Category: Ravens

The number of Herts baseball teams increases from 5 to 7
by Herts Baseball News Editor

The number of Herts baseball teams increases from 5 to 7

Late last night Herts Baseball Club submitted its team entries in the various BBF leagues. In the previous year the club had five teams in the adult leagues. That number has increased to seven for the upcoming season.

The BBF gave Herts a 24-hour extension to submit their entries.  The main question which required more time to consider was whether to enter one or two teams in the National Baseball League (NBL).

“The club did consider the option to enter two NBL teams, as originally planned but, after assessing all of the aspects, we decided not to overstretch ourselves and instead create competition for roster spots and build a Herts Falcons team that can compete and attract fans as part of the NBL Pilot Project. We are also looking to put a structure in place to create a pathway for young players to join Herts, develop, win a spot on the NBL roster and reach their full potential internationally” said Herts Falcons manager, Cris Hiche.  

The Herts Falcons are back in the NBL this year and it will be interesting to see what the roster will look like when the players report for Spring Training on 19 February. Cris Hiche did not go into specific details but said, “our NBL roster will combine some experienced players with a large number of young players with enormous potential and we must give credit to Jonathan Rodriguez for that. It will be exciting to see what we can achieve with this group of players and we hope Herts baseball fans will enjoy supporting the team this season.”

The Herts Cardinals had a 10-16 record last year in the Triple-A league and there is no doubt that they will be pushing hard to climb up in the league standings this year.

In 2022 the club was not represented at the Double-A league level. This year there will be two Herts teams in that league tier. Herts Hawks have been promoted after reaching the Single-A league semi-finals last year. They are joined by the Herts Ducks – a new addition to the Herts baseball family. The Hawks will play their home games at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead while the Ducks will be based at Basing Hill Ballpark in north west London.

At the Single-A league level, there will be three Herts teams. In addition to the Herts Eagles and Herts Raptors we will see the return of the Herts Ravens whose last appearance was in 2013 in Triple-A.

Last season Herts had teams only in Triple-A and Single-A.  The club is now fully equipped to make a big push in all four league tiers which also puts the club in an excellent position to provide the path for players to work their way up the leagues from the youth programme covering players aged 6 to 14 all the way to the NBL – Britain’s top league.

The managers have left room in the team rosters and new players are continuing to register.

Players now registering for the 2023 season
Herts Baseball Club adds more board members ahead of the 2023 season
by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts Baseball Club adds more board members ahead of the 2023 season

The club has confirmed that the number of executive board members has increased to fifteen after the results of last month’s elections were announced along with the appointment of several additional board members who have been co-opted.

As part of the announcement of the partnership between Herts and Legends last month, it was already confirmed that the Herts Legends NBL team will be managed by Great Britain U18 national team manager and president of Legends Baseball Club, Jonathan Rodriguez. Today’s announcement confirms that he has now been appointed as a member of the club board. 

In addition to his role as Herts Legends manager, he has also been appointed as co-General Manager alongside the two other co-GMs, Arnold Longboy (pictured right) and Aspi Dimitrov, who have also been co-opted having served in that role over the previous twelve months. Rodriguez will cover the on-field aspects of the GM role, while Longboy and Dimitrov will focus on operations off the field.

Ken Pike and Sean Bennett have been re-elected as board member as Herts Hawks manager and Herts Cardinals representative, respectively.

Matt Bell has also been re-elected as co-manager of the Herts Londoners and he will be working alongside Andrew Slater who returns to the board having previously co-managed the Herts Hawks in 2016 when the team became Single-A League national champion winning every regular season and postseason game they played that year.

Ken Pike and Andrew Slater have already had the sweet taste of becoming national champions in 2016. Can they do it again in 2023 as managers of the Herts Hawks and co-manager of the Herts Londoners, respectively?

Mike Cunningham has been elected to the board as the new Herts Raptors manager. The team finished far from the playoff places in 2022 but has a wealth of young talented players who are progressing rapidly and are expected to start imposing themselves on the league in the next few years.

