The Youngstown State University football program has a full plate this season.  On September 4, the Penguins travel to Happy Valley for a visit with the #14 team in the country, Penn State.  The Penguins will play every Missouri Valley Conference game with a chip on their shoulders after being picked to finish seventh in the conference.  Monday night the Penguins opened full-contact practice with a bang at a public workout.

The most obvious thing that was different in the Summer edition of the “Oklahoma” drill compared to the Spring version was the increased vibe of intensity.  In the Spring, the coaches did most of the pointing, yelling, and screaming. At Stambaugh Stadium on Monday the players made the noise, hit with aggression, got into each others faces, and the coaches were a side dish this time.

Eric Wolford, if for nothing else, has a feather in his new cap already – the ability to motivate.  Wolford is a no-nonsense coach who has and will continue to run a tight ship.  Vowing to eliminate all of the riff-raff and dead weight is one thing, but actually doing just that in a very short period of time is commendable.

After the Oklahoma drills, the offense and defense scrimmaged under game conditions.  Purdue transfer Najee Tyler looked like the frontrunner for the quarterback derby.  Tyler looks like a young Randall Cunningham and will create headaches for defensive coordinators all season.  Another newcomer, Adaris Bellamy had a couple of slick runs for the offense.  Eric Rodemoyer, Nick Gooden, and Torrance Nicholson all looked sharp and focused.  Dominique Barnes is going to have a monster season and played consistently during the scrimmage portion Monday.

Penn State plays #1 Alabama in week two of the upcoming season, a week after they face YSU.  Don’t look too far ahead JoPa, the kids from the valley are coming to visit.

2010

Momentum and inspiration are a lethal combo.  Last night, Mahoning Valley seemed to have found the instruction manuals for the bats they use.  Tonight ,Luke Holko was honored before the game which had everyone’s heart pumping.  The end result was an 8-7 loss as the bullpen blew a four-run ninth inning lead.

Manager Travis Fryman was as frustrated as I have ever seen him after the game.  “This was brutal”, said Fryman, “This home stand we swung the bats extremely well.  Our situation is that we have problems with guys throwing strikes out of the bullpen, and if they can’t throw strikes then they shouldn’t be playing baseball.  That’s the bottom line, and if they can’t throw strikes then we will have to find somebody who can.”

Mahoning Valley had their most productive inning of the season when the offense exploded for six runs in the bottom of the second. Chase Burnette doubled to start things off.  Jesus Aguilar then walked.  Diego Seastrunk then nailed the Tim Adleman offering to right field for his third homer of the season to put the Scrappers ahead, 3-0.  Dan DeGeorge reached via error and Aaron Fields walked.  Carlos Moncrief singled driving in one and new signee and sixth round pick, Nick Bartolone, singled knocking in two more. The half-inning went 51 pitches.

Aberdeen broke through in the fourth as David Anderson hit his second bomb in as many nights.  This one traveled an estimated 430′ to dead center and hit about halfway up the screen.  It was all that Owen Dew would surrender in his five innings.  For Dew, it was nice to finally get some run support in one of his starts.

Aguilar tacked on an RBI-single in the 7th inning.  Giovanny Urshela led off the inning with a ground rule double.  Urshela advanced to third on a Burnette groundout before trotting home with the seventh run of the game for the Scrappers.

Gregorio Rosario pitched two innings of scoreless relief for Mahoning Valley.  Julio Ramirez didn’t fare as well as he surrendered a run and left the bases loaded with one out for Dale Dickerson. Dickerson was very effective and recorded the two needed outs to minimize the damage in the inning.  Things didn’t go as well in the ninth for Dickerson as the first couple of batters reached base. JD Goryl entered and could not hold the lead as the Iron Birds rallied to put up five runs and take an 8-7 lead in the final frame.

The Scrappers play Aberdeen again Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. on Senior Citizen Day.  Anyone who held a ticket from the Lebronfire postponement will receive free admission with their receipt from the August 5th game.

Last season was the most successful in Mahoning Valley Scrappers history.  Shy of winning the Penn League Championship, the year could have been called nearly perfect, except for one unfortunate incident.  In the early innings of the second game of a doubleheader, Luke Holko was struck in the back of the head by a foul ball.  Holko made his triumphant return to Eastwood Field on Sunday, as GM Dave Smith announced that Luke would be signed to an honorary one day contract.

“He is still a little wobbly when he walks and they had to put some botox in one his legs for balance purposes, but all-in-all he is doing great“, remarked Chad Holko.  “Nicole was driving with him in the car a couple of weeks before Christmas, and he was eating Goldfish Crackers or Cheerios, and he uttered the word ‘more’.  It made the holidays much more fun.”

