U.S. shows China baseball's brutal side
BEIJING. China's baseball manager finished his press conference and left the building. He was angry, yelling at someone about the accusations against him. And he pulled up a chair where security guards wait outside, and just sat down.
"Do you know what he's doing?"an Olympic volunteer asked me. No. Why?
"Everyone else leaves out that door over there, and then goes away. He looks like he's waiting for something, like he wants to wait."
Oh, no. Here's what happened. The U.S. beat China 9-1 in the Olympics Monday night, and it was awful. China's pitchers hit five U.S. batters, sending one to the hospital. U.S. baserunners plowed over two China catchers, likely knocking one out of the Games. Now, U.S. manager Davey Johnson, an old-time Major League manager, was in a cart heading to the press conference building, and China's manager, ex-Cubs manager Jim Lefebvre, I'll get into that later, was sitting out front waiting for something?
Can you say international incident? So Johnson and two U.S. players pulled up, and Lefebvre got off his chair, chest puffed out, and walked up to where Johnson was walking, looking up at him. Were two American managers going to fight at the Olympics?
No, Johnson walked past, in breath-smelling distance, never looking at him. Lefebvre then walked away. I went to the game to write a nice story. People like nice. Five years ago, Major League Baseball asked Lefebvre to start a program in China. The balls he was given were worn out with no covers, and he had to teach all the basics, down to this: If you strike out, don't stand there and smile. Five years later, Lefebvre is still here, managing China in the Olympics. His team beat Taiwan, and his players carried him off in celebration. See? Nice. Lefebvre and MLB had taught the Chinese the national pastime, the American way.
"It was a low blow to throw at his head,"U.S. centerfielder Nate Schierholtz said, after the Chinese had clearly retaliated by hitting Matt LaPorta. Half an inning earlier, LaPorta had run over China's catcher.
The point is, two old-time American baseball managers brought to Beijing a battle of childish baseball code for an unsuspecting crowd under the lights of the Olympic spirit. They also risked further tension in the uncomfortable relationship at the Games between the Americans and the Chinese.
The Olympics are supposed to be set aside for a higher plane of sportsmanship. At least, the U.S. team didn't charge the field after LaPorta was beaned.
"You hit five guys, and hit one of our leaders, you're going to pay for it,"Schierholtz said. "I guess it's a little different here. Tempers were high, but I don't know what the implications are."
Or as pitcher Jake Arietta said: "We're not here to fight."
Our new Olympic motto? We're not here to fight. This was the second recent example of forgotten Olympic ideal. A few days earlier, in tennis, American James Blake hit a shot that tipped opponent Fernando Gonzalez' racquet on the way out. The chair umpire gave the point to Gonzalez, a huge point, not seeing the ball hit the racquet. Blake looked at Gonzalez to tell the truth in the spirit of the Games. He didn’t.
"I did expect a little more in the Olympics,"Blake said. "We are competing under the banner of this event, to promote sportsmanship, to promote goodwill amongst countries."
In the end, the baseball night was one big cultural mixup. Chinese fans were cheering wildly for lazy fly balls to center. China's backup catcher, Yang Yang, hit a homer in the 9th inning, and ran the bases with one arm in the air. Showing up the U.S.? That's what the code says. Johnson said Yang just didn't know better. So you mix the differences of Chinese and American cultures, and you blend in baseball culture, and that's how we get here.
The Chinese did not think it was "just baseball" as Schierholtz described, when the U.S. kept ramming their catchers. Four years ago, Del Harris coached the Chinese basketball team in the Athens Olympics, and talked about the difference in culture between American hoops and Chinese hoops.
"They (the players) won't let me carry a bag,"he said. " 'No, no, you are the coach. Put it down, please.'"
He said he couldn't walk through a door without a player holding it open. So what did the Chinese players know about Monday night? They declined to talk after the game. After five years with Lefebvre, you'd think they understood. What did the fans know?
In the 5th inning, LaPorta ran into China catcher Wang Wei, who would leave the game hurt. Lefebvre said that LaPorta should have been ejected, that you don't slide high into the plate. China then hit Schierholtz with a pitch to start the next inning, and both benches were warned. A few batters later, Schierholtz scored on a sacrifice fly, taking out backup catcher Yang Yang on the way.
"I did what I did," Schierholtz said, "to get the run."
Yang Yang's teammates held him back as he tried to go after Schierholtz. Next inning, China reliever Chen Kun beaned LaPorta.
"We do not throw to hit people,"Lefebvre said, angrily responding to the accusation. "We do not teach that in China or in the U.S."
Afterward, Lefebvre, waiting on that chair, seemed to want more, or maybe he wanted something else. Who knows? Johnson didn't acknowledge him. "I didn't see him,"Johnson said twice.
He wasn't here to fight.
Copyright 2008 Digital Chicago, Inc.
Franny Luce, member of Springfield Post 21 American Legion junior baseball team, dies at 90
When it came time for players to try out for Springfield Post 21's American Legion junior baseball team, well over 100 kids answered the call.
"It was the Depression. Nobody had any money. All there was for us kids to do was hang around the playgrounds and play ball all day," said Tony King, a Cathedral High School second baseman who would become captain of that team.
He was talking about the summer of 1934, when Post 21 had the only American Legion team in town. Coach Babe Steere thus had the pick of the city's five high schools. It took a lot of talent for a kid to become one of his chosen 15. An impressive crew of first basemen tried out. Franny Luce of Technical High School topped them all.
"There's something about left-handed first basemen," King said. "They just look so good at that position. And Franny - he looked really good."
That season would end with Post 21's players becoming Civil Rights activists - 13 years before Jackie Robinson broke major league baseball's color line, 29 years before Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. After winning state and New England crowns, the team arrived in Gastonia, N.C., for the eastern sectional - one step away from playing for the national title. A few hours later, they were told that their black pitcher, Bunny Taliaferro, could not play, or even stay with the team.
When it became clear that there was no way around the Gastonia ruling, Post 21's kids made a decision. If Bunny couldn't play, they wouldn't stay. They withdrew, and came home to a rousing welcome at Union Station. In a 2003 interview, Luce recalled walking near the team's hotel in Gastonia and having people yelling, "You'll get the same thing he's going to get. And when we tried to have a practice at the ballfield, they turned the water off on us."
That was Franny Luce's introduction to racism, at age 16. He and his teammates learned more than they ever wanted to know about bigotry of the 1930s. In later years, he played for local league teams, then returned to American Legion ball as the coach for Brightwood Post 449 in the 1950s. As a senior citizen, he maintained a keen interest in sports, especially baseball. He was a regular at local meetings of SABR (Society for American Baseball Research).
"Franny was a very good ballplayer, a wonderful teammate," said Danny Keyes, a retired judge who served as a backup infielder on Post 21's 1934 team. "Over the years, we kept in touch. We'd talk about the old times. At our age, we tend to remember the good things," Keyes said.
Franny Luce died Sunday. He was 90 years old. Only King and Keyes remain from that Post 21 team of 1934 - truly an American Legion team for the ages.
2008 MassLive LLC. All Rights Reserved
Canton Stallions begin Musial title chase Wednesday
CANTON Their No. 3 pitcher spent six years in the major leagues. Their top run producer was hoping to be drafted by a major league team this spring. No wonder no one can stop the Canton Stallions of the Class A league. When the Stallions (25-5) host the Stan Musial East Central Regional at Thurman Munson Stadium this week, only five teams will be there to challenge Canton's stranglehold on the championship. They open play at 5 p.m. Wednesday but won't know their opponent until after today's draw.
The Stallions have won the regional tournament nine of the last 10 years, moving on to the American Amateur Baseball Congress World Series. They qualified for regionals again this year by winning both halves of the Canton Class A league. Stallions head coach Rick Mulinix also is the team's catcher. He directs a staff that includes 51-year-old Roger Begue (6-2, 2.07) and 20-somethings Brian Boone (6-1, 0.78) and Chuck Shiffhauer (8-0, 0.43).