The club’s hopes of adding a Double-A League team at its Basing Hill branch was a hot topic at the annual general meeting and the club has made a statement of intent by co-opting Miguel Gibson as manager of that proposed Double-A team. In 2022 he was a member of the Croydon Pirates who became Double-A national champions. The race is now on to see if the club will be able to put together a roster to add that missing piece at Basing Hill. 

Players have started registering for the 2023 season and Herts team managers will shortly be assessing what the rosters might look like in 2023 in order to decide how many teams to enter this year and in which BBF leagues. The deadline for league entries is 31 January.

Players now registering for the 2023 season

The Herts youth baseball programme has also been strengthened with the election of Stephen Wong as head of the Hemel Hempstead under-13 department. He gave the programme an huge boost when he joined the youth coaching staff last year.

Aspi Dimitrov has also been re-elected as president and facilities manager for Grovehill Ballpark.

Link to the full list of 2023 board members.  More members are expected to be added between now and Opening Day.

As part of the vote, club members approved the amendment of article 9.4 of the constitution related to the deadline for board nominations.

All time greatest Herts starting lineup
by Herts Baseball News Editor

All time greatest Herts starting lineup

Over the last few weeks Herts fans as well as those from the wider baseball community have been casting their votes to determine the all time greatest Herts starting lineup from players that have worn the Herts jersey since the club was founded 24 years ago.

When the club invited fans to nominate players for the nine fielding positions plus designated hitter, the intention was to have four nominees for each position, however the panel of experts struggled to narrow the list down to four per position and, instead of removing players, ended up expanding the shortlist. This forced the club to change the format and added a playoff semi-final round.

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There were some titanic clashes and some big names were eliminated including Darrin Ward, Mike Osborn and Jim Denison, among others. Round after round, fans were given a taste of just how difficult it is to be in the managerial hot seat and make these decisions.

Unlike the semi-final, each position was voted one after the other in the finals.  Some players made it to the final of more than one position and, if they accumulated the most votes for one position, they were removed from the final of any other positions. This meant that some big names that just missed out on the final re-entered the race, including Geoff Hare which set up a father-versus-son clash in the shortstop final. It also meant that we were not able to see the outcome of a head-to-head between Xavi Gonzalez and Robbie Unsell at shortstop.

Everyone who cast their vote applied their own criteria about who should be selected. Some may have put more weight on a player’s length of service and contribution to the club. Others simply went for what they thought would be the strongest team that could be fielded in a game 7 of a championship series.

When all the polls closed, the end result was a formidable starting lineup featuring national team players, and players decorated with multiple National Baseball League Most Valuable Player and Gold Glove Awards over the years.

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So, did the fans select ‘The Greatest” lineup from the hundreds of players they could cherry-pick and, if they did, does this mean that in the future we may as well dispense with team managers and simply run a poll to make managerial decisions?

We didn’t want to put current and former Herts managers on the spot but we are sure that they may disagree with some of the choices made by the fans and the batting order which was formulated without applying any scientific methodology.

There were some notable players such as Abelardo Salas, Dan Kerry, Darrin Ward, Gary Davison, Edwin Alcantara, Luis Goncalves, Matt Gilbert, Nic Goetz, Phil Clark, Roberto Almanzar and Ryan Hackel all of whom have received NBL awards over the years but who didn’t make the starting lineup and, surely, there must be a place in the batting lineup for Ryan Bird who leads the NBL in career batting (.508), on-base (.578) and slugging (.822) average in the British baseball modern era. Thankfully, in real life the team roster can include a lot more than the nine starting players.

Herts Baseball Club was founded in 1996 and is still in search of its first NBL championship title, but this lineup would certainly fancy its chances against any NBL champions over the previous 129 years of top-tier baseball in this country.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts 2013 MVPs and other awards announced

Herts members have been casting their votes and the club has just announced the MVPs (Most Valuable Players) of the five senior league teams as well as awards in the other categories.

