Another Summer of Baseball

2024 Barums team photo. Players (who were there) and coaches

It has been another summer of watching and covering a lot of baseball. 

This means the Bridgeport Barnums and Trumbull Babe Ruth. 

The Barnums had a terrific season, winning the Connecticut College Baseball League Championship. 

Congrats to all the players and coaches Chris Bugyi, Jim Chaves and Mark Keeney. It's also about Sars Ford, the general manager, who had the vision for bringing a college team back to Bridgeport before the 2023 summer, and ultimately got that done.  

For the Barnums, I serve in a team media/scorekeeper role. Although I will do whatever they need. 

If that's setting up or breaking down items, I've done it. After the July 4 fireworks, we helped clean up the fire of debris. It's about being a team player and supporting however is needed. 

In my media/scorekeeper role, I am managing GameChanger (a scorekeeping app) during games. I'm letting the coaches know if pitch counts, and anything else they may need. 

And yes, I likely (definitely) show too much favoritism toward the Ludlowe guys on the team. That includes Cole Gibson, Luke Anderson, Andrew Fortunato, Blake Benway, Matt Longo and Joey Sangiuolo.   

Additionally, my role includes managing the team Instagram (@BPTBarnums) and Facebook accounts (Bridgeport Barnums Baseball) and writing game recaps on Blogger that are shared via social media. 

That being said, it's in no way about me. We are the support staff. It's about the players, first and foremost, the coaches and families. I hated even getting told to get in team photos (and wouldn't post the ones with myself in it on the team accounts.)

Then, there was Trumbull Babe Ruth baseball with Rob Adams. 

A tradition like no other. 

This is the sixth Babe Ruth tournament in Trumbull that I've been a part of with Rob. 

2015, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. 

In 2018, we did one in Norwalk (I joined Rob for at least one game that year, so I'll count it.)

We also did one in Stamford in 2019. 

Of course, even when I'm not with Rob, I'm often listening. 

This year, we broadcasted the 13U Connecticut State Tournament. 

Stamford won the tournament, beating Easton/Redding in the Championship. 

It's always a blast to join Rob on the calls. He's a professional and more importantly, a great friend. 

There's something special about doing these tournaments and getting to know so many people. 

We get to talk with so many in the booth, from Mike Buswell, who is the reason Rob (and I) keep doing this year after year, to Bobby Gerbert, to members of CT Babe Ruth, and so many others. 

When coaches would stop up to bring lineups, or some coaches would be in the booth between games or during games they weren't coaching in, we would get a chance to have conversations. 

We didn't get to know as many people from the teams this year, but that's okay. Every year is different. 

On the air, we get to talk about what we see on the field and tell stories from past years of doing these tournaments, and so many other memories. 

Like when Rob brings up the 2019 FCIAC baseball championship. Yeah. That game. 

But again, it's about talking about the great athletes we see on the field, and if we can get information and get to know them off the field, that just allows us to promote them even more, and that is the ultimate goal. 

High school sports will be here soon. I'm excited for them all, but selfishly, cannot wait for the winter for basketball and the spring for baseball. 

Pitching Brillance

I've been working with the Bridgeport Barnums Baseball Club this summer for the second consecutive year in a communications/scorekeeper role. 

The Barnums play in the Connecticut College Baseball League.

This morning, in a playoff semifinal game, we got to see something special. 

It was pitching brilliance. 

Cole Gibson, former Ludlowe player, and New Haven bound pitcher threw a no-hitter in a 5-0 win over Wallingford. 

Gibson gave up a leadoff walk to start the game and the only other baserunner reached on an error in the sixth inning. 

Oh yeah, he also struck out 10 hitters. Gibson's had his fastball working. He was easy flowing, hitting the high 80's with his velocity, from what I was told.  

Gibson also fielded his position well, making two plays on comebackers, including one on a bunt attempt. 

It was so fun to watch, and I am so happy for Cole. It's been fun to watch his entire high school career and throughout this summer, but today was something special.

Great player, better person. I'm excited to watch and follow what he does going forward, both on and off the field. 

This likely caps Gibson's summer season and he has had a very strong summer heading into college baseball. He pitched to a 1.58 ERA in 31 innings. He struck out 39 batters, while walking just nine. 

Update: Gibson came on in relief in the championship game on July 30. He threw one inning, allowing one hit and two walks, while striking out two. His season totals are now 32 innings pitched, 41 strikeouts, 11 walks with a 1.53 ERA. 

There are a bunch of former Ludlowe guys on the Barnums, so obviously I am closer with them than the other guys. Besides Gibson, there is Luke Anderson, Andrew Fortunato and Blake Benway. I do get picked on for being bias/my favoritism, but I try to be fair in my scorekeeping and promotion on the Barnums social media pages. 

The Barnums will play for a championship on Monday in Simsbury (opponent TBA). You can follow along on the Barnums GameChanger account. 

Cole's postgame interview is here. 

Top 100 Athletes

The greatest closer off all time. 

Everyone, especially media outlets, put together various lists. 

