With just days before the British U17 and U14 playoffs the deciding games in the Herts Under-11 Championship Series we had the opportunity to talk with the manager of the Herts Dodgers, Mike Wakelam, about the games this weekend, the season so far and look into the future of Herts Baseball’s youth programme.

hertsbaseball.com: Over the last few years you have played a key role with the Herts Baseball youth programme with focus on the Under-11 teams, which is the youngest age group. This year in particular you and the other U11 coaches have made some changes in the coaching approach. Is this starting to pay off already in terms of player development and enjoyment?

MW: The changes this year have certainly started to pay off. At this age, games aren’t worth playing if the fundamentals aren’t being taught. We’ve implemented an approach that sees the kids spend about 90 minutes on drills and mechanics, helping them to grasp some of the fundamentals of the game, so that when they step into a game situation they do so with more confidence and enjoy the game more. The impact on the games has been great, with everyone contributing.

hertsbaseball.com: At such an early age it is difficult to forecast how a particular player will develop. Are the U11 coaches starting to notice players making improvements and showing the promise of becoming a star player for Herts or perhaps even representing Great Britain at the Olympics in the future?

MW: The best thing about coaching at this level is seeing how much a player can progress in one season. Sometimes you think you know where a player is at, and then something just clicks and they surprise you. I often remember when I was a skinny uncoordinated 9 year old, I was at the bottom of the talent list, but everybody develops in skill and coordination at different rates, so what looks one way now could be completely different in 5 years. The main thing to look for is the desire to play and to practice, and hustle. The ones who are there early and stay late and hustle after every ball, they’re the ones to watch – and we definitely have a few potential stars based on that scale.

hertsbaseball.com: Ahead of this Saturday’s final games in the 2012 Championship Series between the Herts Dodgers and the Herts Giants, the Dodgers were on the losing side last year and they have been on fire this year showing so much desire to win the trophy this year. What has been the reason behind their success so far?

MW: To be honest, the season has been extremely close, despite the difference win/loss columns. We’ve been hampered by a few too many rainouts this year, but each time we’ve played, they’ve been back and forth affairs, including extra innings, so I’m hoping for more of that this Saturday.

hertsbaseball.com: Who are the Dodgers’ and Giants’ players to watch out for this Saturday?

MW: The hustlers – Nicholas Durer and Ben Jupp. The big bats – Josh Jones, Cameron Manning, Thomas Garton and Christian Lynch. The sure glove of Alex Trautman. And I’m sure many surprises from the other talented players. This is also Katie’s last game in Under-11s, so I’m sure she wants to leave a mark.

hertsbaseball.com: The Dodgers have a 2-game lead, so the Giants have no room for error. They need to win both games this Saturday to force a deciding final game. Do they have a chance?

MW: As I coach the dodgers, I’d like to think they don’t. But they certainly do, especially with Paul, Max and John coaching.

hertsbaseball.com: Herts has invested heavily into upgrading facilities over the years to create arguably the best facilities in the country. Looking ahead over the next few years, what should the club invest in next? Further facilities improvement, team equipment, coaching aids, or should the club look to improve facilities for fans such as toilets, seating for fans, kitchen and other facilities for concession stand operations?

MW: I love where the facilities have got to, and I think that the fans facilities need to catch up a little bit. I’d also like to see the fields mowed a little more often, as in our age group, the length of the grass helps determine how far a hit will travel.

hertsbaseball.com: The U11 age group includes players as young as 5 and as old as 10. If the rate of new young players joining club continues, Herts may be able to introduce an Under-8 age group soon. Would this be a step forward or would it be better to keep the U11 age group and simply create more teams for a more vibrant U11 regional league?

