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Lions Announce Coaching Staff
The Lions have announced their coaching staff for the 2006 season and Coach Ringer couldn't be happier. Coach Ringer will be joined by Linganore High School Head Coach Matt Troy who will bring considerable high level experience to the team in all areas of the game. A real "player's coach", Coach Troy is a stickler for fundamentals and he'll help ensure that the players are as mechanically sound as possible. Under Coach Troy's new guidance, Linganore High School enjoyed their first winning season in 6 years in 2006.
Coach Jeff Shapelow just announced that he'll return to the team for the 2006 season as well. Coach Shapelow has been involved intimately as a coach with the Lions from the very beginning. He brings a considerable array of experience to the team having coached travel teams in Texas and Maryland as well. Coach Shapelow's son Kyle will be joining the staff this year. Kyle is entering his junior year in college having enjoyed a stellar year with CCBC-Essex where he was a star outfielder and was a team leader in stolen bases.
Walkersville High School Varsity Coach Jeremy Long will also be assisting the Lions staff as our hitting instructor. Coach Long is one of the finest hitting instructors in the region having enjoyed a stellar high school and college career and was also drafted into the pros.
Coach Mike Ashbaugh will be handling many of the team operational matters while also contributing on the field as well. Coach Ashbaugh is the co-director of the Frederick Rangers travel program where he has coached numerous travel teams over the last 5 years.
We're very excited about our staff for the coming year and we are confident that all of the various sources of instruction will greatly benefit our players.
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Buck O'Neil Needs to be in the Hall of Fame
In this June 4, 2006, file photo, New York Mets center fielder Carlos Beltran embraces Buck O'Neil,...
At 94, O'Neil to Play in All-Star Game
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 7:26 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By DAVE SKRETTA
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil never got a free pass in life.
The grandson of a man brought to this continent as a slave, O'Neil moved to Kansas City to avoid racial persecution in the Deep South and played baseball during an era of segregation.
It figures that on Tuesday night, when the 94-year-old steps into the batter's box during a minor league all-star game, nobody will quibble over an intentional walk.
Except maybe O'Neil.
"I just might take a swing at one," he said before Tuesday night's Northern League event.
The Kansas City T-Bones signed O'Neil to a one-day contract, likely making him the oldest professional baseball player. He would surpass 83-year-old Jim Eriotes, who struck out in a minor league game in South Dakota earlier this month, by more than a decade.
"I imagine the bat's a little heavier than that club I've been swinging," said O'Neil, who maintains he can still shoot his age in golf. "It's been a long time since I've picked up a bat."
Nobody disputes that O'Neil's involvement in the game borders on a gimmick. But his supporters hope it also provides a boost in their quest to get him into Cooperstown.
In May, a special 12-member panel did not choose O'Neil for the Hall of Fame, though it did vote in 17 people from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues eras.
On a day that was to be his crowning achievement, O'Neil quietly sat at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., and accepted that his name wasn't called.
"It was a roller coaster for everybody except him," said Bob Kendrick, the museum's director of marketing. "Certainly he was disappointed. But he taught us how to handle disappointment. In the scope of things that have happened in his life, not getting into the Hall pales in comparison."
Since the ballot was cast, the T-Bones have become the unofficial champions of Buck O'Neil.
General Manager Rick Montean said the club has been passing petitions through the stands at all home games, asking commissioner Bud Selig or former commissioner Fay Vincent to intervene.
Team owner John Ehlert then suggested O'Neil actually play in the league's all-star game. The plan is to allow him one at-bat for each team, intentionally walking each time.
"The Negro Leagues were the original independent baseball," Ehlert said. "And Buck O'Neil is the patriarch of independent baseball."
A lifetime .288 hitter and two-time Negro League batting champion, O'Neil became major league baseball's first black coach with the Chicago Cubs. He went on to discover Hall of Famer Lou Brock and countless others as a scout, and now works tirelessly with Kendrick to keep alive the story of the Negro Leagues.
