Probably my toughest assignments at the newspaper were covering Scranton’s minor league baseball team from May through August in 1950 and the football ‘doubleheaders’ that were scheduled on Thanksgiving Day.
in baseball, I would fill in for Jimmy Calpin on days he was not scheduled to work. The official scorer was Joe M. Butler, sports editor of The Scranton Times. At the conclusion of each game Butler would pass along a copy of the boxscore and off I’d go back to the office, a mile or so away. I can’t exactly recall what happened next. I’m almost certain what I did was prepare my account of the game for the next morning’s edition of The Tribune and then approach the teletype machine to type in the boxscore and send it to the other newspapers that provided coverage for their respective teams in the Class A League. Then I would prepare to close the edition and head to the composing room for the final touches.
The football doubleheaders were something else. My job on the holiday was to cover Abington Heights versus Tunkhannock in the morning and Old Forge Versus Taylor in the afternoon. In between I had to figure out a way to write at least a portion of the first game before taking notes on the second. I might have a chance but it was highly unlikely. Tunkhannock was a considerable distance from the other schools.
Thanksgiving Day games more less disappeared from the scene before 1987, enabling the PIAA to launch its state championship games in various classifications.
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