Former Macon County women at ease blogging about baseball

Taylor Scharfenberg goes where the action is, which is why she was at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., last week chasing down a 7-on-7 football tournament.

Some of the best prospects in the country were there and her employer, Eastbay, a sporting goods company based in Wisconsin, wanted Taylor there, too.

The 2006 Warrensburg-Latham High School graduate is the marketing manager for Eastbay's "cleated" sports, which means she dives in when it involves baseball, football and soccer.

"I'm responsible for pulling together the campaigns for those sports," she said. "I work with a variety of writers and graphic designers to pull the whole thing together."

What she also does from time to time is blog about Major League Baseball.

That's what ties her to another former Macon County resident, Kelli Gallagher Viehl, a St. Teresa High School grad who now lives in Edwardsville and develops training programs for a software company.

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Kelli Gallagher Viehl and fellow blogger Mary Haskell Royce at a Cubs game.

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Like Scharfenberg, Gallagher Viehl has been a baseball fan for as long as she can remember. Also like Scharfenberg, she can trace her deep affection for the Chicago Cubs to members of her family, who made sure to steer her to the "blue" side of the street, as opposed to those who favored the "red" side occupied by the St. Louis Cardinals.

"I've always been a huge baseball fan," said Gallagher Viehl, who had a good time blogging about the Cubs' historic run to the 2016 World Series championship.

"I credit that to my grandfather, David Thatcher, because he was a Cub fan and he brought me up that way. He's a very wise man," she added.

Although they didn't attend many games in person, Gallagher Viehl has vivid memories sitting with gramps and his brother-in-law on their sun porch on Maple Court, near Decatur Memorial Hospital, watching baseball on television.

"That's a great memory," she said. "I was lucky to have my grandparents until just recently. They were a huge part of my life."

She remembers watching Ryne Sandberg's two-homer game against the Cardinals' Bruce Sutter in 1984. And her grandfather was very much on her mind when she was blogging about the Cubs' memorable run last year.

"Sadly, he passed away the year before and just missed it," she said. "He was 93."

As many Cub fans did, she found the championship to be bittersweet and wrote about it in a blog she shares with her friend, fellow St. Teresa grad Mary Haskell Royce.

Their blog, which they post via Facebook, is called "2 Chicks Out of Left Field," and although their entries are a bit sporadic, they're not afraid to cut loose with an opinion when the spirit moves them.

Then just recently, when former catcher Miguel Montero cast complete blame on pitcher Jake Arietta when the Washington Nationals stole seven bases, it was time to blog about that.

"In my opinion there are a few cardinal sins for a baseball player," the "2 Chicks out of Left Field" blog began on a mini-rant. "1.) Trashing your manager to the media; 2.) Throwing your teammate under the bus to the media; 3.) Making it all about yourself in the media. And congratulations, Miguel Montero, you managed to nail all three in two press conferences over four months of play."

Scharfenberg's blogging has been done as a contributor to the Eastbay web site, which is more far-reaching and which she figures limits expressions of her unabashed affection for the Cubs.

"We're based up in Wisconsin where most of the people are Brewers' fans," she said. "So I kind of hold it down about the Cubs."

Scharfenberg blames her father, Jon, for her rabid baseball interest.

"When he and my mom first met, she was kind of on the Cardinals side of things," she said. "But he converted her, then he started working on us. We've been going to games for as long as I can remember."

So when the family vacation landed in Baltimore, dad made sure the agenda included an Orioles-Cubs game.

Because Jon Scharfenberg had been conditioned to expect Cubs' failure, he warned Taylor to expect the same.

Because she's based in Wausau, Wisconsin, keeping close tabs of her Cubs takes extra effort.

"I pay a lot of money to have extra sports channels," she said. "I guess I'm lucky. People walk by my desk, and I'm streaming games."

Blogging about baseball is just a modern day way to chat with like-minded fans. It's a way to think out loud and invite others to do it with you. As a bonus, it draws comments from those who take the time to read.

Still, these modern day bloggers have noticed there are a few old-school men who are suspicious of women speaking their mind about baseball. Gallagher Viehl and her blogging buddy often get a reaction when they attend games in person.

"I don't think we're loud and opinionated — well, we might be opinionated," she said. "People think girls go to games to be with their boyfriend or husband or to look at the players. There's some truth to that as well.

"But my grandfather taught me how to keep score. I think I know a little bit about the game."

So what's wrong with the 2017 Cubs? Why aren't they running off with the division the way they did in 2016?

"I really don't know because it doesn't make sense," Gallagher Viehl said. "Obviously, the pitching is not where it was. And it's hard to repeat."

The bloggers wonder what September will bring for the Cubs. And if there's going to be more excitement in October.

As a sign of the times, a discussion through their blogs seems unavoidable.

Source: Former Macon County women at ease blogging about baseball