Chris Moon Wins Again
This is the 24th installment of "Erstwhile Pueblo Abuelo," a thought on positive things happening in the Old Pueblo from a sometimes cranky and often times humorous grandad really born in Tucson and writing from my desk in Tucson, the Old Pueblo.…
The Leap Flavour begins with Beach Volleyball on Tuesday in Southern Arizona with Mountain View hosting Tempe McClintock at four p.m. and then everything breaks loose with Baseball game, Softball, Track and Field, Tennis and Bound Golf following on Wednesday. Boys Volleyball is set to showtime next Mon. Baseball and Softball will start with some longstanding tournaments in the Cowboy Up Baseball Tournament at the Kino Sports Complex, the CDO Dorado Softball Archetype at Lincoln Park and the Tucson High Chris Moon Baseball Memorial Classic held at Blood-red Field and at the Canyon del Oro baseball field.
The Chris Moon Memorial is typically held subsequently in the leap but Tucson and Canyon del Oro volition exist taking role in the Boras Archetype scheduled to beginning on March 16 in the Phoenix area. The Dorado Softball Classic will open up with an incredible list of 48 games this Th and the Cowboy Up volition get-go on Wednesday.
The Chris Moon Memorial is named after old Tucson High and University of Arizona standout Chris Moon who gave up the game of baseball for the opportunity to defend our country, something I have had the honor to be able to document from the start.
REPOSTED FROM THE Outset:
If you take the chance, read Brian Mockenhaupt's commencement-hand business relationship of how Chris Moon died while fighting in the Arghandab Valley in 2010 (The Last Patrol/The Atlantic/Nov. 2010). It's a very difficult read simply a must if yous want to get to know a true American hero fifty-fifty better. You see, nosotros all had the story incorrect. Moon did not "stride on an IED on a roadside" – he was targeted.
Specialist Moon was a successful sniper in what his platoon chosen "The Devil'due south Playground:"
"A thunderclap rocked the tree line, and the concussion punched our ears and rolled through our chests. Beside us, along the canal, a cloud of fume and dirt billowed 100 feet into the air, far above the trees, against a clement blue heaven. "IED! IED! IED!" a soldier barked over the radio. Knollinger, leading the element along the road, ran into the field between the route and the canal, toward the explosion, yelling into the hand mike clipped to his vest. "I need a sitrep! I need a sitrep!" Soldiers answered, 1 past 1, save for the two snipers with the patrol. "Viper 4," Knollinger said. "Are y'all okay? Viper four!" Sgt. Christopher Rush responded, dazed, his voice slow. "No, I'm non okay." Abreast him, his partner, Specialist Christopher Moon, lay in a crater five feet broad and 2 feet deep, his legs missing. The triggerman, hidden in the pomegranate orchard, had blown the bomb under Moon, the last human being. Gerhart was 75 anxiety ahead on the canal trail. He ran back, by a few soldiers who had been knocked to the ground, uninjured. He knelt beside Moon, 20 years old, a high-school baseball star who had been courted by the Atlanta Braves, but had chosen the Regular army. I'd met Moon the day earlier, atop an earthen bulwark beside Guard Tower 2 at the combat outpost, where he had squatted on ii ammunition cans and barely moved, perched like a monk for a two-hour stretch. He rested his rifle on an iron beam and watched a compound a half mile south. He'd killed two fighters there earlier, equally skilful at sniping equally he'd been at baseball."
Moon would eventually succumb to his injuries a few days later on on July xiii, 2010 at the United states of america Army Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany.
At present, if y'all can, go back a few years to the spring on 2007 and you will run across a much younger man. A boy actually. You lot will run across where the Atlanta Braves drafted him in the 35th round but y'all will besides run into that he went unsigned. Instead, the consensus Southern Arizona 2007 High Schoolhouse Player of the Year signed up with Andy Lopez and the University of Arizona and he took function in fall drills and competition. But Moon did non feel comfy in his role as a star athlete when he felt his true calling was to serve his country.
So, similar Pat Tillman, Moon gave upwardly a promising future in a game played by boys for a chance to stand on an "earthen bulwark" somewhere as a man in a land far away with a rifle in his hands where a bat used to exist.
Who does something similar that? Heroes don't hit balls over fences.
Moon was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Majestic Eye, the Army Commendation Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Entrada Star, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon, the Combat Infantryman Bluecoat and the Bones Parachutist Badge.
And, yep, all of his baseball and other youth sports awards were part of his development so those should not be forgotten. He earned them all. Chris also earned our gratitude as did his parents Marsha and Brian Moon. As I accept written before, the price they paid for our gratitude was much too high and information technology continues to be more than we can ever repay every bit a country or equally a friend.
The merely way we can even endeavor is to honor his memory.
Every year at this time, Tucson Loftier holds a baseball invitational in his name. It is a small gesture but an important one. When yous laurels a hero like Moon, you honor the countless other men and women who have given everything so that we may play a game, coach a game, scout a game and even write almost 1.
Fifty-fifty the simplest of freedoms should not exist taken for granted.
More "Sometime Pueblo Abuelo" tin can be found here.
CHRIS MOON MEMORIAL SCHEDULE
Cherry Field/CDO Field: Feb. 23-26
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23
Cienega at Canyon del Oro, 3 p.m.
