SUPERIORITY “COMPLEX”
If You Build It, Cannons Will Come: Batting Cage Operational On Premises Of McDowell Manor

Brookfield, CT (AP)—On Saturday, third-year Connecticut star Drew McDowell, a three-time team award winner and reigning playoff co-Most Valuable Cannon (with pitchers Tom Clark and Mike Patenaude), welcomed seven Cannons teammates to his palatial home in the swanky settlement of Brookfield for set up and swings in the much-discussed, long-anticipated batting cage built right on his posh property. D-Mac was joined by a pair of Killer Bs (job foreman Chris “T-Rex” Barsa and Andy “Father of Cannons Baseball” Borst), the Killer Cs (Manager Matt Celio, Juan Checo and Clark) and a WMD one didn’t need to take a trip to Baghdad, Iraq to observe in action (Assistant Manager Mike Weber, McDowell and Leo Dionicio). Celio spoke with members of the media after the team arrived back at Cannons World Headquarters in West Hartford on Saturday afternoon: “Winter meetings are one thing, but for me, this is the true start of the 2009 campaign, one that is shaping up to be our best ever. Only eleven weeks until the Opener (a re-match against the Winsted Rifles, who unceremoniously sent the Cannons packing from last year’s playoffs, awaits; this is the second straight season the CNMSBL has made this a first-weekend slugfest and the league’s ‘Games of the Week’). I know today’s hard work will pay off early and often in ’09. I’d love to see the team get some swings in on Saturdays and Sundays before the season starts to make sure we come out firing in April (the next visit has not yet been announced). I’m a firm believer in the tenet ‘good things happen to good people.’ Today the Cannons showed how much we care about our team and our teammates and this dedication and desire will undoubtedly go a long way toward a title in 2009. We’ve definitely got something special here.” After some individual touch up work after the team departed, McDowell added via e-mail, “Again, I really want to thank everyone…the seven guys were ‘real men’ today and I couldn’t have accomplished this without them. At this point, all the ropes are up and the seventy-two footers on top pull the net away from the five arcs. It looks real good and is ready for ‘prime time’ use. I look forward to everyone using it as much as possible before the season to get us ready. It’s time to ‘Play Ball!” As bitter cold January came to a close, the sights, sounds and even the smells of Connecticut Cannons Baseball were indeed back in full swing (Dionicio dropped wolf bait before getting in the Cannonmobile for the return trip…Checo immediately jumped in the front seat, refusing to sit “in the line of fire”). The sports complex is open and available for use, a move that should clearly allow the Cannons to experience a sense of superiority from April through end of August. The fuse is lit and the Cannons are on fire!

Batting Cage Brute Squad: Members of the Connecticut Cannons celebrate a job well done after a Saturday spent setting up the regulation batting cage at Drew McDowell’s Brookfield, CT home.
From L-R—Juan Checo, Chris Barsa, Tom Clark, Mike Weber, McDowell, Matt Celio and Leo Dionicio; not pictured—Andy Borst (AP Photo by Barbara McDowell).

Cannons News and Notes: Fork Ball, 2009’s annual couples pre-season event, is shaping up as quite the shindig: the team plans to party Cannon-style at Pazzo Café in Glastonbury (just miles from Riverfront Field, home of the third edition of the Step Up to the Plate Charity Baseball Marathon) on Saturday, February 21 beginning at 6:30...Bill Balcerzak, Barsa, Celio, Clark, Mark Lynch, Mike McGann, newcomer Josh Svoboda (Adam Pallone’s cousin) and Weber have already confirmed…McDowell and wife Barbara have tentatively agreed to attend (Pallone and blushing bride Lauren are also expected to be present with Svoboda locked and loaded); Balcerzak plans to put his “low calorie diet sans booze” on hold—the infielder has dropped fifteen pounds since New Year’s…earlier reports had this incorrectly listed as “low carb”—and has invited teammates to his Hartford home for a spectacular sporting event one week from this evening (Wednesday, February 11 for #20 Syracuse v. #1 UCONN in Big East basketball action on ESPN): recently the father of two explained, “I’m fed up with Elmo and need to re-claim my manhood!” …Celio, Clark, McGann and Weber have expressed early interest…all are welcome; Lynch (tomorrow, the 5th) and Weber (16th) have birthdays in February; like his Dominican counterpart on the return trip, Dionicio sat in the front seat on the way down to McDowell’s saying, “Obama is in office now. I won’t sit in the ‘back of the bus’ for these Blanquitos anymore!”…when passing a BJs Wholesale Club just outside of Waterbury, “El Gringo de Santo Domingo” said simply, “BJ…I need one of those.”…he had no immediate takers…“El Heartthrob de Hispaniola” attempted to get management’s goat by calling Windsor Mets Manager Ruben Serrano, inquiring about the new A Division entry’s depth at shortstop, during the fifty minute ride; Checo and Dionicio conversed en Español for much of the set up…Celio subsequently added the Rosetta Stone Spanish version to the team’s ’09 budget; Clark is excited about the prospects for the upcoming campaign: “I am looking forward to shutting down Suffield and Windsor—among others—on the mound and hitting my tight, firm a** off!”; the oft-injured Celio became caught in the cage netting, tripped and hammered his head into the concrete flooring, suffering a concussion (a Monday afternoon visit to team doctor’s confirmed post-traumatic contusion syndrome): “I probably should have let someone else drive home,” stated Celio (Celio’s first concussion came when his father placed his three year old on top of a refrigerator and left the room…after the toddler’s tumble, the elder Celio went to watch a Los Angeles Rams game with friends)…Weber initially laughed out loud as Celio windmilled his arms in an attempt to keep his balance, “And then I heard his head his the ground.”…lawsuits against the makers of the batting cage, Nike Shox and McDowell are impending; McDowell also suffered minor injuries when one of the arcs fell and hit him in the head/upper torso area (fortunately Barsa escaped uninjured…he arrived at 12:30, two and a half hours after his teammates and just in time for pizza, and then spent much of the next three hours watching “his workers”); McGann, unable to attend because of basketball practice, had a premonition of “something bad happening”…McGann was part of the most prominent presentiment in team history after Celio awoke at 2:22 on the morning of the Cardinals-Cannons Championship continuation (the 2005 B Division title tilt was interrupted due to a torrential downpour after Connecticut charged back from a seven-run deficit to knot the score at nine). The Manager predicted that #2 (McGann) and #22 (Tom Bogiatzis, for whom the team’s postseason award in now named) would play pivotal parts in the Cannons’ Championship: McGann, pinch running for Steve Markie, scored the game-winning run on a Bogiatzis single to left securing a 10-9 victory; McGann’s older brother, Kevin, was offered a one-year incentive-laden contract by Connecticut but the three-time Cannon Award winner respectfully declined: “I have thought about the team’s generous offer and, honestly, if I thought I could really help I would play in a heartbeat. But when I think back to my last game with the Cannons and how I was struggling to make the throw form second to first, I don’t think it makes sense for me to return. I appreciate management thinking of me. I will be out there supporting the team when I can and I’d love to make a Cannons’ night out.”; Cannons reporters will add a weekly “Studs and Duds” section to the already popular News and Notes portion of the write-ups: this week’s “Stud”…Pallone for sending in paperwork and payment; this week’s “Dud”…Celio for cracking his skull (honorable mention to John “The Cadaver” Mancini for once again announcing his retirement…Clark and Dionicio concur that “Mancer Mojo” will get at least one at-bat in ’09); the third CNMSBL Winter Meeting will be held in two weeks at the Italian Club in Avon (Tom Luby’s home town).