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Recent Revere-Malden baseball game had a special meaning to Patriot pitcher Kyle Cummings, son of the late Kevin Cummings
So who is expected to be next in the high-profile EHS Football Head Coach post?
It was certainly not great weather for a baseball game on Patriots’ Day, with on-and-off rain and drizzle accompanied by occasional downpours with mist and fog. But the runners loved it!
There have been Boston Marathons in the past where the Patriots’ Day date may as well have been the Fourth of July with scorching, high 70s temperatures and blazing sun. Or perhaps it was 40 or below, with rain washing out everything along the 26.2-mile course. But on Marathon Monday, the weather was just right: not much sun, temps around 45-50 and some intermittent rain keeping runners from overheating along the way.
Nearly 50 runners from The Advocate readership area participated in the race and most finished. Here are the local results from Malden, Everett, Revere and Saugus:
MALDEN (runner name and finishing time): Patrick Mangan, 3:15:14; Meghan King 3:36:08; Mervl Kaukko, 3:40:17; George Sacco, 3:50:47; James Mandart, 3:50:44; Kirk Zmjijewski, 3:55:27; Joe LeBlanc, 4:16:20; Matthew Gavin, 4:24:31; Patrick Fitzgerald, 4:32:49; Alexandria Rodrigues, 4:36:24.
EVERETT (runner name and finishing time): Augusto De Almeida, 2:53:51; Kasey Boxleitner, 4:01:15; Filippo Mastrocola, 5:10:14; Courtney Meninger, 5:23:18; Peter Bien-Aime, 5:37:19.
REVERE (runner name and finishing time): Guillermo Restrepo Posada, 2:52:49; Anayo Osueke, 2:54:44; Chelsea Bishop, 3:06:39; David Gonzalez, 3:28:29; Fernando Perfas, 4:05:16; Alexa Duplisea, 4:07:08; Jessica Fitzgerald, 4:30:58; Daniel Fitzgerald, 4:30:58; Tristan Shepard, 4:40:58; Marcos Santos, 4:50:09.
SAUGUS (runner name and finishing time): Michael McLaughlin, 3:13:35; Casey Hyde, 3:14:11; Clyde Hancock, 3:20:48; Danielle Good, 3:27:23; Brett Dipanfilo, 3:37:03; Anthony Lopresti, 4:22:04; Stephen Rappa, 4:27:34; Robert Favuzza, 4:32:04; Christine Digirolamo, 4:32:39; Michelle Cronin, 4:38:35.
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It took a lot to make the Malden-Revere HS game happen on Monday due to the weather; over 90% of scheduled games were cancelled
There were over 200 varsity high school baseball games scheduled to be played on the Patriots’ Day holiday. Patriots’ Day has been a special day for years on the regular season high school calendar with most of the games played in the morning, right about the same time as the Boston Marathon. Of the 200 games scheduled for Monday, less than 10 percent of them – only 18 – ended up getting played!
One of them was the Greater Boston League matchup between the host Malden High School Golden Tornados and the visiting Revere High Patriots. It was never ‘Off’… but the Malden-Revere HS baseball game on Patriots’ Day took a lot of work (and communication) to get the players on the field playing. For roughly five hours, off-and-on, Malden and Revere athletic directors and coaches kept tabs on the weather, field conditions and numerous other factors (bus times, umpires’ availability) and even the game time, which ended up staying the same: 4:00 p.m.
The game ended up being somewhat of a pitcher’s duel with Revere’s Kyle Cummings, a senior, battling against Malden’s Jake Simpson, a junior. Cummings ended up pitching the best game of his three-year varsity career, scattering three hits, walking just two and striking out a career single-game high of 13 batters. Simpson threw zeroes through the first three complete innings, but a couple of untimely errors cost Malden some unearned runs.
Revere won the game, 5-0, but it was still highly valuable to both teams – win, lose or draw (but you can’t “tie” in baseball – as they both avoided the spectre of “The Makeup Game.” Somewhere down the road when teams are rescheduling the game 91% of them in Mass. did not play on Monday, at least two of them will be recalling why their schedule is not as jampacked as their future opponents’ may be down the road.
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Revere pitcher threw a gem… just a stone’s throw away from where his late Dad grew up in Malden
There was an additional Malden connection in the Revere-Malden baseball game on Patriots’ Day Monday. The game was played at Rotondi Field in Malden instead of the usual Malden home field of Pine Banks Park. The park is just a couple of streets away from where the late father of the Revere High winning pitcher grew up in Malden. Kevin Cummings, a 1977 Malden High School graduate, who was a standout athlete himself in the late 70s in basketball and Babe Ruth baseball, passed away too soon at only 61 in October 2020. Against Malden, Kevin’s son, senior Kyle Cummings, tossed a complete game gem in a 5-0 shutout win over his dad’s alma mater.
