Rockets reach milestone

Don’t look now, Jay County, but the Portland Rockets are headed to the World Series.
The Rockets, who dominated weekend competition in Cincinnati at the regional tournament of the National Amateur Baseball Federation, knocking off the two-time defending champion Cincinnati Chiefs in the title game, took the field today in the NABF World Series in Buffalo.
By any rational standard, the very existence of the Rockets is an improbable longshot.
The idea that a community this size could support a team of overgrown kids — college students, hammer swingers and guys who love the game so much they’re not ready to leave the field — and do so year after year is nothing short of amazing.
The path hasn’t been a smooth one. When Dick Runkle launched the Rockets, most of those on the sidelines thought it would be a passing fad, one of those things that burned out in a year or two.
But Runkle persevered, and when Dick and his brother and their wives were lost in a horrible car-train accident, the community would have been forgiven if it came to the conclusion that the Rockets were history.
Ray Miller wouldn’t let that happen.
Instead, he picked up Dick Runkle’s dream, shook the dust off of it, reached out to talented ballplayers in nearby communities and took the Rockets to the next level.
Skeptics and cynics and nay-sayers would have told you back then that it was only a matter of time before the Rockets folded.
But they didn’t. Through Ray’s efforts, the team seemed to become more credible every year. And when Ray died, his son Randy carried on.
All along the way, the games have been free to the public, even though the quality of play matches some Minor League Baseball competition.
In some ways, it’s been baseball at its purest: Played mostly for a simple love of the game.
This weekend, 53 years after their founding, the Rockets make local sports history with their trip to Buffalo. It’s quite an ending to a great season.
But we suspect it’s just another milestone on a journey that began long ago and will continue a long way down the road. — J.R.

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