For at least 5,000 years, people have run, jumped, swam, kicked things, hit each other and thrown a variety of round, oval or pointy objects, all in the name of sport.

At first these games were individual affairs: one Greek against another, lobbing a stone plate into the distance. But at some point we started organising ourselves into teams. Later, perhaps, teams would appoint a captain, someone to lead, motivate or just shout at the other players. Finally, team managers were introduced, to pick the team, plan the strategy and take the blame.

One of the key jobs for any team manager is the team talk. When the half-time whistle blows, and the football players trudge off, three-nil down after some inept defending, the manager will carefully deploy a range of techniques to turn things around. Arsene Wenger may offer a logical analysis of pass completion percentages; while Sir Alex Ferguson prefers the hairdryer and a well-aimed football boot to the kidneys.

In baseball, the manager has more opportunities to butt in with helpful advice: in the dugout, between innings, or during a flamboyant visit to the mound. And in last Saturday’s season finale between the Giants and the Dodgers, Coach Mike Wakelam found the perfect time and the perfect words to make the difference.

Over on the posh diamonds, the U14s and U17s were in playoff action. But here, the drama was somehow more personal. The Giants trailed by three games to one in the series. We would play a 4-inning game, then a 5-inning game. If the Giants could win these two games to draw level, there would be a one-inning decider for the championship title.

Both teams fielded familiar line-ups, with a couple of additions. A new arrival for the Dodgers: Niklas Makwana, a cricketer with a fearsome throwing arm, looking to apply his batting and fielding skills to this, the junior game. Noah Haines came in for the Giants: he also looked pretty handy during pre-game practice.

Game 1 started in a cagey fashion, scoreless after one inning despite Noah Haines hitting a confident double. In the second, Niklas also doubled for the Dodgers, advancing to third on an error in the same play and scoring during the next at-bat. Ozan Martin also scored thanks to a Tom Garton double. But the Giants hit straight back, with a string of singles and two runs. The Giants’ inning was ended with an individual double play, as Tom Garton caught a fly ball from Noah Haines at third base before tagging out Noah Lynch. The scores were tied 2-2. In the third, no Dodgers batters achieved a hit. For the Dodgers, Ben Jupp got on base and scored when Oliver Durer hit a double. Three to two for the Giants. The Dodgers couldn’t find a run at the top of the last, and so Game 1 ended with a narrow win for the Giants.

The Dodgers now held a slim one-game lead over the Giants. Could the Giants level the series ?

The Giants were now the visiting team and first to bat. Alex Trautman singled, then Ben Jupp hit a double to deep right field. Noah Haines hit a single to bring home both Trautman and Jupp, and Haines then scored, as did Lewis Auchterlounie, with RBIs for Oliver Durer and Alex Jones. Four runs to the Giants, which looked more impressive when they picked up three quick outs to close out the Dodgers.

The Giants’ strong batting form continued in the second inning. Alex Trautman bunted cheekily for a single, Christian Lynch got on base, and then Ben Jupp stepped up again to blast a two-RBI triple. Singles from Haines, Oliver Durer, Jones and Trautman brought two more runs, and the Giants suddenly found themselves 8-0 ahead.

Things were looking bleak for the Dodgers, and the mood didn’t improve as they went scoreless again at the bottom of the second. At least they pegged back the Giants in the third, which included a double play as newcomer Noah Haines failed to tag up on a fly ball caught by pitcher Nicholas Durer. At bat, the Dodgers finally got onto the scoreboard, with a ground rule double from Ozan Martin and a line drive from Jonathan Wakelam for a two-RBI single. 8-2 to the Giants after three innings.

Despite achieving three quick outs at the top of the fourth, gloom was spreading in the ranks of the Dodgers. It was hot, players were tired, and they saw the coveted title slipping away from them. Coach Mike gathered his players. “Don’t worry about the score”, he told them “Let’s relax, swing the bat and have fun out there.”

Fired up, the Dodgers looked a changed team. Niklas Makwana hit a single, then managed to sprint home all the way from first base while the Dodgers fielded an outfield line drive from William Morillo. Two more singles loaded the bases, and Ozan Martin stepped up to hit a 2-RBI double straight past second base. Rory Vangundy finished up the inning by hitting a single to bring home Garton and Martin. Five runs to the Dodgers, and now it was 8-7.

