You could have said the night started ominous. Sure, the fans were there, diehard and decked in team merch, blankets tucked under their arms. They entered Dwyer Stadium under an arc of balloons — and Muckdog management even saw fit to roll out the red carpet, or at least a pair of shaggy red-colored rugs.

Then came the rain.

Everyone was talking about it. You couldn't not. Not with those low-hanging clouds that looked as thick as continents rolling slowly past. When one of them finally broke at about 6:30pm, everyone who wasn't under cover got a good soaking. Concession boys scrambled to get the condiment carts under the eaves. Managers called out for more hands on deck to roll tarp over the field. Ladies held seat cushions over their heads.

But it passed. Soon it was pretty much over. Fans got down to the business of watching baseball, and the Batavia Muckdogs and the Auburn Doubledays got down to the business of playing it.

Well, they lost. Batavia went down 1-6 against Auburn. Oh well. Now they'll take it to Auburn for the third and final game of the series tomorrow night down two games to none.

Don't forget to tune it to WBTA for the play-by-play.

Batavia's new Police Chief Randy Baker sat down with us earlier today to talk about his time with the city — he's a 27-year veteran of the department — and his plans for the future. The Batavian reported on Baker's appointment a little over a week ago.

Monday:

• 9:26am, 73 Union St., arson
• 3:50pm, 303 E. Main St., harassment
• 5:41pm, 390 W. Main St., accident
• 6:04pm, 12 Oak St., harassment
• 6:36pm, 18 Thorpe St. (Apt: Upper), harassment
• 10:34pm, East Main Street, accident

Tuesday:

• 2:51am, 19 Holland Ave., criminal mischief
• 7:08am, Ellicott Street, accident
• 11:21am, 8315 Park Road, larceny
• 11:49am, Washington Avenue, accident
• 12:12pm, 2 Summit St., accident
• 12:33pm, 209 E. Main St., larceny
• 1:24pm, 260 State St., larceny
• 2:58pm, 355 W. Main St., accident
• 3:10pm, 1 State St., harassment
• 3:18pm, 303 E. Main St., accident
• 6:06pm, 20 Porter Ave. (Apt: Lower), larceny
• 7:16pm, 629 E. Main St., accident
• 8:02pm, 390 W. Main St., larceny

Note: We don't include noise complaints, domestic disputes and routine police business.

From the Daily News (Wednesday):

• Thomas A. Aquino, the Rochester man who recently admitted that he was the notorious Pillowcase Burglar of the 1980s, received the 15-year maximum sentence for one count of second-degree burglary. Judge Robert C. Noonan told Aquino in court that it would be "a dereliction of my duty to impose anything less than the maximum sentence." Reporter Scott DeSmit put together a great article on the sentencing.
• Really, a fantastic front page put together by the Daily News today. In addition to DeSmit's article about the Pillowcase Burglar, you can find a photograph by Mark Gutman in which a pair of cyclists wait at the corner of Main and Oak streets in the midst of last night's power outage. One of them exhales a cloud of cigarette smoke, illuminated by a pair of headlights that glow intense yet puny in the pitch black night. There's also an article about the City Council's review of City Manager Jason Molino that appeared on The Batavian yesterday, and an on-the-ball article by Tom Rivers who was out assessing the damage done to local crops as a result of Monday's hail storms.
• Democratic Congressional candidate Jack Davis stopped at the VA Medical Center in Batavia Tuesday vowing that he would support a bill in Washington that would "expand and improve health care services for female veterans." Check out the article by reporter Roger Muehlig for more about Davis's visit and female veterans. It's well done.
• Eighteen-year-old Batavian, Richard J. Peters II, could face up to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to raping a 4-year-old Wyoming girl. Peters will be sentenced at Wyoming County Court on September 11.

For the complete stories, the Daily News is available on local newsstands, or you can subscribe on BataviaNews.com.

Royal Rangers is a Christian boys scouting group that is held at the Batavia Assembly of God on Wednesday at 700pm-830pm.  The boys work on merits and advancements and there is an emphasis on the bible, to earn the top award, The Gold Medal of Achievement.  There are groups for K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12.  This program has been around since 1962 and is an international organization.  We have many activities planned throughout the year.  We go camping at least 5 times a year, we have father and son events and many other fun activities. We also go to leadership camps for the boys to help them be able to take charge of the classes.   If you have any questions please call the church at 343-8521.  You can also visit the State web site for Royal Rangers at http://nyroyalrangers.org/

In our group we have many families who can not afford to go to the campouts and leadership camps.  The leadership camp costs $100.00 and most of the families can not afford it.  Some local business, organizations and people have seen the benfits of advesting into the boys of this community and have helped pay the cost for the boys to go to the leadership camps.  PetMart, Kiwanis Clup, First Choice Travel, the Batavia Police Benevolent Association, the Deputy Sheriff;s Association, the Batavia Fire Fighters Union, and Viola Hale all have invested in the boys of this community.  Thank you so very much.

