The Alaska Baseball League @ Alaskan-Legacies.com

By STEVE KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer 

FORT MYERS, Fla. — If Abe Alvarez were anyone else, he might be entering training camp with a surly attitude and an angry chip on his shoulder the size of the Green Monster.

If Abe Alvarez were anyone else, he would be extremely jealous of young pitching prodigies Jonathan Papelbon and Jon Lester because, truth be told, on the food chain of Boston Red Sox prospects, Alvarez was above both of them not too long ago.

But that’s not Abe Alvarez’s style, even if the left-hander is virtually a forgotten man in camp, sliced from the team’s 40-man roster.

Alvarez’s personality actually mirrors the way he pitches.

He’s under control emotionally, featuring a laid-back, soft-spoken mentality off the field that manifests itself on the mound in a relatively soft-throwing arsenal of pitches. He needs pinpoint control to be successful.

A few years ago, Alvarez, the Sox’ second-round pick in the 2003 draft (Papelbon was selected in the fourth round that year), was on the cusp of major league life. The then rising star was plucked from Double A Portland to make a start for Boston on July 22, 2004, against Baltimore.

Now, though, Alvarez is struggling to put his Red Sox pitching career back together, trying to reopen some eyes after a difficult 2006 season.

Alvarez got off to a hot start with Pawtucket (5-0, 2.18), was battered in one three-plus-inning stint in Philadelphia on May 21 (5 hits, 4 runs, 2 home runs), then struggled badly after returning the PawSox (1-9, 7.58). He finished the season on the disabled list, the result of a broken bone in his right ankle from an off-field mishap, leading to surgery and the insertion of a plate and seven screws.

The Sox, needing room on their roster, trimmed Alvarez, who ultimately re-signed with Boston after receiving an invitation to training camp. Alvarez figured re-signing was his best option given the fact that he was coming off an injury and teams weren’t exactly heating up his agent’s phone lines with requests for a rehabbing pitcher with only nine days of big-league service time spread over three years.

So there was Alvarez yesterday, four days before the Sox’ first official pitchers-and-catchers workout of the spring, getting in some early work while getting his ankle back in shape.

“All that’s different from the last two years is that I’m off the roster,'’ said Alvarez evenly. “I still have to show that I can pitch and get people out, show that even if I’m not one of the top guys or in the mix of guys, that I can compete.'’

It’s not as if Alvarez is a grizzled veteran. He’s still only 24 years old, though because he has been on the fringe of the big leagues it might seem as if he must be a lot older.

“I pitched with a lot of these (younger guys in camp). I came up faster, but they’re catching up to me on the fast track. And now I have to get over the hump,'’ said Alvarez.

For the first month last year, it looked as if Alvarez was about to do just that. He was pitching very well in Pawtucket, but then his rhythm was broken by a string of rainouts. By the time he was called in from the bullpen to relieve Lenny DiNardo in Philadelphia, he hadn’t pitched in two weeks. He was rusty, and he got lit up, though he refused to use the layoff as an excuse.

After that outing, he was told he was being demoted after a three-day stay in the bigs. It was enough to send anyone’s head spinning, even a seemingly mellow, even-keel personality such as Alvarez. His later performances suggested a mental letdown leading to fat pitches in the strike zone for opposing hitters.

“Of course I was disappointed the way the season went. I had the injury, the numbers were awful. But I thought I was pitching better at the end and would end the season the way I started it,'’ said Alvarez.

“You have to try to put (the Philly start, the quick demotion) behind you, but as they say, the mental part is about 90 percent of the game,'’ said the 6-foot-2, 190-pounder, an International League All-Star in 2005 and an All-American at Long Beach State.

It was difficult for him to do, he admitted.

“You know you had a shot and you come back down and you’re thinking the wrong things,'’ he said. “That’s why you go out there and give up eight runs in three innings (as he did in a start against Columbus), because your head’s not in the game. I talked to (former big-league pitcher) Bob Tewksbury (about the mental aspects) and people can tell you things, but you are the one who has to make the adjustments.'’

Alvarez is approaching this year with a fresh outlook. His ankle still swells at times, so he won’t be able to run as much as the other pitchers, but Alvarez can throw off the mound and do the fielding drills, he says.

He says he has no animosity toward the pitchers who have passed him on the prospect-to-big-leaguer ladder. He’s also not about to try to throw the ball 100 miles an hour.

