State Tournament starts Friday

THE NORTH SHALL RISE AGAIN!!! 

I am not a native Virginian (only lived here since 2000) and know nothing at all about the history of which has been discussed herein.  Don't care and hadn't given any thought to which part of the state had better talent until this thread.  Further, I know nothing of schools from NoVA playing schools from other parts of the state that are much, much smaller in games that really matter (regional, state playoffs, etc.).  So, to be clear, I am not trying to take a position or stir the pot here.  But, I do have one interesting story to share that had me scratching my head.

I was at the regional playoff game between 3A defending state champs Loudoun Valley and undefeated Colonial Heights a couple of weeks ago.  Both teams had great seasons and garnered much attention, deservedly so. So...

I'm in a long line for the bathroom (more than you needed to know, but who cares) before the game.  Several parents and grandparents from CH were talking aloud about how tough of game it would be and "not sure we have a chance".  I said, "that is odd...CH is loaded with talent and is undefeated.  I'm more worried about LV.  They won it all last year but graduated 8 from that team."  Here is the response that I got:  "Well, that school has well over 2,000 kids.  It's nothing for them to restock their talent.  Not even sure we should be playing them."  May have been an isolated incident, but..WTF?... I couldn't believe what I was hearing and how misinformed they were. LV has 1200 or 1300 students and...well...was 3A (will be 4A next year) for a reason. Anyway, it was a bit of a surreal conversation. Just had me wondering whether there is a general assumption - not by HSBW posters, I'm sure - that every NoVA school is much, much bigger than it is.

Yeah...that was a pretty misinformed comment.  Obviously, those folks are not familiar with the new system.  Or perhaps, they were confusing LV with Loudoun County, which is a bigger school.

Regardless...according to the VHSL, upon realignment, there were 35 schools who had more than 2000 students in the state of Virginia.  Of those 35, 27 of them were from NOVA.

Further, in 6A, there is an ENTIRE CONFERENCE from Northern Virginia (Conference 4), in the "South".   In essence, a NOVA team could have represented the "South" in the Final Four.

None of this matters of course, but when the State's public and private wealth, infrastructure and population, are overwhelmingly centered in one general area...and, in this case in 6A, nearly two-thirds of the entire classification are from NOVA (ie, your odds of winning just went up!)...

Yet, there are some who don't feel like they get enough respect.  Seriously!!!!!

The reason I picked the date I picked is because it was about 8 - 10 years following the time Towny Townsend created youth travel ball in Hampton Roads and thereby making baseball a go to sport in the region.  He spawned a generation of players, Cuddyer, Wright, Zimmerman and the Upton's among others that have given Hampton Roads a name in the sport.  

In Chesapeake in particular baseball is very important because of him more than any other person.  The proof of that was that Sports Illustrated did a feature article on him shortly before his untimely death.  His creation is reflected in the posters here.  We really do luvbaseball here in Tidewater.  None of that detracts from NOVA in any way.  We root for our kids and aren't ashamed of it.  What fun would it have been to be Sparta without Athens to fight?

FWIW Comparing NOVA to Hampton Roads is like comparing New York to any other city.  It's population size, wealth and proximity to Washington all make it larger and more powerful and there really is no comparison.  My analogy is this:  would you rather have the largest Navel Base in the World or the Headquarters that runs it? 

No doubt if you have large enrollment, great coaches and a solid program you have a distinct advantage in the long run.

Yet FairfaxCountyHS (currently 2,724) has never been to a baseball state title game. It should be noted that the other NOVA big boys Lake Braddock, Hayfield and Robinson are 7-12 schools obviously boosting their enrollment.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...ock_Secondary_School

As I pointed out previously, 5A champ Stonebridge has beaten 6A champs James Madison the last two years in regular season.. So is it all about school size or the program? Never heard anyone over at Madison HS complain about having to take on the bigger schools here in NOVA in fact I think they look forward to it.

Their motto: Tradition Never Graduates

Coach Mark "Pudge" Gjormand  (click on vid to go to Utube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...ture=player_embedded

The reclassification makes all this moot now, but I have to admit I will miss the opportunity of seeing David take down Goliath.

Luv Baseball said,

The reason I picked the date I picked is because it was about 8 - 10 years following the time Towny Townsend created youth travel ball in Hampton Roads and thereby making baseball a go to sport in the region.  He spawned a generation of players, Cuddyer, Wright, Zimmerman and the Upton's among others that have given Hampton Roads a name in the sport.  

