Long time, no blog...

Not quite sure where to start, so here goes. We have climbed back into the race. We are a point out of first after losing last night to Cotuit, 8-5, in a seven inning game shortened because of darkness.

We had five players selected to the ASG yesterday. The game will be played at Fenway next Thursday night. Rob Rasmussen will be the starter for the East - pretty cool for Ras!

Spoke with the Red Sox yesterday. They are going to make a run at Alex Hassan, their 20th rounder. Will be a huge loss if he signs before we are through. Al also made the All-Star team.

We have a MLB Day Saturday with guest speaker Peter Gammons. Should be very interesting.

Weather has been absolutely gorgeous, we have been playing well, and the last 17 games should be exciting! I really think playoff spots will not be determined until the final day of the season.

Have had visits from the DeBlasi's, the Paige clan, and a surprise visit from one of my best friends (Vin Rover) and his two sons (Tommy and Marcus).

Gotta run...the East All-Stars are meeting at Harwich for pictures at 9 am.

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Back to .500...

Monday morning and it's raining on the Cape again! I feel like we should be playing the season on Noah's Ark!!

Supposed to be heading down to Falmouth tonight for a 7 PM game, weather permitting. Jorge Reyes, Oregon State, and a draft pick of the Padres earlier in the month, will be making his first start of the summer. He pitched at Falmouth last summer.

The 'Birds had a nice win against Chatham last night, 2-1. Jimmy Reyes, our lefty from Elon, was outstanding, and Jeremy Gould from Duke made a game-saving catch in the 9th with two men on to help preserve the victory. With men on 1st and 2nd and one out, he ran a ball down in the right-centerfield gap, and then almost doubled the guy off first! A pop-up to 3B ended the game.

Alex Hassan made his "closing" debut last night. Great to see him back on the mound after an oblique injury, late in the season at Duke, sidelined him for awhile.

Going to mix up the line-up tonight. Steve Selsky (Arizona) and Riccio Torrez (ASU) will make their debuts for the Firebirds tonight. Steve came over from YD a couple of days ago, and Riccio just arrived from Omaha. Excited to see these two play!

Hopefully we will get this one in tonight.

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Quarter Mark...

Last night marked our eleventh game of the season. We are already 1/4 of the way through, and our record stands at 5-6. Riccio Torrez arrives today from ASU and Omaha. Gets in Providence, RI at 4:00 PM.

Lost a tough one last night to YD. They really pitched. Gary Brown had two hits for us, and that was all we could muster. We are currently in second place, tied with YD, four games behind Chatham.

Laundry is going, headed to get coffee at Jo Mama's, and then back to work on the field at 10:00. Home tonight against Bourne. Rob Rasmussen from UCLA makes his second start. Game time is 7:00.

Look like it is going to be a beautiful day on the Cape. Hopefully we will get a good crowd.

And oh yeah...Coach DeBlasi and family are in Orleans for the weekend. Enjoyed lunch with them yesterday at the Wequassett Hotel. Always great to see "Coach 20."

Rain, rain, and more rain...

Postponed last night at Wareham. Probably postponed tonight at home against Bourne. Off day tomorrow. Worst weather I have seen in my time up here. Absolutely miserable.

We did have a good dinner at a new restaurant in Orleans last night - The Lost Dog. Great pizza and watched the College World Series.

Looks like we are going to have a long stretch of games...

Rain...The Squire...and the College World Series.

Had our first rain-out last night. Absolutely started pouring around 2:30, and the field looked like Lake Eldredge when we had to make a decision. Game is rescheduled for July 13 vs. Bourne.

I met with the pitching staff for about 15 minutes. Gave them a little bit of background on me. Hopefully they will understand the method behind the madness a little bit better.

Coaching staff had dinner together last night at The Squire in Chatham. Came back and watched Texas' dramatic win against ASU in the CWS!

Jorge Reyes (RHP - Oregon State)), a 17th round draft pick of the Padres, and Matt Packer (LHP - Virginia), a 32nd round draft pick of the Indians, arrive Monday. Gary Brown, Cal State Fullerton, will be here Wednesday. With ASU getting eliminated last night, Riccio Torrez should be here within a week. Roster is starting to come together...

Coach Beck pushed our rotation back, so Jimmy Reyes will pitch today against Brewster. Game time is 5:00.

Catching up...

Internet was down when I arrived in Orleans, and with the amount of work we had to do to get the field ready for our first game, blogging was last of my priorities. Internet is up, things are going smoothly, and had a moment to jot down some thoughts about the first ten days up here.

After dumping our first four games, we have won our last two. Extremely competitive group, quality kids, and great to be around. Same can be said of our coaching staff. Benny Craig, Jason Brown, Chris Beck, and Mike Marron are outstanding coaches and work their rear ends off!