Genesee County sheriff's deputies were kept busy at the Dave Matthews Band concert at Darien Lake last night. In addition to charges of trespass for three young men who allegedly got into the concert without paying for tickets, the arrests reported by deputies this morning include:

• Deena A. Pantlin, 21, of 143 Liberty St. (Apt: A2) in Batavia, was charged with disorderly conduct, though no details were given.
• Two young men from Cheektowaga, 22-year-old Christopher R. Jagielo and 20-year-old Colby M. Stanton, were charged with fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. They were accused of wearing stolen Darien Lake Performing Arts Center shirts to gain access to secured areas in the venue.
• Two men from Batavia and another from Churchville face more serious charges of seond-degree gang assault, a felony. Steven R. Colombo, 21, of 8 Ellicott St. (Apt: Lower), and Gerald Z.L.A. Watts, 27, of 10 Fisher Park, both from Batavia, along with James M. Giman, 28, of Churchville, were accused of injuring someone in a fight after the concert. All three were sent to Genesee County Jail in lieu of $15,000 bail. Rochester's Democrat & Chronicle reported that the injured man was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Note: All of the above arrests were reported in published releases from the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.

Check out WBTA for this and other stories:

• About 7,000 National Grid customers in Genesee County lost their power around 9:00pm last night. A failure in the Batavia substation on Franklin Street was blamed for the outage that darkened city streets and left about 5,800 residents in Batavia and some 1,000 others in Alexander, Pembroke and Elba without their electricity until some time after midnight. (Some information for this brief was obtained from the Democrat & Chronicle.)

The Batavian was fortunate enough to meet up with Rick Pratt last Friday at the scene of his latest project, here in Batavia. Rick is a chainsaw artist from Corfu. You may have seen one of his most prominent works here in the city right on Main Street — the wizard carved out of a tree trunk.  Well, last week, Rick was back on Main Street, a little further down, past the Gravel Pit, working on a sculpture of a bald eagle in flight. He still had yet to finish up the detailing of the piece, but that didn't stop us from getting some great footage of Rick in action with the "smaller" chainsaw.

For more about Rick or to see some photographs of his other work, please visit his Web site.

Peanuts, knuckleballs, the smell of freshly mown turf, double plays, soda pop, stadium bleachers, rally caps... and The Batavian — all fine reasons to come out for the Muckdogs home opener Wednesday at Dwyer Stadium. I will be there an hour shy of game time at about six o'clock, proud to pull up table and chair at the home of the hometown legends.

Come by and say hello. Don't be shy. I'll try not to be.

Genesee County Animal Shelter put up another video exhibiting their cats up for adoption.

Here's the shelter's web site.

From the Daily News (Tuesday):

• United Memorial Medical Center reported a $3.4 million profit for 2007, its fourth straight year in the black, according to President and CEO Mark Schoell. For more facts and figures check out the article by Paul Mrozek.
• Agricultural reporter Tom Rivers has an interesting piece on the front page about the not-to-friendly named 'armyworms' and their threat to local wheat harvests.
• I had some trouble working out the details of an article about the Genesee County Public Defender's Office that could lose "hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funds." Reporter Paul Mrozek writes that in order to receive the state funding, the county "must spend at least one dollar more for the two programs than it did in the previous budget year." It seems strange, but apparently the state is demanding that the office spend more money in order to receive more money. What's more strange is that the threshold is measured by a single dollar.
• The town of Batavia dedicated a new guardrail erected at a curve in Stegman Road near Route 5 last night. That curve was the site of an accident that injured one friend and killed another nine years ago. After much petitioning by one of the accident victims, Jamie Beedham of Oakfield, the town finally put up the guardrail two weeks ago. "My goal is if the guardrail can save one life, I will have been successful," she told reporter Kristen Kotz.
• Among the items on the Batavia Town Board agenda for its meeting Wednesday is a potential contribution of $225,000 by the town to aid the development of the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park that is planned to go up near the fairgrounds. You can download the complete meeting agenda by clicking here.

For the complete stories, the Daily News is available on local newsstands, or you can subscribe on BataviaNews.com.

