You can find the entire USA roster here.

Here is the press release from Heisey’s college alma mater – Messiah.

Heisey Selected For MLB Futures Game, Promoted To Triple-A

Louisville, KY — The professional baseball career of Chris Heisey continues to shine, as the former Messiah standout was promoted to Triple-A and selected to play in the 2009 Major League Baseball Futures Game, taking place during All-Star weekend at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

Heisey, an outfielder who was hitting .347 with a team-leading 94 hits and 13 home runs for the Double-A Carolina Mud Cats, was promoted to the Triple-A Louisville Bats Friday evening, playing in his first games with the Bats over the weekend.

Just days before being promoted to the Triple-A level, Heisey was named one of two Cincinnati Reds’ selections for the MLB Futures Game, a contest highlighting plausible future stars of the game.

“It’s tough to have a better week than what Chris had,” said Bryan Engle, Messiah head baseball coach (and Donegal grad). “Both (being promoted and being named to the Futures Game) are huge. Chris has continued to climb the ladder within the Reds organization, and he’s now a step away (from the major leagues). Talent-wise, he’s right there. You’re the next-door neighbor to the big-league team. And I don’t mean that geographically.”

Prior to being sent to Louisville, Heisey led the Double-A Southern League batting race with his .347 average, also leading the league in hits, slugging percentage (.572) and runs scored (54). His 13 home runs were fourth-best in the league, while he was second in on-base percentage (.426) and extra base hits (33).

Perhaps the biggest testament to the organization’s belief in Heisey came with the Futures Game selection, as each Major League organization must be represented by at least one player — but no club is allowed to send more than two.

Heisey was selected as one of two players to be representing the Reds entire franchise — an organization comprised by six teams at varying levels of minor-league play.

“It’s unbelievable to be recognized as a top prospect in your entire organization,” Engle said. “I think that speaks not only about how you play the game, but about how you approach the game, your work ethic, your attitude and your coachability.”

Messiah assistant athletics director Cory Furman published a column featuring Heisey during last fall’s Homecoming Weekend, detailing the life of a minor league journeyman. Much has changed for Heisey in the ninth months since then.

“Knowing Chris, it’s never about him,” Engle said. “He simply works his tail off and puts himself in a position to succeed. His highs aren’t too high and his lows aren’t too low. His success speaks well of him as a person. The Reds organization has taken notice.”

Fans can now follow Heisey at the official home of the Louisville Bats. Additional information on the 2009 MLB Futures Game can be found at the official site of the 2009 MLB All-Star Game.

I missed a whole bunch of celebrity deaths, rain and Phillies’ losses while I was gone - from what I’ve gathered.

July and August are usually slow months for Lancaster-Lebanon League news, but if you have any nuggets, feel free to drop me a line. And if I stumble across anything juicy I’ll post it ASAP.

In the meantime, I’m going to try and help with the redesign for lancsports.com, and I’ll probably go ahead and start getting some of the fall sports stuff out. Speaking of which - get ready for an onslaught of coverage once the fall season rolls around. I have all kinds of things up my sleeves. It’ll be here before we all know it.

Stay tuned and enjoy your summer.

P.S. If you’d like to stay in touch with me via Facebook, go to facebook.com, do a search for Jeff Reinhart and send me a friend request. I think we’re in the process of creating an L-L League Facebook page for this fall. Stay tuned for that. … I’m also posting links on Twitter, and if you’d like to follow me there, go to twitter.com and search jreinhart. … The internet rocks, doesn’t it?

Took a spin by Graceland for a stop at Elvis’ home. You can see his house and a historical marker in the photo to the left that I took.

Seems like I’ve been on the road forever … it’ll be two solid weeks comes Monday afternoon.

I left Las Vegas on Wednesday morning, and I’ve been taking my time working my way back east. I’ve had stops in Phoenix, El Paso, Fort Worth, Dallas and Little Rock before landing here in Tennessee.

One day earlier this week (I forget which one; they’re all starting to run together at this point) I was in three time zones in one day. I woke up in the Pacific, drove through the Mountain and went to sleep in the Central. I’m still in the Central now, and will dip back into the East midway through Tennessee.

I could probably truck it and be back Monday. But I’ll probably break up the journey one more day and be back Tuesday.

Digging vacation, but I’m about ready to get back to life (it’s getting a tad old checking into and out of hotels, and dragging my bag and laptop satchel in and out and in and out). And I’m anxious to see how the one-paper-a-day operation is going. Well, I hope.

Thanks for following me coast-to-coast the last couple of weeks.

So I’ve had football on my mind a tad on this vacation (I’m in Tucson, by the way).

And then I stumble across this story about a high school football coach in Iowa who was shot dead (in the weight room) by a former player of his.

Scary stuff. And very sad. And very, very messed up.

You can read the story on ESPN.com here.

Hello from Sin City itself – Las Vegas.

This is my fourth trip to Vegas, and I must say that there is an awful lot of construction going on. Driving up and down Las Vegas Boulevard has been a total nightmare, and it’s tough navigating the area by foot because a lot of sidewalks are also under construction.

I took a quick spin over to the Rio earlier Monday to watch the World Series of Poker, and what should have been a five minute drive took like 25. Ugh.

