CUBBIES COLLAR CANNONS
Sticks Silenced as West Hartford Drops Double Dip
Manchester, CT (AP)--The Cannons were far from captivated with the "City of Village Charm" on Sunday as for the first time in the Matt Celio/Mike Weber managerial era (2004) West Hartford dropped both ends of a double header, losing to the Cubs 2-1 in Game One and 2-1 in a nine-inning emotional roller coaster of a Game Two. Traditionally slow starters, the Cannons have now dropped three one-run decisions in their first four games and have been left staggering, statistically speaking. "Surprising," Celio said in his post-game press conference when asked about the team's early season struggles. "We've got so many great pieces in this line-up that I expect us to score almost at will each inning. It's just hard to comprehend plating only eleven runs in four games--two of them extra inning affairs--with the guys we're sending up there. Fortunately our pitching has been tremendous, giving up only eleven runs. Those guys [Mike Calabrese and Mike Patenaude] have really stepped up their games and kept us close. The bats are going to be there before too long (the team expects to have Brian Pinney and Ed Poland back when they return home for a June 4 match-up with Glastonbury). We seem to be pressing a bit as a team but we'll be where we need to before long. You can count on it."
In Game One, the Cannons trotted Calabrese out to the mound for the rare 8:00 a.m. first pitch and the righty was impressive for his second straight start in 2006 (following an stellar 7-1 season in 2005, culminating in his first Patenaude Pitching Award). Cal held the Cubs scoreless through the first two innings, allowing only a single and a walk but the Cannons could only muster the same through the first three frames on a base hit by Kevin McGann and a base-on-balls by Tom Luby. In the bottom of the third, Cal was touched for a run when Jacques Moulin Rouge reached on a fielder's choice, stole second and scored on a Leif Ericson single. Calabrese's counterpart, Manchester's Eddie Murphy, was nearly unhittable through the first five innings but he began to show some signs of fatigue in the top of the sixth when Troy Barber doubled and Steve Markie singled to get things started (he ended up on second when centerfielder Eddie Harris took a shot at the tagging Barber as he headed to third). Jason Maule followed with a deep shot to center that dropped for a double but some confusion on the basepaths--Barber got hung up between third and home rather than tagging--caused Markie to hold and he advanced only to third instead of possibly scoring. After a ground out to second by K. McGann, Markie left on contact attempting to score on Leo Dionicio's sharply hit ball to short though a good throw by Viktor Kakalow got him at the plate. West Hartford had run itself out of its best and last scoring threat in the early game. Calabrese (6+ IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 7 H, 3 K, 2 BB...1 intentional, 1 HBP) got into trouble in the home half of the seventh with a lead-off walk followed by a single. Cal (1-1) intentionally walked Stavros Mikos to load the bases and set up a force play at the plate but he plunked pinch hitter Jeff Logeman to push in the winning run as the Cubs handed the Cannons their first road loss in A Division play.
Patenaude took the mound in Game Two and continued to turn back the hands of time with another stellar pitching performance. The legendary lefty showed yet again why he is a sure-fire first ballot Cannons Hall of Famer, tossing a nine-inning gem while baffling the Cubs batters throughout. The game was scoreless through three but West Hartford drew first blood in the top of the fourth on a Calabrese single (one of three hits on the day for Cal) and a Mark Lynch RBI ground out. Manchester tied things in the fifth on a single by Brooks Dunne and a two-out double by Royce Bentley. Patenaude was able to escape a jam in the seventh when Ericson reached on a lead-off error and attempted to score on a deep two-bagger by Adolf Verboven. A perfect relay from Maule to Luby to Lynch cut down the "Norse Horse" and the team elected to intentionally walk Cubby captain Kakalow to set up a force. Dunne followed with a single to left that Mike McGann got back in quickly and the Cannons again found themselves in the same precarious spot as in the previous game: bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, the winning run standing a mere ninety feet away. The next batter, J.P. Morgan, lined to Luby at short and Patenaude (9 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 6 H, 1 K, 3 BB...all intentional) was able to induce a weak ground ball to second from Bentley ending the threat. In the bottom of the eighth, Richard Marks led off with a base hit and with one out Harris smashed a line drive to left that M. McGann tracked and corralled as he crashed to the ground, recording the scintillating second out of the inning. When asked after the game about the catch and what was going through his mind as he chased the possible game-ending knock, the left fielder said simply, "Please ball hit glove," conjuring memories of his "please ball hit bat" quote when describing his plate approach seconds after hitting a sacrifice fly to drive home the game winning run against Stafford in a 2005 opening-round playoff game. Luby saw the play a bit differently, "Shades of Timmy Lupus," said the veteran shortstop invoking the ghost of the notoriously poor-fielding Bad News Bears outfielder. The Cannons went in order in the top of the ninth and the Cubs put on the lead-off hitter yet again in the home half of the frame, this time on an Ericson double followed by a throwing error that moved the "Striking Viking" to third against Patenaude (0-2). West Hartford again opted to load the bases in an effort to get a force at the plate but Dunne hit a sacrifice fly to center to end the ball game. After sixteen innings of play the Cannons had two bitter pills to swallow in the form of a pair of one-run losses.
