• UPDATE •
Baseball Camp Still On!
August 20, 2008 —You may have heard by now that Nick Gorneault was assigned to the Arkansas Travelers. Have no fear, however, matters are all neatly in hand. Terry Evans has graciously agreed to take over the role of Camp Director, should our high-flying outfielder be unavailable. Evans is another longtime Bees outfielder, and was a featured Player of the Month in 2009. If you haven’t turned in your registration and medical release forms yet, (and why haven’t you?!?), remember there is a $10 discount for early registration!
I went to last year’s camp last with my 8-year-old baseball pal, and everyone there had an absolute blast. Don’t just take my word for it. . .seeing is believing, right?
• • • • •
Photo Credit | Brent Asay (c) 2010 |
July 18, 2010 — Hey young ballplayers! Salt Lake Stingers/Bees ballplayer, Nick Gorneault, is offering an advanced baseball clinic at Spring Mobile Ballpark next month. Click on the flyer below to download a printable flyer and registration form.
A bit of background on our veteran outfielder. In 2005, Gorneault led the Salt Lake Stingers in most offensive categories, including home runs, runs batted in, runs, hits, and slugging percentage. He led the PCL in RBIs for much of the season, finishing the year with 0.293 BA, 108 RBI, 26HR, 179 H (36 for extra bases) and 268 TB.
Upon his return to the Salt Lake Bees this year, Gorneault was voted Team Captain after Ryan Budde was called up to the Angels. It is important to note, unlike football or hockey, in professional baseball, the choosing of a captain is left completely to the discretion of the team. Most baseball teams simply don’t have one. Thus, when the “C” gets sewn onto a player’s uniform, it is truly an emblem of honor and respect, as determined by a his professional peers. …Your friend in baseball.
July 18th, 2010
Dear Friend in Baseball:
Lou Gehrig, Kenichi Zenimura, Babe Ruth
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I’m writing to ask you a favor regarding our beloved national pastime. My good friend Kerry Yo Nakagawa has nominated Kenichi Zenimura (1900-1968) for the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Attached to this letter is a petition that must be delivered via hard-copy original—no emails, faxes or PDFs—in order to be counted. Also, would you print a few extras and pass them along to professional peers and personal friends?
As with so many aspects of our melting-pot history, American baseball has been shaped by immigrants and their immediate descendants. A glance at the roster of the upcoming All-Star Futures Game is but one proof of this influence.
Zenimura’s tireless efforts on both sides of the Pacific cleared the way for MLB athletes named Sasaki, Matsui, Nomo, Hasegawa, Okajima, Saito, Fukudome, Taguchi, Iguchi, Matsuzaka, Okajima, Shinjo and Iwamura. Not to mention the unique combination of an MLB manager named Wakamatsu and NPB manager named Valentine.
When Ted Williams was inaugurated into the Hall of Fame, he was gracious enough to endorse African-American ballplayers for Hall of Fame recognition:
“I’ve been a very lucky guy to have worn a baseball uniform, and I hope some day the names of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson in some way can be added as a symbol of the great Negro players who are not here only because they weren’t given a chance.” (1966)
Buck O’Neill, Kerry Yo Nakagawa
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More recently, Buck O’Neill offered the same opinion regarding our Nisei ballplayers:
“(Nisei baseball) is what America is all about. All men and women were created free and equal and (it) shows that when you make up your mind, you can be the best that you can be. Japanese Americans proved that they were the best that they could be.” (2001)
Help give Zenimura his proper place in baseball history by making sure the HOF Committee gets your endorsement no later than July 31, 2010.
Click here to print the petition
My heartfelt thanks for your support.
Anita Y. Tsuchiya — Writer, blogger, thinker
July 10th, 2010
August 03, 2009 — Looking back to April, our starting rotation appeared to be anchored with veteran free agents such as Brad Knox, Matt Palmer, Mike McDonald, Dan Denham. As a bonus, we had Anthony Ortega for a couple weeks, presumably until he could get into major-league shape.
Then Matt Palmer pitched himself into a starting slot for the Angels. Sean O’Sullivan arrived from Double-A Arkansas to fill out the starting rotation in Salt Lake, until he pitched his way to Los Angeles as well. The next pitcher called up to bolster our Triple-A rotation was Trevor Bell.
When the transaction-go-round starts spinning as fast as it has this season, it seems awfully quick to the trigger to select a ballplayer who’s only been at Triple-A for just one-and-a-half months. On the other hand, Bell has been as steady as they come, even when he hasn’t gotten the run support he deserves. So
Trevor Bell was selected by the Angels in the first round, 37th overall, a supplemental pick to compensate for the loss of free agent Troy Percival. His development from Rookie through Advanced-A was steady, albeit unspectacular, with ERA stats of 3.50, 4.14, 4.22, respectively. Bell made the Double-A roster out of spring training this year, and it seems as though something clicked. In 11 starts for Arkansas, he relinquished only 54 hits and just one homer in 68.2 IP for a 2.55 ERA.
Pitcher injuries among the Angels resulted in a mid-June spot start for O’Sullivan against San Francisco and subsequent promotion for Bell, who got his first Triple-A start against division-leading Colorado. And what a start it was; a two-hit, complete game shut-out. Since then, the 21-year-old has pitched like he’s been with us all season: 2.81 ERA, 52 H, 36 SO, 14 BB, 64.0 IP. Best of all has been his ability to go deep into the game, averaging 7.1 innings per start, with two 9-inning complete games. Bell doesn’t have a blazing fastball, and relies heavily on ground-ball outs. Mentally, he is one tough competitor. One of my favorite moments from this season was a five-pitch duel between Bell and major-league veteran Sal Fasano.
Much has been made of Bell’s off-season acting career, as well as his relation to the original Bozo the Clown. And while these are interesting media bytes, they aren’t nearly as intriguing as a couple of other extracurricular activities engaged in by the youngster from North Hollywood, CA.
At the start of the 2008 season, Bell joined Barry Zito’s “Strikeouts for Troops” campaign, in which he pledged to donate funds to the charity for every strikeout he made. Later that summer Bell was sent down to Single-A Cedar Rapids shortly after horrendous flooding had devastated the Kernels home city, along with several other Midwest cities along the Iowa and Cedar Rivers. During his short stay, Bell took a tour of the area and wrote a personal check for $2,500 towards rebuilding efforts.
What is noteworthy about these contributions is how uncommonly rare it is for low-level minor leaguers to be thinking of something other than their on-field performance. For yours truly, it’s yet another reason to cheer on our latest young gun…Your friend in baseball.
August 3rd, 2009
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