Brian Walton, writing for Scout.com, reports that six Muckdogs have made the NY-Penn League All Star roster.
They are:
Click the link above for details on each player's season and photos.
Last year, the Muckdogs had only three all stars.
The game will be played in Troy on Aug. 19.
A friend introduced me to the term "locavore" a couple of weeks ago. It stuck with me because being a bit of "locavore" was something my wife and I were already mostly doing without knowing there was a word for it or that it was a trend. The furthest thing from our mind was the environmental benefits. We just think locally produced bread, meat, milk and veggies taste better and last longer.
This week, McClatchy/Tribune news service has a story out on locavores. You can read it here.
Last month, Lenae Weichel embarked on an ambitious dietary experiment: to feed her family for a year with food produced within 100 miles of her Rockford, Ill., home.
Inspired by a Vancouver couple who wrote a book on their ‘‘100-mile diet,’’ she joined a community-supported agriculture program, visited her local farmers market and started growing fruits and vegetables in her backyard.
Weichel, 33, is an extreme example of a vibrant movement of ‘‘locavores,’’ or consumers who try to shorten the distance between their food and its origin, largely from a desire to eat fresher produce, support their local farmers and reduce the carbon pollution associated with transporting goods. Only a few set 100 miles as a strict limit; others might just seek produce from the Midwest. But eating locally grown food, an idea once limited to hard-core environmentalists, is gaining traction among mainstream consumers. Already the movement has inspired a slew of books, prompted restaurants to use local food as a selling point and established ‘‘locavore’’ as the Word of the Year for 2007, according to the Oxford American Dictionary.
So, if you're a locavore in Genesee County, where do you go for produce, milk, bread and meat? The Batavian would like to find out more about these businesses. What other locally produced goods and crafts do you prefer to buy from local merchants?
Another YouTube discovery this morning -- a two-part radio interview with Bill Kauffman. The primary theme of the interview is anti-war conservativism.
The interview was broadcast on July 22, 2008 on 1250 AM WTMA talk radio in Charleston, South Carolina.
Just found on YouTube, a video of the July 31 Weiner Dog race at Batavia Downs.
The Democrat & Chronicle profiles LeRoy resident and sculptor Adriana Slutzky.
Slutzky's work has been featured in museums and galleries of the region, but it sounds like the best place to see her work is in her and her husband Jack's wooded backyard along Oatka Creek.
This Dutch-American artist had always relied on her high energy level — a necessity for anyone building large-scale sculptures that weigh several hundred pounds. In the past four years, she and Jack created a four-acre sculpture garden around their home. Open to the public, it features more than 40 of her highly accomplished pieces.
Much of that art celebrates female vitality. After her Jan. 24 stroke, Slutzky feared losing her own resilience. She's often fatigued and her blood pressure rises sharply at times.
"It's not the same for me," she says. "I understand I'm walking on the edge."
Now 65, she brings that heightened sense of urgency to her most recent garden sculpture. Full Moon will feature 28 female figures circling around a pool of blue glass.
"Maybe we'll have a ceremony when it's finished," she says. "We'll invite our friends to have a beer and howl at the moon."
The Slutzkys began the garden as an unorthodox open-air showcase for her work. Their heavily wooded property slopes from Oatka Trail to the trout-filled Oatka Creek — an arcadian setting with sculptures atop flower beds and patios.
"I try to fit in the art so it's a natural extension of the environment," says Jack, 71, a painter and writer.
A Google search turns up this photo by C.G. Hubbell of Diversity sculpture in Maplewood Park. Rocwiki has an entry on The Seat of Forgetting and Remembering.
When we launched the Free Job postings, a couple of people suggested that we have a place for people to sell stuff.
Today, we're launching Buy, Sell, Trade -- free classified ads. Any person registered with The Batavian can post ads for free. The ads must be posted by private individuals, not businesses, but can be for any physical goods.
So you guys that requested this -- please post some items to get the ball rolling!
UPDATE: Ooops, forgot to enable permissions for logged in users to be able to post a classified. Done, now. You can post by clicking here.
Muckdog's manager Mark DeJohn gets a favorable write up from the Centre Daily Times, the newspaper that covers the State College Spikes.
What would the 2008 State College Spikes resemble if Curve Baseball LP decided to extend its Player Development Contract with the St. Louis Cardinals after 2006?
The answer to this question rests in Batavia, N.Y.
For starters, they would have the same manager. Mark DeJohn, whose fiery moments left lasting impressions in State College, manages the Cardinals’ New York-Penn League affiliate for a fourth straight year.
...
“I think it’s good to be young so you have some time to develop,” DeJohn said. “I prefer the high school guy over the college guy as long as the tools are the same. It gives us a chance to take them for four, possibly three, years that he would have been in college and kind of teach him our way of playing and how to play the game a little bit better than how they are taught in college.
