A changing reality for the Senior League World Series

  After watching the recent blind draw for this year’s Senior League World Series, I was tempted to invite Nick Cowperthwaite and Jesse Colford to join me for the rest of the day at Hollywood Casino. The two Bangor Senior League baseball players, representing Maine District 3, had been just that good at alternately picking […]

Fundamentals, subtleties fuel Bangor’s successful title defense

The recent decrease of power hitting in high school baseball due to the introduction of safety-conscious BBCOR bats has left most teams searching for ways to manufacture offense to compensate for the lack of the long ball. Few have done it better the last two years than Bangor High School, perhaps making it no surprise […]

Bangor-Brewer baseball: To move or not to move?

The games hadn’t even been played yet, and already the question was being asked. If Bangor and Brewer both won their semifinals Saturday, would the Maine Principals’ Association consider moving Wednesday’s Eastern Maine Class A baseball title game between the two rivals from Augusta to Bangor? To me, supposing such an eventuality at that point […]

Pitching strategies vary for Eastern A baseball survivors

The four teams that advanced to Saturday’s Eastern Maine Class A baseball semifinals employed four different pitching strategies to get there. Top-seeded Bangor used the pitching-by-committee approach in its 6-0 quarterfinal victory over No. 8 Brunswick, as aces Trevor DeLaite and Andrew Hillier each pitched three innings before James Prescott came on to work a […]

Statistically speaking, OT’s Hoogterp rules PVC Class B baseball ranks

Old Town High School star Eric Hoogterp is headed to the University of Southern Maine this fall with an eye toward playing on the Huskies’ basketball team. It’s a more than reasonable goal given his resume in the sport — the 6-foot-2 guard was a Mr. Basketball semifinalist and Bangor Daily News All-Maine honoree last […]

With caveats aplenty, time to pick Eastern Maine baseball champs

The high school baseball playoffs may be the most difficult sports postseason to project. So many variables separate the end of this season compared to other sports, particularly those contested during the fall and winter. Most of the seniors playing in baseball’s postseason either are busy with graduation-related activities or already have graduated, which at […]

Some five-class fallout

A few thoughts from the nearly two years spent watching Maine’s high school basketball scene expand from four classes to five … … There’s little doubt Mother Nature will stretch out the new five-class regional tournaments beyond the final days of February vacation at some point during the next few years, if not on a […]

Where, oh where should our tournaments go?

High school basketball is now a five-class world in Maine, so just where will we determine all the champions? One benefit of the expansion from four classes that gained final approval from the Maine Principals’ Association general membership Thursday is that with a fifth class, two additional state champions — one boys team and one […]

Pitching rules in Eastern Maine, not Boston

Young pitchers hoping to emulate their Major League heroes should do everything they can to avoid watching the Boston Red Sox staff at work on the mound these days. The ace-less Red Sox rotation saw its collective earned run average escalate to a major-league worst 5.75 per nine innings Sunday after newcomer Wade Miley failed […]

Boston Marathon thrives amid new normal

My most memorable Boston Marathon experience had little to do with running. It was 22 years ago when a buddy and I went to the annual Patriots’ Day baseball game at Fenway Park — so long ago, in fact, that the starting pitchers were the Red Sox’ John Dopson and Alex Fernandez of the Chicago […]