Good morning sports fans and good morning Missouri this is Guy Newcomb the scoreboard guy coming to you from the Pizza Ranch studio on the Missouri Sports Network, Missouri Sports Network . com where everyone has a homefield advantage. Presented by Chevy Dealers of the Ozarks, Bank of Billings, Burgess and Associates, Doke Propane, Central Bank and LiUNA lablorers local 663, building missouri and building missouri state and reminding us to drive safely in all workzones, thier folks want to go home to thier families also.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial day weekend, a time to honor those Men and Women who gave the ultimate sacrifice, to thier freinds and family who mourned that loss of life and we grieve with them. But also in doing so, we must also thank God that Men and Women like these Lived. And I would like to tell you about a story, quite literally a "Story" of a recepient of the Medal of Honor who has been missing nearly 73 years. And over the weekend his remains came home to his final resting place.
Soldiers of the 9th Infantry Regiment made a desperate retreat as North Korean troops closed in around them. A wounded, 18-year-old Army Pfc. Luther Herschel Story feared his injuries would slow down his company, so he stayed behind to cover their withdrawal.
Story’s actions in the Korean War on Sept. 1, 1950, would ensure he was remembered. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, which is now displayed alongside his portrait at the National Infantry Museum, an hour’s drive from his hometown of Americus, Georgia.
But Story was never seen alive again, and his resting place long remained a mystery.
“In my family, we always believed that he would never be found,” said Judy Wade, Story’s niece and closest surviving relative.
That changed in April when the U.S. military revealed lab tests had matched DNA from Wade and her late mother to bones of an unidentified American soldier recovered from Korea in October 1950. The remains belonged to Story, a case agent told Wade over the phone. After nearly 73 years, he was coming home.
A Memorial Day burial with military honors took place Monday at the Andersonville National Cemetery. A police escort with flashing lights escorted Story’s casket through the streets of nearby Americus on Wednesday after it arrived in Georgia. Then, on Monday, residents lined the streets as the funeral procession drove by, WALB-TV reported.
Story grew up about 150 miles (241 kilometers) south of Atlanta in Sumter County, where his father was a sharecropper. As a young boy, Story, who had a keen sense of humor and liked baseball, joined his parents and older siblings in the fields to help harvest cotton. The work was hard, and it didn’t pay much.
“Momma talked about eating sweet potatoes three times a day,” said Wade, whose mother, Gwendolyn Story Chambliss, was Luther Story’s older sister. “She used to talk about how at night her fingers would be bleeding from picking cotton out of the bolls. Everybody in the family had to do it for them to exist.”
The family eventually moved to Americus, the county’s largest city, where Story’s parents found better work. He enrolled in high school, but soon set his sights on joining the military in the years following World War II.
In 1948, his mother agreed to sign papers allowing Story to enlist in the Army. She listed his birthdate as July 20, 1931. But Wade said she later obtained a copy of her uncle’s birth certificate that showed he was born in 1932 — which would have made him just 16 when he joined.
Story left school during his sophomore year. In the summer of 1950 he deployed with Company A of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment to Korea around the time the war began.
On Sept. 1, 1950, near the village of Agok on the Naktong River, Story’s unit came under attack by three divisions of North Korean troops that moved to surround the Americans and cut off their escape.
Story seized a machine gun and fired on enemy soldiers crossing the river, killing or wounding about 100, according to his Medal of Honor citation. As his company commander ordered a retreat, Story rushed into a road and threw grenades into an approaching truck carrying North Korean troops and ammunition. Despite being wounded, he continued fighting.
“Realizing that his wounds would hamper his comrades, he refused to retire to the next position but remained to cover the company’s withdrawal,” Story’s award citation said. “When last seen he was firing every weapon available and fighting off another hostile assault.”
Story was presumed dead. He would have been 18 years old, according to the birth certificate Wade obtained.
In 1951, his father received Story’s Medal of Honor at a Pentagon ceremony. Story was also posthumously promoted to corporal.
About a month after Story went missing in Korea, the U.S. military recovered a body in the area where he was last seen fighting. The unidentified remains were buried with other unknown service members at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, more than 7,500 Americans who served in the Korean War remain missing or their remains have not been identified. That’s roughly 20% of the nearly 37,000 U.S. service members who died in the war.
Remains of the unknown soldier recovered near Agok were disinterred in 2021 as part of a broader military effort to determine the identities of several hundred Americans who died in the war. Eventually scientists compared DNA from the bones with samples submitted by Wade and her mother before she died in 2017. They made a successful match. So on this weekend, Story was returned to his family and to his rest. God Bless the USA.
and now page 2
Class 1 and 2 State Baseball Playoffs took place Monday in Ozark at Sky Bacon Field, game 1 featured Class 1 Defending State Champion Ste Elizabeth taking on Cooter. Ste Elizabeth Defeated Liberal 6-4 in the Quarterfinals while Cooter outlasted Greenwood 14-3. Caleb Oligschlaeger got the Start for Ste Elizabeth and tossed a 3 hit shutout and Hornets improved to 22-7 and Oligschlaeger to 5-0 on the season and now will face South Nodaway in the Championship for Class 1.
