The Keystone Summer Games and Pennsylvania Senior Games are being held in the Hershey/Harrisburg area this summer for the fourth straight year.
The Olympic-style sports festivals have competition in multiple sports.
The 33rd annual Keystone State Games are set for July 14-August 3 and are a step in qualifying for the 2015 State Games of America.
The Pennsylvania Senior Games are for athletes who are 50 or older as of December 31, 2014. They are set for July 14-20.
Archery, bowling, swimming and track and field will be part of both competitions.
The Keystone Games will also include baseball, basketball, field hockey, ice hockey, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, judo, karate, lacrosse, masters swimming, synchronized swimming, TaeKwonDo, tennis, wrestling, and wrestling duals.
The Pennsylvania Senior Games will also include badminton, 3v3 basketball, basketball shooting, bocce, darts, disc golf, football/softball throw, golf, horseshoes, pickleball, racquetball, shuffleboard, table tennis and volleyball.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders leadoff hitter Jose Pirela was named International League Player of the Month for June.
Pirela led the IL in hits for the month with 40. He batted .336 with 10 extra-base hits, five stolen bases, 21 runs scored and 18 runs batted in.
During the month, Pirela also showed off his versatility. He played second base and left field and made his first professional appearances at first base and right field.
Pirela was the last IL Player of the Week in May, then carried the hot streak over to June, including a five-hit effort on June 1. He reached base safely in 26 of 28 games during the month.
The 24-year-old from Venezuela is second in the league in hits (96), and runs scored (53), tied for third in total bases (153) and seventh in batting average (.314).
Pirela hit a career-high 10 home runs for the Eastern League champion Trenton Thunder last season and also batted .304 in five games with the RailRiders. He has seven home runs in 75 Class AAA games this season with the RailRiders.
The Lehigh Valley IronPigs bounced back from losing two home games to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders by then winning two games when the teams moved to Moosic to continue the series June 30 and July 1.
Lehigh Valley now leads the IronRail Trophy series, 10-6. The only way for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to win the trophy is to take the final four games of the year and duplicate last year’s feat of finishing the season tied but winning the tiebreaker by taking the final game.
Hazleton Area graduate Russ Canzler, who opened the season with the RailRiders, helped the IronPigs to the win.
Canzler’s three-run, seventh-inning homer broke a tie and led a 9-7 victory in the first game. Canzler doubled in one run and scored another in the first inning of the 3-2 win July 1.
Pirela continued his hot hitting into a new month, going 2-for-5 while Zoilo Almonte hit his team-high 12th homer in the loss.
In his return to PNC field, Canzler went 4-for-10 with a double, homer, four RBI and three runs scored in just two games.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Binghamton Mets are taking aim at the hottest team in the Eastern League in a four-game series that ends Thursday at 1:05 in the team's final weekday afternoon home game of the season. The teams also meet Wednesday at 6:35 at NYSEG Stadium.
The Futures Game for the top prospects in minor league baseball is scheduled for Sunday at Target Field in Minnesota.
Binghamton catcher Kevin Plawecki will play for the U.S. team that will try for its fifth straight win over the World.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com.
RAIN AND WRECKS MAR DAYTONA CUP RACE
Aric Almirola, winner at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Aric Almirola was declared the winner of the weekend Coke Zero 400 Sprint Cup race at Daytona, after persistent rains forced NASCAR to call it after 112 laps.
Rain had been a factor for the previous three days, and caused the scheduled 160-lap race to be postponed from Saturday night until Sunday morning.
In addition to the rain, there were two major wrecks involving 35 cars of the 43-car field.
Almirola had taken the lead on a restart after the last wreck on lap 103. The rains came on lap 110, forcing NASCAR to display the caution flag. Two laps later, the cars were brought down pit road and parked. After about an hour NASCAR officials decided the remainder of the race could not be run on Sunday due to heavy showers off in the distance, and Almirola was credited with his first victory.
It was the first career win for Almirola and the first for the iconic No. 43-car since John Andretti won at Martinsville in 1999.
“Man it’s so awesome to get this win,” said Almirola. “This team has worked so hard for this. I don’t know if the lord had anything to do with it, but we’ll take it.”
Brian Vickers was second, followed by Kurt Busch, Casey Mears, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Michael McDowell, Danica Patrick, Clint Bowyer, and Marcos Ambrose.
The first of the two big wrecks came on lap 21. It appeared Ricky Stenhouse got loose and bumped into Jeff Gordon.
Stenhouse, AJ Allmendinger, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Trevor Bayne, and Carl Edwards were finished. Marcos Ambrose, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Larson, and Dale Earnhardt were able to continue.
The second, even bigger wreck came during lap 97. Greg Biffle was trying to bump draft Kasey Kahne, but Kahne got squirrelly, and ultimately, 26 cars were involved.
“I really don’t know what started it all,” said polesitter David Gilliland. “I think Kasey might have gotten into someone, and from then on, I don’t know what happened.”
Kyle Busch’s No. 18 wound up on its roof, but he was O.K.
Top-10 Chase leaders after 18 of 36: 1. Gordon-651, 2. Earnhardt-624, 3. Johnson-596, 4. Keselowski-586, 5. Kenseth-580, 6. Logano-546, 7. Edwards-543, 8. Newman-534, 9. Kyle Busch-524, 10. Menard-516.
