Just found this video from he first game of the NY-P Championship in Jamestown. The only real interesting part is at 2:35 in or so and you can see Jermaine Curtis hit his game-winning home run.
Here's another video of the final out of the championship.
It's official! City Council this evening proclaimed September 22, 2008: Muckdogs Day. The 2008 NY-Penn League champions have since dispersed, many of the young players heading to St. Louis for the Cardinals post-season training camp, so that means no go on a parade for this year. But plans are already in the works to hold a victory parade when the champs return to Batavia in June.
We'll be sure to pass along more info as it becomes available.
In other City Council news...
A public hearing has been set for October 14 to discuss a local law that would abolish the city's Board of Ethics. If the action goes through, the city will in future refer all "ethics issues" to the county's Board of Ethics.
Hi i am Chris Freeman. For the last four months I worked for the Batavia Muckdogs as an intern. I was actually the PA announcer. Eventhough, I was not being paid, I had such an awesome time at dwyer stadium. I learned things like selling tickets, power washing and learning how to effectively speak into a microphone. I felt like i was part of the Muckdog family although i was just an intern.
I would like to thank Travis Sick, Casey Freeman and Shirley Figueroa for always putting up with my work habits. I learned alot from those guys. Thank you for that. I would also like to thank Big Dave for encouraging me to be an entertainer. I will always remember this experience every time I go past Dwyer Stadium. I had an amazing time there. I dont care if the fans will ever remember me for when i announced in the year 2008, while wayne was on radio. I just want the fans to remember one thing and that is " Thats another Turnbull K".
The rumor flying around Dwyer Stadium during the playoffs about Batavia Muckdogs General Manager Dave Wellenzohn not returning for next year is true.
The Rochester Red Wings Managment, LLC and Wellenzohn just released a joint press release confirming that he will not be back in 2009.
"In order for the Rochester Red Wings to proceed towards branding our product in Batavia better, Dave and Rochester Community Baseball both recognize that we should have somebody with more Red Wings' experience running day-to-day operations," said Red Wings Chairman of the Board Naomi Silver.
Silver thanked Wellenzohn for the work he did over the winter to keep the organization together while the the New York-Pennsylvania League, the Rochester Red Wings and the City of Batavia worked to keep the team in Batavia.
Having a very short promotional season, Wellenzohn still managed to sell outfield signs to local businesses, bring in a staff to work games and had some unique promotions to help sell season tickets.
Both parties are leaving on good terms, according to the press release.
"I feel the experience I've gained during my time in Batavia will only help me down the road and I look forward to my next opportunity in professional baseball. The 2008 season was a great year in Batavia, with winning the New York-Penn League Championship, and I'm glad I had a chance to be apart of it," Wellenzohn said.
"I have nothing but high marks for Rochester Community Baseball and have every confidence that they'll do a great job in Batavia, just like they have in Rochester."
Wellenzohn has already been in contact with several organizations about possible job opportunities.
The 2008 NY-P League champions expect to announce their new front office staff sometime in the early fall.
After the Batavia Muckdogs won the New York-Pennsylvania League championship Sunday night with a victory over Jamestown at Dwyer Stadium, the players all charged to the mound to celebrate the victory.
But that will be the only celebration that the team will be doing until the start of next year.
In a telephone conversation Monday afternoon, Rochester Red Wings Chairman of the Board Naomi Silver said that there are no plans for any parade or party to celebrate the title at this time.
"We will probably do a parade when the season is about to start next year," Silver said. "All the player personnel left this morning. There really isn't much we can do at this point."
In front of nearly 1,400 screaming fans, Adam Reifer struck out Justin Bass to secure the Batavia Muckdog's first league title since 1963 with a 9-3 victory over the Jamestown Jammers.
With the third strike of the third out in the top of the ninth, fans and players alike went wild as young men in red jerseys swarmed the field and piled on top of each other in front of home plate. In the stands, fans screamed, hugged and high-fived.
Within minutes, league president Ben Hayes presented the championship trophy to manager Mark DeJohn.
