Cheers and Jeers
Cheers: Connellsville graduate Gage Gillott ended his summer on a high note before going off to college at South Carolina Upstate. Gillott was chosen by the coaches of the Youngstown Astros Pony League Palomino team to play for them as a pitcher/outfielder this summer. The Astros advanced all the way to the Palomino World Series in Loredo, Texas, and with a boost from Gillott, reached the championship game by winning all three of their games. Gillott pitched five strong innings in the first game, a 4-3 win over Brownsville, Texas. Youngstown routed Nuscotomek, Illinois, 24-4, in the second game. That set up a rematch against Brownsville, which won two games in the losers’ bracket, in the semifinals. That game was tied 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth when Gillott hit a grand slam to help propel the Astros to an 8-3 win. Youngstown was set to face Puerto Rico in the final but a severe storm forced that game to be canceled. Youngstown and Puerto Rico were named co-world champions and the Astros were crowned as the national champions. Gillott accepted a baseball scholarship from South Carolina Upstate, an NCAA Division-I program, and will be an infielder/pitcher for the Spartans.
Cheers: For years, college costs have been rising about 7% per year, far outpacing inflation. To put this in perspective, the average cost of attending a four-year university or college has gone up by about 500% since 1985. Anything that can be done to lower the price tag of attending college is helpful, and California University of Pennsylvania recently announced it is offering reduced tuition to graduates of community colleges from this part of Pennsylvania, including community colleges in Allegheny, Beaver and Butler counties. A lot more work needs to be done to make higher education more affordable, but this is a step in the right direction.
Jeers: The Rolling Stones once sang that time waits for no one, and that point was driven home Tuesday as news spread about the death of the band’s drummer Charlie Watts at the age of 80. It wasn’t exactly a surprise, given his age and the fact that unspecified ailments drove him off the Rolling Stones’ fall stadium tour, which is scheduled to reach Pittsburgh Oct. 4. Still, the death of Watts from natural causes underscores the melancholy reality that a whole generation of artists who once symbolized youthful vitality have undeniably moved into old age, and their performing days will be done sooner rather than later.
Cheers: When the clock hit 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, Kathy Hochul became New York’s governor, following the resignation of Andrew Cuomo. She’s ascended to the office once held by Nelson Rockefeller, Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland, and is the Empire State’s first female governor. As the Associated Press pointed out, there are still 19 states that have never had a female governor. Pennsylvania is one of them, along with other populous states like Illinois, Florida, California and Minnesota, as well as our neighbors West Virginia and Maryland. Women hold a small percentage of governorships than they do state legislative seats or seats in Congress, and some of that undoubtedly has to do with stereotypes about men being more decisive or stronger, one analyst told AP. The day will surely come when Pennsylvania has a female governor. It doesn’t look like it will happen in 2022, but it will happen one day, rest assured.