Richey’s Market in the midst of long schedule away from home

By Steve Gress
Gazette-Times sports editor

Greg McCarthy looked a little tired as he made his way to the batting cages near Taylor Field on Wednesday afternoon.

McCarthy, an assistant coach for the Richey’s Market American Legion baseball team, had every right to be a bit exhausted.

“I’m tired of road trips,” he said.

No doubt he is.

Including Wednesday night’s Area III game at Florence, the Marketmen have played eight of their last 10 games on the road, including a trip to Klamath Falls and Medford for a weekend tournament.

Included in that stretch were trips to Eugene and Springfield for Area III games.

That stretch isn’t over. The Marketmen play at Albany tonight, at Canby for a doubleheader on Sunday and at Salem on Monday.

Then, finally, the Marketmen are at home for five days beginning next Wednesday.

“It will be nice next week when we start our tournament to have a long string of home games,” Richey’s Market coach Kirk Myrold said. “Road trips are nice for bonding and getting work done, but we’re starting to feel the effects of being tired.”

And possibly a little lighter in the wallet.

The cost of gas is around $4.30 a gallon and that means more money spent on those drives up and down the Interstate.

While the team is on the road a lot, for some players travel is part of home games as well. Four players drive in from Dallas for each game, one from Independence and one from Newport.

That can be taxing on their energy and their wallets.

“I think you just can’t think about it,” said Dennis Crepeaux, who’s son Spencer is one of four players from Dallas.

That’s how the players feel.

Tyler Conklin is no stranger to long drives to play for Richey’s Market. The recent Newport High graduate made the 45-minute or so drive from Newport to Corvallis all last summer.

He said he hasn’t seen a huge difference in money spent on gas yet. The cost increase wasn’t something Conklin thought too much about when deciding to play for Richey’s again.

“I don’t know, I knew I was going to play baseball this summer,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking about the prices of gas.”

Making matters worse for Conklin is he drives a lifted Toyota 4-Runner, which he said gets about 15 miles to the gallon.

He figures he spends about $25 a day driving to Corvallis and back.

So what if the price goes up to say $6 a gallon?

“I’ll have to start thinking about that,” he said with a laugh.

The Dallas players have found a way to offset the cost.

“We car pool and that helps with the cost of gas and stuff,” Casey Cameron said. “It’s definitely different because I’m used to playing for our Dallas team so (there’s) not much of a drive there.”

So how do they decided who drives?

“We show up and someone drives one day and someone else the next,” Ron Snively said. “Whoever has the car with the best gas mileage.”

And that is usually Cameron, who drives a Geo Metro.

For Richey’s Market, this stretch from June 12 to June 30 has or will be filled with trips up and down Interstate 5 and to the coast.

Parents have always been a tremendous support, and that hasn’t changed this year.

“Ever since I played back in ’96 parents have always been supportive,” Myrold said. “In terms of asking parents support that’s nothing new and they have been outstanding.”

They have provided vehicles to drive and have even served as chauffeurs at times.

“Carpooling has been great,” Cory Snively, Ron’s father, said. “I think us parents should carpool especially after I got my new $1200 air conditioning.”