The Muckdogs won game one of the three-game series in Jamestown on Friday night. Saturday's game was rained out.
The game was close up until the bottom of the eighth inning when the Muckdogs blew the game open by scoring five runs.
Jamestown had scored two runs in the top of the inning to make it 4-3.
Frederick Parejo went 4-4 and Shane Peterson picked up three hits.
The starter and winner was Hector Cardenas who went six innings and gave up only 1 run.
If it all turned out, we'll post some video from tonight later.
UPDATE: I shot video with two cameras. One was a little Flip so I could post something quickly. That hasn't quite worked out. For some reason, YouTube keeps throwing an error when I try to upload it. Google Video took it just fine, and you can view it here. We'll see how it goes with the other video, which includes some interviews.
UPDATE II: Still having trouble with getting a video to upload to YouTube. The quality of this on Google just isn't very good, but here's the longer video with interviews and such.
UPDATE III: Wow, I kept getting these upload errors, but all this time -- the first video did upload and process just fine. Here's video #1 -- shot with the Flip just to get a quick video of the final out. The second video finally did upload and is processing now. I'll embed either when it's ready or later in the morning (late tonight now, so I might sleep in a bit).
UPDATE IV: Ok, here it is ... the longer video with interviews (Ben Hayes, Dan Mason, Brian Paris and Bill Kauffman):
UPADATE V: Nice summary of the Muckdog's post season on Scout.com. Also, long story on MLB.com, with some nice quotes from Shane Peterson.
Tonight's New York-Pennsylvania League championship series game is rained out and will be made up at 6:05 p.m. Sunday at Dwyer Stadium.
The Muckdogs lead the series 1-0 and if a third game is necessary, it will be played on Monday at 7:05 p.m.
Jermaine Curtis homered in the ninth inning Friday night to give the Batavai Muckdogs a 4-3 victory of the Jamestown Jammers in Jamestown.
The come-from-behind victor gives the 'Dogs a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three New York-Penn League championship series.
Trailing 3-2 entering the ninth inning. the Muckdogs got to Jammers closer Jared Yecker (nine saves during the regular season) for three hits and two earned runs, including Curtis' blast.
Start Scott Gorgen twirled six spectacular innings of shutout ball and left the game with the lead, but relief pitcher Ramon Delgado surrendered all three of the Jammers runs. Because Delgado was still on the mound to open the bottom of the ninth, he gets credit for the win tonight.
Poetry reading pitcher Jason Buursma picked up his second post season save by retiring the final Jamestown hitter.
The long-time Western New York rivals meet again Saturday night at Dwyer Stadium for game two of the series. Game time is 7:05 p.m.
After eliminating Lowell Wednesday night in a hard-fought 3-2 victory, the Batavia Muckdogs will face the Jamestown Jammers Friday night in an effort to secure the team's fourth league championship in its seven-decade history.
Surprisingly, the NY-Penn League site's story on the championship series gets it wrong, saying that Batavia is going for its first-ever title. (Surely, the Jammers, as one of the leagues original teams, has won championships before -- and we know they've made the finals before, because Batavia beat Jamestown in 1945 -- but I couldn't find any history of the team from before the 1990s.)
Last night, Adam Veres, who was 1-1 with a 4.35 ERA in the regular season, may have pitched the career game of his young professional career. He went seven innings and gave up only 1 run and two hits while striking out seven.
From the NY-P story referenced above:
"We feel great right now, this was obviously the biggest game of the season," Veres said. "We've got a lot of high-spirited guys that want to go all the way with this."
...
"I was really amped up to get this start," he said. "I was locating the fastball to both sides of the plate and the ball was moving real well. I just wanted to prepare for this one just like any other game, but this one obviously meant a little more."
Ramon Delgado struck out the side in the eigth to preserve Batavia's selendor 3-1 lead.
Closer Adam Reifer was shacky in the ninth, giving up a walk, a hit and a run, but held on to pick up the save, retiring Lowell's Ricardo Burgos on a called third strike while all 800 or so Batavia fans were on their feet clapping and cheering.