“I have to pitch the way I always have,'’ said Alvarez. “That’s what got me drafted and moved me up. I’m only 24. I’m not worried. I just have to get guys out.'’

Daily News Staff

Published: October 1, 2006
Last Modified: October 1, 2006 at 05:03 AM

Changes are afoot for the Mat-Su Miners and the Alaska Baseball League for next season.

The Miners hired a new manager, Jeff Pritchard, a volunteer assistant with the University of Santa Clara baseball team, general manager Pete Christopher said.

Pritchard replaces Matt Dorey, who guided the Miners to a 20-15 record, three games behind the league champion Peninsula Oilers.

Christopher said that Dorey, a volunteer assistant with Washington State, wanted to find a full-time coaching job. That led Christopher to fear that Dorey might not be available to coach, so Christopher went looking.

“I was worried about getting a phone call in April or March and him saying, ‘I’m not coming up,’ ” Christopher said.

Pritchard could not be reached this week.

In addition, several changes were made at a meeting of general managers two weeks ago, Christopher said.

In July, the ABL will bring back a five-day tournament designed to show off players for major league scouts. Two games a day will be played in Anchorage at Mulcahy Stadium, and one game a day will be played at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

Also, any ABL team that wants to play in the World Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan., can do so, Christopher said. Over the past two seasons, only the ABL’s regular-season champion advanced — and all ABL teams pooled money for travel expenses.

Before that, the ABL sent two teams to Wichita.

Christopher said ABL managers chaffed at the idea of giving money to another team.

“No one wanted to cough up five grand and not go,” he said.

So now any team with the means and will can play in Wichita.

General managers also voted to increase rosters from 22 players to 24 and to allow 25 players on the roster for teams going to Wichita. Teams traveling to the WBC World Series typically pick up top ABL players from other teams.

JANELLE STRAWSBURG

Staff Writer

Waking up at the first light of morning to head down to the baseball diamond is not how the average college student would choose to spend summer.  However these athletes are anything but average. With their dedication and hard work ethic, collegiate baseball players chose not to spend their summer lounging on the beach but instead head across the country, leaving family and friends, to compete in summer baseball leagues.

For three Pepperdine players, senior Luke Salas and juniors Donald Brown and Danny Worth, the summer was a culmination of growing experiences, hard work and memories with new teammates and new host families.

Brown spent his summer up in the cool of Alaska playing under the Alaska Baseball League for the Mat-su Miners.

“Alaska was awesome,” Brown said. “It was a great growing experience as both a player and person being out in the wilderness, experiencing a ton of adventure.”

Adventure would be a key word for Brown, who was transplanted from the beaches of Malibu to the rough country of Alaska with nothing but a baseball field and a lot of time to keep him company. The turning point for Brown, however, was the people he found himself surrounded by, whether it be on or off the field.

Brown stayed with the Whismans, a military family that includes a dad about to leave for his third trip to Iraq, an ex-military mom and six kids.

“For my roommate, Jon Hee, and I, they were more than accommodating,” Brown said.

The right fielder not only competed every night but also worked part time for the organization in field management.

The hard work paid off, as he was awarded All-Alaska League honors and named Co-Player of the Year.  For Brown, however, the real success of the summer was making quality relationships with his fellow teammates.

“The benefits of summer ball are you get to bond with a lot of guys that maybe you’ll never see again,” Brown said. “You share a special thing with your teammates, you see them day in, day out, good days, bad days.  It’s a special bond, you’ll always remember those guys.”

Pepperdine teammate Luke Salas, who spent two months of his summer in the blazing heat of McKinney, Texas, playing for the McKinney Marshals, shared a similar sentiment about the importance of host families and teammates in the summer ball experience. The first Pepperdine player to play in the Texas Collegiate League, Salas would strongly recommend it for future players.

“Summer ball is made or broken by the host family you have,” Salas said. “My host family this summer was great because they literally take you in and treat you like one of their own sons.” The highlight this summer came for Salas when his team won their entire league and the subsequent championship ring he is expecting in the mail.

“Playing in Texas was amazing,” he said.  “It is a league of good players and good schools.  You get to compete with players from Big Twelve and Midwest schools that you wouldn’t normally get to face being out on the West Coast.” The friendships he made with his teammates, however, will last even longer than the thrill of victory.

