Willever wins player of the year award

By RIch FISher

Ryan Willever capped his career with Lawrence Post 414 by winning the Mercer County American Legion League Joe Logue Player of the Year, meaning the entire league knew who he was and respected what he did.

It’s a far cry from his first legion game six years ago, when his own pitcher didn’t even know who he was.

Flash back to 2018.

Entering his ninth-grade year at Lawrence High, Willever had made Post 414 as a third-string catcher. He did not join the squad until midway through the season, however, and had little time to get acquainted with his new teammates.

“I knew a lot of the Lawrence guys on the team already from playing baseball and being around that environment,” Willever recalled. “But because I came in the middle of the season I hadn’t really talked to some of those guys.”

That would change quickly. During a game with Notre Dame’s Rob Buecker on the mound for Lawrence, the firststring catcher was playing first base and his backup got hurt with two outs in the sixth inning. Willever was sitting in the dugout next to the main catcher when the call came.

“They looked over and said to put the gear on,” Willever said. “I kind of looked around like ‘Are you talking to me?’ So I went out there and the first thing (manager Jason Zegarski) told me was ‘Go out and introduce yourself to the pitcher.’ So I ran out to the pitcher’s mound, introduced myself and went behind the plate.”

He was making acquaintances with one of Mercer County’s top players, as Buecker was soon to embark on an outstanding career at West Point (which concluded this year). Fortunately, Buecker is one of the nicest people one could ever meet.

“He definitely made me feel comfortable when I ran out to the mound,” Willever said.

“Everybody got a little laugh out of that. You don’t see someone do that every day. But as an eighth grader I was just doing what I had been told to do.”

Willever caught one strike to end the inning and caught an uneventful seventh. If that wasn’t enough, his first atbat came against a college

By Dan Aubrey

New Trenton Farmers Market manager Bill Kearney is out to get the word out that the historic market is still doing what it did from the start — moving produce.

Kearney took the position as the seventh TFM manager in February, 2023.

He is also the fourth in the past five years. Longtime manager Jack Ball retired in 2019. He was followed by former West Windsor Farmers Market man- ager Chris Cirkus (2019-22) and then former Capital City Farm organizer Ludovic Andre, who left earlier this year.

Now working the produce stands and glad-handing patrons, Kearney recently