The waiting is over. The boys and girls of summer will get the 2011 Herts Baseball Little League season underway this Saturday, 7 May 2011, at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead. Players from across Hertfordshire, London and as far as East Anglia will be putting on the Herts jerseys as the race for the championship begins.

The season will open with two mouth-watering match-ups. The reigning Champions, Herts Red Sox, will face bitter rivals the Herts Yankees. Red Sox Manager, Arnie Longboy, will be hoping that his team can pick up where they left at the end of last season. Their opponents, the Herts Yankees, picked up the bronze medals last year and they will be eager to get back to winning ways early. Both teams will field very strong lineups with each of them featuring members of the Herts All Stars team which represented Hertfordshire so magnificently at last year’s British National Baseball Championships and returned home with the silverware.

The other Opening Day match-up is expected to be another exciting clash. When baseball fans hear Dodgers and Giants, they think of the famous West Coast rivalry between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants. The Herts Dodgers and the Herts Giants Opening Day clash is likely to be just as fiery.

As always, at the start of every season, there will be many new faces after numerous player transfers, trades between the teams and free agents joining the League during the close season, so it will be a fascinating opening day.

This year’s Herts Little League will see a changed format with teams from other parts of the country taking part as well in an Inter-League format similar to the one introduced in America a few years ago. It brought a lot of excitement to Major League Baseball and it is expected to spice things up in Hertfordshire as well.

Apart from the race for the Herts Little League Championship, throughout the 2011 season members of the Herts Little League will also be taking part in BBF league games against teams from other parts of the country. The Herts teams competing in the BBF Leagues are referred to as All-Star teams and they are a selection of the best performing players from all the Herts Little League teams in the various age groups.

Last year Herts had one All-Star team competing in the BBF Under-14 (Bronco) League. This year Herts is committed to give more of its members the All-Stars experience by adding two more All-Star teams competing in the BBF Leagues.

With the weather expected to remain sunny, there isn’t a better way to spend Saturday then at the ballpark enjoying the various snacks and drinks which will be on offer. The games begin at 11am. Free admission for all. Many new players have signed up with the teams over the last few weeks and new players can join the League at any point of the season. For more details contact Herts Baseball Club by visiting their official website www.hertsbaseball.com

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. 

 

 

  

This event was also the first opportunity to see the National Championship Trophy in the Under-14 age group which the Herts All-Stars brought back to Hertfordshire last October after their unforgettable 2-1 win against their deadly rivals, the London Mets. 

  

The members of the team were also presented with their 2010 British Champions’ medals which they did not have a chance to get their hands on until today.  Members of Herts Baseball Club also had an opportunity to show their appreciation for Marty Cullen who sadly will be leaving Herts to focus on the Great Britain National Team programme which he is heavily involved in.  Marty Cullen, together with Lee Manning, were the two club members who started the Herts youth programme in 2007.  Marty Cullen will be missed but hopefully he and his national team colleagues will have many reasons to come to Herts to see and evaluate the many talented Herts youth players, especially now that so many of the club’s players have moved into the Under-17 age group and will be competing in the Pony Leagues. 

  

Click here for more images form the event. 

HERTS CARDINALS
MVP	Kieran Manning
Batting Champion	Kyle Lloyd-Jones
Infield Gold Glove	Jonathan Compton-Weight
Outfield Gold Glove	Drew Mayhew
Rookie of the Year	Joshua Jones
Cy Young Award	Carlos Casal Jr
HERTS YANKEES
MVP	Marty Cullen Jr
Batting Champion	Aaron Witter
Infield Gold Glove	Jose Morillo
Outfield Gold Glove	Cameron Ross
Rookie of the Year	Richard Ganster
Cy Young Award	Marty Cullen Jr
HERTS RED SOX
MVP	Zack Longboy
Batting Champion	Jake Caress
Infield Gold Glove	Charlie Owens
Outfield Gold Glove	Yuki Ariga
Rookie of the Year	Ben Day
Cy Young Award	Zack Longboy
HERTS CUBS
MVP	Nickolas Martinez
Batting Champion	Alexander Deacon
Infield Gold Glove	George Owens
Outfield Gold Glove	McKenna Martinez
Rookie of the Year	Christian Lynch
Cy Young Award	Lewis Green

 

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.

