Sonset

 “Mistakes are just opportunities to learn to be better…” That’s what I first heard this morning. Woke up at 330am worrying about things I couldn’t control run by people who choose to do wrong versus right. I would say I woke up on purpose since it was bothering me. I woke up and researched, read, checked processes until I thought I would go back to sleep. No chance. The mind was in hyper speed. Then something went off. I’ve missed a ton of sunrises. Natural ones. There was never a need to wake up when the sun was waking up. On the contrary I could’ve been going to bed when the sun was rising. Not often, but it’s happened. It’s about 28 degrees where I live. Nothing fancy about my area. It’s not a place you’d set your google map to go. It was home before, it has become home again. It’s a place of my past, maybe of my future. I can live where ever I want, yet I am here. Maybe by chance. The sun is rising. As I write (type) this to my notes on my phone, I see the sun in the distance. I am not afraid of a new day. I am grateful of the new day. The cold is the alarm clock my body always thrived off of. The cold was always my wake up call. The cold was this unsafe natural feeling I always enjoyed. Just as much as the sun. The cold makes me feel alive….the sun lets me know it’s a new day….a new opportunity to get it right. I hope wherever you are….you get to see the sun…because even on the coldest days, the brightest sun is there for you to know there are better times ahead. 

I've found that there is always some beauty left - in Nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you. -Anne Frank

Penn St.-Delco reclaims division baseball crown

October 4, 1996 | Delaware County Daily Times (Primos - Upper Darby, PA

Section: News

655 Words | Readability: Lexile: 1210, grade level(s): 11-12

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Klein's goal wins for Widener in field hockey

WAYNESBORO -- Penn State-Delco rallied from a two-run deficit to post a 4-2 win over host Penn State-Mont-Alto yesterday to capture its second straight CCAC Eastern Division baseball championship.

The win sends the Lions into Sunday's CCAC best-of-three title series against Western Division kingpin PSU-Beaver at State College. Sunday's doubleheader begins at 11 a.m. Game 3, if necessary, will be held at 11 a.m. Monday.

After spotting Mont-Alto its two-run cushion, PSU-Delco roared back with three runs in the fifth. Tom Keogh got the rally started with a single and scored on Ryan Mattei's hit. Kevin Dorrain added a run-scoring double and Mike Pralle chipped in with an RBI single.

Mattei added an insurance run with an RBI double in the seventh to help make a winner of Mike Daloia, who scattered seven hits and went the full nine innings.

""Mike did a real nice job'' said first-year Delco coach Adam Winters. ""He never got in any serious trouble. Even when we had a little defensive lapse in the second inning, he hung in there and bailed us out.

Phillies 8, South Philadelphia Cubs 5:

Bob Malin went 3-for-4 with three doubles and three RBIs for the Phillies. Mike Pralle (three hits) drove in two runs and Ray Stillwell smacked three hits in support of pitcher Justin Cohen, who helped himself with three hits, including a homer.

Phillies' Central aim: One more win

August 3, 1997 | Delaware County Daily Times (Primos - Upper Darby,  PA

Section: News

498 Words | Readability: Lexile: 1330, grade level(s): >12

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Ed Gieski earned a pair of pitching victories and teammate Greg Keck drilled a pair of homers as the Phillies swept the Bluerocks in the first two games of the best-of-five Central Division championship series in MABL baseball action yesterday at Williamson Trade School.

The Phillies followed an 8-5 victory in the opener with a 15-10 decision in game two for a 2-0 lead in the title series.

Game three of the best-of-five set is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at Kerr Field.

In the opener, Gieski racked up 12 strikeouts in a nine-inning, complete-game performance.

Keck drilled a three-run homer and teammate Ray Stillwell laced three hits and drove in a pair of runs.

For the Bluerocks, Scott Freeze (3-for-4) and Ted Miller (2-for-3, three runs scored) paced the attack.

In game two, Keck powered a two-run homer, Bob Malin lofted a three-run blast and finished with four RBIs and teammates Mike Pralle and Stillwell combined for four hits and seven runs scored.