Friday's opening game will be at 7 p.m., and then the teams return to Batavia Saturday for a 7 p.m. game. If game three is necessary, it will be played at Dwyer on Sunday and the game time will be 7 p.m. (oops, make the 6 p.m.).
UPDATE: Here's how the Batavia franchise finished in each year it fielded a team 1939 through 1997 (actually, the Batavia Indians seasons are here (including a 1957 finals appearance), and the Batavia Pirates made the finals twice, winning in 1963; and the Batavia Trojans made the finals in 1977). The Jamestown Falcons won five titles in nine championship appearances. The Jamestown Expos won twice in four appearances. The Jamestown Tigers made the finals once.
When times were rough and it looked like the failures in the management of the Batavia Muckdogs franchise was going to cost the city a team, New York-Pennsylvania League president Ben Hayes admits he was on the fence.
He said after the sixth inning of tonight’s game that it was tough for him to back keeping one of the NY-P’s original franchises in the league because of how bad things were. But he didn’t pull the plug because of Batavia’s history and because of the job done by the Rochester Red Wings.
He was impressed that the first playoff appearance for the franchise in eight years has brought out plenty of fans – 789 to be exact - on a chilly Wednesday night in September.
Combine the on field victories and the progress made in rebuilding the historic franchise and the league feels good about the Batavia situation.
“This is a win-win,” Hayes said. “What Naomi Silver and the Red Wings – Dan Mason, Gary Larder – what they have done is an experience in professionalism that is top-notch in Minor League baseball.”
Of course, everybody knows about the terrible financial problems that nearly left Dwyer Stadium without a team this summer, and how Naomi Silver and her Red Wings stepped in the bail out the team.
When the situation looked its worst, Hayes ducked phone calls by the media. The Muckdogs were not my beat at The Daily News, but I heard reporters talk about the frustrations of not getting a phone call (or three) returned.
He had no problem speaking to me now that I'm at The Batavian, shortly before the Muckdogs picked up a 3-2 victory over Lowell to advance to the league championship series.
Hayes was sitting with Silver and expects that the disappointing attendance figures for this season will not be a problem next year after the Red Wings get a full offseason to work on promotions.
“They got started very late in the marketing season,” Hayes said. “The other clubs started marketing two weeks after the season. The Rochester Red Wings didn’t take over operation of the club until the end of March. It was very, very late in the season, so to speak. I don’t think you will see anything different, but over an extended period of time the momentum will be a lot different. The problems have been fixed (with the stadium and the finances). Now they can focus on other things.”
While the former professional baseball player turned league president is optimistic, he realizes that there is still work to be done – the biggest of which is the support of local baseball fans, or rather, lack their of.
Batavia was 13th out of 14 teams in the NY-P in attendance at 43,167 during the regular season. Those numbers are going to have to go up.
Hayes says that the sellouts can’t just come on the 4th of July. Batavians need to get out to watch some quality Minor League baseball at a reasonable price.
If not, the talk about the franchise leaving town that engulfed the city of Batavia last winter could be back in the future. He has faith that the Red Wings will do a good job with promotions, but says it is up to the locals if we want professional baseball in Batavia.
“It really depends on the community and the fans, and if they are going to support the team,” Hayes said. “There has to be enough revenue for this team to survive. The cost of umpires, the cost of travel – all the costs associated with being a minor league club. It’s not an image, it’s an endeavor. In order to put the product out there for the community, the community has to support the product.”
The Batavia Muckdogs just won their playoff series against the Lowell Spinners and now are heading to the championship series against the Jamestown Jammers! What a turn around from a city that was about to lose their long time baseball franchise! The president of the New York Penn League was in town tonight to see Batavia win! Its not over yet, we need the entire community, county and Rochester support to come out this weekend and cheer on our 2008 Batavia Muckdogs! Several fans are heading to Jamestown this Friday for the first game and I expect to see every member of the city council along with a few thousand fans Saturday night at Dwyer Stadium! What a great story for this franchise and this community! Thank you all for your contiunued support and LET'S GO MUCKDOGS!
