DÉJÀ EW
Connecticut Falls to 1-5 as Marlborough Sweeps; Offense Awful, Pitching Pounded
Marlborough, CT (AP)—Approximately one year ago the then West Hartford Cannons played their fifth and sixth games of the 2006 season on the road against the Marlborough Athletics. The Cannons were a ball club struggling to find their way in a difficult inaugural A Division campaign, scoring just thirteen runs through six contests. After two poorly played games the team sat alone in the CNMSBL basement with a disappointing 1-5 record and did not tally a victory until early August amid a twelve-game skid. Well, it’s déjà vu all over again Cannon Nation. The now Connecticut Cannons—the league’s popular pre-season pick in a plethora of publications—have started slow once again in 2007, plating a pathetic ten runs through six games after dropping a double dip against the A’s while managing an A Division-worst 1-5 record as the month of May comes to a close (the league is off for Memorial Day weekend and play will not resume until Sunday, June 3 at home against new kids on the block Winsted). “It’s hard to remain upbeat at the moment,” an obviously upset Manager Matt Celio said after the sweep. “I’ve spent quite a bit of time defending this team in the papers over the past two regular seasons but enough is enough. I’m tired of saying that we’re the best last-place team out there. There are only so many ‘let’s get ‘em next Sundays’ during a season. We try to put a quality product out there on the playing field and I’m confident we have a great group of guys that can not only compete at this level but are capable of winning the A Division Championship. Unfortunately I’m not Willy Wonka…I can’t sugarcoat how poorly we have played to this point of the season. Disregard the ‘when the weather warms up, we warm up’ discussions. Our offense is anemic and every mistake is magnified because we are pressing on both sides of the ball. Most troubling though is the fact that it is just not fun out there at the moment. People don’t seem to have that Cannons commitment early in the season and that’s leaving us in some sticky situations on Sundays.” Celio was not the only one soured by the sub-par performance as Assistant Manager Mike Weber added, “We got beat but it should not have been this bad. Ridiculous.” Finally, early-season standout Drew McDowell stated, “This has been tough on us as a team but has definitely been difficult on the decision makers [Celio and Weber]. Matt's and Mike's hands have been tied and they just haven’t been able to put and keep the best nine out on the diamond at all times. We need to do better here if we want to be better and it starts back home against the Rifles.”
Following his winning one hundred forty-seven-pitch performance on May 6, Brian Pinney was back on the bump for the Cannons in his third career CNMSBL start. The rocket-armed right-hander struggled some with his control in his first start of the season and that trend continued as Pinney trailed 1-0 after the first frame courtesy of a pair of singles and a passed ball. The A’s offense tacked on seven more runs over the next two innings and an eight-run deficit was all but insurmountable for a team averaging just two runs per game coming into the contest. Pinney (3 IP, 8 R, 7 ER, 9 H, 3 K, 2 BB, 2 HBP) was lifted after the third inning and eighty-four pitches amid speculation of an arm injury though the Cannons training staff remained tight-lipped when questioned on the subject, saying only that Pinney (1-1) is “day to day.” Mike Patenaude (4 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 2 K, 0 BB), whom the A’s referred to as “the Tom Glavine of the CNMSBL,” pitched well in relief but the Cannons bats were quieted by Marlborough fireballer Fabio Moleti who scattered just five hits in spinning a complete game shutout (Connecticut put runners in scoring position in four of the seven frames but was unable to push any players across the plate marking the second time this season that the ball club has been held scoreless).
Mike Calabrese mounted the mound for his second start of the young season and the former Patenaude Pitching Award winner was touched for a trio of opening-inning runs on a blast by Moleti after a questionable call at first that would have gotten the Cannons out of the jam. Cal (5 IP, 8 R, 7 ER, 6 H, 1 K, 2 BB) settled down over the next two frames and the Cannons finally got on the board courtesy of a Leo Dionicio single and stolen base followed by a Mark Lynch RBI base hit. The A’s answered with a four-run bottom of the fourth to put them comfortably ahead as walks, errors and hard hits undid the Cannons. Connecticut added a run in the fifth as McGann singled, swiped a pair of bases and moved home on a Jason Maule sacrifice fly to centerfield but Marlborough would plate another run against Cal (0-2) who, as a batter, had been hit in the pitching hand in the fourth inning of the first game, the second time in as many outings that the pitcher had injured his paw. McDowell (.1 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 H, 0 K 2 BB, 2 HBP), making his first CNMSBL A Division pitching appearance, and Markie (.1 IP, 1 H, 0 K, 0 BB) pitched into the sixth but the A’s took at ten-run lead and the Cannons fell victim to the mercy rule for the second time in as many Sundays.