Young Luke seemed a bit overwhelmed at times.  In the picture above, Travis Fryman greeted Holko in the dugout during batting practice.  Luke was later introduced as he was escorted to the mound by his parents to throw out the first pitch.  The crowd was very supportive and provided a standing ovation.  Luke then made his pre-game pitch, which was a strike.  The paramedics who worked on and transported Luke that night were here and given props.

Fryman commented on the Holko situation.  “We have been following it closely for eleven months.  My wife and I have their website marked in our favorites and check the status several times a week.  We have spoken with Chad and Nicole and have stayed in contact.  It’s miraculous how good he looks, he looks like a normal four-year old boy and that is fantastic to see.”

There was a lot of emotion shown as people watched Luke’s every move.  For what the family has been through over the past eleven months, Sunday was a celebration of what good humanity and prayer can resolve, even in the bleakest of situations.  I also praise the Holko family for never holding a grudge against the Scrappers for what happened.  It is an amazing story and Chad Holko said it best, “It’s amazing how something like this makes you realize what is really important in life”.

It should also be noted that the visiting team, the Aberdeen Iron Birds,  participated in the pre-game festivities and presented Luke with an autographed ball.

 

George “The Animal” Steele was recently at a Mahoning Valley Scrappers game.  There was a laser hair removal promotion on the same night in which Steele picked the fan with the hairiest back to receive a free treatment.  For years, Steele was the ultimate WWF (WWE) heel.  He struck fear into some fans and amused others with his antics.  Eating corner turnbuckles, flashing his green tongue, losing focus during matches, and being the uncontrollable x-factor with the white-taped foreign object,  made Steele so much fun to watch.  I was lucky enough to have a few minutes with The Animal.

Paneech:  I want to get your views on today’s professional wrestling as compared to 40 years ago.  What difference have you noticed and do you still watch?

Steele:  It has changed drastically and is a totally different business now.  I don’t watch wrestling anymore.  I got my faith in 2002, I was very, very sick and was given only six months to live.  When I made it through that, Vince [McMahon] wanted me to sign a Legends contract, but I chose not to sign as a tribute to my new-found faith.  At that time they were using angles involving fornication in a coffin, gay marriage, and all kinds of stuff that didn’t cater to my new lifestyle.  So I chose not to get involved and if I watched, I felt as though I was condoning it.

Paneech:  Do you keep in touch with any other pro wrestlers or have you eliminated all contact?

Steele:  I am on the board of the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame.  The web address is PWHF.org  and it is not just an internet site, we have a building that is three stories.  The guys that are in wrestling today will sometime be going into that Hall of Fame.

Paneech:  How did the whole “Animal” persona evolve?

Steele:  I got that name, George Steele, when I was wrestling out of the Pittsburgh promotion.  I was a school teacher making $4300.00 a year.  I started wrestling in the Detroit area as a masked man called, “The Student”.  Bruno [Sammartino] came to Detroit with an entourage and they spotted me.  I took my cap, gown, and mask to Pittsburgh, but they decided that they did not want a masked man, they wanted me.  I knew I couldn’t use my real name, Jim Myers, because of teaching and coaching.  Johnny DeFazio said this is Pittsburgh, the steel city, but I didn’t like Jim Steele, so we went with George.  They wanted me to quit teaching and coaching to wrestle full time, but I loved what I did, so the wrestling stayed a part time venture for me.

Paneech:  For years, you didn’t speak, then Capain Lou Albano takes you to Dr. Rodney Papoofnick’s office to get you some electric treatments that will miraculously have you articulating.

Steele:  How Now Brown Cow.

Paneech:  Exactly, that is what you said.  Then Albano tried to convince the doctor to give you more juice to say more and it was too much and you relapsed. 

Steele:  Before that era, I actually did all of my own interviews.  When I was assigned a manager, I would not talk.  Because I was not there very long due to teaching and coaching, the manager would fill spots talking about me, but that whole thing with How Now Brown Cow was my own adaptation of what Vince originally wanted.  Vince gave me a poem to memorize, it was about a page-and-a-half, and I’m dyslexic, so c’mon give me a break.  When the time came to recite this poem verbatim, I said “screw him” and just said How Now Brown Cow.  I always did everything my own way.  If you watch Vince’s reaction during that segment, he was wondering what I was doing.  If I would have read that long poem, no one would have remembered and it would have been garbage.  I still have people come up to me randomly and say How Now Brown Cow.