“That is the great part about summer ball,” he said.  “You get to go and meet guys from different parts of the country and you become lifelong friends. You connect, you trade shirts and hats, and throughout the years you’ll hear from them.”

For Wave shortstop Danny Worth, his host family is what made his summer in the Northwoods League playing for the Alexandria Beetles a summer he hopes to repeat next year.

“The Hammerbacks were the best host family you could ask for,” Worth said.  “They are pretty young, with three small boys that are awesome.

“As a family they came to 45 out of the 52 games I played this summer.  It felt great having the boys look up to me and always ask me baseball questions and getting to hang out with them all day before our games.”

Worth said every player should experience the Northwoods League “because of the fishing in the morning, baseball in the afternoon, staying up until three in the morning talking with my host parents, wrestling my host brothers every night and dominating them — it doesn’t get much better than that.”

Worth also appreciated the chance to improve on old skills and try out new ones.

“I got to pitch twice this summer,” he said.  “That was really cool since I don’t pitch at Pepperdine.  We were winning by a lot, and the coaches were messing around so I got to go in and pitch. I dominated with the knuckleball, no one could hit it.”

For some players the new experience of hitting with a wood versus an aluminum bat can be daunting.  Worth, however, wasn’t phased by the smaller sweet spot, and his numbers prove it, leading his team batting .344 for the summer.

“Hitting with a wood bat is a lot harder, but it really teaches you how to hit,” he said. “It is not nearly as forgiving as a metal bat, you have to hit it on the sweet spot every time to get results.”

The primary downfall of summer ball for the players is the never-ending barrage of game after game. Leagues play anywhere from 40-70 games in two months, similar to an entire amount’s worth of games during the regular collegiate season.

“It can get pretty tiring playing every day, but it does give you a taste of being in the majors,” Salas said.

However, in the grand scheme of the baseball season, summer ball is essential to the furthering of skills required to make it in the majors and to improve collegiate careers. Just ask Pepperdine baseball coach Steve Rodriguez (1990 Panners).

“Summer ball is a great mental challenge for our players to get through,” Rodriguez said.  “This game isn’t easy. No one ever said it was.”

And for the majority of collegiate players the positives of the experience outweigh the bad by far.

“We’re living the dream,” Brown said. “Playing baseball every day, someone putting you up in their home, and getting to see a great part of the country, it is a great opportunity.”

“I have seen several moose since being here, and my first was on the way back from the Anchorage airport,” Wietlispach said in an e-mail interview with the Northwest Herald.

Along with wildlife sightings, Wietlispach, a Crystal Lake Central graduate who will be a junior at Yale this fall, is seeing plenty of top-notch competition.

The wood-bat league is a haven for some of the nation’s top college players each summer.

“I have never played on such a talented team in my life, and we have prospects from some of the best baseball colleges in the country,” Wietlispach said.

As a pitcher for the Mat-Su Miners, located in Palmer, Alaska, which is northeast of Anchorage, Wietlispach has proved to be a superb fit.

He is 3-0 with a 0.36 ERA this season. In 25 innings, Wietlispach has 23 strikeouts and has allowed only nine hits.

Opposing batters are hitting .111 against him.

As a sophomore at Yale, he moved into a starting role and tied for the team lead in victories with a 4-1 record.

“I prefer starting games because I feel like I don’t have to hold anything back in terms of effort,” he said. “I have also experienced much more success as a starter, perhaps because I’m not afraid to throw a lot of pitches in an outing. … I would attribute my success last season to getting ahead of hitters early in the count, and then throwing a good pitch to strike them out or get them to ground out.”

So far, that same formula has worked in Alaska, which is synonymous with premier players.

The league has produced baseball superstars such as Barry Bonds, Randy Johnson and Mark McGwire and young talent including White Sox outfielder Brian Anderson, Angels pitcher Jered Weaver and Royals infielder Mark Teahen.

Last month, 14 former Miners players were selected in Major League Baseball’s first-year player draft.

“The main reason I wanted to play in this league is because of its great exposure to pro scouts,” Wietlispach said. “I am pitching on the same mounds that Jered Weaver and Randy Johnson pitched on.”

Off the field, there also is plenty to enjoy.

“Our field is set between mountain ranges, with snow-capped summits, and there is even a glacier right up the road,” Wietlispach said. “It is quite the place for fishing, hunting [and] hiking.”