The Herts Falcons MVP is shortstop, Xavier Gonzalez. In a team packed with superstars it says a lot about Xavi when his teammates recognise his outstanding debut season for the Falcons by voting for him. There aren’t many 5-tool players in the world and Gonzalez is one of them. His batting average was .411 and slugging average .712 with 3 home runs. Defensively he committed only 2 errors and was awarded a Gold Glove as the best shortstop in the NBL for 2013. We can add his speed to that with 13 stolen bases.

HERTS FALCONS

MVP, Xavier Gonzalez

Batting Champion, Ryan Bird (.549)

Infield Gold Glove, Dave House (F% .956 E2)

Outfield Gold Glove, Cristobal Hiche (F% 1.000 E0)

Best Pitcher, Robbie Unsell (W5 ERA 1.09)

Most Stolen Bases, Robbie Unsell (33)

Home Run Champion, Cristobal Hiche (3)

Home Run Champion, Xavier Gonzalez (3)

Most RBIs, Ryan Bird (31)

Coach’s Award, Jordan Farkas

Rookie of the Year, Conner Brown

Liam Green picks up the Ravens MVP. He also collected the Home Run Champion (1HR) and Most RBIs (14). He was also in the chase for the Best pitcher award with 2 wins, however Matt Spaulding, Louis Hare and Pete Kikel were slightly ahead of him overall.

HERTS RAVENS

MVP, Liam Green

Batting Champion, Gilberto Medina (.340)

Infield Gold Glove, Pete Kikel (F% .833)

Outfield Gold Glove, Seth Lipstock (F% .846)

Best Pitcher, Louis Hare (ERA 3.86 W3)

Most Stolen Bases, Jon Lewys (9)

Home Run Champion, Liam Green (1)

Most RBIs, Liam Green (14)

HERTS HAWKS

Hunter Devine is the 2013 Hawks MVP. He has grown up in the Herts organisation joining as a youngster and working his way up the leagues. In 2013 he earned the name “Mr. Clutch”. Whenever a Hawks game was in the balance, Devine delivered the big hits including the walk-off hit in the final game of the regular season against Kent.

2013 was the best season in Raptors history and Zack Longboy played a key role in the team’s success. His teammates have voted him as this season’s MVP. He led the team in batting average (.482), slugging (.625), wins (tied with Will Zucker and Brodie Caress all on 2 wins), and ERA (5.40).

HERTS RAPTORS

MVP, Zack Longboy

Batting Champion, Arnie Longboy (.482)

Infield Gold Glove, Jeff Witter

Outfield Gold Glove, Brodie Caress

Best Pitcher, Zack Longboy (W2 ERA 5.40)

Most Stolen Bases, Ken Pike (42)

Home Run Champion, Jim Arnott (1)

Home Run Champion, Ben Marques (2)

Most RBIs, Jeff Witter (31)

Rookie of the Year, Andy Bartram

 

Duncan Hoyle has put so much into the Eagles over the last few years and it is very fitting that he has been voted as the team’s MVP. This is not just a recognition of his hard work off the field as the team manager. He had an outstanding season leading in several categories including Best Pitcher (W2), Most Stolen Bases, Batting Champion (.591), Home Run Champion (1) and Most RBIs (23).

HERTS EAGLES

MVP, Duncan Hoyle

Batting Champion, Duncan Hoyle (.591)

Infield Gold Glove, Tomasz Kosak

Outfield Gold Glove, Adam Landau-Smithers

Best Pitcher, Duncan Hoyle (W2)

Most Stolen Bases, Duncan Hoyle

Home Run Champion, Duncan Hoyle (1)

Most RBIs, Duncan Hoyle (23)

Rookie of the Year, Manny Banson

Coach’s Award, Joseph Osborne-Brade

Coach’s Award, Manny Banson

BEST PLAYS OF 2013

Club members also voted for the 2013 Play of the Year. There were two clear favourites. It is very rare to see back-to-back no-hitters at any level but Ryan Bird did it in the NBL. It is also very rare to see two grand slam home runs in the same game and Ben Marques managed to do it against the Guildford Mavericks. The voting was close and at the end both ended up tied and are both confirmed as the 2013 Herts Plays of the Year.

