By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
FARGO, N.D. ó Behind home plate before the start of Sunday night’s American Legion World Series game against Las Vegas, Legion officials recognized Rowan County outfielder Russell Michalec as the Region III winner of a baseball scholarship.
The $1,000 scholarship was one of eight awarded in the country.
Michalec will be attending Catawba College this fall.
He won the award based on academic achievement, character and community service.
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Linda Robinson, a Rowan Legion baseball fan, had to fly back home Sunday before Rowan’s 8-7, extra-inning victory against Las Vegas.
She had to be at work Monday at Community Bank of Rowan.
At Newman Outdoor Field, Robinson met the owner of the local Dippin’ Dots franchise, Tom Kennedy, who years ago lived in Charlotte for a time.
Kennedy fixed Robinson up with a pass to the press box and free tickets to all the games. Rowan team officials also helped her secure autographs on a baseball of all the Rowan players.
Despite her short stay, Robinson “had a great time,” reports Judy Haire, small business banker at Community Bank of Rowan.
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I’ve been receiving other e-mails here in Fargo.
David Linker wrote me that he, his wife, 94-year-old father-in-law and seven neighbors gathered around his television and computer screen Sunday night to watch Rowan County’s win against Las Vegas.
“If you could get word to the TV/Internet announcers,” he asked, “the name is ‘ro-Ann’ not ‘Rown.’ ”
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The public address announcer at Newman Outdoor Field is butchering the pronunciation of second baseman Philip Miclat’s name, by the way.
Someone told me that foreigners ó people who live outside Rowan County ó also have had trouble saying the last name of Alex Litaker, the winning pitcher in Sunday’s game.
He apparently was referred to as lite-Acre.
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Tammy Crandall, an assistant for Price Marketing Inc. back home, also wrote an e-mail describing how proud she is when Rowan Countians put aside their allegiances to one high school and root as one for a Rowan County team.
Most players on Rowan County’s American Legion team are graduates of or are still enrolled at East Rowan High School, and Crandall described herself as a West Rowan High mom pulling for the kids here, even though the large majority are not from West.
Crandall remembered the crowd makeup at West Rowan’s state championship football game last fall.
“I was amazed at the East hats, Salisbury shirts, South shirts, North and Carson and even Davie County hats, as people came to support our boys from West,” Crandall said. “We really do live in a great county.”
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Ed Cook, who works for American Solutions for Business in Concord, N.C., asked about the health of Rowan right fielder Zach Smith.
In the eighth inning of Sunday night’s game, Smith injured one hand while stealing second base when the catcher’s throw hit him in the wrist.
He hurt the other hand ó ripping off a finger nail, I heard ó sliding into home with the go-ahead run in that same inning.
Smith finished out the game in the field, and his status for Monday night was a game-time decision.
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Rowan fans pulled out long pants and jackets for Monday night’s game against Midland, Mich.
Forecasters said the nighttime temperature in Fargo would dip to 48 degrees with a 30 percent chance of showers. The wind stirred things all afternoon with gusts up to 33 mph.
If Rowan made Tuesday’s sunny championship game, the daytime temperature was supposed to reach 79.
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No surprise, but cell phones are seeing constant use at the stadium.
It’s not unusual to see heads down and thumbs texting out messages back home after a big play happens on the field.
Folks in Rowan County also are calling their friends and family who are here in Fargo for game updates or to comment on a play they’ve heard on radio or seen on the webcast.
Meredith Fisher, mother of Rowan infielder Ethan Fisher, said that since the Rowan team has begun play in the World Series, she has heard from people back home she hasn’t talked to in a long time.
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Souvenirs are abundant at Newman Outdoor Field.
A private company offers for purchase action photographs from every World Series game.
Numerous World Series T-shirts and hats have been sold, and fans such as Joanne Holshouser, Ethan Fisher’s grandmother and Meredith’s mother, have purchased the official team picture taken on the stadium’s playing field with the official World Series insignia.
“It’s one of those things you have to have,” Meredith Fisher said.
Holshouser also purchased an autographed bat.
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Meredith Fisher, Holshouser and Chelsea Lyerly (Ethan’s girlfriend) sat together Sunday during Rowan’s game against Las Vegas.
Meredith, a seventh-grade math teacher, is missing the first day back to school for teachers today to be with her son in Fargo. She flew into Minneapolis with her mother, and husband, Kenny, and they rented a car for the four-hour drive to Fargo.
The return trip is set for Wednesday.
“We spent a lot of time the first day or so getting lost,” Meredith said, acknowledging that her car made some wrong turns going to and from the stadium the first time.
The rain delays have meant considerable down time for players and their families. Meredith said she filled some of it with shopping, going to eat and hanging out at the hotel room.
Fargo also offers a casino (Dakota Magic) and the North Dakota Horse Park for quarter-horse racing.
The North Carolina visitors have been fascinated the most with the 190,000-square-foot Scheels Sporting Goods store not far from the team hotel.
Parents, most of whom have stayed at different hotels, often have depended on their player sons to telephone them with the time for the next game.
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Newman Outdoor Field sits at the northern edge of North Dakota State University’s campus.
Monday, the campus was filled with students and parents reporting to school for the fall semester.
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The Salisbury Post’s Saturday editorials often hand out “darts” and “laurels” for various things that have happened in the news over the past week.
In Fargo, The Forum newspaper does a similar thing on Mondays.
But here the laurels, or good things, are called “prairie roses”; the darts, or bad things, “leafy spurge.”
Leafy spurge?
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The Forum also had a full-page Sunday advertisement for the Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame Banquet coming to the Grand International Inn in Minot Sept. 30.
Among the 2009 Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame inductees is Karl Rove, former senior advisor to President George W. Bush.
“Raised in a Norwegian home, Rove was featured in the Sons of Norway ‘Viking’ magazine as one of the most prominent Norwegian-American statesmen in the United States,” the banquet advertisement said.
Karl Rove a Viking. Who knew?