 

GIANTS	Round1	Round2	AVG	DODGERS	Round1	Round2	AVG
Kieran Manning	65	77	71.0	Vincent Moulton	126	133	129.5
Cameron Manning	106	73	89.5	Brian Moulton	112	91	101.5
Tracey Manning	118	76	97.0	Raymond Moulton	138	128	133.0
Jonny Compton-Weight	72	104	88.0	Geertje Moulton	111	99	105.0
Lindsay Compton-Weight	117	82	99.5	Marty Cullen Jr	96	119	107.5
Keith Compton-Weight	129	88	108.5	Cameron Ross	106	70	88.0
Josh Faulks-Rodriguez	102	98	100.0	Daisy Ross	118	77	97.5
Dominic Faulks-Rodriguez	116	104	110.0	Alison Ross	109	140	124.5
Grant Faulks	129	92	110.5	Alan Ross	93	128	110.5
Brodie Caress	138	90	114.0	Jose Morillo Jr	102	90	96.0
Mark Caress	66	98	82.0	Jose Morillo Sr	99	106	102.5
Robert Binns	107	91	99.0	Joshua Jones	94	89	91.5
Mags Binns	129	101	115.0	Rachel Jones	88	75	81.5
Aaron Witter	76	88	82.0	Zack Longboy	83	69	76.0
Hayley Witter	84	79	81.5	Theo Longboy	93	68	80.5
Jeff Witter	131	89	110.0	Susie Longboy	94	72	83.0
Lisa Witter	87	95	91.0	Arnie Longboy	125	123	124.0
Ozan Martin	85	92	88.5	Lewis Green	106	106	106.0
Ian Martin	112	119	115.5	Lawrence	119	117	118.0
Nese Martin	78	112	95.0	Natasha Hobbs	91	79	85.0
Talia Martin	112	90	101.0	Chris Deacon	137	98	117.5
Ryan Reynolds	79	69	74.0	Alexander Deacon	91	112	101.5
Christian Lynch	87	93	90.0	Liam Green	95	106	100.5
John Lynch	94	137	115.5	John Machin	140	134	137.0
Carlos Casal	103	136	119.5	John Machin Jr	125	106	115.5
Carlos Casal Jr	92	87	89.5	Bianca Machin	95	89	92.0
Lewis Auchterlounie	76	71	73.5	Nicole Machin	102	82	92.0
Paul Auchterlounie	106	118	112.0	Ilya Dimitrov	107	88	97.5
TEAM AVERAGE	99.86	94.61	97.23	TEAM AVERAGE	106.96	99.79	103.38

 

OTHER STATISTICS

 Highest scoring round – John Machin (140)

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

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

 

Herts Baseball Club’s youth teams began their pre-season training as they prepare for the start of the 2011 Herts Little League season and the national championships which the Herts boys and girls will be involved in this year.

 

Usually Spring Training for the Herts youth teams begins in March or April, but this year the League decided to make use of the good indoor facilities which are available in Dacorum Borough and to give the young players a chance to start playing earlier after the winter close season.  Despite the fact that the session was held at a significant distance away from the club’s home ballpark and it clashed with the football, rugby and other youth sports fixtures, the young baseball players came out in force.  Amongst the players were many new faces joining the Herts baseball family.

 

Spring Training is also the time for coaches to get ready for the season.  15 coaches were involved in running 16 stations simultaneously, covering all aspects of the game of baseball. This enabled the teams to go through an intensive 2-hour session covering a large amount of baseball work, despite the limited space available for the large number of players who were involved.

 

This is just the start of Spring Training.  Over the next few weeks Herts will be carrying out various recruitment activities to grow its youth programme further and reaffirm its status as one of the best youth baseball organisations in the country.

 

Last year the club’s Under-14 Herts All-Stars team became National Champions completing the season with an unbeaten record of 10 wins and no losses. They clinched the British title against their old rivals, the London Mets, in an unforgettable 2-1 win.  A large number of the players from that Championship-winning team will be ready to make the step up to the Under-17 league.  They will face tougher opponents and that will be the best way for them to continue their development as Herts players.  With players moving to the Under-17 age group, the opportunity will open up for a new generation of Under-14 year olds to defend the National title. This will be a fantastic boost for the many Herts players who have not had the opportunity to experience baseball at the national level in the past.

 

As Herts players move up to the older age groups they will have a big challenge on their hands playing against tougher opponents.  The club is determined to get the community in and around Hertfordshire involved in what will be another exciting season of Herts baseball.

 

Note: For more details about joining the Herts Baseball Little League visit www.hertsbaseball.com and contact the club.  Boys and girls aged between 6 and 16 are eligible to play for the club’s youth teams.  The Club welcomes players from complete beginners to experienced ballplayers. Players over the age of 16 can join up with the club’s adult teams who compete in the British Baseball Leagues.