Calabrese was famously quoted after his 2006 loss to the Athletics saying, “I got my t*** lit up today” and Connecticut once again was unable to match the firepower of a heavy hitting Marlborough line-up (the A’s out-hit the Cannons twenty-two to ten during Sunday’s sweep). At this early stage of the 2007 season the team finds themselves in a near must-win situation on Sunday, June 3 against first-year franchise Winsted (a reported 2-2 a press time). It is impossible to assume that a ball club can continually botch regular season opportunities only to find salvation in post-season success. Celio concluded, “Nobody on our roster—myself more than included on this list—is playing to their fullest potential at this point. We’ve got to get it together in a hurry if we want to have the type of season our fans, front office and players planned on. It’s getting extremely old but we are better than a 1-5 team. The time has come for us to play like it.”
Déjà vu describes the feeling that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously. It is usually accompanied by an overriding sense of familiarity and also a sensation of "eeriness," "strangeness," or "weirdness." The "previous" experience is most frequently attributed to a dream, although in some cases there is a firm sense that the experience "genuinely happened" in the past. Déjà vu has been described as "remembering the future." Strange, eerie and weird are words that certainly describe the start of the 2007 A Division campaign for Connecticut. If this is a dream then somebody please rouse the Cannons from their early-season slumbers. The talent that was tapped in the 2006 post-season is something that seems quite distant at the moment and Connecticut must remember and rediscover the things that made them such a formidable foe last August: potent pitching, an overpowering offense and a roster, top to bottom, that was ready to do anything and everything necessary to achieve the ultimate team goal: winning a CNMSBL title. Cannon Nation can only be truly happy when this has happened. Single-seat tickets are still available for the June 3 home games against the Rifles—and Cannons are always better than Rifles—at 1 800 CANNONS or at ctcannons.blogspot.com as the team looks to turn déjà ew into déjà new as Connecticut takes two.
Cannons News and Notes: Weber’s sixth inning infield single was the ninety-eighth of his illustrious career; with his Game One double, McDowell posted his first CNMSBL extra base hit; Dionicio leads the team with a .364 batting average; the Cannons are allowing 5.55 runs per game while averaging just 1.67 runs per contest…opponents are hitting a healthy .323 against Cannon pitching while Connecticut is batting just .207; Connecticut is 0-8 following holiday bye weekends since becoming a member of the A Division last season; Weber dubbed Calabrese “Socrates” before the first game when, as rain drenched the playing field, Cal determined that a wet track “could be a good thing or a bad thing” for the Cannons; Tom Luby dropped a pre-game deuce in an on-site Port-o-Let…when told that McDowell once stated in high school that needing to use the bathroom forces one to “play with a sense of urgency,” Lubes colorfully quipped, “There’s a big difference between ‘playing with a sense of urgency’ and s******* yourself”…truer words may never have been spoken; Celio solidified his status as “Slowest Man on the Planet,” beating out quadriplegic Stephen Hawking, post-accident Stephen King and 1,235-pound Manuel Uribe, the “World’s Heaviest Man,” another title the Manager has set his sights upon; Lynch graduated from UCONN on Sunday, May 6 ending his sixteen-year tenure at the Big East bastion of higher learning; the first annual Step Up to the Plate charity baseball event will be held at Beehive Field starting at 6:00 p.m. this Saturday evening with six Cannons representing the team (Chris Barsa, Celio, Dionicio, McGann, Patenaude and Weber); John Mancini, Craig Perrier and Ed Poland did not play for the Cannons this past weekend.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO “BAIT”
Cannons Get First Win at New Cannon Yards with Sunday Split Versus Fish
Newington, CT (AP)—An old angler saying goes, nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught. On Sunday the Connecticut Cannons came close to capturing two wins against the reigning CNMSBL regular-season champion Glastonbury Marlins (2-2) in the home opener at New Cannon Yards. The crimson-clad ball club were 4-3 winners in Game One behind pitcher Brian Pinney and led 3-0 in Game Two before the contest turned in favor of the Fish, fully epitomizing “the one that got away” in an eventual 16-3 loss behind hard-luck hurler Mike Calabrese. “It’s good to get that first win under our belts, defeating a solid Glastonbury team in doing so (the Cannons were 0-3 all-time versus the Marlins coming into Sunday),” Manager Matt Celio told reporters in his post-game press conference. “1-3 is not the way we expected to start this season and the outcome of the second game does not in any way reflect how well we played for most of the day (twelve of the sixteen runs were unearned as the Cannons fielded only eight players in the ten-run final frame). We’ve played back-to-back weekends against last year’s finalists and had some success. Our best ball of the season is still ahead of us and the schedule starts to work in our favor over the next few weekends (many minor muscle pulls were reported by Tina Cervasio throughout the double dip so an off weekend for Mother’s Day is most welcome). It’s time to put all the pieces together and send a message to the rest of the league. We’re the big fish in this pond.” Carp-e Diem, Cannon Nation.
