Sports this 'n' that

The Tri-City Valleycats won their 3rd NY-Penn League title Sunday night, completing a two game sweep of the Hudson Valley Renegades with a 4-2 victory in 12 innings. In contrast to the slogs we often see in the majors, the 'Cats & Renegades played those twelve innings in a little more than 3 1/2 hours. It took about that long at Bruno Stadium on Saturday for a nine inning game. Go figure.

Tri-City manager Jason Bell, thus, duplicated the feat of Ed Romero, who, like Bell, took the 'Cats to the promised land in just his first season. Romero stuck around for two more division titles after that before leaving the Astros organization. Will Bell return next year? Or will Houston move him up the ladder? We'll find out soon enough. Congratulations to the 'Cats.
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The Mets erred on the side of caution Sunday by holding back ace pitcher Jacob deGrom from pitching in the rain against Philadelphia. The Mets won the game with what amounted to "bullpen day", a pitching trend that started earlier this year in Tampa Bay. Ex-Valleycat Vince Velasquez couldn't hold the lead his offense gave him, and was tagged with the loss in a 6-4 Mets win. DeGrom, considered by many a candidate for the Cy Young Award despite an 8-8 record, goes tonight--weather permitting--vs. Miami.
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Troy's other summer sports team, the Fighting Irish, advanced in the Northeastern Football Alliance playoffs, beating Auburn for the 3rd time on Saturday night at Lansingburgh High. That's the good news. The bad? The Irish have to return to Syracuse to play the top seeded Strong, who've inflicted the only losses on Troy this season, this weekend. Bad enough that they have a small, devoted following, and that the local press ignores semi-pro football these days, but if they had any hope of increasing attendance, it evaporated thanks to the Valleycats.
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The NY Giants welcomed back former head coach Tom Coughlin on Sunday. Coughlin is now in the front office of the Jacksonville Jaguars, who beat Big Blue, 20-15. Meanwhile, the Evil Empire (New England, of course) opened their season by beating Houston. Buffalo opted to start inconsistent second year quarterback Nathan Peterman vs. Baltimore, and got blown out of the yard. On the night his latest State Farm ad premiered, Aaron Rodgers drew comparisons to basketball legend Willis Reed by returning from a leg injury in the second half to lead Green Bay past Chicago, 24-23. While everyone assumes New Orleans would win the NFC South, Tampa Bay made a statement of their own in upsetting the Saints. As my brother opined in reading the score, defense took a day off in that game.
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Two weeks into the high school football season, and we can already see how some teams are treating opponents like Little Sisters of The Poor. Shaker, for example, eager to be top dogs in Class AA again now that Troy is in Class A, has rung up 131 points (average: 65.5 per game) while allowing just 14. Schalmont, after blowing away Lansingburgh on Friday, have averaged 37 points a game in their two wins.

Meanwhile, over in Class A, parity seems to be the order of the day, as Troy, LaSalle, Amsterdam, & Columbia, among others, are all 1-1 after 2 weeks. Troy plays LaSalle on Friday, and will get Columbia three weeks later.

Sadly, it seems El Cheapo Media is not taking any chances, and didn't send anyone to cover either of Troy's first two games. They're focusing instead on LaSalle. Troy school superintendent John Carmello's vendetta against El Cheapo, dating back 18 months now, is to blame. Just as El Cheapo has the #3 paper in the home market, Troy High, thanks to Carmello's actions, is now the low priority for El Cheapo. Shouldn't be that way, but it is. We just have to hope things change, and soon.