Academy Park at ease with squeeze

 

May 8, 1995 | Delaware County Daily Times (Primos - Upper Darby, PA

Section: News

1235 Words

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There is squeezing out a victory and then there is what Academy Park did to Harriton Friday afternoon.

The Knights squeezed out a 6-5 victory over the Rams.

Literally.

The Knights squeezed not one, not two, but three runs home for their first on-field win of the season. AP received a forfeit victory from Sun Valley when it was discovered that the Vanguards had used an ineligible player, but had not won a game on the field until Friday.

""If you can pull the squeeze bunt off, it's a good way to score a run,'' interim coach Sal Oropollo said. ""(Co-coach) Doug Ambler always kids me that we were more daring when we were coaching the JV team and we were. We did a lot of things like squeeze and steal because we were preparing the kids for the varsity. When I took over for Tony (Gagliardi as the interim coach) I thought I had to be a little more conservative. This was the first chance we had to pull it off.''

Not once, but three times.

Ray Stillwell's squeeze bunt in the third inning chased home A.J. DiGrazio with the Knights first run. Oropollo liked it so much that he ordered winning pitcher Jason Fehrle to bunt on the next at-bat.

""They (the Rams) called time to talk about strategy and that allowed me to tell Jason to bunt without having to give him a sign,'' Oropollo said. ""They (the Rams) had no idea it was coming.''

Fehrle didn't give the Rams time to react. He laid down the first pitch he saw to send Craig Still home with AP's second run. And the Knights weren't finished. In the sixth inning, with Harriton holding a 5-4 lead, Bob Malin squeezed home Stillwell to tie the game and set the stage for sophomore John Scanlan.

Scanlan slugged a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh to win it, but he wasn't the only hero. Catcher Mike Porreca threw out two would-be base stealers, and a diving catch by center fielder John Velardi prevented a big inning by the Rams.

""It was nice to win a game in the bottom of the seventh,'' said Oropollo, who has lost three games in either the sixth or seventh inning this season. ""The kids deserved it.''

5:25

5:25am East Coast time and it hit me in the heart. The sudden end of the life of someone. It replays the end of my mother’s life almost every time. Then the recycling of dates or anniversaries. As if that is anything to celebrate. I have to shift my focus. I have to shift the focus to celebrating the life and not celebrating the death of someone; or the how they died. There is no joy in that. There is no joy, to me, to say, well at least it was quick or at least they didn’t suffer or at least they’re at peace now. For whatever reason, if they had a choice, would they say that about themselves? I doubt it. I think about Drayke Hardman. A story so sad, so tragic, so shocking. It makes absolutely no sense and is wrapped in sadness and despair. We as human beings have to do better. Not just for us, but the kids, the grandparents. Social media isn’t just putting us against each other in some materialistic competition, it’s also putting us against ourselves in a completion of why not me? Why can’t I have that? Why doesn’t he or she talk to me? Why am I out of shape? It’s that daily reminder that maybe I’m not enough. I look down the road….2038…30 years of social media…are we a society who are totally unsocialized and our best friend is our phone? I pray to God we are more into our bodies and nature and our emotional intelligence. I can only hope.

When someone you love says goodbye you can stare long and hard at the door they closed and forget to see all the doors God has open in front of you. Shannon Alder

Michael

 I listen to podcasts and follows yours now. Michael holds a special place in my heart. I was in the same grade, shared classes, shared small talk, always nice to me and me him, always that smirk or grin I got used to. I can see his face turning to me in the row behind him to hand me a paper from the teacher. I had friends in that class I played sports with, practiced with every day, but it’s Michael’s face turning to hand me that paper that is always embedded in my high school brain. We weren’t in the same circles. I was the hip hop white kid who was an athlete. I happened to be somewhat intelligent and that’s the only reason I had some classes with him. I was fortunate to have known him. After high school I kind of moved away mentally from the AP crowd as I went to college but he was always inside of me, in my heart. I always said I felt lucky we spoke and knew each other and got along but the part I wish happened was that I said hey man, how’s it going? What are you into? What makes you happy? I wish. I’m 44 now. I still have that wish that some day he will answer me. Bob

“The highest tribute to the dead is not grief, but gratitude.” Thornton Wilder