Prayers for Steve Snyder

It has come to our attention that the student injured in a fall from Leverett Towers was in fact Steve Snyder '04-'08, a former Harvard baseball player who was on the roster for at least one season (2003, the righty pitcher's sophomore year).

Snyder has reportedly been improving since his fall Thursday, but is still hospitalized in serious condition. We wish Steve and his family the very best.

More: The Chronicle-Telegram (Ohio).

Frank Herrmann on pine tar

The Crimson's series of articles by the former Harvard hurler continues with another interesting entry.

Who's on first?

And now, another couple of drips from the steady IV that was my brief e-mail exchange with Coach Walsh from a few weeks ago...

* Farewell, Josh Klimkiewicz '06. First base is "up for grabs," with freshman Andrew Prince and Dan Zailskas as possibilities. We've already talked about Zailskas some. Here's a little taste of Andrew Prince, the hitter. In addition to being a clutch hitter, he also seems pretty willing to take one for the team even when he's not playing.

* This year's pre-Ivy schedule looks to be among the Crimson's deepest ever, with games against Notre Dame, Dayton, Ohio State, Illinois, UCF, Tampa, Northwestern, FAU and FIU. March of 2008 will bring Wichita State, Long Beach San Diego, San Diego State, Cal-Irvine and the College of Charleston.

A looong delayed update...

Hey, Harvard baseball fans. It's been an offseason of very few posts, but I'm hoping this one packs a punch that'll make up for some of that.

I recently checked in with Coach Walsh about four practices into the fall, and he reports the following:

* Matt Vance is swinging and lifting after his offseason surgery, and just beginning to throw. Best of luck to him as he recovers.

* Matt Rogers--whom Walsh was very high on going into his freshman season--has "had the best fall so far." Imagine a scenario in which Vance and Rogers are able to do on the basepaths what Vance and Salsgiver did for most of last season...

Also, as I don't think it was ever reported on GoCrimson.com, capable and clutch senior infielder Brendan Byrne is your 2007 team captain.

Regarding the rotation, Walsh pegged freshmen Max Perlman and Eric "Boomer" Eadington (if he's already got a nickname, he must be something...) as potential weekend starters. We know Shawn Haviland is your ace (Walsh reports that he's "improved," which is frightening) and Adam Cole is presumably your No. 2 guy and other lock. One would imagine that Brad Unger would be in contention for another spot, perhaps in a little battle with Eadington, Perlman and maybe Ian Bollinger, a freshman RHP whom Walsh describes as "the best surprise of the fall." But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Who are these guys?

We'll start with Perlman. Here's what some of we've got on Max Perlman, courtesy of an e-mailer from earlier in the summer (and if you've got profile-caliber info on any of the other freshmen, hit that e-mail link on the side):

Max is a 6’6”, 220 lb., right handed pitcher. He posted a 1.14 era in 55.1 innings with 59 strikeouts, allowing just 11 walks, 33 hits and 9 earned runs in his senior season at Lake Brantley (Fla.). His 7-3 record included 2 shut-out losses. As team captain, Max led Lake Brantley to the conference and regular season district championships. Max was a three time varsity letter winner, two time all conference selection and had a 4 year record of 26-6 at Brantley.

Max plays summer and fall baseball for Chet Lemon’s Juice, last fall’s World Wood Bat Association 18U World Champions. In 2005, Max was a Florida Diamond Club all-star and two-time Top Prospect Showcase all-star and recently pitched in the Central Florida All-Star Showcase for graduating seniors.

Stay tuned in the next few days for more on the freshmen and a peek at the unreleased schedule...

