Thirteen players who spent at least part of the 2008 season with the Batavia Muckdogs have been placed on the Quad Cities River Bandits roster for 2009.
The players promoted are: George Brown, Hector Cardenas, Ramon Delgado, Arquidemes Nieto, Miguel Tapia, Adam Veres, Charles Cutler, Blake Murphy, Osvaldo Morales, Domnit Bolivar, Alex Castellanos, Jon Edwards and Chris Swauger.
My grandson was a sophmore last year when this was shot. This past season his high school team, of 13 players, made it to the state finals. Keep an eye on him, he may be playing for the Muckdogs in the future and then who knows what might happen.
Eight players who spent time with the Batavia Muckdogs during their 2008 championship season are continuing their minor league careers this season with the Palm Beach Cardinals.
Palm Beach, also a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate, is in the Florida State League, which is considered High Class A.
Among the players making the roster are hitting stars Jermaine Curtis, Cold Sedbrook and Shane Peterson.
Reliever Adam Reifer is also starting the season with Palm Beach, as is Lance Lynn, who put up great numbers with both Batavia and Quad Cities.
Rounding out the list of promotions: Francisco Rivera, Ryan Kuilk and Thomas Eager,
There probably aren't too many people around who remember the players from the 1948 Batavia Clippers, but one of those men popped up in the news this week.
Joe Macko, a 6' 2", 200 lbs first baseman spent his first year of professional ball in Batavia. He smacked 11 home runs, hit .315 and also served as the team's bus driver.
Those 11 home runs would be the first of 306 he would hit in his 18-season minor league career.
Alas, Macko never mastered hitting a curve ball, and thus never saw a single pitch in a major league ball game.
Macko was a coach with the Chicago Cubs in 1964. His son, Steve Macko, played 24 games with the Cubs before dying of cancer at age 27.
Macko, 81, who recently served as an ambassador for the Texas Rangers, was inducted this week into the Texas League Hall of Fame.
Even though the New York Yankees couldn't get a victory to open up their new stadium Thursday, it was still a pretty big day for 1995 Notre Dame graduate Dave Pero.
Many of the former greats made an appearance, the weather was great for baseball and the local man made history.
Pero - a high school teacher in Syracuse - was the first guy to ask his girlfriend to become his fiance at the new Yankee Stadium when he proposed to Heather DeCarolos.
"There's nothing better than to kick off this opening day and this stadium by making a commitment to my future wife," Pero told the New York Daily News.
Pero, 31, got down on one knee and popped the question while The Skycoasters - a band out of Rochester - was playing the Earth, Wind and Fire song "September" nearby. DeCarolos said yes.
"I'm stunned," DeCarolos, 23, told the Daily News. "I'm on top of the world. I can't think of a better place for this to happen."
I wanted to set up a system that would allow me to record some of my interviews and then post those MP3 files to The Batavian.
Today, to test out my new system, Brian Hillabush (whom I meant to refer to as the "once and future sports editor of The Batavian" in the recording) talk a little baseball.
You can download the MP3 audio file here. The file is about 10 minutes long. We cover the majors, Muckdogs and our recent fantasy league draft.
This passage from the New York State Public High School Athletic Association bylaws has opened up a chance for each Section to determine if they continue playing a full schedule and avoid the recent cuts made.
"The maximum number of contests which may be established for interscholastic sports during a regular schedule shall be determined in the sections ... The maximum number of contests established for each sport during the regular schedule is subject to review by the state athletic associations and may be altered where it is found that disparities in the number of games contribute to unequal competition between teams in different sections."
Section 2 might fight the decision made by the NYSPHSAA because of this passage.
Jackie Friedman of Poststar.com writes that in the most recent meeting by the Section 2 athletic council, a mothing was passed to give member schools a chance to vote to overturn the state's ruling.
If the majority of schools vote to overturn the state's decision, Section 2 will try to get an endorsement from the NYSPHSAA to stop the rule in that area. The votes will be collected by March 16 and a decision will be announced on April 1 at the athletic council meeting.
Section 2 executive director Doug Kenyon is quotes as saying that athletic directors and schools "should have control over their destiny."
Kenyon believe that even if the vote passes, the state may still not approve the decision because it would give Section 2 an advantage over the other Sections in state competition because the teams will have played more games.
There has been harsh criticism of the state's ruling to cut the number of games from people in every Section, so this could be a way to reverse the cuts. It would be interesting if other Sections - including Section 5 - were to try this as well.