Game One was a match-up of two of the CNMSBL’s elite arms as Pinney squared off against Marlins’ ace[hole] John Skinner (apparently he was unfamiliar with the adage "a fish wouldn't get into trouble if he kept his mouth shut" as he berated and bullied his team in a losing effort). Pinney, the hard-throwing right-hander from East Hampton, struggled some with his usual pinpoint control on this windy May day, allowing a pair of runs on three hits, a walk and a hit batter in the first but was able to cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the inning with an RBI ground out following back-to-back singles by Jason Maule and Leo Dionicio at the top of the line-up (Celio, explaining the shake-up in the order to reporters before the game, stated “I’m not ashamed to admit I love Leo in my number two hole,” causing puzzled, uncomfortable head-scratching and sphincter squeezes aplenty among members of the press corps). In the second the Cannons would get all of the scoring they needed courtesy of a Maule three-run blast to deep right-centerfield that plated Drew McDowell and Calabrese who had reached respectively on a walk and a fielder’s choice. Pinney (7 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, 7 H, 3 K, 5 BB, 1 HBP) would throw an astronomical one hundred forty-seven pitches over the course of the game but was able to strand runners in scoring position in every inning except the one-two-three fifth, allowing just a single additional run on a Skinner sacrifice fly in the fourth. “Pinney (1-0) put us on his back in the opener,” said Celio. “He dug down deep for something extra and willed us to a win. Our pitchers are impressive—undoubtedly we have the strongest staff from top to bottom in the league—and having Brian on the hill was a real boost for our ball club today. He didn’t show up to lose.”
Calabrese mounted the mound in Game Two, making his first pitching appearance of the 2007 campaign. After allowing a lead-off double to Mario Joyner, Cal settled down and retired the next six batters he faced while the Cannons’ offense provided a three-run pad in the home half of the first on a Maule double, Steve Markie’s RBI single and a two-out two-run base hit by free agent acquisition McDowell, who has paid early dividends for the team (.333 BA, 1 R, 2 RBI). In the top of the third, Calabrese faced Fish second baseman Mickey Bantle who hit a ball back to the box. Cal attempted to bare-hand the come-backer but it bounced painfully off the fingers of his throwing hand causing immediate numbness. After a few practice pitched he proceeded to plunk local radio personality Joe “Doppler” Furey—the second time the WTIC weatherman has been hit by Cannons’ pitchers in two seasons following Tom Luby’s how-do-you-do in 2006—bringing the tying run to the plate with no outs. Cal struck out opposing pitcher Joyner and followed by forcing a foul out by French expatriate Mountsainte Helin to the catcher Markie. Skinner doubled home a run—in the first Cal had to be retrained after the “Skin Flute” flied out to left and loudly lamented about the perceived slow speed of the pitch he had hit—but Calabrese (5 IP, 16 R, 4 ER, 13 H, 3 K, 6 BB, 1 HBP) battled back and induced a soft line drive to the left side of the infield. Luby and Dionicio nearly collided as they reached the outfield grass and the ball bounced out of the shortstop’s glove to tie the game at 3, prolonging the inning. Glastonbury sent twelve players to the plate and scored six times in the frame providing Joyner with a comfortable cushion and the Cannons would manage only one base runner over the remaining course of the contest. Cal (0-1) kept the Cannons in the ball game on sheer strength of will, refusing several times to be taken out of the game, but with Markie and Maule up against time constraints the Cannons were forced to complete the contest with only Chris Barsa and Tom Luby in the outfield and Glastonbury dinked and dunked their way to ten additional runs and the final margin of victory. Cal spoke with reporters at New Cannon Yards on Monday afternoon after his fearless fight: “I have never felt this much pain in my life. I can’t walk or talk. My arms, back, neck, a**, calves, hamstrings, you name it. One hundred fifty-plus pitches in my first outing was not the smartest but I knew we were short some arms (pitchers Mike Patenaude and Ed Poland were not available on Sunday). I can’t sneeze or cough without hurting. I’m popping Percocet left and right…thankfully my son’s mother had some. Hopefully McDowell can start throwing some soon…get Drew ready!”
It has been said that there will be days when the fishing is better than one's most optimistic forecast, others when it is far worse. Either is a gain over just staying home. The Connecticut Cannons ventured out and saw both the good and the bad of baseball in their split with Glastonbury on Sunday but in the process perhaps discovered something more meaningful: without question they have the necessary sinkers, hooks, bait and bobs all lined up in their tackle box to be a championship-caliber ball club. Henry David Thoreau expounded: "Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after." The Cannons are after something more than just regular season recognition. Connecticut went fishing this past Sunday and caught something more than their first 2007 victory. They caught the attention of the rest of the CNMSBL with a win over a very good Glastonbury Marlins team. It’s time for the Cannons to filet the A and this all begins against the A’s in Marlborough on May 20 in a playoff rematch from 2006 (won by the Cannons 13-4). As always, get your RED on and get your game tickets at ctcannons.blogspot.com.
