Revenge of the Baseball Gods

Thanks to Traverse City broadcaster Tim Calderwood for finding this story and video from ESPN and its "Outside the Lines" program.

This story is about Danny Almonte and Matthew Cerda (actually, it's more about the latter). Almonte, pcitured, was the pitcher who seven years ago charmed the nation by throwing a perfect game in the Little League World Series, only to have his records purged from the books after it was discovered he was 14 years old, two years over the age limit. Cerda was the youngest player on his Little league team and made the final out in the World Series against Almonte.

Almonte, you might recall, was signed by the Southern Illinois Miners last year and made six starts before being released. Almonte had an 0-1 record and 5.28 ERA. he struck out 17 and walked 19 in 30.1 innings with the Miners. After being released from the Frontier League, Almonte re-emerged this year at Western Oklahoma State Junior College and had a 7-1 record and 5.59 ERA for the baseball team. he also had a team-high .497 batting average and 14 home runs.

Cerda, meanwhile, was drafted in the 4th round this year by the Chicago Cubs and is hitting .273 in the Arizona Rookie League.

It's an interesting story and video.


See story, video here.