South Nodaway who won 5-4 in the Quarterfinals over Green City was able to get a more comfortable outcome in the Semifinal scoring twice in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th innings and single tallies in the 6th and 7th while the pitching staff did not give up a run on their way to an 8-0 shutout. South Nodaway now (20-2) will play for the class 1 State Championship vs Ste Elizabeth who they lost to last year in the Semifinal game 10-0. that game will be at 1pm today following the 3rd place game between Cooter and Community at 10am.
Class 2 baseball saw to teams win their 24 consecutive game in the Semifinals, first the Salisburry Panthers who haven't lost since opening day on 3/20 vs Macon 8-1 and the Ash Grove Pirates who have not lost since 5/17/22 to MCE. Salisburry now 24-1 and Ash Grove 24-0.
Salisburry gave up 2 runs in the top of the 1st following a costly error, but pitcher Eli Wekenborg got out of it snagging a combacker behind his back for the 3rd out. And in the bottom of the 1st Salisburry answered back with 3 runs. A 2 rbi Single by Aiden West and an error leading to the 3rd run gave Salisburry a 3-2 lead heading to the second inning. For the rest of the game every time Chaffee would threaten to take the lead Salisburry had an answer. Chaffee cut the lead to 7-5 in the 5th but Salisburry answered with 4 in the 6th and an 11-5 win and a chance for the Class 2 title. But that is going to be a tall task, Thier reward are the undefeated Ash Grove Pirates who put together the most dominant game of the day. The Pirates now 24-0 and every player on the team dawning their newly bleached blond dew dominated Maysville, a program only 4 years old and making it to thier 1st ever State Tournament. It did not start well for Maysville, Brock Mooneyham the Pirate starter had a good first inning, no hits and striking out 2 and then the Pirates sent 11 to the plate in the bottom of the 1st and 7 of those touched home plate. And then a 3 spot in the 2nd and the route was on. Mooneyham through a 5 inning complete game 1 hitter with 10 strikeouts and Catcher John Rollhaus was 2-3 with 3 RBI's and 2 runs scored. But more importantly the Ash Grove Pirates were the only team of the day to not commit an error.
Ash Grove will face Salisburry in the Class 2 State Championship at 7pm tonight at Sky-Bacon Field in Ozark, Maysville and Chaffee will play for 3rd at 4pm.
Page 3
State Track and Feild Championships took place over the Weekend for the larger classes at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City. YOur team state champions are as follows
Class 3 Girls Lutheran St. Charles---Notables Eldon Junior Zoe Martonfi won gold in the 800 m run, the 1600m run--the 300m hurdles and finished 3rd in the Triple jump to score 36 of her teams 2nd place finish 37 points
Class 4 Champion Kearney High School---Notables: Parkway Central Junior Skyye Lee won gold in the 100m dash, the 300m dash, 100m hurdles, and 300m Hurdles scoring 40 of Parkway Centrals 48.5 points and a 3rd place team finish
Class 5 State Champion Cardinal Ritter---Notables: Raytown South Senior Zaya Akins won the 100m dash, 200m dash and 400m run to earn all 30 points for her teams 8th place finish.
Class 3 Boys State Champions Bowling Green HS
Class 4 Boys State Champions Festus HS
Class 5 Boys State Champions Rock Bridge HS
and now page 4
Cardinals and the Royals are playing each other in St. Louis just a 2 day series and then the Royals and Cardinals are off until Friday almost a mini all star vacation. But yesterday went well for Kansas City and not so well for the Birds on the Bat.
By the time the Cardinals offense got something smoldering, it was too little, too late as they fell 7-0 to the Kansas City Royals in the first installment of this year’s I-70 series, a Memorial Day matinee in front of an announced sellout crowd of 45,911 at Busch Stadium on Monday afternoon.
Former Cardinals pitcher Mike Mayers tossed six perfect innings to squash the Cardinals’ offense, which finished the day with two hits. They were shut out for the sixth time this season. With a combined perfect game through 7 Cardinal fans and some Royals fans in the stadium started to think the impossible might happen. The Last no-hitter thrown against the Cardinals in St. Louis came on Friday July the 20th, 1906 tossed by Mal Eason of the Brooklyn Superbas. Since 1920 the Cardinals have only been No Hit 5 times and all were on the Road. 5/15/1960 by Don Cardwell of the Cubs at Wrigley, 9/17/1968 Gaylord Perry of the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park, 6/16/1978 by Tom Seaver in Cinncinati at Riverfront Stadium, 6/29/1990 Fernando Valenzuela at Dodger Stadium and most recently 11 years ago almost to the day 6/1/12 at Citi Field at the Hands of Johan Santana of the Mets. Which coincedently was the Mets 1st no hitter.
Royals have thrown 4 no-hitter in their history, Steve Busby (twice), Jim Coborn and most recently 8/26/1991 Brett Saberhagen vs the Chicago White Sox.
The Cardinals (24-32) entered the day having gone 3-4 on their recent seven-game road trip in Ohio (Cincinnati and Cleveland). They’ll play two games with the cross-state interleague rivals, then they’ll have two days off before they begin their next two-city road trip.
As we head out today the Missouri State Highway Patrol Reminds us to take that 3 seconds and buckle up, it is 3 seconds that could save your life. Be Smart, Be Safe and Be Here Tommorow.
God Bless
Good Day.
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