There can, and is, always debate over the lists. 

The latest list, from ESPN, is the top 100 professional athletes since 2000. I'm not going to go over the full list. Go check it out for yourself. 

There were 24 basketball players (male and female), 17 baseball, 15 soccer, 12 football, six tennis, four golf, four boxing, three track and field, three auto racing, three hockey, two swimming, two gymnastics, two MMA, one skiing, one snowboarding and one cricket. 

The top 10 is: 

1. Michael Phelps
2. Serena Williams
3. Lionel Messi 
4. Lebron James
5. Tom Brady
6. Roger Federer
7. Simone Biles 
8. Tiger Woods
9. Usian Bolt
10. Kobe Bryant

I have some thoughts. 

Yes, Tom Brady has seven championships, but he also lost two since 2000. And if it wasn't for the Tuck Rule, he'd have one less. Can we also talk about Deflategate? He's great, but number five seems a bit too high. 

First, how is the first baseball player, Albert Pujols, down at number 24. I get people say baseball is boring (I disagree), but you can't say that the best baseball player is the 24th greatest athlete since the turn of the century. He has to be higher.

Now, if you want to debate that he's the best baseball player since 2000, that's totally fair. 

Staying with baseball, Mariano Rivera at 59. Come on! 

Now I'll admit, I look at the "mainstream" sports more than I do others, and there are some terrific athletes in those non-mainstream sports, that often don't get enough credit. 

I'm very surprised there are more baseball than football players on the list, to be honest. 

It's great to see the number of women athletes make the list, especially the WNBA players. 

Oh, and I guess away from the sport issues aren't talked about when coming up with this list. 

Another issue I have with this list, for the "team sport" athletes, it seems to mainly take into account their individual accolades, not necessarily how they helped their teams win championship. 

The list is also too modern for my liking. For example, talking Packers quarterbacks, I'd put Brett Favre on the list over Aaron Rodgers, however, Rodgers comes in at 91 and Favre is nowhere to be seen. 

It's definitely interesting and fun to debate. Open to hearing your thoughts. 

Accuracy and Legibility

In a lot of what we do in sports, we deal with rosters, and lineups. This is seen in all sports, but especially in a sport like baseball. I'm going to refer to rosters throughout this post, but that includes baseball lineup cards. 

It's so vital that rosters are both accurate and legible. 

Accuracy means having everyone listed and having all necessary information listed. This means all uniform numbers and positions are included and correct. If a player switched numbers from originally listed, that's okay, just made the change. 

Whether it's the PA announcer, broadcaster, writer, or anyone else, we want to be accurate with what is being reported. The only way we can is if we get accurate information given to us. Sure, we can search around, but we shouldn't need to, and we are taking chances at trying to piece through information. 

If people are missing on the rosters completely, then we have to go searching for that, and we don't want to show up teams and coaches either. 

In terms of legibility, not everyone has the best handwriting. I get that. I'm a prime example. That's totally okay. Then type and print out a roster. There are many templates, or you can make your own. There's also a way, if teams use Game Changer to keep score, to print out rosters that way. 

This way, everyone isn't guessing what the spelling is and therefore possibly saying a name wrong. Yes, those in PA or broadcasting still might need pronunciations on certain names, but it makes it much easier if the roster can be read.  

Even for writers and people doing social media posts, it's important to have the correct spellings so the names are correct in print. Whether that be online, or truly in a real newspaper. 

I'm sure some of you are reading this and saying, why should coaches be expected to provide rosters. Well, when it comes to a sport like baseball, or softball, we can print rosters, if they are available, but we still need the accurate lineup cards for each game. We can't just guess that. 

Also, even if only numbers are needed, in a basketball scorebook, for example, include names. It just looks better. More professional. Honestly, include as much information on a roster as you can. Obviously name (first and last) and number (where applicable for sport) is important, but position, and then sometimes height and weight any anything else that are sport specific are always helpful. 

I could ramble more on this, and I probably have other things I want to say that I am forgetting, but I won't bore you anymore. 

Babe Ruth Baseball Again!

Warmups prior to game one of the tournament on Saturday

It's another summer of baseball, and specifically Babe Ruth baseball, with Rob Adams on Robcasting Radio.  

We are through the first two days of the 13U double-elimination state tournament. 

The tournament features, Trumbull, Waterford, Easton, Ridgefield, Stamford, Nonnewaug and Wolcott. 

Trumbull and Waterford, in a Babe Ruth state tournament together. What a surprise. We will see these two teams square off tomorrow at 5:30pm in an elimination game.  

On Saturday we saw Stamford defeat Wolcott 15-6, Trumbull beat Nonnewaug 13-1 and then Easton edge Waterford 7-6. 

Today, we got our first look at Ridgefield, as they fell to Easton 17-7. Stamford then downed Trumbull 19-4. In the final game of the day, we saw Wolcott defeat Nonnewaug 6-2. 

It's great to see these teams like Trumbull, Waterford and even Stamford who we have seen in Babe Ruth tournaments before, but it's also fun to see new teams and towns. Even with the towns we have seen, it's a whole new group of players for all the teams. 