KAHNE EDGES SMITH FOR NATIONWIDE WIN
Kasey Kahne finished by just .021-seconds ahead of Regan Smith in Friday night’s Nationwide Series race at Daytona. Kahne, who had not led any laps during the 103-lap race, which included a green-white-checkered finish, made his move to the outside as the field streaked to the finish on the last lap.
Smith was second, followed by Ryan Sieg, Ryan Reed, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Darrell Wallace, Joey Clements, Trevor Bayne, and Mike Wallace.
Top-10 leaders after 16 of 33: 1. Smith-577, 2. Sadler-565, 3. Elliott-562, 4. T. Dillon-545, 5. Scott-523, 6. Bayne-518, 7. Gaughan-465, 8. J. Buescher-448, 9. C. Buescher-448, 10. Reed-423.
NASCAR FAVORS GREEN
NASCAR does not make decisions based on black or white, male or female.
Green is the only color or gender they recognize.
Originally, NASCAR was the story of people; mechanics, drivers, promoters, and the sport of stock car racing.
Since its inception in 1949, much has happened along the way.
It started in the hills of Georgia and the Carolinas, before moving to Daytona. As time went by more and more followers jumped on board. The wild disorganized events spread all the way to the West Coast.
How the fans loved it.
The stock car races of those early years proved the sport had a future.
Slowly, over time, the men of vision, saw just how lucrative the sport was. They began to make changes; tidy it up and make it more presentable to larger and diverse audiences. It was taken out of the rural areas and marketed to big Fortune 500 companies as a cash cow.
As the racing grew, so did the parent organization. Pretty soon there were NASCAR offices in Daytona Beach, New York, Charlotte, Los Angeles, and Mexico City.
With the growth of the sport, there came many changes.
But not all fans were enthusiastic about the spit and polish style of racing that evolved. During the late 1900’s thousands of middle-aged white collar men and women left the sport.
NASCAR decided that a new breed of person; someone younger, and of a different culture needed to be brought into the sport.
A perfect example of this happened last week. NASCAR asked Truck Series driver Darrell Wallace Jr., the son of a white father and an African-American woman, to attend the BET (Black Entertainment Television) Awards Banquet. He was instructed on how to use NASCAR’s Instagram account and post photos and messages from the event.
Some of the fan replies to his posts weren’t positive.
“We’re trying to widen out the fan base and change the demographics up,” Wallace said. “Hell, we’ve got to do that stuff. Everybody has their own opinion. That’s life.”
I did not watch the BET Awards show. If anyone out there did, please tell me how many white entertainers were honored that night.
NASCAR continues to evolve and one of their goals is to get more African-American fans involved.
Drivers like Darrell Wallace and Danica Patrick would hardly admit it in the face of the big bucks and attention lavished upon them, but they are nothing but a pawn in a big marketing game. They are used to generate millions of dollars for their teams, sponsors and sanctioning organization.
Neither NASCAR nor the teams give a “rat’s-behind” about them as individuals. They are as disposable as one of the plastic bags you bring groceries home in from Walmart.
It’s no longer about racing. It’s about who can bring in the most greenbacks.
In classical literature, it would be called, “selling your soul to the devil.”
Whichever way you choose to view it, green is NASCAR’s favorite color.
Weekend Racing: The Truck teams are at the seven-eighths mile Iowa Speedway, while the Nationwide and Cup teams are the 1-mile New Hampshire Speedway.
Fri., July 11, Truck Series race 9 of 22; Starting time: 8 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.
Sat., July 12, Nationwide Series race 17; Starting time: 3 pm ET; TV: ESPN2.
Sun., July 13, Sprint Cup race 19 of 36; Starting time: 12 noon ET; TV: TNT.
Racing Trivia Question: What does it mean when a team “blows an engine”?
Last Week’s Question: How many Truck Series titles has Ron Hornaday won? Answer. He won truck championships in 1996, 1998, 2007, and 2009. In addition his 51 series wins are the most of any driver.
You may contact the Racing Reporter at hodges@race500.com.
Nick Dudock
The Lackawanna League struggled offensively in the second annual Field of Dreams senior baseball all-star game against the Wyoming Valley Conference June 1 at PNC Field in Moosic.
Nick Dudock was not part of those problems.
Dudock reached base in both of his plate appearances, drawing a walk, then singling through the left side, and scored one of the Lackawanna runs in a 7-3 loss.
After batting close to .400 and serving as Elk Lake’s number-one pitcher, Dudock was selected for the game as a shortstop. The four-year starter with the Warriors at both positions used the all-star game performance to earn Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month honors for June.
“I got to play with some of old teammates from the Moosic Mets,” Dudock said of the traveling summer team made up of top high school players and college prospects. “It was just a fun game.”
The all-star game completed a successful four-year, three-sport high school athletic career for Dudock at Elk Lake.
Dudock was the starting goalie for four years in soccer.
In the winter, he worked his way up through a championship basketball program. An outstanding defender and a strong rebounder despite playing against taller opponents, he was a key varsity substitute as a sophomore.
Dudock spent most of his junior season as the sixth man on the Lackawanna League Division 4 champions and also started at times. He started as a senior and averaged about 10 points per game to help Elk Lake repeat.
Nick is the son of Ed and Patti Dudock of Friendsville.
