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Thank You All
July 28, 2006
Time for me to give thanks for this past season.
First off I thank my wife, Janet, who again helped me immeasurably throughout the season. Her help at the Berkshire Tournament made that whole thing much more enjoyable (other than that first night drive to and from!!) and organized. Numerous phone calls to players, keeping score, attending nearly every game to cheer the team on, letting me cry on her shoulder, etc., meant a lot to me and the players.
Thanks to Mr. Campbell for all of his help this season both in the dugout and on the bases. He had a busy work schedule but managed to make nearly every game.
Have to say thanks to Kari for not only helping Mrs. Bing keep score, but for retrieving all of those foul balls!!
Thanks to all of the parents who regularly attended the games. Your sons think they are all grown up, but having mom and dad at the games still means a lot to them.
Thanks to the players girlfriends/friends who came to many games to cheer the team on.
Thanks to Kyle, Christian and Adam who called me early on and asked me to coach them again. It meant a lot and I appreciated it.
Thanks to all of the players for their understanding and effort. I don't pretend to be the best coach out there, but I tried my best to be as fair as possible, while still trying to put the most competitive lineup together.
The season did not go like we hoped, and some of the chemistry that I thought would help carry us wasn't there like I thought it would be. But all in all we did not do too badly considering our age, experience with wood bats, and the level of competition. This was truly a valuable learning experience for all of us. It will be interesting to see how the college players hit for their schools next season after using wood all summer. So many scheduling problems made it difficult to get any consistency going, and that was something we had no control over. Next season the bats will come alive much better than they did this year (especially with runners in scoring position), and the pitchers will hopefully walk fewer batters. Those two things will be giant steps toward a league title - no matter what league that might be in.
At this time I do not think I will return as your coach next season. The time commitment off the field is just incredible, and I used up nearly every day of vacation time in order to attend games. Don't get me wrong, I did this glady and with no regrets. Part of the reason I don't think I will be back is because I am planning a two week backpacking trip to the Sierra Mountains in California next summer, but I won't be able to do that if my vacation time was used up during ball season. The cost of playing is so high at this level, and most of you really had to struggle to come up with the money. Next season won't be much cheaper (even with uniforms already purchased), and I really don't want to have to jump through hoops again trying to collect money. The $350 each of you paid did not cover all of the team's costs, and that money had to come out of our pockets. I will gladly help the next manager of this team in any way I can. Again, I loved being around you guys, and my decision has very little to do with what went on between the lines. If we kept this exact same team next year I have no doubt that it would be a 500 club or better. Maybe Dan Largent would want to take over the reigns of the team.
While this year's team didn't have the same magic that our team two years ago had, it was still a lot of fun being around you guys. You all know how I feel about each of you, and I will never forget any of you.
Final Season Stats
July 28, 2006
Regular season final stats can be found at the NOMBL website (I am a few games short on this site, but they are all there at the league site).
Final Tournament Stats (Ranked by AVER):
Batting Totals:
Tony: G:8, AB:20, BB:1, SO:2, R:0, H:7, RBI:4, SAC:2, AVER: 350
Ryan: G:8, AB:21, BB:0, SO:3, R:1, H:6, RBI:0, SAC:2, AVER: 286
