Mark Romanczuk

Mark Romanczuk gets more press here than any other non-native Delawarean. Why not? He brought attention to Delaware with his high school and Olympic baseball career while at St. Mark's. He also pitched well while at Stanford. So, hey, why not a mention?

Romanczuk, after a brief time with the St. Paul Saints this season, joined the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League. Actually, the fact he is with the Atlantic League probably excited me the most. Living in the Lancaster area, the Atlantic League is our baseball league (Go Barnstormers!).

Game-ending hit

Kevin Mench singled off of Oakland closer Huston Street in the bottom of the ninth inning last night. The hit plated Brad Wilkerson and ended the game, giving the Blue Jays a victory. This was Mench's third career game-ending hit and the first by a native Delawarean since Mench's two other game-ending hits in 2005. Courtesy of Baseball Reference, here are all the other Delawareans with their career game-ending hit totals (since 1956):

Delino DeShields 9
Dave May 6
John Mabry 3
Chris Widger 3
Randy Bush 2

It's games like last night that almost make me wish I had Tivo (of course I have to start with a television first). Wouldn't it be great to have one of just 23 game-ending hits (in the last 52 years) by a Delawarean recorded so that you could watch it over and over and over again? To actually witness the awesomeness of Kevin Mench every evening? Wow.

The walkoff homer is the most dramatic and talked about type of game-ending hit. DeShields had three of those. Widger had one. Impressively, four of Dave May's game-winning hits were walkoff homers. Mabry, Bush and Mench have won their games with hits of three or fewer bases.