It’s no easy task having three teams go as far as the Lynn Babe Ruth 13’s, 14’s and 15’s went this summer.
The 13’s and 14’s both reached their respective semifinals and lost by close margins. The 15’s went as far as Sunday’s state championship game at World Series Park and gave Braintree a battle in a 5-2 loss.
Lynn Babe Ruth has plenty to be proud about, and it’s success was no mistake.
It starts with president Jeff Earp, who makes it a point to find managers and coaches who share the same core values he holds when it comes to guiding a baseball team.
Over the years Earp has coached players who have seen success at other levels. He uses those success stories to let the current players know what’s at stake for those who play the game the right way.
Playing the game the right way isn’t taken lightly at Ben Bowzer Complex. When you wear “Lynn” on the front of your jersey, you’re representing a Babe Ruth organization with a successful track record and a city with a rich athletic history. Sometimes it’s tough to teach those core values to teenagers but managers Rich Avery (13’s), Paul Hartford (14’s) and Brian O’Connor (15’s) did a great job at it.
I watched all three teams play at least once and I was able to see it in the way they carried themselves. The 13’s brought a ton of energy to the diamond and battled until the final out before their season ended last Friday in a 3-0 defeat to Plymouth. The 14’s weren’t afraid to take risks. They were aggressive on the basepaths (per Hartford’s style of play) and fought to put opponents on their heels. The 15’s played a fun brand of baseball to cover. They didn’t boast an offense that knocked the cover off the ball (although Aaron O’Connor kept his team’s season alive with a game-tying solo home run in Sunday’s state final) but they played to their strengths. They manufactured runs with timely hitting, a few stolen bases and a few sacrifices. Pitching and defense took care of the rest. In the state semifinals, the 15’s turned five double-plays en route to a 5-0 win over Newton. When a team can execute that type of game plan, it speaks volumes to how well-coached it is.
Lynn Babe Ruth will be back in the thick of things next summer. But for now, the organization, its players and coaches, all have plenty to celebrate.
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How far can we expect the Red Sox to go when their ace isn’t his normal self? Initially, the general consensus was that Chris Sale’s April struggles were due to the fact that Christian Vazquez was catching him instead of Sandy Leon.
But what’s the excuse now?
The Red Sox brought Leon up from Triple-A Pawtcuket and Sale hasn’t been much better. You can’t blame Vazquez on that one. Sale has allowed five earned runs in each of his last three starts (and five home runs over that span), his pitch counts have been incredibly high far too early and he isn’t blowing the ball past hitters the way he used to. To borrow a phrase from Dennis Eckersley, “yuck.”
I’m not suggesting that none of this can be fixed. Even the best pitchers go through funks and work themselves out of them. But when your ace is 3-9 with a 4.27 ERA midway through the season, and you’re 10 games behind the first-place Yankees in the AL East, it’s a major cause for concern. If Sale doesn’t figure things out soon, the Red Sox will be home earlier than they anticipated.
