BIG GAME HUNTERS
Cannons Kill Cubs, Set Sites on CNMSBL Championship

Manchester, CT (AP)—Hunting is the practice of tracking animals for products—food, fur, etc.—or simple recreation. Conversely, big-game hunting is the sport of trophy hunting for large and often dangerous beasts involving the heightened excitement of a kill or be killed atmosphere. Hunters of all ilks persistently bait, drive, stalk, track or trap their prey until eventually only one is left standing, winning in the basest form of the word. On Sunday, the proverbial hunters became the hunted as the Eastern Connecticut Cubs (11-7) hungrily welcomed the Connecticut Cannons (4-14) to their den at Mt. Nebo Field in Manchester in the regular-season finale of the 2007 campaign. Expecting easy pickings and a pair of Ws, the Baby Bears instead found themselves staring straight down the barrel of a fully armed and dangerous Cannons team and, before the day was complete, were subsequently nagged, scragged, tagged and bagged in a pair of losses, a 3-2 thriller and an 8-3 laugher. As August enters its second weekend, the Connecticut Cannons will engage in a different sort of trophy hunting: the all-important, all-consuming task of taking their first CNMSBL A Division title. The road will be fraught with danger but this team resoundingly showed that it is more than up to the challenge. Tally-ho, Cannon Nation!

Game One featured a match-up of the league’s old and new—with red beating blue—as Connecticut’s cagey veteran Mike Patenaude squared of against Eastern Connecticut’s Eddie Murphy. The Cannons’ elder statesman surrendered a first-inning run on a Leif Ericson walk and a Brooks Dunne single as Leo Dionicio’s throw to first on a ball hit to the hole with a clear-cut force at second extended the inning for the Cubs (in classic Dionicio fashion after the third out the “Dominican Destroyer” entered the visiting dugout and promised Patenaude, “I owe you one,” prompting Manager Matt Celio to recall the numerous instances that this very pledge has been made saying, “You maxed out that line of credit so long ago that your nickname should be Visa.”). Patenaude resoundingly responded, holding Eastern Connecticut scoreless over the next four frames while allowing just three runners to reach safely on two singles and a double. Murphy was equally as effective scattering five hits through the first five innings before being touched for the tying run in the top of the sixth on singles by Dionicio and Tom Luby, a base on balls to free agent acquisition Kevin Quinn and a two-out bases loaded walk to Mike Weber. The Cubs came back in the home half of the sixth as lead-off batter Mike Kakalow walked, stole second and scored on Paul Verboven’s double before Patenaude (7 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 7 H, 3 K, 2 BB, 1 HBP) struck out Erle Stanley Gardner and Dunne flied to Jason Maule in center, one of six put-outs for the Cannons’ speedy Defensive Player of the Year candidate. Connecticut, no strangers to late-inning letdowns, found themselves on the right side of a rally as Craig “Water” Perrier and Drew “Louisiana Lightnin’” McDowell singled with one out and Mike “Big Mac” McGann worked a two out walk to load the bases for Dionicio. The “Hitter From Hispaniola” balanced the books and came through in the clutch with a two-run single that gave the Cannons a 3-2 advantage (McGann was eventually tagged out in a rundown as he attempted to score on Dionicio’s advance to second). Patenaude (3-7) ran into some difficulty in the bottom of the seventh as Royce Bentley singled to start the inning. An amazing stop by Luby on a hot shot to third gave the Cannons’ hurler a much-needed out but the tying run moved into scoring position with only one away. At 0-2 Patenaude plunked an overpowered Stavros Mikos before another fly out to Maule in center brought the tenth batter Rouge Moulin to the plate. An error by Dionicio on a ground ball to short loaded the bases with the hard-hitting Kakalow approaching the plate. Pitcher and shortstop exchanged words and the “Gringo From Santo Domingo” exhorted the left-hander to direct his anger toward short: “Get mad at ME!” Dionicio demanded in an attempt to pump his pitcher up. When his son Bryan was asked if he was loud like his Dad on the diamond, the younger Dionicio replied, “No. I don’t say stupid things like he does.” On his one hundredth pitch of the contest Patenaude popped the Cubbies’ Manager to center to secure a hard-fought, well-played, one-run victory. Designated hitter Chris Barsa was impressed with the team’s performance: “Mike has been throwing the ball well over the second half of the season and today was another example of why we will be tough to beat in an elimination game. Defensively we were solid and offensively we are starting to hit better top to bottom.” When Barsa was asked about Dionicio’s big hit, his longtime teammate quipped, “I was less surprised that Leo got a hit in that situation than I was with the fact that a Latino actually paid a bill in a timely fashion.” Laughs and a light-hearted milieu marked this Cannons clubhouse, an energy that has been lacking in large quantities since last August seemed to reinvigorate the team carrying over into the final regular-season contest.

Game Two saw the Cannons jump out to an early three-run lead courtesy of the Holy Trinity’s “Son” and “Father Almighty,” Dionicio and Luby. McGann reached when he was hit in the right bicep by a Kakalow fastball—though bruised and battered, he is listed as day to day—and moved to second on a passed ball. Dionicio, in search of his first batting title with Connecticut, smoked a double that moved McGann around to score with the first run of the game. Luby followed with a towering two-run blast down the left-field line for his first home run of the season—the team-leading eleventh of his colorful career—and a 3-0 Cannons lead. Patenaude (2 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 H, 1 K, 1 HBP), starting for the tenth time in the team’s final twelve games, relinquished two runs to the Cubs on a Kakalow single, an Ericson RBI double and a Dunne run-scoring single to pull the home team back within one but the Cannons offense was far from done for the day. In the second, Mark “Keyser Soze” Lynch singled and Barsa walked before Maule and McGann stroked singles that plated the pair. In the third, Luby doubled deep to the corner in left, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a Perrier ground out to the right side to put Connecticut comfortably ahead 6-2. The home half of the third inning saw the much-anticipated mound debut of Quinn, the highly-touted pitching prospect out of Central Connecticut State University (expected to be a big part of the ’07 recruiting class along with McDowell and Perrier, the right-hander battled through some early season arm problems before his call-up to the club on Sunday). “K-Dog” as he is affectionately known baffled the Bears with his quirky motion, allowing an unearned run to cross in the third before silencing Eastern Connecticut’s sticks almost entirely. The Cannons were able to add a pair of runs in the sixth on a two-out Weber single and a bomb by Jason “Holy Spirit” Maule to deep to right field to give the righty a five-run cushion. Quinn (5 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 5 BB) didn’t disappoint as he used solid play from his defense—a pair of double plays started by Luby at third and some strong snags by Barsa in left after he replaced an injured Patenaude—to secure his first victory in a Cannons uniform. Quinn (1-0) was quoted after the game: “It’s been awhile since I’ve been on the bump. I didn’t have my best stuff out there and I was short-arming a lot of my off-speed stuff. It felt great to be playing ball at a high level again, especially to be part of two wins which I know are the signal to the start of a memorable August. It was all that I expected and more and I really enjoyed playing with these guys. I wish I could be a part of the Championship run this season but I’ll definitely be back in 2008.” As the rookie right-hander expressed, there is still much to be done in 2007’s eighth month before the Cannons turn their attention to next season as the playoffs loom largely ahead.

August has arrived and on a weekend marked by major historical moments on the diamond—Barry Bonds tying Hank Aaron atop the career home run list with 755, Alex Rodriguez becoming the youngest player to reach the 500 homer plateau and Tom Glavine pitching his way into the exclusive 300 win club—every eye in the baseball world was focused on miniscule Manchester, the Connecticut Cannons and their upcoming quest for immortality. Does this team have the firepower to compete for and ultimately capture the CNMSBL Championship in 2007? If Sunday was any indication, then the answer is a resounding YES! An opening round match-up against the second-seeded Hartford Nationals (13-5) this Saturday (10:00 a.m.) at Sacco Stadium at Alumni Field—a.k.a. Newington High School—marks the beginning of what should be an epic journey on the path to greatness. Limited tickets for the first and second games on what sports fans call the CNMSBL’s Super Saturday are available at 1 800 CANNONS or on-line at ctcannons.blogspot.com. Connecticut, bored with conventional prey like the antagonist in Richard Connell’s classic short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” has come to see Hartford as the only quarry—the most dangerous prey—worthy of their skills. Pick up your balls and load up your Cannons for a twenty-one gun salute, AC/DC fans. Ready! AIM! FIRE! Let the hunt for RED August begin.

Cannons News and Notes: With six hits on Sunday, Dionicio (.484) became the team’s first minority member to win a batting title—including the Cannons’ one hundred fiftieth and final hit of the regular season—a feat on par with Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the Major League color barrier sixty years ago…Dionicio on Sunday stated: “I hate white people. The members of Los Fraternity Blanquitos—Lambda Lambda Lambda—are always trying to keep me down. But white woman are freaks!;” Luby and Maule tied for the team lead with twenty-two hits each; Maule led the team in seven other offensive categories as well: at-bats (56), doubles (8), home runs (2), runs (20), RBI (15), slugging percentage (.643) and on-base + slugging percentage (1.120); Luby is the Cannons’ lifetime leader with eighty-one RBI; Celio, Dionicio, Luby, Steve Markie and Maule all finished the season with batting averages above .300; Celio is the Cannons’ all-time leader in hits (119), doubles (26), walks (39…tied with Andy Borst) and runs (71); with a base-on-balls and a hit-by-pitch, McGann took over the team lead with ten free passes in 2007, surpassing Maule and McDowell (9 each); Mike Calabrese did not strike out in his twenty-six at-bats this season…Maule struck out only once in his fifty-six at-bats…in the first inning of the first game on the road at Bristol and has only struck out three times in two full seasons (ninety-seven at-bats); with a batting average of .418, Ed Poland still holds the all-time team mark despite missing much of the season with a knee injury; Weber (325) and Celio (308) are the only Cannons with more than three hundred at-bats (Luby has 297) accounting for nearly seventeen percent of the team’s seven-season total; Quinn became the first Cannons rookie to win his first start since Calabrese in ’05…he allowed just one hit in fourteen at-bats for a batting average against of .071; Patenaude pitched in twelve games this season and had three of the team’s six wins; McDowell appeared in all twenty games for the Cannons (starting nineteen), the only player to do so this year; when recalling last season’s games at Mt. Nebo, Maule mentioned: “It was like two or three years ago that Cal hit [Bill] Lageman with a pitch to force in the game winner. Oh wait, I’ve only played on the Cannons for two seasons…it seems more like ten;” the Cannons averaged 3.95 runs per contest while allowing 7.1; the team belted 7.5 hits each game while surrendering 9.7; with six victories the Cannons posted their top win total in A Division play; Patenaude, after three full seasons playing alongside Barsa, still refers to the veteran as “Bozrah,” a small town in Connecticut; Italian-Fest ’07 was held on Friday evening at Cannons World Headquarters in West Hartford and was attended by twelve current and former players (eight arrived on Sunday for some post-game carbo-loading)…the team has never lost on a Sunday following this annual event though this marked the first time the Cannons have swept a double header after the gathering; Perrier claimed Celio was “throwing down pasta like a mob boss” at Italian-Fest; at the party, Celio discovered from Kathy Patenaude that she has to “blow [Mike] every Sunday after games” to which the pitcher responded “it costs me more and more money each week;” after Patenaude’s muscle pull in the fifth inning of Game Two, it was announced that although he will be fine to pitch there would be no more hitting or running for him this season…Celio called this “the perfect injury;” MP earned rave reviews from the team for his two new styles of leading: 1) the arm-out Zoolander; and 2) the arms-on-hips Captain Morgan; while watching Gladiator at World Headquarters on Saturday evening, McGann informed management that he “like[s] Russell Crowe…he dated Meg Ryan;” McGann also announced that it is difficult to keep his private life under wraps because of the close personal relationship between Perrier and girlfriend Sarah “Splinter Cell” Akhtar; Perrier, after a one-for-six performance on Sunday, has scheduled an eye examination for 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday in Springfield…new contacts are expected to arrive within forty-eight hours just in time for the playoffs; Luby sipped a Sam Adams Light between games, saying that John Mancini’s newly-formed affiliation with Budweiser forced a change; polls for the 2007 Cannons Awards are currently open—three full ballots have already been cast—and will remain so until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, August 10.