For 20 years my favorite baseball player Alan Trammell played for the Detroit Tigers. He started as a Tiger and retired as a Tiger.
When he finally made the Hall of Fame in 2018, he mentioned in his speech what he thought endeared him to fans.
Trammell said, “What really hit home for me was how Tiger fans appreciated hard work, hustle and effort –things that go a long way. That’s how my parents raised me, and how I was taught to play this great game of baseball.”
I’d like to think that Progressland is much the same as Tigers fans.
After 25 years and just a little over one month, I’m officially retiring from The Progress sports department.
It was fitting that this past baseball season was my last.
Baseball was my introduction to the sports world. I went to my first game at Veterans Stadium before I was in kindergarten and never stopped loving the game.
From the time I was in third grade, I knew I wanted to be a sports writer. Not a girl sports writer. Just a sports writer. And I hope that when people look back on my 25-plus years, including 19 as sports editor, I hope I’ll be remembered that way.
I never set out to do anything other than tell stories about kids. It’s one of the reasons I stayed here so long.
Covering major league teams or college teams would have been fun, but it never would have been as wonderful as watching kids I’ve known since Little League grow up and become fantastic people.
I played sports growing up and into high school. But multiple injuries, including a major knee surgery, meant I was never more than a bit player in a much bigger picture.
Eventually, I was diagnosed with a connective tissue disease that attacks my joints and disintegrates my collagen in my body. It doesn’t seem too bad until you realize how many things are made up of collagen.
I knew that someday it would stop me from doing things that are physically taxing, like standing at a game and shooting for hours or spending all day at a wrestling tournament. This past year has been pretty rough. So, when our regional editor came to me and asked me if I might like to move into the layout side of things, I decided it would be the best option.
I’m not completely leaving the sports side. I’ll be around to help out whoever takes over for me and will still be at the same desk I’m at every night.
I will miss all of ‘my’ kids and coaches, but I will continue to check in.
I can honestly say these last 25 years have been amazing. I have met so many people –players, coaches, parents and fans –that have made this job one I feel I should be paying to do, not the other way around.
I met my husband, Chris, doing this job at the Southwest Regional Wrestling Tournament in Johnstown. We got married and he moved up here to work as a sports writer at the DuBois Courier Express so I wouldn’t have to leave my job here. He eventually became the sports editor there and currently still is after holding that position at the Bedford Gazette when we first met.
I have made so many lifelong friends and there are so many people to thank. I don’t want to become a boring Academy Award speech, but I do want to mention a few people.
I want to start with three very important people who are no longer here.
Jim Butler was not just a coworker, he was one of my absolute best buds. We enjoyed our long road trips together and always had fun. I have so many Jim stories, and I really wish we could miss that stop sign in the middle of nowhere coming back from Central Cambria just one more time.
Dennis Arnold eventually became a co-worker, but was a great friend to me before I even started in sports. Once he started coaching softball, he’d text or call me after every game to go over scoring. I covered his daughter in high school and now his grandchildren are in Little League. He’d be so proud of them all.
One of the very first coaches I ever met here at The Progress was the late Harmony boys basketball coach Terry Kruise. Everything you have ever heard about him is true, probably to an even bigger degree. He was the absolute nicest, funniest, caring person you’d ever meet. He’d call in the offseason to check on me and make sure I was always fed and watered when I covered their games. The last time I saw him, just before he passed from cancer, he said, ‘You know I love ya kid.’
So when I tell you that I am so, so lucky to have been in the position, I really mean it.
I’ve have had some awesome coworkers, including Rich Murawski, who spent 20 years correcting me on the correct version of which and who.
I want to thank all my coaches, not just high school, but our summer baseball and all-star coaches.
I often joke to people that I spend more time in the summer with Clearfield baseball coach Sid Lansberry and Clearfield’s Ed Yeager than I do with my own husband. It’s the same thing during volleyball season with West Branch’s Terry Trude.
There have been times I’ve seen P-O’s Doug Sankey or Clearfield’s Sandy Bailor more in a week than I do my family.
It’s not a lie. This job has required seven days a week, holidays and nights more often than not.
There are so many coaches, parents and kids that I will miss. If I named them all, it would take more than one column.
I’m also lucky that I have had a supportive family. My dad told me when I was 8 that I could do whatever I wanted, and it didn’t matter what anyone else said.
I have. And, I have loved every minute.
I have seen some amazing performances. I have watched underdogs win titles and kids overcome every obstacle thrown at them.
I have spent long nights driving to the nearest Sheetz or McDonald’s to file a story from wherever in the state I happened to be.
I have seen gold medals and silver medals and so many victories.
I have covered thousands of games, matches and meets.
Even as a Tigers fan, I have to admit Yankee Lou Gehrig said it best in his farewell speech. “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”
I will always consider myself the luckiest because of you.
Thank you, Progressland.
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