MW: I’ve thought about this a lot. Obviously it’s great experience for the younger ones to play with the older group, but I’d have to suggest that if we continue to grow in the number of under-8s, it would be beneficial to have a separate under-8 age group. This could be either coach pitch or tee ball. What I think this would do is allow the older kids to start facing kid pitching at a younger age, readying them for under-14s. Until the time we have enough kids to do that, I’d advocate taking a team of older kids out to play other clubs. We could do that on a few weekends every year, or have a weekend tournament or two throughout the year.

hertsbaseball.com: You have previously played for Herts at the NBL and AAA level and are one of the most feared hitters in the league. You are about to undergo a knee operation. What is the likelihood of you making a comeback and putting on the Herts jersey after the operation?

MW: Haha. On a scale of 1 to 10, the likelihood of me playing again is probably a 1. Maybe a 2.

Last weekend British Baseball fans enjoyed the climax of the 2012 season as the national champions in all four senior leagues were crowned.

Now it is the turn of Britain’s youth teams to compete for the national title. The action begins with the playoffs for both the Under-17 and Under-14 leagues. The British Baseball Federation announced that this event will be held on Saturday, 8 September 2012.

It will be hosted by Herts Baseball Club at their ballpark in Hemel Hempstead (click for venue details). Admission is free and fans and families can enjoy the baseball action along with traditional baseball snacks which will be on offer including hot dogs, Krispy Kreme donuts, Big League Chew and other snacks and drinks.

Players and their families will also be able to purchase instant framed photos from the day’s games as DE Photo have been appointed as the photographers for this event.

Baseball gloves, bats, bags, and other merchandise including baseball memorabilia will also be on offer at the retail outlets around the ballpark.

The U17 and U14 playoffs will each feature 5 teams. All of them have been seeded based on their regular season league record.

U17 Seedings

1. London Mets Pony

2. Cobham Cougars

3. Horsham Hornets

4. Herts All Stars

5. Forest Glade Redbacks

U14 Seedings

1. London Mets Bronco

2. London Youth Baseball League

3. LondonSports

4. Forest Glade Redbacks

5. Herts All Stars

Confirmation of the playoff format and games schedule will be released shortly by the BBF and we will keep you updated. The two best teams in each of the two leagues will progress through to the National Youth Baseball Championships which will be played in Cartmel Valley on 15 and 16 September.

HERTS U11 SERIES

The event will also include the Final of the Under-11 Series between the Herts Dodgers and the Herts Giants. The Dodgers have the upper hand at the moment leading the series 3-1.

The Herts Under-14 team ended their regular season schedule with an edge-of-the-seat walk-off win against the Bracknell Wildfire.

They started on a sour note as they came up against a very competent Bracknell pitcher who kept the Herts batters down to a total of 2 hits over the course of the game. Only Alex Guthrie and Alex Deacon managed to record a hit and the team as a whole scored only 1 run. Herts also struggled defensively. Bracknell drove in 19 runs making it a very painful 19-1 loss for the team from Hertfordshire.

Click to view game 1 box scores and play-by-play

They didn’t feel sorry for themselves and got down to business from the first pitch of the second game. Making his debut on the mound was Tom Jansson-Wright. Although he did walk 9 batters he allowed only 3 hits. He had much better run-support compared to the first game. Herts scored 10 runs in the first two innings and he reached his pitch-count limit with the score tied 10-10.

With several key players either unavailable or on tour with the Great Britain Under-15 team in Canada, Herts were running out of pitchers.

It was time to give one of Herts Baseball Club’s most promising young prospects the ball and to see how he performs under enormous pressure with the game on the line. Alex Deacon is only 9 years old and he was asked to go on the mound to face batters who are as much as 4 years older than him. The pitching mound behind his tiny frame reared like a mountain over him, conveniently providing shelter in the event of a slightly stronger breeze potentially blowing him off the rubber.

He took the mound with 1 out in the third inning and runners on first and second base. The first two batters he faced reached base on a walk and hit by pitch, but any tension, which he may have felt, was no longer there after that. He struck out the next two batters and went on to pitch a total of 3 and two-third innings all the way to the end of the game and completely shut down the Bracknell offence. No hits and no earned runs were allowed while he was on the mound. The two runs which were scored by Bracknell were unearned i.e. due to fielding errors.