Cannons News and Notes: Calabrese wore Rick Weber’s retired #0 jersey because he forgot his uniform in his South Quaker Lane apartment…he also guaranteed never to drop another pop-up after his miscue against Bristol in the season opener; Pinney’s win was the first of his two-year Cannons’ career (1-1); Maule currently shares the CNMSBL-lead for home runs (tied with Derek Bell and Dixon Mason of Marlborough)…the bomb was the fourth of his regular season career moving him into sole possession of fourth place on the team’s all-time list (Luby, 10; Poland, 8; Weber, 7)…on average, he homers once every 12.5 at-bats; the team's slow offensive start continued as only eight of sixteen Cannons have hit safely through the first four games (Dionicio; Luby; Mark Lynch; Markie; Maule; McDowell; Craig Perrier; Poland)…Maule and Markie have hits in three straight games; Mike Weber and Luby still stand respectively at three and five hits from the century plateau; Luby's outfield appearance in Game Two marked the first time the six-year veteran played a position other than shortstop or pitcher; Cannons’ pitchers have a spectacular 2.92 ERA in 2007; the Managerial staff of Celio and Weber saw their first action of the season on Sunday; music returned to Cannons games for the first time since the team played its home games at Balf-Savin Stadium in New Britain during the 2003 season.
Cannons Get First Win at New Cannon Yards with Sunday Split Versus Fish
Newington, CT (AP)—An old angler saying goes, nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught. On Sunday the Connecticut Cannons came close to capturing two wins against the reigning CNMSBL regular-season champion Glastonbury Marlins (2-2) in the home opener at New Cannon Yards. The crimson-clad ball club were 4-3 winners in Game One behind pitcher Brian Pinney and led 3-0 in Game Two before the contest turned in favor of the Fish, fully epitomizing “the one that got away” in an eventual 16-3 loss behind hard-luck hurler Mike Calabrese. “It’s good to get that first win under our belts, defeating a solid Glastonbury team in doing so (the Cannons were 0-3 all-time versus the Marlins coming into Sunday),” Manager Matt Celio told reporters in his post-game press conference. “1-3 is not the way we expected to start this season and the outcome of the second game does not in any way reflect how well we played for most of the day (twelve of the sixteen runs were unearned as the Cannons fielded only eight players in the ten-run final frame). We’ve played back-to-back weekends against last year’s finalists and had some success. Our best ball of the season is still ahead of us and the schedule starts to work in our favor over the next few weekends (many minor muscle pulls were reported by Tina Cervasio throughout the double dip so an off weekend for Mother’s Day is most welcome). It’s time to put all the pieces together and send a message to the rest of the league. We’re the big fish in this pond.” Carp-e Diem, Cannon Nation.
Game One was a match-up of two of the CNMSBL’s elite arms as Pinney squared off against Marlins’ ace[hole] John Skinner (apparently he was unfamiliar with the adage "a fish wouldn't get into trouble if he kept his mouth shut" as he berated and bullied his team in a losing effort). Pinney, the hard-throwing right-hander from East Hampton, struggled some with his usual pinpoint control on this windy May day, allowing a pair of runs on three hits, a walk and a hit batter in the first but was able to cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the inning with an RBI ground out following back-to-back singles by Jason Maule and Leo Dionicio at the top of the line-up (Celio, explaining the shake-up in the order to reporters before the game, stated “I’m not ashamed to admit I love Leo in my number two hole,” causing puzzled, uncomfortable head-scratching and sphincter squeezes aplenty among members of the press corps). In the second the Cannons would get all of the scoring they needed courtesy of a Maule three-run blast to deep right-centerfield that plated Drew McDowell and Calabrese who had reached respectively on a walk and a fielder’s choice. Pinney (7 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, 7 H, 3 K, 5 BB, 1 HBP) would throw an astronomical one hundred forty-seven pitches over the course of the game but was able to strand runners in scoring position in every inning except the one-two-three fifth, allowing just a single additional run on a Skinner sacrifice fly in the fourth. “Pinney (1-0) put us on his back in the opener,” said Celio. “He dug down deep for something extra and willed us to a win. Our pitchers are impressive—undoubtedly we have the strongest staff from top to bottom in the league—and having Brian on the hill was a real boost for our ball club today. He didn’t show up to lose.”
