Calzone Ciarcia: not your typical baseball player

There are very few places on the east coast that have winters as ruthless as Cape Cod. However, in the summer the distinctive "arm" of Massachusetts transforms into a hotbed for baseball. Amongst the Cape's numerous high schools and colleges stands the illustrious Cape League which attracts the very best collegiate baseball prospects in the country. Cape Cod is New England’s mecca of baseball.
For most young boys in New England, summer means freedom. Three months of sun, relaxation and baseball. Organized football doesn't start till mid-August, basketball and hockey generally don't pick up until well after the leaves have left the trees. So baseball is left alone to capitalize on the summer vacations of boys (and girls) across New England. Even those who hate the game usually play through at least Little League.
Summer's on the Cape however, produce an entirely different baseball atmosphere. Every year hundreds of families across the Cape "foster" a Cape League player for the summer. Each of the League's ten teams are required to provide housing for their players. So families volunteer to house players in spare bedrooms, garages or on the pull out futons. While it's a cute nuance to life on the Cape, it can have a profound effect on for young aspiring baseball players. Cape League players have eighty nine percent chance of playing some form of professional baseball, so to twelve year old boys these talented college athletes are gods.
  For one lanky eighteen year old kid from Dennis Port, it was growing up around Cape League players that inspired him to keep playing baseball even after he wanted to quit. Calzone Ciarcia thought his day's of playing baseball had ended. A senior third basemen at Sacred Heart high school, he was fully prepared to move on from the game he had played for the last dozen years of his life. Calzone planed on going to college for film production and new that most film schools don't have sports teams.
 Enter Emerson College, a division three school, fifty two miles north of the light houses and salt water taffy of Nauset Beach in the heart of Boston. Emerson is a liberal arts school with a strong reputation in film production and journalism. 

For a teenager who was planing on retiring his glove for good, the chance to play college baseball and pursue his dreams of  film production was too good to pass up. 

                                                        (Calzone Ciarcia playing third)

“Once I knew they had a baseball team, Emerson really became my first choice. Every kid in New England dreams of playing baseball in Boston."says Calzone, now twenty and a sophomore at Emerson College.
 While, most Little Leaguers probably imagine Fenway Park, Calzone is perfectly happy with Malden Catholic, a high school field the team uses while planing for a field of their own. High school field or not, a teenage Ciarcia burst on to the scene at Emerson hitting .307 with 20 RBI’s and stole fourteen bases (third in the conference) in thirty six games as a freshman.

                                      (Calzone after stealing a base at Rivier College)

Now a cog in the Emerson lineup the lanky Ciarcia projects to hit cleanup and play third base for a team that finished sixth in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference or GNAC last season. “Last year was great. I was welcomed with open arms and it was one of the coolest experiences ever. This year the team is going be great. We have a lot of good players coming back and a lot of good players coming in, so the confidence is flowing.”

However, for Calzone Ciarcia the road to Emerson could have taken a much different turn, “This surprises some people but for most of my life I wanted to play college hockey.” Growing up on in Dennis-Port, Calzone spent his summer's playing baseball and working for the Cape Leauge's Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. Yet, in the winter he was one hundred percent  focused on hockey. “I had a blast playing hockey my senior year of high school, I would have loved to have played in college, it just turned out that my college of choice had a baseball team with some open roster spots.” 

                                              (Calzone at Sacred Heart high school)

Calzone still holds hockey near and dear to his heart, “As far as the fun and excitement, nothing compares to hockey. It’s my favorite sport, with baseball being a close second.”
While hockey may have his heart, baseball had his youth. Calzone’s cites being around so many world class baseball players while growing up as one of the main reasons he committed to playing baseball at Emerson. 

"We never had any stars stay with us but a friend of mine had Brad Hawpe stay with him, which was pretty cool", notes Calzone.
Hawpe a 2009 Major League All-Star, hit .338 in the 2007 NLCS helping lead the Colorado Rockies to their very first World Series appearance.
 "As cool as having baseball players was, I always dreamed of having Adam Oates or P.J. Stock stay at my house", says Calzone.
While in his heart might still belong to hockey player, the rest of body has turned into one of the best baseball players in his conference. In six games so far this year Calzone has seven hits and leads Emerson in run's scored. His heart may always prefer the ice but after growing up on the Cape Cod, Calzone Ciarcia can't out skate the game of baseball.

Jack Edwards is continuing the tradition

Let me start by saying that broadcasters are rewarded when their teams win. 

 

                                                                (Johnny Most- Courtesy Boston Globe)

Johnny Most, probably the greatest broadcaster in Boston sports history called games for the team from 1953-1990, all the while watching sixteen banners be hung from the rafters of the old Boston Garden.

