[progen]

We finished up our series with Lebanon on May 1st, with a 5-3 win, as Juan Aguliar goes to 4-0, with a nice 2.89 ERA. Dale Roberson stays hot, going 3 for 4, and lifting his average to .396. Roberson has been amazing in the first 30 games this season!

Our next series, would be a first place battle with the Chambersbur Maroons on our home turf. The Maroons have a storied history, having started back in 1895, and as did the Hanover Raiders, playing in the Class D Blue Ridge League from 1915-1917, and then from 1920-1928.

One of their Managers, Mike Mowrey, who also played for the Maroons in 1922, was a former major leaguer, who played for Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Brooklyn Robins, and the Pittsburgh Pirates, from the years 1905-1917.



Mike grew up playing baseball with school and town teams in the Chambersburg area. By the turn of the century he was a husky third baseman for Chambersburg Academy, playing well enough in 1902 to earn a shot with an independent team from Chester, Pennsylvania, just south of Philadelphia. Mike returned to central Pennsylvania with Williamsport of the outlaw Tri-State League in 1904, the same year he married Nannie K. Hammel (the couple remained married until his death 43 years later). In 1905 the 22-year-old Mowrey finally joined the ranks of Organized Baseball with Savannah of the South Atlantic League. His .285 batting average and flashy defensive play at third base so impressed the Cincinnati Reds that they purchased his contract.

Mike made his big-league debut on September 24, 1905, playing both ends of a doubleheader. In total he appeared in seven games during his late-season tryout, batting .267 but making seven errors at third base. That off-season the Chicago Cubs reportedly tried to acquire Mowrey from the Reds but wound up with veteran Harry Steinfeldt instead. Steinfeldt went on to lead the Cubs in batting average in 1906 and become a key member of one of the greatest clubs of all time. Mowrey, meanwhile, spent most of 1906 on loan to Baltimore of the Eastern League, which was owned by Cincinnati manager Ned Hanlon. The Reds recalled him in August to avoid losing him in the minor-league draft, and Mike hit a robust .321 in 21 games to give him the inside track on a starting position for 1907.

After the war Mike became a player-manager for minor-league teams in the Chambersburg area. In 1920 he batted .342 and led the Hagerstown Hubs to the championship of the newly organized Blue Ridge League. Hagerstown fell to the cellar the following season and in 1922 Mike managed his hometown club in the same league. Though he batted .351 in the 75 games he played, Chambersburg finished next to last. Mowrey also managed Rochester in the International League and Scottdale, Pennsylvania, in the Middle Atlantic League, but at some point during the 1920s he got fed up with professional baseball and returned to Chambersburg.

Mowrey lived there for the rest of his life. He bought some farmland and supplemented his farm income by working as a night watchman at Wilson College. During World War II Mike worked at the Letterkenny Ordnance Depot and coached its baseball team. He passed away from heart disease on March 20, 1947. Two months later, over 1,000 people attended a memorial service for Mike held at Henninger Field after a Letterkenny game. According to the eulogy, "He was our Grand Old Man of Baseball, who started as a sandlotter and went to the top in baseball to become one of the greatest third basemen the game had known."


Game 1 - A 7-2 thumping by the Maroons, as the Aces Eisuke Heida dropped his 4th straight game, and is now 0-4. There is growing concern amongst the ranks, about what to do with Heida, and is something I will need to discuss with Ed Bane sooner, rather than later!


Game 2, 3, and 4 - All three games saw the Aces bounce back and sweep all three by the scores of 5-3, 12-4, and 10-3! Jorge Machado came out of the pen to get another start, and did a nice job for us. In the 12-4 win, Mark Davis scattered seven hits, only giving up one run, and in the "getaway" game, the Aces pounded out 14 hits in their 10-3 win! And it was good to see Denny White gets his second straight win!





The fans were certainly delighted with the last three games, and there was a lot of energy both on the field, and in the stands! After this series with the Maroons, the Aces were firmly in first place, a game and a half up on Chambesburg! Nice way to start the month of May!!And the poor Syracuse Stars are still sitting with just two wins!!