Monthly Archives: August 2022

(Oxford) It wasn’t at the “Let’s go, Brandon” level but it was in the neighborhood.

The 49^th annual Oxford 250 ended, and the boos descended.

The subject of the OPS spectators’ attention was young Cole Butcher who had just won the Oxford 250 on Sunday night.

As one of the regulars on the OPS track told me, “The winner should be proud of winning but not of how he won it.”

Most of the unhappiness was centered around an incident with eight laps left. 

Crowd favorite, and former 250 winner, Johnny Clark had the lead with Cole Butcher close behind.  Johnny came up on a lapped car driven by Jimmy Hebert and slowed down to avoid hitting Jimmy. 

Cole did not slow down and got into the back of Johnny’s car enough to start him spinning toward the infield.  With Johnny suddenly out of control, Cole, Gabe Brown, and Eddie MacDonald went past him.

Johnny settled back to 4^th and that was where he finished.

Johnny took out his frustration on Cole after the race.  Cole parked on Victory Lane, but Johnny drove into Cole’s car and moved him off Victory Lane.

Things didn’t progress to the next level but there were plenty of angry words tossed around.

Interviewed afterwards Cole said, “I had nowhere to go.  I didn’t want that to happen, that’s not how I race.”

Cole, from Hantsport, Nova Scotia, has raced multiple times at Oxford.  It will be interesting to see how his next visit goes.

That ending “stuff” spoiled what was a great night of racing.  There was a great crowd and plenty of action to get excited about.

There were nineteen cautions and what is more exciting than a restart?

How about a caution with only two laps left??

That’s what we had last night.  That final restart gave Gabe Brown and Eddie MacDonald a chance to move by Cole Butcher, but they couldn’t do it.

“I knew that we didn’t have anything for the lead,” explained Eddie MacDonald (second) afterwards.  “That 53 was fast.  Whoever had the outside was going to end up third.”

“I was sideways the whole time around,” recalled Gabe Brown (third).  “I just had to get to the bottom as soon as I could.”

While the two challengers struggled, Cole had what was needed for the victory.

The beauty of the longer race was that drivers had the time to recover from early problems.  Eddie MacDonald pitted early because of a flat tire while Gabe Brown went into position-losing spins twice in the first twenty laps.

Both drivers rallied to get back on the lead lap and went from there to top three finishes.

Despite all the cautions and collisions there were no medical situations. 

There were several damaged cars that were brought back to life thanks to some great pit-crew work.

Max Cookson was the 19-year-old in the field.  Max said that his crew was “unbelievable” and “it was awesome to be out there in such a big race.”  Max took the lead on Lap 81.

The restarts are treacherous for the leader because all of their competition is suddenly close by.

However, when there aren’t restarts the leader must deal with lapped cars.  Where is the lapped car supposed to go?  On a track as slick as OPS has been, moving up the track is a slide waiting to happen.

In the Clark/Butcher collision on Lap 242, the lap car was on the bottom.  There was room for Johnny Clark to go around the lapped car, but he closed so fast on the lapped car (which was going slower than he had expected) that he had to slow up.  Cole Butcher wasn’t ready for the slow down and went into the Clark car full speed causing it to spin.

There was plenty of sunshine, but the shade was welcomed as the race got underway. 

It was good to see so many spectators at OPS.  In most of the regular weekly races there often seem to be more folks in the pit grandstand than across the way. 

Thanks to the Mayberry’s for allowing me to check out the racing action.

(Portland) You want hot?

That was Hadlock Field Sunday afternoon during the end-of-series Eastern League game between Portland and Erie.

The temperatures were in the 90’s and there were plenty of very warm empty metal seats.

The Sea Dogs dropped the game, 6-4, as their relief pitching betrayed them.  Sounds like a certain major league team south of here, doesn’t it.

I was planning to get my first look at two newcomers to Portland: Ceddane Rafaela and Nick Northcut.  I also wanted another look at the Eastern League’s top base stealer, David Hamilton.

None of them were in the starting lineup!

But I knew them by number and figured out which ones they were as they sat in the dugout.  I probably got better shots of them in the dugout than I would have in the field.

It was the last game of a six-game series so I shouldn’t have been surprised by some backups getting some playing time.

Pitcher Ty Madden made his AA debut for Erie. Ty was drafted in the first round by the Tigers last year.

Ty went 4 2/3 innings before being pulled.  He gave up three earned runs, on four hits including two homers.  He did strike out six Sea Dogs.

Catcher Stephen Scott went deep for the Sea Dogs as did Izzy Wilson.  I was interested in how the home team would celebrate the homer in the Portland dugout.  What they did was teammates put a UMass football helmet on Stephen as he entered the dugout which he wore as he worked his way thought the dugout.

Quincy Nieporte homered twice for Erie.  His homers in the 7^th and 8^th innings were responsible for the two-run separation at the game’s end.

Quincy (27) was one of those fill-the-roster older players given, in this case, a chance to compete by Detroit. He has run with the opportunity currently leading the EL in homers (26) and RBI (69). 

Quincy was up early in this game with the bases loaded and two outs and sent Portland LF Wil Dalton to the warning track.  Later in the game, the Sea Dogs weren’t as lucky!

Christian Koss has been Portland’s best player this season.  His numbers get your attention. He leads the team in five offensive categories.  The 24-year-old is an infielder who can hit.  I would expect him to get promoted to Worcester (AAA) soon.  He’s earned it.

Had trouble figuring out Slugger today.  Was he a prince or a princess?  The Sleeping Beauty routine would suggest princess, at least for this afternoon.

In the race with the youngster, Slugger was in costume wearing a skirt.  I promise you; you can’t do your best running when you’re encumbered with a bulky outfit.  The race today was never close.  Once they passed second base, the kid was long gone.  Slugger, as he sometimes does, took a very wide turn between second and first, and gave the outcome away entirely in the process.

Slugger, however, does seem to be in good shape, so a win in the future is possible.  However, he can’t show up in a bulky costume and expect much.

I got into a seat just behind home plate and the backstop to get some shots of Ty Madden.  Those metal seats were nearly at the “grill” level!  I was wearing long pants, thankfully.

I met an adult male on the elevator coming down from the sky-view seats.  He was wearing a baseball glove and I asked him how that had worked out for him.  I’m thinking he’ll tell me about catching a foul ball. He said he had it to protect his family from foul balls.  He reported that someone up there today had gotten hit in the face!  There isn’t much of a warning in those foul balls and they come fast.

Couldn’t have been happier afterwards to find a free-sample truck in front of Hadlock Field giving out ice cream sandwiches.  Perfect ending to my visit to a Sea Dogs’ game!

Thanks, as always, to Chris Cameron for arranging my visit. 

This coming Monday-Sunday will have Richmond at Hadlock.  They are in the San Francisco Giants farm system.

The price at Hadlock is always right.  Well worth a visit.

(2022 Yankee Homecoming Road Races)

(Newburyport) One runner knew the course.

The other runner didn’t.

Those facts turned out to be significant as Ruben Sanca navigated the familiar (to him) Yankee Homecoming 10-mile course to his third straight victory.

Meanwhile, Ezra Mutai, who finished second, had heard about the course and had seen a video of the route. 

The inexperience with the course influenced this excellent runner as he covered the same 10-mile course on Tuesday night.

Ezra, from Springfield and a former student/runner at American International College, took second but it was a distant second.

Ruben finished at 51:02 while Ezra finished at 52:27.

I like to start my race coverage at the one-mile point, which is down near Federal Street.

A look at this picture tells you that Ezra was in the lead at one mile and looking strong.

“The early going was good,” Ezra told me post-race. 

Ruben was close behind, however, and biding his time.  He told the PA announcer afterwards that he just tried methodically to gain a little bit of ground as the race progressed.

Then came the hills.

“Around eight miles it was too hilly,” recalled Ezra.  “That was the toughest place. I knew about the hills, but I had never run them.”

Ruben, from Salisbury (MA), often runs the streets of Newburyport and knew what to expect. On those hills was where Ruben took the lead and built on it the rest of the way. 

“This was my first 10-mile race,” explained Ezra.  “I usually run shorter distances.  I’m working toward doing a half marathon.”

Ezra told me that he plans to give the Yankee Homecoming 10-miler another try next year.  “Next time I’ll know better what to expect,” he said with a smile.

Women’s ten-mile winner, Emilee Risteen, also had limited knowledge of the course.

“All I knew was that there were hills through the middle,” she said afterwards.

Emilee (Derry NH) started fast and left all her competition in the dust early.  There were no women to chase and there were no challengers to worry about.

Emilee (1:03.10) crossed with a time of 1:03.10., four minutes ahead of Beth Dollas (Amesbury) who finished second.

“I was going for a time,” Emilee said, “but didn’t get it.  We’ll just pick it up and keep trying.”

“I learned about Mile Three that I couldn’t go for what I wanted,” she added.  “I then had to readjust and play it smart so that I could finish strong.”

Emilee was 11^th overall of 650 runners in the 10-mile event.

Emilee graduated from Moody Bible Institute (Chicago IL) and has been coaching at Concord Christian Academy in New Hampshire.

My strategy of seeing both races one mile into each of them always prevents me from seeing the end of the 5K race.

My positioning, however, allows me to see the leaders of both races about a mile into each race.  Almost without fail, the leaders then win the races or come close.

The Walsh brothers (Joseph & Timothy) from Auburn (MA) dominated the 5K race.  They were one-two at the one-mile mark.

Justin Freeman did separate them by the end of the race.  Justin won the 10-mile race a few years ago when the end of the race was near the stadium entrance.

Yvonne Bungei and Betsy Suda were close at one mile, but it was Yvonne (18:48) edging Betsy (18:57) for the win in the women’s 5K. 

Betsy has been the 5K women’s winner several times.  She may have defeated Yvonne in 2019.

The idea of starting the race at 6PM always assumes that things will be cooling down as the race takes place.  It never seems to work.  As Mark Twain said, “Everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it!”

Additional pictures from the two races: