Teacher Appreciation Week has No Statue of Limitations

Maybe it’s a coincidence or maybe it’s not.  This week just happens to be “Teacher Appreciation Week” and yesterday for the first time in quite a while I ran into two of my favorites.

Juanita and Lolita Carfora taught Spanish for as long as I could remember at Central Regional High School.  To say I was one of their favorite students would be a gross exaggeration. I struggled with the language partly due to not taking it as serious as I should and a general lack of maturity.

I probably did not endear myself to them during a week-long trip to Spain during my sophomore year but since the statute of limitations has passed we’ll just leave that as it is.

Despite that I always maintained a great admiration and respect for the Carfora’s and really enjoyed catching up with them through the years at alumni events and when we would bump into each other as we live fairly close.  Like I said at the top it’s been a while but yesterday I saw them at both the dry cleaners and 7-11 within a few minutes which brought a big smile to my face and hopefully theirs as well.

It seems like part of being a pitcher today is you will eventually have what’s known as Tommy John surgery and many undergo the procedure at a fairly young age.  Less than two years after he signed a $3.65 million contract with the Boston Red Sox former Barnegat High School star Jason Groome will undergo the procedure next week and will be sidelined for at least a year.

The 19-year old lefty has not pitched since last August because of a flexor strain in his elbow and despite struggling since turning pro is the top pitching prospect in the Red Sox organization.

Congratulations to Central Regional’s Tom Ruscitti who broke a pair of long-standing career baseball records this week.  Yesterday he hit a 2-run homer in a victory over Southern which was the 12^th of his career and breaks the record set by Tim Morris in 1986.  It was also Ruscitti’s 8^th homer of the season which ties a school record.

Earlier he broke the 47-year old record for career RBI’s held by John Kilmurray who was my former teammate and one of the greatest athletes in Golden Eagles history.  Ruscitti will continue his baseball career and education at Fairleigh Dickinson.