We have two more games tomorrow, and two on Tuesday. Then Wednesday there is a game, the championship is Thursday, with the championship game, if necessary, on Friday. Here's the full schedule and bracket. 

It's always great to work with the people of Trumbull and Babe Ruth in the booth. 

From Mike Buswell, who is the reason Rob (and then I guess myself) are there, to Bob Gerbert, and others from the Trumbull side. You've also got their kids and other family members who stop in and help out. I was having fun talking with Bob's son Jack and I talked to Mike's son Bryce as well at times over the two days. It's awesome that it becomes a family affair. 

Then there is Bob Wheway, Michael Menkes and others from CT Babe Ruth. 

It's getting to know other coaches, including Waterford's Lucas Beaney, who we know, as well as families and players. I say it every year, but that's what makes a lot of what we do so fun. We are doing it for the players and families. 

I just try to support Rob on the calls if I can. I do think I have gotten better, although I never consider myself a broadcaster. I know what I want to say, especially when it comes to baseball, it's just always getting with thoughts to words the right way. That's why I often stay quieter than I should. Rob and I joked about me taking over play-by-play for a stretch. That would not go well. 

Looking forward to getting back to it tomorrow. I'll join Rob as much as I can this week. I should be good for both games tomorrow and both games on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday I have duties with the Bridgeport Barnums and Friday I have a conflict as well. 

After that, Rob is doing Cal Ripken baseball in Oxford. We will see if I make an appearance at that. 

For now, it's on to tomorrow. 

By the way, I could write more on this, and I might at another time, but accurate, legible lineups are so important for many people for many reasons. 

July 4

Happy Fourth of July! 

Hope everyone is enjoying the day and staying safe.

Whether it's hanging with family and friends, having a barbeque, playing or watching sports, watching fireworks or just enjoying the day, hope it was fun. 

---------------------------------------------

July 4 big day in baseball history and specifically, Yankees history. 

"The Boss," George Steinbrenner was born on this date in 1930. Happy birthday to the former Yankees owner. 

Oh, how things have changed since Steinbrenner passed away in July of 2010. Imagine if George was still in charge with the way the team is performing of late. 

Additionally, former (okay that's weird to say) Yankees radio broadcaster John Sterling was born on this date in 1938. 

Happy birthday to "The Boss" and John. 

Also, on this date in 1939, Lou Gehrig delivered his "Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth" speech. 

This can be debated, but it's one of the best speeches of all time, at least sports wise. To me, this and Jim Valvano's ESPY's speech are both right near the top, sports-related wise. 

---------------------------------------------

The annual Fourth of July Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest took place today in Coney Island. 

It definitely lost some of its luster with Joe Chestnut not competing as he was banned due to a sponsorship deal with a rival hot dog company, who sells plant-based dogs. You can read more here from USA today.

That being said, congrats to Patrick Bertoletti, who won while eating 58 hotdogs. 

While some people like the contest, others don't like it. The sports competitor in me enjoys watching the competitive aspect of it. 

I heard on the broadcast that one of the competitors recently was in a pasta-eating contest. That's definitely more my speed.  

All that said, certain things are tradition, like the hot dog eating contest on July 4. 

Memories of Summer Nights of Kickball

I saw the above post on Facebook recently. There are many variations of this on the internet. 

I am definitely in that in-between generation of playing outside and inside on video games etc. We did both. 

I have great memories of playing kickball in the neighborhood outside during the summer when I was in middle school. 

We played with kids older and younger. There was a large age gap between the youngest and oldest kids, but that didn't matter. We all got along. 

It was mostly guys and a few girls as well. Whoever wanted to play, could play. 

It was kids on my block and the couple of surrounding blocks. 

We would mix up teams, with older kids and younger kids, depending on who was playing any given night. 

Most of the time we played at the end of my block where two other blocks connect. It was a wide sort of dead end with the side roads flaking it. This is where we would put home plate and hit towards the narrowing going up the street. 

Sometimes, we would play on one of the side blocks, where most of the people who played lived. Likely, this was if someone was told then needed to stay close to home. This was tougher because it made for more of a narrow field, to avoid going onto random people's property. 

The bases would be the edges of curbs, sewer grates or other spots that could be noticed. Occasionally, we would use chalk. 

We were always very respectful of cars and would move to the side right away. Knowing me, I probably moved when the car was at the top of the block. 

We would often play after dinner and only end when it got too dark to see, or if enough people were told they had to go inside, that we didn't have enough to play. Sometimes, we would play before dinner, take a break and eat, and then go back out. 

You know how I am in terms of being competitive, and the fact that I am a baseball person, I definitely took the games too seriously. However, from what I remember, we all had fun. That is what is most important. 

We played for a couple of summers. We started when all of us older kids were in middle school and played until at least the two or three of us older kids went into high school. Then it kind of just disbanded as lives changed and technology increased. 

Fun memories. Sometimes, I wish we could go back to this age. 

Thanks, Facebook, for the inspiration to remember and write.