NOB-OUT

The dreaded Nob-Out award is usually awarded to a player or member of staff, however for a second consecutive year it has been awarded to a team. In 2012 the Hawks picked it up for celebrating their playoff-clinching win at the Daws Hill Spitfires extravagantly on the field only to be told by the umpire that there is one more inning left to be played. It seems that there is a real issue with keeping track of innings and outs for the Hawks squad as they have won the Nob-Out again. This time Hunter Devine, Ben Marques and John Kjorstad turned a 6-4-3 double play against the Kent Mariners and the team started to celebrate walking off the field, but it was too late when they realized that there are only 2 outs as the supposedly stranded Kent runner came in to score with no fielders around. This 6-4-3 double-play was also nominated for Play of the Year but it will now be recorded in the history books as a Nob-Out winner instead. The Hawks better introduce some kind of system to help them keep track of the game in 2014 and cut down on those premature celebrations.

 

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts Ravens vs London Mets AAA League Game Cancelled due to flooded field


The heavy and prolonged rain on Saturday and Sunday morning has flooded Grovehill Ballpark and today’s AAA League game between the Herts Ravens and the London Mets II has been cancelled.

The heavy rain claimed casualties even among the multi-million dollar football venues such as Charlton Athletic’s home game versus Doncaster Rovers yesterday, so it looks like the baseball schedule is likely to be affected today across the UK.  We are awaiting news about the baseball diamond in Enfield where the Herts Hawks play their first round playoff game versus Sidewinders. At the time of writing this article that game is still on. That playoff game has a later start time of 1:30pm.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts players thrown in at the deep end come through with flying colours

Another solid outing on the mound for Tom Everex-Armstrong

The Herts Ravens went into the game with second-placed Cambridge Royals knowing that they are out of the playoff race. In such circumstances MLB teams would usually sell their highly-paid star players and bring in younger talent from their lower league teams with a view to building for the future. In many ways the Ravens have adopted a similar approach from the very first pitch of the season back in April, but against the Royals this was even more obvious with four of the nine players in the starting line-up being call-ups from the club’s Single-A and Double-A League teams. Furthermore, three of the other five starting players were between 14 and 17 years of age.

This was the most difficult test possible and it is games like these that reveal the most about players. They have the easy option of letting their heads drop and accept defeat or alternatively they can fight for every inch. The Herts Ravens chose the latter and fans of Herts can be safe in the knowledge that players with very good potential and a lot of character are coming through the ranks.

They faced Royals’ starting pitcher Matt Maitland who has had 9 seasons in the National Baseball League with the Bracknell Blazers. Maitland was never going to allow many runs so the Ravens had to match him defensively if they were to stay in the game. That task fell largely on the shoulders of 14-year-old starting pitcher, Tom Everex-Armstrong, but he was also able to rely on the support of his teammates who conceded only 3 errors, which is a good number compared to the team’s average this season and given the fact that 4 of the 9 players were making their Triple-A League debut.

Everex-Armstrong was effective limiting the Royals to 2 runs on 4 hits through the first 5 innings. He was completing innings with around 15 pitches per inning and that allowed him to go deep into the game. In the sixth inning with the score tied 2-2, Cambridge had their leadoff batter on third base with one out representing the go-ahead run. Up stepped Doug Grabowski who apart from making the headlines with his pitching has also shown that he is a major threat with the bat having hit a home run in their previous game at Finsbury Park against the London Mets II. The Ravens decided to walk him intentionally. Everex-Armstrong needed to get the next batter out, ideally with a strikeout. He did his job and got the strikeout, but one of his pitches bounced on the ground going all the way to the backstop allowing the go-ahead run to come in. That was Everex-Armstrong’s last batter as he reached his 95th pitch which is a league limit for players under the age of 17. The Royals scored one more run in that inning to take a 4-2 lead.