Shiffhauer threw a no-hitter two weeks ago. Boone threw a no-hitter at last year's World Series. Then there is Marc Wilkins, 37, who was 19-14 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and is 2-0 with a 0.47 ERA this season.
"To be honest, really, we don't have a set 1-2-3-4-5," Mulinix said. "I could use any one of them. I would be comfortable using any one of them, anywhere."
The Stallions are comfortable in the batter's box, too. Hoover High School graduate and University of Akron standout Kurt Davidson was hoping to get drafted after setting the Zips career home run record and making first-team All-Mid-American Conference. He's had to settle for leading the Stallions in RBIs (26) while batting .317 and playing second base.
The No. 5 hitter, DH Phil Sabatka, tied Davidson for the league lead in homers with nine. Sabatka, the Class A leader in doubles with 10, is hitting .322. Mulinix, who leads off, has 30 runs scored and 18 stolen bases. No. 2 hitter Rob Arnold, the center fielder, is hitting .338. Left fielder David Yoder leads the everyday squad with a .375 average.
Right fielder Jamie Palumbi (.318), third baseman Craig Welch (.300) and first baseman Joe Pukansky (.329) all add productive bats in the lower portion of the order. Recent pickup Zack Leonard, a McKinley graduate and shortstop coming off a Great Lakes Collegiate Baseball League season, will hit third in the order. With all that talent, it's no wonder the Stallions are 48-6 the last 10 years at the AABC regionals.
"We don't play to win the (Class A) league," Mulinix said. "This is what we play for, the regional and the World Series. We've been kind of (bored) lately. I think our season really starts Wednesday."
2008 The Repository
Canton Stallions begin Musial title chase Wednesday
CANTON Their No. 3 pitcher spent six years in the major leagues. Their top run producer was hoping to be drafted by a major league team this spring. No wonder no one can stop the Canton Stallions of the Class A league. When the Stallions (25-5) host the Stan Musial East Central Regional at Thurman Munson Stadium this week, only five teams will be there to challenge Canton's stranglehold on the championship. They open play at 5 p.m. Wednesday but won't know their opponent until after today's draw.
The Stallions have won the regional tournament nine of the last 10 years, moving on to the American Amateur Baseball Congress World Series. They qualified for regionals again this year by winning both halves of the Canton Class A league. Stallions head coach Rick Mulinix also is the team's catcher. He directs a staff that includes 51-year-old Roger Begue (6-2, 2.07) and 20-somethings Brian Boone (6-1, 0.78) and Chuck Shiffhauer (8-0, 0.43).
Shiffhauer threw a no-hitter two weeks ago. Boone threw a no-hitter at last year's World Series. Then there is Marc Wilkins, 37, who was 19-14 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and is 2-0 with a 0.47 ERA this season.
"To be honest, really, we don't have a set 1-2-3-4-5," Mulinix said. "I could use any one of them. I would be comfortable using any one of them, anywhere."
The Stallions are comfortable in the batter's box, too. Hoover High School graduate and University of Akron standout Kurt Davidson was hoping to get drafted after setting the Zips career home run record and making first-team All-Mid-American Conference. He's had to settle for leading the Stallions in RBIs (26) while batting .317 and playing second base.
The No. 5 hitter, DH Phil Sabatka, tied Davidson for the league lead in homers with nine. Sabatka, the Class A leader in doubles with 10, is hitting .322. Mulinix, who leads off, has 30 runs scored and 18 stolen bases. No. 2 hitter Rob Arnold, the center fielder, is hitting .338. Left fielder David Yoder leads the everyday squad with a .375 average.
Right fielder Jamie Palumbi (.318), third baseman Craig Welch (.300) and first baseman Joe Pukansky (.329) all add productive bats in the lower portion of the order. Recent pickup Zack Leonard, a McKinley graduate and shortstop coming off a Great Lakes Collegiate Baseball League season, will hit third in the order. With all that talent, it's no wonder the Stallions are 48-6 the last 10 years at the AABC regionals.