Mark Reynolds also. The run Townsend had with those kids was truly remarkable. One person who really cared supported by a great community does make a difference, surely a huge difference in this instance.

James Madison’s 2002 state title almost didn’t happen. Madison was rolling along against Great Bridge 3 – 0 I believe, when Madisons 3^rd baseman uncharacteristically threw a ball away, followed by a walk, bringing GB’s shortstop to the plate. No problem with All Met pitcher JJ Hollenbeck on the mound right? Wrong….the next pitch was the hardest hit ball I’ve ever seen a HS player hit, a laser over the left center field fence that went out so fast it sucked the breath out of everyone in Vienna.

I turned to the guy next to me and gasped “who the hell is that”?  He replied, “I’m not sure but somebody with the name Upton was the second pick in draft the other day. Indeed it was BJ’s younger brother Justin who crushed it.

Madison won it in the bottom of 7^th with a walk off and went on to an undefeated season.

For such a long standing great program you would think they would have more players at the highest level.They don’t…certainly nothing comparable to the Townsend group from the beach, (who does?).

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/hs/profile.asp?HS=1945

Nonetheless they are weaned on team baseball from an early age, 3 and 4 hitters get their bunts down, and college coaches love getting Madison kids for their attitude & work ethic even though only a few have the tools to play MLB.

Of course if you're on the receiving end of all their Ra Ra baloney, as both my son and I have been in our playing and coaching days for the last 50 years, you hate’em…and we most certainly do. 

A final note of interest: Of the 15 Virginia players currently active in the Major Leagues, 8 are from the Chesapeake –Va Beach area, Verlander from Richmond?...4 are from a NOVA school, 1 from Bristol and 1 from South Boston.

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/hs/state.asp?ST=VA

With 15 players Va. is tied for 7^th for states with players active in the majors. Not bad at all, with most of the credit going to the beach of course.

 http://www.thebaseballcube.com/hs/

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next several decades as I think it will be difficult to maintain those numbers even with the growth of NOVA. We shall see.

Some of those guys from Tidewater are starting to show the wear and tear so your point is taken.

About 5-6 years ago you could have started a pretty good team with Cuddyer, Melvin and Justin Upton in the OF and Reynolds, Wright and Zimmerman in the IF.  No pitching though.

Yeah for whatever reason not much pitching from that group then along comes Verlander a bit further up the road. Getting drafted is one thing but making it to the show followed by substantial careers …wow. The next generation is looking at a very high bar.

I was hoping to see a Chesapeake – Nova combined pitching win last night for UVA with Connor Jones and Jay Sborz (Great Bridge-Mclean) but it was not to be.

Somewhat contrasting pitching philosophies on display last night with each having had tremendous success. UVA was mostly Tom House NPA driven in the past. The UVA righties still appear to be striking the "equal and opposite" pose of glove hand high along wih snapping towels among other things.

Former pitching coach Derek Johnson turned his Vandy pitchers into beasts using training protocols that were entirely new years ago.... making use of weighted balls of ALL sizes and specialized med ball work to develop explosively rotational athletes. The super quick tempo, explosive efficiency and rotational violence you saw from Carson Fulmur last night is classic Paul Nyman-Ron Wolforth-Johnson stuff.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/...-drives-cubs-hurlers

Much of it available to the public now in Johnson’s new book.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete...ohnson/dp/0736079017

House of course has his own velocity enhancement program now, who doesn't? But Nyman was the first to really understand and develop methods that could jack the velocity and hitting power of an average athlete beginning several decades ago.

Sean Marshall is currently injured but should be mentioned when discussing MLB pitchers from VA; he attended Manchester HS in Chesterfield and then VCU.

Should have noticed that Baseball Cube missed Tyler Wilson. Especially since I watched him K Arod in a solid relief appearance against the Yanks a few Sundays back up at Camden yards.

The cube sometimes not current or correct especially when trying to track amateur level competition which most sites don't even attempt. They depend on fans in the know to update data, so give'em some help if you can.

Wow... the Hoos have somehow… made to the final again?  Sborz couldn’t locate a slider all night, yet somehow willed through it. He is really a starter in disguise of reliever, which allowed him to throw 4 innings in the bullpen before he was even brought in.