Chuck: G:7, AB:19, BB:1, SO:0, R:2, H:5, RBI:4, SAC:0, AVER: 263
Sean: G:8, AB:23, BB:5, SO:2, R:2, H:6, RBI:2, SAC:0, AVER: 261
Matt: G:4, AB:8, BB:0, SO:1, R:0, H:2, RBI:1, SAC:0, AVER: 250
Jake: G:2, AB:4, BB:0, SO:1, R:1, H:1, RBI:0, SAC:0, AVER: 250
Christian: G:8, AB:21, BB:6, SO:5, R:2, H:5, RBI:0, SAC:0, AVER: 238
Adam: G:7, AB:22, BB:3, BB:3, R:4, H:5, RBI:0, SAC:0, AVER: 227
Owen: G:6, AB:15, BB:1, SO:3, R:1, H:3, RBI:1, SAC:0, AVER: 200
Mike C: G:8, AB:16, BB:1, SO:4, R:0, H:3, RBI:0, SAC:3, AVER: 188
Brendon: G:6, AB:20, BB:1, SO:5, R:2, H:2, RBI:1, SAC:0, AVER: 100
Kyle: G:5, AB:8, BB:0, SO:5, R:0, H:0, RBI:0, SAC:0, AVER: 000
Zach: G:2, AB:2, BB:0, SO:1, R:0, H:0, RBI:0, SAC:0, AVER: 000
Team Totals:
G:8, AB:199, BB:19, SO:35, R:15, H:45, RBI:13, SAC:7, AVER: 226
Opponents Totals:
G:8, UP:259, BB:35, SO:36, R:38, ER:36, H:66, AVER: 308
Fielding Totals (Ranked by Total Chances):
Ryan: G:8, PO:9, A:31, E:0, CH:40 F%: 1000
Mike C: G:8, PO:7, A:22, E:1, CH:30, F%: 967
Sean: G:8, PO:3, A:24, E:0, CH:27, F%: 1000
Christian: G:8, PO:19, A:1, E:0, CH:20, F%: 1000
Tony: G:8, PO:5, A:13, E:2, CH:20, F%: 900
Adam: G:7, PO:6, A:3, E:0, CH:9, F%: 1000
Chuck: G:7, PO:5, A:3, E:0, CH:8, F%: 1000
Brendon: G:6, PO:2, A:5, E:0, CH:7, F%: 1000
Kyle: G:5, PO:1, A:4, E:1, CH:5, F%: 833
Matt: G:6, PO:0, A:3, E:1, CH:4, F%: 750
Zach: G:2, PO:1, A:3, E:0, CH:4, F%: 1000
Owen: G:6, PO:0, A:3, E:0, CH:3, F%: 1000
Jake: G:2, PO:2, A:0, E:0, CH:2, F%: 1000
Team Totals:
G:8, PO:60, A:115, E:5, CH:179, F%: 972
Pitching Totals (Ranked by ERA):
Brendon: INN:7, #BAT:34, RS:2, ER:2, BB:6, SO:2, H:8, AVER: 286,
ERA: 2.00, W/L/S: 0/1/0
Kyle: INN:13.67, #BAT:56, RS:5, ER:5, BB:5, SO:13, H:10, AVER: 222, ERA: 2.56, W/L/S: 0/1/1
Adam: INN:7.67, #BAT:40, RS:5, ER:4, BB:13, SO:4, H:5, AVER: 200
ERA: 3.65, W/L/S: 1/1/0
Jake: INN:2, #BAT:12, RS:3, ER:2, BB:0, SO:3, H:4, AVER: 364,
ERA: 7.00, W/L/S: 0/0/0
Chuck: INN:15.67, #BAT:104, RS:17, ER:17, BB:9, SO:13, H:34,
AVER: 362, ERA: 7.60, W/L/S: 1/3/0
Zach: INN:2, #BAT:13, RS:6, ER:6, BB:2, SO:1, H:5, AVER: 455
ERA: 21.00, W/L/S: 0/0/0
Team Totals:
INN:48, #BAT:259, RS:38, ER:36, BB:35, SO:36, H:66, AVER: 308,
ERA: 5.25, W/L/S: 2/6/1
Tournament Info
July 24, 2006
First game of the single game elimination tournament is Tuesday, July 25th at 6pm at Mayfield High School.
If we beat the Cleveland Bruins our next game will be at Case on Thursday, July 27th, at 6pm. We would be playing the winner of the Mayfield/Marlin's game.
Championship game will also be at Case on Sunday, July 30th at 3pm.
Click on the Directions Tab to the left if you need directions to either field.
Team Slump - Why?
July 11, 2006
Team is struggling right now, and there are several causes for it. The following data is based on our Regular Season Games.
Number one, we have faced the best pitching in the league in the past few games, and there is a reason why these guys have ERA's below 2.00.
Number two, pitching aside, we have struggled with the bats all season. To make matters worse, the key bats in the lineup right now are also in protracted slumps that hasn't helped. The one exception to this has been Christian who has been very consistent all season long. Team batting average for the first six games was .271, but in the last five games it was only .210. In our first 192 plate appearances we struck out 24 times, but in our last 142 plate appearances we have struck out 30 times.
Number three, pitching has taken a similar drop statistically speaking. In the first six games the team ERA was 3.56, but in the last five games it has jumped up to 4.74. The best teams in our league have had a 3-1 ratio regarding strikeouts-to-walks, but we have actually walked four more batters then we have struck out(53 K's, 57 BB). Just under half of those walks have come home to score against us. While we are striking out fewer batters then the better teams, we are walking more. This area alone if improved will go a long ways toward righting our ship.