It came down to the final inning. The Ravens needed 2 runs to tie the game and take it into extra innings, or 3 to win it. The lightning-fast Sony Lama beat out a ground ball to reach first. Two quick outs followed, but a double by Liam Green drove Lama home to make the score 4-3. With the powerful clean-up bat of John Kjorstad coming up next for Herts and the speedy Liam Green in scoring position, suddenly there was hope that they can cause a major upset. The Royals had to act and they did, bringing in Doug Grabowski and his 0.00 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 19 innings for the season. He closed the game with four pitches (fastball, fastball, changeup, fastball) striking out Kjorstad.

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Game two was not as tense, largely due to the Ravens defence which committed 7 errors. Herts kept pace in the first 3 innings when the score was 5-3, but disastrous fourth and fifth innings proved costly for Herts. The 19-4 score line was not pleasant to look at but that should not take away from the character shown by the team in the first game which had everyone on the edge of their seats right to the final pitch by Doug Grabowski.

The Ravens will end their 2013 season on Sunday, 25 August, with a home doubleheader against playoff contenders, London Mets II.

(Game 1) Cambridge Royals 4 Herts Ravens 3 (click to view box scores)

(Game 2) Cambridge Royals 18 Herts Ravens 4 (click to view box scores)

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts almost pull-off the great escape in a wild game versus Oxford

Carlos Velasco-Carus was red-hot going 5-for-8 with 4 RBIs

Herts fans enjoyed the Home Run Derby on Saturday and it seemed like the hit-fest continued 24 hours later in the AAA League matchup between the Herts Ravens and the Oxford Kings. Oxford’s Jorge Machado hit two home runs over the two games of the doubleheader in a 7-for-9 day with an amazing 13 RBIs.

To put 13 RBIs into perspective, Jorge had more RBIs in these two games than any of the Ravens players this season (18 games) before the start of the day. Herts youngster Liam Green responded with a home run of his own over the left-centerfield wall.

Game 1: Oxford Kings 14 Herts Ravens 12 (click to view box scores)

Both games started with the Kings taking control early and seemingly cruising to a victory, but Herts came close to pulling off two amazing comebacks. In the first game they came back from 10-3 down to bring the game to 14-12 with the tying run at the plate, but pitcher Masahara held on for the complete game win.

Game 2: Oxford Kings 14 Herts Ravens 12 (click to view box scores)

The comeback in game two was just as dramatic. The Kings were leading 6-0 in the fifth inning but Herts responded again making it 12-11 leaving the tying run stranded in scoring position.

The wins keep the Kings in the playoff race, but they need other games to go in their favour if they are going to finish in the playoff zone. The Ravens are out of the postseason race, but they have shown their future potential with many young players who will be dominating the AAA League and maybe even the NBL in the coming seasons.

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by Herts Baseball News Editor

The top game of the weekend switched to Hemel Hempstead

It has just been announced that Sunday’s high-profile game between the Harlow Nationals and the London Mets will be played at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead, the home of their rival, the Herts Falcons.

The reigning champions, Harlow, are the designated home team for this game, but issues with their home field mean that the game will now be played at Herts.

This means that it will be a busy day at Grovehill Ballpark with 5 league games scheduled, including a difficult game for the Herts Ravens against Oxford and a key game in the AA playoff race for the Herts Hawks as they host the Southampton Mustangs II.

NEW DIAMOND

12:00pm AAA League, (Game 1) Oxford Kings @ Herts Ravens (7 innings)

14:30pm AAA League, (Game 1) Oxford Kings @ Herts Ravens (7 innings)

Umpire: Dave Smith

OLD DIAMOND

11:00am AA League, Southampton Mustangs @ Herts Hawks (9 innings)

Umpire: Marty Cullen

 

2:00pm* NBL (Game 1), London Mets @ Harlow Nationals (7 innings)

4:30pm NBL (Game 2), London Mets @ Harlow Nationals (7 innings)

Umpire(s): TBC

*-starts as soon as Hawks vs Mustangs ends

 

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Ravens unable to stop impressive Metros

The Herts Ravens were not able to upset the odds and lost both games of their doubleheader with the AAA League leaders.