                                                                (Fred Cusack- Courtesy Boston Herald)

Fred Cusack the long time Bruins play-by-play man who called games for the black and gold from 1971-1997 watched the bruins win seventeen division championships and go to nine conference finals. 

 In Boston’s recent success the broadcaster who has benefited the most is probably Gil Santos. The former Patriot and current radio play-by-play announcer has called five super bowls in the past eleven years. However, following the Bruins recent dramatic run through the playoffs last season Jack Edwards has gained a number of fans for his high volume play-by-play work. I decided to focus in on a recent bruins game between Boston and the re-born Winnipeg Jets. Here’s my break down of Jack Edwards performance.

                                                                   (Jack Edwards- Courtesy Twitter)

Pre Game- Edwards calls Winnipeg’s MTS center the craziest little building in the National Hockey league.

“High above the ice – I’m Jack Edwards” – This is an homage to Johnny Most who started every game with “High above court-side – I’m Johnny Most”

Puck Drops

19:50 first period – “Bruins win the draw and the jets are on there second game in two nights and on the season there -0-9 in back to backs” – Edwards does a great job of mixing stats into his play by play work.

18:20 first period- “Chara is getting booed here in Winnipeg as he does in 29 buildings in the national hockey league.” – The biggest knock on Edwards is that he paints the Bruins as underdogs in every game they play even though at 35-18-2 they should be favorites even on the road at 27-26-6 Winnipeg.

15:29 first period- “Here is Josh Hennessy, born in Brockton, grew up south of Boston, went to Milton academy for a couple of years, went the junior route… and here he is playing for the team he adored as a boy he has got to be on a cloud right now, and there are people all over the south shore jumping up and down and screaming at their TV’s” – Edwards has always done a fantastic job of following local New England players and giving insight on the route they’ve taken to the NHL, this is just another example.

5:35 first period-  “Corvo up the wing to Pouliot, Wing to wing for Lucic, he works against Jones lucic goes right past Jones! Closes! works in front and slides it past the front near post. Milan Lucic undressing Randy Jones along the near side boards.” – Edwards has the ability to take a regular play and dress it up as something magical, this is the reason Boston fans love him and die-hard hockey fans can’t stand him.

4:37 first period- “Off glass’s stick and it goes up and over, Tanner Glass had a heck of a bout last night with Darroll Powe. Now of course Powe went to Princeton and Glass went to Dartmouth and you know I don’t know for sure but I got a feeling that Powe said Princeton has a lot more Nobel prize winners then Dartmouth and that just crosses the threshold brick you just can’t tolerate that kind of talk.”

Andy Brickley- “that is trash talking!”

Edwards- “Exactly, they said that’s enough of that and they threw down and there was no defense in that fight that was one of the best tilts we’ve seen in a few weeks.” – It’s moments like this where Edwards fills the casual fan in on something they might not have seen that really elevate Edward’s play-by-play ability.

Second Period

17:45 second period-  Here’s Burmistrov working on that off wing against Chara… here’s the shot.. He Scores! Alexander Burmistrov! The jets are ahead.

Andy Brickley- Well we talked about the Jets and how they like to score off the rush, Burmistrov is going to take this puck back hand to  forehand which lets him get a little more centrally located. Rask is down in the butterfly and Burmistrov just rips that forehand wrist shot old fashion style right up under the cross bar to give the jets the lead. – Every good broadcaster needs a color commentator and former Bruins left winger Andy Brickley is one of the best in the business, he plays his role to perfection constantly breaking down scoring plays so the most novice fan can understand them.

16:10 second period- Go Jets Go the chat from the smallest and loudest building in the NHL right here. – Edwards is consistently reminding fans of senses they can’t feel, we can all see the game but the sounds of the crowd are usually washed out by the announcers voice.

13:50- second period -“Caron Scores! Tukka Rask at one end with a big save and Jordan Caron at the other! With just his third goal of the year, The bruins have tied it 1-1!”

10:53- second period- "Caron… Wellwood picks his pocket he drops it for Kane who’s red hot.. the shot! Glove save by Rask! Tukka Rask let in a shaky one but since then he’s been sensational." – Edwards loves making calls on big saves thankfully the Bruins have two of the better goalies in the NHL.

Third Period

13:40 third period- “Wheeler turns, maneuvers right, in front of Little… who Scores! Brian Little roofs it and it’s a two goal lead for the jets! Two goals in two minutes and four seconds and it’s too much for the Boston Bruins to handle right now!” – Critics say Edwards has liberal uses alliteration, this would be one of those cases.

 10:22 third period-  “Stuart and Hennessy getting into a scrap and Stuart gets a straight left into Hennessy’s face and there has got to be a call here. He certainly gets away with something extra right there.” –Here’s a prime example of Edwards Homer-ness, if you weren’t watching the game almost every post whistle altercation would seem like a mugging.

