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 ?

El Paso (AAA), Texas has it going on !!

  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.

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.

  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.

  Thursday morning will be the time for getting to meet up with Mr Eddie Vaughn for our session about his role in the development of our Cavalier Park.

I was already looking forward to sitting down with Eddie because of the glowing report I received from the Man 👨 that replaced him, Mr Stephen Puckett.

Every now you can watch a Movie 🎥 on the Big Screen and see an actor or actress in a cameo role and wonder why an A-Lister Star 🌟 would subject themselves to a small role. I chalk it up to the Star having done it as a favor to the Director or Executive Producer, maybe its repayment for an earlier break.

  In my five years here, I have met hundreds, if not thousands of people and many have simply Blown me away. But everyone else falls in line behind Dr Oliver McBride.

In a few days I will get to spend quality time with a pair of Top-Shelf people, my level of excitement is borderline giddy!!

The first words out of Eddie’s mouth today was how much he enjoyed his time working with a man as classy as Dr Oliver McBride !! How many times does someone lead their life story with how much respect he or she has for their Boss?

  Eddie Vaughn, Sir, you had me at Hello!

   The photo 📷 here is one that shows what existed back in the early 1980’s at Page County High School.

The night that we were able to dedicate the Field to the name of Coach Alan Knight, the theme song 🎵 was the old Johnny Cash diddy, One Piece at a Time.

It was very fitting because of the manner that the facility had grown right before our very eyes 👀.and done from within. Going from having won a State title but not having a home field to play on to what now sits on the hill in between the old High School and the new High School is Amazing.

  When you add in the fact that it was done in-house for the most part adds another layer to the story. Just like the song 🎵, where Cash told the tale about building a Car 🚗 one piece at a time, the folks within the program created the facility one season at a time.

The dugouts, the fencing, the Press Box, the Pavillion were some of the bigger ticket items but there was plenty of smaller steps along the way.

  The combination of people that rallied around each other as the Program grew is an impressive list. Coach Knight and Assistant Coach Viafora were the perfect partnership for a LONG time. They built something together that was strong enough that others were willing to step up once Viafora took up a new role in his busy life. The one of being a Grandfather.

  Arthur Campbell, Dennis Zimmerman, Brian Hendrick, Lori Mongold and Meagan Gordon are some of the people that took to baton from Viafora, along with a cast of former players who treasured their time wearing the jersey.

Listing all of the contributions of Assistant Coach Ralph Viafora during his lengthy time working with Alan Knight and the Lady Panthers Softball program will be a challenge. But one thing that sticks out is a sign that hangs on the Press Box at Alan Knight Field that has the team motto, if you will.

” Tradition never Graduates “

  Even today, Viafora is a busy, busy Man so I’m not sure how much of his time I will get on this but one simply can’t tell the story about the facility or the program itself without a heavy dose of Ralph Viafora.

The three daughters that played in the program would be enough on its own but the fact that he stayed on after the youngest one graduated 🎓, says a great deal about the Man.

Viafora also spent time as the Head Coach for the Girls Basketball team during his stay in Shenandoah. Knight is quick to credit his former Assistant for stepping in and taking the program to another level, both in game planning and the Park.

The most impressive thing about Viafora is the love that he has for his Family. The youngest of his three daughters, Caitlin, was as tough as the day is long and after graduation she headed over to nearby James Madison University to continue her education and worked her way onto the Softball roster as a Freshman.

  Mainly used as a pinch runner do to her speed and Father like understanding of how the game is meant to be played, Ralph added her games to his daily calendar. JMU traveled a great deal and if at all possible, Mom and Dad were in the stands.

Back to ” Tradition never Graduates “, I could sit here for years and couldn’t sniff a better way to describe the Softball program at Page County High School !

Thank You Ralph, for your time, your sacrifice, your Daughters and your commitment to Page County High School!