But those activities come with a caution from locals.

“Some of my teammates have reported bear sightings when hiking,” he said. “We were advised by our host families to bring a high-caliber handgun when we go out fishing at night, just in case there is a confrontation with a bear or wolf.”

Carthage achievers: A trio of local athletes helped D-III Carthage’s women’s track team placed third this spring at the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin outdoor championships in Decatur.

Marian Central grad Justine Petras, a sophomore, placed fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the conference meet in 12:09.62.

Johnsburg grad Jamie Janik, a senior, finished fourth in the 400 hurdles (1:07.07), while McHenry grad Julie Rendino, a freshman, took fourth in pole vault (5-21/4) .

Kennesaw standout: Marian Central grad Dan Dale, a junior pitcher at D-I Kennesaw (Ga.) State, led the team in wins this season.

Dale (7-7) also led the team with 822/3 innings, 50 strikeouts, 13 starts and two complete games for the Owls (24-32), who were in their first D-I season.

– Barry Bottino is a sports copy editor for the Northwest Herald. He can be reached by calling (815) 526-4545, sending a fax to (815) 459-5640 or via e-mail at bbottino@nwherald.com.

Alaska Baseball League Review — July 14, 2005
Collegiate Baseball Digest

We check in on the Alaska Baseball League the day after a standing-room only crowd was on hand for the 100th Annual Midnight Sun Game to see the Goldpanners beat Strike Zone of Omaha, Neb. 3-1

The historical game began at 10:30 p.m. and was stopped at the half-inning closest to midnight for the singing of the Alaska’s Flag. The game was played in its entirety without artificial light thanks to the summer solstice. Plenty of baseball people were on hand as the Baseball Hall of Fame was in charge of pre-game ceremonies and Hall of Fame Red Sox pitcher Bobby Doerr threw out the ceremonial First Pitch at midnight.

Dewayne Hankins catches you up on all the other action in the Alaska Baseball League:

Athletes in Action Fire
The Fire dropped their third game in a row last night to the red-hot Kenai Peninsula Oilers after avoiding defeat in their first seven contests of the season. Shoddy defense has slowed the Fire down in the past few games but hasn’t stopped the Fire’s bats from a slight power surge as INF Luke MacLean (Minnesota) provided the team’s first home run of the season on Monday with a solo blast just inside the foul pole in the first inning. INF Josh Donaldson (Auburn) followed that with a three-run blast in the fifth inning of the same game. RHP Bailey Pratt (Birmingham Southern) leads the ABL with three victories.

Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks
Fairbanks RHP Matt Kasser (Washington) combined with Shannon Wirth (Mt. Hood CC) and Jared Joaquin (Lower Columbia College) for a two-hit shutout of the Strike Zone of Omaha, Neb. on Monday. The Goldpanners doubled up Omaha 6-3 in the 100th Annual Midnight Sun Game that ended early this morning and will go for the sweep tonight. 19-year-old RHP Matt Fitts (Long Beach State) has been baffling ABL hitters in two starts thus far going 2-0 with a 0.69 ERA. He has struck out 15 and allowed just one walk and six hits through 13 innings.

Anchorage Bucs
The storied history of the Anchorage Bucs begins another season, albeit somewhat slowly as the team is winless in two league games and 3-5 overall to start the season. The Bucs did have good news when two former players were selected in the 2005 MLB draft before the second round as RHP Wade Townsend went with the eighth overall pick to Tampa Bay and LHP Garett Olson went in the sandwich round (48th overall) to Baltimore. OF Jerin Harper (Pacific) leads the team with a .417 batting average, good for fourth in the ABL while OF Jason Matteucci (Santa Clara) is hitting at a .350 clip (10th in the ABL).

Anchorage Glacier Pilots
RHP Jeff Braun (Pierce College) has started the season with 10 scoreless innings over two outings including one start on the mound. He is 1-0 with two walks, six hits allowed and eight strikeouts. However, the rest of the Glacier Pilots pitching staff may be partly responsible for the team’s paltry 3-5 start (0-1 in league play) as they are last in the league in ERA at 5.01, a full one-and-a-half points behind the 5th-place Bucs (3.43). The Pilots’ bats are also off to a slow start as the team is last in the league in hitting with a .251 average as a team, 21 points behind the next team. Don’t blame RHP/OF Chris Jones (Texas A&M) though, whose .364 batting average is good for ninth in the ABL.

