Ambled by Pelham Street, of all places, to catch a handful of innings yesterday between Central Catholic and Methuen.
Impressive effort by the Raiders, who moved to 2-0 with an 11-4 win. A couple of observations:
Central clubbed the baseball, and the Raiders did their damage with a couple of top guns, infielders Michael Romano and Marc Crowley out of the lineup with injuries.
That’s 28 runs in two games without two big bats.
Nice work by Zak Adamopoulos, as the junior righty makes his bid for a top spot in a deep Raider rotation. He’s not overpowering, doesn’t have the unhittable second pitch, but Adamopoulos top trait is his competitiveness. This is where banging every day in the winter with Adrian Gonzalez and digging it out in the trenches as a two-way starter every fall pays dividends. When things got tough yesterday, Adamopoulos ratcheted things up. He left Rangers hanging on the basepaths all day like bats from the ceiling of Carlsbad Caverns.
The difference yesterday, Central hit with runners on, and Methuen didn’t.
Spinning around the region, surprising Sanborn Regional with coach Billy Chapman is off to a nice 2-1 start. You’d have to say Salem’s 1-2 is a disappointment, as is Pelham’s 0-3.
But of course, it’s very early.
Finally, let’s make a quick note about the deplorable field conditions this fall.
At Methuen, where the town ignored the high school diamond until only recently, the Rangers don’t have a home field yet, hence the trip to the senior league diamond at Pelham street.
Coach Dave Fabrizio had parents, players, friends and fellow teachers working in the new clay he acquired about two weeks ago.
At least the Rangers will at some point have a home field.
The same may or may not be said for Lawrence, where the Lancers lost their “home” opener to Lowell, 9-6, yesterday.
The game was played on an unkempt South lawrence East field. As one fan at the game noted, “no infielder was sitting on ground balls or staying down. You just had no idea what the ball was going to do.”
How long does this have to continue in Lawrence? The new high school field lies dormant, with coach Brendan Neilon waiting for an OK to play from the city. Meanwhile, the crows get free reign on the diamond. They’re the only ones.
Lawrence was warned a few years ago. Get the artificial field turf everywhere. The city is notorious for not caring for its fields. Pick a diamond, any diamond. Why not go with the same field turf at the stadium? But no. There was no room in the $115 million budget for the kids, who again are the ones who pay.
Of course, we’ll have nothing to worry about in Lawrence when that new minor league stadium brought up by the administration years ago is built on the canal area. (Please note, this line is drenched with sarcasm.)
And finaly, we come to my home town, Haverhill, the home of the “Band-Aid on the stab wound” approach. The usually superb Haverhill Stadium infield is now soft and unreliable. And thanks to the city, which in its infinite wisdom, aerated the outfield right before the home opener with Swampscott, allowing for wild hops which had “extra bases” on the agenda for anyone lucky to hit it to the outfield. Balls were skipping past outfielders everywhere.
I’d like to than the mayor and his staff for shunning the kids in Haverhill once again. And you wonder why nobody is playing sports at HHS. The athletes are treated like third-class citizens, not by the teachers and coaches but by the folks who sign the checks.
Year after year, I’m amazed every time I walk into Lowell’s Alumni Field, you know the second-class baseball facility in that city. All the Lowell folks complain that the conditions aren’t good. On Alumni’s worst day, it looks like Fenway compared to the diamonds in Lawrence, Methuen and Haverhill.
