Washington D.C. McLean Raiders manager Eric Smith is ready for baseball.
After two weeks between the Raiders’ final game and the tournament, Smith is anxious to get his players back on the field.
The Washington franchise also encountered an unexpected hurdle during Sunday’s registration. Three players on Smith’s roster were en route to Johnstown, all of them expected to arrive this morning.
Those players’ photographs and signatures weren’t available for the official registration paperwork as is required by a longstanding national AAABA rule.
Washington registered 12 players who were present on Sunday afternoon and awaited a ruling by members of the national committee on the status of the three others.
“We had two weeks off, so some of my players went home,” said Smith, whose original 20-man roster already had lost five additional players during the two-week layoff. “They don’t have all the paperwork in, their picture and signature. They’ll be here (Monday) and we do have their birth certificates.”
The three Raiders who were traveling on Sunday included second baseman Daniel Lopez, who plays at Pitt, and pitchers Brett Williams and Jake Pruner.
“With two weeks in between the tournament and the end of the season, we had some players decide not to come,” Smith said. “I’ve lost three players in the past 24 hours (and five overall) because school starts soon.”
Registration issues aside, the Raiders brought plenty of talent to Johnstown.
Outfielder Chris Duffy (Central Florida) was a ninth-round pick in the major league draft, pitcher Dan Tillman (Florida Southern) has been clocked at 94 miles per hour, Tyler Sanders (New Orleans) is a closer, and infielder Wade Kirkland (Florida Southern) has a solid glove.
“A lot of these guys are up-and-comers,” Smith said. “They’re prospects if the continue going in the right direction.”
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Diamond gem: A dedication ceremony will be held prior to today’s noon game at the new Johnstown Middle School field in the West End.
Johnstown school board President Richard Unger said the approximately $100,000 in renovations included two new dugouts, a backstop, home plate and mound as well as a redone infield and outfield. There are bullpens and new fencing. Johnstown School District maintenance staff performed the work, keeping costs down, Unger said.
“We redid the whole field,” Unger said. “It is beautiful. Outstanding. For Johnstown High baseball, this has been a long time coming.”
The AAABA game will be the first baseball contest played on the field.
After the Trojans original field at Cochran was removed as part of the construction of the new high school nearly a decade ago, Johnstown played its home games at Roxbury Park and sometimes Point Stadium.
“This is a great field with minimal costs and no tax increase involved,” Unger said. “We did everything we could do to enhance the lives of our students and to our community.”
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Changing times: More than 40 years ago, regional play in Johnstown was a fairly regular occurrence.
Pittsburgh and Altoona played in a Johnstown regional nearly every year according to Bob Wolfe, the AAABA secretary/executive director.
“We used to have two-team regionals all over the place,” Wolfe said during Johnstown’s recent regional between New Orleans and Chicago Metro.
In 1962, John Austin, a member of the AAABA Tournament committee, played for Altoona in the regional at Johnstown against Pittsburgh.
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Health issues: New AAABA National President Len DiForte of Chicago could not attend this year’s tournament after undergoing heart surgery.
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