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 News 2005: An Attractive Option |
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Sunday, July 3
An Attractive Option
Though American Legion is considered the top summer baseball for high school students (and college freshmen), it is also by far the most time-consuming.
The Legion season has continued with games every day through this long Fourth of July weekend, often considered a prime vacation time. While the players are definitely honing their skills, almost all of June and July is solely dedicated to baseball.
Therefore, it's easy to see why so many talented Legion-caliber players have instead opted to play in the Central Massachusetts Senior Babe Ruth League. The CMSBR isn't as demanding, but still is a highly-competitive league that plays three games a week. Sr. Ruth gets the holiday weekend off, playing their last games on Thursday and resuming play Tuesday.
"It's a choice," said CMSBR president Skip Walsh, also coach of the Westborough team. "Some of the kids could play Legion but this offers a little more flexible scheduling. It's less rigid. There are not so many games in so little weeks. That way, they can work, go to football camps, and have a couple of days off here and there."
Founded in 1990, the CMass Sr. Babe Ruth League is one of the many member leagues of the Babe Ruth of America (BRA) organization (league editor's note: article mistated, we are not officially affililated with BRA). Since its inception, Framingham, Marlborough, Natick, Sudbury, Westborough, Ashland, Bellingham, Holliston, Hopkinton and Milford have all been in the league. Franklin joined five years ago and Dover-Sherborn opted in last year to comprise the current 12-team league, which is divided into North and South divisions. Millis and Hudson have also fielded squads in the past, but dropped out for various reasons.
Although CMSBR has a postseason tournament, unlike other Babe Ruth leagues, it does not advance winning teams to regional competition. Nevertheless, the title race is always hotly-contested with six different champions crowned in the past seven years.
"Some teams are very very good, like the Sudbury team and Milford (the respective 2004 and 2003 champions)," said Walsh. "But we've had good teams in the past, who are not as good this year. There are three or four teams that have been consistent over the years, but I think everything's pretty close."
And most importantly, the league is fun.
"What it comes back to is, it's a good league and it's competitive," said Walsh. "Sometimes they just get some camaraderie with the kids they're playing with.
"I have a kid on our team who's played four years with us. He coulda gone Legion two years ago, but knowing that he can miss a game once in a while without a penalty, I think he just enjoys the nature of the league."
A look back
Many pitchers tossed complete-game shutouts this past week. However, none was bigger than Framingham's Jeff Tardiff, who no-hit Franklin in Senior Ruth action on Thursday night.
The first true marathon game of the season was last Monday night at Bowditch Field when Milford and Framingham met up in a Zone 4 duel. It took the teams 13 innings to settle the score, with Milford winning it 4-3 on a wild pitch and error.
The Hopkinton Senior Ruth team also leapt to the top of the South (and overall) standings with three wins this week to put them at 8-1.
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