Calabrese mounted the mound in Game Two, making his first pitching appearance of the 2007 campaign. After allowing a lead-off double to Mario Joyner, Cal settled down and retired the next six batters he faced while the Cannons’ offense provided a three-run pad in the home half of the first on a Maule double, Steve Markie’s RBI single and a two-out two-run base hit by free agent acquisition McDowell, who has paid early dividends for the team (.333 BA, 1 R, 2 RBI). In the top of the third, Calabrese faced Fish second baseman Mickey Bantle who hit a ball back to the box. Cal attempted to bare-hand the come-backer but it bounced painfully off the fingers of his throwing hand causing immediate numbness. After a few practice pitched he proceeded to plunk local radio personality Joe “Doppler” Furey—the second time the WTIC weatherman has been hit by Cannons’ pitchers in two seasons following Tom Luby’s how-do-you-do in 2006—bringing the tying run to the plate with no outs. Cal struck out opposing pitcher Joyner and followed by forcing a foul out by French expatriate Mountsainte Helin to the catcher Markie. Skinner doubled home a run—in the first Cal had to be retrained after the “Skin Flute” flied out to left and loudly lamented about the perceived slow speed of the pitch he had hit—but Calabrese (5 IP, 16 R, 4 ER, 13 H, 3 K, 6 BB, 1 HBP) battled back and induced a soft line drive to the left side of the infield. Luby and Dionicio nearly collided as they reached the outfield grass and the ball bounced out of the shortstop’s glove to tie the game at 3, prolonging the inning. Glastonbury sent twelve players to the plate and scored six times in the frame providing Joyner with a comfortable cushion and the Cannons would manage only one base runner over the remaining course of the contest. Cal (0-1) kept the Cannons in the ball game on sheer strength of will, refusing several times to be taken out of the game, but with Markie and Maule up against time constraints the Cannons were forced to complete the contest with only Chris Barsa and Tom Luby in the outfield and Glastonbury dinked and dunked their way to ten additional runs and the final margin of victory. Cal spoke with reporters at New Cannon Yards on Monday afternoon after his fearless fight: “I have never felt this much pain in my life. I can’t walk or talk. My arms, back, neck, a**, calves, hamstrings, you name it. One hundred fifty-plus pitches in my first outing was not the smartest but I knew we were short some arms (pitchers Mike Patenaude and Ed Poland were not available on Sunday). I can’t sneeze or cough without hurting. I’m popping Percocet left and right…thankfully my son’s mother had some. Hopefully McDowell can start throwing some soon…get Drew ready!”
It has been said that there will be days when the fishing is better than one's most optimistic forecast, others when it is far worse. Either is a gain over just staying home. The Connecticut Cannons ventured out and saw both the good and the bad of baseball in their split with Glastonbury on Sunday but in the process perhaps discovered something more meaningful: without question they have the necessary sinkers, hooks, bait and bobs all lined up in their tackle box to be a championship-caliber ball club. Henry David Thoreau expounded: "Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after." The Cannons are after something more than just regular season recognition. Connecticut went fishing this past Sunday and caught something more than their first 2007 victory. They caught the attention of the rest of the CNMSBL with a win over a very good Glastonbury Marlins team. It’s time for the Cannons to filet the A and this all begins against the A’s in Marlborough on May 20 in a playoff rematch from 2006 (won by the Cannons 13-4). As always, get your RED on and get your game tickets at ctcannons.blogspot.com.
Cannons News and Notes: Calabrese wore Rick Weber’s retired #0 jersey because he forgot his uniform in his South Quaker Lane apartment…he also guaranteed never to drop another pop-up after his miscue against Bristol in the season opener; Pinney’s win was the first of his two-year Cannons’ career (1-1); Maule currently shares the CNMSBL-lead for home runs (tied with Derek Bell and Dixon Mason of Marlborough)…the bomb was the fourth of his regular season career moving him into sole possession of fourth place on the team’s all-time list (Luby, 10; Poland, 8; Weber, 7)…on average, he homers once every 12.5 at-bats; the team's slow offensive start continued as only eight of sixteen Cannons have hit safely through the first four games (Dionicio; Luby; Mark Lynch; Markie; Maule; McDowell; Craig Perrier; Poland)…Maule and Markie have hits in three straight games; Mike Weber and Luby still stand respectively at three and five hits from the century plateau; Luby's outfield appearance in Game Two marked the first time the six-year veteran played a position other than shortstop or pitcher; Cannons’ pitchers have a spectacular 2.92 ERA in 2007; the Managerial staff of Celio and Weber saw their first action of the season on Sunday; music returned to Cannons games for the first time since the team played its home games at Balf-Savin Stadium in New Britain during the 2003 season.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
S-CRAPPY
Bristol Quiets Cannons, Scrapes Out Opening Sunday Sweep
Bristol, CT (AP)—Following a respectable third-place finish in their first season as members of the CNMSBL A Division in 2006, the Connecticut Cannons along with every card-carrying citizen of the frenzied fan base known as Cannon Nation had a galvanizing goal for 2007: League Champs. Simply stated, nothing less would suffice. Off-season upgrades both on and off the diamond—from fantastic free agent signings to a much-ballyhooed field change—elicited expectations of dizzying degrees and the experience garnered from the grueling regular season and glorious post-season performance in ’06 were supposed to be the first steps toward solidifying the Cannons as kings of the proverbial CNMSBL mountain. Unfortunately fate can be a fickle mistress and the heavy metal members of the defending champion Bristol Continental Metal Company scratched by Connecticut 4-0 and 2-1 in Opening Day action at Bristol, instead leaving the league up-starts staring up from the bottom of the scrap heap that is the current CNMSBL league standings and the would-be-king Cannons paraphrasing Shakespeare and imploring, A win! A win! Our kingdom for a win!
