Random “Hot” or “Not”
Here is an early season look at who’s hot and who’s not in MLB, among ex-Cape Leaguers. This list is in no way meant to look at all (or even most) players. As the title says, it’s random. Very random. Any stats referenced are through Sunday’s games. HOT: Joe Saunders (Harwich / L.A. Angels). 4-0 with a 2.55 ERA to start the season. Hugely important to the Angels rotation which is without John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar. Chase Utley (Cotuit / Philadelphia). One of the best players in the game is batting .374. Pat Burrell (Hyannis / Philadelphia). 8 HR and 25 RBI to go along with a surprising .354 BA. Lance Berkman (Wareham / Houston). Off to a solid start with .312 Avg., 8 HR, 23 RBI. Conor Jackson (Bourne /...
Read MoreFormer Orleans Announcer Now Voice of the Crawdads
Not only do Cape Cod players go on to the professional ranks, so do the guys calling the play-by-play action up in the broadcast booth. Sunday’s Charlotte Observer has a nice piece about Mike Janela, the 2006 voice of the Orleans Cardinals and now the voice of Pittsburgh Pirates’ Class-A Hickory Crawdads franchise in North Carolina. In the summer of 2005, he did radio commentary for the Mat-Su Miners of the Alaska Baseball League. “Yes,” he said, “they do play baseball in Alaska, at least for a few weeks each summer.” The summer of 2006 found him doing play-by-play for the Orleans Cardinals of the Cape Cod Baseball League, while last summer, after his graduation from Syracuse, he served as director of broadcasting for the...
Read MoreYawkey Grant Money to Chatham and Harwich
No surprise, since this had been mentioned earlier, but the Yawkey Foundation has awarded grant money to Chatham and Harwich. See the story in today’s Cape Cod Times : http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080422/SPORTS/804220312 This means that Yarmouth-Dennis and Orleans are the only two Cape League teams who have not received this grant. Chatham will use a portion of their money to extend safety netting at Veterans Field. A few months ago, the town of Orleans voted against putting up safety netting at Eldredge Park and that decision may have cost them a chance to receive one of these grants this year.
Read MoreA Natty New Ballpark
This past week my son and I visited the brand new Nationals Ballpark in Washington, D.C. We attended Wednesday night’s Florida Marlins at Washington Nationals game, just the third home game for the new ballpark. The Nationals did not look very good despite some strong early pitching by Jason Bergmann, and they lost 10-4. The Nats may well pull up the rear of the National League this season, but their shimmering new ballpark is well worth visiting. To be very honest, I loved it. I lived in Washington, D.C., from 1986 to 1994. For all of those years I would slog from DC to Baltimore — first to Memorial Stadium and then to Camden Yard. In fact, I was at the first two Opening Days of Camden Yard. Had the Nationals Ballpark been...
Read MoreOrleans Fails to Net a Grant
Matthew Belson over at WickedLocal.com has an interesting article, “Orleans Citizens Cry Foul Over Loss of Yawkey Grant.” Matthew writes that the Orleans Cardinals and the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox are the only teams yet to receive a $150,000 grant from Yawkey, a Boston-based foundation that has helped support Cape Cod baseball for years. Yawkey requires a local community match – or financial support – in order to qualify for its grant money. It appears that the town of Orleans appropriated dollars for an irrigation system rather than for the protective netting that would help to meet league safety policies. You’ll have to read Matthew’s piece to sort it all out. Seems like the protective netting should have been the priority in...
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