Going into the bottom of the final inning Herts were trailing 12-11 and facing an agonising second loss of the day.

Alex Guthrie with only half a season of baseball under his belt, gave Herts a glimmer of hope when, with one out, he drove the ball deep over the centerfielder’s head for a double. Bracknell’s closer walked the dangerous Callum Vangundy and Alex Deacon who were 3-for-3 and 2-for-2, respectively, in the game. That loaded the basis and Alex Guthrie took advantage of a wild pitch to advance home and tie the game 12-12. However the next Herts batter struck out so with two outs and runners on second and third, all eyes were on leftie centerfielder, Tom Adams. A swing of the bat produced what appeared to be a routine ground ball out for Bracknell to turn and take the game into extra innings, however the ball was so delicately placed that it sucked both the pitcher and the first baseman to try to field it, which they did cleanly, but that meant that first base was left unattended allowing the speedy Tom Adams to take advantage and reach first base safely and for Callum Vangundy to score the winning run from third.

Click to view game 2 box scores and play-by-play

A walk-off win for Herts which sparked a field-invasion and wild celebrations for the home team. There are still many areas which the Herts U14 team will need to improve on, in what is a transitional year for the new generation of players in that age group, but the signs are very positive that the team has the potential to compete against the best over the next few years as these young Herts players develop.

With school holidays commencing this weekend, the British Baseball youth leagues will take a break for a few weeks and all attention will turn to the postseason playoffs which will take place in September. Herts will be represented in both the Under-14 and Under-17 playoffs. We will keep you updated as the teams prepare for the season’s showpiece events.

Three members of Herts Baseball Club departed form Heathrow Airport on Friday as part of the Great Britain U15 National Team’s tour of Canada.

They are Carlos Casal Jr, Marty Cullen Jr and Tom Everex Armstrong and play for Herts in the U17 league.

39 players tried out for the team at the start of the year. The 2012 full team roster was reduced down to 27 players including three more Herts players (Brodie Caress, Callum Vangundy and Jose Morillo).

The roster was reduced to 18 players for the trip to Canada and Casal, Cullen and Everex-Armstrong will now have the rare opportunity to play on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Whilst in Canada, the players will have the opportunity to practice and play on first class fields against very tough competition. During their time in Canada, the Cadets will be playing teams from Oshawa, Bowmanville, Whitby, Ajax at Kinsmen Stadium in Oshawa and travelling to Niagara Falls for a game against the city representative.

The Cadets will be based in Oshawa during their stay and playing three double-headers under lights. This will be the first opportunity for players to gain this experience.

On Saturday the team went to see the MLB game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Cleveland Indians at the Rogers Centre.  The Blue Jays greeted the team by showing them the big screen at the stadium (pictured above).

We are approximately at the halfway point of the MLB season as the teams take a few days off and enjoy MLB’s All Star Week. This also offers British baseball teams an opportunity to sit back and relax after several hectic weeks of not playing baseball and dealing with the depressing effects of rained out ballgames.

This year the All Star event is hosted by the Kansas City Royals and Herts Baseball Club is represented at the event. Jonathan Wakelam who plays for the Herts Dodgers and his dad Mike Wakelam who coaches the Herts Dodgers flew out a few days ago. They will have the opportunity to sample all the festivities of the All Star week.

It all started on Sunday with the All Star Futures game, which saw the first ever British-born player make an appearance for Team World wearing the British flag on his chest. On Monday it was time for the big hitters to compete in the 2012 Home Run Derby, which was won by Prince Fielder. The events also include the All-Star Celebrity Softball Game.

Tonight is the main event as the National League All Stars clash with the best players of the American League, as voted by fans from around the world. Every MLB team will be represented.

As you watch the game tonight keep an eye on the stands and look for a Herts baseball cap. We may just see Jonathan Wakelam muscle his way among the fans to make a spectacular catch in the stands.

written by hertsbaseball.com correspondent, Chris Jones

Growing up on Merseyside I had only the vaguest idea about baseball. It was one of those sports that took place in other countries, like camel-wrestling or wife-carrying races.

