Weather delays Public League baseball final a day

Every so often, "Only in the Pub" moments feature delicious irony.

Take Wednesday, for instance, when the first Public League baseball final slated to feature only Hispanic players was postponed due to excessive heat/humidity concerns.

"Tell me about it," said Frankford coach Juan Namnun, who is of Dominican descent. "All our kids are joking about that. They're all saying, 'Coach, it's not that hot.' We would have been ready."

Frankford and Thomas Edison will meet today, 12:30, at Ashburn Field in South Philly's FDR Park. Yesterday's game was set for 3:30, and the decision to postpone was not made until a shade before 2:30. Spectators and even umpires were showing up at Ashburn, only to be turned away.

Frankford's School District bus was on Delaware Avenue, no more than 10 minutes from the field, when Namnun received the call to turn around.

Edison coach Matt Fischer said his team's bus was just arriving at Edison, roughly an hour late, when he accepted the forget-it notification.

"Our kids are so deflated right now," he said at 3 o'clock.

Added Namnun: "It's going to be very hard to get up for a championship game 2 straight days."

Robert Coleman, the Pub's sports czar, said an announcement to close Philly's schools was made at 1:30, and that his original intention was to play the game.

"That changed," he added, "because we came to have lots of concern about the kids' safety, especially with the forecast calling for violent thunderstorms. And wasn't there a tornado warning?"

Edison's bus miseries, he insisted, played no role in the rethinking. It's doubtful the Owls would have arrived much before 3:15.

"It's tough to be told again and again that the game is on, then get the word, 'No, it's off,' " Namnun said.

Also today, Ss. Neumann-Goretti will host Franklin Towne Charter, at noon at 25th and Moore, for the Class AAA City Title. Today's Frankford-Edison winner will meet Monsignor Bonner tomorrow, 1:30, at Ashburn for the AAAA CT. There will be no AA CT; Conwell-Egan lost a District 1-12 Subregional semifinal Tuesday to Springfield (Montco), so Springfield will meet Esperanza (charter) Academy today, 4:30, at Ashburn in the 1-12 final.

State playoffs begin next week. *