The St. Louis Cardinals seem to like what they see about Batavia so far as far as player development goes. The team announced yesterday that it renewed its contract with the Muckdogs for two more seasons, according to Scout.com.
“We’ve enjoyed our two years in Batavia,” stated Cardinals Vice President and General Manager John Mozeliak. “We are grateful for Naomi Silver and Dan Mason as they look to build a successful franchise in Batavia. We look forward to the next two years there.”
UPDATE (Philip): We received comments from Naomi Silver, Muckdogs Manager Mark DeJohn and the Cardinals VP of Scouting, John Luhnow on the contract extension.
Naomi Silver:
“We are very pleased to be able to extend our agreement with the Cardinals. When you are fortunate enough to affiliate with such an outstanding organization, you certainly hope to see it continue. We are gratified that they are eager to remain in Batavia. We have been very lucky to be with an organization which has provided us with extremely talented young players. There’s nothing better than playing in the post-season, and this year has been extremely exciting for all of us and the Batavia community.
“The Cardinals are a class organization, and we couldn’t ask for a better partner. They know how important their role has been here and they deserve a lot of credit for the great team they’ve fielded for us. They have been great to work with and we’re looking forward to continuing this relationship.”
Mark DeJohn:
“I’ve really enjoyed my time here the last two seasons and I enjoy working with the front office and stadium staff. I appreciate the improvements made to the ballpark and operation prior to this season and I look forward to working here with our young players for another two seasons.”
John Luhnow:
“The Cardinals are excited about staying in Batavia. We believe in small town minor league baseball; for our players and staff as well as the community."
As the Batavia Muckdogs entered the bottom of the sixth inning tonight, trailing 8-2, I was thinking -- "if they don't do anything this inning, I'm heading home."
My thought was prescient. The Muckdogs exploded for six runs to tie the game, and with five more runs in the seventh, the 'Dogs cemented a 13-9 victory over Lowell.
This was game number two of a three-game playoff. Game three will be Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
Here's the complete box score. Mollie's full report here.
If the Muckdogs can win the third and deciding game, they'll face Jamestown in the finals. Jamestown swept Staten Island with a 4-1 victory tonight.
Batavia (1-1) stormed back from a 8-2 deficit to take down Lowell (1-1) 13-9. Arquimedes Nieto (1-0) earned himself the win, pitching two and two thirds innings with five hits, one run, one walk and two strikeouts. Jason Buursma got his first save of the post-season, retiring the last Spinner of the night. Lowell's Wang-Yi Lin (0-1) blew the save and got the loss in his one inning with three hits, four runs and one walk.
The Muckdogs took the lead early in the bottom of the 1st as they scored two runs. Colt Sedbrook was hit by a pitch, then Charlie Cutler and Jermine Curtis both singled to plate one. After Shane Peterson walked to load the bases, Edwin Gomez had a sacrifice fly for the other RBI. However, the Spinners answered right back with three runs of their own. Ricardo Burgos doubled, Will Middlebrooks tripled and Kade Keowen and Casey Kelly had back-to-back base hits in the rally. Keowen came home on a wild pitch for the third run. They added one more in the 3rd on a walk, stolen base and a single, and another in the 5th in the same fashion.
Lowell scored three more runs in the 6th to make it a 8-2 game. Keowen singled and Kelly and Ryan Dent doubled to score two; Ryan Lavarnway hit a sacrifice fly for the other run. But it was Batavia's night of winning, as a big six run 6th inning tied things up. Frederick Parejo and Xavier Scruggs both walked to start the rally. Both advanced on a wild pitch, enabling Parejo to come home when Sedbrook reached on a fielding error. RBI singles by Cutler and Peterson continued the onslaught. Gomez doubled to plate two before coming home himself on a Chris Swauger double.
And the Muckdogs were not done there. They scored five more runs in the next inning to put the game out of reach. Sedbrook was hit by a pitch, moved around the bases on a Cutler single and came home on a wild pitch. Peterson then came up with another RBI single. Gomez walked to load the bases for Swauger to come up with a bases-clearing double to left.
