Thoughts and pictures of my local minor league baseball team the New York Penn League Connecticut Tigers; a Detriot farm team. We'll still be looking at former Navigators/Defenders players along the way....

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Another season in the books...but


the first as a Connecticut Defender team. The team split the DH yesterday winning the opener behind a Geno Espineli complete game shutout 2-0 and dropping the second game 4-1 with Quincy Foster getting the only two hits. Those scores pretty much sum up the Defender's season; not much offense, close games, good pitching and pretty good defense. The team finished 13 games under .500 and just avoided last place to the franchise that refuses to speak it's full name; the New Britain RockCats.
The team finished last again in Eastern League attendance with only a couple hundred fans more last last year as the Navigators. Weather was a factor in this as the team lost a bunch of Friday/Saturday/Sunday dates. The schedule was front loaded with home games early in the season. The 2007 schedule is more favorable to the team. The franchise will host the 2007 E.L. All-Star Game and can build around that.
The front office has completed year one of a three year process. The field was in the best shape it's been it a long time; Thanks Bill! The bobblehead promos pumped up the midweek attendance for those dates. GM Jim Beaudoin was always willing to take a couple of minutes for me and opened my eyes to his side of the world. Thanks Jim!
I ended up seeing 47 games; new personal regular season high. The blog got me in touch with the families of three Defenders and I enjoyed sending them pictures of their sons and enjoyed their insights.
The team promoted a bunch of guys to the bigs; Eliezer Alfonzo has become the regular catcher for the Giants. Jonathan Sanchez pitched great in relief for the big club and is being groomed as a starter. Travis Ishihawa had three tours of duty in S.F.
Defenders Nate Schierholtz (tied franchise record w/a 25 game hit streak and lead almost all offensive team categories as team MVP) and Billy Sadler (totally turned it on from July first on--almost unhittable) figure heavily in the Giants future plans.
Thanks to all the readers; 6300+ hits! This blog will go pretty much dark after October and will pick up in Spring 2007.

Take care,

Greg

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