Tickets to Saturday's record sellout an adventure

If you were part of that record 8,556 crowd at McKechnie Field last Saturday, raise your hand.
Sunburned? Yeah, mine, too.
And my father-in-law's.
Funny part is, we almost never made it to the ol' ballyard.
On my way to work Tuesday morning, I stopped by McKechnie to buy a pair of tickets and there was quite a line. Two of them actually.
Turns out there were a lot of folks trying to get their money back from tickets they'd bought to the St. Patrick's Day game with the Yankees.
That was the day before and it was a rainout.
Overheard one guy tell the ticket office person with some urgency they had to fly back to Pittsburgh that afternoon.
This went on for awhile.
Finally, when my turn came at the window, I asked the fellow for a couple of seats for Saturday's game with the Phillies in Section 12. We'd enjoyed seats there earlier for the March 1 game against the Rays.
Those seats weren't available, he told me, but a couple in the right field grandstand were.
Sold, I said, giving him my credit card.
Ticket envelope in hand, I returned to my truck, pulled onto Ninth Street West and continued onto work.
But before I reached 13th Avenue West, I decided to check the tickets.
Good thing.
Yikes!!! 
They were for last Thursday night's game against the Orioles.

So I turned around and headed back to the McKechnie ticket office, hoping I could make an exchange then and there.
Uh, oh.
Those two lines weren't any shorter than the ones I'd navigated before.
So I waited and waited
Aah, but I was in luck.
The woman in front of me wanted tickets to Thursday night's game with the Orioles.
Then a guy at the front of the line, who'd just finished his business at the window, announced he had two tickets to Saturday's Phillies game for $15 apiece.
First row in Section 21 in left field.
And the game's a sellout, he said.
So, bing-bang-boom, I sold my tickets to the woman for face value ($28), then turned around and paid the man for his tickets.

Of course, leave it to my mother-in-law to joke I'd bought counterfeit tickets.
They weren't.
Got the sunburns from nine innings in Section 21's first row to prove it.

Garrity compassion a powerful example for state

The images of Josh Hunter are indelible even after all the years have gone by.
Images conjured up by news the Florida Clemency Board has heard an appeal from the former Braden River High School head football coach’s family and friends to reduce his 10-year sentence for DUI manslaughter.
The first image was from the 2003 state championship weightlifting meet at Lakewood Ranch High School, where he coached the girls team.
When one of Hunter’s lifters won her weight class title, she leaped into his arms amidst a cloud of chalk dust and left her handprints on his black T-shirt.
A joyful moment.
The second image was the extreme opposite.
Hunter was forlorn standing outside Saints Peter and Paul the Apostles Catholic Church in 2009 after the funeral mass for his best friend and coaching colleague, Doug Garrity, killed when Hunter rolled his truck after an afternoon of drinking.
Numerous people embraced Hunter, but the Braden River coach was the picture of despair.
His irresponsibility had cost his buddy his life.
He knew, too, the state would exact a harsh penalty, which it eventually did.
Read more Sunday in Mannix About Manatee on Bradenton.com.

That lucky osprey feather packs some punch

Lucky osprey feather works for Andrew McCutchen

There’s a cool story that goes with the osprey feather Lloyd Fait wears with his Pirates Booster Club ballcap while on duty working security at McKechnie Field.
The feather floated down from a nest atop one of the light towers during batting practice before the Pirates March 7 game with the Twins. Centerfielder Andrew McCutchen picked it up and stuck it in his dreadlocks.
Upon returning to the dugout, the 2013 National League MVP gave the feather to Fait and told him to wear it.
So what happened?
McCutchen homered that game and told the usher to keep wearing the feather.
• Hope Mathews, a fifth-grader at Orange Ridge-Bullock Elementary School, and Elise Raimon, a Haile Middle School seventh-grader, will have their handiwork in 2014 Embracing Our Differences art exhibit at Sarasota’s Island Park and at Bradenton’s Riverwalk beginning March 28. Hope’s teacher Kathy Kushmer. Elise’s is Joseph Gibson.
• Last but not least, maybe you noticed Wednesday's sign on the Shake Pit marquee along Manatee Avenue West.
If you didn't, what the message means is this:
After 40 years in this business, including the past 16-plus years with the Herald,
retirement is right around the corner for yours truly.
My last day is next Friday, March 28.
Wish me luck.
 Read more Friday in Vin's People on Bradenton.com.