1:01- Go Jets Go! The crowd chats as it grows louder minute by minute. Deafening here in the MTS center.  Kelly chases it down, wheeler intercepts. Chara fools the hip out of him. They had a hockey team in Atlanta that couldn’t draw flies,  here you can’t get a seat. The jets are going to go two and 0 against the Boston Bruins in this building this year. Listen to the fans in Winnipeg. In the history of the Atlanta Thrasher's they never drew an ovation like this. – Edwards focuses on the volume of the arena and the energy of the fans, two things we can’t see during the game.

              After reviewing this game I’ve found that I not only like Jack Edwards more than I did before but also I have a new appreciation for what he brings to the table as a sportscaster. He’s energetic and yes a bit of a homer but he does his homework he fills the dead time with amusing stories and antic dotes. He might be just another crazy Boston play-by-play announcer to the rest of the country but to us he’s OUR crazy play-by-play announcer.

- Liam Ariel

Ben Cherington needs a history lesson and a helmet

            If New England was personified by it's teams the Celtics would be the legs, the Bruins the fists, the Patriots the brain and the Red Sox the heart. However, with the possible exception of sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office, being General Manager of the Boston Red Sox might be the most thankless job in America. If not, it belongs in the pantheon of sports jobs where the pressure outweighs the paycheck (see. GM of the New York Nicks, GM of the Montreal Canadians, Etc.)
            In a notoriously demanding sports town, the role of Red Sox GM is easily the hardest position to find love. It may have to do with the one hundred and sixty two game season, giving fans of all shapes and sizes seven whole months to find something to complain about. It could be the simplicity of the game. Baseball avails itself to the every man, there are no numbered defensive schemes or complex offenses its a slower game requiring fewer but more magnified decisions. It might be the kids, almost every New England child grow up playing little league baseball and at least once falls in love with the game. It very well may be the climate, New England's harsh weather lends itself to sports or really distractions of any kind. New Englanders care so much about their teams that sports talk radio runs twenty four hours a day on countless stations where constant complaints can turn worries into full blown panic by mid-summer. 
             In most places all a general manager has to do is win. At Fenway Park you need to win, constantly. Former Red Sox GM Theo Epstein was by all measures one of the greatest executives in Red Sox history. He ended an eighty-six-year old curse and in nine years in Boston he won two World Series Titles and was voted The Sporting News Executive of the decade. Yet, after failing to make the playoffs in 2010 and 2011 with the ladder including loosing eleven out of fourteen games to miss the playoffs, Theo Epstein was gone.

                In his shoes steps a man who has already replaced him, enter Ben Cherington. For a little over a month Cherington and current Cub's GM Jed Hoyer filled in for Theo well he took an absence from the team. In that time Cherington pulled the trigger on sending highly touted prospect Hanley Ramirez to the Marlins for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowel. The trade gave the Red Sox the 2007 World Series title with Mike Lowel being named World Series MVP, although coincidentally Hanley Ramirez has developed into one of the premier short stops in the game.
              As Red Sox GM, Ben Cherington will soon find out you get criticized not only for the moves you make but the ones you don't. Over the course of nine years Theo made some wonderful moves from signing an unknown David Ortiz (who turned into a seven time All Star), trading beloved Nomar Garciaparra (for the pieces need to win the 2004 World Series) to trading for Curt Schilling and Adrian Gonzalez. However, none of those victories sit in the mind of Sox fans quite like his failures. He signed John Lackey to a eighty two million dollar contract, tossed one hundred million dollars on Japanese phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka and blew seventy six million trying to find a shortstop between Julio Lugo and Edgar Renteria.
             In Boston fans tend to remember the duds, I'm looking at you Jose Offerman, Vin Baker, Tony Eason and Dennis Wideman. New Englander's gain as much pleasure from complaining as bragging. If it wasn't for the Rick Pitinos and Dan Duquettes of the world then the golden years of Red Auerbach and Bill Belichick wouldn't taste so sweet. There will undoubtably be complaining during Ben Cherington's era as Sox GM but it's the ability to deflect that criticism and stay above the fray that determines a general manager's success in bean-town.
             It's interesting that Cherington's first full season in charge will come on the one hundredth anniversary of Fenway Park, the unofficial cathedral of Massachusetts. It could very well be a defining season in the long history of Boston Red Sox. Well the Celtics and recently the Patriots have been more successful franchises, there still no question who the most popular team in New England is. The constant heart-break, the annual battles with the New York Yankees and the never ending season which plays out like a slow melodrama on radios and televisions from northern Maine to Cape Cod. Baseball adorns itself to New England's culture like lighthouses and salt water taffy. If Cherington wants to carve out his place in Red Sox lore he'll have to learn from the mistakes of his predecessors, step above the criticism and take a long look at what baseball actually means to New England.

- Liam Ariel