An Around the Valley Memoir from GeneralsSignGuyMike and "The Chuckster"

Three more Generals fans made their final journey to all 11 ballparks this past Saturday. Chuck Harris, Keron Hutchinson the busdriver, and myself filled out our final stamp at Fauquier High School when the Generals faced off against the Fauquier Gators.

My journey got off to a slow start at the beginning of June, I did make it to the 1st game when Waynesboro faced off against Harrisonburg on June 1st at Kate Collins Field. I did miss that week the games at Woodstock, Front Royal and Staunton, though got caught up when I made the trip to Covington down with Paul on June 6th. Then came home games that weekend and a day off for the Generals on that following Monday. I decided to go to Staunton on the 9th and catch the Turks and Staunton Braves. My next road trip was to Harrisonburg on the 13th and then to Luray on the 17th. During the week there were some rainouts and we had several home games then came a week I could get caught up when some games early on I missed. I made it to Winchester on June 23rd, to Haymarket June 24th, to Woodstock on the 27th and to Front Royal on the 28th. After this I am almost done so I went to New Market on July 1st to catch the Luray Wranglers face off against the Rebels in the Battle of the Mountain 3. My last trip was to Fauquier and made the final journey last Saturday the 19th. The Generals went 7-2 at the games I went to see when I got the stamp. The others seen the Braves beat the Turks 3-1 and the Rebels beat the Wranglers 9-1.

I enjoyed every minute on the trips. My favorite ballparks other than Waynesboro were:

#1 Front Royal: I love how it has the stadium like look to it, it has the single A minor league feel to it and also looks like a college baseball stadium. I wanna say its my 2nd favorite park behind UVA's Davenport Field, which every fan that loves baseball should go check out if you are a UVA fan or not.

#2 New Market: Great ballfield, yet it doesn't look like a huge stadium but its a great ballpark with great bleachers and reserved seats and great food and a great look anywhere at the park to look over the mountains and all the scenery all around.

#3 Haymarket: The longest road trip for the fans but it was well worth the trip and I loved the look to the stadium at a huge highschool complex. The fences wow I can't believe how tall they were.

They were my top 3 but every stadium was good in its own right. Just some stuff I would fix would be is one thing: SNOWCONES!!! I like to thank Covington for having a snowcone stand and I can't wait to make another trip there if the Generals and Lumberjacks were to face off in the playoffs. Front Royal has them too but they are the frozen brand from I forgot what company they are good too but I would love them made at the concession, so next year if all the ballparks can join in along with Covington. Please bring back the SNOWCONES and gotta have the Cherrywine soda. Thank you Waynesboro,Harrisonburg,Staunton,Covington and a few others I believe that I believe had them and bring in more Cherrywine sodas. I love them.

Wow what a journey I had and I can't wait for the playoffs to get here, I just wish like every diehard Valley League fan we had another month of some great baseball action and play till September. Jerry Carter I do wanna thank you alot for what you have done with the promotion and the same goes for John Leonard from All Things Valley League and to Rebecca and Diamond (#1 dog of the VLB). Rating from 1 to 10, you all get a 100 by me and dog biscuits go to Diamond. Great job!

Another story I have to share is about another Generals Superfan that joined me and Tabitha Lunsford and Beverly Henderson as part of the fans that made all the ballparks this year: he is Chuck Harris. Chuck or you can call him "The Chuckster" has been a diehard Generals fan for over 13 years. I have been a diehard fan the past 3 years but have been back and forth catching the Generals here and there from 1988 thru 2005. Going back to Chuck he started to make it to every Generals game last year. His favorite player on the Generals is "Pistol" Pete Vandenbout, one of his two heroes he says. His other is Elliott Sadler, driver of the #19 Best Buy car in the Sprint Nascar series. Along with being a diehard Generals fan he loves the Notre Dame Fightin Irish and he says soon they will get the glory back to South Bend, if the Generals can do it I know the Irish can do it.

There is never a dull moment when you are hanging out with Chuck in the crowd or going on a car ride, just ask me and Tabitha and Shirley. Great times we all had from coming back from road trips. Chuck does have some brillant ideas he wish the league and our team can come up with and they are:

#1 The Generals cheerleaders. He says why not, football and basketball have it and lets have a great cheering section with of course: General cheerleaders!

#2 The Generals mascot: He saw on the last trip we made to Harrisonburg that the Turks had a mascot and he would love to have a mascot - in fact, he would be the mascot. Chuck the General!

#3 The Generals band: Almost just like #1, why not have drums and a guitar and a piano he says.

#4. To drive the John Deere tractor to clean the dirt, his hero Pistol Pete and Ryan "Chilly" Adams do it and he would just love for one day to go out and drive the tractor.

Chuck's favorite park was Front Royal and loved how the way it looked, he wishes our park can someday look like that. We both are going to be throwing out the 1st pitch here Tuesday when the Generals face off against the Haymarket Senators. We hope to see a great crowd tomorrow and come by and tell us hi.

I will have another story Saturday about possibly some promotion ideas for next year at all ballparks, I have some creative ideas already thought of and also looked at some ideas they had at minor league stadiums.

Everyone just remember the saying "If you build it they will come" more on this coming Saturday.

GO GENERALS!

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