When John Kruk Was Quiet, Slender, and Attacked by a Grandma

July 21, 2011 by Austin Gisriel · Leave a Comment

John Kruk was a skinny kid out of Keyser, West Virginia in the summer of 1981, but he had already attracted the attention of several scouts. “A great guy . . . a natural athlete,” remembers Preston Douglas, the head coach that season of the New Market Rebels, the collegiate summer team with whom Kruk […]

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Baseball Passion in Small Town America

May 19, 2011 by Austin Gisriel · Leave a Comment

We sometimes forget in this ESPN Age the great passion that baseball once inspired on the most local of levels. Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley has had a long love for baseball and there are two towns, some 20 miles or so apart that are perfect examples. New Market, which saw the last Confederate victory in the […]

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