Kenai Peninsula Oilers
Three straight victories against the previously undefeated AIA Fire have made the Kenai Peninsula Oilers the hottest team in the ABL in the early going, the rest of the league hopes today’s off day will cool them down. The Oilers have gotten plenty of offense from having the top two hitters in the league, OF John McCarthy (Louisiana Lafayette) who’s hitting .429 with a league-leading four doubles and SS Nick Kleibert (Pepperdine) who’s hitting a blistering .536 with a league-leading 15 hits. Monday’s matchup saw the Oilers first long ball of the year as INF Jake Kauhelelio (Santa Rosa JC) hit a three-run homer in the second inning. Kauhelelio leads the ABL in runs scored and is third in the league with 13 hits.

Mat-Su Miners
As a team, the Miners lead the Alaska Baseball League with a .277 batting average and have the second-best team ERA at 2.02 which explains the teams 8-2 start in their first 10 games, they trail the Oilers by a half game in both the league and overall standings. OF Michael Taylor (Stanford) is off and running for the Mat-Su Miners with 11 stolen bases through the team’s first 10 games despite batting just .259 to start the season. INF Matt Bransfield (Notre Dame) has led the offense thus far with a .375 batting average, .542 slugging percentage and four doubles.

By RON WILMOT

Anchorage Daily News

Published: June 18, 2006
Last Modified: June 18, 2006 at 03:09 AM

A change of scenery can be good for the soul. It can also be good for one’s baseball game.

Mat-Su Miners right fielder Donald Brown struggled during the latter half of his sophomore season at Pepperdine University. After a promising start to the season in which he was one of the Waves’ top hitters, Brown’s bat went silent. He lost his starting job and split time with another player. Coaches lost confidence in him; he lost confidence in himself.

A person wouldn’t suspect any of this after watching Brown in his first three games with the Miners. He is hitting .600 (6 for 10) as of Friday and has an on-base percentage of .667.

“Struggling is part of baseball. Everyone struggles,” Brown said with a shrug. “It’s just baseball. Sometimes you feel like you can hit anything. Sometimes you couldn’t hit water if you fell out of a boat.”

Brown finished with a .276 average, two homers and 36 RBIs at Pepperdine, which lost to Missouri in the NCAA tournament regionals. His RBI total was fourth best on the team.

But Brown said coaches expected more, and during a 40-minute exit exam, his lack of production was discussed extensively.

Brown credits Miners coaches for his hot start. Coaches didn’t do anything to his swing, tweak his stance or do anything technical.

But they did help adjust his attitude.

They told him to forget his last at-bat and avoid dwelling on ground-outs and pop-ups.

“Sometimes it’s good to look at things from a different angle,” he said. “One coach will see something that another coach didn’t.”

What makes Brown’s sudden surge more remarkable is that he’s using a wood bat, which has a smaller sweet spot than the metal bats used in college. While many Alaska Baseball League players struggle to adjust to using a wood bat, Brown seems to prefer it.

Brown said he often takes batting practice during the collegiate season with a wood bat. That way, going to a wood-bat league such as the ABL is easier. Brown hopes to make a similarly smooth transition to the pros one day.

“You can hear and feel it when you get a hit with wood,” he said. Often times while using a metal bat a player can manage a hit with a poor swing.

Defense is one area of Brown’s game that has remained consistent. In 63 games at Pepperdine, including 53 starts, he didn’t commit an error. Thursday in a 3-1 win against the Southern California Running Birds, Brown made a running catch then fired a hard, accurate throw to get a runner at third. The throw was so hard and on the money that the runner, Nick Mahin, was tagged out easily by third baseman Cal Krenke.

Mahin got up dirty from his headfirst slide, shaking his head in disgust or disbelief as he walked slowly back to the dugout.

The play came in the sixth inning with Mat-Su clinging to a one-run lead.

“Big hits can start big rallies,” he said. “So I’m always working on (defense). Defense is absolutely a big part of what I do.”

Brown said he played quarterback for his high school football team in Camarillo, Calif. He also pitched, serving as the closer for his high school team as well as a summer league team. His fastball has been clocked at 89 mph.

Miners coach Matt Dorey said Brown’s strong arm will check other teams’ aggressiveness on the base paths.

