York Revs possible opening day starter is...

The York Revolution made 4 signings earlier this week with one of them possibly being the opening night starter. Wayne Franklin is the career leader in wins for the Revs and was the opening night starter in the first game the franchise ever played. I haven't seen a complete roster but I suspect with Franklin's experience and he win total being 12 from last year the team will go with Franklin opening night.

The other three signee's were Dan Foli, Mike Smith and Ryan Goleski. Foli and Smith are both pitchers that can add depth to the team while Goleski is a power hitting outfielder that can add some pop in the middle of the order.

I don't know the complete roster yet for the Revs if they even have one but when I found out anything else, I will most definitely pass it on.

The New Commerce Bank Park

I had been meaning to go over to City Island for awhile to see how far along their progress of the new stadium is and finally this past Sunday I was able to get there. I got mixed feelings about it after I was done looking around. First, I really think its going to look great when it's done. I can only talk about phase 1 of the project because that's all they are working on this year but it really looks like a major upgrade. Just the fact that they are going to have seats in the outfield is awesome but what they have up shows me that they are really going hard at this and really trying to put something awesome together. The new video board is up and that looks great. I can't wait until opening night because that's when we will get to see it in action.

Here are my bad feelings about the project. They only have about a half of a month to finish what they started. Opening night is April 16th and they have said that this will all be done by then. As of Sunday they were missing one huge part of the project. The Wall. That's right, as of Sunday they had not reconstructed the new wall. I really don't know anything about construction and I honestly don't know how many guys and vehicles they have over there so I don't know how long the wall will take but that's a pretty important piece of the puzzle. I really hope that on opening night, when I'm there they don't have some makeshift orange mesh temporary wall up because that will really put a sour taste in a lot of people's mouths. They other thing they don't have as of yet are the actually seats in the outfield. They have the structure up to support them but the actually seats have not been placed yet. It was hard for me to picture where they are putting them but again, it seems like everything is going to look great.

I have read that Senators officials say that everything is going as planned and I guess they could continue working on the part of the project that is outside the stadium as the season progresses but I really hope the wall is finished by the 16th.

For some really good pictures and information about the Stadium and the plans go here. Will is a great writer and his pictures are superb!

How Do Your Brackets Look?

Well locally there isn't a ton going on in sports right now. The high school basketball season just ended, the baseball seasons are a little less than a month away, the Stampede have their second game this weekend (more coming later this week on that), and the Bears are busy but not today.

And honestly I know many of you are just as interested in the NCAA Tournament as I am. I am a big Villanova fan and this year is looking good so far for them. I was a little nervous during the American game in the first round but they eventually got their stuff together and won it by double digits. And now they get Duke on Thursday night. I am hyped.

Oh and Verb is a huge Duke fan so I don't think we will watch the game together....not cause it would be tense but more cause I don't want to be laughing at him while he is crying after his Dukies lose!

But anyways...back to the post. This is the time of year that I start to really want to play some basketball. I mean watching something like 50 hours of basketball over a 4 day period would probably make some people sick of it. But me....it makes me want to get a few guys together and go play some ball.

Unfortunately that isn't always possible but when it is there are always decisions to be made. How many guys do we need, what should we play too, win by 2?, should we just play 21, whose ball are we using, and where should we play. The last question on there is always the toughest. The other questions are easy - 6 guys (3 vs 3), 11, yes, only if we have fewer than 4, and mine - but where to play is tough.

I live down in Fairview township. Actually the neighborhood I live in has a basketball court (and park) in it. But we tried to play there once last year and it wasn't very nice...definitely manageable for a small relaxed game but not ideal.

I used to live in Mechanicsburg and have played at the court by the Wesley Park townhomes. It is not a bad court but pretty old and some of the stuff needs replaced.

Another place I lived was New Cumberland and I have played at Lowther Park too. While that court is a nice central location for everyone it is a terrible place to play. To make my point...I can dunk there...on any other court I can barely get rim. So you tell me if that is a good court.

I also used to live in Enola. And I think the courts at Adam Ricci Park are the best I have played on. They have 2 courts, fenced in which is nice, and you can usually get a hoop to shoot at. The other really nice part about going there is you can almost always find a couple other guys to join in. If you could only get 2 or 3 buddies there you will probably be able to get a 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 game going with someone else playing.