Paneech:  You went from a notorious heel for years to this endearing lovestruck being with the whole Macho Man / Miss Elizabeth angle in which you were drawn in to Savage’s valet.  How did that angle work?

Steele:  I didn’t become a face, I became a cartoon character.  I went from being one of the most viscious heels in the industry to a cartoon character.  Me, Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo were involved in a match at Madison Square Garden during my cartoon character era.  We were fighting Big John Studd, Bobby Heenan, and I think Mr. Wonderful [Paul Orndorff] and nobody knew how to get out of the match to end it because nobody wanted to lose.  so I said “I’ll get us out of it”.  I cleared the ring with a steel chair and ended up hitting the ref with the chair and getting disqualified, so nobody lost anything.   

 

Paneech:  Who was a wrestler you really liked to work with, and conversely who did you not like working with?

Steele:  I really enjoyed my matches with Bruno Sammartino, they were bigtime hardcore.  Later on, I had my feud with Randy Savage, which was very lucrative.  That feud lasted three years and had a long run, he was very jealous.  People would ask me if I was in love with Miss Elizabeth, and I would just laugh and say no, I have been married to my wife for 55 years, and she [Elizabeth]  doesn’t do windows.  I never had anyone I didn’t like to work with until they started throwing people who didn’t belong in the sport into matches with me.  At a television taping, I faced one such opponent and over the span of four minutes, I threw him out of the ring 17 times.  He couldn’t lace his boots and did not belong in a ring, so I got my point across.

Paneech:  Today’s wrestlers sometimes whine about working 320 days a year.  Is this a realistic number?

Steele:  No, absolutely not, they work about 150-200 days a year.  Two days out of the week, they do television shows, one live and one taped.  I was an agent with WWE for ten years after I retired, so i was pretty familiar with the schedule.  I once wrestled 97 straight days.  Many days in a row, I bounced back and forth between the East Coast and the West Coast, just back and forth every day, that was a tough span. 

Paneech:  There was a rock band called Kiss that was huge in the seventies.  The deal with them was that you could not see them without their makeup.  When you were in public, did you stay in character, or were you a free talking person?

Steele:  I was 6’2″ and weighd 290 pounds, pretty imposing.  People would come up to me and I would just look at them (pauses) and they would leave.

Paneech:  Do you resent Vince McMahon for the direction he has taken the sport? 

Steele:  No, I don’t.  Vince did what he had to do.  Verne Gagne’s AWA promotion in Minnesota and Canada was moving Southeast fast.  The NWA was gaining major television exposure on TBS and moving North, everything was moving toward Vince.  He came up with Wrestlemania as a way to prove he was smarter than the rest of these guys and it caught.  I was closer with his father, Vince McMahon Sr., than I was with Vince, although I did watch Vince grow up and aided in his nurturing.  I don’t agree with everything he does, but he is definitely very good with business and marketing, and has succeeded.

Steele came off as very articulate and cordial.  He took pictures with anyone who asked, but the highlight of the night came between the fifth and sixth innings of the Scrappers game.  Steele was on field with Heather Sahli’s hard working promotional team and he clotheslined Scrappy, the oversized mascot.  He then encouraged one of the kids on the field to pin the mascot (and hook the leg), and in typical George Steele fashion, started to walk back to the exit, turned and looked at the laid out mascot and ran back to deliver a patended George Steele kick to the head.  The audience loved it and he really seemed to enjoy himself.  Very classy individual, but obviously, a great performer who had so many people fooled about who he really was all those years.

In probably one of the most enjoyable nights in Mahoning Valley Scrapper history, Aberdeen brought “The Animal” out of the Scrappers.  Ingenious promotion.  George “The Animal” Steele was on hand to sign autographs and chose the winner of a laser hair removal contest awarded to the contestant with the hairiest back.  The weather was perfect.  The Scrappers, paced by the hot bat of Giovanny Urshela, were victorious with a 9-6 triumph over the Cal Ripken Jr. owned Aberdeen Iron Birds.

The Scrappers hit the board first in the home half of the opening inning.  Carlos Moncrief was hit by a pitch.  Kevin Fontanez singled, and then Giovanny Urshela crushed the ball into the left field visitors bullpen to stake Scrapper starter Michael Rayl to some rare early-inning run support and a 3-0 lead.

Aberdeen scored a pair of runs in the second on a Michael Rooney sac fly and a Trent Mummey RBI-single to make it a 3-2 game.

