Indy Baseball Shines in Major Leagues
Published on October 10, 2004 under Atlantic League (AtL)
Bridgeport Bluefish News Release
What a great night for independent baseball!!! First, Ruben Sierra (formerly of the Atlantic City Surf) hits a towering three-run home run in the 8th inning to get the New York Yankees back into a game they eventually win in the 11th to defeat the Minnesota Twins to move on to face the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. Then, a couple hours later, Jose Lima (formerly of the Newark Bears) hurls a five-hit, 4-0 shutout for the Los Angeles Dodgers to give the Dodgers their playoff victory in sixteen years, and to keep them alive in their series against the St. Louis Cardinals. By the way, the Twins sent Jose Offerman up to pinch hit in that game against the Yankees, and he grounded out to second. Offie, of course, played all last season and had an All-Star year with our own Bridgeport Bluefish.
Here's a great quote Jim Cerny wrote of recently when interviewing Newark Bears' manager Bill "Mad Dog" Madlock, concerning Jose Lima: "I was with Lima in Detroit and here and the big difference was that he worked and listened while here because he wanted to get back to the bigs so badly. In the bigs, you think you know it all, but in the independent leagues you really listen more. Lima was great while he was in Newark. He really worked hard when he was here... Lima still stays in touch with and with the Bears front office; and he remains very thankful for the opportunity we gave him."
Baseball trivia: Only one person who graduated from Swarthmore College (this editor's alma mater) is in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. He is also the only member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity (also this editor's fraternity) in the Hall of Fame. Who is he? See end of Mickey's Mail.
Didya know that the Bluefish record this season against the four teams (the Atlantic City Surf, the Nashua Pride, the Camden Riversharks, and the Long Island Ducks) that made the playoffs was 38-34? The only playoff team that had a season's edge on the Bluefish were the league champion Long Island Ducks, and their advantage against us was only 10 games to 8.
Could we sell out if she came here? One-upping themselves after Donald Trump came to a Somerset Patriots game earlier this year, the folks at Commerce Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, NJ last Saturday night hosted 24-year old celebrity singer Jessica Simpson for a concert. She was on stage for 12-song set, and even invited fans on stage to ask her a number of questions. (She's not divorcing Nick Lachey, and she is starring this year in a Dukes of Hazzard remake. For those clamoring for the Bluefish to host such a concert here, you may recall we tried our hand at outdoor concerts before the Arena opened next door. What we found was that they were hard to sell out, they wore out our staff, and we were scared to death of bad weather (the "set" can cost as much as $80,000 to construct and prepare). And with the Arena next door, we have, frankly, a superior venue there for these types of events.
Happenings in the âhood: In case you haven't realized it, Jonathan is really back at the Corporate Deli at 130 John Street. After selling his deli a couple years ago, he has now bought it back, and you'll find him there every day! Also, that bar at Roberto's (corner of Main and State Streets) is now open, and is a welcome addition to a pretty fine restaurant! And, to our south: how about the University of Bridgeport opening up its preseason college basketball schedule with a game at Gampel Pavilion at Storrs on November 4 at 7:30 PM against, you guessed it, the national champion UCONN Huskies?! Pretty impressive!
If you go the Our Sports Central website at www.oursportscentral.com and drill down to the Atlantic League section, you'll see reference to something called "League Massey Ratings". If you click there, you'll see how Kenneth Massey rated the teams in our league after the regular season and the playoffs ended. Those ratings are reproduced below: Team Rank Power Offense Defense Home Field Advantage Schedule Camden Riversharks 1 1 5 1 4 8 Bridgeport Bluefish 2 3 7 2 5 6 Atlantic City Surf 3 2 3 3 6 7 Nashua Pride 4 7 6 5 1 4 Newark Bears 5 6 1 7 8 2 Somerset Patriots 6 5 2 6 7 5 Long Island Ducks 7 4 4 4 2 3 Pennsylvania Road Warriors 8 8 8 8 3 1
A few editorial comments about these ratings: The league champion Ducks are rated next to last, ahead of only the Pennsylvania Road Warriors who had a 23-103 record for the season. The Road Warriors, according to Massey, had the toughest schedule since they played all their games on the road, but how do rate anyone else's schedule harder than anyone else's since we all played the same number of home and away games against each other? And how do the Road Warriors rank 3rd in home field advantage when they played no home games? The top three ranked teams did have the three best season records, in that order, but it is still hard fathom how the Ducks rated seventh, especially since they rated no worse than 4th in any of the rating categories. Oh well, it makes for some interesting conversation during this winter's "hot stove" months of our off-season.
The book is called "Cy Young: A Baseball Life", by Reed Browning. It's a fascinating biography of the winningest pitcher in baseball history. Denton True "Cy" Young won 511 games, 94 more than the Washington Senators' runner-up Walter Johnson. The 511 wins represent one of those major league records which will almost certainly never be broken. There are a couple great "nuggets" from the book: In the early years of Young's career, he picked up the nickname "Cyclone" which was eventually shortened to "Cy". In 1890 he was pitching for a minor league team in Canton, Ohio. As Young himself describes it, he threw the ball so hard, he tore a couple boards off the grandstand. "One of the fellows said the stand looked like a cyclone struck it." He was thereafter known as "Cyclone" Young until the name was shortened to "Cy" Young two years later. He was never called "Denton" or "Dent" again. Also, despite his 511 victories, except for perhaps three years (1901-1903), he was never really considered the best pitcher in the game at any time of his 22-year career. However, when it came time to name an annual award given to the best pitcher in baseball, Cy Young's name was chosen not so much because of his 511 victories. Rather, he was chosen for the honor because his career straddled both the National League (290 wins) and the newly-formed American League (221 wins). Browning believes that Young would have only won the award named after him in 1892, 1901, 1902, and 1903. Nevertheless, his career was truly extraordinary. His 7,356 innings pitched are 24% more than his closest challenger, and he still holds the record for the most victories in a season for a pitcher aged 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, and 41. Cy Young is a real former-day Roger Clemens! A fun book to read, especially if you enjoy reading about the formative years of Major League Baseball.
How long is the Bluefish Off-Season? Consider this; Martha Stewart will be out of prison and back here in Connecticut before we initiate our 8th season in 2005 (even before we head off to Spring Training in April)! Can you think of anyone better to throw out the first pitch? :)
Baseball trivia answer: The Hall-of-Famer is D.U. brother Leland S. MacPhail, Jr. (Swarthmore '39) who is 87 this month. Lee was inducted in 1998 by the Veterans' Committee for his outstanding contribution to the game as an executive. He and his father, Larry, make up the only father/son tandem in the baseball Hall of Fame.
"There are only two seasons - winter and Baseball." Quote from Bill Veeck, Cleveland Indians. And so we begin a fifth edition of "Mickey's Mail". In the first four "volumes" there have been 221 editions of "Mickey's Mail" (previously called "Friday's Memo" and "BridgeSports' Memo"). Whew!
Atlantic League Stories from October 10, 2004
- Indy Baseball Shines in Major Leagues - Bridgeport Bluefish
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