But the problem with Adam Ricci is that its a good 20 minute drive for me. And if I get there and all 4 hoops are taken then I have to either wait or find somewhere else. I mean there are other parks in the area including Creekview but if I am going to drive down to play at a quality park I want to play at a quality park.

Basically I am asking for your help. Anyone who is reading this....do you know of any good places to play some basketball in the Harrisburg area??

Bears, Keep the Switch turned on!

The Bears won 2 huge game over the weekend in regulation. Their wins were over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Bridgeport. The number 2 and 3 teams in the division respectively. That's why the regulation thing was so important, no points for the opponents.

Here is my question though:

It seems that this team can turn the switch on and off whenever they would like. Should we as fans be comfortable with this team since it seems like, when they care they can beat anyone in the league but when they don't they lose to teams like Springfield?

I'm not expert on this team. I'm just a very enthusiastic fan. Right now, I do feel comfortable about this team. However, we just beat the Pens and Bridgeport on back to back nights. If we would've lost those two games, I wouldn't be happy at all.

I know the team is going to go through streaks and the goaltenders are going to get hot and cold throughout the season but this week just made it seem to me like this team turns the switch on and off whenever they think they can.

The other reason this doesn't worry me is that these guys are professionals. Once the playoffs start, these guys will turn it on and it will stay on. At least we can all hope so, right?

Stampede Lose Opener

The Harrisburg Stampede kicked off their inaugural AIFA season on Friday night in Florence, South Carolina against the defending league champion Florence Phantoms.

If you are looking for information or results they are not easy to find. But I can tell you that the Stampede lost 19-13. That seems like a low score for an arena football game but that is what their website is telling me.

At this time their are no stats to report or more information to give. When (or if) the league site and the Stampede's site updates their information with stats and game details I will pass them along to you.

But I can tell you this.....the Stampede are 0-1 to start their season. Their next game is in 2 weeks (on March 28th) at home against the Baltimore Mariners.

Playoff Type Weekend for Hershey Bears

This Saturday and Sunday the Hershey Bears will host two teams that they are fighting with for playoff positioning. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins come to town Saturday night for a 7:00 faceoff while the Bridgeport Sound Tigers visit Giant Center Sunday evening with a 5:00 start time.

The Bears are currently in second place in the division with 87 points on the season. The team has spent most of the season in first place and was only passed in the standings by Bridgeport within the past week. Bridgeport is one point ahead of the Bears going into this weekend's games.

In the meantime the Penguins have been chasing Hershey all season and almost got to them a couple weeks ago before Bridgeport started pushing. The Penguins are currently in third place in the division with 84 points.

The atmosphere at Giant Center this weekend will be very playoff like and if you haven't made it out to any games yet this season this would be a good time to go. I have heard that the Saturday game is all but sold out however the Sunday game has some good seats left.

I will have more in depth previews and recaps over at Hershey Bears Hockey throughout the weekend.

I'm Verb, Nice to meet you

Now that the GM has introduced himself and our blog to you, I would like to take the time to introduce myself. I'm the other guy that will write on here and I am the other guy who talks on the podcast.

I am Verb.

I have been a huge Senators fan for a really long time. I will be honest about the fact that I have been hesitant to go to any Revolution or Barnstormer games because I love the Senators. I'm ready to give it a shot and well I am really excited that Commerce Bank Park is being upgraded.

I am just going to give my view as a fan of all the teams mentioned on the right and will give my honest opinion about anything that has to with midstate sports. Harrisburg and the surrounding area is a great city for sports and I hope to show my love for local sports through this blog.

Welcome to Harrisburg Sports!

Thanks for joining us here at Harrisburg Sports. This site will be for exactly what it says....all of the greater Harrisburg Area Sports teams!

We will have coverage and information from all of the areas minor league teams, local college teams, some high school sports coverage, and some professional sports coverage of teams near the midstate.

I hope you enjoy what we put up here. If you want to see what else we do here are some links:

HersheyBearsHockey
Jumping Offsides

We will give you information on anything going on in the local sports community and hopefully you will join in on the discussion through commenting and emailing.

Hope you enjoy it!!