Cutler was perfect at the plate, going 4-for-4 with a RBI and three runs scored. Peterson went 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored, and Swauger went 2-for-5 with two doubles and four RBI. The rubber match to decide who will continue on the playoff quest will be Wednesday at 7:05 at Dwyer Stadium.
*I may not have a write-up for tomorrow's game right away; I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon to go to Pennsylvania to cover the events in Shanksville, PA (the site of the crash of Flight 93) for our campus TV station, and I won't be back until late Thursday. I'll try to get something done after the game, but I can't promise anything!
In their first playoff game, Batavia (0-1) lost to Lowell (1-0) in extra innings by a score of 4-3. Hector Cardenas was brilliant in the start for the Muckdogs. He went six innings with one hit, one run, four walks and ten strikeouts. Zach Pitts (0-1) got the loss in his one inning of work with one hit, one run, three walks and one strikeout. Spinner Robert McClain (1-0) picked up the win in his two and a third innings with three strikeouts.
Lowell got up early, scoring one in the first on two walks and two ground outs. It remained a 1-0 game until Batavia scored three runs in the 6th. Edwin Gomez double and Colt Sedbrook had a RBI single to start things off. The bases then became loaded as Charlie Cutler reached on a force attempt and Jermaine Curtis was hit by a pitch. Shane Peterson then walked to send Sedbrook home. Chris Swauger then grounded out for the Muckdogs' third and final run.
The Spinners started their comeback in the 8th as they scored one on two doubles by Peter Hissey and Mitch Dening. They tied things up and sent the game into extras in the bottom of the 9th on a solo homerun by Will Middlebrooks. And finally, in the bottom of the 12th, Lowell plated one more to get the win. Bases became loaded before Ryan Dent was served up a walk that plated the deciding run.
Batavia's Edwin Gomez went 3-for-5 in the game with a double and run scored. The two teams play their second contest tonight at 7:05 in Batavia. If Batavia wins, the rubber-match will again be at Dwyer Stadium on Wednesday. Remember, home field advantage only counts when we have a stadium full of fans, so get out to the ballpark this week!
The Batavia Muckdogs let a two-run, eigth-inning lead slip away Monday night, sending its first-of-three playoff game against Lowell into extra innings.
The Muckdogs lost in the 12th inning 4-3.
The Batavia Muckdogs (46-28) clinched a first place finish in the Pinckney Division of the New York-Penn League and ended their regular season last night as they took down State College (18-56) 4-1.
Miguel Tapia started on the mound and Scott Gorgen (5-2) got the win in his five innings of great pitching. Gorgen let up only three hits and one walk while striking out five. Adam Reifer (22) got the save in the 9th with no hits, runs or walks and one strikeout. Gabriel Alvarado (0-1) finished his season suffering the loss, throwing one and one third innings with three hits, two runs, one walk and one strikeout.
The Muckdogs put two on the board in the 2nd, starting the inning with a single by Xavier Scruggs. Jose Garcia then reached on a throwing error, putting two on for Edwin Gomez to drive home on a double. The Spikes answered with one of their own in the bottom of the inning when Adenson Chourio and Ciro Rosero both singled. Chourio moved to third on a force out before coming home on a wild pitch.
But that would be all the State College offense of the night, while Batavia scored one more run in each the 4th and the 8th. In the 4th, Garcia singled, stole a base and came home on a wild pitch. And in the 8th, the bottom of the inning started off with a Christian Rosa singled and Jermaine Curtis walked. On a pickoff attempt, the Spikes had a throwing error that allowed Rosa to come around to score.
Rosa and Scruggs had the only multi-hit nights for the Muckdogs. Rosa went 2-for-3 with a run scored and Scruggs went 2-for-4 with a double and run scored.
*I'll have another post with final regular season stats and playoff info. later!
It all came down to the final game of the season, but with a Muckdogs 4-1 victory over State College at Dwyer Stadium tonight, Batavia can now boast that it's home to the 2008 Pinckney Division Champions.
