The 2011 MLB season is just around the corner so the Herts Fantay Baseball League is back for another exciting season.  There are limited spaces, so enter your team quickly to reserve your place. Once you have paid via paypal, you will receive an invite to join the Herts Private ESPN fantasy league.

• Entry is £10
• Pick Real players from MLB to be part of your roster
• Compete against other members of the Herts organisation for the bragging rights of being Herts Fantasy Champion 2011
• Draft is currently booked for March 29th at 20:00, so please sign up before this time
• Watch your team, and drop, add, and trade players to get the winning team!

For League rules, regulations, details of the prizes and how to enter click here. 

On Sunday Herts Baseball Club received the exciting news that four members of the Herts Under-14 All Star team which became national champion last year have been called up by the Great Britain National Team.

Herts has had a good number of its adult players getting a call-up to the GB Team over the years.  Players like Lee Manning and Andy Cornish from Hemel Hempstead and Dan Kerry from St. Albans are just a few that come to mind.  However, it is only recently that members of the Herts youth teams have received this honour.  The first Herts youngster to break into the GB (Under-15) National Team was Liam Green 12 months ago. 

This time around four Herts players have received the invitation from GB U-15 National Team Manager, Brendan Cunliffe.  They are Infielder Carlos Casal Jr. and first baseman, Jonny Compton-Weight, both living just a fly ball away from the club’s ballpark in Hemel Hempstead, Infielder Kyle Lloyd-Jones from St. Albans and Pitcher Marty Cullen Jr. from Hitchin.

This announcement recognises their incredible season last year and the hard work and progress which they and all the young players at Herts have made since the start of the club’s youth programme in 2007.

Casal Jr., Compton-Weight and Lloyd-Jones have been selected to play at the 2011 SUMA PONY Qualifier in Prague, Czech Republic from April 13-17. This is a Pony tournament with the winner going to Lafayette, Indiana, USA to compete in the Pony World Series. They will face Israel, Czech Republic, Tempo Praha (CZE), and Mures County (ROM) in the opening round.

Cullen Jr. has been selected for the USSSA Gold Medal Games in Kissimmee, Florida from July 9-16, where he may face opponents like the USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, France, Italy and others.

This news is a tremendous boost for the players and Herts as an organisation.  The Club is even more excited by the fact that there are many more talented players coming through the various age groups of the Herts youth system, from Rookie (U-11) and Bronco (U-14) through to the Pony (U-17) age group which the club will be unveiling this year.

It is unusual for the Herts Baseball Newswire to be getting into political analysis, but when the House of Commons is debating a bill which could have a significant effect on the game of baseball in Great Britain, then we like to sink our teeth into it. 

A new ‘tourism strategy’, to be published by the Coalition Government within days, is expected to contain plans to move the country to ‘double summertime’. Putting the clocks forward by an hour to British Summer Time +1 (equivalent to Greenwich Mean Time +2) would mean lighter evenings in the summer months. The plan already has influential support among Conservative MPs, safety campaigners and environmentalists on the basis of data which suggests that the decision could result in reduction in overall number of car accidents, significant energy savings and a boost to tourism, among others. Rebecca Harris, the Conservative MP for Castle Point, Essex, said: “The tourism industry has been crying out for extra daylight saving for years. It could extend the tourist season and boost the economy by up to £3.5billion a year.”  

But most importantly, as far as we are concerned, it would be a substantial boost for summer sports such as baseball.  Double summertime would put British clocks in line with the rest of Europe which means that for three months in the height of summer between May and July baseball teams around the country would be able to enjoy sunlight as late as 10pm.  With limited or no funding available for luxurious capital items such as floodlights for baseball fields, the longer, lighter evenings would be an ideal and cost-effective substitution, without any energy or other consumption costs.   

Could this be a sign of the future?  It’s 10:22pm and the sun is still up at the ballpark. 

This could open up the opportunity for British baseball to add midweek baseball action in the evenings just like Wednesday Night Baseball on Channel 5 which we became accustomed to over the years. It would add a different dimension to the British Baseball leagues if teams could no longer rely on two starting pitchers for the whole of the league season. Instead teams would have to have stronger starting rotation bringing us closer to the conditions which MLB teams play in and which give baseball its unique weekly cycle.  The bottom line is more baseball for adult and youth leagues around the country. 

For many years members of Herts Baseball Club have been looking for solutions to the problem of very short evenings in the UK compared to our Central and Western European rivals and the conclusions have always been that there are no financially-viable options. 

It would appear that there is a lot of support for this bill among members of parliament and with one swing of the bat they could give British Baseball a major boost.  So, for all fans of Herts and British Baseball in general, if you bump into the Prime Minister or the Mayor of London and they ask whether you support the government’s “double summertime bill” then you know what your answer should be. Way to go Dave.  Attaboy Boris. 

The 2010 season ended many months ago but the busy baseball schedule at the end of last year did not leave time in the calendar for the club’s annual Little League awards event, until today.  

The players and families of the Herts youth baseball teams started the day with a Family Bowling Tournament with 56 players taking part and there were many more who wanted to take part but were either out of the country or had prior half-term arrangements. 

Attention then turned to the all-important 2010 Herts Little League awards.  All 2010 players as well as players who will be joining in 2011 received a commemorative medal.  This was followed by the presentation of the awards in the various categories including Infield and Outfield Gold Glove, Batting Champion, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young Award, and the most sought after award for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the year which is voted on by the players. 

Ahead of the 2010 Herts Baseball Little League Awards presentation, players, coaches, family members and friends of the club took part in a Bowling Tournament at the Hotshots Bowling centre in Hemel Hempstead.  The participants were divided into two teams – the San Francisco Giants and the LA Dodgers. They were competing for individual and team honours over two games, with the individual and team averages over the two games used to determine the winners.

In the individual contest the pace setters after the first round were John Machin with 140, Raymond Moulton and Brodie Caress both with a  round of 138 and Chris Deacon and Jeff Witter close behind them with 137 and 131, respectively.  Jeff Witter, Chris Deacon and Brodie Caress has a nightmare second round all recording scores below 100 which put them out of contention. 

The real surprise of the day was Vincent Moulton who recorded a solid 126 in the first round and did even better in the second round with 133.  That big second round score pushed him into the Bronze medal position with an average of 129.5 over the two rounds.  Later we learned that this score was no fluke and that 12-year old Vincent Moulton used to play bowling quite regularly in the past. 

Coming into the silver medal position was Vincent’s father, Raymond Moulton, who finished with an overall average of 133.  John Machin, who led after the first round remained untouchable and became the Tournament Champion with an average of 137.

In the team competition the Dodgers had a healthy lead after the first round.  Their team average was 106.96 compared to the Giants’ 99.86.  The Dodgers still needed a solid second round to ensure overall victory over the Giants.  The final team averages over the two rounds were Dodgers (103.38) Giants (97.23).

Click here for more images form the event.

OTHER STATISTICS

 Highest scoring round – John Machin (140)

Largest increase in second round – John Lynch (+43)

Largest drop in second round – Brodie Caress (-48)