All hands on deck tomorrow night. Dodgers may not be happy but Sborz will likely be taking it again in the 9^th if the game is on the line.  

But I gotta tell’ya….nobody has slowed down the game of baseball more since Carlton Fisk... than UVA pitching coach Carl Kuhn and company. I mean coach…how many algorithms do you have to work through to call a damn pitch?

Anyhow it’s all on the line tomorrow night and it would be great for a Virginia (mostly beach area) team to take it all….provided y'all can stay up that late.

Call the------- pitch!!! 

Sborz won't pitch tonight.  No way those guys do that.

Some combination of Waddell, Kirby and then maybe they'll run through guy after guy until someone hopefully clicks.

In the end, the bats will have to step up.  They've scored 4 runs in 2 games and given that, they are fortunate to still be in it.  The pitching and defense have come through.  Time for the bats to do their part.

Midlo,

Yeah you’re probably right as I’m seeing his pitch count at 77 in four innings 19.25 per Inn. Had he been more efficient and not been throwing since the 3^rd or 4^th in the bullpen I wouldn’t have a problem with it in a one inning save situation. Depends on the pitcher of course….Sborz was up to 111 pitches in beating Maryland as a starter last year.

It’s not unprecedented in a championship game however. In 2001 Randy Johnson threw 104 pitches in game 6 for the win and then came back the next day and relieved Schilling throwing 17 more pitches getting the walk off WS win. Truly amazing.

Just goes to show how valuable running up pitch counts can be even in a losing cause. Vandy must be thinking....well at least we don’t have face that guy again.

Has O’Connor announced Sborz is out.? Even if he has already decided no go… I wouldn’t allow Vandy to exhale just yet.

PS

Yep Sborz out.

Sborz held the Commodores to three hits in four innings. Because of his lengthy outing, he will be unavailable to pitch in Game 3. Sitting next to O’Connor in the post-game news conference when he delivered the news that Sborz wouldn’t pitch again, Sborz pouted, but left T.D. Ameritrade Park smiling after getting Virginia out of another jam

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/...ae6ab94b5_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...dc056ad8a_story.html

“I didn’t want to get in the bottom of the dogpile and get hurt,” said closer Josh Sborz, the most outstanding player of the College World Series. “Everyone was trying to avoid the bottom. The last time we did it, someone got a bloody nose, but we dogpiled, no one got hurt and that was the best thing.

 

“Nobody gave them a chance,” O’Connor said. “Every step of the way, everybody was predicting somebody else to win.”

 

 

TG2....could not agree more!!!  Simply ridiculous how long their CWS games took.  It was amazing the position players could stay focused.  But hey....I guess it worked for them.  Would love to see the NCAA implement some of things MLB has done to speed up the game, it's working and nobody is complaining about it now.  The three final games were 3:31, 3:42 and 3:37 with relatively moderate offense and few pitching changes.  The Nats and Braves played an 11 inn game last night in 3:10.  

It’s not just UVA and coach Kuhn of course as many amateur teams are now using a wristband signaling system. Signal stealing paranoia is usually the justification but there are surely many more factors, some obvious, some not.  As most know it’s being used at every level down to LL now. A larger topic for another day…I’ll simply offer some contrarian viewpoints to the current trend for now…

Are we creating future Cy Youngs or Cy-Borgs? Every catcher equipped with an I-watch and head phones far off? 

Rice’s Graham Believes Educating Catchers To Call Game Works Better

http://baseballnews.com/old/fe...s/callingpitches.htm

A man with this many title rings can say whatever the hell he wants about

our sport. It is our responsibility to listen.

"When you call pitches ftom the dugout, you also have the potential problem of the other team stealing your signs. There are a number of issues to consider."

 "I always have the ability to call pitches from the bench. If I see a catcher floundering and needs help, I have the option of calling pitches. But I rarely do it because it is more beneficial if they learn form mistakes."

http://brentmayne.com/todays-t...atcher-call-pitches/

Today’s Tip: “11 Reasons to Let the Catcher Call Pitches”

1.) The pace of a game is disrupted when coaches call pitches. It takes WAY too long to relay the signal to the catcher, have him look at his wristband, and echo the information to the pitcher. Especially if you understand that pitchers are more effective when they work quickly and offensive teams hate to be rushed. Working quickly is a defensive weapon, get out of the way and use it.