It's out! The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Genesee County released its Agri-Tourism Guide for 2008. The pamphlet can be downloaded from the Coop's Web site or picked up in person at its Main Street location near Masse Mall (look for the cow). It's got a colorful map to help you find the many fruit and vegetable farms, slaughterhouses, maple houses, orchards, greenhouses and popcorneries (is that a word, I don't know). Each gem is listed with an address and a brief description of just what you can find there.

I had a bowl of fantastic, organic, cold purple grapes last night, and let me tell you, there's nothing like fresh produce from your own hometown. Pavilion's got two acres of blueberries. Herbly Wonderful here in Batavia has lavender fields and greenhouses so sweet-smelling you have to keep from plucking the furry bits of thyme right off their stalk. Corfu's got cheddar to please. Looking to knit a scarf? LeRoy's got alpaca yarn aplenty.

Honestly, folks. You've got everything edible and touchible to get you through the summer — and when that's all over, hit up the wreath-makers and Christmas tree farms, also listed.

If you've got any questions, or you want to know just where to find those alpacas, stop by the Coop or get your own guide right now.

From a press release issued by Genesee Community College, posted on ReadMedia:

When Buffalo native Eunice M. Bellinger was pursuing her college degree at Niagara University in the 1970s, she rounded out her academic schedule by attending classes at Genesee Community College in Batavia.

On August 4, after two and a half decades as a highly successful college professor and academic administrator in New York, Massachusetts, and abroad, Dr. Bellinger returns to Genesee as the College's new Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. Dr. Bellinger replaces Dr. Claudia Moore, who is retiring this summer after nine years of service at Genesee.

During her time abroad, Bellinger taught in Great Britain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Dr. Stuart Steiner, President of the College, welcomed Dr. Bellinger. "She will bring an outstanding record of achievement and creativity to Genesee," Dr. Steiner said. "I look forward to working with her as we continue to build extraordinary academic programs and deepen our record of success and innovation."

Check out WBTA for these and other stories:

• A "controlled" trash fire in Oakfield turned into a blaze and burned a storage barn to the ground yesterday. Ten volunteer fire crews responded, had the fire under control in about 20 minutes and saved a nearby pair of grain silos.
• A new law enforcement program was announced yesterday that would allow female prisoners in Genesee County to be brought to Albion Correctional Facility for reception. Women senetenced to time in state prison formerly had to be taken to Westchester County for processing. Male inmates are also now allowed to be received at Auburn rather than Elmira. Both moves are expected to save the county about $10,000 per year, Genesee County Sheriff Gary Maha said.
• Hail storms ravaged the county and a good swath of western New York yesterday afternoon. Reports came in of nickel-sized hail out in Alabama. Dan Fischer with WBTA said the hail stones ranged in size from about as big as a penny to hefty golf ball chunks that dented cars and no doubt tore up some fresh srping gardens.

Friday:

• 9:22am, State St., criminal mischief
• 12:04pm, 236 Vine St., aggravated harassment
• 1:46pm, 226 W. Main St., accident
• 5:37pm, 114 W. Main St., accident

Saturday:

• 2:18am, 214 E. Main St., larceny
• 2:03pm, 35 Clinton St., burglary
• 2:24pm, Clinton St., accident
• 2:42pm, 390 W. Main St., accident (vehicle and pedestrian)
• 2:45pm, W. Main St., accident
• 6:38pm, 8351 Lewiston Road, larceny
• 7:12pm, Liberty St., harassment
• 8:44pm, 20 N. Spruce St. (Apt: A3), larceny
• 9:27pm, 20 Maple St., harassment
• 11:35pm, 116 State St. (Apt: 4), larcent

Sunday:

• 2:46am, 51 Montclair Ave., harassment
• 4:34am, 123 Washington Ave. (Apt: Upper), menacing
• 2:57pm, 437 E. Main St. (Apt: Lower), assault
• 3:46pm, 412 E. Main St., accident
• 5:47pm, 121 Liberty St., larceny
• 8:38pm, 99 Jackson St., accident

Note: We don't include noise complaints, domestic disputes and routine police business.

Quite a few of you over the past week or so have caught on that we here at The Batavian can help spread the word. Whether you want to talk politics, culture, volunteerism, crime or whatever, we're here to get it done. Most recently, I received an e-mail from Batavia Police Det. Todd Crossett about a law enforcement Torch Run for the Special Olympics. (You can see Det. Crossett here to the right — hint, he's the one guy in uniform.)

As more and more folks are figuring out the value in a community site that let's you say what you want to say, when you want to say it, I thought I would take a minute here to let you all know that you can take this into your own hands. I'm here to help get up a post if you have an event coming up or if you snapped some photographs at a torch run (see another from Det. Crossett below). But I would encourage folks to go ahead and submit your own photos and write your own posts. Directly. That way, you have complete control.

