Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

I don’t mind a good road trip … but this is getting ridiculous.

First I traveled to Marlborough, Massachusetts (question: is it Marlboro or Marlborough, ‘cause I saw it both ways?) for the Cal Ripken 10-year-old New England Regionals and put about 450 miles on my car and, as I write this, I’m about to head up to Winchester, Massachusetts, for the Cal Ripken 12-year-old New England Regionals and will put another 285 miles on my car.

The ultimate road trip comes this week, though, as I head down to Russellville, Arkansas for the Cal Ripken 10-year-old World Series. That’s about 1,400 miles, but thank god I won’t be driving it.

Although, for me, flying is only a slightly better tradeoff.

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While making three trips up to Massachusetts in the past week or so, I have had to endure some appalling sports talk radio.

See, once you get onto I-90 East (the Mass Pike), WFAN and ESPN Radio out of New York start to fade. That forces you to look elsewhere on the dial and, of course, you eventually come across WVEI 1440 out of Worcester and WWZN 1510 (The Zone) out of Boston and in our neck of the woods it doesn’t get any worse than that.

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There could not be a better setting anywhere for a game of base ball than the big field at McLaughlin Vineyards in Sandy Hook.

The Newtown nine hosted the Waterbury Connors in a doubleheader match played by 1861 rules (no gloves, soft balls, underhand pitching, balls caught on first bounce anywhere are outs) and though the Hooks dropped both games, there were some rousing defensive plays (by ‘Pops’ Pendergist in left and Mike ‘Rambo’ Rambone in center) that drew the applause of the ‘cranks’ … who numbered around 150 on a beautiful summer afternoon.

The Connors – who just came back from winning a tournament in Lowell, Massachusetts – are a good club with some nifty fielders.

A rematch, though, is coming up.

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Boat captains are wanted for Bryan’s Fishing Camp Tournament, which will be held Friday, August 19, from 9 am to 2:30 pm, at the Girl Scout Camp in New Fairfield.

The camp – held in memory of Bryan Kerchal of Newtown – is sponsored by the Regional YMCA of Western Connecticut’s Great Hollow Wilderness School and teaches fishing techniques to young people.

Kerchal captured the Bassmasters Classic Championship in 1994, but only four months later perished in a plane crash. The Camp is funded by the Bryan Kerchal Memorial. To volunteer as a boat captain, call Ray Kerchal at 426-1837.

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Just a week after collecting his 3,000th base hit – and five months or so after flatly denying he has ever used steroids or performance enhancing drugs Rafael Palmeiro was suspended for violating the Major League Baseball steroids policy.

He is accepting his punishment with little fight although he still flatly denies using steroids, saying he has no idea how a banned substance got into his body.

Spare us, please.

There was some argument on ESPN radio about whether or not Palmeiro truly is a Hall of Fame player and I scoffed because he had two of the most magical numbers in baseball – 3,000 hits and 500 home runs.

I’m not scoffing anymore.

If I had a vote, Palmeiro wouldn’t get it now.