“There are growing pains with it. We make mistakes like everybody else, but that’s what you are here for, to teach them and you have to learn from experience. I like the fact that they are young because then it tells me that you have a future with some of the guys.”
Speaking of player development, Philadelphia Magazine profiles Chase Utley and his wife Jen.
The Batavian's Philip Anselmo garnered two awards in 2007-08 New York State Associated Press Association writing contest.
He won a first place award for Business/Finance coverage and shared a third-place award in the Continuing Coverage category.
Prior to joining The Batavian, Philip was a staff writer with The Daily Messenger in Canandaigua, where he wrote his award-winning pieces.
The Daily News also made a fine showing in the contest.
The New York Daily News has published a complete list of awards.
Congratulations to all of the winners.
My wife and I are going to see one of the hottest teams in professional baseball at 4 p.m. -- the Batavia Muckdogs.
If you attend and want to say hello, I imagine I'll be the only fellow there wearing an old-school San Diego Padres ball cap (brown, with mission gold "SD").
Centre Daily Times, which covers the State College Spikes, has an article this morning about "brutally competitive" Pinckney Division of the NY-Penn league.
The six-team Pinckney Division, the largest in size and smallest in markets of the New York-Penn League’s three divisions, has turned brutally competitive.
Consistent Jamestown entered Saturday holding a tenuous lead.
Talented Batavia, which includes four players selected in the first five rounds of this year’s draft and five teenagers, trailed the Jammers by a game.
Two games behind Batavia rested Auburn which has won the division every year since 2002.
Two games behind Auburn stood Williamsport.
The Jammers (27-15), Muckdogs (26-16) and Doubledays (24-18) entered this weekend with the league’s best records.
It should be a great race to the wire. Jamestown, Batavia and Auburn all won yesterday.
Today's game is at 4:05 p.m. against Williamsport. Tickets are only $5 per person for general admiission.
UPDATE: Here's an article from the Auburn perspective.
Via Rochester Turning, we learn that the Powers campaign posted a video two days ago (it appears to be a professionally produced commercial, so might it show up on TV and not just YouTube?) accusing Jack Davis of bribery.
The following posts were the most viewed in July, based on our web tracking stats.
We launched our free employment listings during the middle part of the July.
I was just looking over our stats -- in just that short of a time, more than 1,000 people looked at the jobs page. That tells me, there is a local online audience looking for employement opportunities.
Click on the "jobs" tab above and follow the directions on how to post your free employment ad.
We can easily assume that Batavian readers are engaged, informed, energetic people; you don't want to miss your chance to make your next great hire at no cost.
A gallon of gas is $4. A ticket to the Muckdogs is only $5. Conclusion? Why waste a lot of money on gas when you could stick close to home for some inexpensive fun tonight at Dwyer and watch the NY-Penn league's hottest team.
Batavia smacked down the Spikes last night 12-7, to move the team's record to 26-16. The Muckdogs are a game behind Jamestown in the race for the Pinckney Division crown. The team also has the second best record in the entire NY-Penn league.
Tonight's game against lackluster State College is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Tomorrow's game against Williamsport is at 4:05 p.m.
Slate profiles Ronald Hermance Jr., CEO of Hudson City Bancorp. Hudson is based in Jersey, but Hermance is originally from Batavia.
Despite the proximity to Manhattan, Hermance and his 140-year-old bank have never been part of the fast-money Wall Street scene. And thanks to its geographic and cultural distance, this bridge-and-tunnel bank has thrived amid the mortgage debacle.
Hudson City in late July reported that second-quarter profits were up 52.3 percent. In the 2008 first half, mortgage originations rose 50 percent from 2007. And yet its balance sheet is pristine. "Only 328 out of 79,929 loans are nonperforming at the end of the second quarter," he said. (But who's counting?) Last Thursday, Hudson City sported a market capitalization of $9.46 billion, twice the size of the Blackstone Group.
...
Hudson City banks the old-fashioned way: It takes deposits and makes mortgages to people who buy homes in which they plan to live. And then it hangs on to them. No subprime, no securitization. Hudson City's bankers are steady daters in a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am era. "We don't have Wall Street bundle up the mortgages and sell them to someone in Norway," Hermance says. "We're going to live with those loans."
...
CNBC's motormouth James Cramer has dubbed Hermance a modern-day George Bailey. And while it has been a wonderful life of late for Hermance (last year he was paid a total of $8.45 million, and his shares in the bank are worth about $114 million, according to Hudson City's 2007 proxy), comparisons between the balding, mustachioed banker and Jimmy Stewart only go so far.
It's a fascinating story even if the world of high finance isn't your thing. Read the whole thing.
High oil prices are pushing refinery upgrades and expansion, which is good news to Batavia-based Graham Corp. Its revenue and profits are soaring, reports the Buffalo News.