"We don't play to win the (Class A) league," Mulinix said. "This is what we play for, the regional and the World Series. We've been kind of (bored) lately. I think our season really starts Wednesday."
2008 The Repository
Mets unveil new Dominican training camp
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic. The New York Mets unveiled a sprawling new training academy in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday in an effort to develop more of the talent-rich country's baseball prospects.
The $8 million facility in Boca Chica, a beach resort east of the capital of Santo Domingo, includes two regulation-size playing fields. One of the fields copies the dimensions and wall height of Citi Field, the ballpark the Mets will move into next season.
Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, a former New Yorker, joined the team's executives at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the 37-acre academy, which will serve as the hub for the major league club's Latin American baseball operations. The new academy also includes dormitories, two bunting fields, two batting tunnels, four covered pitching mounds, and weight and training rooms.
"We expect our new academy to become a destination facility for talented athletes to learn - on the field and off it - through competition and education," said Jeff Wilpon, the club's chief operating officer.
The new training academy replaces the franchise's previous Dominican facility in the southern province of San Cristobal. The Mets, who have six Dominican players on their active roster, are hoping to develop more of its share of the talent regularly produced by the developing Caribbean country of 9.2 million people. Many Dominican players rise up through baseball academies lining the nation's south coast
Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
American Baseball Teams Bidding On Cuban Children
American baseball has made a move towards signing Cuban defectors over the past few years. The age on these prospects has gotten considerably younger. On Thursday, Major League teams put a new policy in effect that will allow them to bid on Cuban babies.
The New York Yankees began the process by bidding USD 2.5 million for Arestes Gonzalez. Although he is only two years old, Yankee scouts believe he could develop into one of the best right fielders in baseball in eighteen years. The Oakland A's got in on the bidding when they offered USD 300,000 for a slick fielding one year old named Esteban Cruz. Cruz is currently in diapers, but has shown good form in throwing his bottle from his crib.
Not to be outdone by the Yankees, the Boston Red Sox have offered a Cuban couple USD 4.7 million if they would begin trying to conceive a child. If the child comes out masculine, the Red Sox would then own his rights for the next seventeen years. The move by baseball comes after teams realized that they needed to start grooming their players at an earlier age. Commissioner Selig tried to get the age limit for Cuban defectors to be ten, but was shot down when the Yankees did not like the idea.
Under the arrangement the league has made, any team who wins the rights to a Cuban defector under the age of five will have that players rights until they turn eighteen. Even if the children do not turn out to be ballplayers, the teams would still own their rights. A Cuban child who does not have sufficient baseball skills could wind up as a ball boy or a grounds crew member.
Copyright 2008 Sports Satire.
Jensen Honored by American Baseball Coaches Association
Moraga, CA. Kyle Jensen's monster sophomore season continues to earn him national recognition. It was announced today that Jensen was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings West Region First Team, and the ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division I All-American Second Team. All these accolades do not suprise head coach Jedd Soto, who had this to say about Jensen, "Kyle is an explosive multi-talented player who was exceptional for us in 2008," he added "He's a five-tool player with a rare combination of power and speed."
The ABCA All-American Teams are collegiate baseball's oldest selections, dating back to 1949. There are 298 Division I schools which are divided into eight regions, the West Region encompasses 34 schools. The 34 coaches nominate their players for recognition then vote to select a first and second All-West Region Team. First team selectees become nominees with the first All-Region Teams from the other seven regions for All-America recognition.
In 2008 Jensen broke Saint Mary's single season record for hitting, with a .421 batting average. He also led the team with 13 homeruns, 17 doubles, slugged .718 and had a .498 on-base percentage. Jensen was also named a Rivals.com Second Team All-American, as well as First Team All-WCC.
2007 CSTV Networks, Inc.
|