Giving blood to meet favorite Pirate player

Brad Slopey didn't want to have his blood drawn.
Who can blame him?
Born with Down syndrome, the Pittsburgh Pirates fan had already undergone more procedures than he could count.
So when Dr. Joe Coroso, their family physician, needed blood work done for a regular checkup several years ago in Pittsburgh, Brad told him no thanks.
"He's always been reluctant," his father, Jim Slopey, said. "He had open heart surgery at five and a lot of surgeries since then."
But Coroso, who was also the Pirates team physician at the time, had an idea.
"Joe asked Brad, 'Who's your favorite Pirate?'" Slopey's dad recalled. "At the time, it was Jay Bell."
Bell was a Pirate infielder from 1989-1996.
"Joe says, 'If I arrange for you to meet Jay Bell, will you h ave blood drawn?'" the father related. "Brad said, 'Yeah,' So we came down here (McKechnie Field), met Jay Bell and we’re watching the game and Jay Bell comes to bat.
"Brad yells, ‘Hey, Jay Bell, hit a home run!'
"Jay turned around and goes, 'Hey, Brad Slopey! Give blood!’"
And he did.

Yard sale an entrepeneurial exercise, education

Yard sales were never a big thing for me.
Never went to one.
Never held one.
Until last Saturday morning, that is.
The event was to raise money for our niece, a freshman at the University of Florida, and by our family's modest standards it was a success.
It was an education for yours truly, too.
Amazing how people will pony up money for stuff which had been thatclose to going to Goodwill or Habitat for Humanity or the Kidney Foundation or whomever.
Like a pair of weathered poolside recliners we'd  been wanting to unload.
They weren't that comfortable and the only thing they did was leave rust marks on our pool deck.
Sold both of them for $5.
Or a bouquet of plastic flowers we were always threatening to throw out.
A neighbor bought it for $1.
Then there was this gizmo my sister-in-law brought over. You lie down on your back and place your lower legs on these two holders atop the device that vibrate. It's supposed to be good for your back.
It'll never sell, I thought.
Wrong!
Not only did a woman buy it -- after a hilarious demonstration by my game sister-in-law -- but she bought a bunch of other items, too.
Which is more than I can say for the five Hawaiian shirts I put out for the cause.
Only sold one for $3.
Anyway, the yard sale went well enough the family is planning another one in June.
Can't wait.

City Council should support Turning Points

The next time Adele Erozer sees Bradenton City Council members Bemis Smith or Gene Gallo inside Turning Points at the Bill Galvano One Stop Center will be the first time.
That goes for Gene Brown, too.
They’d be most welcome, Erozer said, to see what really goes on there.
Their colleagues, Harold Byrd and Pat Roff, have been there, however, and are personally familiar with the nonprofit on 17th Avenue West that offers help and hope to the down-and-out.
Which is why the Turning Points executive director is vexed by the council’s 5-0 vote to convey its misgivings about changes there.
“De facto expansion,” one council member described it.
Improvement is more like it.

Read more Sunday in Mannix About Manatee on Bradenton.com.

This Mercedes shows winning style at Trop meet

Big ups to Mercedes Boyles, a Level-4 gymnast at South Florida Gymnastics. At the Gasparilla Classic at the Trop, she took first on bars, floor and beam, was second on vault and won first place overall in her age division, scoring 37.375, her best meet of the season.
• Duffy’s Tavern boss Peggi Davenport wants all the revelers in Sean Murphy’s annual Beach Bistro St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Holmes Beach Sunday to know the fabulous Dunedin Pipe Band will perform not only during the parade but afterwards at Duffy’s.
• The one and only Coach Eddie Shannon is 92 years young.
By the way, the Eddie M. Shannon Scholarship Golf Tournament is April 26 at Terra Ceia Bay Golf & Tennis Resort, 2802 Terra Ceia Blvd., Palmetto.
It’s sponsored by the Pi Beta Beta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. Call B.C. Pratt Jr. at 941-722-5006 for details.
Read more Friday in Vin's People on Bradenton.com.

Superintendent unloads big pitch for investigation

 

 One of Rick Mills’ first official acts as Manatee County’s new school superintendent was throwing out the first pitch at McKechnie Field last March.
It was a breaking ball.
A year later, he’s firing a heater all the way to Tallahassee.
Whether it’s a strike we’ll have to wait and see.
Mills wants the Florida Department of Education’s Inspector General to investigate the Manatee school district’s financial practices under its previous administration from 2010-2012.
Principally, that would be Tim McGonegal, Mills’ predecessor, and Jim Drake, the former assistant superintendent responsible for finance.
Incompetence.
Malfeasance.
Misfeasance.
Those are just some of the allegations Mills unloaded in last Thursday’s letter to the inspector general.
Malfeasance? Misfeasance?
Read more Sunday in Mannix About Manatee on Bradenton.com.