Rattled, the Giants hit back. The first seven batters reached first base, and three runs were scored before Oliver Durer was forced out at home plate to close the inning. The Dodgers needed four to tie, five to win. Coach Mike took his team into a huddle. “You hit five runs in the last inning – just go out there and do it again.” A group shout of “Dodgers” filled the Grovehill ballpark.

After five at-bats, they had scored one run but were two down. Ozan Martin then hit a single and Nicholas Durer ran in. Now Jonathan Wakelam hit a huge line drive to the right field fence, allowing Thomas Garton to score and putting Ozan on third. Rory Vangundy came to the plate and followed suit for another RBI. Scores were tied. Up stepped Niklas. He needed only one pitch to drive the ball past Christian Lynch at second base; Jonathan Wakelam sprinted in from third, crossed home plate and the Dodgers erupted.

To mark the end of this Dodgers vs Giants series, there was a short presentation. Coach Paul and Coach Mike awarded medals to the outstanding players of today’s games: Oliver Durer for the Giants, and Niklas Makwana for the Dodgers. Both coaches thanked players and parents for their commitment over the course of a rain-shortened season, and commented on the enormous progress made by all the players in all areas of the game. It only remained to spray the Perrier and present the handsome crystal trophy to the winning Dodgers team, who will keep it until this classic series resumes in the spring.

Game 1

Game 2

Season Batting Averages

The British Baseball Federation’s U17 playoffs took place at Grovehill Ballpark, Hertfordshire, on one of probably the only three good-weather days of this year so-far. These playoffs traditionally feature the best of young talent in British baseball, and this proved to be the case again this year.

In the first game of the day, Herts U17 faced the Forest Glade Redbacks, in an encounter that should have been a much more even-keeled affair than the final score suggested. Partly, this may have been due to a tactical gamble by the Forest Glade management not to start with their hardest-throwing pitcher available, and partly it was due to Herts’ unremitting ability to put bat on ball, or, most likely, on the cool and collected performance of Herts’ pitcher, Marty Cullen Jr., who was on the mound from start to finish, allowing a single hit in the last inning to break a no-hitter. The Redbacks pitchers gave a good account of themselves, and gave up relatively few walks, but were unable to keep the Herts’ bats leashed. The offensive highlights included a 3-run jack to left-centre field by Liam Green, who went 4-for-4 and was only lacking a triple for the cycle, and Tom Everex-Armstrong with 4, and Kieran Manning, with 3 RBI’s in the game. The game finished Herts 23 Forest Glade Redbacks 0.

Click to view Herts vs Redbacks box scores and play-by-play

After the flush of the win, Herts had to face pretty much everybody’s favourites for this year’s title – the London Mets. Zack Longboy started on the mound for Herts and gave a creditable performance, allowing only 3 earned runs in 3 and 2/3 innings to the hard-hitting Mets lineup. However, good hitting combined with some errors allowed the London team to gradually build a lead, which, by the 4th inning was a respectable 7 runs. This was sufficient for the Mets starter, Kazuma, who went 4 and 1/3 innings, with 7 strikeouts and allowing only a single earned run. The Mets then switched their hard-hitting short stop with the pitcher, and he closed the game, throwing a couple of strikeouts in the bargain, putting the Mets through to the Semi-Final in the Lake District next week. The game ended London Mets 13 Herts 2

Click to view Herts vs Mets box scores and play-by-play

The third game of the U17 playoffs pitched the highly touted Horsham Hornets against the Cobham Cougars. This proved to be the most competitive game on the day, with a number of exciting plays, good pitching and defensive plays. Despite a depleted squad, the Cobham Cougars were able to book their place for the finals next week with a 4 to 3 win.

The Herts U14 team went into the playoffs with only one win during the 2012 regular season and the odds stacked heavily against them. But this was the postseason and there was an extra belief that the team will be able to pull off an upset. Their opponents were the Forest Glade Redbacks, a team which had the upper hand having beaten Herts twice during the regular season.

