Six-Run Second Earns Wahoos 6-4 Win Over Suns
August 9, 2013
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos scored all six of their runs in the second inning and went on to knock off the Jacksonville Suns 6-4 on Thursday night at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium. With the win, Pensacola clawed to within three games of the first place Suns with 25 games to go.
Pensacola strung together seven hits in the second-inning rally, all coming off Jacksonville starter Adam Conley. Ryan LaMarre started the scoring with an RBI single to make it 1-0. Three batters later, with the bases loaded and two outs, Devin Lohman reached on an RBI infield single, setting up Mike Costanzo. The Wahoos first baseman provided the big blow of the frame with a bases-clearing, three-run double to make it 5-0. Costanzo came around to score on a RBI single from Yorman Rodriguez, completing the outburst.
Jacksonville came right back, though, with four runs of its own in the top of the third against Daniel Renken. Chris Gutierrez singled in a run before Zack Cox blasted a three-run homer to right field, cutting the Wahoos lead to 6-4.
Renken settled down to toss six innings for Pensacola, allowing four runs on seven hits with four strikeouts to improve to 6-8 on the season. Jamie Walczak fired two scoreless innings to bridge the gap to Trevor Bell who set down the Suns in the ninth to pick up his 13th save of the year in as many tries.
Conley, tied for the Southern League lead in wins entering the night, took the loss for Jacksonville to fall to 11-5. The southpaw lasted five-plus frames and gave up six runs on 11 base knocks with five strikeouts.
Pensacola will now look for the series win having already won the first two games of the series. Tim Crabbe (5-8, 3.43) gets the ball for the Wahoos while the Suns will counter with Bryan Evans (4-3, 3.88). First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.
by Kevin Burke
Morning Y’all: Marty White Marks 40 Years On The Radio
August 8, 2013
“Morning y’all!”
Marty White has been waking up Pensacola area residents on “Your Hometown Morning Show” on 102.7 WXBM for over 20 years now…a phenomenally long time in the world of today’s radio business, big corporations and a tendency to change morning hosts on a whim. And this month, he’s marking another major milestone — 40 years behind a microphone, over 30 of those on the radio in Pensacola.
“Somebody that I knew, knew somebody with a radio station. I went in, read a few PSA’s (public service announcements), and the next thing I know, I was on the air making $1.65 an hour,” Marty said Wednesday morning from behind the mic in the control room of WXBM.
“Boy radio has come a long way since then. We used to have a couple of turntables on one side for the records and carts (large, 8-track like cassettes) for the commercials,” he said.
“Then we got all this,” he said, pointing to a computer system that lines up songs and commercials that automatically play with the click of the mouse. “I told ‘em I was never going to learn this computer stuff, or it was going to take me two years to figure out how to do anything.”
But he’s adapted. And that’s a big part of the reason he’s still around in the every-changing world of corporate radio.
WXBM”s studios are no longer out in the country “at the end of the road” in Chumuckla. Now, the WXBM studio is tucked away at “the end of the hallway” in an office park building off W Street in Pensacola. Just down the hallway are the studios for WXBM’s “sister” stations — WCOA 1370 AM, News Talk 100.7 FM, Magic 106.1, and Today’s Soft Rock 94.1 — all owned by media giant Cumulus.
Despite all the changes, Marty is still a self-described country boy who “barely graduated from Tate High School” that went from high school in Cantonment to the U.S. Air Force as a spy before his first radio gig.
“Man, she makes the best potato salad around,” Marty remarked on the air about the wife of a man celebrating a birthday. It’s those little down home touches that make Marty part of the family each morning in thousands of area homes.
In his spare time, you’ll often find him on the golf course, hunting somewhere in the North Escambia woods or out on a buddy’s boat.
The country artists on the air have changed a lot over 20 years at WXBM, but for Marty his favorites are still George….George Strait or George Jones. His all time favorites are “The Chair” by George Strait, “Bed of Roses” by George Jones, “That Was Us” byRandy Travis, and one almost guaranteed not to be on a teenager’s iPod — “16 Little Red Roses and a Horse That Sweats” by Jim Stafford.
Getting up early for a 6 a.m. start on the radio is just a way of life for Marty White. His show is not powered by coffee. There’s usually just a little water in his “sippy cup”, or just a little extra power from a Mountain Dew.
“I guess I’ll always be here behind a mic,” Marty said Wednesday morning. “Unless I win that Powerball tonight. Got $4 in that thing. Then this chair going to be empty in the morning.”
Pictured top and bottom: Longtime radio host Marty White on 102.7 WXBM Wednesday morning. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge. Pictured inset: Marty White records a commercial in August of 1985.
