Well, tonight eight individuals will be installed as the newest members of the Lower Verde Valley Hall of Fame.

The Fountain Hills inductees are Ione Bushman, Jerry Butler, Tina Duffy, John Gibson. Peter J. Hill and Stan Zeifert.

George Katterman is the Rio Verde inductee and John Williams is the Fort McDowell inductee.

This year’s Legacy Award recipient is the VerdeCares group. They are a group of volunteers that formed a non-profit home health provider service that serves residents of the Verde Communities.

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The final four are set for the NCAA basketball tournament, otherwise known as “March Madness.”

It’s too bad that Arizona lost in the third round, especially since the finals are being held in Glendale. They were playing so well over the last month, that I thought this would be their year. But the upsets are what makes this tournament so much fun to watch each year.

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Spring Training is over for another year.

Once again, I enjoyed the Giants’ games at Scottsdale Stadium. I made it to seven games for the first time. I guess this “semi-retirement" has some benefits after all. My friend and former employee, Charlie Vascellaro, and I went to two games together. We share the two seats in the second row of Section 110 behind the Giants’ dugout. We have a new partner on the tickets. His name is Joe Olenowski, who just might be the most enthusiastic Giants fan in all of Fountain Hills. I met him at the bar at the All-American Sports Grill. He was watching a Giants game.

The tickets have certainly gone up in price since I began buying the tickets each spring some 20 years ago.

When I started buying them, the highest priced ticket was $28.

. This time, the highest tickets were $67. And two of those tickets were split-squad games. The Giants only played two starters that day.

I do have some good memories from this year‘s games. This gentlemen and his wife sat in the two seats next to me. I noticed that all of the Giants coaches seemed to know him. They were saying “Hi, Eddie,” as he edged past me. Then Charlie noticed he was wearing a World Series ring.

What year is your ring,” Charlie asked,

“1967,” the man replied.” I was playing for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was the first player selected by the Houston Colt .45s in the 1961 expansion draft.

It was Eddie Bressoud, who played for the Giants from 1956 to 1961. He’s now 85 years old.

He had career highs in batting average (.295), hits (166), runs (86), and doubles (41) in 1964 while playing for the Boston Red Sox in 1964. He was named to the All-Star team that year.

His wife told me that after finishing his career as a player, he got a college degree and coached on that level. Twelve of his former college players made it to the Majors.

“Eddie”s really proud of that,” she said.

My other memory was when Charlie interviewed Willie Mays in person.