land in Bristol and then up in Harrisonburg before switching gears ⚙ by moving into the Non-profit industry. Sacco wasn’t everyones Cup of Tea but I loved his creativity.
Chuck McGill is a great example of a OneofUs.Care communicator McGill wants to use his skill set for Good and in this day and age, that is in short supply. We first met at the Northern Virginia Daily and have stayed in touch over the years. McGill took over as the Sports Editor at the NVD before returning to his native West Virginia. It was during his time as Sports Information Director for Marshall University that Chuck arranged for me to meet with Sydney Nester.
Pappy Meade teaching Italian
Rob Sisk is much more like a fourth Son to me than a friend. If there was a Hall of Fame for Humanity, Sisk goes in on the First Ballot 🗳. The fact that Rob created our logo for OneofUs.Care means more to me then words can explain and it will bond us together, forever. Sisk now lives in the land of the Fighting Irish but the Liberty University graduate 🎓 still bleeds for his beloved Hokies..
Rob was also a part of what I still consider among the greatest weekend adventures that I ever created and that will be part of a separate Baseball stories.
Bill ” Pappy ” Meade, a graduate 🎓 of R.E. Lee High School in Staunton and William & Mary. If Sisk is a fourth Son, Meade is a third older Brother to me. Meade, like McGill wants to use his skill set to make the World 🌎 a better place. Pappy is in his seventies now but is still out there doing his best to serve our youth.
Meade is teaching at a Christian ✝️ school near his house and Coaching tennis 🎾 at the school formerly known at R.E. Lee but now goes by the name Staunton High School. Whenever Pappy is around some of my Grandchildren he will open up an App and start teaching them a foreign language.
That leaves us Chris Graham of the Augusta Free Press, an online Newspaper based in Augusta County. Chris and his wife Crystal will also have a separate Baseball ⚾️ story in the Book 📖 but for now I will share a few thoughts about the 20 year relationship with the University of Virginia graduate 🎓.
The ties 👔 between us start with UVA because Chris earned a diploma from there and I bought one, by way of the youngest of our five Children, Rebecca Carter McDowell.
Momento, created by Rebecca for a Fun Season of covering ACC Football 🏈🏈🏈 with Chris Graham
To try and show the proper amount of respect for Chris Graham that I have I will revert back to the type of questions I would create during the stretch when we were recording three Podcasts a week.
Your life depends upon your winning of one game, any sport, who would you want Coaching it ?
Back then, my answer would have been Geno, all day long.
If an under educated Aaron Sorkin wannabe, that struggles with sentence structure among other things, life was hanging in the balance on how a story reads….. it is going to Chris Graham, everyday and twice on Sunday.
The seven people have one thing in common, well two if you add that they are all WAY smarter than me. The all have a passion that fuels their fire 🔥 and while they are spread out across the East Coast, they each left a sizable impression on me.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 