DON McCORMACK
Paying a visit to the variety store...
Fair game(s)
Since I moved to Ohio just before Christmas in 1974, I’ve heard stories about how baseball games used to be played during the Ashtabula County Fair every year.
Apparently, a baseball diamond once stood in the middle of the infield of the harness-racing track.
I’d love to hear some stories — or even see some photographs of the field — and why the games and the field itself went by the wayside.
I heard a crazy story years ago about a horse supposedly throwing its mount, jumping the wooden fence and then collapsing and expiring. Supposedly, tradition then was for the horse to be buried where it dropped, so that was done and the baseball field was abandoned.
So if anyone has some tales or photographs to share, please feel free to contact me at the email address posted at the end of this column.
Datebook
We’ve already received inquiries, so high school football fans, get ready to mark your calendars.
The Star Beacon’s annual preview of the high school football season — “Kickoff ’09” — will be included in our Thursday, Aug. 27 edition. The section has been the largest freestanding high school football preview in the region for at least the past decade.
Incidentally, the Star Beacon’s first freestanding preview section for high school football was published back in 1964.
On par
The summer Pups Tour season came to an end in fine fashion for Austin Jacobs.
Jacobs, the 9-year-old Jefferson boy profiled on these pages earlier this summer for logging his first hole-in-one, put a bow on his 2009 summer campaign by finishing first in his final tournament.
The son of Tom and Christy Jacobs, who own and operate the Domino’s Pizza in Jefferson, captured three first-place finishes and also three runner-up finishes this summer.
He, like 12-year-old Danielle Nicholson of Geneva, will be two youngsters whose names will appear on these pages quite frequently during the course of the next decade or so.
Smart guy
Ace correspondent Steve “Slinger” Goldman passed on a news tip the other day.
Turns out, a certain area varsity girls basketball head coach was a big winner when SportsTime Ohio brought its “Beer Money” show to Lake County recently.
Slinger reports a coach who shall not be named — but whose name rhymes with Mike Smith — correctly answered three trivia questions to pocket some cash.
Good thing for Smitty his henchman, Randy Rose, wasn’t with him that night.
Best wishes
Here’s hoping the Star Beacon’s own Ellen Kolman makes a speedy recovery after suffering an injured ankle in a fall recently.
Ellen is one of the true nice people in this world.
McCormack is the sports editor of the Star Beacon. Reach him at donmac@suite224.net.
