Spooky Anniversary

Today is the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina attacking New Orleans and the Bayou country of the Gulf Coast.  Another Hurricane is dumping rain on that area today seven years later.  We who live in a Hurricane plain know what happens when high wind and rains run their course.  I pray for those people who have a long road to recovery in that area today.

Seven years ago today a Babe Ruth Baseball team had just won the 14 year old Babe Ruth World Series in Quincy Massachusetts and were trying to fly home to celebrate beating a team from Nash County North Carolina on August 25th of 2005.  The 25th had been a Saturday afternoon and every team that makes it to the World Series the Babe Ruth Association cut deals with major airlines that the teams fly for free when ever space is available.  The space on a major airline to get the Jefferson Parrish  Louisiana team home left Boston on August 29th and because of Katrina  the flight was diverted to Houston.

I had flown up early Saturday morning with Richard Sarmeinto, Don Tharrington and Baseball Britt Johnson and Rich and I did a TV tape of the game to show on WHIG that Sunday night. Jefferson Parrish won 7-2 when they beat a team with Brian Goodwin, Tyler Joyner, Ben Fish, Dillon Cockrell, Mike Williams  and other 14 year old players  from Nash County.

While I watch the news and see what that part of the country is going through again I can only think of that Jefferson Parrish team that had so much to celebrate on the way home from winning a World Championship only to find many of them had no homes to go to.  Many of our players we have seen have gone on to bigger and better things in life.  I wonder what happened to all those kids?

The Rocky Mount Gryphon football has just become an undefeated team as Bunn has announced that they used an ineligible player in the season opening 37-21 win over Rocky Mount and have forfeited the game.  Remember back during the Holt era at Rocky Mount on opening night the Gryphons beat East Forsyth 43-6 but later had to forfeit the game because of the use of and ineligible player.

Fifty years from now no one will remember how the Gryphons lost opening night in 2008 or how they won in 2012.  Every team and coach try their best to make sure everyone is legal when ever they take the field because too much sweat goes into preparation to throw wins away on a clerical error.  But it happens.