Dorey also felt a new team was good for Brown. He is not feeling the pressure to produce and “just going out and playing baseball.”

“Sometimes, all you need is a change of scenery,” Brown said.

By Josh Niva
Anchorage Daily News

Todd Dennis doesn’t hit home runs, steal bases or throw strikes, but he may be the greatest utility man in Alaska Goldpanners history.

Dennis rarely misses an inning of baseball at Fairbanks’ Growden Memorial Park, where he has performed about every off-the-field duty imaginable. He started as a pint-sized independent contractor, chasing down foul balls and selling them back to the team for 70 cents apiece. He joined the Goldpanners payroll at 9, hawking hot dogs while walking the stands. Since, he’s stacked cases of beers, operated a baseball card shop, worked the scoreboard, launched the team’s Web site and ascended to his current title of assistant general manager.

Dennis might not be a player, but he credits his success to a coach — his longtime employer, mentor and father, Goldpanners general manager Don Dennis. For both Dennises, and thousands of others who play or follow the game, baseball is as much about family as it is sport.

“There’s stuff you don’t forget, like growing up a ballpark rat, hanging out with the diehards at the park,” Todd Dennis, 34, said about his time spent at Growden, “but the greatest joy of all is working with my dad and my family.”

Long before columnists dissected baseball’s fallible Bonds, poets pontificated about baseball’s familial bonds. It’s a game of parents and children, from the Ripkens, Griffeys, Boones and Bondses to generations of fans playing catch in the parking lot before a game. It’s a game of brothers, like the DiMaggios, Aarons, Alous and Drews. In the stands, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters discuss strategy and share a summer night over hot dogs and Cokes. Those scenes play out each summer at ballparks across the country and here at Alaska Baseball League ballparks.

Most ABL players even gain new families as locals open their homes as host parents. If you look at the folks running ABL concession stands, ticket booths and the front offices, you’ll often see faces with similar features. For a baseball player, success requires skill, confidence, quick hands and even luck. Success for ABL management comes from experience, hard work and a good home team: partners and children who are as much co-workers than fans.

Don Dennis is entering his 40th year with the Goldpanners. He wonders how long he would have lasted if his family — wife Ann and four children — hadn’t shared his passion for baseball and sacrificed many summer hours working with him.

“It’s hard to explain to someone how much support it really takes,” Dennis, 66, said. “With (amateur) baseball, you pretty much have to live and breathe this to make it all happen on the kind of budgets we have. Over the years, my entire family has participated in numerous ways, and they are the best help. They anticipate most things and always follow through. They are invaluable.”

Mat-Su Miners general manager Pete Christopher appreciates that comment. For four seasons Christopher has had a staff of three family members assist him in Miners management. Wife Denise is a marketing whiz and secretary on the board of directors. Son Keith, 15, mows the field while little brother Kevin, 11, runs the scoreboard and occasionally sings “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch.

“Without the support of your family in this business,” Denise said before her voice trailed off, “I couldn’t even imagine.”

Neither could Todd Dennis. Dennis also can’t imagine a summer without baseball or family, which now extends to his son Tom, the Goldpanners official photographer. Tom is 10.

• Daily News reporter Josh Niva can be reached at jniva@adn.com.

Palmer and Fairbanks players added to roster of Mat-Su Miners

By Jeremiah Bartz/ FrontiersmanPALMER - David Breck and Lance Wilson may not be permanent fixtures in the Mat-Su Miners lineup this season. But they went from walk-ons to starters in just about an hour.

Breck, a 2005 graduate of Palmer High School, and Wilson, a 2004 North Pole High School graduate, were named to the Mat-Su roster following an open tryout at Hermon Brothers Field on Friday.

The Miners, shorthanded as players continue to trickle into the Valley, featured the duo in their starting lineup in the season opener against Southern California on Saturday.

“Unfortunately for us, we just don’t have all of our players here,” Mat-Su head coach Matt Dorey said. “We’re in a unique position where we just need to find some bodies - find some players who can come in and be productive, and help us win the first few games.”

For the last several years Mat-Su has hosted the tryout in an effort to give local prospects a shot at playing for a team loaded with some of the top talent the world of collegiate baseball has to offer. The local products chosen in the past have seen action early as the Miners await the arrival of all the talent on the roster.

This season the Miners have several players who will miss the first few games as they are finishing up their collegiate seasons, or satisfying academic requirements.

