NEWS FLASH: ON MAY 11, 2005 THE ATLANTIC LEAGUE FRANCHISE FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE PENNSYLVANIA ROAD WARRIORS WILL PLAY THEIR FIRST HOME GAME IN OVER FOUR YEARS

WELCOME TO THE WORLD, LANCASTER BARNSTORMERS

 PA ROAD WARRIORS: R.I.P. 2001-2005 Thanks for the Memories!

ROBERT MORBECK'S

PENNSYLVANIA ROAD WARRIORS

TRIBUTE PAGE

Brad Morbeck with members of the PA Road Warriors, Camden, NJ 2004

And YOU thought that the '62 Mets were bad? Here's a copy of my revelatory discourse concerning what could be the greatest losing franchise (percentage wise, at least) in the history of sports:

6/03- Hey Pennsylvanians! Here's a baseball trivia question for you:

            Which one of our hometeams NEVER plays within the friendly confines of our own beloved "Keystone State"?

            Lately my family has become immersed in the glory and the pageantry which is known throughout the Middle Atlantic states as Atlantic League Baseball.  For those not "in the know" the Atlantic League is a professional baseball league COMPLETELY unaffiliated with Major League Baseball; their teams lack the usual economic partnership with major league clubs which commonly characterize "farm" system clubs.

            With outposts in such baseball hotbeds as Atlantic City and Camden, New Jersey the league has become a haven for "over the hill" ballplayers desirous of getting "one last look" by professional baseball. While attending a Camden Riversharks game recently my three young sons began to ask me pesky unanswerable questions about the Sharks' disloyal opposition that day:

            "What's the name of the other team?" they asked.

            "The Pennsylvania Road Warriors." Aha, I know how to read. That puts me slightly ahead of  most of the rest of my rabble.

            "Where are they from?" Good question.

            "Gee.....uh....I  don't know.......Pennsylvania, I guess......" It was clear I was going to have to do a bit more research (just reading the fronts of the jerseys wasn't quite cutting it this time).

Morbeck boys meet RW pitcher__________, Camden, NJ 2003

If you look closely you'll see that our sign is misspelled!

            As I scanned the Camden Riversharks schedule in the program I began to notice an eerie preponderance of red "home game" boxes.  I've been looking at these little grids for more than forty years now and one thing that has always proven true is that if there are a lot of little red boxes (home games) in May there are usually a lot of little white boxes (away games) in June.  Not so with the Sharks' summer itinerary!  I finally broke down and COUNTED the reds and whites and was amazed to find that "home" beat "away" by a whopping 68 games to 52 games.  How can this be?

            The only place I've ever seen such shenanigans is in the college football schedules of such gridiron cash cows as the Penn State Nittany Lions or the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, who invite a disproportionate number of visiting teams into their pigskin palaces for purposes of financial slaughter. At the game we went to recently a mild drizzle in the early innings quickly escalated into a modest rainstorm somewhere about the 5th. With the Sharks ahead by the score of 3-0 (Riversharks obviously LIKE lots of water) we skedaddled a mere six outs before the game was called on account of rain.

            When we returned home (with an entire new summer wardrobe for our kids in tow) I was determined to solve the great  Pennsylvania Road Warrior Mystery. A few high speed Internet clicks later I was greeted with the following statement of fact:

                        The Pennsylvania Road Warriors will operate under the direction of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball Clubs, Inc. as a Road Team for 2003.   Please direct all inquires to the League Office.

What so proudly we hailed!............. 2004

 I think I will!

            And my FIRST inquiry IS: "Where can I get a hat?"

            The man I spoke to at the league office was very helpful.  As I was beginning to surmise, one of the most important characteristics of any sports league is to boast an EVEN number of teams, making it possible for everyone to play a game every night.  Apparently the league's Lehigh Valley franchise (located in Easton, PA) went "belly-up" financially a few years back, leaving the circuit with the untenable prospect of competing with an odd number of teams.  The Atlantic League stepped in and took control of the Lehigh Valley team and were forced to change the name last year due to some sort of legal trademark brouhaha with the embittered former owners.

            And hence my new favorite team was born. In Joe Queenan's new book "True Believers" he launches into a diatribe against people from Chicago who wake up one day to suddenly find themselves to be Seattle Supersonic fans or whatever.  Queenan believes that the only truly legitimate reason to descend into fan servitude is having some sort of geographical connection to the team in question; waivers ARE provided for those who choose to root for teams that their fathers rooted for (I guess we could ALMOST call this a "Grandfather" clause of sorts).