Maybe a full schedule could return, with Section 2 leading the way.
The Buffalo News today reported a story in which reporter Maki Becker gives us some more detail on the New York State Public High School Athletic Association cuts as he interviewed executive director Nina Van Erk.
There wasn't a whole lot of information than what we have previously reported, but there are a couple of interesting items in the piece.
Van Erk says that it is expected that the cuts will save schools in the state up to $10 million, with nearly $6 million of that going to officiating fees.
The other thing that comes from this story is that the cuts are expected to be for two years.
The changes, which were approved by a slim majority late last month, would begin in the next school year and would remain in effect for two years, Van Erk told the paper.
This opens up some more questions.
Did Van Erk and the rest of the NYSPHSAA directors make these cuts for two years because it is a quick fix to help schools and families get through these difficult economic times?
Was it announced that the cuts are for two years because that is the original plan or because of all the backlash the NYSPHSAA has received from coaches and athletic directors?
And what happens after two years? Will these policies just continue or will they be reviewed again at that time, with the number of games being returned to the schedule?
Buffalo Public Schools athletic director David Thomas summed up what a lot of people are thinking when they hear this with his quote late in the story.
“I don’t think we should be worried about funding school budgets on the backs of the kids playing sports,” said Thomas told the paper.
Cutting the number of games might help school districts in the more remote areas of Western New York that require longer traveling distances, Thomas said, “but it doesn’t save it up here [in Buffalo], where we are trying to keep the kids off the streets and busy with school and athletics.”
The current schedule allows Buffalo athletes the opportunity to play in suburban areas and “to travel to some nice tournaments,” Thomas said. “Now we have to pull back on that.”
Thomas also questioned whether the cuts were really temporary. “When they take things away,” he said, “they don’t often come back.”
The Batavia Little League will be conducting signups for the 2009 season on Friday, Feb. 27 and Saturday, Feb. 28 at the City Centre Mall.
Friday's signups go from 6-8 p.m. while Saturday's will be from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Here is all the info on the signups.
Former Batavia Muckdog Ryan Howard cashed in big this weekend.
The 29-year old slugger that is one of the biggest names to ever have suited up for Batavia's New York-Pennsylvania League franchise inked a 3-year, $54 million contract extension on Sunday with the Philadelphia Phillies.
The two sides were far apart on contract negotiations so the move came as a surprise to many, and it looked like HOward was heading towards a second straight salary arbitration hearing on Friday of this week.
But the Phillies bought out the final three years of Howard's salary arbitration eligibility and gave him the big contract.
"I'm happy to have this done and to know that I'll be in Philadelphia for at least another three years," Howard said in a statement. "Both sides are happy, and now I'm just focused on getting the season started and having fun."
Howard - the 2006 National League MVP - will make $15 million this season and his salary will jump to $19 million in 2010 and 2011.
The first baseman was a Muckdog in 2001 and hit six home runs in 48 games played.
The cuts made by the NYSPHSAA this week are upsetting a lot of people.
I went through the details of the cuts yesterday and the one that is upsetting the most is the cuts in amount of games being played.
5. Support the reduction of the maximum number of contests permitted during the regular season. Sports with 24 contests will be reduced to 20, sports with 20 contests will be reduced to 18 and sports with 18 contests will be reduced to 16. Wrestling will be reduced to 20 points. Football will be reduced from 10 to 9. The 9th game is permitted, with section approval, for teams who do not qualify for sectional play. For the teams involved in the sectional tournament the maximum number of contests shall be 10. For the sections involved in the state championship three additional games are permitted for a total of 13 games for the season: 1 game for regionals, 1 game for semifinals, and 1 game for championships. Effective for 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. APPROVED
I know that coaches Mike Rapone of Notre Dame and Jim Burke of Prattsburgh were upset that if the cuts went through it would end the home-and-away tradition between the two programs.
The 500-plus win coaches were very much against cutting the number of games from 20 to 18.
But in John Moriello's blog today, he goes into more detail and has quotes from all over the state.
Grand Island AD Jon Roth: "I really don’t know what two or four contests is going to do for anybody. I don’t think they should penalize the kids. I know cuts have to be made somewhere, but cutting games is not the answer.”
Section 2 football chairman Gary VanDerzee: "In all honesty, football made out the best of all of them. It's just a horrible, horrible decision, made by people afraid to make the decision in their own (leagues or sections).
