Local baseball season quickly coming to another premature end

By Ken Lipshez
New Britain Herald Press

The winds are blowing cooler, back-to-school sales are in full swing and the NFL exhibition season is, too, so it only makes sense that another summer of Rock Cats baseball is nearing an end.

Like every season since Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau graced our presence in 2003, the season will end prematurely.

The schedule was set up this season with the Rock Cats battling New Hampshire and Portland down the stretch, but the locals will be playing out the string for the fourth straight year. It would have made for some exciting pennant fever that central Connecticut sure could have used, but the Eastern League playoffs will be merely a postscript instead of headlines.

With August winding down, it's time to assess the future of the Rock Cats, on and off the field.

PIPELINE

Since the Twins have shown their reluctance to sign minor league veterans unless absolutely necessary, it's safe to assume that next year's Rock Cats will resemble this year's Fort Myers Miracle, the Twins' Class-A club in the Florida State League.

The Miracle's season has been a study in extremes. There were no miracles early on when a strong pitching staff couldn't offset a wretched offense that was shut out 16 times between opening day and July 11, They haven't been shut out since.

Entering play on Saturday, Fort Myers (61-63) had tied a franchise record of 12 straight wins and thrust itself in the FSL second-half sweepstakes after finishing 30-40 in the first half (FSL plays a split-season format with two separate pennant races).

One of the pillars of Fort Myers' offensive renaissance is left-handed hitting 2B/OF Brian Dinkelman. Dinkelman, in just his second pro season, batted a modest .283 with seven homers and 21 RBI in 67 games for the low-A Beloit Snappers (Midwest League). The 23-year-old hit Fort Myers running. After hitting .351 in July, he's at .298 with six homers in 49 games at the Twins' advanced Class A post.

Steven Tolleson, 23, was the second baseman before Dinkelman's arrival but is playing more shortstop now. Tolleson was having a mediocre campaign but hit .370 in July and is at .357 in August. He has spent the entire year in Fort Myers where he's hitting .290 with five homers, 29 RBI and 25 stolen bases.

OF/1B Erik Lis was so impressive in spring training that Rock Cats manager Riccardo Ingram tried to find a way to bring him here. Instead, Lis, who homered off Roger Clemens when the Rocket was prepping for his New York return, has been the Miracle's steadiest bat (.275-16-87).

Third baseman Danny Valencia (.284-3-15) has also provided a lift since advancing from Beloit. The University of Miami product hit .302 with 11 homers and 35 RBI in 66 games to earn the promotion.

Dustin Martin, who came over in the trade that sent Luis Castillo to the Mets and brought catcher Drew Butera to New Britain, is hitting .313 with three homers and nine RBI to establish himself as a solid contender for the Rock Cats outfield in '08.

On the mound, right-hander Jeff Manship was 7-1 with a 1.51 ERA at Beloit and is 7-3 with a 2.67 in Fort Myers. Manship, who attended Notre Dame out of San Antonio, was the Twins' 14th-round pick last year.

Zach Ward, who came to the Twins from Cincinnati for ex-Cat Kyle Lohse last year, has some remarkably diverse numbers. Ignore the 5-15 record. Note the 3.44 ERA, the 117 hits allowed in 123 innings and the 32-to-103 walks-to-strikeouts ratio.

OFF THE FIELD

There have been some ominous rumblings in the relationship between the Rock Cats and the city.

Virtually everybody in the EL agrees that New Britain's playing surface is the worst in the circuit. That will be addressed after the season. The city appropriated $150,000 to re-sod the field and improve the drainage, but is that enough in this day and age?

And even if it suffices, what New Britain Stadium needs is a professional groundskeeper, which is unlikely to ever happen at the city-owned facility. Bad hops and a rock-hard skin convince some visiting teams to eschew fielding practice.

I wonder how long the Twins will put up with it if the postseason patchwork doesn't solve the problems.

And then there's the parking situation.

Traffic snarls that congest South Main back to Ellis are a product of an ineffective system. Inefficiency in the ranks and poor planning are the reasons for a nightly bottleneck where cars enter the parking area.

Fans who figure they're leaving home in plenty of time to see the first pitch wind up waltzing in for the second or third inning. Naturally, they blame the Rock Cats and think twice about coming back to deal with such grief.

No more excuses! Turn the parking over to the Rock Cats, who subsequently would engage professionals to handle the task.