Month: June 2024

WILKES-BARRE, PA – It was the “George And Dean Show” on Sunday evening (June 23) at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, with the track’s all-time leading harness racing driver George Napolitano Jr. visiting the winners circle five times, four times with horses trained by Dean Eckley, including in both $16,500 featured paces.

The faster of the high-priced featured claimers was Shoobie Doo A (Shoobee’s Place), taking revenge on A Fair Ol Dance’s ending of his three-race win streak last week by defeating that rival in 1:49.1, a clocking that equaled the 2024 local seasonal standard of Da Delightful and Big Skewy N and also gave the horse a lifetime best.

Shoobie Doo A was able to hold off A Fair Ol Dance (Curtis Salonick Photo)

Shoobie Doo A had to go a :26 quarter to clear his archrival for the lead, then put up middle fractions of :54.1 and 1:21.2.

A Fair Ol Dance got a fair chance at his opponent in the lane but came up a half a length shy of the altered winner, claimed for $40,000 out of his last start by owner William Hartt but not again switching barns after this win.

SHOOBIE DOO A REPLAY

Changing hands for $33,000 after his victory, though, was the other Napolitano/Eckley feature winner, Winbak Willy T. The son of Art Major, owned by Kathleen Napolitano for this event, refused to let anyone get by him through monstrous fractions of :26, :53.2, and 1:21.3, then pulled away to win by 2½ lengths, lowering his record to 1:50.2 at age ten.

WINBAK WILLY T REPLAY

Napolitano, who has had sixteen wins in the last four cards he has been part of (five and…

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COVENTRY —  Coventry baseball senior Evan Menzel ended his career as a state champion as the Coventry Patriots baseball team won 5-2 over the Oxford Wolverines in the Class S State Championship.

Although his high school career is over, Menzel will continue his baseball career at the University of Maine, where he committed last summer over the University of Albany and Farleigh Dickenson. Menzel said Maine checked all the boxes with great training facilities, coaching staff, and academics.

While he is not guaranteed to start his freshman year, Menzel said he looks forward to the challenge of earning the starting job through hard work. A confident Menzel has the expectations to start this season.

“I think they’re getting a very dedicated and hard-working player that is willing to do anything,” Menzel said. “I want a starting spot, and I want to be able to help the guys in any way possible.”

With the starting position at shortstop not guaranteed, Menzel said he must improve all aspects of his game to earn it.”

Specifically, Menzel said he needs to improve his arm. On the field, Menzel said he believes his glove will give him an advantage during the competition for the starting job. In his last two years at shortstop, Menzel has made seven errors. He had one error in his senior year, with a fielding percentage of .952. 

In addition to that, Menzel said he wants to have more power and consistency at the plate.

Over the summer, Menzel said he will be working on consistently hitting the ball harder.  

“I need to be able to consistently hit the ball hard, and I need to be able to do that against really good pitching,” Menzel said. “I will be working on hitting velocity over the summer with a lot of breaking pitches.”

Although Menzel said one of his biggest…

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Thousands of pounds of fertilizer and pesticides were burned during a fire at a nursery in Franklin early Monday that prompted a one-mile shelter-in-place order and sent two firefighters to the hospital, officials said.

The fire broke out in the early morning hours at The Plant Group, LLC., where multiple area fire departments responded to a report of a fire at a warehouse containing fertilizer and possibly pesticides, according to fire officials and a spokesperson for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

The response included the Franklin, Lebanon, Mohegan and Bozrah Fire Departments as well as the DEEP Emergency Response Unit.

State officials said thousands of pounds of fertilizer and pesticides were burned during a fire at a nursery in Franklin early Monday. (Courtesy of the Bozrah Volunteer Fire Company)

The blaze was mostly under control shortly after 10 a.m. with a few hot spots still in place, officials said.

According to a spokesperson for DEEP, about 10 tons of ammonium-based fertilizer and a full pallet of pesticide were consumed in the fire.

As a precaution, a shelter-in-place order was issued for residents within a mile of the fire, according to a DEEP spokesperson, who described the area as “rural.”

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MONTVILLE, CT — Three restaurants are coming to Mohegan Sun this year. The Shed, The Crafty Slice, and Beauty & Essex are all planning to open, Mohegan Sun Public Relations Director Cody Chapman confirmed.

The Crafty Slice is an eatery “specializing in delicious pizza by the slice,” Chapman said. The restaurant is opening soon in the summer entrance at Casino of the Earth. The pizzeria is listed as a “late-night hotspot” with hours until midnight on weekdays and 3 a.m. on the weekends.

The Shed will open this summer right next to BALLO Italian Restaurant. This new restaurant will be in partnership with restauranter, John Tunney, as BALLO is as well, Chapman said.

The restaurant will be in an 8,100-square-foot space across from Frank Pepe’s in the Casino of the Earth. The Shed will feature a scratch kitchen and be open seven days a week for brunch, lunch, and dinner.

The Shed operates several New York locations and will feature dishes like Skillet Mac & Cheese topped with corn, jalapeños, bacon, and green onion, and Glazed Salmon paired with Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, and shallots, topped with a sweet mustard glaze.

Over the holiday season, a TAO Group high-end restaurant, Beauty & Essex, is slated to open, Chapman said.

This restaurant features an “innovative design that starts in the restaurant’s entrance, a well­-curated modern day pawn shop replete with a saxophone, boom­box, quirky artifacts, vintage treasures and an eclectic array of ‘one -off’ pieces of jewelry,” according to the website for its New York location. Beauty & Essex also has a restaurant in Las Vegas.

Last year, Mohegan Sun’s food court closed. The four restaurants in the food court that closed were Mezze Mediterranean, Jasper White’s Summer Shack…

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