With 13 strikeouts and only two walks, it was undoubtedly Kyle’s signature game of his varsity career. We are certain Dad was watching over and was very proud on Patriots’ Day.
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Who’s next as Everett High football head coach?
Many were shocked to hear the news of now former Everett High football Head Coach Rob DiLoreto resigning abruptly from his post, after only three seasons, three Greater Boston League titles and a 21-3 record. Without being specific, Coach DiLoreto referred to recent circumstances around the Everett High School situation as the reason for his unexpected departure.
But the next question when someone leaves a “name” coaching job is inevitably, “who’s next?” According to all reports we have heard, all signs are pointing to Everett High School staff member Carlos Ruiz as “next man up” for the Crimson Tide post. Ruiz, a longtime Everett High assistant coach, who also coached alongside Coach Deion “Prime Time” Sanders for championship teams at Liberty Christian School in Texas in 2016 and 2017, apparently is positioned to take over one of more high-profile – and now vacant – high school coaching jobs in the state. Stay tuned for more information on this developing story.
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How impressive do Clayton Kershaw’s 200 wins look now? Almost as good as his best winning percentage of the Modern Era!
We all know that he is the most dominating pitcher out there right now and that he has been that way for quite some time. That is why no one was surprised to see him achieve his 200th career win recently for the L.A. Dodgers, as he became the third pitcher to reach 200 wins with the Dodgers, joining Don Sutton (233) and Don Drysdale (209).
Did you know that his .694 career winning percentage (200-88) is the best among pitchers in the Modern Era with at least 200 career wins, just ahead of former Yankee great and Hall of Famer Whitey Ford (236-106, .690)? Wow. Like we said, we knew he was good, but not that good, with those numbers!
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SPORTS WIRE SHOUT-OUTS: By the way, House of Pain’s former lead singer Everlast resurrected even more interest in the aforementioned great Yankees lefty in 1998 with the gem album “Whitey Ford Sings the Blues,” which went triple-platinum with three million sold. The iconic and awesome top single off that record, “What It’s Like,” reached #13 on the charts of the Top 100… What we want to know is, did Everlast ever go meet the real Whitey Ford and, of course, did the big NYY lefty ever get any loot for the liberal use of his real name, no less, all over the rap world? The real Whitey Ford was only 70 when the Everlast record dropped, and he lived until 2020 (age 82), so he must have got paid something, no? We’ll find out… There were two umpires working at the Malden-Revere game on Monday, but just one on the job in the Tornados’ previous game against Lynn Classical at Pine Banks Park. With a shortage of game officials in nearly every sport, including baseball, expect more of the same, say those in the know. JV and Freshman games already are having just one umpire due to the shortage these days… A couple of remarkable baseball nuggets: #1) Who is the only pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) history to throw a no-hitter on Opening Day? Answer Below… #2) Does anyone know these two things: A) What is Ichiro Suzuki’s real, legal name… on his Japanese driver’s license, for example, and why is he not enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame right now? Answer below, as well… Malden High senior tennis captain Naveen Nevalapuri is seeking his second Most Valuable Player nod in the Greater Boston League this year and is well on his way, having not lost a set in early play. Naveen is extremely active in extracurricular activities both with his senior class and as an Ambassador with the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA).
ANSWERS: In all of major-league history, only one no-hitter has been pitched on Opening Day. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was thrown by the 21-year-old Cleveland Indians prodigy Bob Feller on April 16, 1940, against the Chicago White Sox on a blustery 40-degree day in Comiskey Park. The masterpiece was the first of three no-hitters Hall of Fame Feller threw in his illustrious career, along with a remarkable 12 one-hitters. He had gone 24-9 on the mound the previous 1939 season for the Tribe… ANSWER #2: The name on Ichiro’s driver’s license in Japan is Suzuki Ichiro. In Japan, like in China and Korea, the first name follows the family name. A person with the first name “Ichiro” and the family name “Suzuki” is, therefore, called “Suzuki Ichiro” rather than “Ichiro Suzuki.” In 2001, with much fanfare, he became the first player in MLB history (and only one to date) to have his first name, “Ichiro,” emblazoned on his Seattle Mariners jersey.