Manatee High School alum new U.S. Army Ranger

 A salute to Christian Marsden. The 2013 Manatee High School alum graduated Feb. 21 from the U.S. Army Ranger Assessment and Selection Program at Fort Benning, Ga., and was assigned to the elite 1st Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment.
Marsden made it through 31 weeks of training at Fort Benning, including RASP, which constitutes eight weeks of the most physical and mentally demanding infantry training.
His proud family includes parents Holly and Roger and brother Nick. 
• If you want to see Manatee County’s impressive scholastic dance team talent, come out to see the sixth annual, “Yes, We Can DANCE” showcase, March 15 in the Samuel R. Neel Performing Arts Center at the State College of Florida , 5840 26th St. W., Bradenton.
Showtimes are 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
For details, call 941-792-8274.
Or email bhsmabear@verizon.net.
• Big ups to Bashaw Elementary School’s Hannah Rudolph. Running with her dad, Rudy, the 10-year-old recently completed her first distance race, the Cinderella Royal Family 5K run, in 49 minutes. It was part of the Disney Princess Half Marathon event. Hannah also raised more than $150 for the Manatee County No-Kill Shelter.
Her proud family includes siblings Abigail Rudolph, Joshua Rudolph, Michael Stambaugh and Jessica Rogers, as well as mom Lisa Rudolph.
Read more Friday in Vin's People on Bradenton.com.

Monopolizing TV remote thing of the past

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is still intact, thank you.
I’m no longer monopolizing the TV remote like I once did.
You can ask my wife.
When the recent Winter Olympics were drawing near, Sherri was making noises about watching them on our bedroom TV alone since she knew I was not a big fan.
She didn’t want to listen to my saracastic running commentary, either.
Especially during the figure skating.
Moi?
Well, surprise, surprise!
We watched the Sochi games every night.
That included the figure skating, definitely a first for me.
Sherri was amazed.

Read more Sunday in Mannix About Manatee on Bradenton.com.

Phillies' Sandberg starts second season in pro ball

After his first season of professional baseball in the Gulf Coast Rookie League, Cord Sandberg reported Thursday to spring training at Clearwater with the Phillies.
Baseball website FanGraph pegged the ex-Manatee Hurricane as the fourth best outfielder in the Philadelphia farm system: “He has above-average, left-handed power, but is still learning to tap into it in game situations. He has good bat speed. Sandberg has a patient approach and has an idea at the plate. Defensively, he should be above-average in left field thanks to his range and solid arm.”

• The Suncoast Mummers String Band has two concerts on tap. The first is 8 p.m. Friday at Neel Auditorium, State College of Florida, 5840 26th St. W., Bradenton. The second is 7 p.m., March 7 at Renaissance on Ninth, 1816 Ninth St. W. Bradenton.
Call 941-729-4069 for details.
• Bayshore High’s Krista Edwards, Ashley Perry and Arianna Priebe are delegates and Julia De Camargo and A’driana Sams are alternates for American Legion Auxiliary Girls State.
Read more Friday in Vin's People on Bradenton.com.

McKechnie anthem lineup loaded for spring

Wakeland Elementary School’s Mikaela Boelkins, Emma Craig, Olivia Hodge, Melanie Van Peenen and Emily Watrobsky sang our national anthem at the Pirates’ Black and Gold game Tuesday.
Michelle Montezeri did the honors Wednesday against the New York Yankees.
Beginning with Saturday’s game, the lineup of folks performing this distinct honor at McKechnie Field’s Grapefruit League games are: 
Saturday — Jordan Lutz, Tampa Bay Rays
Monday — Jessica Cary, Boston Red Sox
Thursday — Brooke Bonderer, Barry Yoderer (O Canada), Toronto Blue Jays
Friday — Ben Bakker, Minnesota Twins
March 9 — Ellery Carlson, Boston Red Sox
March 10 — Jessica Tilickey, Baltimore Orioles
March 14 — Christal Cashmore, Philadelphia Phillies
March 15 — Robin Fernandez, Tampa Bay Rays
March 17 — Matthew Huff, New York Yankees
March 20 — Nicole Wishon, Baltimore Orioles
March 22 — Stephanie Roberts, Philadelphia Phillies

March 25 — Diana Walters, Paul Villaluz (O Canada), Toronto Blue Jays
March 27 — Thomas Jomisko, New York Yankees