That being said, here are a few tips:

• Make sure you're registered for the site. If you're ever having trouble with that initial step, don't hesitate to give me a call: (585) 802-3032.
• Click the "Create content" link in the left-hand column.
• Click the "Blog entry" link that pops up.
• Write your text.
• Submit your photograph or video.
• For photos, simply click the little yellowish button in the Blog entry toolbar (above where you type) — the one that looks like a miniature mountainscape. Upload your photo, but please make sure the size is no bigger than about 480 pixels in width. If you need any help, let us know.
• For video, make sure your video is on YouTube, then simply type in: "video:" and then the URL for the video and enclose that in brackets, like these: [ ].
• When you're done, scroll to the bottom of the page and hit save. That's it.

Now that we've finished with that, here is another photograph sent to us from Det. Crossett, along with a brief explanation of just what this torch run was all about.

Det. Crossett: "On Wednesday, June 4, City of Batavia police officers and Genesee County Sheriff's Deputies participated in the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics. The run started at the ARC day treatment facility in Elba and ran to the ARC facility on Walnut Street in the City of Batavia. When we left the day treatment facility Robin Eames, a client at day treatment, assisted in carrying the torch. Once the torch reached Walnut street, Kathy King, assisted in carrying the torch. Ths year the Royal Rangers, a boys scouting group donated the water for the run. Alexander Crossett rode his bicycle and represented the Royal Rangers on the run. This run is to bring awareness to the accomplishments of the participants in the Special Olympics."

Bibliophiles of Batavia unite! Richmond Memorial Library is gearing up for its Summer Reading Program, so we thought why shouldn't The Batavian host its very own summer book club. I've been all over the city, made the calls, stared at my bookshelves and read the latest reviews. It's time.

Recommendations for our summer reading list will be coming in over the next couple weeks from local librarians, booksellers, reading profs from the college and yours truly. We're hoping to get the list together by the end of the month. In the meantime, feel free to make your own recommendations, but be sure to tell us why your pick is worthy of our collective attention.

If folks get interested, we'll get some discussion threads going about some of the books from the list, and I'm sure our recommenders will keep up, maybe ask questions and help keep the dialogue going. We'll see.

I'm thinking of maybe choosing Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities as my contribution. It's about an imaginary conversation between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, and every chapter is the description of another fantastic city invented by Marco Polo to entertain the great ruler. It's a gem. But more about that later.

In other local book news...

Richmond Memorial Library is about to wrap up its search for Richmond the Ant, who has been lost in Batavia over the past six weeks, trying to get back to the library in time for the Summer Reading Program that kicks off with an Ice Cream Social June 23. Each week he was in a new location and left a clue to help kids find out just where it was.

Here's this week's clue (the last): "I have found a store full of toys and bikes. Maybe I can borrow a bike to ride back to the library in time for the beginning of the Summer Reading Program."

Those who have tracked Richmond to all six locations can win a special prize. Check out the library's Children's Room Blog for more info about Richmond the Ant and the Summer Reading Program.

Don't forget, the Summer Reading Program isn't just for kids. Anyone can attend the free Ice Cream Social June 23 at 6:30pm at the library, 19 Ross St., and register for one of the many programs. Check out the library's Web site for more information.

From the Daily News (Monday):

• Genesee County Highway Superintendent Tim Hens told the Daily News that the high cost of fuel and materials will keep the county from doing some repair and reconstruction work this summer. A quote from Hens illustrates the point pretty clearly: "We're basically doing two-third's of what we did last year with 20 percent less money." Number comparisons in the article are a little inconsistent — the cost of diesel fuel is compared to what it was ten years ago, while the price of rock salt is compared with last year's figures. Also, although the article is headlined, "Genesee County cutting back some road and bridge repairs," there is no mention in the article of which projects, if any in particular, will not be financed this year.
• Reporter Scott DeSmit talks with some families of Iraq War soldiers about celebrating Father's Day without dad.
• Both Notre Dame's baseball and Elba's softball teams lost in the state finals to a pair of tough Chapel Field teams. Check out the articles by Brian Hillabush and Justin Rodriguez for the details.
• Reporter Virginia Kropf tracked down a couple friends of Tim Russert who died last week.

For the complete stories, the Daily News is available on local newsstands, or you can subscribe on BataviaNews.com.

Here is the next video in our Countdown to the Ramble series: The Ghost Riders performing "Honky Tonkin'." See our previous post for more about the countdown.