Although the team is now 1-3 in 2006, there is no sense of panic among the players and the Cannons clubhouse remains upbeat. Leo Dionicio boasted, "Our bats are not there yet but in a few weeks we are going to start killing this league. These guys are going to be saying, 'Who are these f***ing Cannons?'" Assistant Manager Weber was equally confident though a little less colorful, "Our bats have not warmed up yet but they are going to. I still think we're the best team in the league and when the weather heats up the ball is going to start flying out of the park for us. Good things are going to happen for this team soon." Confidence and a premier pitching staff: two trademarks of Cannons Baseball. The old adage says that pitching and defense wins championships and the team from West Hartford has been solid in both facets of the game for the most part. When the other shoe drops and the team starts to hit we will see just how good the 2006 Cannons ball club can be. The time for talk is at an end, big boppers, as the team returns home to the comfy confines of Cannon Yards...it's time for action Cannon Nation.
Cannons News and Notes: After four games just four Cannons are batting over .300 (Barber, Calabrese, Markie, Pinney); the team struck out fourteen times in sixteen innings and had only eight hits; the two runs in a double header are the fewest ever scored by a Cannons team on a single Sunday; West Hartford's .211 team batting average is .112 points lower than the overall team lifetime total (.323 lifetime); the Cannons team ERA is 2.48 this season; outfielder Barber was seen icing his arm for approximately forty-five minutes after the game and although he called his performance "all natural" some have questioned the authenticity of this statement since he only threw warm-up pop flys and saw no action in the rightfield (Dionicio is already under suspicion for performance-enhancing drug use after his unsolicited Victor Conte/BALCO statements on May 7); Calabrese has petitioned the team to officially change the name of Cannon Nation to Cutter Nation in honor of his widely-used pitch; Lynch said after the games that he is "happy to be out here with the likes of Calabrese, Patenaude and Weber. Growing up watching these guys play, I'm just besides myself. There's nothing quite like it;" Lynch also was found to have a self-confessed "man-crush" on Maule (completely understandable...don't we all?).
Friday, May 26, 2006
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
"A" SOLID START FOR WEST HARTFORD
Cannons Split With Caps in First A Division Double Dip
West Hartford, CT (AP)--Two hundred fifty-one days. That was how long it had been since the West Hartford Cannons closed out the New Haven Cardinals on an overcast Sunday afternoon late last August in Game Three of the Connecticut North Men's Senior Baseball League (CNMSBL) State Series. Five years of next times, nearly weres and almost theres had been replaced by one wonderful word: Champions. Most teams would have been satisfied. Many had been in this same spot before and simply stood still, scared by their success. Yet things are done a bit differently in West Hartford. Assistant Manager Mike Weber is fond of saying, "If you're not moving forward you are moving backward." Connecticut's Team was unwilling to stand pat, in effect stepping back, and there was an almost immediate charge to challenge convention and make the move to the CNMSBL A Division. On Sunday, May 7 Cannon Nation and the rest of the league got its first look at the 2006 West Hartford Cannons as they took on the Newington Capitals in the friendly confines of Cannon Yards and one thing is for certain: teams from Marlborough to Manchester are going to have their hands full this year.
On a spectacular Sunday at Cannon Yards, the team trotted out fifty year-old Mike Patenaude for his fourth Opening Day start in six seasons and the lefty was more than up to the task, holding Newington scoreless over the first three innings, facing just one batter over the minimum while striking out three. Meanwhile, West Hartford put two early runs on the board courtesy of a pair of important off-season acquisitions and the 2005 Most Valuable Cannon. Jason Maule got things started in the home half of the first with a lead-off single and an uncontested swipe of second base (this was the fan's first look at Maule's extraordinary speed and they were not disappointed). Free agent Brian Pinney came to the plate with one out and smoked a single to knock in the first run of the 2006 season. In the third, Maule went the opposite way with a two-out double to left and scored on a double by Mike Calabrese, batting in the two spot in Kevin McGann's absence, making it 2-0 Cannons through three complete. In the top of the fourth, Patenaude allowed a lead-off single to Mike Karp who came around to score and in the fifth back-to-back singles by Griswold Clark and Paul Mooney and a sacrifice fly plated the tying run for the Caps. The Cannon bats--though never really on fire--cooled considerably until the sixth inning when the team loaded the bases on a single by Steve Markie, an outfield error that put Maule on base and a Pinney walk but the team was unable to capitalize and the game went into extra innings. In the eighth, Manager Matt Celio replaced Patenaude (7 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 6 H, 5 K, 2 BB) with Pinney who showed immediately why he was such an important pick-up this winter. Pinney, wearing number 16 in red, fanned the first batter he faced with a bevy of blistering fast balls (Ricky Hartunian last wore 16 for the Cannons over the course of his four-year career and fans were clearly unaccustomed to seeing a pitching performance of this caliber from a player wearing diez y seis). A seeing-eye single was followed by a gassing worse than the cowboy campfire/bean scene in Blazing Saddles: Pinney (1 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 H, 3 K) posted his second strike out and there were two away in the eighth. To keep the Caps hitters off balance Markie called for a change-up that Pinney (0-1) left a bit up in the zone and Robert Hayes dinked a hit to right, scoring Jason Marquis de Sade with the go-ahead run (Pinney then struck out Karp to end the inning, hitting 91 on the radar gun). Mike McGann worked the count and got a lead-off single to right in the bottom of the eighth but after being moved over by Markie he was stranded at second on a pair of pop-ups and the Cannons had dropped the Opener, 3-2 in extras. Patenaude was encouragingly optimistic after the game, "It's early in the season. It's great to be back, we have a great team out here and things seem to be starting out right. I'm excited to be a part of it. This should be another season to remember for the Cannons."
Rarely has there been a team assembled that responds to adversity the way the ball club from West Hartford does and the confidence in the club house between games was palpable. Calabrese, the Patenaude Award winner for pitching in 2005, speaking shortly with reporters before the game was sure of his abilities and those of his teammates stating simply, "If I throw strikes we'll win." Early on, Cal threw strikes but they were a bit too fat and the Caps took advantage, scoring two in the first on a lead-off double by Gary Pellitier, singles by Clark and Dave Klingorman and a sacrifice fly by Hayes. Newington scored two more in the fourth off of Calabrese (CG, 7 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 6 H, 5 K, 1 BB) on a Klingorman walk, a Hayes double and a Mooney sacrifice fly and West Hartford was staring down the wrong end of a 4-0 deficit. Still there was no perceptible panic in the Cannons dug out, even with only a Pinney single to show for their efforts through the first three innings, and it was at this point that the bats finally woke up and went to work like RuPaul's "Supermodel." In the home half of the fourth, Pinney had a two-base hit and was doubled home by Tom Luby who later scored on a Chris Barsa sacrifice fly to deep left and in the fifth the Cannons took the lead for good on a single by newly acquired Mark Lynch, a base on balls to K. McGann and a clutch two-out double by Pinney, his fourth hit of the day. The Cannons cushioned the lead in the sixth as Barsa scored on a passed ball following a walk and Calabrese came home on a Lynch single. On the mound, Calabrese (1-0) settled down and got the Capitals in order over the last three frames (the lead-off runner reached in the fifth but was erased on an 4-6-3 double play). Ball game over, 7-4, and the Cannons were victorious for the first time in 2006. "I'm real happy with the way we played," Celio was quoted as saying in his post-game press conference. "Unfortunately we just didn't give MP enough run support but this is our first weekend out. We put some good swings on the ball but they just didn't drop in for us today. I'm not worried about the bats just yet, I'm extremely impressed with all three pitchers and the defense out there was superb (the team played error-free ball over the course of both games). This team is going to be tough when we really get it rolling."
1-1 after the first weekend in the A Division. When asked about the Cannons chances this season, Capitals Manager Dave Sacco said, "They played well. They should do...okay." This sports writer detected sarcasm in the comment tinged with something much deeper: clearly he and the rest of the CNMSBL have something to be worried about with these up-starts from West Hartford. When the Cannons truly start to fire on all cylinders, look out league. There's a new team in town. Day One is in the books. One hundred ten days until the 2006 A Division title game so clear those August calendars. Get your tickets now Cannon fans while good seats are still available.
