Monday, September 28, 2009

First managerial opening


After leading the River City Rascals to the West Division title and to within one win of the Frontier League championship, Chad Parker has resigned as manager of the Rascals. Parker said he wanted to return to his home state of Georgia and pursue job opportunities there.

Under Parker's guidance, the Rascals reached set a team record for wins.

"Our organization will always be grateful for what Chad has done this season," Rascals executive vice president and general manager Chris Franklin said. "We were very happy with Chad both on and off the field, and we made him what we felt was a strong offer after the all-star break to continue with the Rascals in 2010 and beyond. The same characteristics that make him a good manager are the same characteristics that make him a good father and husband, and it seems that this situation will be best for him and his family."

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Friday, September 25, 2009

Mason hired by UPG

According to the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg's athletic website, Mark Mason has been hired as an assistant coach for UPG's baseball program. I don't know how this impacts Mason's future with the Wild Things (he was working on a one-year contract). The head coach at UPG is Adam Jack, a former Waynesburg University player.

Here is a portion of the press release:

GREENSBURG, PA- Head Baseball Coach Adam Jack is pleased to announce the hiring of new assistant coach Mark Mason. Mason brings to the Bobcat Baseball Program more than 20 years of professional and collegiate coaching experience and is currently the manager of the Washington Wild Things in Washington, PA.
"We are very pleased to add Mark Mason on our coaching staff this season. He brings a tremendous amount of experience that will valuable in developing this very young team." said Jack

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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Wild Things: biggest losers

The impact of the economic recession can be found everywhere in the sports world. From the NFL - where last week four teams requested last-minute extensions of the league's television blackout rules because their home openers were not yet sold out – to the minor leagues, attendance has become a major problem. Sports is no longer recession-proof.

Several independent baseball leagues have teams who were hit hard by the recession. In the Can-Am League, the American Defenders of New Hampshire, based in Nashua, were locked out of Holman Stadium for failure to pay some $45,000 in back rent and fees to local police officers and firemen. The Brockton Rox were unable to make their monthly lease payment of $30,000. The Rox have been rocked by slumping attendance and advertising for two years, this after setting the league attendance record in 2004.

In affiliated ball, only two Class AAA, two Class AA and five Class A teams exceeded their 2008 attendance figures. One of the Class A teams with a bump in attendance was the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, managed by former Wild Things manager Jeff Isom.

Of the 10 Frontier League teams that played in the same ballaprk this year as they did in 2008 (Midwest was a traveling team in 2008 and Lake Erie was a new franchise this season), three showed an increase in attendance. However, almost all of the teams saw their attendance hold steady.

The biggest gain was found in Marion, Ill., where the Southern Illinois Miners led the league in attendance at 4,554 per game, up 276 from last year. The Miners might have been helped by being in the playoff race until the final hours of the regular season.

The biggest loss in attendance was in Washington. The Wild Things drew an average of 2,789 fans to Consol Energy Park, which was the smallest figure in franchise history. It was a drop of 181 per game.

The Wild Things' attendance seemed to hold steady on weekends, especially on Fireworks Fridays. But weekday games saw significant dropoffs. A Wednesday night game against the Gateway Grizzlies in early June drew an announced crowd of only 1,340, the smallest in Wild Things history.

In the coming weeks, I'll attempt to analyze the Wild Things' attendance problems and provide some ideas on how to reverse the trend of declining attendance.

Change in attendance (per game) for Frontier League teams in 2009:

+276 Southern Illinois
+243 Windy City
+243 Florence
-38 Traverse City
-63 Evansville
-68 Rockford
-79 Gateway
-162 Kalamazoo
-170 River City
-181 Washington

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Thursday, September 17, 2009

Maz or Ernie?


One person with connections to the Wild Things will win a Frontier League championship in the next week. Will it be former Wild Things manager John Massarelli? Or will it be former Wild Things first baseman Ernie Banks?

Massarelli's Lake Erie Crushers will play Banks and the River City Rascals in Game 1 of the best-of-five Frontier League championship series tonight (8 p.m.) at T.R. Hughes Ballpark in O'Fallon, Mo.

The only person I can recall having played or coached with the Wild Things who won a Frontier League championship is Greg Jelks (let me know if you can think of anyone else), so the number will double this year.

