Don’t they?

Oh, the irony.

Councillors Maria McRae and Bob Monette had earlier stated their support for a revitalization of Frank Clair Stadium, but Ms. Leadman isn’t sure. While she watched the stands fall with a “touch of sadness,” she’s not in any rush to build them again.

Ms. Leadman said, “the many attempts have been unsuccessful. There has to be interest from the community.”

The original Ottawa Rough Riders franchise folded in 1996. The team returned in 2002 as the Renegades and the ownership changed hands in 2005, and in 2006. Then CFL commissioner Tom Wright announced the club had ceased operations.

“I would step cautiously,” Ms. Leadman said. “That’s a big investment and once you build a stadium, it’s there.”

Aside from the multiple CFL franchises, she noted that the city also had trouble supporting its AAA baseball team, the Ottawa Lynx, which has since relocated to Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Emphasis added (not that I expect you needed it).  So the City (with a capital C) wipes out the southside stands shortly after discovering that they’re no longer structurally sound - readers will note that “shortly” is a relative term, particularly when the City is involved.  Ms. Leadman’s comments though are pretty much gospel from the City’s perspective: the city had trouble supporting it’s AAA baseball team.  In fact it was the City of Ottawa that had the most difficulty supporting it’s AAA team.  As a politician, it’s prudent to look at the facts - and the fact of the matter is the CFL franchise has failed in this city twice, and has had several owners, some of whom were unmitigated disasters.  It may be unwise to invest a significant amount of taxpayers money into a new stadium (although I have no doubt that they will study the matter to death through the investment of a significant amount of taxpayers money into consultants).  But bringing Lynx Stadium into the discussion does nothing to strengthen Ms. Leadman’s argument.  First, the stadium is paid for and has been for several years.  Second, unlike Lansdowne Park, it hasn’t suffered from the City’s neglect: Lynx Stadium isn’t falling down and shouldn’t for the foreseeable future.  And finally, due to the hard work of Miles Wolff, Bruce Murdock, councillors Bob Monnette and Rob Jellett, and the unselfish nature of Lynx owner Ray Pecor, even though the Lynx left there’s still baseball being played at the stadium. 

It’s an interesting study in contrasts, Lansdowne Park and Lynx Stadium.  For one, they used dynamite to begin to destroy it.  For the other…, well, you already know.

And we’re back - quick HOF report and photos in the next couple of days.  A few weeks back I promised an update on 2006 FLP Val Majewski.  Val was in Ottawa during the days of the Baltimore affiliation, the season after surgery for a torn left labrum - unfortunately, Val’s a southpaw. 

After coming back in 2006, Majewski had a lackluster season with the new triple-A affiliate in Norfolk. He was moved to left field and first base to alleviate some stress on his throwing arm and his bat speed, never a strong suit, did not fully return. Majewski got a surprise assignment to double-A Bowie to start 2007, but earned a promotion after hitting .295/.358/.410 in 332 at bats.

He told ITW “Last year, my shoulder was affecting my swing. I was looking at videotape and saw that I was favoring it a bit. I didn’t realize it up there at the plate, but the video showed tentativeness. Once I realized I could trust my shoulder strength, I tried to mimic what I had done successfully in the past.”

Offense

Two full years after his labrum surgery, Majewski’s bat speed has still not fully recovered. He was off to a slow start in Bowie, but hit .310 in June and .353 in July to earn a promotion. Unfortunately, he flopped again down the stretch for the Norfolk Tides.

Tired of waiting for the arm/shoulder to come around, Baltimore cut him loose and Val found himself playing in the independent Atlantic League with the Newark Bears (and fellow FLP, Keith Reed).  But just a few months into the short indy season, Val was signed by the Houston Astros organization and is playing for their AA affiliate, the Corpus Christi Hooks.  Check that, he’s now with the Round Rock Express, Houston’s AAA team and it’s not hard to see why:

In his first three games with the Express, he’s hitting .273 with a homerun.  This of course, is the stuff that does our heart good at the UOLB - guys going out, working hard and proving the naysayers wrong.

The resident blogger’s currently on a long overdue vacation.  Unfortunately for my girls, the week will still be dominated by baseball - hopefully mixed in with some shopping and a little time by the pool.

Hall of Fame photos will follow…

Tough news out of Syracuse: FLP Kane Davis was released.  Kane was having an up-down kind of season, with a record of 6-7 and an ERA over four.  The final start came on June 24 against the Mudhens and it wasn’t pretty: two innings pitched, allowing nine hits and nine earned runs.

Hopefully Kane can find his stuff again, soon, and hook up with another team.  Which is a nice segue to FLP Zack Segovia.  As you may recall, the blog recently noted that Zack was picked up by the Washington Nationals and he appears to have regained some of the promise that the Phillies drafted him for.