The youngsters form Hertfordshire had a dream start. The first 6 batters reached base with 3 walks and 3 hits. The seventh batter was Alex Guthrie and he delivered a crushing blow with a 3-run home run over the left centerfield wall. This gave Herts a 7-0 lead. There were still no outs but Forest Glade’s pitcher managed to regain his composure and struck out the next 3 batters to end the inning.

THE GAMBLE

Aspi Dimitrov who was standing in for manager Kent Peterson decided to change the Herts starting pitcher before he had even taken the mound in the bottom of the first. This was an unusual move. In MLB it is only likely to happen when the starting pitcher sustains an injury during warm-up.

“We have very little pitching depth and felt that with an early 7-0 lead we could win the game using relief pitchers in order to save our ace pitcher, Callum Vangundy, in the event that we win this first game and have to face the top seed London Mets” said Dimitrov. “It was a gamble which could improve our chances against the Mets dramatically, but it was risky as a loss in this first game would mean that there would be no game against the Mets and we would end up underutilising a key player.”

Another factor which played a part was that, despite being given the signal to start warming up partway through the top of the first inning, this was not the ideal preparation for Tom Jansson-Wright to jump on the mound at such short notice. On top of that he had to adapt to pitching from an artificial mound for the first time. The Redbacks responded with 11 runs in the bottom of the first inning. Alec Broadbent came in to pitch and struck out the final batter for the third out in that difficult first inning for Herts. Broadbent went on to give his team 3 and one-third innings of solid pitching allowing only 4 runs and striking out 5.

Herts needed a repeat of their explosive first inning, but the Redbacks pitching staff settled down and recorded 4 consecutive scoreless innings. Time was running out for the team from Hertfordshire. The team was trailing 15-7. The gamble didn’t pay off.

Broadbent was reaching his pitch count limit for the day and Callum Vangundy came in to pitch the last 2 innings of the game.

Despite walking four batters he got out of the jam with brilliant fielding to turn a double play at home and third base and then retired the last batter with a strikeout, without any runners crossing home plate.

THE COMEBACK

This was the spark that the team needed going into the final inning. Herts were trailing by 8 runs which seemed like an insurmountable lead. Suddenly there was a light at the end of the tunnel. The first 4 batters, Drew Mayhew, Alec Broadbent, Tom Jansson-Wright and Callum Vangundy each reached base with a hit. The Rebacks managed to retire the next two batters. The score was now 15-10 but crucially there were 2 outs. Herts needed to score 5 more runs without giving up an out. Alex Guthrie was next up. He continued his exceptional day with his third extra-base hit of the game to drive in 2 more runs. He went 3-4 HR 2B(2) with 5 RBI. Tom Adams followed with a big 1-run triple to make the score 13-15.

THE CONTROVERSIAL PINCH HITTER

With the Herts U17 team having completed their game on the adjacent diamond, the Herts U14 team was reinforced with the arrival of 13-year-old Tom Everex-Armstrong whose impressive performances earned him a promotion to the U17 team this season but he was still eligible to play in the U14 league. Aspi Dimitrov called time to announce that Tom Everex-Armstrong will be the next batter pinch hitting in the ninth spot of the batting order. This energised the Herts bench and fans even more. Everyone was on their feet and comments like “here comes the cavalry” could be heard from the stands.

Before the game could resume, the Forest Glade coaching staff called time to make an official protest. Everex-Armstrong’s 6ft 1in muscular frame certainly didn’t seem that of an under-14 player so the Redbacks could be forgiven for being concerned, especially as they were aware that the player had played an U17 playoff game earlier in the day. The BBF Technical Commissioner, Blake Taylor, was called in to deal with the official protest. After checking the Herts roster registration forms and the player’s date of birth it was confirmed that the player is eligible to play at U14 level, so after a 15-minute delay, the drama could resume.

Tom Everex-Armstrong came up to bat with 2 outs and a runner on third base, but Herts was still trailing 15-12 and the tying run was on deck, so it was surprising to see the Redbacks deciding to walk him intentionally, which meant that Drew Mayhew could now come up to bat representing the tying run.