Section 2 boys soccer chairman Jim Gillis: "I'm not surprised by this, but I think it is absurd. There are other things that could have been done state-wide, section-wide and league-wise that could have avoided cutting of games. Unfortunately, we weren't given that opportunity. We had no say in these moves."
Section 2 baseball chairman Al Roy: "I know when we just had a baseball meeting, everyone felt this is something that leagues, sections and individual schools should address. This vote seems like a knee-jerk reaction."
Section 4 interscholastic sports coordinator Ben Nelson: "I'm not really surprised they reduced the number of games, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me, or to most of the AD's (in Section 4)."
It is evident that these changes are upsetting to people all throughout the state, not just Section 5. The NYSPHSAA is taking away some great experiences that high school athletes could have. Next year, Notre Dame and Prattsburgh will probably not get a chance to play. That is a shame and not the only traditions that are going to die because of these cuts.
The petition to try and save the Empire State Games doesn't mean a thing to the organizers of the games in Hudson Valley.
There are currently 3131 signatures on the online petition, but there will still be no summer games for area athletes to compete in.
But Alan Wechsler of The Times Union reports that the petition will not save the games:
The state has paid about $2.7 million per year to run the annual games, but balked this year due to budget problems. The $285 pays for entry fees, food and dorm rooms at colleges near the venues.
The petition is addressed to Gov. David Paterson and Carol Ash, commissioner of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and seeks to reverse the changes.
"The Summer Games as a whole entity brings in $10 to $15 Million to the local economy of the host city," the petition says. "At a cost to the state of only $2 million, we feel this is a very wise investment."
Local volunteers had even raised $300,000 to keep the games alive, but it that didn't matter to Hudson Valley either.
"That was very troublesome to all of the volunteers that were involved," said committee member Denise VanBuren of Poughkeepsie. "We felt unable to stage the games as we had committed."
The decision was made despite having raised about $300,000 from local sponsors. The petition wouldn't change their minds, she said.
A few weeks ago, we wrote about a petition out there to try and save the Empire State Games. The petition is growing and now has 3003 signatures. I signed it in hopes of saving the games, which have been a tremendous thing for a lot of people for three decades.
Messenger Post writer Mike Bailey jumps on board in the fight today and writes a very good column on the topic.
There will be no Empire State Games in 2009 as of right now, as state budget cuts are forcing the annual Olympic-style competition to the back burner. The word “unfortunate” is an understatement when it comes to this decision.
It’s more like a travesty.
Apparently, I am not the only one who feels this way, and one woman, Arlene Feil, decided to do something about it. She has set up an online petition at www.petitiononline.com — a link also can be found on the wrestling site www.armdrag.com — aimed at New York Gov. David Paterson pleading with him to re-institute the games immediately.
Basically the letter states that events such as the games help stimulate the economy rather than hurt it, due to all the travel and expenses that athletes face over the course of the weekend. She says that the ESG generate $10 million to $15 million for the local economy of the host city and points out how much of that revenue is returned to the state.
It took me about a minute to sign the petition and if you are a supporter of local sports or giving kids a chance to compete during the summer, I would recommend spending a minute to sign the petition.
In John Moriello's blog today, he is talking money and sports.
New York has already lost the Empire State Games as Hudson Valley said there was no way they could host the game this summer if athletes are going to be forced to play $300 each to participate and there will be cuts in some of the "smaller sports".
The New York State Public High School Athletic Association is also looking into cuts, a story that was broken on The Batavian. There is talks of regionalizing state games, eliminating the amount of games played in the regular season and post season for some sports and cutting down on the amount of champions in individual sports.
Moriello thinks that the NYSPHSAA is moving too fast:
More often, however, issues are resolved incrementally and painfully. Quick, easy fixes just do not exist.
That's where the state of New York stands today. The economic downturn has shredded the economy, and elected officials in Albany face a deficit in excess of $15 billion in next year's budget. Among the casualties is the education budget, with proposed state aid being pared back considerably from what local school districts were anticipating when they started the annual planning process in the fall.
And that has everything to do with why the executive committee of the state Public High School Athletic Association will vote on more than a dozen cost-cutting proposals at its quarterly meeting at the end of the week.
The NYSPHSAA officials are trying to be proactive in dealing with financial issues. They rightly recognize that cuts are coming in virtually all aspects of the education budget and want to take the initiative in setting priorities and finding solutions lest someone not as well informed try doing it for them. That's their right, and I would even say it's their responsibility.
