Boy am I Lazy

Life is busy. We all work for a living, or at least for the summer, those of us in college. Mix work with playing baseball, enjoying life and acting like a college student, and you've got yourself a schedule busier than Bono's.

The point here is that I haven't been holding up my end of the bargain. How are you supposed to enjoy and laugh at my writing when it's not there? My point exactly.






Now that everything is relatively calm, I can dedicate some time to musing about the Yawkey League, our heart and soul (and cause of cerebral hemorrhaging sometimes, too). I mean, we're almost a month into the season and I have made an effort similar to that of Mark Blount after he signed his 6 year, $38.5 million contract a few years back. Kind of hard to do.

What's going to happen is that each week a Committee of One (me) will determine a hitter and pitcher of the week. These are stat-driven and win-related awards so don't expect one if you go 4.1 innings on a gimpy calf or you hit a home run with a sprained left pinky finger. And of course, if you help propel your team to victory, that's a plus.

Winning is the point, after all.

Awards for the week of May 26 - June 1.

The Yawkey League is now officially hot. As the temps creep, so do pitcher's ERAs. And that means offensive production. Seven different games this past week saw one team put up a baker's dozen or more, so that means lots of RBIs and extra-base hits for those of you holding the sticks.

It was a tightly contested race for Hitter of the Week this week, as multiple guys helped mash their respective teams to victory. But when it came down to it, I had to go with a certain high-number wearing New Hampshire-native from Dorchester's own McKay Club Beacons.

From one Beacons uniform (UMass Boston's) to another, Connor Reinfurt has been hitting the ball extremely hard since he came into the Yawkey League two weeks ago. The first baseman/DH had himself a week for the ages.

The majority of the damage off of Renifurt's absurdly large bat came against West Roxbury on May 28, when he launched a grand slam at Ronan Park that cleared the left-centerfield fence by a considerable margin to break open the game.

Renifurt finished the game with two singles, a double, the grand slam and five RBIs. He himself crossed the plate twice too. Number 99 finished the week going 7-for-11 in three games with three runs scored, three extra-base hits and 9 RBIs.

While at UMass Boston this past spring, the 6' 2" 215 pound Reinfurt hit only .206 in 30 games, but led his team with five home runs while driving in 15 runs.







Four starting pitchers eclipsed the 10 strikeout plateau this past week, but only one pitcher K'ed 12 hitters en route to a complete game shutout for his team.

Greg Potts, a rookie in the YBL and a freshman at Bridgewater State, went the distance for the Al Thomas Athletics against the Chelsea Cyclones. The win, his first ever as a Yawkey Leaguer, came at a perfect time, as the Athletics' offense (.247 BA) hasn't been able to pick up much of the slack.

Potts gave up hits over the seven innings, walked two and blew away 12 Cyclones to dominate in his team's 4-0 victory.

The start was important in the big picture too, because Al Thomas had allowed 30 runs the previous two games and the complete game (I'm guessing) gave the A's staff much needed rest.

Potts, a Milton resident, made eight starts for Bridgewater State this past spring, posting a 4-2 record and a 4.85 ERA.

Apparently, he also loves to smile




If you disagree with my assessments of players or teams, feel free to rant and rave below.

Two Firsts in One Game For Young Sox Pitchers

It was last night at Jacobs Field in Cleveland that marked the return of Jon Lester. We all know and will always remember his heroic story, his battle with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and his victory over it.

I am fairly certain in my statement when I say that everyone reading this right now has heard all the details about the disease and how Lester was treated successfully and has made a full recovery. And most of you watched the Red Sox-Indians game last night – maybe not with as much emotion as Jon Lester’s mom – and saw what most Sox fans had been waiting for since spring training: a chance to see Jon Lester pitch in the big leagues again.

Well, there he was last night, the center of attention atop the loneliest circle a baseball field has to offer, surrounded by almost as many Red Sox fans as Indians fans. Lester came through with the win, his first in the Major Leagues since he was diagnosed with Aniplastic Large Cell Lymphoma.

Here was his pitching line: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 1 HR. 96 pitches, 55 strikes.

Lester got the win, and all the publicity. Of course he did, and it was well deserved publicity. What he has accomplished was extremely courageous and there will probably be a five minute long, ear-ringing, foot-stomping standing ovation for him when he takes the mound at Fenway Park for the first time since his return. There’s actually a good chance that Fenway will collapse from all the excitement.

But what got lost in the shuffle of Jon Lester’s return in my vision was a 25 year-old fire-baller from right around the corner. West Roxbury, actually.

After logging 79.2 innings of relief for the Boston Red Sox over parts of three seasons, Manny Delcarmen got his first career major league save. Usually this would just be a nice story about the local kid who grew up a Red Sox fan, had talent, got drafted and pitched for the home town team. A dream come true of course.

But for me, my teammates, the other teams and all the alumni of the Yawkey Baseball League, we’re collectively proud of Manny Delcarmen for putting us on the map for future talents that happen to swim through the kettle known as the Yawkey League.