Tate Grad Killed In Tampa Hit And Run Wreck
August 8, 2013
A Tate High School graduate now living in Tampa was struck and killed by a hit and run driver on Tuesday.
Michael Duriel Lee, 29, was riding his bicycle in a marked bike lane on the US 94 overpass over I-4 about 7:50 a.m. He was struck by a 1999 Ford Ranger that fled the scene. Lee was ejected from his bike and thrown from the overpass, landing in a retention pond 80 feet below the roadway.
Wednesday, authorities arrested 23-year-old Christopher Jacob Kimmel and charged him with leaving the scene of a crash involving death.
Lee was a 2001 graduate of Tate High School in Cantonment and still has family in the area. He was believed to be riding his bicycle to work at Central Power Systems, Inc. in Tampa.
Pictured top: This still image from a traffic camera shows the scene where at Tate HighSchool graduate’s bicycle was struck and thrown from an overpass in Tampa. Image courtesy FDOT for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge. Pictured inset: The truck that allegedly hit Lee. Pictured below: A paint chip from the truck recovered at the scene of the traffic crash. Photos courtesy Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office for NorthEcambia.com, click to enlarge.
Man That Claimed To Be Beaten By Deputies Is Arrested
August 8, 2013
A man that claimed he was beaten by Escambia County deputies is now behind bars following a July 27 fight.
Devon Walker, 27, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of battery in connection with the fight at a trailer in the 3800 block of Creighton Road. He was booked into the Escambia County Jail with bond set at $11,000.
According to witnesses, several individuals became involved in a dispute over a cell phone and at some point during the altercation Walker pulled a firearm on the homeowner. When deputies arrived,they discovered three individuals lying on the floor inside of the trailer. All three individuals were intoxicated and had blood on them, the Sheriff’s Office said.
“Walker has falsely claimed that his injuries were caused by members of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office; however, these allegations have been determined false as evidenced by multiple written witness statements,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a written press release Wednesday afternoon.
“I definitely got beat up,” Devon Walker told the Pensacola Independent News. “The police beat me up.”
“The officer grabbed one of my arms and threw me to the ground,” Walker told the IN. “And then another one stepped on my face.”
Two Teens Arrested For Murder
August 8, 2013
Two teens have been arrested in connection with the shooting death of another teen last week at the Pines Apartment in Warrington.
Wahoos Outshine Suns
August 8, 2013
Jon Moscot fired seven shutout innings in his second Double-A start, combining with two other Pensacola relievers to shutout the Jacksonville Suns 2-0 on Wednesday night at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
The 21-year-old worked around bits of trouble in the first and sixth innings to keep his scoreless outing in tact. In the first inning, Yorman Rodriguez threw out Derek Dietrich at the plate when Dietrich tried to score from second on a Zack Cox single. Moscot (1-0) wouldn’t allow another hit until the fifth inning and ended up allowing four hits, all singles, in seven innings with five strikeouts and a walk.
The Blue Wahoos turned things over to Lee Hyde in the eighth, who retired the Suns in order to extend his scoreless streak to 30.1 innings dating back to May 21 between Pensacola and Louisville. Trevor Bell fired a perfect ninth to record his 12th save in as many tries for the Wahoos.
Moscot also provided a big blow on offense for the Wahoos, sparking a two-run rally with a leadoff triple in the third inning. He would come home to score on a Devin Lohman single to make it 1-0 before Lohman scored on a double play from Yorman Rodriguez to make it 2-0.
Anthony DeSclafani took the tough loss for the Suns despite allowing two runs (one earned) on 6.1 innings for the Suns. He struck out four and walked two while falling to 3-3.
With the win, Pensacola moved to within four games of first-place Jacksonville with four games remaining in the series. Daniel Renken (5-8, 3.58) is scheduled to start for the Wahoos on Thursday against the Suns’ Adam Conley (11-4, 3.04).
Florida CFO: Why Aren’t Insurance Costs Dropping?
August 8, 2013
Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater wants the state’s insurance commissioner to explain why property insurers haven’t reduced premiums at a time when reinsurance costs have dropped worldwide.
“If insurance companies can justifiably raise rates on Florida families because the reinsurance market drives their costs up, they can certainly lower the costs for Florida families when reinsurance prices fall,” Atwater wrote Wednesday to Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty.
“Floridians not only deserve an explanation for why they have not seen any savings to date, they also deserve to quickly begin seeing property insurance savings in their bills.”
Reinsurance is backup insurance for insurance companies.
