Teen group to perform at ball game
PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Bailey Park, home of Uniontown’s youth baseball teams, have something in common other than baseball. Both parks are providing a venue for a group of Uniontown High School singers to perform the national anthem.
The local teens sang the anthem July 3 at PNC Park for Uniontown Night before the Pirates played the Milwaukee Brewers.
And, come Sunday, Aug. 4, the teens will sing the anthem at Bailey Park before the charity softball game between the Fayette County commissioners and the Herald-Standard.
Teens in the group are Ron Milne, Jarred Volek, Steve Kovach, Mike Rosinski and Chris Nguyen.
They will join other students from Uniontown High School in pre-game festivities.
Members of the school’s high school basketball team have agreed to take part in a celebrity dunking contest before the game.
Also taking part the activities will be Uniontown Mayor James Sileo, who will throw out the first pitch.
Sileo also has agreed to stay on and pitch a couple of innings for the Herald-Standard team.
Meanwhile, Dick Carr, owner of Carr’s Trophy and Plaques in McClellandtown, will donate trophies for the game in honor of his son, Richard Carr, former chief of the McClellandtown Volunteer Fire Department, who died of leukemia in 1997. He also donated trophies for the game last year.
Proceeds from the game will benefit the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, which will take place Aug. 10-11 at Laurel Highlands High School. Relay for Life is a series of fund-raising events around the country held to raise money in an effort to find a cure for cancer.
The event will begin at midnight Saturday with a candlelight lap. It will continue Sunday with a number of events, including a Torch of Hope Run from Connellsville to the LH stadium, a visit from the Pirate Parrot, the lighting of luminaries at 8:30 p.m. and fireworks at 10 p.m.
The softball game will begin at 6 p.m. at Bailey Park on Dunbar Street in Uniontown, near the Uniontown firemen’s social hall. A concession stand there will offer barbecued chicken, baked beans, hot dogs, chips and refreshments. Admission is $1.
In addition. programs will be sold for $1. Anyone wanting to be listed as a program sponsor for $5 should call Herald-Standard Managing Editor (Day) Mark O’Keefe at 439-7569 or Fayette County Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites at 430-1231 by noon Monday.
Umpires for the game will be the Rev. Robert Spence, Emile Etheridge Sr. and Jes Hutson. LH announcer Barry Rosner will call the game. The game will be televised later on HSTV.
Defeated 18-8 last year by the Herald-Standard, Vicites, manager of the county team, has vowed to gain revenge this year, inviting all county residents to play on the team.
Not to be outdone, O’Keefe, the newspaper team’s manager, is inviting all Herald-Standard readers to play on his team.
O’Keefe, who will be assisted by Herald-Standard Publisher Val Laub and Editor Mike Ellis, also had no comments on reports that he was negotiating with a local softball legend to play on the Herald-Standard team.
O’Keefe, however, did note that there could be a surprise or two when the Herald-Standard roster is released next week.