Who are Top Prospects from the Cape’s 2007 Season?
Baseball America has published its annual assessment of the Cape Cod Baseball League’s top professional prospects from the 2007. I read it and agreed with many and questioned a few. Check out the league’s 2007 all-league team as well. Even more interesting to me is how directly Baseball America signals the dominance of the Cape league over all other summer collegiate leagues. Aaron Fitt and John Manuel of Baseball America assessed 18 different summer leagues, but singles out “the unparalleled Cape Cod League.” The Northwoods League, Clark Griffith League, New England Collegiate Baseball League and the Central Illinois Collegiate League are also singled out for attracting talent. Here is Baseball America’s top 30 list for the Cape...
Read MoreCodBall Media Notes
My post-season Internet search engines are stumbling across lots of interesting tidbits about the summer circuit, coaches and movies. Here’s a round-up. A long baseball roadtrip is a dream for any baseball fan. Chris Ballard writes for Sports Illustrated about a great summer baseball roadtrip he took with a buddy. (Photo: From the movie Summer Catch. See below what’s on the top list of ladies’ favorite sports movies.) His first stop was to a Northwoods League summer collegiate baseball game between the Eau Claire Express and the Madison Mallards. His article describes the Northwoods League as being a Cape Cod-like league that uses a wooden bat and family friendly environment. He says “family-friendly” but then goes on to...
Read MoreJohnny Ayers Continues to Amaze
Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald reported this summer on the phenom that is Johnny Ayers. I hadn’t realized Ayers was also a collegiate punter. Here’s a synopsis of Conroy’s report. The punter is not usually one of the best-known players on a football team, at least not on a good one. But Boston College punter Johnny Ayers got his fair share of ink over the offseason. That’s what happens when you welcome the latest addition to Red Sox [team stats] Nation with a slap double, as Ayers did against Daisuke Matsuzaka in March as a member of the Eagles baseball team. While playing for Yarmouth-Dennis of the Cape Cod Baseball League this summer, that hit made Ayers a mini-celebrity. “I heard a lot about it this summer on the Cape,” said the...
Read MoreA Note from Cincinnati
The 2007 Cape Cod Baseball League season may be fading in our memories, but this year’s MLB pennant race is heating up. Just as we did last year, we’ll keep the baseball discussion going by following former and future Cape league players. I was in Cincinnati this weekend and caught a Reds game with the Florida Marlins. It was homers galore, including one of those sweet strokes by Ken Griffey Jr (his 591st). But it wasn’t just any game. This was the game in which they retired the Big Red Machine’s number 13 – shortstop and All-Star MVP David Concepcion. It was a special game for me. Growing up in Oklahoma, which is also the home of Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench, I was a hard-core Reds fan through all of the 70s and much of...
Read More2007 Cape Cod Baseball Season-in-Review
A little over one year ago, I wrote my first post for CodBall, a 2006 season in review. Andrew, who was writing about the league on his own blog at the time, I believe remains the only comment on that original post. Nearly 150 posts (and scores of comments) later, it’s time for the second annual CodBall season review. This time it’s brought to you by Greg, Andrew and Dave. Like last season, CodBall will look at highlights and lowlights. But since not everything fits conveniently into such a binary positive and negative category we are adding a new section called, “question marks.” We raise such questions as, what went really well, what didn’t go so well and what are we wondering about after this 2007 season. Here goes and please add...
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