The Toddfather Needs Your Vote

The Toddfather brings his show to New York this weekend as the Reds play a 3-game series against the Mets at CitiField beginning tonight. 

That means Toms River’s Todd Frazier gets to play in front of family and friends and they’ll be seeing one hot hitter.The Cincinnati third baseman had three hits and drove in three runs in a 5-4 extra-inning win over Pittsburgh Thursday and his 2-run homer in the 7^th inning tied the game.  It was Frazier’s 24^th homer of the season and when you add in his 52 RBI’s and .294 batting average he is the top offensive third baseman in the National League. 

The 29-year old former Toms River South and Rutgers standout is also making a big push in his bid to start in July’s All-Star game which will be played in his home Great American Ballpark.  Frazier is second in fan voting behind St. Louis’ Matt Carpenter but he’s cut a 2 ½ million vote gap in half over the last week with the help of the Reds get-out-the-vote campaign.  Todd also tweeted a picture of his 15-month old son Blake holding a #VoteFrazier sign which didn’t hurt.  Voting ends on July 2^nd and you can support Todd and pick your teams at mlb.com

You might remember last summer the Toms River Little League All-Stars captured the New Jersey State Championship and made it all the way to the Mid-Atlantic Regionals in Bristol, Connecticut.  The latest batch of 12-year olds began defense of their District 18 title with a 19-0 rout of Manchester Thursday night and next up for the Mapletree Road gang is a Monday date with Jackson.  I guess I’ll be keeping a close eye on this over the next couple of weeks.

The 38^th annual U.S. Army All-Shore Gridiron Classic will be played on Thursday, July 16^th at Long Branch High School.  As always the game matches recently graduated football players from Monmouth and Ocean counties against one another with Monmouth County leading the series 20-16 with one tie. 

This will be the first time Long Branch has hosted the game which will be broadcast live by the Shore Sports Network.  Head coaches for the game are Walt Krystopik of Jackson Memorial and Mark Costantino of Shore Regional who will also be inducted into the Shore Football Coaches Foundation Hall of Fame.  That halftime ceremony will also see former Jackson and Wall coach Chris Barnes and longtime sportswriter Chris Christopher honored as well with induction into the HOF.