The end of May is always a busy time.
Not just for old sports guys, but for everyone.
First, I want to extend a congratulations to all our new area high school graduates, and also to the Wabash grads who finished their college days a few days back.
We have the end of the spring sports seasons, there is all things Indy with the 500, and this year we had the bonus of the Pacers hanging around for three rounds of playoffs.
While I’m handing out “way-to-go” tags, I also want to shout out the Crawfordsville baseball team on winning a sectional title on Memorial Day. A second goes to North Montgomery, who came oh so close to a sectional championship of their own. Congrats to a great season, and good luck to the Athenians in the regional on Saturday.
I was in on some softball and baseball sectional coverage, and of course missed some games because my national work had me sitting in or running to some airport.
It was New York the last time we chatted, and now it’s Los Angeles for the last couple weeks of the regular season. That is very familiar territory, having been there a lot over the last couple of spring and early summers.
We start the playoffs in a couple weeks, so the next time we gather together, I will have either been to San Antonio or St. Louis for the first round of UFL postseason.
Monday was just one of those days…
I headed for LA last Saturday morning. There were a couple football games to cover. I had a redeye back on Sunday night so that I could help cover whatever sectional baseball was available.
Mother Nature also had a hand in that, literally at the last minute.
The plan was for me to head to Greencastle to cover the Southmont game, which was supposed to start at 1:30 Monday afternoon. If the Mounties won their first game, they would play again, so that time was blocked off.
I was going to attend church services at Calvary Chapel and then wait for the Legion Honor Guard before going south.
After my plane landed at 5:30 in the morning (oh, by the way, you cannot begin to imagine how many people were at the Indy airport at that early hour, as everyone was leaving after they did get the race completed. The security lines were unreal) I headed back towards Cville, and the messages started coming in that with not only the Sunday, but the Sunday night rain, the field was needing drying time in Greencastle, so the South game was pushed back to 5 pm.
All well and good, and with a win, it was going to be a long day and night. Then the start time got pushed back another half hour.
I had time to drive back east to Danville, where the Athenians were playing, on time and on the turf field.
Oh yes, there were a couple other items.
The first plan was for me to do the radio coverage of the South game, but that got nixed because of the possibility of the 500 being pushed back into Monday. Even the North game was not going to be on the air if the race was running.
More what-ifs.
With the 500 done, the North game could now get on the air, and with no radio, I could just go to Greencastle as I needed.
I got to Greencastle at 5, and trust me, if you go to or through that town for the summer, add plenty of time. There is a huge construction project going on, and 231 is closed a good part of the way through the middle of town.
But to the high school I got, to find they didn’t have a seat for me, so I pulled up some bleacher in the middle of the South cheering section.
When that game finished, there was also no room for me to write my story, so I had to hustle back to Crawfordsville to get that story done just in front of the 10 p.m. deadline.
So, I flew all night, drove to Cville, drove to Danville, drove back to Cville, drove to Greencastle, drove back to Cville.
My Monday…
And you think travel to exotic pro sports places is nuts…
All there is this week is adult softball. I head back to California on Friday.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day holiday. As a member of a family who did lose a family member in the service our nation, it is a somber reminder of the high price we pay for our freedoms, and for the ability of guys like me to run all over Indiana covering sports.
Okay, all over the nation…
Safe travels.
Jeff Nelson is a frequent contributor to the Journal Review and works professionally for Fox Sports assisting with NFL broadcasts and the Indiana Pacers.
