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Coming up this week on “RCN SportsTalk,” it’s our annual chat with members of the Blue Mountain League, along with a friendly reminder that you can check out our “BML Game of the Week” every Tuesday evening in July on RCN-TV.
Scheduled to appear on this week’s program are BML President Bob Varju, Vice-President Ted Plessl, Secretary/Treasurer/Media Relations Liaison Tim Fisher, along with new team managers Nate Kester (Northampton Giants) and Joey Troxell (Hellertown Royals).
In addition to taking a look at the first two-and-a-half months of this summer’s baseball action, there are a number of topics we will focus on. These include:
- The personal history of Giants’ Nate Kester–he started in the league in 2010, ironically with current VP Ted Plessl (who was then manager of the now defunct Bethlehem Hawks). He started his BML career as a senior in high school and played with that team through 2014. He then changed teams to Northampton after the Hawks folded, and struck up an amazing, close relationship with then Giants manager and longtime BML player Ed Wandler. Kester describes Ed as a “father” to him and offered him the managerial job this past year when Wandler had to retire due to health issues.
- “Change of Scheduling”
Over the last year, they have changed the way they compile the regular season schedules. It’s now based largely on avoiding traffic/congestion issues and also working around community ballparks’ priorities (the BML use to have first dibs, but now are sometimes second or third in priority for getting fields, so the BML now has to work around other leagues’ schedules).
- To that end, the BML now starts with a Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday plan, then adjustments are made and Saturdays are left open for rain/rescheduled games…or allowing for a family day if a team wants to avoid playing on that day–if possible. More scheduling issues and changes for this season will be discussed.
- They have added roster spots to allow for more players on each team, combined with a deadline that “freezes” the roster (which just occurred this past weekend) for the playoffs.
Regarding the almost annual issue of “losing daylight” for their championship series (which usually takes place in mid-August, when the sunset time moves in front of 8pm), a proposal is made every year to have the finals at Limeport Stadium (which has lights)…only to be rejected. We’ll learn more about this idea and discuss why this suggestion is NOT employed to avoid having games being called “on account of darkness.”
There’s many more issues we will discuss, along with some general thoughts on baseball overall, the top teams and players will be identified, and much more! If you like local baseball and want to learn more about the BML…tune in this Thursday at 7pm on RCN-TV, set your DVRs and/or watch the show through RCN On-Demand!