Moriello also talks about the cost of teams that travel to our border states for games. It is a good read, well worth checking out.
Dave Wellenzohn has a championship ring and had a great experience while meeting "great people in Batavia".
But he was let go as general manager of the Batavia Muckdogs after this season by the Rochester Red Wings, who are owned by the Rochester Red Wings Management, LLC.
Things happen fast in minor league baseball, and Wellenzohn found his new job quickly after searching since the end of the season.
Just yesterday, Wellenzohn was hired by the Savannah Sand gnats as Director of Tickets and Sales.
"I was the one left holding the short end of the stick (after the season)," Wellenzohn said. "I'm thrilled to be leaving Batavia. I'm happy to be going to Georgia because I've lived there before. I'm looking forward to setting up residence and hopefully being there for a while."
Wellenzohn being happy about leaving Batavia has nothing to do with the people or his experience during the season. In his interview he used the words "bitter sweet" very often.
Batavia won its first New York-Pennsylvania League title in 45 years on September 14 and he was let go on the 15th.
"I would not trade my experience in Batavia for anything, but I wouldn't do it again either," Wellenzohn said. "It was bitter sweet and I was the only one that lost. But it was nice. We won a championship and I met a lot of nice people."
Wellenzohn literally was ready to move back to his home town of Buffalo. He had the moving truck booked, found an apartment and had an appointment to have his satellite TV set up.
After having no luck finding a job, he was just going to head home.
But he was hired by the Sand gnats yesterday and is now looking for a place to live there, while canceling his plans to move to Buffalo.
"One of my former employees at Jamestown is there and is the public relations director for NASCAR driver Jamie McMurray, and she's helping me to find some housing. I need to find a place that allows dogs because I still have my trusty companion, my german shepard."
The Sand gnats are a full-season Class A team that is an affiliate of the New York Mets that plays in the South Atlantic League. The team has one of the oldest stadiums in the country, but there is talk of a new one being built in the near future.
He will be wearing his first championship ring when he starts his job on February 2.
"Baseball continues to move on and the calendar moves on," Wellenzohn said. "I'll be with a new team and a new affiliate, but I'll have my first championship ring on my finger. We won 50 games and that is neat. It's something I'll never forget."
For the past few years, I've heard how the officiating keeps getting worse; and it doesn't matter which sport it is.
According to the National Association of Sports Officials, the amount of high school officials is dropping at a rapid pace. This means there are many inexperienced officials doing games. Consider half of the varsity basketball team quitting and half the jayvee team being called up to replace them.
The reason more than 3/4 of the NASO lists for the decline in officials is "poor sportsmanship by spectators".
John Moriello of the NYSSWA writes about an incident at a game between Schuylerville and Mohonasen in late December.
At a basketball game between Schuylerville and Mohonasen on Dec. 26, spectators became so unruly that the gym had to be cleared. It was a girls game . . . a JV girls game.
"Parents have invested their whole freaking past, present and future in little Johnny going to Syracuse on a scholarship and, oh gosh, the ref made a bad call," Will Keim, co-author of "Fan Etiquette: How did the burning desire to win become the desire to burn?" said. "This ref is keeping their kid out of the NBA."
The basic lesson here is that if you are not liking what you see on the field or court, leave the officials alone and let them do their job. The more that quit, the less experienced officials we are going to get.
Batavia High School has been one of the smallest schools in the Monroe County League for a long time.
It has hindered the chances some programs have had to win.
But those things are about to change as realignment has given Batavia a chance to remain part of a league, yet be competitive in sports it normally struggled to compete in.
"With our school and our size, Monroe County recognized that our school and Greece Odyssey were a little different," Batavia athletic director Mike Bromley said. "You have to give them credit for that because they give us a league affiliation and will allow us to be competitive."
The Blue Devils will be playing in Monroe County League Division III, but will be essentially playing a half-league schedule.
Geography is a big consideration for Monroe County as teams were realigned. Division I and II teams are matched up as much by travel distance as school size. Division III is mostly about size.
Batavia will play each team in Division III once in both boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball and volleyball. That means the Blue Devils will get to play seven league games, which is also happening with Odyssey.
While Batavia will no longer be eligible for league championships, it will give teams chances to schedule non-league games with teams that they can compete with.