Breck and Wilson were chosen from a handful of players who braved the windy conditions at Hermon Brothers during the try out. Another Palmer graduate, Zach Mierva, will be the team’s bullpen catcher for the first week of the season. Mierva, who recently finished his freshman campaign with the Army baseball squad, will return to West Point later this month. Mierva was also Mat-Su’s bullpen catcher for the first portion of last season.

Going into the try out, Dorey said the Mat-Su coaching staff was on the lookout for a corner outfielder and a middle infielder.

“Luckily we have a guy who can play left field, Lance, and a guy who can play in the infield, David, who can come in and be effective,” Dorey said. “They have the ability to make the routine play, and that’s all we’re going to ask of them.”

The players vying for a spot on the roster went through a series of basic drills, under the supervision of Dorey and Mat-Su pitching coach John Hendricks. The athletes shagged fly balls in the outfield, fielded grounds in the infield, turned double plays and took a few cracks in the batter’s

box.

“It takes a lot of courage for these guys to come here and try out,” Dorey said. “I really respect what they did. Some of these other guys were a little less talented, but still had the courage to come try out for one of the premiere teams in one of the premiere leagues in the country.”

While the coaching staff was curious to see what caliber of talent would venture out to Hermon Brothers for the try out, Breck and Wilson each said they were not exactly sure what it would entail.

“I really didn’t know what to expect,” Breck said. “I didn’t know how many people, what kind of players.”

Breck enjoyed a stellar career with the Palmer High baseball squad before earning a shot to play at the college level at Central Methodist University in Missouri. He spent most of his freshman campaign as the starting shortstop on the CMU junior varsity squad, and was the next middle infielder on the depth chart if there was an injury on the varsity team. Breck said he does not expect to be an everyday player for Mat-Su, but believes a summer with the Miners can greatly help his chances of moving into CMU’s starting lineup. Little things like fielding ground balls next to a Division I infielder, picking up hints from the other players, and getting the chance to be tutored by an all-star class of coaches convinced Breck that he should try out for the team.

He had considered playing in an adult baseball league, just to continue playing. Breck had played in the past with the local American Legion post, the Alaska Road Warriors, but he missed the cut-off on the age limitations by just four days.

Like Breck, Wilson had considered playing in an adult baseball league before he came out to try out for the Miners. A product of the Interior, Wilson had planned on trying out for the Alaska Goldpanners squad in Fairbanks on Saturday if the Miners try out wouldn’t have worked out. Wilson has family living in the Valley and decided to give Mat-Su a shot first.

Wilson just completed his freshman season at Lassen Community College in California. Before the try out even started, Mat-Su general manager Pete Christopher was impressed with Wilson’s credentials, calling Lassen, “a baseball factory.”

Wilson played second base and left field for the junior college squad. He was inserted into the starting lineup midway through the season.

Wilson said he didn’t really consider playing in any other summer wood bat leagues. Being from Alaska, he wanted to earn the chance to play in the ABL.

After Dorey and Hendricks broke the news that Breck and Wilson had made the team, Dorey called it an extended tryout for the college freshman.

“Play this weekend and show what we can do, and the rest of the season is a we’ll see thing,” Breck said.

Dorey said he wants to see that Breck and Wilson can contribute when needed, and fulfill the role as a practice player and reserve for the remainder of the season.

“If they’re not going to be the guys that are going to be playing a bunch for us, we extended them the opportunity to be with the team, work out and develop their skills with some of the best players in the country,” Dorey said.

Since both hail from Alaska, Breck and Wilson will not count toward the Miners’ roster limit. Normally, an ABL team is limited to just 22 college recruits.

Dorey said he also likes the idea of having Alaskans on the roster, for non-baseball reasons.

“This is my first year in Alaska, and just being here the first week I can see how much this community embraces the Mat-Su Miners,” Dorey said. “It’s important for me to have a little branch of this community in our clubhouse.”

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.

By TOM BALOG

Blake Gill’s once-promising baseball career is down to its last strike in a league of last resort.

A torn labrum in 2004 crippled the hopes of the former Manatee High all-state player and LSU standout, who is hanging onto his dream with the Joliet, Ill., Jackhammers of the Northern League.

Undrafted in 2005 and a year removed from college, Gill, 24, is taking the long road back — 15-hour bus rides, playing for chump change at an age when many once figured he would already be in the majors, or at least close.