Sahuaro vs. Tucson, 6 p.m.
Catalina Foothills vs. Sunnyside, 6 p.m.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24
Sahuaro at Coulee del Oro, noon
Sunnyside vs. Cienega, noon
Tucson vs. Cienega, iii p.1000.
Tucson vs. Catalina Foothills, half-dozen p.thousand.
Sunnyside vs. Sahuaro, vi p.m.
Friday, February 25
Catalina Foothills at Canyon del Oro, 9 a.thousand.
CDO DORADO SOFTBALL CLASSIC
Lincoln Park: Feb. 24-26
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24
Sahuaro vs. Benson, x a.chiliad.
Mount View vs. Buena, 10 a.one thousand.
Canyon del Oro vs. Catalina Foothills, 10 a.1000.
Sabino vs, Flowing Wells, ten a.m.
Tucson vs. Marana, ten a.m.
Cholla vs. Mica Mount, 10 a.m.
Ironwood Ridge vs. Rio Rico, 10 a.m.
Walden Grove vs. Tanque Verde, 10 a.1000.
Marana vs. Cactus Shadows, apex
Mica Mountain vs. Casa Grande, apex
Buena vs. Desert Vista, apex
Catalina Foothills vs. Estrella Foothills, apex
Rio Rico vs. Mesquite, noon
Benson, vs. Mesa Mount View, apex
Salpointe vs. Flowing Wells, noon
Tanque Verde vs. Vista Grande, noon
Ironwood Ridge vs. Americas (El Paso), 2 p.thou.
Tucson vs. Bel Air (El Paso), 2 p.m.
Sahuaro vs. Del Valle (El Paso), 2 p.m.
Coulee del Oro vs. Eastwood (El Paso), 2 p.m.
Cholla vs. Paradise Honors, ii p.one thousand.
Mountain View vs. Rincon/UHS, 2 p.m.
Walden Grove vs. Riverside (El Paso), 2 p.m.
Sabino vs. San Manuel, 2 p.m.
Rio Rico vs. Americas, four p.m.
Marana vs. Bel Air, 4 p.one thousand.
Benson vs. Del Valle, 4 p.m.
Catalina Foothills vs. Eastwood, four p.one thousand.
Mica Mount vs. Paradise Honors, iv p.grand.
Buena vs. Rincon/UHS, four p.thousand.
Tanque Verde vs. Riverside, 4 p.m.
Flowing Wells vs. San Manuel, 4 p.m.
Tucson vs. Cactus Shadows, 6 p.yard.
Cholla vs. Casa Grande, 6 p.thou.
Mount View vs. Desert Vista, 6 p.m.
Canyon del Oro vs. Estrella Foothills, half dozen p.chiliad.
Ironwood Ridge vs. Mesquite, half dozen p.chiliad.
Sahuaro vs. Mesa Mountain View, 6 p.thousand.
Salpointe vs. Sabino, six p.m.
Walden Grove vs. Vista Grande, 6 p.thou.
Mesquite vs. Americas, 8 p.m.
Cactus Shadows vs. Bel Air, 8 p.m.
Mountain View Mesa, vs. Del Valle, 8 p.m.
Estrella Foothills vs. Eastwood, 8 p.thou.
Casa Grande vs. Paradise Honors, 8 p.chiliad.
Desert Vista vs. Rincon/UHS, 8 p.m.
Vista Grande vs. Riverside, viii p.m.
Salpointe vs. San Manuel, 8 p.m.
COWBOYS Up BASEBALL CLASSIC
Kino Sports Circuitous: Feb. 23-26
Midweek, FEBRUARY 23
St. Augustine vs. Flowing Wells, three:30 p.m.
Ironwood Ridge vs. Pusch Ridge, iii:30 p.m.
Empire vs. Rincon/UHS, 3:30 p.m.
Desert View vs. Walden Grove, 3:30 p.g.
Tanque Verde vs. Benson, 6 p.1000.
Sabino vs. Mount View, vi p.m.
Mica Mount vs. Pueblo, 6 p.thousand.
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Andy Morales was recognized by the AIA equally the height loftier school reporter in 2014, he was awarded the Ray McNally Honor in 2017, a 2022 AZ Education News honor winner and he has been a youth, high school and higher motorbus for over 30 years. He was the commencement in Arizona to write about high school embankment volleyball and high school girls wrestling. His ain children have won multiple state high school championships and were named to all-state teams. Competing in hockey, basketball game, baseball and track & field in loftier schoolhouse, his unique perspective can only be found here and on AZPreps365.com. Andy is the Southern Arizona voting member of the Ed Doherty Laurels, recognizing the acme football game player in Arizona, and he was named a Local Hero by the Tucson Weekly for 2016. Andy was named an Honorary Flowing Wells Caballero in 2019, became a fellow member of the Sunnyside Los Mezquites Cantankerous Country Hall of Fame in 2022 and he was a member of the Amphi COVID-19 Bluish Ribbon Committee and he earned a Distinguished Service Award from Amphitheater. Contact Andy Morales at amoralesmytucson@yahoo.com
Source: http://allsportstucson.com/2022/02/20/old-pueblo-abuelo-the-chris-moon-memorial-baseball-classic/
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