Cannons News and Notes: After Week One, Pinney leads the Cannons in nearly every offensive category (hits, runs scored, runs batted in, average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and on-base + slugging percentage); Calabrese, Luby, Lynch, Maule and Pinney each had multiple hits this weekend accounting for twelve of the Cannons sixteen knocks; Kevin and Mike McGann both singled on Opening Day for West Hartford becoming the first brother duo to do so in the CNMSBL since East Haven's Mark and Paul Carroza accomplished the feat in 2001 against Madison; Patenaude received five fewer runs of support than Calabrese, a trend similar to last season when Cal went 7-1 and picked up the MVC and Patenaude Awards for his efforts; Leo Dionicio was overheard during the game thanking Victor Conte of Balco Laboratories for an unmarked pack of pills that he claimed would "leverage his skills," while at the same time blaming "Los Fraternity Blanquito: Lambda Lambda Lambda" for robbing him of the 2005 Cannons Triple Crown proving conclusively--yet again--why Dominican players are hesitant to talk to members of the media; the team is batting .281 after two games, .43 points lower than their 2005 season average; the Cannons have won one game on Opening Day in each of the past three seasons (at Glastonbury in 2004 and at Farmington in 2005)...the team lost its first game last season and went 19-5 over the rest of the campaign; the April 23 double header against Bristol has been rescheduled for Saturday (May 13, 10:00) at Muzzy Field.
Cannons Split With Caps in First A Division Double Dip
West Hartford, CT (AP)--Two hundred fifty-one days. That was how long it had been since the West Hartford Cannons closed out the New Haven Cardinals on an overcast Sunday afternoon late last August in Game Three of the Connecticut North Men's Senior Baseball League (CNMSBL) State Series. Five years of next times, nearly weres and almost theres had been replaced by one wonderful word: Champions. Most teams would have been satisfied. Many had been in this same spot before and simply stood still, scared by their success. Yet things are done a bit differently in West Hartford. Assistant Manager Mike Weber is fond of saying, "If you're not moving forward you are moving backward." Connecticut's Team was unwilling to stand pat, in effect stepping back, and there was an almost immediate charge to challenge convention and make the move to the CNMSBL A Division. On Sunday, May 7 Cannon Nation and the rest of the league got its first look at the 2006 West Hartford Cannons as they took on the Newington Capitals in the friendly confines of Cannon Yards and one thing is for certain: teams from Marlborough to Manchester are going to have their hands full this year.
On a spectacular Sunday at Cannon Yards, the team trotted out fifty year-old Mike Patenaude for his fourth Opening Day start in six seasons and the lefty was more than up to the task, holding Newington scoreless over the first three innings, facing just one batter over the minimum while striking out three. Meanwhile, West Hartford put two early runs on the board courtesy of a pair of important off-season acquisitions and the 2005 Most Valuable Cannon. Jason Maule got things started in the home half of the first with a lead-off single and an uncontested swipe of second base (this was the fan's first look at Maule's extraordinary speed and they were not disappointed). Free agent Brian Pinney came to the plate with one out and smoked a single to knock in the first run of the 2006 season. In the third, Maule went the opposite way with a two-out double to left and scored on a double by Mike Calabrese, batting in the two spot in Kevin McGann's absence, making it 2-0 Cannons through three complete. In the top of the fourth, Patenaude allowed a lead-off single to Mike Karp who came around to score and in the fifth back-to-back singles by Griswold Clark and Paul Mooney and a sacrifice fly plated the tying run for the Caps. The Cannon bats--though never really on fire--cooled considerably until the sixth inning when the team loaded the bases on a single by Steve Markie, an outfield error that put Maule on base and a Pinney walk but the team was unable to capitalize and the game went into extra innings. In the eighth, Manager Matt Celio replaced Patenaude (7 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 6 H, 5 K, 2 BB) with Pinney who showed immediately why he was such an important pick-up this winter. Pinney, wearing number 16 in red, fanned the first batter he faced with a bevy of blistering fast balls (Ricky Hartunian last wore 16 for the Cannons over the course of his four-year career and fans were clearly unaccustomed to seeing a pitching performance of this caliber from a player wearing diez y seis). A seeing-eye single was followed by a gassing worse than the cowboy campfire/bean scene in Blazing Saddles: Pinney (1 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 H, 3 K) posted his second strike out and there were two away in the eighth. To keep the Caps hitters off balance Markie called for a change-up that Pinney (0-1) left a bit up in the zone and Robert Hayes dinked a hit to right, scoring Jason Marquis de Sade with the go-ahead run (Pinney then struck out Karp to end the inning, hitting 91 on the radar gun). Mike McGann worked the count and got a lead-off single to right in the bottom of the eighth but after being moved over by Markie he was stranded at second on a pair of pop-ups and the Cannons had dropped the Opener, 3-2 in extras. Patenaude was encouragingly optimistic after the game, "It's early in the season. It's great to be back, we have a great team out here and things seem to be starting out right. I'm excited to be a part of it. This should be another season to remember for the Cannons."
