Wrap this up, and mail it in.
Mark my words: The St. John’s Capitals — yawwwn!!! — are winning another all-Newfoundland senior ‘A’ baseball championship.
Take it to the bank.
Make it six in a row. Nineteen championships in 20 years.
Another St. John’s win in the most predictable, if not uneventful, tournament on the summer sports schedule.
The Caps and Gander Pilots open the provincials today, a doubleheader kicking off the best-of-seven series at St. Pat’s Ball Park.
Then again, all the games are at venerable St. Pat’s. And Gander’s the home team this weekend. Against St. John’s.
Next weekend, the Caps are home in the final four games of the series. At St. Pat’s.
Sounds like a “Who’s on first,” eh?
For the first time in years, Gander is playing for the senior ‘A’ baseball championship, this little detail regarding the airport town’s lack of a league and ball field be damned.
The Pilots, a group of ball players from Gander (six to be exact), St. John’s, Corner Brook, Grand Falls-Windsor and, yup, Placentia, earned that right after winning the provincial senior ‘B’ championship, shocking the Barons in Corner Brook (where else?), and ending the stale, dated Caps-Barons annual summertime get-together.
Seems all Gander had to do was pay its fees, register the Pilots and off they were, to play for the province’s senior baseball championship, first coming through a senior ‘B’ qualifier for the right to meet the perennial defending champion Caps.
Whole thing’s a joke, really.
Not the players’ fault, of course. More power to the Pilots for getting a game of ‘A’ ball. But the boys behind Baseball Newfoundland and Labrador not only bobbled the ball on this one, they kicked it and threw it over the backstop.
What’s left is the embarrassment of a team that has all its players, save for one (a Gander native being flown in from Ontario) playing either in the St. John’s or Corner Brook leagues (the Pilots added four players from the Barons’ roster after the senior B championship).
And if not embarrassing, try alarming.
Of course, baseball alarm bells have been going off for years now to which little attention has been paid.
Player registration is fine — may even be on the upswing in some centres — but results on the national stage have been nothing short of appalling.
Digest this, just from a handful of national championships in 2018:
In Ray Carter Cup national 15-and-under play last summer, Newfoundland was 1-4. The province managed 12 runs, but surrendered 38. At the Canada Cup, the province was 0-6, while runs for and against were 65-23 for opposing teams. In the 21-and-under junior nationals, Newfoundland managed one win in three starts, allowed 44 runs and scored but 14.
In the most recent Canada Summer Games, two years ago in Winnipeg, Newfoundland and Labrador failed to win a game in six tries, gave up 38 runs and scored 12. The team averaged five hits per game.
Pathetic.
What’s being implemented to at least make the province remotely respectable, as opposed to a laughing stock that can’t beat P.E.I.?
What is Baseball Newfoundland and Labrador doing to up our game?
Are professional coaches being brought in to help revamp the program?
Softball is lapping baseball, producing national team players (seven played on Canada’s bronze-medal team at the recent world championship in the Czech Republic). You might have to go back to Troy Croft or Ian Bennett, or maybe even Frank Humber to find a Newfoundland male (Heather Healey has dressed for the Canadian women’s squad) on a national baseball team.
Local softball players are toiling on the U.S. travel circuit, suiting up in the U.S. nationals and International Softball Congress championships.
Baseball? Bring on the Caps and Barons.
That was fun while it lasted, but its time is done.
Baseball Newfoundland and Labrador needs a lineup change. Time to get some quality U.S. coaches in to coach our coaches, and help draft and implement a strategic development plan.
What’s in place now isn’t working. Not even close.
Maybe Rich Butler, the former major leaguer with Newfoundland ties who is moving here to open a baseball academy, could be part of the answer.
Wonder if Baseball NL has reached out to him? Butler most certainly must have some connections.
And one more thing: get a rule in place that says if a centre doesn’t have a league, nor a ball park, it can’t play for the all-Newfoundland senior ‘A’ championship.
Figured that would be a no-brainer. Guess not.
IN SHORT
Would be curious to see what the walk-to-strikeout ratio is in the St. John’s Intermediate Baseball League. The young pitchers today can’t consistently throw strikes (proof’s in the pitching linescores), and I don’t remember it being that way in junior baseball (before intermediate came about) … Anybody who’s ever rowed in the Royal St. John’s Regatta, or has been associated with it in some fashion, has to pick up Rick Steele’s outstanding new Regatta print, “Timeless Ripples” … I gauge my summers on the Tely 10 and the Regatta. Once they’re done, summer’s over. Can’t believe the Tely is Sunday … What’s going on with the St. Lawrence Laurentians, languishing in fourth place in Challenge Cup soccer? We saw the heyday of softball in Placentia come to an end when everybody left that town. Are we seeing the same for soccer in St. Lawrence unfold before our eyes? … One more point on soccer: what’s happening in women’s Jubilee Trophy play, with Holy Cross slicing through the opposition with ease, isn’t good for the game. The Crusaders are merely throwing on their boots and winning games, which won’t help them in the nationals this fall in St. John’s … Who’s putting together the St. John’s Edge roster this summer for the 2019-20 NBL Canada season? Come to think of it, who’s left in the Edge front office to put together a team? … The hardest job in hockey isn’t coaching, or managing a team. It’s trying to manage the salary cap, and finding ways to either work around it or make it work for you. Leafs’ GM Kyle Dubas pulled a rabbit out of the hat this week trading for David Clarkson’s contract (which will help the Leafs sign Mitch Marner; don’t ask: look it up). But you can bet the credit belongs to Toronto assistant GM (and cap guy) Brandon Pridham, and probably fellow assistant GM (and fellow cap guy) Laurence Gilman, the Newfoundland Growlers’ general manager ... I’d love to see the Expos return to Montreal ... Shockingly low crowd at Rogers Centre last month for a game against the Red Sox. What? Toronto’s a basketball town now? ... The Edge should try and get Glen (Big Baby) Davis back in the fold next year. Not only can he still play at this level, he’ll sell tickets ...
Robin Short is The Telegram’s Sports Editor. He can be reached by email [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @TelyRobinShort