August Update

Some Crimson notes:
* Brad Unger's summer in the New England Collegiate League ended with a 3-2 record over nine appearances (seven starts) with a 3.21 ERA. We're looking at a Haviland-Cole-Unger three-fourths of a rotation, and I can live with that.
* Elsewhere in the NECBL, the intriguing and reputedly incredibly fast rising sophomore outfielder Matt Rogers hit .273 and succeeded on 9 of 10 stolen base attempts playing everyday for the Pittsfield Dukes. Tom Stack-Babich batted .233, Max Warren (whom I inadvertently left off the poll on the side) .189.
* Steffan Wilson's summer in the Cape was a mixed bag; after a strong start, he wound up with a .241 average and 18 RBIs in 37 games (and no homers).
* Lance Salsgiver has struggled in A ball this year, Zak Farkes has had something of a bounce-back year with the Spinners and Frank Herrmann keeps improving as a starter with Lake County (Indians). Elsewhere: Birtwell Triple-A, Ben Crockett with the Somerset Patriots, Morgan Brown with the North Shore Spirit.
* Josh Klimkiewicz, who is playing in the Intercity Baseball League, also gets a mention in this Cambridge Chronicle article about Boston's Old Time Game.

Official Midseason Summer Update

From GoCrimson.com. Well done. Far as I'm concerned, the big news here is Brad Unger. Should he come along as a strong third starter this year back of Haviland and Cole, it would be a tremendous boon. One wonders if there has been any thought to him becoming a one-sport man, although I don't know whether there would be a clear benefit...

Frank Herrmann on SI.com

...courtesy of Crimson baseball beat writer Pablo Torre.

Lemonade and some stat sheets

Mash, Steffan Wilson, mash. Through eight games, Stef is batting .394 with 9 RBIs to lead the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod League. Meanwhile, Brad Unger has been lights out so far for the Sanford Mainers of the New England Collegiate League, allowing 3 earned runs in his first 17 2/3 innings in two starts and a relief appearance... Lance Salsgiver is playing Class-A Ball for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, Short-Season affiliate of the SF Giants... Ben Crockett '02 has had a terrific season for the Somerset Patriots. He recently saw a 22 2/3 scoreless innings streak come to an end, and boasts a 1.62 ERA and a 4-3 record... Frank Herrmann's Crimson diary has come to an end, but he continues to pitch (2-2, 4.67 in 14 starts).

Taking a Chance on Lance

A number of Harvard students graduated last week without jobs lined up. Lance Salsgiver doesn't have that problem.

Congratulations to Lance, taken in the 37th Round (1106 overall) of the 2006 MLB Amateur Draft last week. Good job by the Giants; the toolsy outfielder (or would they use him elsewhere?) seems a great late round pickup by Brian Sabean and crew. Meanwhile, John Birtwell '01 continues to make the most of his shot with Oakland's AAA team, Morgan Brown continues to load up on academic honors and The Crimson's commencement coverage touches on baseball here and here.

Apologies on the lateness with all of these, but commencement was very, very busy. Life is starting to calm down, and we'll take a look at some of those freshmen soon.

Summer Plans and John Birtwell

Those looking to keep tabs on their favorite Crimson players over the summer will be happy to see Harvard's listing of assignments for summer ball. Like last year, a lot of players come back with summer ball experience. Most notably, Steffan Wilson and (non-roster invitee) Shawn Haviland in the Cape League, and Adam Cole, Tom Stack-Babich, Brad Unger, Max Warren and Matt Rogers in the New England Collegiate Baseball League.

An alert commenter (and thanks, guys--this site really benefits from you guys looking out) points out that John Birtwell has happily resurfaced in the Sacramento Triple A affiliate of the Oakland A's. Given the A's Harvard connections, Birtwell's unusual delivery and past record with the Tigers and Moneyball (remember Chad Bradford!), it's probably not as surprising as one might think. In 13 2/3 innings spread out over 10 appearances so far, Birtwell's only allowed 2 earned runs while striking out 9.

Awesome. We'll definitely keep an eye on this situation, and we wish John all the best. Also, in a situation that probably plays out in amusing fashion given Birtwell's documented sense of humor, or perhaps not given Birtwell's even better documented record as a great teammate, one of his fellow Sacramento River Cats is Kazuhito Tadano.

Harvard baseball updates

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Life has been very busy here, despite (or perhaps because of) the end of school.