Braden River alum gets appointment to Annapolis

A salute to Sam Valley. The Braden River High School alum, now at the University of Florida on a Navy ROTC scholarship, has received an appointment to the Naval Academy with the Class of 2018. Annapolis has been his dream and, though he didn’t get in last year, he reapplied and just got the good news from Congressman Vern Buchanan’s office. While at BRHS, Sam ran cross country as a sophomore, was on the Pirate weightlifting team as a junior and senior, was the JROTC battalion commander, a member of National Honor Society and student government and graduated in the top 10 of his class.
 His proud family includes dad Steve, mom Lauren and older brother Alex.
• Those are wedding bells April 12 for Amber Walinga, one of the terrific team of waitresses at Popi’s Place Too in Palmetto, and Beau Peurifoy.
• Our Lady Queen of Martyrs’ Youth Ministry holds Polynesian Night Saturday. Doors open at 5 p.m., dinner is at 6 p.m. and the live auction at 7 p.m. at Flynn Hall, 833 Magellan Dr., Bradenton. Call 941-755-1826.
I may have to loan Fr. Joe Connolly and Fr. Benjamin Medeiros some Hawaiian shirts.

Read more Friday in Vin's People on Bradenton.com.

After nearly 40 years, couple love Pirate City trips

Shannon O'Mealy, grandmother Lois Barrett read ball's autographs.

Bob and Lois Barrett have forgotten more about Pittsburgh Pirates baseball than many of us could ever hope to know.
He's 86, she's 85 and have followed the ballclub forever.
Back home in Johnstown, Pa., they've got scrapbooks about the Pirates probably older than most of the team's fans who turned in force at Pirate City Tuesday.
It was the team's first full squad workout and nobody wanted to miss it.
"MVP! MVP!" some chanted as centerfield Andrew McCutchen, the Pirates star centerfield and 2013 National League MVP jogged onto one of complex's four diamonds.
The Barretts took it all in stride.
They've seen Pirates stars aplenty over the years.
The petulant Barry Bonds.
The paternal Willie Stargell.
The princely Roberto Clemente.
They've seen them at old Forbes Field and now PNC Park.
But they like seeing them up close and personal at Pirate City.
"We try to catch spring training every year," Barrett said. "The Pirates are all we know back home."
Even more than the Steelers? And Penguins?
Yes, he said.
Barrett was involved in mining more than half his life.
He started out working in them, then inspecting them and eventually was appointed assistant labor secretary of labor for mining under President Ford and continued in that capacity under President Carter.
It was during Ford's administration the Barretts began making a regular pilgrimage to Bradenton to see the Pirates.
The year was 1975 -- almost 40 years ago.
They hope there's a few more years to keep coming here, too.
Barrett has survived multiple bouts with cancer and is carrying on.
"I've got longevity in my family," he said.
One grandfather lived past 100.
An aunt recently died at 103.
So Barrett's optimistic.
"Maybe we've got a few more trips left," he said.

Words come back to haunt supervisor of elections

“Do you read the stories about the people in Africa? The people in the desert, who literally walk two- and 300 miles so they can have the opportunity to do what we do — and we want to make it more convenient?”

Mike Bennett must rue the day in May 2011 when he said those words as a Republican state senator.
Especially this past week.
Now Manatee County’s supervisor of elections, Bennett presented a strategic plan Tuesday to dramatically streamline the county’s voting precincts — cutting them from 99 to 69 — while adding five polling places and three early voting sites.
The new arrangement actually has logistical merit, adapting SOE resources to meet the growth in public preference for early voting and voting by mail.
Yet the downside of Bennett’s blueprint is striking and makes people with long memories recall those inflammatory words of three years ago, not to mention his career as a partisan Florida legislator.

Read more Sunday in Mannix About Manatee on Bradenton.com.

Cortez author to sign books at Fishing Festival

Cortez author Joe Crawford will be signing both his books, Arianna and the Spanish Sardines and Nathan and the Stone Crabs at the Cortez Fishing Festival, Saturday and Sunday.
His booth will be at the end of 119th Street West.
The setting for both books is local, and readers will recognize the DeSoto Monument, Emerson Point, the Portavant Temple Mound, Egmont Key and Fort De Soto.
• New Manatee High School baseball skipper Rob Viera and the Hurricanes honored Bruce Braithwaite by naming their G.T. Bray clubhouse after him. A selfless man if ever there was one, Bruce has served the ballclub and boosters for 29 years.
• Don’t miss the Southeastern Guide Dogs’ Walkathon, Feb. 22 at Rossi Park, 808 Third Ave W., Bradenton. There will be food, fun and tons of dogs. Registration is 8:30 a.m., opening ceremony is 9:45 a.m., and the walk begins at 10 a.m.
Visit www.guidedogswalkathon.org to register.
Or call Walkathon manager Nina Ionata at 941-479-6611.
Read more Vin's People Friday on Bradenton.com.

