RED SOX OR ATHLETICS

July 15, 2008 - SAN ANGELO, Texas – When watching a Major League Baseball Home Run Derby, fans often see monstrous sluggers humbled by their young sons who bring them a drink or a towel to help them hit more long balls. The scenario was no different for the United League-Golden League All-Star Home Run Derby at Foster Field in San Angelo. San Angelo Colts first baseman Andres Rodriguez, hitting in front of his hometown fans, received a little help from his two-year old son Justin in the form of a kiss on the cheek and went on to win the competition with 10 homers in the final round. Andres played several seasons for the Caribbean Tigres of the Palm Beach League. Rodriguez can spend even more time with his family when the season is over, as he not only won a commemorative D-Bat trophy, but earned an all-expense-paid Royal Caribbean cruise for eight days and seven nights.

CLOCK STRIKES MIDNIGHT FOR FLORIDA RANGERS AT COOPERSTOWN The Cinderella Story for the Florida Rangers ended in an 8-4 loss to the Albany Red Sox Sunday in the Hall of Fame Wood Bat Tournament's 18A Division at Cooperstown, New York. The Rangers had clawed their way to the title game, winning twice on Saturday, but had to settle for the runnerup spot in the annual event. The championship game on Sunday was played at historic Doubleday Field, just steps from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in the upstate New York village of Cooperstown, where it is said baseball was first played.

Affter losing their first two pool games, the Rangers qualified for the playoffs by downing the Main Pub A's 4-1 Saturday morning, followed by a 3-0 upset win in the afternoon over the top seeded Connecticut Rangers, who brought a 3-0 pool play record into the semifinal, having allowed only three runs in pool play. In the twin victories on Saturday, Alex Forster of Hyde Park, New York, pitched a complete game five hitter with four strikeouts to win the opener, then followed up with eight shutout innings, allowing only six hits and fanning six against the Connecticut Rangers. Kenny Rua of the Palm Beach Orioles pitched a scoreless ninth inning to notch the save.

A half dozen players from the NABA Palm Beach League played with the Florida Rangers, managed by former league player-manager Leo Merced, now President of the North State Florida NABA league in the Tallahassee area. Playing with the Rangers are three members of the Palm Beach Mets----pitchers Jose Pena Junior and Braulio Alfinez and shortstop Junior Reyes. There are two from the Orioles----- Kenny Rua and infielder Jamie Priester. Royals' player-manager Jesse McGregor also hooked up with the Rangers for the Cooperstown event. In pool play before Saturday's "must wins", the Rangers had lost two games.

After dropping a 7-6 heartbreaker to Gloucester County Baseball on Thursday, the Rangers were defeated for the second time on Friday, 15-9 by the Albany Black Sox, their championship game opponents. Another team from the Capital District NABA, the Colonie Knights, were beaten by the Rockland Cavaliers 8-5 for the championship of the 18AA division. The Cavaliers play in the NABA's Westchester-Rockland Wood Bat League, just north of New York City. For complete tournament scores, check the NABA's national website at www.dugout.org and click on the 2008 Hall of Fame Tournament link on the home page.

18AAA All Star Game

After three postponements last week, the 18AAA All Star game was finally played Thursday night, June 26 at the Lantana Sports Complex. The Nationals, featuring players from the Chamos, Cardinals, Yankees and Beach Bums scored a 6-2 come from behind win over the Americans, consisting of star players from the first place Caribbean Tigres, Palm Beach Wave and American Landscaping Leones. The game had been postponed three times the previous week. Skies again appeared ominous, and some brief lightning and thunder frequented the area, but three innings in, the clouds rolled away, giving way to a very pleasant moisture free evening.

Trailing 2-0 after Tigres' ace Jose Acuna fired three shutout innings for the Americans, giving up only a bad hop single to Ray Infante (Chamos), the Nationals tied the game with a pair of runs in the fourth off Leones' reliever Kyle Merritt. David Cruz of the Yankee singled and the Cardinals' Danny LaPerna drew a walk. Both moved up on an infield grounder by Nationals' manager David Machado (Chamos). Jonathan Martinez (Chamos) grounded out to short, scoring Cruz and advancing LaPerna to third where he scored on a passed ball.

The Americans had scored their only runs, both unearned, in the first inning. Melvin Bruno (Tigres) reached first on an error by second baseman Willie Martinez (Chamos). Ariel (Santos Jr.) Adames (Tigres) walked. Both moved up on an infield grounder. Bruno scored on a sacrifice fly by Acuna, and Adames came home on a base hit by Tigres' teammate Diego Santos.

The Nationals went ahead to stay on walks to Max Johnson (Yankees), who stole second, and Infante, and Billy Brescia drilled a shot to the gap in left center to drive in what proved to be the game winner with a double that gave the Nationals a 3-2 lead they would not relinquish.

At that point, Bruno came on to relieve Merritt, walked Brian Fitzsimmons (Cardinals) intentionally to load the bases, then got out of a bases full, no out jam by getting Gustavo Castillo (Chamos) on a fielder's choice grounder from third base to the plate, striking out Jeremy Badovic (Yankees) and getting Ryan McDonald (Cardinals) on a foul out to third base.