Around this time a year ago, Zack Segovia was pitching in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, specifi-cally Tripe-A Ottawa. Just three months earlier Segovia was on the Phillies’ Opening Day roster and would make his major league debut not long after.
A second-round pick in 2002, Segovia now finds himself with the Potomac Nationals, trying to work his way back into the graces of the baseball gods after a precipitous spiral down through Philadelphia’s system.
However, in the Nationals’ organization Segovia seems to have reversed his movement, pitching first in the Gulf Coast League before heading to Low-A Hagerstown.
Now with his fourth team of the season, Segovia led the P-Nats to a 1-0 win in his Carolina League debut, the first of two seven-inning affairs against Salem Monday.
An hour, five-minute rain delay held up the start of the second game, a 5-1 Potomac loss in Jhonny Nunez’s 17th start of the year. Nunez fell to 2-8 on the year with the defeat.
But the story yesterday was Segovia seemingly finding the corner and turning it with Potomac.

Here’s hoping that the elbow and his control are all the way back, and back for good.

Potomac splits doubleheader

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that FLP, J.A. Happ will make his first start for Philly in ‘08 tonight against the New York Mets and (gulp) one Johan Santana. There’d been a great deal of speculation about who would fill the open roster spot in Philadelphia after Brett Myers was optioned to the Triple-A city that shall remain nameless.

The Phillies won’t really need a fifth starter until Saturday when they face the Mets. The problem with that though is that Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer were set to pitch the first two games against New York and the Phillies might want to keep it that way. The option would be to find someone to make a start against the Braves Thursday night in Atlanta.

J.A. Happ ( 5-6, 3.54 ) has been pitching well at Lehigh Valley (ed: Triple A city that shall remain nameless) and it’s long been whispered that he might be the next one to get the call. One issue with bringing Happ into the rotation is that he would add another left-hander, giving them three left-handers in the rotation. Happ was 3-1, 2.51 in five starts in June and last pitched on Saturday, putting him on a schedule that would have him pitch next on Thursday.

It’s not likely that Happ’s new teammate, Kris Benson, who made a rehab start with the IronPigs on Monday is ready to pitch in the big leagues just yet. Benson needs to keep picking up some velocity, which will come as he adds arm strength, but for now, he’s not likely to be a candidate. The only other Triple-A pitcher who would really warrant any consideration would be lefty Brian Mazone ( 8-6, 3.28 ) who has been steady all season, even through the early season struggles that the IronPigs (ed: team formerly known as the Ottawa Lynx) faced when they lost 23 of their first 25 games.

The pitching staff is pretty well loaded at Double-A Reading if the Phillies want to dig deeper into the minor league system. With Antonio Bastardo on the DL, Carlos Carrasco ( 5-7, 4.18 ) would seemingly be the best pick out of the Double-A ranks. The bad news is that Carrasco is coming off his worst month of the season and has seen his ERA jump over a full run in the past month. Carrasco last pitched on Friday night, putting him on schedule to pitch again Wednesday night, but pushing him to Thursday would be no problem at all.

The Phillies could put together a “bullpen game” and just run a bunch of relievers out to the mound for a game either against Atlanta or New York, but that’s not exactly a great situation. If they do, Steve Green ( 4-0, 3.08 ) could be a nice addition to the bullpen and he did make one spot start for Lehigh Valley and gave them four very strong innings.

Finally, the Phillies could go outside the organization. A phone call to Shawn Chacon? Not likely, although it’s not out of the question. Maybe the Phillies will finally pull the trigger to get one of the starters out there - Randy Wolf, Dan Haren, Ian Snell, Ben Sheets or a list of others - who have been floated on the trade market early on.

You will recall of course, that initially the thinking was that guys like J.A., Zack Segovia and Joe Bisenius (among others) had poor seasons in Ottawa because of the weather.  Turns out all three were playing with fairly significant injuries.

Nice to see J.A. get his shot on the 4th of July.

“This could be your golden opportunity…”

You’d think I’d have a little more time for blogging, but as is often the case during a three (or four) day weekend, there’s actually a little less.

Quick FLP update - Danny Sandoval began his season with the Buffalo Bisons, but has played the last 28 games with the Syracuse Chiefs.  His fortunes in Syracuse have taken a most decided turn for the better - in 43 games with the Bisons, he hit .247.  In a Chiefs jersey?  He’s raised his average by 74 points to .321 and his OBP 63 points to .372.  His slugging percentage is a whopping 200 points better in Syracuse.

One of the last remaining FLPs still doing duty with the big club in Philadelphia is Clay “Air Miles” Condrey.  Funny, for all the time he spent here in Ottawa, I’m still going through my “less extensive than John Bradley’s” photo archive for a single photo of Clay.   I’ll keep looking, but meanwhile, it seems that Clay is about to log more time on a plane:

PHILADELPHIA — Entering a game with the bases loaded can be a nervous time for any reliever, and the Phillies’ Clay Condrey is no exception.

