Even if you don’t play baseball, know anybody who plays baseball or
even like baseball, there’s still a good reason to turn out at the
Durham Athletic Park on Wednesday night:

To support the 120 teenage boys who will be playing ball this summer
because parents, businesses and organizations banded together to make
sure there’s a season.

Postponed two days because of Monday’s rain, the season-opening game
of The Long Ball Program will is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. today.

Free stuff is good, and a baseball game ticket and a complimentary
glove from Rawlings await the first 100 registrants for a May 22 youth
baseball clinic in Cary.

Players ages 8-14 will receive instruction from some of the nation's
best college players and coaches.

Leading the camp will be Mount Olive
College coach Carl Lancaster, who guided the Trojans to the 2008 NCAA
Division II championship and was the American Baseball Coaches
Association's national coach of the year.

Congress: "No healthcare? Take a hike, you dirty, rotten so-and-so! No baseball on TV?! Oh my goodness, we have to do something!"

It seems members of Congress are joining in a bipartisan effort to end a dispute that hits us where we live and breathe: keeping MLB games on cable TV. Get the details from our friends at Under the Dome.

Tate Parrish, a pitcher and outfielder at Smithfield-Selma High, was incredible last week.

For the week, Parrish had nine hits in 11 official at-bats, picked up a pitching win and belted four home runs.

Parrish was 2-3 with a homer in a 14-3 Greater Neuse 4-A Conference win over Harnett Central.

He came back with three hits in four at-bats with two home runs in an 8-7 win over Princeton.

The University of North Carolina baseball recruit completed the week with four hits in four appearances in an 8-6 victory over West Johnston. Parrish threw a five-hitter for the win.

Triangle recreational league coaches and players still have time to
register for a great opportunity: several hours of instruction with USA
Baseball coaches, alumni and staff this weekend.

USA Baseball will conduct its eighth annual clinics Friday and Saturday at the USA
Baseball Training Complex in Cary. Registration closes at 6 p.m.
Friday.

Instruction will come from past and current USA Baseball coaches, and
former Major League players also are on the list of presenters,
according to an event announcement.

Virginia's baseball team went on a wild ride last year, winning the ACC
tournament as the sixth seed and advancing to the College World Series
for the first time in the program's history. They had to do it on the
road in the NCAA playoffs -- going to California-Irvine for their
first-round playoff series and Mississippi for the Super Regionals.

The Cavaliers, who return their team virtually intact and enter the
season with their highest national ranking ever at No. 2, showed they
can still beat good teams on the road Friday with a 6-2 victory over a
strong East Carolina club that is ranked as high as 11th nationally.

RALEIGH - N.C. State came out swinging in its baseball
season-opener on Friday afternoon at Doak Field. And didn't stop until
it had scored a school-record 32 runs in a 32-3 victory over La Salle.

The Pack scored 10 runs in the first inning and led 20-1 after three
innings. The single-game record for runs of 29 set on March 24, 1984,
against Wake Forest was broken when State scored six runs in the sixth
inning to take a 31-2 lead.

"The wind was blowing and we came out swinging," N.C. State coach Elliott Avent said. "We were swinging the bats very well." 

This week's warm and sunny days are a reminder that spring is not far
away, and that means it's time for spring recreational league and
summer sports camp registration.

Recreational league signups are under way or starting soon in numerous
sports - among them baseball, T-Ball, flag football, inline hockey,
soccer softball and volleyball - through a variety of parks and
recreation programs, nonprofit multisport organizations and commercial
operations.

And it's never too early to register for summer sports camps. Many of those camps fill quickly.

In 2001, comedian Billy Crystal's movie "61*"
was released.  It was about Roger Maris' record-setting 1961 season,
when he broke Babe Ruth's home run record. (The asterisk refers to the
controversy over whether the Maris record should have been recognized
given that the season was eight-games longer than Ruth played.) There
was a scene at the end of the movie showing Mark McGwire embracing
members of the Maris family when he breaks Maris' record in 1998.

The Narron family has found decades of success in baseball in Eastern North Carolina and in the major leagues.

This month, the Narrons will share some of their knowledge and
experience with a free baseball clinic, family member and Texas Rangers
hitting coach Johnny Narron said Sunday.

Boys ages 9 to 14 are invited to the event at 11 a.m. Jan. 23 at
Charles B. Aycock High School, 5460 U.S. 117 N., Pikeville. There is no
advance registration.