Cortland Crush

The Fans, Scorekeepers and Writers Behind the Crush Journal

We are a fan-run newsroom covering the Cortland Crush and the amateur and collegiate summer-league ball played across Cortland County. Rosters and box scores get checked with coaches and official scorers before anything runs, photos are credited to the people who shot them, and opinion is labeled as opinion. If a line in the scorebook is wrong, we want to hear about it.

From the bleachers and the press box

A look at the work behind the journal: the games we shoot, the scorebooks we check, and the people who send us corrections before we hit publish.

Cortland Crush who we are

Friday night, Cortland

Series opener, seventh inning

Shot from behind the third-base dugout during a start that ran deep into the seventh. Field was soft after Thursday's rain.

Cortland Crush who we are

Player spotlight

The backstop who calls his own game

Two practices and a doubleheader with a catcher working a staff he met three weeks ago. Notes and signals included.

Cortland Crush who we are

Parent guide

Travel, gear and rain-delay makeups

What families actually plan around when a summer season stretches across three counties and a work week.

Cortland Crush who we are

Field conditions

Reading the infield before first pitch

How we check drainage, tarp timing and bunt defense with groundskeepers and coaches before we post an update.

Cortland Crush who we are

Scorebook corrections

When the box score and the book disagree

Official scorers and coaches flag the plays we get wrong. We log the fix and note it at the bottom of the recap.

Cortland Crush who we are

Alumni tracking

Where last summer's roster landed

Roster confirmations from college programs and high school coaches, updated as we hear back each month.

Why this journal exists

We started keeping notes in the bleachers because nobody else was. Rosters changed, pitchers got shuffled, and the only record of a good Friday night was a phone photo of the scorebook. So we built a place to write it down properly.

  • Verify before we publish

    Rosters and box scores get checked with coaches and official scorers. If a number looks off, we ask before it goes up, not after.

  • Credit the people in the frame

    Photos from local games come from the families and shooters who took them, with their names attached. No lifted images, no borrowed galleries.

  • Say what is opinion

    A take on a pitching change is a take. We label it that way and keep it separate from what actually happened on the field.

  • Fix mistakes in the open

    Scorebook corrections and tip-offs from readers get reviewed, then noted in the piece. Quiet edits do not help anyone.

What we cover

The Crush, the wider amateur and collegiate summer-league scene around Cortland County, alumni tracking, and field-condition updates pulled from grounds crews and coaches.

What we leave out

No gambling angles, no hype pieces, no personal promotion. If it does not help a reader follow local baseball better, it does not run here.

What you get

Context behind the score, previews before a series, and reporting that treats youth coaches and parents as readers who already know the game.

How this journal grew from a scorebook and a folding chair

Nobody planned a publication. It started with one person keeping a paper scorebook behind the backstop, then handing copies to a few parents who wanted to know why the bullpen warmed up so early. The rest of the timeline is mostly a record of small decisions that turned into habits.

  1. First season

    Recaps written on the drive home

    The first posts were rough. A few paragraphs, a lineup card, and whatever the official scorer could confirm before the lights went off. Readers kept asking for the same thing: who pitched, who drove in the runs, and what the field looked like after Thursday rain.

  2. Second season

    A rule about verifying before publishing

    We got a roster wrong once and heard about it for a month. After that, every box score gets checked against the official book, and every name gets confirmed with a coach or the player before it runs. Slower, but nobody has to send a correction on a Tuesday morning.

  3. Third season

    Player spotlights and the quiet work

    Recaps only tell you what happened. They do not tell you why a catcher changed the sequence in the fifth, or how a pitcher rebuilt his mechanics over a winter. We started sitting in on practices to write those pieces, with permission and a notebook.

  4. Fourth season

    Recruitment notes from local high schools

    Coaches at Cortland County high schools asked for a place to share which seniors were talking to which summer programs. We agreed, on one condition: nothing gets published without the family's approval, and no contact details go up.

  5. Fifth season

    Alumni tracking and field updates

    Former Crush players kept showing up in college box scores, and parents kept asking about field conditions before driving an hour. Both turned into standing features. The field notes come from whoever is standing on the grass that morning, not from a phone call.

  6. Now

    A small crew, still in the bleachers

    Writers, scorekeepers and a couple of photographers who shoot from the same spots every Friday. Tips, photos and scorebook corrections come in through the contact page and get reviewed before anything runs. Opinion is labeled as opinion. Everything else gets a source.

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