News and Notes:

* As an alert commenter noted, Morgan Brown was named academic All-Ivy for the spring. Meanwhile, Steffan Wilson and Josh Klimkiewicz started and played all of the New England College Baseball All-Star Game at Fenway, which turned out to be a low scoring affair.

* Some nice news from the quasi-alumni ranks: Zak Farkes has been called up to high A ball following extended spring training. He replaces Ian Bladergroen, whom some of you may remember from the Red Sox-Mets trade that also involved Doug Mientkiewicz. Best of luck to Zak this year.

* Meanwhile, 3B Trey Hendricks '04 is batting .263 with a team-leading 33 RBI and 6 homers for the South Bend Silver Hawks, with a bases-clearing go-ahead double in his last game. And Ben Crockett is putting up some nice numbers in the Atlantic League.
* Finally, Friends of Harvard Baseball has sent out the names of the members of the Harvard Baseball Class of 2010:

Ian Bollinger – RHP – Issaquah, WA / Lakeside H.S.
Eric Eadington – LHP – Corona Del Mar, CA / Corona Del Mar H.S.
Max Perlman – RHP – Longwood, FL / Lake Brantley H.S.
Andrew Prince – C / 1B – Oakland, CA / Bishop O’Dowd H.S.
Ben Rabinowitz – OF / LHP – Brookville, NY / Jericho H.S.
Chris Rouches – OF – Peoria, AZ / Cactus H.S.
Jon Strangio – RHP – Rockville Center, NY / South Side H.S.
Dan Zailskas – INF – Marshfield, MA – Milton Academy

We will eventually do a little bit of posting on each of these guys. If you've got information about them that we wouldn't find during our customary cursory Google search and would like to send it our way, please do so. We'll start with a bit of information on Dan Zailskas.

Zailskas did a Q & A with the Boston Globe that FOHB sent out and I will duplicate in part here:

Many high school athletes have to decide between playing baseball or football in college. Milton Academy senior Dan Zailskas not only had to make that tough decision, he had to decide whether to play at Stanford or Harvard. The righthander is 5-0 this season and has an ERA of 1.06. A two-time ISL All-Star in baseball, he was also the Mustangs' quarterback and tonight he'll be honored as one of 22 EMass scholar-athletes at the annual National Football Foundation dinner. The team captain discusses hard choices, being bilingual, and what Major League Baseball should do about Barry Bonds in this week's Q&A.

ON BASEBALL

What football skill helps you the most in baseball?
Probably focus because you have to be very focused at quarterback. It's the same thing when I am at the plate or on the mound.

Do you brush back hitters? Does it get you in trouble sometimes?
Yeah, you have to take command of the inside of the plate. Sometimes my coach doesn't like it. He's had to restrain me from doing it sometimes. But it's just part of the game.

Your coach says you could play Division 1A football if you wanted. Why aren't you playing football in college?
I want to just focus on baseball and see how far I can go. I'm probably a little more talented at baseball.

What do you think your chances are of being drafted by a Major League Baseball team?
Not this year, because I committed to a Northeast college. But hopefully if I improve, I would be able to.

ON SCHOOL

Why did you pick Harvard over Stanford?
It's closer to home. There is probably a better chance for playing time. They have connections to the Cape league which is hopefully in the cards later down the line.

Is Milton Academy a cliquey school?
I'd say to some degree, not any more than any other school though.

You've taken four years of AP Spanish, do you think it's important to be bilingual?
Yeah, absolutely. Especially with the statistics coming out nowadays that Spanish will be the most spoken language in the US in a couple of years. I think 40 percent of the people in California speak Spanish. It couldn't hurt [to speak it.]

ON LIFE

What is the most annoying commercial on TV?
The Burger King ones with the guys dressed up as cheeseburgers.

If you could see a sequel made about one of your favorite movies, what would it be?
I'd say "Goodfellas." I don't think it would work, but it would be nice if they did.

Should Major League Baseball celebrate Barry Bonds passing Babe Ruth in home runs?
No. I have no respect for Barry Bonds. Absolutely none.