In the bottom of the second, Moncrief  (pictured) destroyed a 2-0 pitch to deep right field, and he knew it.  After the contact, Moncrief flipped the bat out to the side and watched the ball.  Rounding third, Manager Travis Fryman did not congratulate Moncrief and was obviously irritated by the display of celebration.  In fact, Fryman did not return to coach third base the next inning but stayed in the dugout to have a heart-to-heart with Moncrief about the situation.

“If we were not shorthanded, he would not have stayed in the game”, commented Fryman.  “We had a talk.  Carlos has been stellar this year and he works as hard as anybody on this team.  I have never seen that side of him, and I don’t think we will see it again.

The Scrappers added another run in the third when Aberdeen pitcher Tyler Sexton’s throw to first base went to the stands allowing Urshela to sneak home from third and build the lead to 5-2.  One of the newest Scrappers, Jesus Aguilar, belted his first homer of the season in the fifth, a two-run jack, to increase the lead to 7-2.

Giovanny Urshela had a huge game for Mahoning Valley going 3-4 with four RBI to raise his batting average to .292.  The 18-year old Colombian has been stellar at third base all year and has been coming to life with the bat.  Fryman commented on the offensive progress of his young prospect.  “He seems to get better and better and has been one of the few bright spots this Summer.  He is maturing and looking like he has a chance to be a great player someday.  Playing at this level with older guys has been good for him and forced him to get better.”

The win brought the Scrappers record up to 19-30.  The two teams will play again Sunday at 5.  The game will feature Luke Holko who will be accompanied by his parents, Chad and Nicole, to honor his one day contract as an honorary Scrapper.  Holko was struck in the back of the head by a foul ball last September at a Scrappers game.  Nobody was sure where young Luke would be in a year, but all signs indicate significant progress toward his recovery.

Mahoning Valley just can’t get over the hump.  Ten hits, two runs, and a loss.  The Tri-City Valley Cats took it to the Scrappers, 6-2, in front of 4,001 fans.  The Scrappers fell to 18-30 on the season and are still trying to figure out where the consistency can be found.

Tri-City got on the scoreboard in the first inning by putting three runs up before the Scrappers could even record an out.  Ben Orloff led off the game with a solid single.  Kike Hernandez followed that with another single.  Scrapper starter, Kirk Wetmore, then hit Tyler Burnett with a pitch to load the bases.  The cleanup hitter for Tri-City, Michael Kvasnicka, did just that – cleaned up and gave the Valley Cats a 3-0 lead with a bases clearing double.  Kvasnicka was the #1 Draft Pick for the Houston Astros in this year’s draft.

Mahoning Valley fought back a little in the second as Jesus Aguilar and Chase Burnette hit back-to-back doubles to cut the Valley Cat lead to 3-1.

Tri-City again got to Wetmore in the top of the third.  Hernandez walked and Burnett was hit by a pitch.  Kvasnicka then singled home a run.  Wetmore’s third wild pitch of the game allowed the runners to move up a base.  Daniel Adamson then knocked in the fifth Valley Cat run with a groundout.

The Scrappers made it 5-2 in the fifth inning when Dan DeGeorge knocked home Kevin Fontanez with a single.  The Scrappers had a chance for more but Carlos Moncrief struck out looking and Brian Heere flew out.

Pitching Coach Ken Rowe (pictured, next to cooler), a man of few words, has to have mixed feelings on the Scrappers pitching this season.  When a starter looks strong, the bullpen implodes.  When a starter gets rocked, there is not enough offensive firepower to overcome the deficit.  Rowe has declined to comment several times.

After the game, Travis Fryman echoed the repeated frustration of having ten or more hits and only scoring a couple of runs.  “We hit into three double plays which could have easily been four.  We had a runner on second with nobody out a couple of times and failed to advance and we had several chances to get back into the game, but could not overcome that first inning.”

George “The Animal” Steele will be at Saturday’s Scrapper game to throw out the first pitch.

Three Mahoning Valley Scrappers have been named to the New York Penn League All-Star Team.  Two starting pitchers, Owen Dew and Alex Kaminsky and 2B Dan DeGeorge garnered the honors Friday evening.  The All-Star Game is played at Richmond County Bank Ballpark at St. George, Staten Island, New York and will take place August 17.

Owen Dew is currently 1-2 with an ERA of 2.53 in nine starts.  In his 42 innings, Dew has racked up 22 strikeouts against just four walks and has not received very much offensive support in his starts this season.

Alex Kaminsky (pictured) has a record of 4-3 as of this writing.  His ERA is a skinny 2.15 and he has 41 strikeouts in 51 innings pitched.  The former Wright State pitcher also has a 0.80 WHIP, so keep him on your fantasy draft boards as a three-category machine for the future.