Ageless pitcher Mike Patenaude took the mound in an opener for the fifth time in his storied seven-year career with the team and Ponce de Cannon once again proved that he has tapped some mythical fountain of youth, tossing six innings while scattering just seven hits against a Bristol team that for most of the game was lullabyed by the cagey left-hander. The fifty-one year old Patenaude allowed a run in the first on a Bunty Ray triple followed by a ball in the dirt that got away from catcher Steve Markie but was able to settle in and face just sixteen batters over the first four frames. The notoriously slow-starting Cannons offense went hitless until the fourth when Ed Poland had a single but otherwise the line-up had little success against sidewinder Kent Tekulve and his buggy-whip arm. In the home half of the fifth, walks and an uncharacteristic pair of errors by rightfielder Mike McGann, a past Cannons Defensive Player of the Year recipient, and free agent acquisition Drew McDowell at second led to three insurance runs and the Cannons were incapable of mounting an offensive threat of any significance until the top of the seventh when Tom Luby and McDowell led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Yet Tekulve was able to use solid defense behind him to deny Connecticut in its comeback attempt. Patenaude (L, 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 K, 3 BB) pitched well enough to win Game One but on this day Tekulve had the number of the Cannons’ hitters.
Easy—like Sunday morning—Ed Poland climbed the hill for the Cannons in the second game and looked to provide Connecticut with the spark they needed to tally their first victory against Bristol (the only prior meeting between the teams was last season’s Winner’s Bracket match-up won 5-4 by Metallica, propelling them to the post-season title). The thirty-two year old right-hander was more than up to the task and resoundingly displayed why he was the Patenaude Pitching Award winner in 2006, allowing only three hits in six innings of work while battling league legend Dave Bidwell throw for throw. Reigning Most Valuable Cannon Jason Maule led off Game Two with a blast that hit high off the centerfield fence for a stand-up double, moved to third on a well-placed Poland ground out to second and scored on a passed ball to give the Cannons their first run and first lead of the 2007 campaign. Poland got the top three batters in order—two on strike outs—but was touched for the tying run in the following frame on a walk, balk, passed ball and two-out error by third baseman Mike Calabrese. The Cannons had a scoring opportunity in the third when Calabrese reached on an error and Maule walked with just one down but Bidwell managed to escape the jam with a strike out and a pop up to third to end the inning. Poland then allowed a lead-off single to Oliver Platt in the home half of the third, followed by a Dick Sanford sacrifice, but was able to erase the lead runner on a pitcher-to-third fielder’s choice. Trouble ensued when two pop-ups, one foul and one fair, dropped to the ground continuing Bristol’s at-bat. The additional opportunities came back to haunt Connecticut as a bases-loaded walk to Lord Farquarson pushed across the go-ahead run, one the Cannons would chase over the remaining course of the game. In the top half of the fourth, Leo Dionicio, the Gringo from Santo Domingo, led off with a single and moved to third on a Markie base hit and advance. However a strike out and two come-backers followed and Bidwell again battled out of an inning unscathed and the Cannons would only manage two more hits over the remainder of the contest on singles by Luby and newcomer Craig Perrier in the sixth and seventh innings respectively. Poland (L, 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 6 K, 6 BB) was equally impressive over the final three frames, allowing just two bases on balls but clearly Connecticut’s comeback bid did not go well and the Cannons now are the only A Division team without a win following the first weekend of play.
The Connecticut Cannons are unaccustomed to starting a season 0-2 having walked away with opening weekend victories in each of the past three seasons. However, the team remains upbeat—as always—having hung with a battle-tested Bristol ball club that showed no ill effects of a championship hangover. “We faced two seasoned starters right out of the box and we competed,” stated Manager Matt Celio in his post-game press conference. “This is the best product we’ve put out there, our pitchers were in mid-season form and as our bats heat up we will make all members of Cannon Nation forget the sting of April come the end of August. We played a couple of close games that just didn’t go our way today, made a few mistakes and Bristol made them hurt. These guys are the reigning champs and they played like it. But it’s not ’06 any more. When all is said and done we’ll be there when it really counts in ’07, guaranteed.” Mark Lynch added, “It’s great to be back for another season of Cannons Baseball. MP was solid and EP was throwing hard out there. As a matter of fact I’ve got a little swelling of the index finger from Poland's pop. We’ll remember to take the bats out of the truck next week and we’ll be right where we want to be. No worries.” McDowell echoed these sentiments: “Good team, played hard. We’re coming together, getting better and though we still have a little way to go we’re going to win when it matters most.” The Cannons (0-2) have a climb ahead starting with two next Sunday against the Glastonbury Marlins (1-1) in the home opener at New Cannons Yards in Newington. It is said that the journey is half the fun and the Cannons are ready to face any and all challengers as the Sir Edmund Hillary’s of the hard ball world. Get climbing, Cannon Nation…and hang on tight because you won’t want to miss this trek to the top!