The Muckdogs won the title with a slim half-game lead over Jamestown, which finished the season on a high note, taking it's final five games, including two crucial games agasint Batavia. The Jammers beat Williamsport tonight 9-5.
The end-of-season surge helped Batavia's Western New York rivals secure a wild card birth over the Brooklyn Cyclones. The Cyclones came up short with a pair of loses in the season's final games after losing only one game in the previous two weeks.
The Muckdogs now travel to Lowell for the first game of the playoffs.
Most likely, we'll see a post from Mollie soon with an update on the final game and more information on the playoff schedule.
Batavia (45-28) won big over State College (18-55) by a score of 10-2, but Jamestown swept Williamsport in a doubleheader to take a share of the division lead. However, Brooklyn lost, securing at least a wild card spot for the Muckdogs.
Adam Veres (1-1) got the start and win in six innings with five hits, one run, three walks and five strikeouts. Ramon Aguero (1-10) suffered the loss, pitching two and a third innings with eight hits, six runs (five earned) and two strikeouts.
The Muckdogs scored all their runs in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings, beginning with three runs in the 2nd. Christian Rosa singled and Chris Swauger followed with a two-run homerun. Later in the inning, Jose Garcia singled and advanced to second on a throwing error. Edwin Gomez then singled to bring Garcia home.
In the top of the 3rd, the Spikes scored on a walk, single and force out. But Batavia answered right back with three more runs in the bottom of the inning. The runs came on a Shane Peterson single, Rosa triple, Swauger single and Frederick Parejo single.
Their biggest inning came in the four-run 4th. It all started when bases were loaded after Charlie Cutler was hit by a pitch, Peterson reached on an error and Rosa walked. Swauger then came up with another RBI on a sacrifice fly. Parejo followed with a RBI single. The last two tallies came when Garcia reached on a throwing error that allowed two to come home.
Swauger ended the night 2-for-3 with a homerun, two runs scored and four RBI. Rosa also went 2-for-3 with a triple, three runs scored and one RBI. The two teams face each other again tonight in Batavia at 7:05.
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Tonight, Batavia can clinch a first place finish with a win over State College. As stated earlier, the Muckdogs are a guaranteed playoff team after Brooklyn fell out of the wild-card race with a loss last night. Here's where our Muckdog players stand in the NYPL:
Two weeks ago today, Patrick Burk left a comment here on The Batavian that caught our attention and that we thought might deserve to catch the attention of some other folks. It was the day after a fire destroyed the home of a Byron family (the Schramms). He wrote:
Maybe the Muckdogs can help this poor family of ten foster children that just lost thier entire home this Saturday..... Have players and/or employees do collections for them. This act of compassion would be the icing on the cake of a fine season indeed. Just a thought.
Well, what was just a thought has become reality. Thanks to a little bit of tenacity on our part and willingness from every corner, the Batavia Muckdogs have agreed to host a collection drive and a fundraiser at the home game Saturday versus State College.
Here are the details:
The Schramm family’s home burned in the afternoon on Wednesday, August 27, 2008. The entire family of 15 survived but are now left with little or none of their personal belongings. While they have received a lot of clothing through the generosity of many in the community, their needs are still great.
Among items they are requesting are non-perishable foods, personal care products, large cooking pots and pans, bedding and towels, gift cards or cash donations.
Please bring only new items. The Muckdogs will also be holding an auction of baseball memorabilia during the game on Saturday night at 7:05 vs. State College, to help raise money. All proceeds will go to the Schramm family.
So for Patrick and anyone else who may have asked: What can I do? There is your answer. Head out to the game this weekend to not only support the hometown team as they try for the pennant but to help out your neighbors, too.
For those who don't already have all the info about the team, here's that:
Location: Dwyer Stadium, 299 Bank Street, Batavia, NY 14020
Phone: 585-343-5454; Fax: 585-343-5620
E-mail
Website
Tickets: $6 – box seats; $5 – general admission; $1 OFF – group rate (20+ people)
Season Tickets: $175 – box seats; $130 – general admission
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