This is my yearly rant at the Division I softball and baseball coaches.
When will you folks get a clue when it comes to choosing all-league teams? I’ve been in the area for 10 years now, and nothing has changed. You folks adopt the same AYSO and Little League mentality every single season, and you have turned things into a joke. When will you folks understand that getting an all-league award of some sort shouldn’t be a given. Honestly, it’s not really an honor to get selected all-league anymore in any sport around here because you coaches can’t make any tough decisions and keep the numbers down.
You need to change the way you do all-league or just skip it entirely. Do you guys ever look at how many kids you honor year after year?
In baseball, a total of 70 athletes were honored. When you consider there were 12 teams and you start 10 players a game if you use a DH, that’s 58 percent of the players getting some sort of award. Ridiculous, ludicrous and idiotic are three words that come to mind. Make some tough decisions for crying out loud.
Baseball had an honorable mention at every position and then another honorable mention on top of that. Are you folks kidding me?
In a sense, softball was worse.
In the Sierra League, 50 players were recognized, and with six teams at 10 starters per team that equals 60. So that means that 83 percent of the starting players received either first team, second team or honorable mention.
In softball alone, four outfielders, five infielders, three, yeah that’s right three, catchers, three pitchers, a designated player and two utility players comprised the first team. One glaring mistake is that Jen Purcell of Carson was named as a pitcher when she should have been a first-team utility pick because she pitched, played first and played the outfield. Purcell would be the first to tell you she’s not a pitcher, and she’s going to UNR as a position player. She is one of the best hitters in Northern Nevada.
It’s this simple folks, three outfielders, four infielders, one catcher, two pitchers, one DP/DH and one utility player should comprise the teams which means 12 players for the first team and 12 players for the second team. I have a feeling that coaches just get to throw in names for honorable mention, and that really makes these teams more of a joke.
I saw a lot of softball this year, and trust me when I say this, I think it was a down year in terms of talent.
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D.J. Whittemore has submitted an application to become a candidate for the head coaching position at the University of Nevada.
It would be wise for the Wolf Pack to take a look at Whittemore, who has had tremendous season for eight years at Western Nevada College. WNC has made it to the World Series a couple of times under his guidance. One has to wonder, however, if his dad’s recent legal problems would make UNR shy away from him.
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Former Carson baseball and football star Colby Blueberg has been invited to play for the Peninsula Oilers in the Alaska League this summer. Blueberg was 1-0 with a 5.60 ERA for the Wolf Pack. He struck out 24 batters in 27 innings this year as a reliever.
Blueberg is scheduled to leave Reno on June 5, and thee Alaska League runs through the end of July.
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Gehrig Tucker, Chase Blueberg, Jace Zampirro and TJ Thomsen have been asked to play on the Tampa Bay Rays scout team, according to Jim Blueberg Jr, who is working as a scout for the New York Mets.
“It will help get them a lot of exposure this summer,” said Blueberg, who is preparing to go to New York for the draft.
Tucker, Zampiro and Chase Blueberg have also been invited to try out for the annual Area Code Games. The trio will work out on June 27 at Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton.