ROAD WARRIORS
First Draft of A Division Schedule Released, Cannons on Road Until June

West Hartford/Newington, CT (AP)—To paraphrase Mad Max: “They say people don’t believe in heroes anymore. Well damn them! We’re gonna give them back their heroes!” In 2008, the Connecticut Cannons will have to do much of their early damage on the road against newly configured divisional foes, forcing people from the farthest reaches of the region to endure a heavy dose of hero worship as they stare straight down the bore of this loaded Cannons team. Connecticut will play its first six games away from the comfy confines of Cannons Yards with road trips to Winsted (4/27), Eastern Connecticut (5/4) and Hartford (5/18) dominating the early season docket. With the standard off-weekends for Mother’s and Memorial Days—May 23 and 24 will see several Cannons participating in the second annual Step Up to the Plate Charity Baseball Marathon—the town of Newington suffers, satiating its hardball hunger on the far less appetizing offerings dished out by the cross-town rival Capitals. Connecticut’s first home game is slated for June 1, an inter-league double dip against the Glastonbury Marlins and five of the last seven weekends of the regular season will be played before a packed house at the Yards, closing the campaign with three consecutive home dates against divisional opponents as those other teams jockey for second place behind Connecticut. “Anybody, anytime, anyplace it’s fairly simple. We plan to go out there and play them one game at a time,” said Manager Matt Celio as he emerged from World Headquarters this afternoon. “I’m pleased with the challenges ahead because I thought it would be good for this team to go on the road early where we’ve had great success over the past several seasons (the Cannons posted five more wins on the road than at home in 2007). Our roster is different, better, than it was at any point last year so I’m confident we can take this show on the road and forge ourselves by fire so to speak, see how this edition of the Cannons responds to the new season and the heightened expectations for success from our fans and ourselves. Winsted (Fussenich Field) in the Opener is ideal. Get the longest road trip out of the way on a weekend when we will undoubtedly be fully loaded. Two against the defending champs at their place (Eastern Connecticut State University) and then games at the University of Hartford means we are playing solid teams at some fabulous facilities, each of which will be a first for us. It should be fun.” Road warriors: a situation that suits this Connecticut Cannons team. The world needs heroes and it will need to look no further than the baseball diamonds of central Connecticut come April when the Cannons begin to make believers out of the A Division.

Cannons News and Notes: Passion starts will the package (just ask Kelley Mancini!): only nine days removed from the mailing of the team informational packets—including a Sunday and the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday—five sets of paperwork have made their way back to Cannons World Headquarters (Celio, Tom Clark, Jason Maule, Jack Vanasse and Mike Weber…Vanasse also became the first player to place a request for team merchandise with a full-family t-shirt order)… “I cannot recall a season where passion has been paired with such punctuality,” stated the always-alliterative Celio; sources close to the Mike Calabrese situation have said that Glastonbury has joined Hartford and Southington as possible suitors for the right-hander’s services; Mark Lynch responded to rumors that the release of Calabrese from his Cannons contract might cause a rift at their Boulevard residence: “My heart is still anchored in Cannon Nation and I remain dedicated to our team;” OF John Mancini contacted Cannons management last evening in a forty minute phone conversation…Celio, Mancini, Lynch, Weber and Mike McGann have all consented to a team gathering in the next few weeks; Lynch, Weber and Scott Hurlbert have birthdays in February; Celio has been hotly pursuing yet another Hall High product, thirty-two year old Billy Gills in an effort to bolster the team’s increasingly potent pitching staff (Celio has called the attempted acquisition of pitching prospects this off-season the “Arms Race” as the team looks to address this most prominent position); Connecticut’s off-season training regimen is scheduled to start in mid-February at Hartford’s Baseball City…more details to follow; the second CNMSBL winter meeting is set for Wednesday, February 13 at the Italian Club in Avon.