Number four, our defense has been very steady all year other than one game which directly led to a loss against the Bruins. Our outfielders however have failed to hit the cut off man all season long. While we have thrown out several runners at the plate, on far too many occasions we have thrown home with no chance of getting the runner, or just simply missed the cut off man. Either way, it allows the other runners to take additional bases. This has been my only complaint regarding our defense this season.
Number five, several players have cop-ted attitudes that have been detrimental to the team as a whole. In addition, the closeness that I felt was a key ingredient to our team's success on the field hasn't been there like I thought. Several times players have disrespected their teammates with things said on the field. Players have far too often blamed the umpire rather than accept that they simply failed to get the job done. All season long I have heard players come back to the bench saying that the pitcher doesn't have anything - and we end up with five hits for the game. Maybe more respect to the talents of the opposition is in order. The fire is missing. Between innings players are taking too long to get back out on the field, encouraging each other has diminished as the season goes on, some players are coming to games with filthy uniforms even when there was a week between games, and the over all acceptance of a pending defeat is becoming more apparent. All of these negative things in and of themselves does not win or lose ballgames - but collectively they most definitely impact them.
All winter long I heard how everyone couldn't wait for the season to begin. How it was going to be so awesome to be playing highly competitive ball with teammates who were also friends and buddies, who also happened to be excellent ball players. After maybe too many games of baseball that wasn't played for the fun of it, how playing for the fun and love of the game would be so great. But something has been missing. I don't know if you guys overestimated your talents, or underestimated the competition. Did college change your attitude - I don't know - but I have seen and heard things from some of you that I would never have thought possible. Each of us needs to look in a mirror and think about what has taken place so far, and what each of us needs to do to make the last half of this season, the kind of season we all talked about over the winter. The decision is yours to make - do we finish the season giving it everything we have -or do we just finish the season? I for one will not go down without a fight.
Team has three All-Stars
July 11, 2006
Congrats to the three players from our team who were voted to the NOMBL All-Star Team: Brendon, Chuck and Adam. All three deserved it, and several other players could have gone also. Brendon and Chuck were in the top ten of all vote getters.
The all star game will be against the Akron AA All-Star team. Game will be played at Westlake and will start at 2pm.
NOMBL League Tournament
July 6, 2006
Tentative schedule for the league tournament is July 24th thru the 30th.
Some Regular Season vs Tournament Stats
July 3, 2006
A brief summary comparing key stats between regular season and tournament play.
Regular season offensive stats:
10 games, 329 ab's, 69 1/3 innings.
Team BA: .259
Leaders: Adam .500, Brendon .444, Christian .367, Sean .333
RBI leaders: Sean 6, Chuck, Christian and Brendon 5
Team On Base %: .356
OB% Leaders: Brendon .543, Adam .516, Christian .515
Pitching Stats:
Team ERA: 3.63, 44 K's, 42 BB
ERA Leaders: Adam .070, Chuck 2.07, Kyle 4.67
Chuck has issued only one base on balls.
Kyle has 18 K's, Chuck 10.
Tournament stats:
7 games, 230 ab's, 48 innings.
Team BA: .235
Leaders: Tony .389, Christian .278, Ryan, Adam and Chuck .263
RBI leaders: Tony and Chuck have 4, Sean has 2
Team On Base %: .312
OB% Leaders: Christian .458, Tony .421
Pitching Stats:
Team ERA: 4.67, 28 K's, 34 BB
ERA Leaders: Brendon 2.0, Kyle 2.56, Adam 3.65
Kyle leads staff with 13 K's, but too many walks by everyone
Disappointing Showing at the Tournament
July 2, 2006
How best to summarize the 4th of July Tournament we entered with such high expectations - maybe the Tribe is playing better ball then we are. Fourteen hits in three games - hits - not runs. Six runs in three games just does not cut it. Our lack of offense has put too much pressure on a good pitching staff. Give up three runs and we are in deep trouble. Pitchers cannot keep pitching effectively when they have to worry about even giving up a single run. Our defense was again excellent. A couple of mistakes, including a poor pick-off attempt against the Cleveland Mosquitoes hurt us.
First game was all Cleveland Black Wolves. They out hit and out pitched us. Final score CBW 7, us 2.
Against the Cleveland Mosquitoes Kyle was matching Ryan Dennick
pitch-for-pitch thru three innings. The fourth started with a Mosquitoe hit, a poor pick off put him at third, and then Kyle hit the next batter. Before we could say ouch three runs scored. Dennick continued to pitch a fine game, but our reliever did not fair as well as he gave up two blasts to bring the final score to CM 9, us 0.