Atwater noted that insurance companies have claimed for years that rates have increased due to reinsurance costs. However, he said he’s read that reinsurance rates are down this year, on average 15 percent to 20 percent.
Amy Bogner, spokeswoman for the Office of Insurance Regulation, said McCarty is working on a response to address Atwater’s questions.
FHSAA Pledges Review Of Drug Policies
August 7, 2013
The Florida High School Athletic Association said Tuesday it would examine its policies dealing with performance-enhancing drugs in the wake of the wide-ranging Biogenesis scandal.
Officials with the association announced the review in a conference call with reporters. But they also stressed that the association itself is not allowed to test athletes for performance-enhancing drugs, and that many school districts would have trouble coming up with the resources to do so.
In Escambia County, athletes as well as participants in non-sports extracurricular activities and clubs must consent to the possibility of being selected for a random drug test.
Roger Dearing, executive director of the association, said the organization’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee would undertake the review.
The committee’s 15 members, including medical professors and coaches, are charged with considering whether to break out the association’s drug rules into their own policy, rather than having them as part of its sportsmanship policy, and whether new rules might be needed to help crack down on the substances.
Association officials say educating parents and students about the dangers of PEDs and pushing school districts to move quickly against coaches who encourage or ignore PED use will help.
“I think it’s something that we’ve got to put on the front-burner and be vigilant about,” Dearing said.
Dearing said the recent reporting about the Biogenesis clinic in South Florida serves as a “wake-up call” about the drugs’ possible impact on high-school sports. Biogenesis is infamous for its role in a scandal currently rocking Major League Baseball; more than a dozen players have been punished for their links to the clinic, and the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez is fighting a 211-game suspension that would last through at least the end of the 2014 season.
The Miami Herald reported Monday that it “has seen a partial list of alleged clients of Biogenesis from October 2011″ that included high-school students. It did not name the players on the list.
One of the biggest challenges in trying to test students is the financing, Dearing said. The Legislature did provide funding to randomly test about 650 students several years ago, with one student testing positive, but hasn’t funded a program of testing.
The screenings cost about $150 each, meaning to test each of the 283,000 athletes in FHSAA sports would cost around $42 million, Dearing said.
He suggested that a better tack might be to have local districts partner with civic groups or others who could help pay for some testing.
“I don’t think it’s the Legislature’s responsibility to fund, and I don’t think it’s the school districts’ responsibility to fund,” Dearing said.
Dr. Jennifer Roth Maynard, an assistant professor with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, said the advisory committee would begin its review at its next meeting, scheduled for the end of the month.
by The News Service of Florida
Century To Explore Natural Gas Vehicle Conversions, Filling Station
August 7, 2013
The Town of Century will explore using natural gas to power some town vehicles and the possibility of a filling station.
The town’s council has authorized gas department head Eddie Hammond and consultant Debbie Nickles to pursue natural gas vehicle conversions and a filling station. There’s no set date by which they will report back to the town council.
There is currently one public CNG filling station in Escambia County. The station, located at 6722 Pine Forest Road, was a joint project between the City of Pensacola, Pensacola Energy (formerly Energy Services of Pensacola) and ECUA. The $1.8 million filling station opened in October 2012. It is operated and maintained by Pensacola Energy and features four “fast fill” hoses as well as 90 time-fill dispensers which can be used to refuel vehicles overnight.
The City of Pensacola also operates a private CNG filling station for their natural gas fleet, and ECUA plans to open a second site at their Ellyson Industrial Park location this fall.
Pictured: Escambia County’s first CNG filling station opened on Pine Forest Road in October 2012. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Fire Marshal Continues Investigation Into Dump Truck Fires
August 7, 2013
The investigation into a Sunday fire that destroyed four dump trucks at a Cantonment business continues.
Over a dozen dump trucks were parked in a row in a lot at the Roads, Inc. headquarters on Stone Boulevard, just off Highway 29. Four of the trucks were totally destroyed by the fire, while others were damaged.
The Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office said Tuesday that their investigation is still ongoing and released no further details about the fire, other than to say damage was estimated at $400,000 for the four destroyed trucks. The Fire Marshal’s office has not put a dollar figure on other trucks that may have been damaged by heat or smoke.
The fire was reported at 6:50 p.m. Monday, and sent a column of black smoke into the sky that was visible for miles.
Multiple fire stations from Cantonment, Molino and Pensacola responded to the blaze, working rapidly to protect and prevent other dump trucks from becoming involved the fire There were no injuries reported.
Pictured: Multiple dump trucks were destroyed by fire Sunday evening at Roads, Inc. on Stone Boulevard in Cantonment. Reader submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
