Umpiring and the Cape League
A few weeks back the Cape League awarded umpire John Leeds the Curly Clement Award, the league’s top recognition for officiating. According to the League press release: During this past summer, Leeds umpired in over 20 Cape League games, including Game 1 of the Cape League championship series at Bourne, which was called an official game in the sixth inning because of fog. You will recall that some questioned the judgment to call the game, but in the end his decision was determined to be in the best interest of player safety on both sides. I’ll admit that I am a fan of umpiring, which puts me in a small and rarified (vilified?) class of baseball fans. I often find myself watching the positioning of umpires and how they go about their business. The...
Read MoreJoey Wong: Beaver, Commodore, Dust Devil
One of the great satisfactions we get from writing CodBall is watching Cape League players succeed in college and eventually the pros. I watched two games this week between the Yakima Bears (Diamondbacks) and the Tri-City Dust Devils (Rockies). The Dust Devils are in contention and the Bears are definitely not. The Devils won both games, which were close. There are a few prospects on both teams, but I was really there to see Joey Wong who we enjoyed watching for two seasons in Falmouth. Joey continues his wizardry at short-stop for the Dust Devils and continues to struggle at the plate. But last night he went 2-for-4, and drew oohs and aahs from the crowd in the 6th inning when he went deep into the hole for a backhand stab and then like lightning threw out...
Read More2009 Post-season selections for Cape all-stars
The league today issued its post-season 2009 selections for all-stars. I had received some emails over the weekend with independent choices for post-season all-stars. Curious to hear what people think. 1B Mickey Wiswall Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox 2B Pierre LePage Bourne Braves SS B.A. Vollmuth Falmouth Commodores 3B Jedd Gyorko Brewster Whitecaps INF. UTILITY Nick Crawford Hyannis Mets INF. UTILITY Zack Cox Cotuit Kettleers OF Todd Cunningham Falmouth Commodores OF Gary Brown Orleans Firebirds OF Austin Wates Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox OF Brian Fletcher Falmouth Commodores OF George Springer Wareham Gatemen DH Kyle Roller Bourne Braves DH Ryan Cuneo Hyannis Mets C Mike...
Read MoreThe hits keep coming… thanks to you
CodBall, which celebrates its third year this month, has almost never stopped to ponder its own existence. We write about baseball, not blogging. Three seasons ago when I wrote the first post for CodBall, I had no idea how long it would last. As I explained then, I just wanted an outlet for my thoughts and prodigious reading on the topic of baseball. Much to my family’s bemusement and then disappointment I kept on writing, joined with Andrew, then Dave, and we collectively kept writing. The other day I glanced at our blog dashboard, which is where we do the behind the scenes work on this blog. I noticed we passed over 2400 comments and are approaching our 500th post. Whether you’re counting homers or articles, 500 is a lot. In a recent email,...
Read MoreD’Antona (Chatham ’02) out for three weeks
[Editor's Note: The season may be over again, but stay with us at CodBall as we look forward to next season, review the 2009 season, and stay in touch with some names of past seasons!] Jamie D’Antona (Chatham ’02), one of the most interesting characters in Jim Collins’s The Last Best League, is headed to the DL of the Tokyo Swallows after suffering a pulled left hamstring (JapanToday). D’Antona has lived up to power-hitting expectations and is leading the Swallows in home runs (19) and RBIs (69), but he is also maintaining his free-swinging approach at the plate with nearly one strikeout per game (87 in 89 games–see full stats on TokyoSwallows.com). Before signing with the Swallows, D’Antona was a top major league prospect. In 2008,...
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