Dan DeGeorge is batting .263 and is known for the intangibles.  DeGeorge is a hustler and has been coming into his own.

Congratulations Scrapper All-Stars!

Dew

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers seem to be catching on.  The Scrappers put together a nice ninth inning rally to get by the Tri-City Valley Cats.  After last nights 16-hit offensive bonanza, the Scrappers pulled out the rare one-run win, 3-2, in front of 4,516 fans at Eastwood Field.  After the game, the Scrappers held a “Lebronfire“, where the burning of Cleveland sports items were torched after the game.

Tyler Burnett (no relation to Chase) put the Cats in front in the first inning when he crossed home on Ben Heath’s RBI-single.  The run would be all that Scrapper starter Alex Kaminsky would give up as he turned in another strong start going five for the home team.  “Alex has been great all year for us, and he had another good start tonight”, remarked Travis Fryman after the game.

Chase Burnette (pictured) hit a solo shot in the fifth, his second in two nights to tie the game.  Burnette seems to be heating up after a week-long slump.

The teams would exchange runs and set the stage for Diego Seastrunk’s heroics in the ninth.  Seastrunk hit a long sac fly with one down in the ninth to provide the win for the Scrappers.  The large crowd roared for most of the ninth inning and everyone was really into the game.

Fryman liked the enthusiasm.  “I’m really getting to work on my Spanglish this season. We have a lot of players from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and other places.  They did not get to play in front of many people where they were before here, so it is a treat to see so many of them that are the same ages having so much fun in front of a good crowd.”

Busy, busy weekend for the Scrappers as George “The Animal” Steele will be in-house Saturday doing meet and greets and tossing out the first pitch.  Sunday is the emotional headline of the season as Luke Holko will honor his one-day contract and will get to enjoy his day in the sun after all he has been through.  I would not miss Sunday for anything.

Lisa Neeld was on hand at Thursday’s Mahoning Valley Scrappers game to throw out the first pitch.  Neeld has been in Playboy publications more than once and is currently promoting her barbecue sauce.  I got Neeld to agree to answer some questions about the sport of baseball to test her knowledge.  Kudos to Lisa for being a good sport, and here are the results.

1. What is a double play? It’s where you get two outs at the same time, right?
2. How does a relief pitcher qualify to earn a save? Um, wow, I don’t know, he just stands on the mound and looks cute?
3. How many pitches should a good starting pitcher throw? 15.
4. What is a good batting average foe a baseball player? Three Hundred.
5. Who is the manager of the Cleveland Indians?  Manny Actin.
6. Who is the greatest home run hitter to play the game of baseball? Babe Ruth, I love the Babe.
7. What is it called when an outfielder throws the ball home and the catcher tags the runner out? An out?
8. If a man is on first and tries to steal second but gets caught, what is it called? An unlucky play.
9. Here are three types of pitches: A knucleball, a slider, and a curveball, name another:   A fastball?

Thanks again, Lisa, you could have missed them all and nobody would have noticed, but you did well!

The Ohio State fans showed respect when Bo Schembechler passed, Michigan fans reciprocated when Woody Hayes left. Baseball fans either love or hate the Yankees, there is no middle ground.  With that inference in place, I bid farewell to George Steinbrenner, a guy who did anything he could to win at any cost.  I am on the other side of the Yankee fence, hate the way they can buy championships by fielding an all-star team, and would rather hear vuvuzela’s humming at a soccer game than watch the Yankees win a World Series again.

Steinbrenner single-handedly revolutionized free agency in baseball.  If he liked a player, the player was soon a Yankee, and a rich Yankee at that.  Several members of my own family are Yankees fans, as well as friends, who don’t root for the Knicks, Jets, or Rangers – just the Yankees.  Just like Lebron James, Steinbrenner left Cleveland to pursue his dreams.  I can go on and on and on, but I won’t… not this time.

The admirable quality that has my respect are the suddenly popular stories of the countless charitable acts that Steinbrenner did. Maybe I misread him as a person while he was here.  To make a mockery of a sport by purchasing everybody is one thing, but to make sure a down and out player was financially taken care of years after he retired, well that is just goodwill that he hid, and he has my respect in that regard.

One thing is certain, baseball will not be the same without him.  I can’t wait to watch his son, who admittedly knows little about baseball, spend millions of dollars for the wrong guys.  Enjoy what “The Boss” has left you, Yankee fans.  Soon, you will return to mediocrity, by George.

Rest in peace, George Steinbrenner.