On our first off day, two days ago, I had a chance to go to Fenway Park as a guest of the Red Sox and Theo Epstein, Boston's GM. On the field for batting practice, photo op with Peter Gammons, spoke with Chris Coghlan of the Marlins (former Chatham A - 2005), and then watched the game with the Boston brass in their suite. An incredible experience! Could not get over how young both Theo and his assistant GM were - 35 years old!!

Weather has been cold and damp since we've arrived. Bought two heaters yesterday, and they blew out the power in our cottage last night! No ESPN this morning was killing me!!

Game tonight at home against Bourne. Jimmy Reyes, lefty from Elon, is going tonight.

Gotta go - laundry to do and then over to wrap up our first week of Firebird Clinic at the little league field across town, which is about a two minute drive. And oh yeah...got the foul line painter fixed today...the glamorous responsibilities of the manager.

Hope everyone is well.

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Supervisors of Scouting...thanks!

Just wanted to take time out to thank our East and West Coast Supervisors of Scouting. Joel Paige, Managing Director of the PGA National Golf Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, and Doug Fritz, a partner in the computer software company Productive Access, Inc. in Yorba Linda, CA, do a tremendous job of scouting the country for top talent for the Firebirds! Both are two of my very best friends. Thanks dudes!

Opening Day Starter Named...

With the season opening for us next Friday at YD, Coach Beck and I have named Jimmy Reyes as our opening day starter. Jimmy had an excellent year at Elon, turned down an opportunity to join Team USA, and has decided to join Orleans for the summer. To read more on this fine lefty from Miami, see the link below.

http://www.elonphoenix.com/news.aspx?sid=bb&nid=6367

Super Regionals, roster, and the Ho!

It looks like the Firebirds are going to be ok, as far as our roster is concerned, heading into the first game at YD next Friday. We are going to add a temporary outfielder this morning, as Gary Brown (Cal State Fullerton) and Matt Newman (Arizona State) will be competing in Super Regionals this weekend. Matt is also a Team USA invitee.

It also looks like we should have thirteen pitchers available for game #1.

Our first workout is a week from today, tentatively scheduled for 7 PM. It will last approximately 90 minutes.

Looking forward to my first dinner in Orleans at the Land - Ho! Fish and chips are an eight year tradition.

Ten days to opening day...

No news is good news...

It has been a pretty quiet weekend as far as the Firebirds go. As the season nears, I have learned that no news is good news this time of year.

Regionals will be wrapping up in the next couple of days. There have been some great games already. Austin Wood's performance yesterday against BC ranks up there as one of the best pitching performances I have ever heard of! Check out their box score from yesterday for some good laughs. Pitchers going 13 innings and guys getting 12 at bats!!

Will be interesting to see who advances to the super-regionals.

Lakers- Orlando will be interesting as well. Lakers in 6!!

Stay close to the phone...

Had another interesting conversation this morning...

Andrew Checketts, the highly respected pitching coach at the University of Oregon, is trying to place one of his pitchers. He originally was going to shut the kid down for the summer. Thought he was going to log over 100 innings. That didn't happen, and this highly competitive kid wants to pitch. One problem...he needs to be back for summer school at the end of July, so we probably won't see him in Orleans this summer. He is, however, committed to Orleans in 2010.

As I said earlier, this is a crazy time roster-wise. With Team USA, regionals, summer school, and kids getting shut down, nobody managing on the Cape can afford to miss a phone call!

And by the way...great win for the Lakers last night!

Breathing a little easier...

Kind of amazing how things seem to work out. Received a call from Bobby Moranda, the Head Coach at Western Carolina, this afternoon. To make a long story short, he is sending us Daniel Ottone, who closed for them, on a temporary contract.

We are in real jeopardy of losing Xavier Esquivel (LMU), and Alex Hassan (Duke) to the draft. Both are closers for their respective universities. X had a great summer in the Northwoods League last summer, and Hassan had a huge year for the Blue Devils this spring and played in Orleans in 2008.

Will be interesting to see what happens...

Two hours until Lakers-Nuggets tip-off!

The draft, DII CWS, and the Lakers...

With the draft right around the corner, it should be an interesting time for the Firebirds. We have some juniors under contract, and draft day could definitely impact our pitching staff. It's a chance you take when you sign them.

On a side note, wanted to congratulate Lynn University and Head Coach Rudy Garbalosa for advancing to the DII CWS. They won their first two games in Carey, NC. They are playing tonight in a winner's bracket game at 7 PM. Head Coach Dan O'Brien and his UC San Diego club also advanced to the DII CWS. Dan and Rudy are two of the really good guys in college baseball.

And speaking of tonight's games, Lakers have a big one in game #5 of the Western Conference Finals. I love the Lakers...

Two weeks and counting...

Just started the blog thing...

Two weeks from today I arrive in Orleans. Looking forward to another summer on the Cape. Wanted to wish all those players participating in regionals this weekend continued success.