His exclusion from the Hall of Fame caught nearly everybody by surprise. Players including Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks and Brock took aim at the selection process, and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City, said the vote had left "a community in tears."
"He should be celebrated in baseball," said Kansas City T-Bones manager Al Gallagher, a former San Francisco Giants pitcher who met O'Neil in the late 1960s. "Why the commissioner hasn't put him in the Hall of Fame, I have no idea."
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Lions Enjoy High School Success!
The 2005 Fall Season Lions enjoyed a vast amount of high school success this season. Virtually every single member of last fall's squad either made their varsity squad outright, or was a call-up after the season began. Every member of the squad enjoyed a very successful season for their respective teams, standing out among their peers.
Catoctin ace Daniel Miller notched a number of successful innings on the hill for his team while being their everyday third baseman and hitting in the middle of the order.
Adam Shapelow and Nick Keefer were the solid backbone of the Walkersville High School varsity team hitting in the 3 and 4 spot all season. Keefer was honored with All-MVAL First Team honors. Christopher Dube' and Brian Smith tore up the Junior Varsity scene and earned varsity call-ups shortly after the season began. Fireballing right hander Justin Denton also got the call up to offer his pitching services after he dominated JV competition.
Linganore fab-Freshman Dani Ashbaugh made a big impression on the coaching staff and was selected to the varsity squad from the beginning. Ashbaugh saw some varsity innings and also got considerable work on the hill for the Lancers' JV team, dominating in every appearance. Pat Quinn made several quality plate appearances late in the season as a DH for the Lancers after he was cleared to play as a result of wrist surgery.
The Brunswick Railroaders were quite impressed with Freshman Houston Darling and Darling was named to the varsity roster. Darling got quite a bit of varsity play time and also was used extensively splitting time and dominating the JV scene.
Middletown Knight Will Bell showed off his impressive skills to the coaching staff and was an everyday JV starter contributing with his impressive pitching skills and his bat, going deep with the long ball.
Calvert Hall Cardinal Michael Dillon enjoyed a Cinderella season. Dillon was able to break his way into the stacked varsity lineup. Dillon was a solid contributor with his bat notching several homeruns and also with his arm as a pitcher on the hill. Dillon was able to contribute to his team's second MIAA A Conference Championship in as many years.
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Field of Dreams Story
Field of Dreams Story
Jun 28, 7:12 PM EDT
Graham Made It to Majors 100 Years Ago
By BEN WALKER
AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Even a century later, there's still a mystique in the ol' Moonlight. Archibald Wright Graham only played one game in the big leagues, and it was a glimmer at best. He never got to bat, and was simply a defensive replacement in right field.
"Two glorious innings in the garden," the New York Evening Telegram reported then.
Hard to believe how that brief stint for the New York Giants on June 29, 1905 - exactly 100 years ago Wednesday, at a ballfield in Brooklyn - became such a part of baseball lore.
Brought back to life by author W.P. Kinsella in his novel "Shoeless Joe" that was adapted into the movie "Field of Dreams," just the mere mention of his name evokes something magical.
Ernie Accorsi, general manager of the New York Giants football team, was among the last people to interview Moonlight Graham.
A newly hired sports writer at The Charlotte News in July 1963, Accorsi covered Graham's return to the city where he starred in the minors around the turn of the century.
"That's when I got my shot at the New York Giants," Accorsi quoted Graham in the story. "But I didn't get any breaks there."
Graham was 86 at the time and died two years later.
"He was frail, gaunt," Accorsi remembered Tuesday. "He was real talkative, but he never said anything about being called 'Moonlight.' And he didn't look like Burt Lancaster."
The Minnesota Twins plan to recognize him on Moonlight Graham Day before they play Kansas City at the Metrodome on Wednesday afternoon. The first 10,000 fans will receive a Moonlight card and clips from the film will be shown on the scoreboard.