Cannons News and Notes: Both Bristol and Connecticut had ten hits on the day (the Cannons’ average ended at .196 while Continental’s was .222); the one run scored by the team was its lowest output ever in a twin bill; Cannons’ batters stuck out sixteen times during the two games; Luby’s two hits on Sunday give him 95 for his illustrious Cannons career…a media circus will surely follow as Mike Weber (97) and Lubes both approach the century plateau with memorabilia hounds undoubtedly looking to get their hands on a piece of history, hanging on every single swing of the bat; Markie was the only other Cannon with two hits on the day; Lynch doubled in Game One giving him his first extra base hit as a Cannon; following his usual pre-game ritual, Dionicio connected with thirty-seven of fifty popcorn kernels (74%)…the Latin Lothario was also overheard in the locker room saying, “Craig [Perrier] is going to become my new girlfriend. I love the new guy at first. [Chris] Barsa sucks…and sometimes swallows.”; Perrier, when asked by reporters how hard it was to find Bristol Central, replied in return, “What’s more difficult to find, the Lost Ark or this place?”; in the fifth inning of the first game McDowell attempted to toss a ball back to Patenaude from second that struck field umpire Jason Rentas squarely in the back; when members of the press asked John Mancini how it felt to face A Division pitching after taking a year off from the league he provided a one-word answer: “Foreign.”; Mancini, Markie, McDowell and McGann shared a Hall High School Homeroom in 1989…there are now seven former Hall Warriors (Celio, Luby and Weber) and one Conard Chieftain (Calabrese) on the active roster; Celio and Weber are the only Cannons to attend all seven of the team’s Opening Day double dips; Calabrese, when begged for a sound byte about why he was so “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed” for the games, quipped, “Because I actually went to bed last night.”; Cal, to the surprise of team doctors and teammates alike, announced after last weekend’s missed practices that he has been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes (his absence was blamed on what team officials explained cryptically as the “heavy sugar content in red wine”); the team dedicated this season to the memory or Rick Weber, retiring a crimson Cannons #0 jersey before the first game; standing room only tickets will be made available to the public two hours before game time (a 10:05 a.m. TBS start) and the New Cannon Yards box office.
Bristol Quiets Cannons, Scrapes Out Opening Sunday Sweep
Bristol, CT (AP)—Following a respectable third-place finish in their first season as members of the CNMSBL A Division in 2006, the Connecticut Cannons along with every card-carrying citizen of the frenzied fan base known as Cannon Nation had a galvanizing goal for 2007: League Champs. Simply stated, nothing less would suffice. Off-season upgrades both on and off the diamond—from fantastic free agent signings to a much-ballyhooed field change—elicited expectations of dizzying degrees and the experience garnered from the grueling regular season and glorious post-season performance in ’06 were supposed to be the first steps toward solidifying the Cannons as kings of the proverbial CNMSBL mountain. Unfortunately fate can be a fickle mistress and the heavy metal members of the defending champion Bristol Continental Metal Company scratched by Connecticut 4-0 and 2-1 in Opening Day action at Bristol, instead leaving the league up-starts staring up from the bottom of the scrap heap that is the current CNMSBL league standings and the would-be-king Cannons paraphrasing Shakespeare and imploring, A win! A win! Our kingdom for a win!
Ageless pitcher Mike Patenaude took the mound in an opener for the fifth time in his storied seven-year career with the team and Ponce de Cannon once again proved that he has tapped some mythical fountain of youth, tossing six innings while scattering just seven hits against a Bristol team that for most of the game was lullabyed by the cagey left-hander. The fifty-one year old Patenaude allowed a run in the first on a Bunty Ray triple followed by a ball in the dirt that got away from catcher Steve Markie but was able to settle in and face just sixteen batters over the first four frames. The notoriously slow-starting Cannons offense went hitless until the fourth when Ed Poland had a single but otherwise the line-up had little success against sidewinder Kent Tekulve and his buggy-whip arm. In the home half of the fifth, walks and an uncharacteristic pair of errors by rightfielder Mike McGann, a past Cannons Defensive Player of the Year recipient, and free agent acquisition Drew McDowell at second led to three insurance runs and the Cannons were incapable of mounting an offensive threat of any significance until the top of the seventh when Tom Luby and McDowell led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Yet Tekulve was able to use solid defense behind him to deny Connecticut in its comeback attempt. Patenaude (L, 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 K, 3 BB) pitched well enough to win Game One but on this day Tekulve had the number of the Cannons’ hitters.
