Town ball of the 1980s was simply the best

Bad and nationwide - Isabella "Izzie" Delario of Rehoboth, who will be entering her junior year at Sussex Tech and has been a starter on two state championship field hockey teams for coach Nancy Tribbett, has recently been selected to the USA Junior National Squad U17. Izzie says meeting Carrie Lingo has inspired her to reach for the top. Nikki Parsley, U21, and Maxine Fluharty, U17 and U21, are also national team selections. The members from each squad will be invited to a training weekend at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., in early 2012; from there, the touring teams will be selected.

Travel or town - Slice it any way you want using any sports you want. A large part of the “you have to play travel ball" cult is all about the money - who has the disposable income and who gets it. I will make a bold statement and say that in the sport of baseball, town teams of the 1980s would blow away the teams of today, and there was no travel ball. Every town in Sussex County could play hardball, and while I’m thinking about it, I'm remembering there was no pitch count to water down and dilute the game. I just covered a 12-year-old game that used 10 pitchers over six innings. There aren’t 10 good 12-year-old pitchers in the entire state. Go and find a 40-year-old who lost his arm back in Little League and let him tell his story. Actually, find two, which might be proof of a pattern. I’ll be honest. Pick any sport from field hockey to lacrosse and soccer to AAU basketball and prove to me that travel makes kids better than kids with more talent who don’t travel.

Hacking - When did so-called legitimate journalists start hacking into voicemails and websites and actually bribing law enforcement for inside information? I am always in possession of more information than I actually use, but sometimes I will print something and have a person come back and say, “I didn’t know I was on the record.” My answer is always, “Unless you warn me it’s off, it’s on.” Even then, I’m pretty careful. Here’s a newsflash from my beat: “If you are a shaky Jake, chances are you’re not fooling many people.” Like Grandmom Rose said, “Don’t lay your trip on a travel agent.”

Trading Phillies - I don’t care who the Phillies have to trade to get Hunter Pence from the Astros, including Vance Worley. It’s the old “trade ‘em while they’re hot” theory. But expect General Manager Ruben Amaro to execute another heartbreaking trade, like Dominic Brown for Carlos Beltran. I’d sit Ryan Howard for the entire Padres series and start John Mayberry at first until Howard stops flailing at pitches like my Uncle Joe at a wiffle ball after downing 26 full-bodied bottles of beer.

Snippets - Steven Walker of Shenandoah University was named to the Academic All-USA/South All-Conference baseball team. Steve, a pitcher, formerly played at Cape. Roy Halladay of the Phillies is scheduled to face Tim Stauffer of the Padres on Sunday. Tim, a right-hander out of the University of Richmond, is the nephew of lawyer Bill Schab of Lewes. Stauffer beats Halladay and Bill gets to bask in the refracted glory and become a member of the Cape Gazette Relative of the Week Hall of Fame. Doug White, a friend of mine through sports, has completed 39 consecutive Boston Marathons and has run a total of 80 marathons, including the first Lewes Marathon in 1977, which he won, beating me by a close hour and 18 minutes. It’s not that Doug has run enough races to circle the world three times in distance; it's the fact that he knows that fact which scares me. I got a candid picture of Doug working the finish line at the July 16 Kelly Fritchman 5K rocking his alternative ego, “Hip Hop Dougie.” Dr. Jeff Heckert, my buddy from way back, has returned to Lewes and Mid Atlantic Family Practice. If he is still taking patients, better sign up. He’s kept my body running like a Volkswagen bus. Go on now, git!