Danville graduate Bryan James likely wouldn’t object to adding a line to Jim Croce’s 1972 hit song, “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim.”
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape …
You don’t spit into the wind …
And, as James found out the hard way 30 years ago on the Valley high school basketball courts, you don’t stand in the way of Mike Mussina when he’s about to dunk.
“It was in a game on Dec. 27 and we started off with a 15-6 run. But, with 5:23 to go in the second quarter, Mike broke away toward the basket, and I was behind him knowing he was one of a few players back then that could dunk,” James said. “I went to block when he went up and wound up breaking both my tibia and fibula.”
We catch up with former Major League pitcher Mussina on his recent election into the Major League Hall of Fame in our next issue of Inside Pennsylvania magazine — available to home subscribers of The Daily Item now and for purchase at The Daily Item’s 200 Market Street, Sunbury, office and soon on magazine racks across the state.
We look back at Mussina’s Major League career — taking the mound for 18 seasons between the Baltimore Orioles.
Before all that, he was a three-sport athletic powerhouse at Montoursville High School. We found some of his old high school rivals and look back at the legend of Mike Mussina — from his Little League and high school days in the Valley to Stanford, the minor leagues and eventually national stardom.
While Mussina is no stranger to inflicting pain on opposing athletes, Benton’s Tara-Lyn Baker is an example of someone who can endure pain, despite her 5-foot-3, 115-pound frame.
She recently has become the first female Marine to graduate both the winter and summer Mountain Leader Combat Training courses. Her story is both impressive and inspirational.
The Campus Theatre — the hub of downtown Lewisburg — is under new leadership. We talk with those who will carry the venue’s torch into the future and take a sneak peak at what they have in store.
We also catch up with a variety of the region’s florists, busy preparing bouquets and boutonnières for the spring rush from Valentine’s Day to Easter, prom season to Mother’s Day. What’s the new trends for 2019 in everything floral? The experts share their secrets in the coming pages.
And for those who enjoy history, we check in with Randy Watts, who last summer hiked the 270 miles between Turbotville’s Fort Freeland and New York’s Fort Niagara, the same path taken by prisoners of the attack on Fort Freeland in 1779.
All of this and much more can be found Inside Pennsylvania, available now at The Daily Item office and soon at magazine racks throughout the state.