I already like him, except that I rather enjoy those Burger King commercials. Anyway, the article notes his football days, which were the subject of an earlier article in the Globe. Three things here: 1. his dad, Dan Sr., is a member of the BC Hall of Fame, having starred on an Eagles team that went to the College World Series in '67. Zailskas Sr. eventually signed with the Phillies. And 2: The last time we lured a multi-sport star of this caliber to O'Donnell, he was pretty talented. And 3. It's interesting that the Harvard release listed Zailskas as an infielder.

All right, that's it for now. I may have something else to say mid next week. Again, if you're interested in contributing to this thing next year, let us know.

More accolades for Wilson, Klim

Steffan Wilson (3B) and Josh Klimkiewicz (1B) were both named Second Team All-New England today.

Good luck, seniors.

Just before signing off from the last Red Sox broadcast of the season, which comes in varying degrees of heartbreak depending on the year, longtime play-by-play announcer--and frequent Harvard football pressbox visitor--Joe Castiglione reads a famous passage from the sport's most literary commissioner ever, Bart Giamatti. It goes like this:

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone."

This was, for a long time, the best baseball valediction I had heard. Until about five years ago, when another baseball buddha saluted the abrupt end of a college season and the players he would lose to graduation. It seems to fit all the more each year.

Good luck, 2006 seniors:

When you see a group of guys like this go out the door, it’s tough.

What a lot of people here at Harvard don’t understand is, if you come to a doubleheader on a Saturday, the game doesn’t just start at 12 or one o’clock.

Our guys are out there putting the tarp on the field, taking the tarp off thefield, raking the grounds at nine, hitting at ten, playing at 12, busting their hump until five or six o’clock and then hopping on a bus, driving four hours somewhere to do it all again the next day.

Then you come back on Sunday night and you got things to do. You’re working at three or four o’clock in the morning doing your studying. And then you come out the next day, and I’m in your face? Telling you to hustle? Telling you ‘let’s get a little running in’?

[At the baseball games], you get some administrators, you get someparents, you get some kids from the other team.

But I’ll say this about the baseball team. You go to a basketball game, they’re there. You go to a hockey game, they’re there. You go to a football game, they’re there. And they can tell you what the score of the water polo game was last night.

So I don’t think I’m just losing some good guys. I think the school’s losing some good people.

You want to keep working for kids like that. You want to be around guys like that.

Sometime when your schooling’s over, when your education’s over, you’ll look back and you say, ‘Hey, I did this with these guys.’

Those are the best memories of your schooling-making friends, meeting kids, representing your school. It’s not all about wins and losses. There’ll be plenty of time to be pushing pencils in concrete caves.

I’m hoping this is the best education these kids get-the friends that they’re with, getting out there and competing, and learning how to get through, day in and day out.

Uncle Bart Wants You!

The 2006 season has ended, but the site lives on. Next year, Martin will be in New York working full time, and Brian could be pretty much anywhere after he helps the good guys take back the Senate. Faiz, wherever he is, will be working as well. This means that we won't have anyone on the ground here in Cambridge, and that my job likely will prevent me from posting as often as I am used to doing. Although we ourselves will do what we can to keep the site going, it would be huge to have someone here in Cambridge to help out as a third full editor.

Are you going to be in Cambridge next year? Are you a fan of Harvard baseball and this site? Are you one of our more faithful commenters? Are you someone who thinks SoBB would be vastly better if the writers did a few things differently? We'd love to hear from candidates for a spot as one of the lead writers here. Drop us a line at bartbrush [at) gmail dot com, let us know who you are and what you'd be interested in, and we'll talk. As any of us can tell you, no special web experience is necessary.

The Cap'n Was Here (In Class)

Congratulations to Morgan Brown, an ESPN The Magazine District 1 All-Academic First Team Selection. Rock in the infield, Rockefeller off it.

Haviland named Pitcher of the Year, Yale's Sawyer Edges Klim for POY

Congratulations to Shawn Haviland, the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year as a sophomore. Haviland beat out the only other real contender, Dartmouth's Josh Faiola, in a vote that became pretty clear on Harvard-Dartmouth weekend. Meanwhile, the other half of the Saturday starting duo, Adam Cole, was named Co-Rookie of the Year along with Brown's Stephen Daniels.