I made some lineup changes for our third game against the Fairview Marlins, and offensively we made some noise. Adam, who hadn't pitched in two weeks just did not have it, and I had to call on Chuck who had just pitched five innings two days ago. We fell behind by three, scored two ourselves in the top of the third, but then gave up two to Fairview the next inning. Top of the sixth we scored two more to again bring us within one, but I made a terrible coaching mistake that cost us two runs. With runners on 2nd and 3rd in the bottom of the sixth and two outs, I wasn't quick enough with my decision to walk their #5 hitter. Since my pitcher had already toed the rubber I decided I would tell him to walk him after the first pitch - only his bases clearing double ended that opportunity for us. Would we have gotten the next guy out maybe, maybe not, but I should have been quicker and more decisive. If we enter the 7th only down one I think we would have had a shot at this game, but down three broke our backs. Final score FM 7, us 4.
Berkshire Tournament Results
June 19, 2006
One three letter word pretty much sums up the Berkshire Tournament held in Reading, PA this past weekend (June 16th-18th)- WOW!! Our four game record was 2-2, our two losses coming to the two top teams in our five team bracket. We finished the tournament allowing the second fewest runs of all ten teams - 11 in the four games. Of those 11 runs, only one was unearned. This is a premiere tournament now in its 16th year. All of the teams that participated are veteran teams from some of the better leagues in their respective states. There was only one local team in our bracket, the others - not including ourselves - came from Maryland (Hagerstown and Baltimore) and Virgina (Fredericksburg). We had the honor of traveling the farthest distance, approximately 370 miles. We were also the youngest team in the tournament by a large margin.
We lost game one, a 1-4 disappointing affair in extra innings to the Berkshire Blue Sox. A two out, two strike bases clearing double in the top of the eight did us in. Brendon was incredible stepping in as our starting pitcher. He went 7+ innings only giving up two runs to the eventual tournament runners-up. What was to become a familiar storyline for us started with this game - great pitching, incredible defense, and hitting that was about par for our season (but which definitely needs improvement - season average is .266, tournament average was .245). A special note regarding this game is in order. Brendon is not a starting pitcher, but Brendon is a true gamer. Where conventional wisdom might have dictated going with Kyle for perhaps four or five innings, followed by a reliever in order to save Kyle's arm for another game, we decided not to go that route. What we hoped for were three or if we were really fortunate, four innings from Brendon - turned into 7+. Brendon's off-speed stuff kept the Blue Sox's off balance the entire game. Again, our defense was absolutely up to the task by making every play they had to. While we did lose this game, what Brendon did for us was to allow me to have my entire starting pitching staff completely available to me after game one.
Game two ended up in the win column for us against a good Fredericksbugh Giants team out of Virginia. Final score was 3-2. After giving up two runs in the first (one of them being the only unearned run we allowed in the tournament), Adam and Kyle (who relieved in the sixth) shut them out the rest of the way. Winning rbi was driven in by Tony with two out in the fifth. Chuck plated us two runs in the bottom of the first with a key single with runners on second and third.
Game three was a real heart breaker. Down 3-1 with two out and nobody on in the bottom of the seventh, back-to-back extra base hits by Adam and Brendon got us one run, and we would eventually load the bases, but be unable to get that key two out hit. Final score was 2-3 against Baltimore Md. Cooper Cleaning. Chuck didn't have it this game, and Kyle came in in the top of the first and finished out the game without allowing another run. This was the second game in a row where we did not allow a run after the first. In our opening game lost we also did not allow a run after the first until that two out double in the eight.
Our final game came against another Maryland team, the Hagerstown Braves. In two of their three previous games they outscored their opponents 22-3 (one of those wins was Baltimore's only loss until the semi's). We won this one in the bottom of the seventh 3-2. We changed things up this time, we shut them out for the first six, then let them score two in the top of the seventh. Chuck did it all this game, and I want to make a special note about what he accomplished for us. The day before he was rocked in the first inning and I had to pull him. To then compound a difficult day, he struck out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh with the tying and winning runs on second and third and two out. Less than 24 hours later he not only pitches a complete game against perhaps the best hitting team in our bracket, if not the whole tournament, he again came up in the bottom of the seventh inning with the winning run on second - and delivered a game winning shot to center to win it for us. That is my definition of a champion!