Mayhew worked a walk. The at bat included two wild pitches which allowed two runs to score and Mayhew even managed to advance to second on the ball 4 wild pitch and later to third base. The tying run was just 70ft away now. All eyes were on the next batter, Alec Broadbent. With two outs and two strikes against him he managed to put the ball in play and it was now all down to whether he can beat it out at first. He did, sliding into the base and driving Drew Mayhew home to tie the game. The next Herts batter struck out so they couldn’t take the lead but the team was still alive after an incredible 8-run final inning.

They now needed faultless defence, but credit goes to the Redbacks. It was their turn to bat under pressure and they delivered. A ground ball in the hole between shortstop and third base was enough to put the batter on first base representing the winning run. He was driven home by a hit from Adam which travelled all the way to the outfield fence to end the game.

Click to view box scores and play-by-play.

Herts coach, Aspi Dimitrov, was positive after the game despite a heartbreaking loss: “The gamble at the start of the game didn’t pay off, but we are very proud of the players for showing incredible character to come back and tie the game when everyone had written us off. Even multi-million dollar MLB players would find it difficult to keep their energy up faced with an 8-run deficit going into the final inning. All of our players who started on the bench managed to get into the game and they all contributed. We knew at the start of the season that this is a transitional year for a brand new generation of players in the U14 team but coach Kent Peterson and the rest of the coaching staff have put in a lot of work and this is starting to bear fruit. We are now looking forward to the Herts Futures Tournament on 22 September.”

 

Cris Hiche was playing in the National Baseball League Championship final for the Herts Falcons last week. He hasn’t had much time to absorb the experience of reaching the final as his attention is now firmly on his role as manager of the Herts Under-17 team which is about to go into the 2012 Youth Playoffs this Saturday. We had the opportunity to talk with him about the Herts U17 team as well as other Herts and British baseball topics.

hertsbaseball.com: Before looking at the upcoming British Youth Playoffs, it is a good opportunity to ask you a few questions about the Herts Falcons and the National Championships in the senior leagues played last week. The Falcons made the news with a series of high-profile player acquisitions at the start of 2012. You moved to the UK from Arizona this year and were one of the first high profile arrivals before the wave of big player trades. How soon after you joined the Falcons did you start to feel that something special is happening at Herts and the team has a chance to compete for the title?

CH: Very early on after just 2 or 3 workouts. Robbie Unsell, Jordan Farkas, Kevin Niedringhaus, and Jake Michels were in those workouts and I mentioned it in my first interview that if we had the pitching we were going to fight for the title. Later seeing Dave and Jeff (The House Brothers), Ryan Bird, Phil Clark, Mike Osborn, among others confirmed my early intuition.

hertsbaseball.com: The Falcons went so close going to game 6 of the Championship series. The Nationals won it and over the course of the 2012 season won 4 and the Falcons 2 of the 6 games between the two teams. The difference between the two teams was not big, but in what areas were the Nationals superior to the Falcons?

CH: Consistency. We had too many ups and downs as a team. You can see it in the scores where 1 inning we would score 5-8 runs and then get blanked for 3-4 innings. Defensively it happened too. When it comes to batting it really hurts because you leave too many men on base and those opportunities can’t be wasted against a strong team like the Nationals.

hertsbaseball.com: You arrived in the UK this year and probably didn’t know what to expect from British Baseball. You have now played for the Falcons in the country’s top league and have managed in the youth leagues. What is your general impression of British Baseball?

CH: At the club level it is fantastic with some good organizations (Herts I think being one of the top ones) and people who want to improve baseball. There is room for improvement at the governing body level. If they would just make a few, but critical, adjustments, British Baseball at all levels could improve massively.

hertsbaseball.com: Obviously Great Britain is far behind the leading baseball leagues in the world. Which aspects of British Baseball do you think can be targeted for improvement in order to make some quick gains and start to catch up on countries like the Netherlands, Germany and Italy?

