Several weeks ago, Ray Geary, the Executive Director of Continuing Education and Regional Development at Pitt-Bradford, as well as a coach and advisor for the Pitt-Bradford club hockey team, dropped me an email letting me know his team’s home schedule for the remainder of the season and inviting me to come see a game.
After several weeks, I was finally able to make my way out to the Callahan Ice Rink Sunday to catch the Panthers in action against Alfred State.
Pitt-Bradford, whose games start at 10 a.m., doesn’t field a full roster, but the passion the players have for the game was evident in just this one game that I was able to see.
The team, in its first year of existence, honored its five seniors during their final home game Sunday — manager Allison Nolan and players Rich Obermeyer, Russ Marold, Nick Gier and Jeff Engels.
Some of the players on the squad played competitively at the high school level, while others did not.
The result against Alfred was a 9-4 loss, but, as much as I’m sure the players want to win, I don’t think it’s as much about winning and losing at this point in time as it is exposure and getting out and playing games on a competitive level.
This current group is laying a foundation, and that is very important.
At some point in the future, we could potentially be talking about hockey as a full-time sport at Pitt-Bradford and that would be great.
I think the greater Bradford area has a tremendous interest in hockey, as evidenced by not only the team at Pitt-Bradford, but by how much Bradford Youth Hockey has grown during its three years of existence at both the Pee Wee, Bantam, Squirt and House levels.
More and more kids from our area are migrating to the sport, and I think its popularity is only going to continue to grow.
More Pitt-Bradford News
Former Pitt-Bradford baseball player Derek Smith has signed a professional contract with the Gary Southshore Railcats of the American Association, an independent professional baseball league.
Smith was the 2012 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Player of the Year after hitting .482 with seven home runs and 57 RBIs as a junior. Also, in the summer of 2012, Smith played for the Cotuit Kettleers of the prestigious Cape Cod League, which has been the home to many future big leaguers.
With the Railcats, Smith will be competing in the 12 team American Association, which has 12 teams from Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and the Canadian province of Manitoba.
Pittsburgh Pirates News
Last week, some of you may have caught that the Pirates signed Josh Kinney, a former standout player for Oswayo Valley, and graduate of Port Allegany High School (OV and Port had a co-op for baseball at the time), to a minor league contract.
Kinney has appeared in 93 Major League games, most recently pitching 35 games for Seattle in 2012, posting a 3.94 ERA in 35 appearances (32 innings pitched).
Last year, Kinney pitched the entire season for Seattle’s Class AAA Club in Tacoma, posting a 4.36 ERA in 30 appearances (33 innings pitched).
Kinney is a long shot to make the Pirates opening day roster, and was primarily signed to add bullpen depth at Class AAA Indianapolis. But, at age 34, he still has some gas in the tank, and its conceivable that he could see action in Pittsburgh sometime in the 2014 season.
On a related note to Kinney, I recently received a copy of “Josh and Josh; Small Towns, Big Leagues,” a book about Kinney and former Quincy University (Illinois) teammate Josh Rabe and their journey to the Major Leagues.
It’s a great read which I highly recommend checking out.
The author, Jim Pransky, is currently a scout for the Tampa Bay Rays, but does have local ties, serving as the head baseball coach at St. Bonaventure from 1983 to 1985. He also attended Otto-Eldred High School and Clarion University, and served as the head coach at Quincy from 1989 to 1991.
In other Pirate news, the team designated first baseman/outfielder Garrett Jones for assignment Monday, all but ending his tenure in Pittsburgh.
The news isn’t surprising, as Jones was due to make at least $5 million in arbitration, and given his disappointing 2013 season in which he hit just .233 with 15 homers, that wasn’t a viable option.
Jones did have some productive seasons with the Pirates, including 2012, when he hit .274 with 27 home runs and 86 RBIs. All tolled, Jones hit 100 career home runs for the Pirates.
Personally, I’m happy that Jones at least got to be a part of the Pirates revival in 2013.
As one of the longest tenured players on the Pirates, he suffered through a lot of losing.
I got the opportunity to interview Jones during the Pirates Winter Caravan in Ridgway in 2011, which is why I say I’m happy he got to be a part of the Pirates turnaround.
You would be hard pressed to find a more genuine guy in any walk of professional sports and I wish him all the best.
