Commonwealth Games

The gold medal game was between the West and Central

In the bronze medal game, the North Defeated the East 8-5.

John Malbon was 3-3 with 4 rbi's including a 3-run homerun in the bronze medal game for the East.

A 3-run blast

Congratulations John!!! We are very proud of you. Good luck in your showcases this summer.

The WEST won (in what must be a huge disappointment to all those in the Beach)

Why would the beach care? If you are referring to the East Team, it's players are from other places besides the beach. Anyway, even though it would be great for any team to win the Commonwealth Games, the scouts are looking at individuals and not teams, so an individual could do very well and still be on a losing team there.

Does anyone have the rosters of the various teams?

Is the selection process as politicized in other areas as it is in northern Virginia? Without a doubt, the guys selected are fine players, but we've noticed that kids from the Shenandoah Valley, that are not seen by the northern Virginia coaches during the regular season, have little or no chance going down to tryouts as "unknowns". It apparently is very helpful to "know somebody" to increase your prospect of being selected. Some excellent ballplayers from the Valley haven't been given the time of day in recent years, which is a shame as it's perhaps the number one opportunity to be seen by practically every college in Virginia.

Just curious...........

hokieone,
It's probobly more political in the Easter Region than all the other regions.At one time there were about 150 players trying out, now there is about 60. The players have realized the people coaching this team have been picking there players over other players regardless of there ability or preformance at tryouts. They don't give the private school kids a fair look either. This must stop for the Eastern Region to have a chance of a good showing. In my opion they should have a non bias panel of highly regard baseball people (Nick Booth,Tony Guzzo and maybe some of the top scouts in the area) with no ties to any of the schools They can pick thre quarters of this team and let the coaches pick one quarter of the team.

Doc,

You are 100% correct.

Last year Coach Norbie Wilson left the tryouts when the Eastern District, Peninsula District, AA Schools and Private Schools were trying out. He came back to give his little speach "Do not call us we will call you if we are interested."

It did not make any difference to me. I still am going to play College ball next year.

Again, please know your stats before you start something negative. There was 1 player from FC, 2 from PA; none from Denbigh OR Ocean Lakes. The east had players from Western Branch, Great Bridge, Indian River, Tallwood, Bethel, Grafton, Cox, Granby, Deep Creek, Kellam, and the 2 schools above.

The weekend had some great baseball, and you shouldn't take away anything from the kids that played. The West team was terrific- they have some very talented hitters and they deserved the Gold last weekend. But all teams did well representing their respective areas.

We have this discussion every year. They probably apply to every part of the state:

1 - Two-thirds to three-quarters of the players on the teams are more or less no-brainer picks.

2 - Players from small schools and private schools who aren't in that above group have little or no chance of making a team because the selections are highly political.

There are more than a few cases of players who were cut from Commonwealth Games teams that were profile college players, far more so than guys who did get picked. You might not think it right, but that's the way it is and it's not going to change.

Get over it and move on.

Commonwealth Games are and always will be political and there is nothing to do about it..

Example: My son played as a rising junior, while at the games he hit over .500, HR, 2nd hit to top of fence, 1000% fielding percent. Lots of interest for him real quick after his weekend.

Next spring our team went 24-1, all seniors and juniors were being watched by all the schools around (d1-d3).. It was crazy.. anyway...Manager of our Comm Team was in our district, we beat them twice regular season, and eliminated them in post season, we also broke the total wins in one season record for our then district, guess whose team held the record we broke?. So Guess what.. NOT ONE player from our team made the Comm team that summer..

Angry for about a week until we went to Camden Yards where we saw dome coaches (D1)who said they were looking forward to seeing my son play at Comm Games, when we told them we weren't going and no one from our school team was either, they weren't happy to say the least, comments made about how they are tired of the best not always being there due to personal agendas of the coaches.

In further talk about summer schedule, we mentioned that we would be in the area of the games the same weekend though at another college showcase.. Guess what.. these two coaches as well as 3 others (all D1's) left Comm games and came to our game to see our players (three from our HS were at this showcase as well as many other high profile HS players, who didn't make the political cut). I will never forget how wonderful it was to see these coaches show up to see the boys play, they couldn't beleive how they left Comm games to see them.. Made their recruiting season..

So don't let all the Comm stuff bug you, the coaches go where the players they want to see are, at the games, down the street, where-ever.

My question is why the same coaches are back year after year after year after year? Why arent coaches from all over the state used on a rotating basis. This would help to reduce "politics" to some degree. This is for the kids and not some coaches ego. To be honest the coaching is a non-factor in these games but they act like they coach on a differnet level than other high school coaches.