(This is Part 2 of a 13-part serialization of the Peter Hartwell saga. Follow new chapters of the story each weekend at The Grapevine…) “They killed my father, and now they’re coming after me.” – Marty Nolan, on the pain of being a Red Sox fan, in David Halberstam’s “The Teammates.” I walked into the drab green waiting area of the emergency room at Columbia-Presbyterian…
The Tale of the Toppled Hurler by Bruce A. Kauffman c 2016. All rights reserved. Chapter Three It was old news for…
Willie Gillante took the mound to pitch the game that would decide if the dream gets dashed or faith is rewarded. If Willie and his precious Red Sox lost tonight, their exhausting season-long march to the world championship of baseball would be over, and the hope gone that the crown would finally come to Boston for the first time in a long eighty-six years. The…
As you may have heard, the Major League Baseball All-Star game comes to Petco Park on Tuesday, July 12. However, MLB beats the all stars to the punch as it, along with the San Diego Padres Foundation, is scheduled to hold a dedication ceremony for a new baseball diamond at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego — Conrad Prebys Branch, 115 Woodward…
As the psalm goes, to every thing there is a season, and for Cal State University San Marcos (CSUSM) baseball coach Dennis Pugh, the season of his retirement has come. First, foremost, and only, coach of the Cal State San Marcos baseball Cougars, Pugh hangs up his spikes following a 23-25 last hurrah. His final game, fittingly enough, resulted in an 8-2 win over UC…
How far has Escondido High School’s baseball team come in a year? The Cougars won its 16th game last week, tying the total number of 2015 wins. “I think we’re on the right track,” fourth-year head coach Aaron Hoofard said. Ya think? As of press time, the Cougars had won 14 games in a row. Escondido plays a mostly Division III schedule, so it’s a…
Alas, 2016 has just begun and the Padres are million-to-one shots to make the National League playoffs. A little roadblock like that certainly isn’t nearly enough to derail the Padres Caravan from rolling through Westfield North County. Last stop before spring training begins, the Padres and fellow staff and travelers were all over the county the weekend of Feb. 11-13. They hit the Escondido mall…
Palomar College has one of the top junior college baseball programs in the nation. Now it has a $10.2 million baseball complex second to none if the JUCO world. The brand spanking new baseball complex opened play on Jan. 27 with the Palomar Comets taking on the College of the Desert Roadrunners. A brief ribbon cutting and ceremony preceded the game. Baseball and Palomar sports…
The heck with football and basketball. The hardy boys of winter took to Valley Center Little League’s La Vine Field on Sunday, gloves and big league hopes in hand. “We’re just having fun, some pitching, some hitting, pretty much hanging out” said Dylan McFadden, a Valley Center High School sophomore, and second baseman, between hacks at the batting cage in the far northern reaches of…
It was all over, especially the shouting, little that it was, as the San Diego Padres wrapped up their 2015 home schedule at Petco Park. And oh, by the way, in this season of their continued discontent, the Padres humbled their apparent arch-nemesis Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 behind Ian Kennedy’s best game of a 9-15, 4.28 ERA season. Believe it or not, the Brewers had won…