Graham spent more than a half-century as a doctor in Chisholm, Minn., with Lancaster playing the Doc role in the movie. Graham also will be honored in the place where he made his lone appearance in the majors.
The Brooklyn Cyclones of the New York-Penn League will pay tribute to Graham before their game against New Jersey. A man dressed up as Graham will come through the center-field fence and step to the plate.
"I'm not sure if we got the smoke machine yet that we're looking for," Cyclones general manager Steve Cohen said.
Graham's story came to light mostly as a stroke of luck. Shortly after he got the Baseball Encyclopedia as a Christmas gift from his father-in-law, Kinsella was thumbing through and came across a curious listing.
"I found this entry for Moonlight Graham. How could anyone come up with that nickname? He played one game but did not get to bat. I was intrigued, and I made a note that I intended to write something about him," Kinsella said last week.
Kinsella's 1982 novel and the popular movie seven years later led to a renaissance for Graham - he was described as "quick as a flash of moonlight" as a rookie.
Born in North Carolina, Graham was a good hitter in the minors for a few years before and after his monthlong stay in the majors under manager John McGraw.
His only game action came before an estimated crowd of 2,000 at Washington Park. The stadium was a forerunner of Ebbets Field and is now paved over as a work area for the Con Edison power company.
Future Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson pitched the Giants to an 11-1 win over the Brooklyn Superbas, their nickname before the Dodgers, and there's no evidence that Graham ever touched the ball.
Records and research show that Graham never batted in the majors. But in Accorsi's story, Archie Graham remembered it a little differently - he said he got up once, walked and then injured his leg.
Accorsi said that when he first saw "Field of Dreams," he had no idea that Moonlight Graham was the same man he'd interviewed a quarter-century earlier.
"I didn't make the connection because he never used his nickname," he said.
In 1993, Accorsi was going through his mother's attic in Hershey, Pa., looking for an article he'd written that related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. There in a box, he found the newspaper clipping on his story on Graham and a picture.
"I knew it was him and it sent shivers through me," Accorsi said. "I felt like I'd really linked to some historical figure."
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Leatherman Signs With Minnesota Twins!
Danny Leatherman will sign a contract to play in the Minnesota Twins organization today (6-22-06). Leatherman led the Walkersville High School Lions squad to a state championship 2003 where he was the winning pitcher in the state finals against Eastern Tech. In 2005, Leatherman led the nation in ERA in 2005 in division II Juco while at Frederick Community College and was recruited to play with West Virginia University for the 2006 season where he was one of the staff leaders. At WVU this year, Leatherman led the staff in appearances and innings pitched while going 7-2 with four saves on the season.
Leatherman is Coach Ringer's first former player to sign a professional contract.
Here's a copy of the article from the Frederick News-Post:
TWIN PEAK
Published on June 27, 2006
By Brandon Oland
News-Post Staff
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Dan Leatherman wanted a free baseball bat.
To win the free bat, he needed to sell the most raffle tickets for his Glade Valley Babe Ruth baseball team.
The first year, he failed. The next year, refusing to risk losing his bat again, he sold twice as many raffle tickets.
Leatherman won the free bat.
Even when he was young, Leatherman knew a beneficial baseball opportunity when he saw one and was resourceful enough to take advantage of it.
When Leatherman learned the Minnesota Twins were holding a two-day open tryout, searching for undiscovered talent, he showed up.
He just wanted to meet and impress a few scouts. Gathering a few baseball contacts would have made the $2,000 trip worthwhile.
Instead, the tryout wound up being his big break.
Leatherman, a right-handed pitcher who led Walkersville to a state championship and enjoyed two successful seasons at Frederick Community College, was signed by the Minnesota Twins following a two-day tryout at the Metrodome last week.
Rather than return to West Virginia University for his senior year, Leatherman elected to turn professional.
The Twins' offer came as a surprise to Leatherman, his father and a few of his former coaches. Players go to tryouts to get noticed, not to get signed.