I hate to go against a trend – Massarelli has been the league's no-luck manager when it comes to the playoffs with four previous trips and no championships – but I'll take Lake Erie in four games because of the Crushers' defense and relief pitching. Two players who can swing the series in favor of River City are Scott Houin (35 stolen bases) and Chris Colton (34 stolen bases). River City was second in the league in steals while Lake Erie's catchers were last by a large margin in caught-stealing percentage, throwing out an anemic 18 percent of potential basestealers. Lake Erie must keep Houin and Colton off base.

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Up in smoke

Here is another unofficial statistic from the 2009 season: the much-debated blown saves.

The numbers aren't official because there was one game involving two West Division teams that might have had a blown save that I was unable to confirm with the radio broadcasters.

For the second year in a row, Washington led the Frontier League in blown saves.
It's interesting that many of the teams with the worst records in the league were at the bottom of the list for blown saves. Traverse City had the fewest blown saves, probably in part because of Jeff Williams being so good as the Beach Bums' closer in the first half of the season and it being so hard to score at Wuerfel Park. Gateway, the fifth-place team in the West, had the second-fewest blown saves. When the Grizzlies won, they usually won big because they led the league in home runs and runs scored.

Blown saves totals for 2009:

15 - Washington
14 - Southern Illinois
13 - Kalamazoo
13 - Rockford
12 - Midwest
11 - Evansville
10 - Florence
10 - Lake Erie
9 - River City
9 - Windy City
7 - Gateway
5 - Traverse City

NOTES: Washington also had 15 blown saves in 2008. In 2007, the Wild Things had only five blown saves. ... In the 15 games with blown saves, the Wild Things had a 4-10 record. They had two blown saves in an Aug. 4 game against Lake Erie that was won by the Crushers. ... Seven different Washington pitchers had at least one blown save. ... Washington's four losses when leading after eight innings and seven losses when leading after seven innings were each league highs. ... Most of Southern Illinois' blown saves came in the middle innings. The Miners were 45-0 when leading after eight innings.

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Sunday, September 13, 2009

Playoffs update

The Kalamazoo Kings have forced Game 5 in their best-of-five playoff series against the Lake Erie Crushers. The Kings won 7-5 in Game 4 Saturday afternoon. Lake Erie seemed to have punched its ticket to the finals by taking a 5-0 lead in the first inning against Kalamazoo starter John Brownell, who was pitching on three days rest.

However, after the rocky start Brownell shut out Lake Erie the rest of the way, throwing 141 pitches in a complete game.

“Brownell had a very impressive performance,” Crushers manager John Massarelli told the Chronicle-Telegram after the game. “You’ve got to tip your hat to him. That was about as impressive as I’ve ever seen."

Kalamazoo scored the tying run when Lake Erie center fielder Tyler Johnson tried to make a basket catch on what was described as a catchable fly ball and dropped it. The Kings scored two runs in the eighth to win the game.

Massarelli held a 10-minute closed-door meeting with his players following the game.

“I told them, ‘This is a hell of a series and it’s going to be a hell of a Game 5,’” he said. “I told them what I said from the beginning of the first game. It doesn’t matter how we do it, you can lose two and win three, or split at each home field like we’ve been doing, as long as we get that third win. It doesn’t matter how you win a five-game series. Home-field advantage is bull (bleep). It’s all about who gets to three first.

“We only won two, and so have they. That’s why we’re going to Game 5.”

Game 5 is Monday night in Kalamazoo.

In typical minor-league playoff fashion, Game 4 drew a crowd of only 1,319, the smallest of the year, to All Pro Freight Stadium. It was a rare afternoon game in Avon, Ohio. I haven't seen a reason why the game was played in the afternoon but I'm guessing it was because of the Ohio State-USC football game Saturday night.

River City, which won its first playoff series in 11 years, awaits the winner. The Rascals swept two-time defending champion Windy City. Former Wild Things first baseman Ernie Banks hit two home runs for River City in their Game 2 win. Banks was 5-for-15 with 5 RBI in the series.

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Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Quality work

Here's a statistic you won't find on the Frontier League's homepage: quality starts. If a starting pitcher goes at least six innings and gives up three earned runs or less, he gets a quality start.

48 - Kalamazoo
40 - Rockford
40 - Southern Illinois
40 - Traverse City
39 - Windy City
38 - River City
34 - Florence
34 - Gateway
31 - Lake Erie
31 - Midwest
30 - Washington
26 - Evansville

Washington's leader in quality starts was Zach Groh with 10. Groh and Jason Neitz (7) combined for more than half of the team's quality starts.

The Wild Things' pitchers had 34 quality starts in 2008, 38 in 2007 and 44 in 2006.