Yale first baseman Josh Sawyer took Player of the Year despite our statistical analysis that suggested Josh Klimkiewicz may have been the better pick. One can only wonder what would've happened had Josh been healthy for the Brown series with three more games' worth of at-bats. It is worth noting that the coaches, presumably recognizing the absurdity of putting Klim on the second team, simply elected to name two First Team first basemen and go without a Second Team guy. Although POY sort of makes 1 and 1A clear, I tip my cap to the coaches for realizing that both players had first-team seasons (not unlike when the coaches fudged things and named John Birtwell '01 a first team reliever, despite relatively few relief appearances, when it was clear he was a third worthy First Team starter).

For a second straight year, Steffan Wilson was a unanimous First Team choice at the hot corner. Morgan Brown joins him at short and the league's terror on the basepaths, Matt Vance, joins him as an outfielder alongside Dartmouth's Bashelor and Brown's Christian. The Vance inclusion is a nice surprise, considering that Cornell's Brian Kaufman, who arguably had the best numbers against Ivy League competition of the field, only made the Second Team. Lance Salsgiver, who was blazing hot in the early weeks of the season but cooled down the stretch, was also named to the Second Team.

No honorable mention picks for Harvard. The only other player I'd have really pulled for HM was Javy Castellanos, but in a league of very deep pitching, it would've been a tall order.

The Seniors: One For The Road

From left: Chris Mackey, Lance Salsgiver, Morgan Brown, Josh Klimkiewicz, Matt Brunnig, Javier Castellanos, Mike Dukovich.

The End

The season has ended. Harvard lost the second game 8-2 and the Ivy League Championship series, 2-0. Congratulations to Princeton, league champion and winner of an NCAA regional berth.

Adam Cole mixed fastball and slider brilliantly for five innings, but unraveled some in the 6th after a hit batsman and two errors, including a ball he threw high past first. Ultimately, Princeton got seven runs out of that inning. Staehly threw very well for Princeton, and Walz, given a big lead, did the only thing he had to do: throw strikes.

After the game, Javier Castellanos knelt down on one knee in front of the dugout next to Matt Brunnig, himself stooped low and looking wistfully at the field. They exchanged words for a while, staring out in the direction of the first base line, until they eventually got up and headed to the rest of their lives. No idea what they said. I found it poignant anyway.

I thank Joe Walsh, his assistants and most of all, the players for their time and effort, the seniors in particular, and for putting up with a semi-informed but enthusiastic fan with a laptop. I thank the parents of the team for their warmth, Mr. Jim Meehan in particular for his wonderful photos and Hurricane McNeeley and Friends of Harvard Baseball for their food. I thank Brian Fallon for his incredible work on the site, and everyone else who participated or helped (Faiz, Alex, Sky, Lande). I'm a bit numb, knowing that I've seen my last Harvard baseball game as a student, and I'll probably have more to say about that tomorrow. Meanwhile, we'll have more to talk about later on next week, including hopefully a silver lining or two when they announce league awards.

Harvard loses Game One

Shawn Haviland's fastball got hit hard pretty consistently in the early innings. He seemed to be leaving it up quite a bit, and only several innings in did he really settle down. He'll have many more great starts, but this was an unfortunate time for his most troublesome start in the Ivy season.

Game Two starts in minutes. I'm headed back out there with an umbrella and a jacket, as the temperature's dropped about 15 degrees and it looks like rain. Here's hoping none of that gets to young Adam Cole. Today, Adam Cole, you become a man...

Ready to rumble...

It's 65 degrees, Friends of Harvard Baseball promises BBQ and we're two games away from a repeat Ivy championship. Let's get ready to rumble...

* Live Gametracker will absolutely, positively work today.

* Assuming WHRB is out there, the broadcast likely will be available here.

I'll be at the games and won't have an update for you until day's end. Go Harvard.