BB: E8: Empire 8

[John McGraw]

From Wednesday...

Ithaca 6 New Paltz 3

-Bombers improve to 6-6 and open conference play this weekend at Stevens.

[JQV]

Thanks for the update John.

Also, someone recently pointed out to me that you are working for the NYSCBL.  Is that true?

[John McGraw]

The New York Collegiate Baseball League, yup.

http://nycbl.blogspot.com

This will be my third season as the league's media relations director and my fourth in the league overall.

It's hard to write about baseball though when there's four inches of snow on the ground. Good thing Ithaca is playing in New Jersey this weekend.

[JQV]

+k for that.  How do those teams draw?  I think those summer leagues are great.  Didn't Ithaca have a team for a while?  What happened there?

[John McGraw]

It really depends on the market. Some teams do really well, others, well not so much. The three biggest draws last year were all in some of the bigger markets - Watertown, Amsterdam and Elmira. Of course it doesn't hurt that those three also have decent sized stadiums. Watertown can hold around 3,000 (had 3,000+ last year for fireworks and it was insane), Elmira can fit around 2,000-3,000 in Dunn Field and Amsterdam's Shuttleworth Park holds around 2,000.

Though, some of the smaller markets in both the east and west are tougher draws. I won't name anyone but there's markets where they just have a hard time putting butts in seats. The addition of Niagara last year and Elmira the year before certainly helps put a couple larger cities in the league though.

Ithaca had a team once, the Ithaca Lakers. They were around from 1992 through 1999. Joe Brown coached the team every year and they won three league titles and never missed the playoffs. From what I can tell, the team played at Freeman Field and possibly at points had a split schedule with games at Hoy Field too but Internet archives aren't that extensive. There was another Ithaca team in the league in 2003, the Ithaca Classics, but they were gone after one year. Brad Lidge and Scott Sauerbeck both pitched for the Lakers too.

Personally, I'd love to see another team in Ithaca, whether it be at Ithaca or over at Cornell. Hoy Field was recently renovated with what appears to be field turf and looks wonderful and Freeman Field is Freeman Field. The only problems really I think would be attendance and lights. Not that anything in Ithaca during the summer would pull fans away, but neither park can hold a decent amount of fans and neither has lights. If you could guarantee 600-700/game at either field, I think that would be a start, but the lights factor is kind of a big deal now that 12 of 14 teams play under the lights.

Cortland had a team in the league as well, the Cortland Apples. They were around until the early part of this decade playing at Wallace Field and Beaudry Park.

[scuba16]

When I played the league was the NCBL(I played on the Rome Indians 2yrs and coached the Utica Chiefs) and we played at both Freeman (IC) and on Cornell's campus. When I coached, we played at IC exclusively. Never could figure out how they broke it up.
Joe Browns Lakers teams were good and he had a great plan of attack, he brought in more quality pitchers than anyone else. Alot of Mid-Major guys who wanted to compete and win. His guys wanted to play at the end of the summer when everyone else wanted to hit the beach for 3 weeks before going back to school!
Beaudry park in Cortland was a all dirt no grass (skin)infield and brutal. Dave Perno, the HC at University of Georgia presently coached the Cortland Apples for a bunch of years.

The best place to play in those days was Veterans Park in Little Falls and in Hornell.
They always had a good crowd and the fans were brutal, made for a great atmosphere!

[John McGraw]

Utica Chiefs, don't remember coming across them in my research. Obviously the Indians were around for a while but I don't remember the Chiefs. Was there a team in Syracuse then too or did they move to Utica?

[StarvinMarvin]

There was never an NYCBL franchise in Syracuse.  The Utica Chiefs played at Murnane Field in Utica where the Blue Sox (Florida Marlins) played in the NY-Penn League and the Rome Indians played at Rome Free Academy and then moved to Griffis Air Force Base in 1998.  There was only a year or two where both franchises existed simultaneously I believe.

[jdex]

    As John M. will counter .......yes, Syracuse did have a brief spin in the NCBL .........

    Dave Perno actually played 2b in Cortland for a couple of years as a Georgia undergrad before taking the Apples reins, then eventually getting the head coaching post  at Georgia. Got to know him quite well ...... truly a southern gentleman

[StarvinMarvin]

What team was it then?

[scuba16]

Utica Chiefs existed for 2 summers, 1997-1998. A guy wanted a team for his kid to play on(he had $) and the chiefs were formed. Myself and Carmen Carcone(former Cornell Assistant, Cortland Assistant, Dowling HC, U of Maryland assistant and now Marlins Scout) coached the team! The chiefs lasted until the guys kid got done playing college baseball.
Both teams, Rome Indians and UticaChiefs co-existed for those 2 years.
Perno was a great guy, played for his buddy Don Norris while he coached the Indians. Used to hang out with Perno in Cortland, year after I got done playing and I stayed taking summer classes. Class act.

[pudge27]

Utica Chiefs existed for 2 summers, 1997-1998. A guy wanted a team for his kid to play on(he had $) and the chiefs were formed. Myself and Carmen Carcone(former Cornell Assistant, Cortland Assistant, Dowling HC, U of Maryland assistant and now Marlins Scout) coached the team! The chiefs lasted until the guys kid got done playing college baseball.



Let's say hypothetically I was from Utica, would it take me more than 1 guess to figure out who sponsored that team?  Didn't think so....

[jdex]

Starvin, for some reason we think it was the Braves. John Mac could verify. Believe Joe Antonio -- then of Onondaga CC, had a hand (coach?). At onetime (80s, 90s) was quite close to league. Now a resident of Florida for 8-9 months and memories fade ....

Probably best "name" in Cortland organization was ss/p Clay Bellinger of Oneonta. Worked his way up and played with Yankees ...

[StarvinMarvin]

jdex, thank you for pointing that out as I was almost sure that there had never been a franchise out of Syracuse.  I'm curious to know where they played their home games?

[John McGraw]

Sorry about the delay in answering, I went away for a bit of a vacation to enjoy my first weekend without hockey since Christmas.

Anyways. Starting with Syracuse, I would imagine the team played at Griffin Stadium in Liverpool, MacArthur Stadium or at an area high school field. I'm really not sure. The league's first champions are listed as the Syracuse Chiefs (late '70s) and then USC-Upstate head coach Matt Fincher's bio mentions him as coaching the Syracuse Braves in 1990. A friend of mine confirmed this with a program from the era showing the NCBL as East: Little Falls, Syracuse, Utica-Rome, Schenectady; West: Cortland, Broome, Horseheads, Cohocton. As for how long the Syracuse team was around, who knows, same with the Chiefs in the late '70s.

As for the Chiefs in Utica, like I said, I'd never heard of them. Reading Carmen Carcone's old bio on the Orleans Cardinals page, it says he led the Utica Chiefs to a league-best 29-13 record in 1997. I'm gathering then in '97-'98, there were nine or ten NCBL teams - Geneva, Hornell, Schenectady, Ithaca, Cortland, Cohocton, Little Falls and Rome (Newark joined for '98). Though, looking at Newark's 98 schedule, I don't see Utica listed.

Any help is appreciated.