"I really didn't think I would get an offer made," said Leatherman via phone from Fort Myers, where he is preparing to join the Gulf Coast League Twins. "My whole goal from the beginning was to get my name out there and get looked at."
After not getting selected in Major League Baseball's First Year Player Draft, Leatherman was more worried about classes than contracts.
In a few weeks, Leatherman planned to cram in a statistics and English course during summer sessions to stay eligible.
No longer.
Instead, Leatherman is what he always wanted to be -- a professional baseball player.
"That was his one goal, to get picked up, and he did," FCC baseball coach Rodney Bennett said. "He was a kid that never quit."
Getting his name out
Leatherman got the attention of scouts following his freshman year at FCC. He did not throw hard, topping out at 88-89 mph. But Bennett said scouts became enamored with his ability to pitch.
"The key for Dan is he has three really good pitches," Bennett said. "He just commands them so well. If you hit your spots, you can be successful."
To reach his goal, Leatherman needed a scout to take notice.
Rather than wait for scouts to come see him, though, Leatherman went to them.
In the past two years, Leatherman attended five open tryouts, where professional scouts comb for overlooked players worthy of professional development.
Leatherman went to two Orioles tryouts -- including one at Harry Grove Stadium -- one in Williamsport held by the Cincinnati Reds and another in Reading, Pa., run by the Philadelphia Phillies.
At every tryout, Leatherman was given advice and sometimes received negative feedback.
A scout told Leatherman the Orioles were looking for pitchers who threw harder.
Despite less-than-flattering replies from scouts, Leatherman continued to learn and decided the $2,000 expense for the Twins tryout was worth spending.
Wearing his West Virginia cap, a plain blue Under Armour T-shirt and a new pair of white baseball pants, Leatherman walked into the Metrodome in the quest to impress the right scout.
A dream come true
After throwing for scouts on the first day of tryouts last Monday, he was asked to return for the second day.
Leatherman, however, hadn't planned on such an offer. He had booked a flight to leave early.
Rather than depart, Leatherman rescheduled and returned for a second-day scrimmage that included other invited players.
Each pitcher was scheduled to pitch an inning. After striking out the side in his first inning, scouts asked him to pitch another.
He struck out two more.
Following his performance, a Minnesota Twins staff member told Leatherman the organization wanted to sign him.
Leatherman asked for 24 hours to make a decision. He talked over his future with his father, Doug, who agreed he should sign.
Before leaving for Florida, he thanked the West Virginia coaching staff, which accepted his decision to leave a year early.
Leatherman began his only year at West Virginia as the closer before finishing in the rotation. He led the Mountaineers with seven wins.
"We were happy for him and wished him well," said West Virginia assistant coach and Emmitsburg native Pat Sherald. "We were fortunate to have him for the year we did."
His new team
Once his contract is approved, Leatherman will pitch for the Gulf Coast League Twins in Fort Myers, a short-season rookie league squad.
The GCL Twins have a much different schedule than their Major League counterparts.
Players live in the Clarion Hotel, located about 19 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico.
At 7 a.m., players are shuttled to the stadium complex, where they eat breakfast and participate in a two-hour practice before playing every day at noon.
Despite being just 20 years old, Leatherman is one of the oldest players on the roster.
He joins a group of young projects, including 7-foot-1 pitcher Loek Van Mill.
It is a difficult transition. The GCL Twins play six days a week. Each player has a roommate. The bathrooms are small. The south Florida afternoons are hot and humid.
But because Leatherman took advantage of his tryout opportunity, he is one step closer to his goal of pitching in the Major Leagues.
"Anytime someone has a chance to go to a local tryout, they should," Doug Leatherman said. "But to go the distances we did, it has to be the right situation. This was.
"He needed to be seen."
From the Gazette:
Pitcher signs with Twins
Walkersville grad Danny Leatherman inks major-league contract
Thursday, June 29, 2006
by Darren J. Gendron
Staff Writer
Somehow, things got complicated for Danny Leatherman’s travel plans.
