By COLLEEN P. CLARK
Chris Murray, Randy Nemeroff, and Bob Angradi left their seats at the Camden Riversharks game during the 7th inning on Wednesday night to begin warming up for their long-anticipated challenge.
At the bottom of the ninth, they were ready to go. Murray was confident that Nemeroff wouldn’t be able to touch his 90 mph fastball; and Nemeroff was confident he’d blast it into centerfield.
But then the game went into the 10th inning, then the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th.
It was after 11 p.m. by the time the trio got to have their match.
Nemeroff, Murray and Angradi, friends and coworkers at Oak Mortgage in Marlton, got into a bit of a double-dog-dare-ya situation when Nemeroff, 53, said he would like to know what it feels like to be in the batter’s box with a fast pitch coming his way. Murray, 29, a former Cherokee High School pitching star and varsity pitcher for George Mason University, saw it as a worthy challenge.
Only it quickly turned into something bigger. The Riversharks jumped on board, offering to let them use their mound after Wednesday night’s game. With all the attention, the coworkers thought it was a great opportunity to turn the event into a fund raiser, and so a portion of tickets sold to those who came to see the loan officers was donated to an outreach program for needy families organized by the Burlington Camden County Association of Realtors.
With Angradi as the catcher, they were ready to square off. The winner would receive bragging rights; the loser would be forced to wear a Tinker Bell costume to work.
Pitch №1 was fouled into Angradi’s catcher’s mitt. Pitch two and three were balls. And then came pitch four, which was nearly 90 mph.
“I hit the fourth pitch into centerfield,” Nemeroff said proudly.
Just as he predicted.
“I knew prior to that that he was going to bring it, and he did,” Nemeroff said. “I practiced and everybody I practiced with gave me a lot of confidence.
“It was pretty incredible, but the only problem was the Riversharks went to 14 innings,” he said, adding, though, that they were too amped up to be tired.
After the match-up, Nemeroff, Murray and Angradi presented a check to the Burlington Camden County Association of Realtors in the amount of $1,075 from the night’s ticket sales, along with a $1,000 check from Oak Mortgage itself.
“We still expect more,” Nemeroff said. “It could hit $2,500.”
Big Daddy Graham of 610 WIP donated another $50 the next day. He had promised a donation if Nemeroff won the challenge.
The outreach program the money will go toward, for the most part, helps needy families in our immediate area. However, the association recently began sending aid to Joplin, Mo., after the devastating tornado there. The funds raised at the Riversharks game will go toward the cost of rebuilding the city.
“The important thing is it turned out to be a charity event,” Nemeroff said. “We really did a great job and we raised a lot of money for a very good charity. That’s what it turned out to be. We had a blast, but when all is said and done, there’s money going to a charity and that’s what we’re happy with.”
Murray also stressed that, despite all the jokes, the biggest part of the event was the money raised.
“The biggest thing was the fund-raising aspect of the whole thing and being able to really (help people),” Murray said. “The whole experience was cool.
“It was fun. I know Randy and I both had a really good time with it, and we all came out uninjured and happy,” he added.
And, so far anyway, his ego hasn’t been hurt too badly. In all the excitement leading up to the event, no one bought the Tinker Bell costume.
Nemeroff was hoping to see both Murray and Angradi dressed up at work by the week’s end, but they are hoping to push it off a bit.
“As the catcher, I have to support my pitcher,” Angradi said to explain why he too will wear the costume, but he added that they aren’t sure yet when that will happen.
Angradi is actually going to Disney World on Monday, so he just might go into a store down there to see if he can find the right sized Tinker Bell costumes for himself and Murray ‑- a size 2X and a large, he said.
At the very least, he added, it will be fun to see what kind of looks he gets.