Instead, a career highlighted by two College World Series appearances and an NCAA regional Most Outstanding Player award, is on a slippery slope.

Gill was twice a mid- to late-30th round draft pick. “Things, I guess, just didn’t work out my way,” Gill said in a telephone interview from Illinois recently. “I was bitter for a little while, once I realized I wasn’t going to get a shot right away. I guess the urge to play ball again just keeps me going.”

Gill is off to a slow start, hitting .167 (4-for-24) with one RBI and six strikeouts as an infielder for the Jackhammers, for whom he had played in only nine of the team’s first 18 games.

“I know the odds (of getting signed) probably aren’t good (for him anymore). They never are, of going all the way,” Gill said. “I’m just hoping to get more playing time and really show that I can play.”

Gill’s plight is stunning to his longtime mentor, Dwayne Strong, who helped Gill get this opportunity with the Jackhammers.

“It absolutely blows my mind,” said Strong, an assistant coach at Sarasota High, who coached Gill in American Legion ball. “We all thought he was a can’t-miss prospect. Look at the numbers he’s put up every year in high school and college. There’s no way I’d have thought he wouldn’t get drafted in a decent round.”

Nick Belmonte, a Tampa-based player consultant for the Jackhammers who signed Gill, said he is damaged goods in the minds of pro scouts.

“A lot of teams will shy away from anybody who has any kind of surgery,” Belmonte said. “That didn’t surprise me.”

Belmonte, better known as a longtime college baseball commentator for Sun Sports, said that Gill created uncertainty for scouts even before his injury.

“Blake has played so many positions, they think, here’s a guy that doesn’t have a clear-cut position,” said Belmonte, a former University of Florida player and minor-league manager.

Belmonte spelled out Gill’s two objectives in Joliet.

“A, is his arm healthy? And B, can he handle playing at this level?” Belmonte said. “Blake is going to use Joliet to prove that he is healthy. They’re going to watch him to see if he is.”

Gill’s future collapsed in fall 2004, when he was forced to have shoulder surgery to repair two tears in his labrum.

“It’s probably something that’s going to bother me for a long time,” Gill said. “Some days it’s good. Some days are bad. It’s starting to get used to all the action again. So it’s getting better slowly.

“It was just (years of) wear and tear. They had to shave down one of the bones in my shoulder. It was rubbing against the tendons,” Gill said. “You’re not supposed to pick up a ball, or throw 10 to 15 feet until five months. I was starting at third base four months later.

“I played 15 games (at third base) my senior year. My arm wasn’t able to handle it. So I ended up having to go to first base. I pretty much lost my chance of getting drafted after that.”

Dr. John Moor, a Sarasota sports orthopedic surgeon, said that Gill’s injury, from what he described, is not the most serious and would not prevent him from playing pro baseball. Especially because Gill is not a pitcher.

“It sounds like the proof (Gill already playing) is right there,” Moor said. “It sounds like typical internal impingement.”

At LSU, Gill was a four-year regular. Playing shortstop as a junior, Gill was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2004 NCAA regional, leading the school to its second straight College World Series berth.

He finished with a career batting average of .316 with 18 home runs and 170 RBI, 46 doubles and 10 triples playing 237 games.

The exposure he got as a two-time second team All-SEC selection should have catapulted him to a higher draft position. All it got him was a 37th-round pick by the Cleveland Indians in 2004. The Toronto Blue Jays had picked him in the 35th round in 2000.

“I guess you could say if I had it to do all over again, I probably would have signed (with Cleveland),” Gill said. “Of course, not knowing I was going to get injured and not be able to play the next year.

“I really liked playing at LSU, figured I wanted to come back one more year, give it another shot to go to the College World Series,” Gill said. “I made lot of good friends there. I just assumed I was going to get my shot to do it (in 2005).”

He will have to confront retirement if he is not signed in a year or two.

“It all depends how much I’m playing, where I’m playing,” Gill said. “I’m going to give it whatever I got. If something happens, great. If not, I guess I just have to wait and see whenever I feel the right time to move on is, and hang ‘em up.”

Gill is 12 credit hours short of a degree in sociology, which he plans to complete in the fall. He would like to run a recreational baseball facility.

“I’m not real sure yet. I’ll figure it out later, when I get done playing ball and see where it takes me.”