I first saw the game when working in Japan. We would take our seats in the stands at the Tokyo Dome to watch the Yomiuri Giants take on the Yakult Swallows (really), and we would drink Asahi, cheer on the players and bang plastic sticks together at appropriate intervals.

Twenty years later I find myself with two half-American sons. Most Saturdays we come to the ballpark, and I watch, score and act as assistant coach. I know the game a little better now, but retain a somewhat sketchy grasp of the rules. Luckily at under-11 level, the intricacies of the dropped third-strike or the infield fly are not central to our games.

Of course, I’ve had to adopt a major-league team. My elder son favours the Mariners, while I cheer on the Boston Red Sox, for no better reason than that they share an owner with Liverpool Football Club. My morning ritual at the office includes dropping in at mlb.com to check the overnight scores; as it happens the Sox are on the road in Seattle as I write. Sometimes the overnight game has been a high-scoring affair, 15-4 or 13-12 after extra innings. Other times, the pitchers have prevailed: 1-0 or 2-1.

But in the Herts Dodgers matchups against the Herts Giants, we leave those pitching duels to the professionals; we believe our crowds turn up to see a festival of hitting. And so it was on Saturday at Grovehill.

The Dodgers took a 2-1 lead into this game, and the Giants were looking to restore parity after narrowly losing to their rivals last week. After some training, including a competitive game of ‘hit the lawn chair from twenty yards’, it was time to play.

The Dodgers fielded essentially the same team as last week, while the Giants rang the changes: the Lynches and Trautmans were unavailable for selection, but back in came Lewis Auchterlounie and Rory Vangundy. The Giants also welcomed Ben Jackson-Preece to the lineup. Both teams also acquired a temporary player from the U14s; Bai Frisby for the Giants and Blake Edwards for the Dodgers.

Unlike the tense encounter of a week ago, this game was one-sided. The Giants were scoreless in the first, while the Dodgers replied with the maximum five runs with no outs. In the second, the Giants picked up a run, but were undone after some good infield play at third base disposed of base runners in two successive plays.

At the bottom of the second, the Giants made two outs, but then allowed a further five runs to end up 10-1 down after two.

The bleak situation brightened up for the Giants in the third: it was their turn to score five runs. But anything the Giants could do, the Dodgers could do just as well, as they batted around and scored another five to take the game to 15-6 after three innings.

In the fourth, the Giants could do nothing to respond to the Dodgers’ clinical fielding, as Oliver struck out and Rory and Alex both grounded out at first. The Dodgers added a run to leave the Giants with the daunting task of hitting ten runs to make the Dodgers bat again. Despite good hits from Bai Frisby and Cameron Manning, this was too big a margin, and the Giants succumbed 16-9.

The coaches feel we are continuing to see signs of improvement in all areas of play. Plenty of batters in this game hit the fences: Cameron, Rory, Bai, Nicholas, Katie, Ozan and Blake. There were a number of neat plays in the infield. And perhaps most importantly, when coach Mike asked if his Dodgers players had enjoyed the game, there was a unanimous shout of ‘yeah!’. You can’t ask for much more.

Picture credit: Aidan C. Siegel

written by hertsbaseball.com correspondent, Chris Jones

Saturday’s skies were clear across Southern England from Penzance to the Wash. Three days on from the summer solstice, the air was hot, heavy, humid. A dog lay on the pavement, motionless but for a pant of the tongue and a flick of the ear. Dragonflies hovered over the river, their faint buzzing the only sound to be heard. In the distance a flag drooped, still, like the pendulum of a long-stopped grandfather clock. The sun was merciless, the black streets baked like the hot charcoal of a barbecue.  Young children took refuge in cool, blue, rippling paddling pools, old women closed their shutters and waited for the cool of evening.

Click here for the scorecast, and choose Replay in the top right corner to follow the game.