CH: Unfortunately there are no ‘quick’ solutions (besides recruiting new “British” citizens from the US and the Caribbean countries but that’s a risky solution). However, the big gain would be in heavy involvement of Youth programs. London Mets seem to have a strong program and we are developing a very strong one here at Herts and there are one or two others but besides that I don’t see many other strong British programs. There’s so much which can be done I could talk forever. If you ask me, one suggestion would be to impose that every NBL team must have a youth program (of course giving current NBL teams who don’t have youth programs 2-3 years to create one).

hertsbaseball.com: Apart from playing for the Falcons you have a busy schedule working for one of the Formula 1 teams. Despite a difficult timetable you decided to take on the role of managing the Herts U17 team. What made you make this extra commitment to Herts Baseball Club?

CH: I saw a lot of potential but also a lack of fundamentals of our kids (and most British baseball players). This meant that by changing and improving these things, the team could improve in leaps and bounds. We are doing that, a bit slower than expected but that’s because the rain didn’t help much this season. I hope we are going to be stronger next season and I have already many plans for spring training.

hertsbaseball.com: If other players from the adult teams are considering managing one of the Herts youth teams and ask for your advice, would you recommend it to them and why?

CH: Of course, because you learn as much as the kids. Being a coach means observing (not merely watching) baseball from a different perspective and that would make you a better player. Two examples: 1) hitting good ground balls to players (hard, soft, to the player’s left and right side, etc) isn’t that simple but by doing it, you’ll have better hand-eye coordination and bat control which will translate to being a better hitter playing in the adult team. 2) Being a 3rd base coach deciding when to send the runner for a steal or going home on a single and making mistakes in the process, would allow you to then make better ‘intuitive’ decisions as a player running the bases.

hertsbaseball.com: What is the hardest part of coaching the next generation of British baseball players?

CH: As I said lack of fundamentals and with that comes motivation. In the US, a 10yr old already knows how to catch, field, and throw and thus you can work with them in more advanced drills that would entertain a teenager. However, when they lack the fundamentals and they do drills that a 5-6yr old ‘would do’. I say this because kids here think MLB players practice must be so much ‘fun’ but don’t realise MLB players also hate spring training because they work on fundamentals like crazy and doing the same “boring” drills we do. The difference is that in the US every player knows they have to do them to get better so they set aside the “boring” part and work 100% to execute them perfectly. Here they believe they don’t need to do them. Also, every kid in the US works hard and goes through the “painful” drills because the motivation is to reach the big leagues, earn good money, and make a living playing the sport you love. Unfortunately for British players there’s no reference, or end goal, to motivate them to get better every day. That’s why I try to tell them and motivate them to become at least the best players/team in the NBL.

hertsbaseball.com: Turning our attention to this Saturday’s massive National Youth Playoffs, Herts will face the Forest Glade Redbacks in an elimination game first. The two teams met in exactly the same scenario 12 months ago and the Redbacks won it in extra innings. Will that play on the minds of the players or is there sufficient confidence in the team to go into this game with belief that they can do it this time?

CH: I wasn’t here 12 months ago so at least I’m not concerned! This is my very narrow opinion but I think with my presence as a manager, the kids hopefully feel this has been a new beginning and thus this is a very different team than last year. I think they have the confidence we can win this game (although it’ll be tough).

hertsbaseball.com: The Herts U17 team had a 1-11 record last year and a 4-8 record this year which is a significant improvement, but the team is seeded 4th and very much one of the outsiders behind the giants of the U17 league, London, Cobham and Horsham. If the team overcomes the Redbacks, Herts will have to face the top seed London Mets. Are the Mets unbeatable and can Herts cause a surprise?

CH: The Mets are not unbeatable but I’m realistic and know it would be very hard to win it (I don’t want to call it a miracle but the famous ‘Miracle on Ice’ comes to my mind). The main reason is similar to the ‘Miracle on Ice’. They are vastly more experienced because most of them are 2-3 years older. This makes a huge difference in terms of physical attributes but also how much baseball they have in their bodies. If we win against the Mets (first we need to win against the Redbacks!) it would be a highlight in my baseball life. Just to clarify, the 4-8 record is a bit misleading since early in the season I gambled a bit to see players perform in different circumstances. Our record should be more like 6-6.