A prime example is the boys soccer team, which experimented with the schedule least year. Batavia went 7-10, going 7-1 outside of Monroe County and 0-8 in the league.
"We gave up the opportunity to win a league championship because we don't play everybody twice," Bromley said. "But to be able to go out and get schools that are closer to our size and be more competitive makes more sense than trying to win league titles."
Kids will still have a chance to be recognized as all-county and there will be no changes for track & field or cross country.
This sets up some potential great local rivalries, especially as Batavia drops down to Class B. Imagine home and home series' with Attica or Albion. Those could be great local rivalries for Batavia.
Once you get past not being able to compete for a league championship, there are still goals for Batavia teams.
There will also be changes in the modified programs at Batavia, as the drop in numbers will no longer support a seventh and eighth grade team. The two grades will be combined for modified and will play a schedule based on geography.
Here is the new alignment for the Monroe County League:
Division I: Canandaigua, Irondequoit, Fairport, Penfield, Rush-Henrietta, Webster Schroeder, Webster Thomas.
Division II: Brockport, Churchville-Chili, Gates Chili, Greece Arcadia, Greece Athena, Greece Olympia, Hilton, Spencerport.
Division III: Batavia, Brighton, Greece Odyssey, East Irondequoit Eastridge, Honeoye Falls-Lima, Pittsford Mendon, Pittsford Sutherland, Victor.
Rochester's Democrat & Chronicle reports this morning that the Red Wings operations crew, Rochester Community Baseball, lost more than $250,000 on the Muckdogs in 2008 "in an effort to save professional baseball in Batavia." Because of that loss, not even a $150,000 profit pulled in by the Red Wings was enough to keep the company from losing nearly $95,000 for the year.
Naomi Silver, chief operating officer of RCB, spoke with Bob Matthews:
"Considering the poor economy, we're pretty happy with our overall financial statement. But Batavia was a tough nut. We won't stay in Batavia indefinitely if the operation continues to lose money."
Red Wings group outings and advertising set all-time record highs, according to Matthews. Not so rosy in Batavia.
"We expected to lose some money in Batavia due to startup costs at Dwyer Stadium, but attendance was disappointing," Silver said. "We're going to run the Muckdogs again next year, and this time we'll have a full offseason to sell tickets and advertising.
Attendance for the 2008 Muckdogs was 45,398, including the playoffs. That was up slightly over 2007. The Muckdogs won the NY-P league championship for the first time since 1963.
"Although the Batavia operation was unprofitable in 2008, we recognize that it was a transition year — and a losing year," RCB president Gary Larder said. "We are optimistic about an improved financial outcome in 2009."
Silver stressed that the company wants to keep the team in Batavia, "ideally" for 20 years, but she was careful to note that "we're taking our committment one year at a time."
Please check out the complete article by Bob Matthews.
We were wondering when the Muckdogs would make their appearance in the Holland Land Office Museum's countdown of the Twenty-Five Things that Made Genesee County Famous. Well, they've made it. They broke the top ten. They come in at No. 9.
So we all know why we here in Genesee County love the Muckdogs—and we loved them all the more after the brought home the league title this summer. But how do the 'Dawgs make Genesee County famous?
Here's Pat Weissend, director of the Holland Land Office Museum:
Although Batavia is one of the smallest cities in America to have a Minor League franchise, the team consistently ranks near the top of the merchandise sold list. More than 100 Little League and softball teams across the country use Muckdogs as their team name.
Not to mention the world champs:
Many major leaguers began their professional careers in Batavia including World Series champions and current members of the Philadelphia Phillies Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Kyle Kendrick, Ryan Madson and JA Happ. National media outlets visited Batavia in 1998 when Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams played left field for the team. Some of the early Batavia greats were Jack Tighe, Dick Fowler, Manny Sanguillen and Doc Ellis. Clarence (Cito) Gaston led Batavia and the league in homers and runs batted in while playing for the 1966 Trojans. Gaston won two World Series as the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1990s.
Congrats, Muckdogs!
OK, now that we're getting near the top of the list, it's time to start making some predictions. Surely, William Morgan will crack the top five. Bill Kauffman has got to be up there, too, as someone who has quite consciously made Genesee County famous with his book: Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette. A controversy over a transgender science teacher at a Batavia city school has to be at least number three.
What do you think? What's your number one?
Be sure to keep your browser tuned to the Holland Land Office Museum in the coming weeks. We could see our number one by the end of the year.
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