One day, he was figuring out how to spend an extra day in Minneapolis. Within a week, he was living in Fort Myers, Fla., pitching for the Gulf Coast League Twins.
Initially, he was looking to hit four different cities for different open tryouts put on by some major league teams. He’d already tried out for the Baltimore Orioles, and the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies were still to come.
It wasn’t that he expected to be handed a contract after these tryouts. Leatherman was just looking to get noticed, to make sure he was a blip on the major league radar during his senior season at West Virginia University.
The trip to Minneapolis, for a workout with the Twins, was a last-minute flight, making for some expensive plane tickets.
‘‘I spent a heck of a lot of money to get out there,” Leatherman said.
After a good Monday morning workout, he got the $600 question: Would he come back the next day? changing his plane ticket cost a lot, but it turned out to be worth it: Leatherman signed his first professional contract Thursday.
People in the Frederick area remember Danny Leatherman from the Walkersville High baseball team, for whom he was the winning pitcher in the state championship game in 2003.
But Leatherman wasn’t named to Team Maryland that year, and there wasn’t much talk of him getting full-ride scholarships to Division I schools.
Leatherman pitched for Frederick FSK Post 11 baseball team until 2004, and spent his first two years of college pitching at Frederick Community College.
With Post 11, manager Tom Long used Leatherman both as a pitcher and a hitter.
‘‘He was a bulldog,” Long said. ‘‘Danny is a pitcher that really hits his spots. He had four great pitches, and he threw all of them for strikes.”
Before Leatherman started up his tour of major league tryouts, he threw some batting practice for Post 11. At times, he cranked up his velocity to let the younger players get a look at some high-speed, college-level pitches.
‘‘If you meet Danny, you love Danny,” Long said.
Leatherman wrapped up his sophomore campaign with a 1.20 ERA and transferred to West Virginia University. One of the first things he learned there was humility.
‘‘I went into West Virginia feeling really cocky, because I had a really good season at FCC,” Leatherman said. ‘‘And I found out that I’m not the best pitcher in the world.”
Division I hitters were able to hit him: his ERA clocked in at 5.12. But he was still able to pitch when needed, piling up four saves and a 7-2 record. He was ready to be one of the senior leaders on next year’s team.
Wake up calls come at 6:30 a.m. in Fort Myers. Leatherman doesn’t have a lot of time to get ready: the team meets on the field every morning at 7 a.m. He’ll eat his first two meals of the day there, with breakfast served at 7:20 a.m. and lunch at 10:40.
In between, there’s stretching, practicing fundamentals, long toss, running, and batting practice.
‘‘It’s a little more intense,” Leatherman said. ‘‘We long toss every day, we pitch full speed batting practice every day, and we have a game every day.”
By 1 p.m., the team suits up and plays a game. On Tuesday, the Gulf Coast Twins won with a walk-off home run by Thomas Cowgill in the 10th.
But this is the part that Leatherman is not quite able to participate in. After signing a contract Thursday, he’s been waiting on the Commissioner’s office to send the paperwork back. With the amateur draft only recently wrapped and the All-Star break coming fast, things are a bit hectic at the moment.
‘‘It’s a little nerve-racking to just sit there during the games,” Leatherman said. ‘‘I’m getting a little bit impatient.”
Leatherman began his tour of tryouts last summer, looking to get scouts to follow his college games. He got in workouts with the Reds, Phillies and O’s last year. The Orioles’ scout said they would follow him, but when his velocity capped out in the 87-mph range at a scouted game, Baltimore’s interest faded.
But Leatherman’s fastball is normally at about 90 mph, while 86 is what he was throwing his senior year of high school.
‘‘I’ve gotten a little bit stronger since then,” he said. ‘‘But not that much. Now it’s not control but command. That’s the kind of stuff that I’m working on now. I was once told that I throw too many strikes.”
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