Joe Battista

  • Battista: Hockey in Beaver Stadium Another Dream Come True

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    Joe Battista

    “You see things; you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’” – George Bernard Shaw This George Bernard Shaw quote is hanging in my home office. It’s not just a platitude in my life; it’s been a philosophy that I have tried to live by throughout my career,…

  • The (Almost) Greatest Feel-Good Story in Sports History 

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    Joe Battista

    The Indiana Hoosiers are the 2026 College Football Playoff national champions. Let that sink in for a moment. I can just hear Michael J. Fox’s voice as Marty McFly from “Back to the Future” sarcastically laughing out loud, “The Hoosiers? National champions in football? Yeah, like that’s ever going to happen.”   It’s a Cinderella story…

  • Battista: Can I Survive The Elimination Diet? 

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    Joe Battista

    It’s that time of the year when we give all our good intentions to complete our New Year’s resolutions another try. I can probably say I have realistically been setting New Year’s Resolutions since my mid-teens, so consider this my 50th anniversary. Over the years it’s been: getting stronger, getting faster, gaining weight, losing weight,…

  • A Battista Family Christmas Vacation 

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    Joe Battista

    The holidays really are among the best times of the year for our family. Although, there is a certain amount of stress involved in coordinating our travel plans from South Carolina with our own family and synching it up with our extended families.  I almost cynically called this column “Joe and Heidi’s Excellent Christmas Vacation…

  • What Would You Do if You Won the Powerball?

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    Joe Battista

    Like most of you, I have had that dream of what I would do if I actually won the lottery. I’m not talking about the $100 people occasionally win from some scratch-off a colleague bought them for Christmas or a birthday. I’m talking about the whole enchilada, the Powerball jackpot. Hey, it’s my fantasy so…

  • A Gift that Keeps on Giving: A Digital Heirloom 

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    Joe Battista

    Years ago, my mother had all of our family movies dubbed down to VHS video tapes. I remember seeing the movies of my childhood and special events that took place in the history of our family. My parents wedding, my aunt’s wedding, baptisms, first communions, our family trip to Disneyland and our trip to Fort…

  • Battista: We’ve Come a Long Way

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    Joe Battista

    My wife and I (and our part-time author dog Barkley) trekked up to Pittsburgh recently to meet up with our youngest son Ryan (in town from Minneapolis for work) and to visit my parents While we were in Da’Burgh we had the opportunity to take a few strolls down memory lane. Wow, we’ve really come…

  • Battista: Who to Believe?

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    Joe Battista

    Halloween 2025 has come and gone but it reminded me of one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on a naïve audience. On Oct. 30, 1938, just over 87 years ago, a then 23-year-old Orson Welles used a relatively new technology (for the masses) to put fear into the entire nation with his CBS radio broadcast of…

  • A Memorable Celebration of Life for a True Servant Leader

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    Joe Battista

    It was the perfect fall weekend to travel into Happy Valley to get together with friends and family, including my two oldest children, as it was “Family Weekend” at Penn State. The leaves were changing colors, the sun was shining brightly, only a few wispy clouds were in the sky and a cool breeze was…

  • Battista: Make It Happen

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    Joe Battista

    Two weeks ago, I wrote a column about the importance of taking time to go on family adventures, just after we spent nine days out west with our three adult children.  Previous to that, I wrote about my great friend and hockey teammate Tim Holdcroft, who passed away unexpectedly at just 62, too young an…