The next time someone happens to ask me or anyone else who happens to play in the Yawkey League, how the talent is, we can say to them:

“You know who Manny Delcarmen is?”

“Yea, the set-up man for the Sox.”

“Well, he played in the Yawkey League when he was 18 years old.”

Now, I wasn’t there to face him, and I’m glad I wasn’t because I may have soiled myself in the process. He was an elite Yawkey League player, but nonetheless, there are still a few guys on my team that can say that they played against him before the spot light shone bright on him.

The key to Delcarmen’s successes this year has been simple. He’s throwing first pitch strikes on a consistent basis and he’s locating his pitches. That’s really all you have to do to be successful at the Major League level. And throwing 95 miles and hour seems to help too.

The point of this is to be proud that you have a chance to play in the Yawkey League. Whether you’re a potential Yawkey league HOF’er, a middle of the road guy or you’re just sitting on the bench waiting for your chance to play, think about who sat down on that very same bench at one point in the past.

And you never know when another Manny Delcarmen or Rich Hill is going to appear in the Yawkey League, leave his impression and give you another name to drop on your friends in the future.

To Be The Best You Copy The Best

A Yawkey League-leading 1.01 team ERA.

A .949 fielding percentage, third best in the league.

16 wins, 0 losses.

It doesn’t take Albert Einstein or Johannes Kepler to determine which team these stats belong to. Do I even need to say it? For the purpose of this space, I have to. They belong to the Somerville Alibrandis.

On the other hand, take a peak at these stats…

A .320 team batting average, good for tops in the Yawkey League.

A 2.29 ERA, good enough for seventh in the league.

A .915 fielding percentage, good enough for (wince) fourth worst in the league

Those statistics add up to an overall record of 9-7, putting the McKay Club five points behind the Dan Tarpey Division-leading South End Astros. Those same Astros that won both match-ups against the McKay Club this year by a combined total of 16-1. Now South End holds the tie-breaker in the division. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves now, we have work to do before we start talking about tie-breakers and division crowns.

Tuesday night at Jim Rice Field in Roxbury, I watched the McKay Club wither up like a grape in the sun. We made four errors, but there may have one or two that were graciously uncounted. Unfortunately, we were participating in the game of the week and airing on the CN8 Channel. Fortunately, whether we lost 9-0, 9-8, or 17-3, it only counts as one game, and I for one have a short memory.

We can put this game behind us, forget about. Not only did we not play well, but we were very unlucky. I can count at least three balls that were driven directly into the plate against us, making routine groundballs infield singles for the opposing team. I can also remember balls hit by Jake Suoto, Brendan England, Dana Levensaler and Jackie Owens that, on any other night would have been base nits, some of them for extra bases have you.

But good or back luck aside, we deserved to lose that game. Actually, I think we had to lose that game. We made mental errors, we made physical errors, we played shi-, I mean crappy and you know what? That’s what we need. A wake-up call, myself included.

Since we won four straight games to improve the record to 8-4, every member of this team has watched our record fall to 9-7. That’s three losses in four games. We only play 34 games and every game is important. There aren’t any that you can just give away. To put it terms of a 162 season, this would be the equivalent of the Bo Sox losing 14 out of 19 games. Not good.

So what do we do to change our woeful ways? We run the bases smarter. We field more thoroughly. We cut down on the mental errors. But most importantly, we need to play as a cohesive unit.

As a group of guys, we’re pretty tight. We go to Tom English’s on a regular basis, have some beers, shoot the shit and for the most part, we enjoy each other’s company. But on the baseball diamond, we need to be more than a group of guys, we need to be a team. A team trusts one another. A team stays positive under even the most undesirable conditions. And a team should know how to win.

It all starts before the game. The preparation for a baseball game is almost as important as the game its self, just as Dave Treska, coach of the Somerville Alibradis told me. “We (The Alibrandis) have a pretty good pre-game routine that we use to get them all ready for the game.” This doesn’t just mean the four infielders taking two grounders each and lollygagging throws to first and second. This should mean a full nine practicing at about 80-85 percent before game time, assuring themselves that all the bases are covered and everyone knows where to be at exactly the right times. Timing and location are everything. Ask Dana, he’s a real estate guy.

Staying positive is another big part of being a successful baseball team. I don’t want to keep using Somerville as an example, but I will anyway (Hey, who else is a better example that those guys?). I only watch two Somerville games a year, and that’s when they play the McKay Club. I’ll tell you what, I’ve never heard any of those guys saying “this sucks” or “you need to do [this] better” or “this guy doesn’t have anything, we should be hitting the hell out of the ball.”

Those guys win games because they are always prepared to play, they stay alert and they are always positive. They don’t act negative on the bench. They stay loose, pick each other up and always seem to stay positive.

You might not want to hear it and it may well be the last thing you want to hear, but to be successful, you need to copy the best. We need to embody the Somerville ways and play smarter baseball. We need to be more prepared to take the field every night and we need to pick each other up, even in the hardest of times.

Other than that, we just need to win and have fun doing it. See you in Malden on Thursday with a new attitude.