By Andy Loigu

Wait until next year. Warren Hills junior Tyler McCatharn won a sixth place medal at 285 pounds and sophomore Blue Streak Jarett Pantuso finished eighth at 220 over the weekend at the state individual wrestling championships in Phillipsburg. The experience they have gained gives them a better chance to reach the top of the medals stand next year, hopefully in Atlantic City.

McCatharn reached the state quarterfinals with a fall over Rob Chetirkin of Wayne Valley in 2:46. However, his chance at reaching the state semifinal was denied by Brick Memorial’s David Szuba, who won a 12-0 major decision. Those fellows down in the pines can wrestle.

In the wrestlebacks, his place on the medals stand was assured with a first period pin of Paulsboro’s Tino Savaiinaea.
Pantuso won his pre-quarterfinal bout by fall (in 3:15) over Cliffside Park’s Jake Leiva. However, he lost in the quarters by fall (in 1:19) to Mike Misita of Williamstown, another Pine Barrens locale.

Their experience in the tournament should help them prepare for next year’s competition.

Remembering Steve Kalafer

A public celebration of the life of Steve Kalafer will take place at a Somerset Patriots baseball game later this summer, at a time and date to be determined.

Kalafer, who brought the Patriots and the Atlantic League to New Jersey in the late 1990s, recently passed away at the age of 71. He will long be remembered as a successful businessman who did his best to pass forward good works on behalf of the community.

One of those many and varied good works was providing the public a pleasant place to enjoy the great American summer pastime of well played baseball.

During the offseason the Somerset Patriots received the biggest blessing a franchise in the northern part of New Jersey could ever hope for, an affiliation with the ever popular New York Yankees. Starting this year, the Yankees’ Double-A prospects will be playing their home games in nearby Bridgewater.

The “domino effect” of the Yankees’ affiliation shift left an opening for a new team to call Trenton its home. That void was quickly filled by the Toronto Blue Jays, whose Triple-A affiliate will be playing in the stadium alongside the Delaware River this summer.

For the first time since 1961, Triple-A baseball will be played in New Jersey this year. The last “top level” minor league team in the Garden State came to Jersey City in 1960 from Havana, driven away by a revolution which made Cuba an unsafe place to live.

That team, a Cincinnati affiliate, included future stars such as Mike Cuellar and Leo Cardenas, but did not draw well in a run down ballpark which had seen better days in 1946, when Jackie Robinson officially broke the color line in organized professional baseball there. On April 18, 1946, with the visiting Montreal Royals, he got four hits and two stolen bases in a win over the Jersey City “Little Giants,” at Roosevelt Stadium.

Now, Trenton will host several games in which the visitors are the major league ready top prospects of the Yankees, Mets, and Phillies.

It is safe to say that some of the household names of the next generation will be honing their skills in New Jersey this summer and that Steve Kalafer will be enjoying every moment from his box seat in the sky.

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.