Michael Dean Chadwick, Josh Hamilton's father-in-law, has been named as a special assistant by the Texas Rangers.
Chadwick is expected to travel with the team and be an accountability partner to Hamilton. When the Rangers acquired Hamilton four years ago, the club brought in Johnny Narron to be Hamilton's accountability partner. Narron has accepted a position as Milwaukee's hitting coach for the 2012 season.
The historians at the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources have posted a 1933 obituary of baseball pitcher Alphonse Martin, including his connection to North Carolina.
While stationed at Fort Reno on the northern end of Roanoke Island during the occupation of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Union soldiers often had free time. Martin, a native New Yorker, had played on a pre-war team called the Unions, one of 16 teams that competed regularly in the metropolitan New York area. Union soldiers brought baseball down South during the war, as it had originated in Maine as “town ball” and spread through New England.
Martin was known for a slow, curved pitch that was incredibly difficult for batters to hit, and he earned the name “Phoney Ball.” After the war, Martin returned to New York and pitched for the New York Mutuals and the Brooklyn Eckfords. Although Martin pitched the curve during the Civil War, Arthur “Candy” Cummings is credited with inventing the pitch in 1867, playing for the Brooklyn Excelsiors.
A plaque for Cummings at the Baseball Hall of Fame states “Inventor of the Curveball,” but Cummings admitted to baseball historian Alfred H. Spink that he felt Martin had first pitched a curve ball. Cummings reportedly said of other pitchers, “But none of those pitchers knew they had a curve, and I suppose it is fair to say I was the first to find out what a curve was and how it was done.”
The West Raleigh Baseball's Cal Ripken 10U and 12U teams got a big send-off on Wednesday evening as they prepared for the Cal Ripken World Series.
Alumni from the youth baseball organization turned out to help the Southeast Regional championship teams practice at the West Raleigh Exchange Club Park in advance of the 12U Cal Ripken World Series scheduled for Aug. 13-21 in Aberdeen, Md., and the 10U Cal Ripken World Series being played Aug. 13-20 in Winchester, Va.
USA Baseball's inaugural Women's Development Camp takes place this weekend at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary.
Details for that camp and camps in other sports, plus team tryouts, league registration, instruction and tournaments can be found in the Play! Recreational Sports Calendar below, an expanded version of the calendar that appears each Tuesday in the print edition Sports section.
The Southern Zone Age Group Swimming Championships, which start today at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary, are just one of the many recreational sports events you'll find listed below in the expanded version of the Play! recreational sports calendar.
Champions have been determined in the Raleigh Parks and Recreation Department’s eight spring baseball leagues, which ran from March through June and ended with league tournaments.
More than 1,000 players ages 9-14 participated, Tyler Bolton-Fuhrman reported. About 500 players competed in the Mustang League (ages 9-10), 370 in the Bronco League (ages 11-12) and 180 in the Pony League (ages 13-14).
Playing in its annual Wood Bat Tournament at Orange High School, the OHS baseball team led Smithfield-Selma 1-0 with two out in the bottom of the second inning Friday nigh when play was suspended due to severe rain and lightning in the area.
The Scholastic Summer League baseball game will resume this afternoon, with the winner advancing to play East Chapel Hill in the championship game at 7 p.m.
East Chapel Hill defeated Bunn, 6-4, in Game 1 of the tournament Friday.
Playing in the annual Wood Bat Tournament at Orange High School, Smithfield-Selma trailed 1-0 Friday night in stormy Hillsborough when play was suspended due to severe rain and lightning in the area.
Orange led Smithfield-Selma with two outs in the bottom of the second inning.
The Scholastic Summer League baseball game will resume this afternoon, with the winner advancing to play East Chapel Hill in the championship game at 7 p.m. The loser between OHS and SSS is scheduled to play Bunn at 5 p.m. in the tournament's consolation game.
Down 7-0 after two innings in Pittsboro, a deficit that ballooned to 14-5 by the top of the sixth, North Chatham came back Thursday night to win Game 1 of its American Legion playoff series with Clayton by a 16-15 score.
That puts North Chatham one up versus Clayton at 7 p.m. tonight for Game 2 of the best-of-three series. The game will be played at Smithfield-Selma High School.
Saturday, if necessary, Game 3 will be back at Northwood High School's Donald Horton Baseball Complex at 7 p.m.
Down 7-0 after one inning, a deficit which ballooned to 14-5 midway through the game, North Chatham came back Thursday night to win Game 1 of its American Legion playoff series with Clayton Post 71 by a 16-15 score.
That puts North Chatham one up versus Clayton at 7 p.m. tonight for Game 2 of the best-of-three series in the Area 1 West semifinals. The game will be played at Smithfield-Selma High School.
Saturday, if necessary, Game 3 will be back at Northwood High School's Donald Horton Baseball Complex at 7 p.m.