Graham is coming off a fiscal year where profits and sales were the highest ever by a wide margin. The company’s stock, which traded for just over $10 in January 2007, now stands at $89.
And Graham’s order backlog and new order bookings are running at a record pace, prompting Lines to predict that the company’s growth spurt is far from over, with sales expected to rise by another 15 percent to 20 percent during the fiscal year that began in March. That would push revenues to around $100 million for the first time ever.
The article indicates that Graham is continuing to expand its work force, at home and aboard.
Future Redbirds takes a look at the progress of several Cardinal Prospects. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.
Here are what they say about a few of the Muckdogs. There's more coverage on the links above.
Pick #2, Supplemental First Round, #39 Overall - Lance Lynn
Lynn pitched 89.2 innings for Ole Miss this season already, so it is my guess (hope) that the Cardinals are going to get him 30-40 relatively easy innings at Batavia this season before starting him at Quad Cities next year. He has looked pretty dominant at Batavia so far, but there’s no need to rush him this year. He hasn’t walked anyone in his last three appearances (11 innings) and he’s only given up one extra base hit (a double) in his time at Batavia.
Pick #3, Second Round, #59 overall - Shane Peterson
Shane has certainly torn up Batavia in his first twenty-seven games (take a look at that BABIP, though). He played three years in college at Long Beach State and has shown that he can play at this level, so I’d like to see him challenged by a move up to Quad Cities. He has played all three outfield positions and a little bit of first base, but it seems to me that he profiles best in center field if he’s got the fielding chops to play there. His power numbers have never really fit for a corner outfielder or first base and that has continued at Batavia (.077 isolated power). He is, however, still only twenty years old, so he could still grow into more of a power stroke as he moves up the ladder.
Pick #5, Fourth Round, #125 overall - Scott Gorgen
Gorgen put up outstanding numbers at UC-Irvine and has continued with similar rates at Batavia. Like Lynn, Gorgen put in quite a few innings in college (115.2), so the Cardinals will probably not want to give him too many more innings this year. I would bet that if Gorgen was 6′2″ with the same numbers he would get a lot more hype than he has, but continued success at higher levels will be the only antidote to the size bias.
Pick #6, Fifth Round, #155 Overall - Jermaine Curtis
Jermaine is a third baseman with a similar offensive profile to Shane Peterson (with the exception, of course, that Curtis is a righty and Peterson is a lefty). He has hit well, but doesn’t seem to have the power to stay at third base (.123 ISO). It has been suggested that he may be converted to second base, where his bat would play a lot better. Of course, like Peterson he is still only twenty years old, so the power could still come.
Pick #20, Round Nineteen, #575 Overall - Xavier Scruggs
Xavier was a power hitting first baseman for UNLV, but he hasn’t yet lived up to his reputation in his first 95 at bats at Batavia. He’s got good size and had outstanding plate discipline in college, so it is a little disappointing that he has struggled so much.
Pick #43, Forty-second Round, #1265 Overall - Blakely Murphy
Blake has been called one of the great sleepers of the draft. Looking at his college numbers, he played four years at Western Carolina University, I can’t understand why he didn’t get more interest in the draft. He had a very solid junior year in college and then put up a line of .367/.495/.683 his senior year, hitting 16 homers in 221 at bats. He isn’t undersized (or oversized for a catcher) at 6′1″, 195 lbs, he’s got good patience at the plate and hits for good power. Maybe he’s a black hole on defense, but those numbers should play anywhere. He hasn’t quite put up the same numbers thus far at Batavia, but he has been solid.
Also covered (see links above):
Pick #15, Round Fourteen, #425 Overall - Charles Cutler
Pick #18, Round Seventeen, #515 Overall - Joshua Hester
Pick #23, Round Twenty-two, #665 Overall - Colt Sedbrook
Pick #25, Round Twenty-four, #725 Overall - Zachary Pitts
Pick #26, Round Twenty-five, #755 Overall - Jason Buursma
Pick #27, Round Twenty-six, #785 Overall - Christopher Swauger
Pick #28, Round Twenty-seven, #815 Overall - George Brown
Pick #39, Thirty-eighth Round, #1145 Overall - Daniel Richardson
My friend Matt Welch (who wrote a book about John McCain) takes a look McCain's speech trumpeting his support of the surge and suggesting Obama's lack of support disqualifies him for the highest office in the land.
What interests me here is McCain's classic trait of personalizing all policy debates. If you disagree with him, it must be because you are dishonorable, and placing politics ahead of country.
and ...
Second and more interestingly, at the time of the surge, there was zero political cost to McCain supporting the surge. He was running in a Republican primary, and not particularly well, so his ironclad support for troop escalation was largely seen by many Republican stalwarts (in a season where the only anti-war candidate was being treated like a leper) as one of the best things going for the guy, given his various transgressions on other counts.
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