Making the right pitch in such a spot is nothing compared to what he’ll experience during Monday’s day off. Condrey headed home to Navasota, Texas — about 3 1/2 hours from Arlington, where the team finished a three-game series — to witness the birth of his first child.

It doesn’t matter that his wife will be doing all the work.

“Right now, I’m nervous more than anything,” he said. “She’s having a C-section. I’m sure they do those things all the time, just not with my wife.”

Condrey has received permission to spend two days with his wife, Elizabeth, and his son, and is expected to rejoin the team Thursday in Atlanta.

Best wishes to Clay and family and congratulations on the new arrival.

Finally, a quick Q+A from the Philadelphia Inquirer with Clay Condrey - figured we’d go with the “breaking news” story first.

Q: It’s Game 7 of the World Series and you recover So Taguchi’s walkoff home run in the bullpen. Are you giving the ball to Taguchi or Cooperstown, or are you Mientkiewicz-ing it?

- Kevin K., Mt. Laurel, N.J.
A: I give it to So. It’s not mine. It would mean something more for him to tell stories.

Q: How did you avoid suspension during triple-A Portland’s brawl with a Las Vegas 51’s fan in 2003 [every member of the Portland Beavers except Condrey was suspended after they chased a fan into the stands after he threw a soft squeezeball at Tagg Bozied]?

- John T., Montclair, N.J.
A: It was after the game and I was inside icing my shoulder. I was starting that year, so I was inside. They didn’t come into the clubhouse for about five or 10 minutes. I had the ice and I was sitting on the couch. I went to take it off and started going outside, but they were coming in whooping and hollering and I realized I was in my underwear so I wasn’t going outside. I didn’t really know what was going on until they came in.

Q: Being an avid outdoorsman, do you, like “Sack Master” in the movie Wedding Crashers, hunt quail? - Greg P., Hoboken, N.J.
A: I don’t hunt quail. I hunt deer, dove, duck. That’s it. Rabbits. Whatever I can eat.

Q: Squirrels?

A: Squirrels, too. It’s good stuff.

Q: Have you had a raccoon?

A: Yeah, I was forced to eat one once. It’s very greasy and very tough. I’ve had armadillo one time. It’s the same type of deal. The armadillo is probably the worst thing I’ve eaten. We ate it because we shot it, and anything we shoot we’re supposed to eat.

Okay, now finally.  FOTL, the Vermont Lake Monsters sit in first place in the very tight Stedler division with a record of 7-6.

Recent WordPress changes have me decidedly less than impressed.  When you have to struggle with the program to get it to handle the simplest request, something’s wrong.  So for tonight, I’ll take the easy way out with a little FLP video.

More coming as I work out the kinks…

Just a “quick hit” post for today.  Over the weekend, Zak’s team won their division in the East Nepean Little League.  Somewhat convoluted pitching rules meant “the boy” couldn’t pitch on consecutive days - he threw the maximum two innings in their Saturday semi-final game, striking out six and allowing one unearned run.  Good, creative coaching allowed the Athletics to spread out their remaining pitchers for the rest of Saturday and Sunday’s final.

Slapping an opposite field double to right field in Sunday’s final.

The 2008 East Nepean Major Nationals Champs!

Number 1!

Not unlike our dilemma last week when the Jays faced John Russell’s Pirates, we’ll face another conundrum when Dusty Wathan brings his Williamsport Crosscutters into Winooski to take on FOTL, the Vermont Lake Monsters.

First-year manager Dusty Wathan knows all about playing in minor league baseball, having had a career that spanned over 14 years. He draws on his experiences in the minors — as well as being the son of former major league catcher John Wathan — to teach his players.
“It’s like starting all over again,” said Wathan, set to begin his term as the Williamsport Crosscutters manager tonight. “You’re looking through a different window, you can remember being there and what was going through your head at that moment. Now I’m on the other side.”

We plan on catching up with the FLP on the Vermont leg of our summer baseball trip.

Regulars will already know of our “varied” relationship with Skratch and the Trash Monster.  At first Bekah was terrified of both, and then gradually warmed up to both mascots.  Surfing the web for Lake Monsters results yielded this Youtube find (featuring GM CJ Knudsen among others in the VLM front office).  A pretty clever television advertisement:

And then, there was this next one - which I have mixed feelings about.  Part of the illusion of the mascot is preserved by never allowing the public to see what goes on behind the scenes.  I never met - nor did I want to meet, the persons inside the Skratch or Trash Monster costumes.  A little cognitive dissonance that I was able to engage in, quite successfully thanks.

It’s actually pretty funny - in a Wayne’s World kind of way (blogger: Loved the “good to be on my own show” comment!)

The VLM have slipped to 2-4, for those keeping score.