Welcoming Spring With The BlueClaws

We will finally get a dose of spring-like weather later this week and that ties in nicely with the home opener for the Lakewood BlueClaws which is set for tomorrow night.

Fans of the Phillies Class “A” baseball team will find some significant changes at FirstEnergy Park including a Biergarten in left field and a mini golf course and boardwalk games in center field which will be ready for the home opener.  Game time tomorrow night against the Delmarva Shorebirds is 6:35 p.m. and the opening weekend includes the first post-game fireworks show on Friday night and $1 tickets for Saturday & Sunday.  For more information visit blueclaws.com.

For the past several weeks our Shore Sports Network has been engaged in a campaign to determine the greatest sports personality from the shore over the past 50 years in an online voting contest on shoresportsnetwork.com.  We started with an impressive list of 64 names and are down to two. One you might have predicted but the other a long shot along the likes of Loyola-Chicago in the recent NCAA Tournament.

Todd Frazier scored a close, hard-fought victory over Al Leiter in an all-baseball semifinal and will now face Phil Villapiano who ousted soccer sensation Christie Pearce Rampone.  I know some of you are asking. Who is Phil Villapiano?

He’s an Ocean Township High School graduate and former Pro Bowl linebacker who helped the Oakland Raiders win a Super Bowl in 1977.  He was a very good player who is also being considered by the senior committee for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  So it’s Frazier versus Villapiano with online voting to begin later this morning and run through next Monday.

On behalf of all of us at Townsquare Media I offer our condolences to the family of Linda Kalmanowitz Grunin, who passed away suddenly at the age of 75.  Linda is likely best known as the co-founder and co-chairman of the Jay and Linda Grunin Foundation which in just five years has invested over $14 million in philanthropic projects to make our community better with another $17.5 million pledged to current and future endeavors.
Before that Mrs. Grunin was a highly-respected attorney in a practice with her husband Jay as well as a real estate investor.

Her son Jeremy who directs the foundation that bears her name is also the host of Bob Levy’s Topic A Sunday mornings on WOBM. Funeral services will take place this Sunday at 1pm at Congregation B’nai Israel in Toms River.