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Baseball, golf and an overseas trip of a lifetime

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6 months ago

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Baseball, golf and an overseas trip of a lifetime

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Hello from back in the Eastern time zone.

I was fortunate to spend half of June in the British Isles, visiting London and Ireland across two unforgettable weeks with family and loved ones. We returned to the United States last Wednesday, and with almost a week gone by since, I’ve finally sifted through our thousands of photos and can say I’ve readjusted to the five-hour time difference. (The summer heat, not so much.)

My family had planned and booked the Ireland trip in 2020. You may have heard about the pandemic that ultimately kept us from going. It didn’t all work out until this year. Then, as a bonus, I was able to join my girlfriend and her siblings for a long weekend in London on the front end, which just so happened to coincide with a pair of Philadelphia Phillies baseball games across the pond.

This was my first big vacation since I joined The York Dispatch in August 2022. It was my first long trip since college. The two weeks might mark the longest time I’ll ever be out of the country. It was a trip of a lifetime in so many ways, the kind of trip almost everyone I know will ask about the next time I see them. I’ll give them the short version. Here’s the longer diatribe.

PHILLIE PHANATICS

Let’s get this disclaimer out of the way first: I root for three Major League Baseball teams. I can explain. I grew up in Northern Virginia and first got hooked on the sport in 2004, when the Baltimore Orioles were the local team, and I’ve watched them through the ups and downs in 20 years since. The Washington Nationals came the following year, so I picked them up as well, and we grew up together, and they won the World Series the year I graduated college. The Phillies are something I now share with loved ones, as my girlfriend and her family hail from Lansdale. We went to playoff games together in 2022 (when they lambasted the Braves) and 2023 (when they lost a Game 7 to the Diamondbacks).

When MLB announced last June that the Phillies and Mets would play in this year’s London Series, everyone’s first thought was that we should all go. After all, what better excuse to visit a city some of us hadn’t seen? At some point, a thought became a plan, and we grabbed tickets in November. So did seemingly half of Philadelphia — our overnight flight was filled with Philly hats and jerseys, and there was plenty of red and powder blue in the stands when the weekend arrived.

London Stadium, which has now hosted three MLB showcases, was built for the 2012 Olympics and primarily hosts West Ham now. The 15-minute walk from the train station included a merch pavilion and guys with Mets and Phillies jerseys sitting on stools talking PG-rated trash through megaphones. The concourse featured a delightful mix of permanent and imported concession stands. The baseball field kind of looked like it belonged, but the bleachers had moved around quite a bit. We attended both games, watching the Phillies cruise on Saturday before blowing a ninth-inning lead Sunday. And we all got a workout from sitting in the upper level, which had some of the steepest stairs I’ve ever climbed.

When we weren’t watching baseball, we bounced around to the city’s big tourist landmarks — Big Ben, the Tower Bridge, the London Eye, etc. — and took plenty of rides on the tube. We stayed near Hyde Park, which features Kensington Palace, a pond called the Round Pond and a creek called the Long Water. It was a weekend of cafes for breakfast and pubs for dinner, with an afternoon tea mixed in. 

London’s blend of historical grandeur and modern practicality makes it one of my favorite cities I’ve ever visited. I’m lucky to have been twice, and there’s still so much I feel like I haven’t done or seen, so I’m excited to go back again one day. But I’ll probably never be there at the same time as that many Pennsylvanians again.

CLUBS, CLIFFS, CASTLES

The next stop was Ireland, where my family, my girlfriend and a pair of longtime family friends stayed in a house just outside Killaloe on the River Shannon. Most of the country’s coastal attractions were about an hour and a half away from the quaint town, which had beautiful sights in its own right. After a week in the countryside, our two-week odyssey concluded with two nights in Dublin.

I’ve played golf with my dad since I was 10 years old, and our friend Keith has been a regular companion throughout that time. The three of us played the Old Course at St. Andrew’s together in 2017 during our Scotland trip. This whole Ireland vacation was built around rounds at Lahinch and Ballybunion, two bucket-list links courses on the west coast. It wasn’t entirely a “golf trip,” though, as we filled the rest of the itinerary with stops at the Cliffs of Moher, Blarney Castle, Galway and more.

The “full experience” of links golf, for better and worse, often includes miserable weather conditions. We played Lahinch at 7:30 a.m. with a steady rain and winds above 20 mph. The rain never came at Ballybunion the next afternoon, but the wind was even stronger. I’ve never felt so beaten up by a golf course. I look back on those rounds fondly, though — both courses are breathtaking and present a nuanced challenge for players of all skill levels. (We also played a “warm-up round” at a cozy inland course called Ballyneety, and there was a pitch-and-putt down the road from Lahinch that was a blast as well.)

If you’re ever in Ireland for any reason, I can’t recommend the Cliffs of Moher enough. You can walk up and get your pictures in 15 minutes, or you can carve out a day for one of the most scenic hikes in the world (we did the latter). I also adored Blarney Castle and the arboretum that surrounds it. On the city front, Dublin is bustling and offers plenty for everyone, but I was also struck by the charm of smaller hubs like Galway and Cork. Wherever you’re staying, you won’t have to wander far for a pint and some live music.

That wandering tends to be more leisurely on foot. Driving through Ireland often means extremely narrow streets, which would be stressful enough if I wasn’t on the left side of the road and in the right side of the car. The cities, in particular, weren’t built for cars. Once you’ve found a parking spot, however, there’s always something beautiful to look forward to next.

ON THE HOME FRONT

I’ve done my fair share of travel in the last couple years, but none of those trips pulled me away from normalcy quite like this one. The entire NBA Finals took place while I was asleep, although it doesn’t seem like I missed much. I was back in plenty of time to catch the end of the Stanley Cup and Calder Cup playoffs. I bought a one-month Sky Sports subscription to watch the U.S. Open, which finished just before midnight in Ireland. When the Phillies returned from London, their night games began right around bedtime.

I admittedly felt uneasy stepping away from work before the high school sports season wrapped up in earnest. I left town right as PIAA spring tournaments began, and three York-Adams League teams — Central York boys’ volleyball, South Western softball and Delone Catholic baseball — were still playing while I was in London. Central and South Western made their respective state semifinals the following week before their historic seasons came to a close. Ryan Vandersloot handled those moments with class, and my colleagues stepped up to edit and post stories while I was asleep.

In all, the local high school sporting campaign spanned 10 months from mid-August to early June. The 2023-24 school year saw two local teams win state titles, with Central York boys’ basketball making history in March before Ella Bahn and Laila Campbell led Spring Grove girls’ track and field to a team championship in May. With a slew of other individual champions and a handful of district team titles, it was certainly a year to remember.

League coaches also announced all-star honorees in baseball, softball and girls’ lacrosse while I was out (the boys’ lacrosse and boys’ volleyball teams came out in May). Props to Anthony Maenza for turning those stories around, and congratulations to all of the local all-stars, several of whom I had the pleasure of interviewing this spring.

It was around midnight in Dublin when I learned The York Dispatch had won 20 Keystone Media Awards for our work in 2023. Individually, I was humbled to take second place in the “Sports/Outdoor Column” category for a trio of big-picture stories on Central York football, Dallastown girls’ basketball and gymnast Trinity Thomas. Our MVP was photographer Dawn Sagert, who claimed first-place honors in four (!!) categories and was recognized eight times in total. We’re a smaller shop than ever — our online masthead has only 13 faces, with a one-person sports department — but the people we have are unquestionably talented and work incredibly hard to keep the operation going.

That work will continue through the summer, and we’ll have no shortage of stories to tell. And hey, football season is less than two months away.

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