We've been told that by at least two Roanoke Valley establishments, Awful Arthur's at Towers and Buffalo Wild Wings at Tanglewood, that they will be carrying the Virginia-Pittsburgh football game on Saturday night.
If you know of any other sites, please let us know.
Thanks,
DD
With a 35-33 season in the books – their eighth straight year with a winning record – let’s wrap up a summer of Blog Fever with some postseason awards for the Pulaski Blue Jays.
Best hitter
Should I go with the Appalachian League player of the year, the first-round pick, the baby bull who made a run at the triple crown and hit some of the longest home runs Calfee Park has seen in recent years? Yes, I think so. There’s no choice but Travis Snider.
Best pitcher
Kyle Ginley pitched only 26 2/3 innings for Pulaski, leaving for Auburn with a 4.73 ERA. Those numbers don’t do justice to a right-hander who might have had the best arm on the Pulaski staff. If not for one awful outing – half of his 14 runs allowed came in a two-inning stint Aug. 6 against Danville – he’d have a 2.55 ERA.
Best entrance music
Jonathan Jaspe had the top dance number, “Latino” by the salsa group “Los Adolescentes.” Drew Taylor (Rammstein’s “Du Hast”) and Chris Emanuele (Disturbed’s “Stricken”) picked the most menacing songs. Paul Franko went with old favorite “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind, which is nearly a decade old but still punchy. (Josh Lex would qualify with Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” except he didn’t pick it himself.)
Salem hosts Kinston for the first game of the Southern Division championship series on Wednesday, Sept. 6.
The division series is best-of-three with the second and third (if needed) games in Kinston on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 7-8.
The Carolina League championship series is best-of-five, beginning with two games at the site of the Southern Division winner on Sat. and Sun. Sept. 9-10, then the final three (or two or one if needed) at the home of the Northern Division leader.
Frederick and Wilmington will be duking it out for the Northern Division championship. Wilmington won the first half. Frederick is leading Wilmington for the second half title and could clinch today.
Sadly, our derivative, six-part series, “Better Know a Blue Jay,” has reached its end. Like the Jays’ playoff chances. Let’s exit with a bang.
Drew Taylor
Position: Pitcher
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario
Acquired: Undrafted free agent, 2006
This season: 1-3, 4.38 ERA, 21 hits, 9 walks, 32 strikeouts in 24.2 innings, all in relief
Tapping on a laptop at his stall in the Pulaski clubhouse, left-hander Drew Taylor isn’t playing mp3’s or fiddling around on MySpace. He’s working on his application to medical school.
“Setting myself up just in case,” said Taylor, who received an undergraduate degree in biology and a doctorate in molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Michigan.
The plan is to gain admission for next fall and then defer to 2008. You can only defer for one year, he said, but that still will give him up to three seasons of baseball before he would have to choose a profession. “I figure after three years,” he said, “I’ll have a pretty good idea … if it’s going to pan out for me.”
Playing again without Appalachian League MVP Travis Snider, the Pulaski Blue Jays mustered just six hits Monday night at Bristol, kicking off their final series of the season with a 1-0 loss, despite strong pitching from Mike Barbara and Alan Stidfole.
Among the hitless was DH Baron Frost, announced earlier in the day as the league's offensive player of the week. Frost raised his batting average 66 points, taking over the team lead, with a 14-for-23 week that included 10 RBIs. Monday's 0-for-3 dropped him to .322, just behind Snider, who is out because of a sore tendon in his left wrist.
Pulaski (34-32) is playing out the string for two more games, and I'm in the mood to clear out my notebook. Stay tuned for the last two installments of our derivative, shortened-to-six-parts series, "Better Know a Blue Jay."
Raul Barron
Positions: Second base, third base, shortstop
Hometown: San Diego, Calif.
Acquired: Drafted in the 30th round, 2006
This season: .295 in 193 at-bats with 21 RBIs, 26 runs, 7 doubles, 21 walks and a .363 on-base percentage
No champagne yet. Myrtle Beach's 7-6 10th-inning win at Frederick Sunday afternoon means Salem cannot clinch the Southern Division title today.
With one week to go before Virginia's opening football game, one of the few position battles that is too close to call is taking place at place-kicker.
For two years, Chris Gould has been viewed as the heir apparent to all-time UVa scoring leader Connor Hughes, but Gould has had a surprisingly strong challenge from walk-on Noah Greenbaum.
Greenbaum, who is in his fourth year in the program, had a 41-yard field goal against Temple and also had a game-winning field goal in UVa's spring game. Greenbaum, a product of Richmond's Collegiate Schools, appeared twice in a 2003 game as a punting alternative to Tom Hagan.
Coach Al Groh already has said that Gould will handle kickoffs, previously the responsibility of Kurt Smith, now with the San Diego Chargers. Junior-college transfer Ryan Weigand probably would punt if Gould handled field goals and extra points; if Greenbaum wins that job, Gould might be the punter.
That doesn't rule out the possibility that Gould, younger brother of Chicago Bears place-kicker Robbie Gould, could handle kicking and punting duties if Groh doesn't like what he sees from Weigand.
The good news for Greenbaum is that he's received a scholarship, whether he wins the place-kicking job or not.
Pulaski Blue Jays right fielder Travis Snider might not win the Appalachian League triple crown, but he'll have a nice consolation prize: the player of the year award.
Snider, an 18-year-old picked in the first round of June's draft, was the lone Jay on the all-star team selected by coaches, media and front office personnel from throughout the league. He is sixth in the league with a .325 batting average, tied for first with 11 home runs and tied for second with 41 RBIs. His OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) is a league-high .979.
Snider has missed the past three games because of a sore wrist, as Ray Cox explains.
Danville Braves right-hander Jamie Richmond was voted pitcher of the year and Elizabethton's Ray Smith was manager of the year. The rest of the team:
C Nevin Ashley, Princeton Devil Rays
1B Brandon Buckman, Johnson City Cardinals
2B Ronald Ramirez, Greeneville Astros
3B Danny Valencia, Elizabethton Twins
SS Chase Fontaine, Danville Braves
IF Emmanuel Garcia, Kingsport Mets
OF Snider
OF Kieron Pope, Bluefield Orioles
OF Larry Williams, Danville Braves
OF Willie Cabrera, Danville Braves
DH Felipe Garcia, Burlington Indians
RHP Richmond
LHP Polin Trinidad, Greeneville Astros
RP Danny Hernandez, Elizabethton Twins
A week ago at Calfee Park, minutes after an extra-inning loss to Bluefield, Pulaski infielder Raul Barron considered his team’s position in the playoff chase.
That loss dropped the Jays three games behind Danville in the winner-take-all East Division of the Appalachian League, but as Barron pointed out, they had six games coming up against sub-.500 Greeneville. The first-place Braves had a three-game series at defending champion Elizabethton, which again leads the West Division.
It hasn’t helped so far. Greeneville beat the Jays for the third straight time Tuesday night in Pulaski, winning 3-2 after Nathan Starner allowed two runs in the ninth and Adam Rogers allowed one run in the 10th. Another scoreless, seven-inning stint by the combo of Kyle Walter (two innings) and Kyle Ginley (five innings) fell by the wayside.
At 31-29, the Jays are five games back with only eight remaining. They’ll need a miracle to overtake Danville and second-place Burlington, which is four games out.
To cheer you, here’s the fourth installment in what looks like it’ll be a six-part series, “Better Know a Blue Jay.”
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