Pitching was outstanding. Our ERA for the tournament was 2.41, led by Adam's 1.17 and Kyle's 1.62. Brendon was at 2.00 and Chuck finished at 4.77. Kyle led the team with 10 strikeouts, and his four walks were also a team low.
Defense was as good as it gets, led by Ryan at shortstop whose 26 chances (over 25% of the team's total) were handled flawlessly. As a team we had 103 chances and made only one error. Mike, playing out of position at 3b held down that spot admirably, and Owen behind the plate was perhaps the biggest contributing factor our pitchers did as well as they did.
Hitting was led by Tony and Chuck who hit .455 and .400 respectively. Sean was the only other player to hit over .300 and he was at .308. Christian's .533 On Base Percentage led the team. Collectively we only hit .245. Hitting has not been our strong suit this year, and it wasn't our strong suit here at the tournament.
We had to win our last game to have any chance at advancing to the semi's, and we did. Then we needed Fredericksburg to beat Baltimore Cleaning to cause a three way tie at 2-2. If that happened we would have advanced because we had given up the fewest runs in our bracket. Unfortunately for us they couldn't do it and lost 8-1. Eventual winner was Smitty's Cardinals (ninth ranked team in the country) who beat our opening game opponent the Berkshire Blue Sox 10-4.
Season Review After First Eight Games
So far things have gone pretty much as I expected. Started the season off with two losses to the Westlake Titans. In the first game Westlake got two key two out hits that plated the runs they needed for the win. Sean went yard for our first home run of the year. In the second game, Chuck matched their guys pitch-for-pitch, only to lose in extra innings to an unearned run. First game we lost 2-6, second one 1-2.
Next two games against the Cleveland Bruins were not pretty. Poor pitching and defense, along with way too few hits, spelled disaster for us. Two good things out of this were our relief pitchers Matt and Brendon. Both came in a did a very solid job against an excellent hitting team.
We showed a lot of good things the following day when we faced the Fairview Marlins. They were coming off three straight wins, and we had just had our lunch handed to us the day before by the Bruins. Defense came to the forefront, along with good pitching and hitting, and the result was a doubleheader sweep. First game was ours 11-4. Kyle went the distance giving up 4 runs on seven hits. Matt went 3-4 at the plate with three rbi's. In the second game Adam starts his first game and goes the distance giving up one earned run on six hits. A key defensive play by Ryan to throw out a runner at the plate in the top of the fifth sparked the team as it kept the score to a one run deficit, and allowed us to tie it in our half of the inning. Two runs in the bottom of the sixth gave us the runs Adam needed for the win. Brendon was 3-3 with two rbi's.
We then traveled to Mayfield to play a very good team. Kyle pitched well enough to win in game one, but our relievers were not quite up to the task as we allowed five runs in the top of the 7th and went on to lose 7-11. Tony had a key two out double that plated three runs in the third. Christian went yard in this one for his first and the team's second home run of the year. Game two was a classic matchup against two very good pitchers. After losing to Westlake two weeks earlier in the 8th inning, Chuckie was not about to let this one get away. He threw a complete game shutout, allowing only three hits and no walks. Adam was 3-3 and scored our only run. Final score, good guys 1, Mayfield nothing.
So then, after eight games we stand at 3-5. Having faced some of the best in the league, and being probably the youngest team here, I am pleased. Only regret so far was not pulling out a win in the second game against Westlake. This is our first year using wood bats, and after these eight games we are hitting .260 as a team, our opponents are only hitting one point higher at .261. We have made some defensive mistakes that should not have happened, and some of them have come at very inopportune times for us. Other than Chuck, we are walking too many batters. Bottom line is that even though we are not playing up to our potential, other than the pounding the Bruins gave us, we have still managed to be in every game we have played.
Welcome to our baseball website.
Thank you for visiting our website whether you are a player, parent, friend, or someone just stopping by on the way through! I will strive to keep this site up-to-date and interesting. Everything related to the ball team can and will be found here, though not everything will be necessarily baseball related. When the season begins, stats will be made available here, but only players and parents will have access to them.
While we are a first year team in the 18+ leagues,we do not come with the trappings of most first year teams. The members of this team know each other both as players and people, and they and the coaches know exactly what each person is capable of doing. Playing with your friends, who also happen to be excellant ballplayers; and playing in a highly competitive league is a dream come true for most players. We start this new adventure with high hopes and expectations. One thing we know from the get go, is this team will leave it all out on the field each and every game. Let the season begin!
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