Easy—like Sunday morning—Ed Poland climbed the hill for the Cannons in the second game and looked to provide Connecticut with the spark they needed to tally their first victory against Bristol (the only prior meeting between the teams was last season’s Winner’s Bracket match-up won 5-4 by Metallica, propelling them to the post-season title). The thirty-two year old right-hander was more than up to the task and resoundingly displayed why he was the Patenaude Pitching Award winner in 2006, allowing only three hits in six innings of work while battling league legend Dave Bidwell throw for throw. Reigning Most Valuable Cannon Jason Maule led off Game Two with a blast that hit high off the centerfield fence for a stand-up double, moved to third on a well-placed Poland ground out to second and scored on a passed ball to give the Cannons their first run and first lead of the 2007 campaign. Poland got the top three batters in order—two on strike outs—but was touched for the tying run in the following frame on a walk, balk, passed ball and two-out error by third baseman Mike Calabrese. The Cannons had a scoring opportunity in the third when Calabrese reached on an error and Maule walked with just one down but Bidwell managed to escape the jam with a strike out and a pop up to third to end the inning. Poland then allowed a lead-off single to Oliver Platt in the home half of the third, followed by a Dick Sanford sacrifice, but was able to erase the lead runner on a pitcher-to-third fielder’s choice. Trouble ensued when two pop-ups, one foul and one fair, dropped to the ground continuing Bristol’s at-bat. The additional opportunities came back to haunt Connecticut as a bases-loaded walk to Lord Farquarson pushed across the go-ahead run, one the Cannons would chase over the remaining course of the game. In the top half of the fourth, Leo Dionicio, the Gringo from Santo Domingo, led off with a single and moved to third on a Markie base hit and advance. However a strike out and two come-backers followed and Bidwell again battled out of an inning unscathed and the Cannons would only manage two more hits over the remainder of the contest on singles by Luby and newcomer Craig Perrier in the sixth and seventh innings respectively. Poland (L, 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 6 K, 6 BB) was equally impressive over the final three frames, allowing just two bases on balls but clearly Connecticut’s comeback bid did not go well and the Cannons now are the only A Division team without a win following the first weekend of play.
The Connecticut Cannons are unaccustomed to starting a season 0-2 having walked away with opening weekend victories in each of the past three seasons. However, the team remains upbeat—as always—having hung with a battle-tested Bristol ball club that showed no ill effects of a championship hangover. “We faced two seasoned starters right out of the box and we competed,” stated Manager Matt Celio in his post-game press conference. “This is the best product we’ve put out there, our pitchers were in mid-season form and as our bats heat up we will make all members of Cannon Nation forget the sting of April come the end of August. We played a couple of close games that just didn’t go our way today, made a few mistakes and Bristol made them hurt. These guys are the reigning champs and they played like it. But it’s not ’06 any more. When all is said and done we’ll be there when it really counts in ’07, guaranteed.” Mark Lynch added, “It’s great to be back for another season of Cannons Baseball. MP was solid and EP was throwing hard out there. As a matter of fact I’ve got a little swelling of the index finger from Poland's pop. We’ll remember to take the bats out of the truck next week and we’ll be right where we want to be. No worries.” McDowell echoed these sentiments: “Good team, played hard. We’re coming together, getting better and though we still have a little way to go we’re going to win when it matters most.” The Cannons (0-2) have a climb ahead starting with two next Sunday against the Glastonbury Marlins (1-1) in the home opener at New Cannons Yards in Newington. It is said that the journey is half the fun and the Cannons are ready to face any and all challengers as the Sir Edmund Hillary’s of the hard ball world. Get climbing, Cannon Nation…and hang on tight because you won’t want to miss this trek to the top!
Cannons News and Notes: Both Bristol and Connecticut had ten hits on the day (the Cannons’ average ended at .196 while Continental’s was .222); the one run scored by the team was its lowest output ever in a twin bill; Cannons’ batters stuck out sixteen times during the two games; Luby’s two hits on Sunday give him 95 for his illustrious Cannons career…a media circus will surely follow as Mike Weber (97) and Lubes both approach the century plateau with memorabilia hounds undoubtedly looking to get their hands on a piece of history, hanging on every single swing of the bat; Markie was the only other Cannon with two hits on the day; Lynch doubled in Game One giving him his first extra base hit as a Cannon; following his usual pre-game ritual, Dionicio connected with thirty-seven of fifty popcorn kernels (74%)…the Latin Lothario was also overheard in the locker room saying, “Craig [Perrier] is going to become my new girlfriend. I love the new guy at first. [Chris] Barsa sucks…and sometimes swallows.”; Perrier, when asked by reporters how hard it was to find Bristol Central, replied in return, “What’s more difficult to find, the Lost Ark or this place?”; in the fifth inning of the first game McDowell attempted to toss a ball back to Patenaude from second that struck field umpire Jason Rentas squarely in the back; when members of the press asked John Mancini how it felt to face A Division pitching after taking a year off from the league he provided a one-word answer: “Foreign.”; Mancini, Markie, McDowell and McGann shared a Hall High School Homeroom in 1989…there are now seven former Hall Warriors (Celio, Luby and Weber) and one Conard Chieftain (Calabrese) on the active roster; Celio and Weber are the only Cannons to attend all seven of the team’s Opening Day double dips; Calabrese, when begged for a sound byte about why he was so “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed” for the games, quipped, “Because I actually went to bed last night.”; Cal, to the surprise of team doctors and teammates alike, announced after last weekend’s missed practices that he has been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes (his absence was blamed on what team officials explained cryptically as the “heavy sugar content in red wine”); the team dedicated this season to the memory or Rick Weber, retiring a crimson Cannons #0 jersey before the first game; standing room only tickets will be made available to the public two hours before game time (a 10:05 a.m. TBS start) and the New Cannon Yards box office.
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