Winter Olympics breaks husband's monopolizing TV

Before the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics began, my wife made a most magnanimous offer.
Sherri said she'd watch the games on the bedroom TV, so yours truly could watch whatever I wanted on our living room TV.
"I know how much you LOVE the Winter Olympics," she said.
If you detect some sarcasm, you're right.
I don't hate the winter games, understand.
It's just that right about now I'm waaay more excited about the start of spring training and baseball.
On my way home every night the past couple of weeks, I've driven by McKechnie Field just to feel the good vibes.
As for the Winter Olympics?
Meh.
Sherri's favorite is figure skating.
Singles. Pairs. Long program. Short program. Ice dancing.
She loves it all.
Me, not so much.
That we've got Felicia Zhang and Nathan Bartholomay competing from the Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex does pique my curiosity, however.
It was an education Tuesday listening to pre-adolescent girls talk expertly about Axels and Lutzes and Salchows while we watched on the ice arena's flat screens as Zhang and Bartholomay whirled their way through the figure skating pairs short program.
Axels?
Lutzes?
Salchows?
All Greek to me.
When they talked about doubles and triples, they meant how many times a skater turns during a jump.
I was thinking extra-base hits.
Anyway, I told Sherri don't bother with watching the winter games on the bedroom TV. Just watch them in the living room and I'll read.
I'm such a good husband like that.
Uh, sometimes.

re here: http://www.bradenton.com/2013/07/15/4608384/ellenton-trained-skaters-detroit.html#storylink=cpy

Relief may be on way for Green Bridge motorists

If there’s anybody out there who enjoys driving to work, please raise your hand.
Can’t be many.
Especially if they’re traveling south over the Green Bridge every day to their jobs in Bradenton and points elsewhere.
Sounds like a lot of unhappy motorists — and constituents — are stuck making that trip, according to the Palmetto City Commission.
That august body agreed last Monday to find out why their side of the span across the Manatee River is backed up every workday morning.
Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant wants to let the Sarasota-Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization know about it, too.
Well, it turns out they already do.
Matter of fact, according to MPO transportation planner Mike Maholtz, state and local traffic engineers are already working on it.
Read more Sunday in Mannix About Manatee on Bradenton.com.

St. Joseph's eighth-grader state champion speller

Ben Cendana's winning word was "sufficient."

Props to Ben Cendana. The Saint Joseph Catholic School eighth-grader is the Knights of Columbus State Spelling Bee champion. He won it Feb. 1 in Orlando, correctly spelling words such as benign and encephalitis. His winning word was sufficient.

Sherri Mannix

• Congrats to HomeBanc’s new director of retail operations, my wife, Sherri Mannix.
• Palmetto’s First United Methodist Church is hosting a piano-and-violin concert welcoming pianist George Kern and wife, Sarah, an opera singer, 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the church, 330 11th Ave. W. He will be accompanied Sunday by longtime friend, violinist Anne Hooper, national Scottish fiddle champion.
• Florida State University senior Erin Lisch spent national signing day assisting ESPN’s Holly Rowe Wednesday in Tallahassee and tweeted updates for ESPNU.

Abigail Holmes

 • Big ups to Braden River High School soccer flash Abigail Holmes, who’s going to “The U.” She’ll attend the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and major in marine biology. Parents Ted and Cassandra Holmes and little sister EmmaLee are proud.

Read more Friday in Vin's People on Bradenton.com.

Think of grieving, quiet corner of our community

None of us can fathom the horror that took place at Sugar Creek Estates Sunday morning.
One minute seniors who had just attended church were chatting outside like folks do after services are over.
They next minute, tragedy struck.
Three people dead. Four seriously injured.
Good God.
None of those poor people could have imagined something so awful happening to them on a beautiful morning.
They're outside greeting friends and catching up with what's going on in their lives.
No one's in a hurry to leave.
It's a scene that repeats itself every Sunday morning outside every house of worship around town.
But a fellow congregant, attempting to leave the mobile home community's parking lot, accidentally backed up her SUV into the crowd of a dozen or so people at "great speed" according to an eyewitness. Then it continues to go in reverse into a canal, but the driver and passenger are unhurt, fortunately.
How could this happen?
According to the FHP, the driver believed she had shifted gear into drive, but it was actually in reverse when she hit the accelerator.
Was it driver error?
A transmission problem?
The FHP investigation must determine that, but it won't stop the pain.
Two husbands are sorrowful widowers.
Families are without their matriarchs.
Friends are without beloved friends.
A quiet corner of our community is reeling in its grief.
Pray for all of them.