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Friday, September 4, 2009

Dempsey named to league all-star team

Washington designated hitter Jacob Dempsey was named Friday to the Frontier League's all-star team.

Dempsey, the Wild Things' designated hitter, went into Friday night's game against Florence leading the league with 91 RBI and 53 extra-base hits, and was second in home runs with 29. The RBI and home-run totals are the Wild Things' single-season records. Dempsey, who is in his second season with Washington, is third in the league in slugging percentage (.611).

Dempsey mentioned to me prior to Thursday night's game against Kalamazoo that he has played much of the season with a torn labrum that will require surgery later this month. Dempsey received the results of an MRI Thursday and they revealed the extent of the injury.

Ernie Banks, who played for Washington until being traded to River City early in August, was named the all-star first baseman. Banks has 24 home runs and is second in the league with a .355 batting average.

Southern Illinois' Joey Metropoulos, who has a league-best 30 home runs, was voted the Most Valuable Player. Lake Erie's Paul Fagan (14-3, 2.51) was the Pitcher of the Year, Windy City outfielder Vinnie Scarduzio the Rookie of the Year and River City's Chad Parker the Manager of the Year.

The 2009 all-star team:
1B – Ernie Banks – Washington/River City
2B – Gilberto Mejia – Windy City
SS – Tony Roth – Southern Illinois
3B – Andrew Davis – Lake Erie
OF – Jason James – Rockford
OF – Joey Metropoulos – Southern Illinois
OF – Chad Maddox – River City
C – Charlie Lisk – Gateway
DH – Jacob Dempsey - Washington
SP – Paul Fagan – Lake Erie
RP – Jason Lowey – River City

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Thursday, September 3, 2009

Wild ending v2.0

Here is the video, courtesy of the Wild Things, of the game-ending triple play from Washington's 3-1 victory Thursday night over Kalamazoo.

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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Wild ending

Because of an early deadline Tuesday night at the Observer-Reporter, I had some leftover items from a wild finish to Washington's 6-5 victory over the Kalamazoo Kings.

If you missed it, the Wild Things won when Kalamazoo attempted a double steal with runners on the corners and one out in the top of the ninth inning. With a 3-2 count on batter Destan Makonnen, pinch-runner Bryan Marquez attempted to swipe second base. Makonnen struck out swinging on a pitch from Washington reliever Justin Edwards and catcher Alan Robbins tried to throw out Marquez. With the Kings' Joseph Ramos breaking from third base and trying to score, shortstop Brett Grandstrand cut off Robbins' throw between the pitcher's mound and second base.

Grandstrand's throw back to Robbins was low. Robbins, however, was able to gain control of the baseball and, while still on his knees, take a big hit from Ramos. Robbins held onto the ball for the final out.

That is the way the play was originally supposed to work when Makonnen stepped into the batter's box to face Edwards. Robbins, however, wanted to change the plan during a meeting at the mound later in the at-bat.

"I think that's the first time that play has worked all year," Robbins said. "I told the infielders, with a full count, I'll just try to throw the guy out at second base."

When Grandstrand cut off Robbins' throw he wasn't sure if the catcher was expecting a return throw to home.

"Granny double-clutched on the throw because he thought Robbins was looking somewhere else," Washington manager Mark Mason said. "That's why the throw was low."

"It short-hopped me," Robbins said. "I was able to scoop it off the ground right as (Ramos) hit me. If he would have slid, then he probably would have scored. I knew he was out. When you try to run the catcher over and he hangs onto the ball, then you're usually out. You're making the tag for him."

- Paid attendance was only 1,933, the third-smallest crowd for a home game in Wild Things history.

- Is this the final homestand on a grass field at Consol Energy Park? Bids have been submitted and representatives from six synthetic turf companies were at CEP last week checking out the dimensions of the playing surface.

However, a final decision on when to install the turf had not been made as of Tuesday afternoon. The Wild Things' owners met last night and the turf situation was one of the topics.

Turf companies require at least six weeks to install a field, and work can't be done when the ground is in a freezing-and-thawing mode. California University begins its schedule at CEP early in the spring, so the only time to install a turf field is in the fall. Work likely will have to start by early October, which means the Wild Things have little time to secure bank funding, if needed. The money coming from the motel tax is spread over 10 years, so the Wild Things must generate some up-front money, either through a bank loan or out-of-pocket. These turf companies generally like to be paid in full when installing their product. They're funny about that.

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