Crashing out at the Monte Carlo, which is a sweet place right in the middle of everything. MGM is right across the street; Mandalay Bay and Luxor are one way and Bellagio is the other. Pretty cool.

Also got to play some poker – my new hobby. Glad to report that I walked away up $165 my first night at the tables. Not too shabby – but certainly not World Series of Poker worthy … so I’m not getting any crazy ideas.

Will be here until Wednesday, and then either take a quick spin further west to Los Angeles, or just head straight east for my final 1 ½ weeks.

Hot here – 95 on the sign on Las Vegas Boulevard across the street.

More later.

What a great part of the country this is – Arizona and New Mexico are two of my favorite states; plenty of gorgeous scenery and plenty of cool places to stop and stay … like Flagstaff, which is mega cool.

Flagstaff is the last big town before the Southern Rim entrance to the Grand Canyon, so this place is always hopping.

Will reach my final destination on Sunday – Las Vegas. There is a shot I’ll go west from there and maybe hit Los Angeles. Not sure yet. Vegas is as far as I wanted to go, so anything after that is gravy.

Other than forgetting my insulin needles in Amarillo (woops), I’m having a pretty good time. Nothing like jumping in a car and driving across the country – very soothing and relaxing. It’s always fun visiting different places and just seeing the country.

I would recommend this to anyone.

I will probably turn around and head back east by the middle of this coming week – gives me 1 ½ weeks to get back. Not sure about my route yet; leaning toward I-10, which goes back through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

I’ll keep you posted.

Elco’s Mark Evans coached the victorious East team, which feasted on seven turnovers, including five recovered fumbles.

Ouch, babe.

Not a ton of stats for the eight Lancaster-Lebanon League alums that played in the game.

After sifting through what I could find, here’s what I came up with:

Lebanon’s Jordan Clentimack, a Dean College recruit, and the L-L League’s all-time leader in receiving yards, had two catches for 46 yards.

Pequea Valley’s Sean Persch, a C.W. Post recruit, had one catch for 15 yards.

And Lebanon’s Charles Lee, a Dean College recruit, was credited with a forced safety, giving the East two points.

You can find a complete recap from the game from the Altoona Mirror here.

Making some pretty good time – not that I’m in a huge hurry or anything. I’m milking my three weeks, and I’m only four days in.

So far I’ve stayed in Columbus, St. Louis and Tulsa, and here I am in Amarillo, which is in the Texas panhandle, about 300 miles from Albuquerque – which will be my next stop.

I’ve been through Amarillo a few times before, but this is the first time I’ve set up shop for the night.

Amarillo is home to the Cadillac Ranch … which is 10 Cadillac cars buried in a cornfield on the outskirts of town off I-40.

No, I’m not kidding.

Someone thought it might be fun to bury the cars and then spray paint on them. Very, very odd, but very funky and artsy.

I posted two photos here – click on them for the full version and take a look. Crazy stuff.

Hoping to be in Vegas by Sunday … going to go out and explore Amarillo a bit.

Again, I’m posting short video clips of my trip on Facebook. If you really want to see those, go to Facebook.com, search Jeff Reinhart and send me a friend request.

More later.

Eight Lancaster-Lebanon League football alums are set to play in the PSFCA All-Star Football Game, set for Friday at 7 p.m. at Mansion Park in Altoona.

After several additions and subtractions by head coach Mark Evans (Elco), here are the L-L League players who will play one last prep football game on Friday, representing the East team …

Cody Booth, Penn Manor, TE-DE (Temple)
Jordan Clentimack, Lebanon, WR (Dean)
Jarvis Cummings, Hempfield, ‘athlete’ (Navy)
Rodney Hill, Wilson, OL-DL (Howard)
Charles Lee, Lebanon, OL-DL (Dean)
Sean Persch, Pequea Valley, WR (C.W. Post)
Nick Schmalhofer, Lancaster Catholic, OL-DL (New Hampshire)
Jon Wagner, Wilson, DE (Bucknell)

Check out my seat there on the left … section 253, row 6, seat 9, just above home plate. It was a Red Bird Club ticket (clever), which got me a seat and access to a restaurant/bar area and private bathrooms. Sweet. And thanks to my trusty AAA card, I got $10 off the face price.

Gorgeous stadium (LOVE the St. Louis Arch in the background; that’s way cool), located right downtown. Had to pay $15 to park in a garage, but it was right across the street from the stadium.

Took a couple of innings and walked around the place – very spacious and very cool. Plenty to do and plenty of good angles to watch the game.

It was hot as all get-out, and I didn’t enjoy that very much. But I got to see Albert Pujols hit a home run, so that was pretty cool. Every fan (young and old) in the stadium wears an Albert Pujols t-shirt, by the way. No Chris Duncan. No Joe Thurston. No Ryan Franklin. Just Albert Pujols t-shirts. That’s it.

Set up shop on the outskirts of St. Louis, and planning a drive-day on Wednesday; hoping to get to Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. Goal is Vegas by like Friday.

I am posting short video clips of my trip on my Facebook page. If you really, really, really want to see those, go to Facebook.com, search Jeff Reinhart and send me a friend request.

More later.