            Go Road Warriors! They're the PENNSYLVANIA Road Warriors despite never EVER getting a chance to perform in the state of Pennsylvania. Our heroes are on a continual road trip, making stops in Bridgeport, CT; Nashua, NH; Long Island, NY; as well as Garden State sweetspots Somerset, Newark, Atlantic City, and Camden. While I hold no factual knowledge about the subject (which has never stopped me before),  I have the sneaking suspicion that these guys are probably NOT staying in "Five Star" Hotels as they careen around the Northeast. Hopefully, they're not forced to stay "three to a room" (by far the most dreaded phrase in the touring industry). They have No stadium, No shiny white uniforms, No fancy website, and No fans.

2004

            Until now!  I hereby declare myself to be the Road Warrior's #1 fan, deputizing the rest of my nuclear family as #'s 2 through 5.  In the course of my investigation I DID find someone else who might qualify as a fellow rooter: a man named John who is the Merchandise Manager for the Bridgeport Bluefish.  His credentials are quite impressive: he graduated from Swarthmore (PA) College and was for a few years the man inside the "Rocky Bluewinkle" suit down in Wilmington, Delaware. He also lives125 miles away from us and KNOWS where Rutledge is. Now that's amazin'! However, we must disqualify him because he IS an employee of the Bluefish and therefore is ineligible to be a true Road Warrior aficionado.  He did, however, manage to lay in a stock of handsome "Road Warrior" tee-shirts (colored GRAY, of course) and he dutifully agreed to sell me a few over the phone. And he paid for the shipping, too!

            Come one, Come all! This is an unique fan opportunity!  One of the biggest problems of being one of a professional sports team's denizens is being constantly embarrassed by the actions of your fellow rooters. As a Pennsylvania Road Warrior fan (for a while, at least) this problem hardly exists! The next time you go to the ballpark and they start to sing "We'll root, root, root for the Home Team!" defiantly raise your fist in protest.

            Go Road Warriors!

7/03-Our family has made good on our threats to be the Road Warriors' Number One fans! We went to a recent Road Warriors game decked out in our new gray RW tee shirts and baseball hats with hastily glued on RW logos. We  bought the expensive seats RIGHT behind the Warriors dugout and cheered loudly and lustily for our non-hometown boys.

    Obviously our heroes are a little love starved for attention. Early in the game as we started to cheer a few Road Warriors actually poked their heads over the roof of the dugout, trying to sight the source of their first ever ovations. As the game unfolded we received no fewer than TWO complimentary baseballs and Ben even received a cracked

bat!

THE BAT!                                              (one of)  THE BALL (s)

SPRING 2005 UPDATE!

3/05-A great era in hardball frustration is (probably) about to end! On April 28th, 2005 the team which has happily served us losing-lovin' Pennsylvanians for the last three long seasons will officially be re-incarnated as the Lancaster Barnstormers. They'll have a publicly financed stadium, will wear white uniforms at home, and will reap a hearty percentage of the sale of  overpriced/undercooked hot dogs. I, for one will be sorry to see it happen................

    Of course, (most fittingly) they open on the ROAD in Somerville, NJ (a scant few miles from the city of my birth.) The true hex won't be broken until they arrive HOME(!!!!!!!!!) in Lancaster to play our seaside favorites the Atlantic City Surf on Wednesday, May 11th.

THE STATS:

Just how much losing is enough? Let's look at the record:

TOTALS: 2001: 38-88 (.302)  2002: 34-91 (.272) 2003: 30-95 (.240) 2004: 23-103 (.183)

2001-2004 cumulative record: 

125 Wins, 377 Losses

Winning %:   (.249)

   Ah, what MIGHT have been if they had been able to play a few more years! (judging by the predominantly downward spiral of the last four.)

BEFORE THEY WERE THE ROAD WARRIORS........

In the course of my research I've discovered that this franchise's record wasn't exactly stellar BEFORE the League took them over.  When the Atlantic League started in 1998 the club was one of the original teams, known to all as the Newburgh (PA) Black Diamonds. They played in Newburgh for only one year; afterwards their name was officially changed to the Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds. The League operated them as a road team in 1999, until they found a temporary roost in Quakertown during the 2000 campaign

          Newburgh Black Diamonds             Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds

                 (1998)                                     (1999-2000)

MORE STATS:

TOTALS: 1998: 42-58 (.420)  1999: 52-67 (.436) 2000  51-87 (.370)

1998-2000 cumulative record: 

 Wins,  Losses

Winning %:   (.249)