End Near for Fielders?

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J.J. Smith
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Post by J.J. Smith » Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:53 pm

From "patriot" Ehrenreich in the Daily Herald article...

"Ehrenreich wrote the players and umps needed to search their souls for what's important in life if they believed suddenly ending the game was justified or proper for the fans and community. He said it's likely the crowd included parents visiting children at nearby Great Lakes Naval Station.

“Last night, something tragic happened,” Ehrenreich wrote. “No, not a baseball game that was suspended because some ballplayers thought the quality of the baseballs was subpar. (Thirty) American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in the deadliest day for American forces in the last 10 years.”"

****************************************************************************************************************

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

Boswell tells us that Samuel Johnson made this famous pronouncement that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel on the evening of April 7, 1775. He doesn't provide any context for how the remark arose, so we don't really know for sure what was on Johnson's mind at the time.

However, Boswell assures us that Johnson was not indicting patriotism in general, only false patriotism.
Last edited by J.J. Smith on Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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WallysWorld
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Post by WallysWorld » Wed Aug 10, 2011 4:06 pm

I showed someone that article about the baseballs and Ehrenreich’s comment about the fallen US soldiers and he came back with this classic sarcastic line: “A true professional would go out there and play, he wouldn’t whine about his paycheque bouncing. To do otherwise is an insult to the brave men and women who died defending their country.”

AZdev
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Maui Game Postponed

Post by AZdev » Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:04 pm

Tonight's LCF/Maui game has been postponed, citing LC travel intinerary. Just yesterday(Tues.) Ehrenreich was saying that they had not yet decided whether to make the trip to Maui. This , the day before the first game of a 4 game series. You just knew they weren't going to get there at that point. Maybe they are still planning to go or are on their way , getting there a day or so late?? or maybe they will just fold. I was wondering why they didn't make up a few of the Calgary games, since Calgary had nothing on the schedule till Friday.I guess Calgary couldn't change travel plans.

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Post by Round Lake Illini » Thu Aug 11, 2011 4:11 am

[quote=""AZdev""]Tonight's LCF/Maui game has been postponed, citing LC travel intinerary. Just yesterday(Tues.) Ehrenreich was saying that they had not yet decided whether to make the trip to Maui. This , the day before the first game of a 4 game series. You just knew they weren't going to get there at that point. Maybe they are still planning to go or are on their way , getting there a day or so late?? or maybe they will just fold. I was wondering why they didn't make up a few of the Calgary games, since Calgary had nothing on the schedule till Friday.I guess Calgary couldn't change travel plans.[/quote]

Postponed because of Lake County's travel itinerary?! Tuesday was an off day for them so this is a bogus excuse. I could see them just blowing off this series since it is the last 4 road games on their schedule, then playing the rest of the home games with whatever players they can find (players willing to play for free, of course! :mrgreen :) .

J.J. Smith
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The End Has Come

Post by J.J. Smith » Thu Aug 11, 2011 12:08 pm

From the league website...

"The North American League is disappointed to announce that the Lake County Fielders have eliminated themselves from the league by failing to appear for their scheduled series today. Schedule changes will be announced shortly.

http://www.northamericanleague.com/view ... news_30105

They should never have let this team in to start with. This was totally predictable. Wouldn't be too surprised to hear Maui hangs it up, too. Nothing but red ink and losing out on the island this year.

AZdev
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Fielder's No Show

Post by AZdev » Thu Aug 11, 2011 6:27 pm

I guess the league waited for the Fielders to officially not show up in Maui, before making the decision to boot them from the league. They had to know beforehand, but Ehrenreich probably didn't say anything. It seems that there is no communication between the NAL and some of it's teams at all.
I wouldn't be suprised if the NAL right now is trying to resurrect the Tijuana team to playout the Fielders schedule on the backfields at Yuma!

J.J. Smith
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Post by J.J. Smith » Thu Aug 11, 2011 11:58 pm

The following ran tonight on ABC TV...

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=8302339&pid=8302359

Despite what there PR guy says, they knew a permanent stadium was not going to be built this year. They chose to go ahead with playing this season, and, as almost everyone predicted, it blew up on them. Now they want to blame everyone else for their own stupidity. Typical.

After some back and forth, it looks like the Fielders are officially out of the NAL. They claim they are going to continue to play games against some mystery opponents. The bar just can't go any lower for this crew.

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Post by J.J. Smith » Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:10 am

Here's a press release from the Fielders...

August 11, 2011

Zion, IL. The Lake County Fielders, a minor league baseball team in Zion, IL, provided notice to the North American League yesterday that the team may be terminating its membership in the league for a variety of reasons that include the burdensome travel and expense of a schedule that included flying to Maui 3 times in one season. The Fielders will weigh its options to play in other leagues for the 2012 season, but in the meantime, the team is prepared to continue its 2011 home season schedule against a lineup of opponents that will be announced in the days to follow.

"The team had no choice," said team spokesman Bernie DiMeo of DiMeo Communications. "No independent minor league team could financially survive the expense of flying to play every opponent, and to Hawaii no less. The Fielders are the furthest team in the league from Maui, yet the league scheduled them to make 3 trips there compared to 1 trip for all the other teams in the league. That just makes no sense, and no team should be held to a schedule that is so financially inequitable."

"Its no secret that we're living in tough economic times, and the Fielders are doing whatever it takes to provide the community with its hometown team and an affordable time at the ballpark," continued DiMeo. "The Fielders are excited about the weeks remaining this summer, and will provide a unique and daring schedule that will include all the baseball and fun that fans are accustomed to enjoying.We'll be adding some twists along the way, but you'll have to come out to the park to see it for yourself!"


...they're "excited about the weeks remaining this summer"? Whatever you say, Bernie. And I guess they just figured out that flying a baseball team from Illinois to Hawaii is kind of expensive. Slow learners, those Fielders.

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Post by robster2001 » Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:41 pm

[quote=""J.J. Smith""]
"The team had no choice," said team spokesman Bernie DiMeo of DiMeo Communications. "No independent minor league team could financially survive the expense of flying to play every opponent, and to Hawaii no less..."[/quote]

Did Hawaii move farther from the mainland between March and August?

The Fielders knew they were going to be flying to Maui when the Frankenstein's Monster known as the North American League was welded together... the time to complain was back when the schedule was drawn up, not after you've suddenly figured out that travel costs money...

I feel sorry for the few solid teams in the NAL -- they are so spread out that there is simply no viable league for them to play in. Those teams may wind up facing the same fate as Lawton-Fort Sill did in basketball... unable to play because there's nobody to play against.

AZdev
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Post by AZdev » Wed Sep 07, 2011 12:58 am

So Outcalt still wants the Fielder's in the league next year.
“It certainly was a difficult season for the Fielders,” Outcalt said. “Hopefully everything gets resolved so they'll continue (to play in the league).”This after all the bs and a 17 game series against another Semi-Pro team.The Fielders mk3 were not even the Fielders anyway.Outcalf acts like the team only had a few bumps in the road.
They blew off Maui without even the decency to let them know they were not going to show up for the series.The Fielder's were suppose to be fined 25k for each game they blew off in that series.
When asked about this Fielders spokesman DiMeo replied (from dh).
“They didn't come here, either,” he said, referring to a series scheduled in Zion last month that the Maui team blew off. “If we have to pay them, they have to pay us.” At least Maui let them know after they were stood up. What a joke guy and what a joke team.

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