Rarely has there been a team assembled that responds to adversity the way the ball club from West Hartford does and the confidence in the club house between games was palpable. Calabrese, the Patenaude Award winner for pitching in 2005, speaking shortly with reporters before the game was sure of his abilities and those of his teammates stating simply, "If I throw strikes we'll win." Early on, Cal threw strikes but they were a bit too fat and the Caps took advantage, scoring two in the first on a lead-off double by Gary Pellitier, singles by Clark and Dave Klingorman and a sacrifice fly by Hayes. Newington scored two more in the fourth off of Calabrese (CG, 7 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 6 H, 5 K, 1 BB) on a Klingorman walk, a Hayes double and a Mooney sacrifice fly and West Hartford was staring down the wrong end of a 4-0 deficit. Still there was no perceptible panic in the Cannons dug out, even with only a Pinney single to show for their efforts through the first three innings, and it was at this point that the bats finally woke up and went to work like RuPaul's "Supermodel." In the home half of the fourth, Pinney had a two-base hit and was doubled home by Tom Luby who later scored on a Chris Barsa sacrifice fly to deep left and in the fifth the Cannons took the lead for good on a single by newly acquired Mark Lynch, a base on balls to K. McGann and a clutch two-out double by Pinney, his fourth hit of the day. The Cannons cushioned the lead in the sixth as Barsa scored on a passed ball following a walk and Calabrese came home on a Lynch single. On the mound, Calabrese (1-0) settled down and got the Capitals in order over the last three frames (the lead-off runner reached in the fifth but was erased on an 4-6-3 double play). Ball game over, 7-4, and the Cannons were victorious for the first time in 2006. "I'm real happy with the way we played," Celio was quoted as saying in his post-game press conference. "Unfortunately we just didn't give MP enough run support but this is our first weekend out. We put some good swings on the ball but they just didn't drop in for us today. I'm not worried about the bats just yet, I'm extremely impressed with all three pitchers and the defense out there was superb (the team played error-free ball over the course of both games). This team is going to be tough when we really get it rolling."
1-1 after the first weekend in the A Division. When asked about the Cannons chances this season, Capitals Manager Dave Sacco said, "They played well. They should do...okay." This sports writer detected sarcasm in the comment tinged with something much deeper: clearly he and the rest of the CNMSBL have something to be worried about with these up-starts from West Hartford. When the Cannons truly start to fire on all cylinders, look out league. There's a new team in town. Day One is in the books. One hundred ten days until the 2006 A Division title game so clear those August calendars. Get your tickets now Cannon fans while good seats are still available.
Cannons News and Notes: After Week One, Pinney leads the Cannons in nearly every offensive category (hits, runs scored, runs batted in, average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and on-base + slugging percentage); Calabrese, Luby, Lynch, Maule and Pinney each had multiple hits this weekend accounting for twelve of the Cannons sixteen knocks; Kevin and Mike McGann both singled on Opening Day for West Hartford becoming the first brother duo to do so in the CNMSBL since East Haven's Mark and Paul Carroza accomplished the feat in 2001 against Madison; Patenaude received five fewer runs of support than Calabrese, a trend similar to last season when Cal went 7-1 and picked up the MVC and Patenaude Awards for his efforts; Leo Dionicio was overheard during the game thanking Victor Conte of Balco Laboratories for an unmarked pack of pills that he claimed would "leverage his skills," while at the same time blaming "Los Fraternity Blanquito: Lambda Lambda Lambda" for robbing him of the 2005 Cannons Triple Crown proving conclusively--yet again--why Dominican players are hesitant to talk to members of the media; the team is batting .281 after two games, .43 points lower than their 2005 season average; the Cannons have won one game on Opening Day in each of the past three seasons (at Glastonbury in 2004 and at Farmington in 2005)...the team lost its first game last season and went 19-5 over the rest of the campaign; the April 23 double header against Bristol has been rescheduled for Saturday (May 13, 10:00) at Muzzy Field.
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