AAA League (Game 1) London Metros 17 Herts Ravens 5 (click to view box scores)

The London Metros produced an impressive hitting display in the first game outhitting the Ravens 16-4. Ten of their 16 hits came in the top of the first inning which produced 13 runs. Herts did well to recover after that, scoring 5 and conceding 4 runs from the second inning onwards, but the early deficit was too much to come back from.

Johan Villanueva hit one of three homeruns for the Metros, but it was lefty centerfielder, Andrew Vargas, who stood out for them batting 4-for-5, with 2 home runs and a double, just missing out on the cycle. His two home runs went deep over the right-centerfield wall falling on the new diamond and interrupting the NBL game between the Falcons and Dbacks which was being played at the same time. Given the power which he displayed on the day, it is surprising to see that he does not have any other home runs so far this season and has only 2 extra base hits over the course of the season. On today’s display he is certainly worth a call up to the London Mets NBL team.

AAA League (Game 2) London Metros 10 Herts Ravens 6 (click to view box scores)

In the second game Herts turned the table on the Londoners taking an early 1-run lead. They were still holding on to a 1-run lead going into the fifth inning. Liam Green was in control on the mound for Herts allowing only 3 hits through the first 4 innings, but in the fifth the Metros produced another devastating inning scoring 5 runs. Herts stayed in touch right to the end with debutants JP Prouty and Matt Bucher contributing both defensively and offensively. London reliever, Johan Villanueva came in to pitch very effective sixth and seventh inning to close the game for the save.

The Herts Ravens will be looking to return to winning ways next Sunday, 28 July, when they welcome the Oxford Kings (first pitch 12pm).

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts pick up Tournament Bronze Cup. Attention firmly on upcoming league games.

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Herts players prepare to face the Midlands All Stars (photo by Rob Jones)

Similar to the All-Star Week in America, British clubs had their traditional midsummer break at the weekend taking part in the International London Tournament. Herts was represented at the event by a team made up of players from its various squads of the four tiers of the British baseball leagues. They had a difficult start losing their first two games to the Milton Keynes Bucks and the Midlands All Stars. Herts bounced back on Sunday with wins over the Milton Keynes Coyotes and the South London Pirates to claim the Tournament’s Bronze Cup. Sunday’s games saw Herts Falcons pitcher, Darrin Ward, hit two homeruns.

Tom Everex-Armstrong was one of many Herts players who wore the Great Britain National Team jerseys this weekend (photo by Rob Jones)

The various Great Britain National Baseball Teams, from Under-16 to Under-23, were also involved and they featured a large number of Herts players.

The focus now turns back on the all important league games as we enter the final 6 weeks of the regular season which will determine who will play in the postseason playoffs to decide the national champions in the four senior and two youth league tiers.

The Herts Falcons will host the Lakenheath Diamondbacks this Sunday, 21 July, in a doubleheader. They cannot afford to slip up. Anything less than two wins and the chasing London Mets and Southampton Mustangs could leap over them into first place. The game starts at 12:00 at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead (free admission).

On the same day the Herts Ravens will face the Triple-A League-leaders, London Metros. This game will also start at 12:00pm at Grovehill Ballpark.

The Herts Hawks currently occupy the last playoff spot in the Double-A league, which is the third league tier of British Baseball. This Sunday they will travel to Richmond to face the Dragons, who are just outside the playoff zone and will see this as their golden opportunity to overtake the Herts Hawks. The Herts Raptors and Herts Eagles travel to Guildford and Essex, respectively, in the Single-A League. The Raptors have already secured a playoff spot, but need to keep their winning run going for a higher playoff seeding.