The Nationals added an unearned run off Bruno in the seventh. Carlos Dominguez (Chamos) singled, moved to second on an errant pickoff throw by catcher Jorge Lopez (Leones) and scored on a hit by Johnson, who was out trying to stretch his RBI hit into a double. And, they closed it out in the 8th off Tigres' reliever Gustavo Lopez. Fitzsimmons and Castillo both walked. Fitzsimmons stole third and scored on one of two Lopez wild pitches. Castillo also swiped third base, then scored on a single by McDonald. Cruz was the only National squader to get two hits. Santos, skipper Nick Adames and Matt Evans (Palm Beach Wave) had two hits apiece for the Americans.

Perennial All Star Brescia, who drove in the game winning run with a double, the only extra base hit of the contest, was selected as the game's Most Valuable Player. LaPerna got the win, Merritt the loss, both in relief. .

The late George Carlin offered a terrific comparison between baseball and football.  Thank you, George, and we all hope YOU are now safe at home with God.   We will miss you tremendously. 

Baseball is different from any other sport, very different.

For instance, in most sports you score points or goals; in baseball you score runs.

In most sports the ball, or object, is put in play by the offensive team;

in baseball the defensive team puts the ball in play, and only the defense is allowed to touch the ball.

In fact, in baseball if an offensive player touches the ball intentionally, he's out; sometimes unintentionally, he's out.

Also: in football, basketball, soccer, volleyball, and all sports played with a ball, you score with the ball

And in baseball the ball prevents you from scoring.

In most sports the team is run by a coach; in baseball the team is run by a manager.

And only in baseball does the manager or coach wear the same clothing the players do.

If you'd ever seen John Madden in his Oakland Raiders uniform, you'd know the reason for this custom. Now, I've mentioned football.

Baseball & football are the two most popular spectator sports in this country. And as such, it seems they ought to be able to tell us something about ourselves and our values. I enjoy comparing baseball and football:

Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.

Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.

Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park. The baseball park!

Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.

Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life. Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying.

In football you wear a helmet. In baseball you wear a cap.

Football is concerned with downs — what down is it?

Baseball is concerned with ups — who's up?

In football you receive a penalty.

In baseball you make an error.

In football the specialist comes in to kick.

In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody.

Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.

Baseball has the sacrifice.

Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog...

In baseball, if it rains, we don't go out to play.

Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.

Football has the two minute warning.

Baseball has no time limit: we don't know when it's gonna end — might have extra innings.

Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden death.

In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there's not too much unpleasantness.

In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you're capable of taking the life of a fellow human being.

And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different:

In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.

In baseball the object is to go home!

And to be safe! — I hope I'll be safe at home!

standing (l-r) Enrique Bosch (Sugar Kings, mgr); Alex Wood (Orioles), John Moreland (Hurricanes), Joe Perez (Sugar Kings), Jordanis Martinez (Sugar Kings), Jackson Munoz (Sugar Kings), Taylor Hilliard (Orioles), Marty Brown (Indians), Quin McDowell (Mariners) and Ruben Cuevas (Sugar Kings, coach); kneeling (l-r) Omar Hernandez (Super Sox), Guy Bichatcho (Hurricanes), Jamie Priester (Orioles), Nestor Sanjujro (Sugar Kings), Mike Delape (Royals) and Dominic Liso (Sugar Kings)

18AA ALL STAR GAME The American Division All Stars, dominated by players from the Cuban Sugar Kings and Orioles defeated the National Division All Stars 9-3 Tuesday, June 17 under the lights at the Lantana Sports Complex. Nestor Sanjurjo of the Sugar Kings pitched three scoress innings, yielding only one hit, to get the victory. He also drove in two runs with a double, and added a single, and received the Most Valuable Player plaque.

Sugar Kings' teammate Yo Perez had a triple and single. He circled the bases when the Nationals overthrew third base, allowing Perez to score. Alex Wood (Orioles) had a double, single and an RBI, and the Hurricanes' John Moreland had two singles and one run batted in. Jackson Munoz (Sugar Kings) drove in two with a single. Dominic Liso (Sugar Kings), Taylor HIlliard (Orioles), Jordanis Martinez (Sugar Kings), Mike Delape (Royals), and Marty Brown (Indians) had one hit apiece. The American squad pulled off a spectacular 6-4-3 double play in the 7th inning, that went from shortstop Liso to second baseman Jamie Priester (Orioles) to Bichatcho at first.

The National All Stars, dominated by Warriors and Mets' players, had only five hits off four pitchers. Anthony Munson (Mets), Mike Silvas (Braves), Keith Buck (Palm Beach Miracle), Joe Mazzeo (Brewers) and Steve Grove (Braves) all had singles. Buck's hit drove in one of the runs. The loss went to starter Luis Ramos (Warriors), who pitched the first two innings. Enrique Bosch (Cuban Sugar Kings) and David Lopez (Warriors) were the All Star managers. Americans skipper Bosch was assisted by his coach, Ruben Cuevas. Lopez, who managed the Nationals, was assisted by Malvin DeLaCruz, who served as the National Division’s first base coach.

The game would never have happened, but for the terrific work turned in by Super Sox' manager Esteban Torres and Tony Priester, father of the Orioles' Jamie Priester, aided by a few players from both sides. The field was exceptionally wet as the result of a heavy afternoon rain storm.