Just the other day, I read in The Sentinel that McVeytown got a new goose in honor of Joseph Trimble Rothrock, the Father of Pennsylvania Forestry.

With 2027 on deck, there needs to be another goose landing in McVeytown. Next year will mark the 25th anniversary of the Lewistown High School baseball team winning the AA state championship.

The Lewistown baseball championship was the last team title for Mifflin County High School.

Why McVeytown? Seven of the nine starters were from McVeytown (The McVeytown Seven). Not only were they from McVeytown, but all seven of the players were of the same age and were all seniors.

The seven of them had been teammates through Little League, Babe Ruth and high school. In Little League they propelled Big Valley in 1996 11-12-year-old All-Stars to a top eight finish in Pennsylvania.

In Babe Ruth, they helped McVeytown win back to back league titles in 1998 and 1999. It ended a 30 year drought for McVeytown as its last title came in 1968. As 13-year-olds they helped Mifflin County finish second in the state and as 15-year-olds they were a big part of Mifflin County winning the state title.

Then in 2002, all seven of them were key players as Lewistown won the class AA state title over Mifflinburg at the minor league ballpark in Williamsport.

This is one of the unique sports stories in the history of Mifflin County sports. It’s not very often that seven players start in Little League together and then graduate in the same year,

The “McVeytown Seven” were Micah Anderson, Jason Cunningham, Ryan Kauffman, Heath Knable, Jason Mattern, Dustin Maxwell and Cody Zong.

However as you know it takes more than seven men to play a baseball game. Another standout player, who was a junior from Strodes Mills, was Kalen Gearhart. Gearhart was a man for all positions and on top of that he was one of the team’s best hitters. Kalen was the only player on the team to get signed by a professional organization. He played several years in the Los Angeles Dodgers minor leagues.

Other members of the team were Ryan Coleman, Jared Dyer, Josh Haines, Nathan Heider, Kyle Herto, Luke Leopold, Seth Napikoski, Josh Oburn, Richie Stewart and Zach Smith.

The manager was John Bell and his top assistant was Ray Hoppel.

There is a goose honoring Lewistown High School at Lombardi Circle in Lewistown, but there is no mention of the Panthers baseball team.

But, the place for the goose should be in McVeytown. Not only because of the “McVeytown Seven” but because 14 of the 18 players came from McVeytown or the Strodes Mills area.

Somebody in McVeytown or a McVeytown business needs to contact the Community Partnerships to get things rolling for 2027 and the 25th anniversary of the team.

As they say in baseball, “The anniversary is on deck.”

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Ray Wilde is a correspondent for the Sentinel and has contributed to the Sentinel for 50 years.