September 1, 2010
Cape League announces award winners
by NEBJ Staff/
Michael Sadowski was the Curly Clement Award recipient for excellence as an umpire in the Cape Cod Baseball League. (photo: SportsPix)
The Cape Cod League announced multiple annual award winners following the regular season. Scott Pickler was the Mike Curran Manager of the Year Award winner; Clint Moore won the Manny Robello 10th Player Award; Joe Panik was recipient of the Daniel J. Silva Sportsmanship Award; Matt Watson won the John Claffey Top New England Prospect Award; and Michael Sadowski was the Curly Clement Award recipient for excellence as an umpire.
It marked the second straight season Pickler has been named the Cape Cod League’s top manager and his third such honor overall, tying him with Don Reed for most in league history. Reed won his first with Yarmouth-Dennis in 1989, and added a pair in 1991 and 1993 with Wareham.
Pickler guided the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox to the league’s best record this season en route to the East Division championship, his fifth as manager of the club. He has led Yarmouth-Dennis to league championships in 2004, 2006 and 2007. According to the Cape Cod League, more than 80 of his players have been selected in the Major League Baseball draft.
The league’s award for top manager is named after a former assistant sports editor at the Cape Cod Times, who started as a Cape League scorer and publicist in the early 1970s and was league president in 1976-77.
Moore, a West Point product and subject of a feature in this month’s issue of the New England Baseball Journal, played for the Harwich Mariners and earned a starting nod in the Cape Cod League All-Star Game at Fenway Park. The 10th Player Award is presented to the player who goes above and beyond what is asked of him during the course of the season.
“There are so many great players here, so many great people,” said Moore. “To get nominated for [the award] and then to receive it – I feel very humbled.”
Panik, from St. John’s, played shortstop for Yarmouth-Dennis and was selected to play in the All-Star Game, during which he had a hit in two at-bats. He is the first Yarmouth-Dennis player in 20 years to win the sportsmanship award, which is selected by league umpires. The award is named after the league’s first commissioner, who was responsible for the merger of the upper and lower Cape leagues in 1963. Silva was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame in its inaugural class in 2000.
Watson made it two years in a row that a Yarmouth-Dennis player has been named the league’s top New England prospect. The Boston College catcher from Portland, Maine, followed his own Eagles’ teammate, Mickey Wiswall, in giving both BC and Yarmouth-Dennis back-to-back winners.
The award, named after a Wareham league official, is presented to a New England-born player who plays for a New England college.
Sadowski was the league’s umpire of choice for the All-Star Game, and he told CCBL director of public relations and broadcaster John W. Garner Jr. in a league website story, “Probably the highlight for me was dressing in the umpire’s locker room at Fenway Park, and then walking onto the field, along with that big play at the plate [when Panik threw out Johnny Ruettiger on Zach Wilson’s grounder].”
The award is named after Clement in honoring his service for more than four decades as a CCBL umpire. Clement, a top-notch NCAA umpire for many years, including two assignments in the College World Series, was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame in 2002.
Collins a man on the move
In the August issue of the New England Baseball Journal, we ran a feature on Tim Collins. The left-handed pitcher from Worcester, Mass., was enjoying a great season as the closer for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. The Fisher Cats are the Double-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays and play in the Eastern League.
Not long after the story was printed, Collins was part of the five-player trade in which the Blue Jays dealt shortstop Alex Gonzalez to Atlanta in exchange for shortstop Yunel Escobar. We ran an editor’s note with our story by Roger Brown to inform readers of Collins’ change in major-league organizations.
Two weeks later, on the final day before the trade deadline, Collins was on the move again, this time to Kansas City. He was part of another five-player deal in which the Braves acquired outfielder Rick Ankiel and reliever Kyle Farnsworth from the Royals. Along with Collins, Kansas City received outfielder Gregor Blanco and pitcher Jesse Chavez.
Spinners send pair to NY-Penn League All-Star Game
The Lowell Spinners, Single-A affiliate of the Red Sox, had two representatives on the American League’s New York-Penn League All-Star Game roster. Center fielder Felix Sanchez made the squad as a starter, and shortstop Jose Garcia as a reserve.
The game took place on Aug. 17 in Staten Island, N.Y.
Sanchez is a 20-year-old switch-hitter from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Garcia, 19, from San Pedro de Marcoris in the Dominican Republic, made the squad despite slumping badly at the plate since injuring an ankle on July 4. Garcia was batting .355 before he went on the shelf for nearly three weeks.
