Just two big Waynesboro fans
Like the baseball-watching veterans they are, Frank and Mimi Bragg went to Amherst on Friday prepared.
They had two lawn chairs and a spot just off of the third-base side of the backstop. To make sure of it, they arrived in Lancer Country a hour before Waynesboro’s Region III championship game against Alleghany started.
Frank, a Korean War veteran is 77, his wife, Mimi, is 85 and “a little hard of hearing,“ Frank says. They’ve been fans of Waynesboro baseball for 30 years or so, they both guess. They just love baseball.
Mimi sold tickets for the Valley League’s Waynesboro Generals for two decades and Frank has coached most of the fathers of the Waynesboro players.
In a town that lacks big support for its high school programs, it was nice to see two old-time fans making an hour trip to cheer on their favorite high school team.
“I love watching these boys play,“ Mimi said. “We don’t mind the travel.“
Good on these two. Good on them.
And another thing: Seriously, if wearing socks like Stuarts Draft’s Christina Fenske wears is what pushes her to new heights, I want a pair. Now!
The second I feel my temperature rise above the norm and I start to feel like garbage, I spend the next two hours in bed wondering if I should call in sick to work or just muscle it out, show up and do my job. You know, kind of like Riverheads’ Rebecca Grubb did Saturday.
Riddle me this: An all-district team is supposed to be the best your district has to offer. Right? OK, and if you build your all-district team as an all-star team, you know, let’s say if the Southern Valley District were to go up against the Massanutten in an exhibition game up at the ballpark at James Madison University, then you’ll want everyone available. Right?
So, then, please tell me, how on god’s green Earth is Fort Defiance’s Daniel “Righty” Wright supposed to pitch to himself. Just wondering.
Hey, if you want to make “Righty” the player of the year, that’s great. You could do a lot worse and this kid is one heck of a ballplayer. But he deserved that spot at catcher (which he got). Pitching? Not so much.
Back to Frank Bragg. Talking a little bit about his war experience (sorry, I can’t resist to talking to vets without asking about fighting wars, that’s the curse of being a history buff) he had no problem showing off the tattoo on his arm that “I got in California,“ he said with a smile. “My wife’s name was on there, but it’s faded now.“
Then there was a quick silence as he looked at the third-base line. “I watched the Chinese bury their dead no farther away than that,“ he said pointing to the chalk line. “All they did was put enough dirt to cover the bodes. There were feet and arms hanging out all over the place.“
Puts it in perspective folk. Just puts it all in perspective.
