Hats off!

Hats off to the Brindley Foundation Baseball Team of Oxford for winning their 6th Paul N. Johnson Senior Babe Ruth title in the last 9 years. They beat the Worcester Eagles in two straight games in the best of 3 series Sunday at Tivnan Field in Worcester. Winning the title in six of the nine years that Brindley Foundation has been in existence defines them as a "Dynasty."

As a matter of fact, I think they outgrew the league itself as far as competition goes. Can we make them an official American Legion team for 2013? They return a boatload next year and the outlook is healthy for the Brindley group.

The town of Oxford has been a hotbed for baseball this summer. The Oxford Little League Junior Team (13 and 14 year olds) won the District 5 Championship last Saturday night at the Steve Horgan Field in Oxford. The Oxford Juniors beat Auburn in the title game, 13-3 in a 5 inning mercy rule game. Oxford finished 5-0 in District 5 play and moves on to the state championship series against Agawam or Orange tonight.

Auburn crushed neighboring Dudley in an opening round game by a score I would never self report to the Worcester Telegram. Kids don’t need to see adults self reporting such scores, especially opening round games when no other team or teams were self reporting opening round games. As a matter of fact, a lot of opening round games end in the mercy rule. Typically, you would not report the score for all of central Mass. to see. Only District officials would report the score to the Telegram. Auburn self reported the score and the District 5 baseball world began to take notice on Auburn’s scores and climb to the championship game against Oxford. Auburn is a terrific sports town and we know it. Their kids compete and their coaches and fans are very respectful. There is no need to self report a landslide score against a bunch of 13 and 14 year olds. I coached for 29 years and never embarrassed kids by self reporting a score that was out of hand. As the lesson goes, Auburn eventually got beat by a mercy rule themselves and Oxford did not self report the score. The Telegram covered the game. When you are good, everybody knows it. We know Auburn is good. They need a little help with the etiquette of baseball. Self reporting opening round games on this level is way too much information for all of us. We understand how the pool games are set up. Some teams in the District are short handed for multiple reasons - injuries or family vacations. I like to stay under the radar as long as I can.Opening round games never set the tone for champions.

Indian Ranch Spring Athletes to be honored

The 2012 Indian Ranch Spring Athletes of the week will be honored as guests with their families at Indian Ranch during the Gavin Degraw show on July 27th. The 2012 Indian Ranch spring athletes of the week are Nicole Mangaudis, Emily Dawidczyk, Nick Lemay, Josh St.Laurent, Molly Covill, Louis Caro, Lindsay Bond, Nick Cardoni. Details for the athletes will be forthcoming for this enjoyable day to spend at Indian ranch with their families. All Indian Ranch Athletes of the week should reserve tickets by emailing Peter Coyle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .