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Manchester Express 2002

This feature, and those to follow, will deal with the Manchester Express and their exploits on the playing fields of England during the 2002 season.

Preseason - by Roger Young

Since the old Stretford A's team moved to its current ground from Sale and became the Manchester Baseball Club, Dave Allen (general manager & webmaster), Chris Halloran (treasurer & head coach) and Tim Olsen (Express manager & PR officer) have all put a lot of work and time into the club. They are all taking a step back this year to allow others to get more involved in running the club. Everyone would therefore like to thank them for their time and effort over the last few years.

Therefore as the Manchester Baseball Club players came together in the early months of this year, we spent some time training on an all weather football and hockey pitch at the Armitage Centre, part of Manchester University's sport facilities. But as well as training just as much time was spent sorting out a new administrative setup. A new General Manager Matt Norburn took over the club affairs, and there will now be even more integration with the junior section run by Chris Woodall. Two Express regulars Hervé Boutin and Roger Young took over the Manager and Assistant roles respectively for the Express team. The A's management remains unchanged and in the hands of MBC veteran Ian Marchment, Ronan Dunne will help him this year.

The first step was to work out who would be in the Express squad. Their were hopes of not losing anyone and dreams of some fantastic new college stars coming out of the woodwork. In the end it was a mixture, Steve Sawyer moved down South at the end of last season and won't be playing this year. Plus late news that John Tucker would again be unavailable and was leaving to return to Australia for the summer were both minor setbacks. But the arrival of Danny Allen, who was born in England, but has been playing in the US school system. Plus the graduation of GB junior Karim Ariane to the senior squad (hopefully the first of the many promising juniors at MBC) made up for the above loses. It is also hoped that James 'The Heat' Hatherley and Rick Garcia would again be able to resume starting pitcher duties, after last season both being plagued by throwing injuries. So the Express squad took shape, and prepared for the first game

MBC players at pre-season training at the Armitage Centre, Owen's Park

Game One : Halton Jaguars - by Roger Young

At 1.45pm, the first Express batter, MBC veteran lead off hitter Dave Gould stepped up to the plate, he took it to a full count before striking out to a high pitch, and became the first victim of a large and high, but consistent strike zone. GB junior Karim Ariane then stepped up and ripped a high fly to left field where a good catch made him the second out. MBC veteran Roger Young stepped up and noting the rough field at Halton hit it on the ground towards third and benefited from the first of many bobbles to get on base with the first hit of the season. Roger then moved around the bases on a steal, overthrow and pass ball to score the first Express run. Debutant Danny Allen batting clean-up got on with a walk, and then Manager Hervé Boutin made the third out with a high fly ball to centre field.

The Express took to the Halton field and Matt Cooper (0:0) threw a few warmup pitches to catcher Yobert Pino. On the field, a mixed squad of young and old players threw the ball around and then it was time to play. The first batter and opposition pitcher Matt Thompson, strode confidently to the plate, bat in hand, and like many more Jaguar batters in the early part of the game took the attack to the Express. The Jaguars got 3 that innings, and the Express lower order were unable to respond in the second, the Jaguars again scored 3 to take a 6-1 lead. The only Express response was a walk from Roger Young, who again advanced on a steal, and then made third as Danny Allen beat out a throw to first as the catcher tried to recover a dropped third strike, and while the Jaguars were watching the play at first Roger stole home unchallenged, making it 6-2 to Halton, who then made that 8-2 in the bottom of the third. The Express started to try and keep the ball on the ground and pulled it back to 8-5 in the top of the fourth, but then Halton scored 4 more to go 12-5 up after 4 innings.

Matt Thompson pitches to Alex Rossi at Halton

The Jaguars were getting the better of Matt Cooper's pitching so Hervé Boutin (1:0) brought himself in and immediately silenced the Jaguars' bats as he made good use of the strike zone and the Jaguars' kkeennessto swing at pitches on the edge of the zone. The Express bats also were starting to warm up, a lot more hits on the ground prompted some errors under pressure by the Jaguars' infield, and there were also two doubles by Roger Young (who got 4 hits in the game), and 3 successful bunts by Dave Garrett. In response the Jaguars brought in Rob Hall to try and close the game, but the Express rally continued to bring the score to 14-15 to the Jaguars at the end of the eighth inning. With the lower Jaguars order up in the ninth the Express now knew if they could get a lead they could win the game. Clean up hitter Danny Allen strode up and had so far been hitless, but finally burnt the Jaguars' closer hitting him high over right field for a home run that tied the scores at 15. The Express then went around the order and Danny made the last out of the innings, falling to a great diving catch at first, but the Express still went into the bottom of the ninth with a valuable 3 run lead.

Danny Allen homers to tie the game in the 9th

The lead allowed the Express to make outs the priority, and tiring pitcher Hervé Boutin clung onto a hard line drive to record the first. The second batter slipped away on a walk, but the third batter went down swinging. That brought up the top of the Halton order and as lead off batter Matt Thompson hit a grounder and made first on an overthrow - and survived a very close call at second, the first Halton run scored. The next batter hit a shot into left field allowing Matt to come around to score, but the Express held their nerve and looked for the out, and as the over zealous batter tried to make it a double, Dave Garrett got the final out of the game on a great relay from Dave Gould at left field, the tight decision at second this time went in favour of the Express and the game was over, the Express had won 18-17, what a game.

Back: Karim Ariane, Hervé Boutin, Alex Rossi, Danny Allen, Dave Gould
Front: Matt Cooper, Roger Young, Yobert Pino, Dave Garret

Game Two : Manchester A's - by Roger Young

The Express beat the A's 37-10 in the first Manchester derby since 1999. A good friendly game which saw the A's get off to a slow start, but play some good attacking baseball near the end of a 7 innings game. The Express played solid baseball with Roger Young (1:0) pitching the whole game to get the win, striking out 7 A's players in 6 complete innings. The offense was shared around the order, but lead-off batter Dave Gould scored 7 runs in 8 PAs, and debutant junior Johnny Woodall got 3 hits and 4 BBs in 7 PAs.

Left: Express in Grey, Centre: Umpire Chris Woodall, Right: A's in Black

Game Three : Shropshire Panthers - by Roger Young

The Express lost a difficult away match against the in form Shropshire Panthers 14-17. In a match interrupted several times by rain, the Express pitching struggled to find the strike zone set by stand-in umpire Rich Williams, officiating after the starting umpire suffered a nasty crack on the arm to the first pitch from Danny Allen (0:0) in the Panthers first innings.

The Express had started with a bang, in the top of the 1st innings Danny Allen homered for the second time this season, and next batter Manager Hervé Boutin then matched him, hitting his first home run since 1994! Hervé had a great game overall and added a grand slam in the 6th, briefly taking the Express ahead in the game. The game hinged on this 6th innings, with the Express scoring 5 runs (including Hervé's grand slam) with no outs, then after getting runners to 2nd and 3rd with just 1 out the Express gave away a stupid double play on the bases, giving the Panthers an easy way out of trouble, and allowing them to finish the innings on a high, the Panthers then scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 6th to immediately level the game again. The Panthers also brought in their closing pitcher, who stopped the Express scoring in their last 3 innings.

Earlier in the top of a controversial 4th innings most of the players thought Danny hit a second homer, but the umpire - who had initially signalled a home run, ruled a ground rule double (GRD) after an appeal from CF, leaving Danny stranded at 2nd base when the innings closed. However in the bottom of the 4th there was a miss at RF by the Express, RF said he didn't touch the ball which ended up over the boundary, meaning a GRD, but the umpire ignored this appeal and allowed play to continue, effectively making it a HR. This inconsistency potentially cost 2 runs and upset the Express players, but in the end the Express paid for not getting on top of the Panthers' batters early, and again had to play from behind for most of the game.

In an effort to get control of the game the Express used 4 different pitchers, with debutant Sam Allen (0:1) showing a lot of promise but unluckily picking up the loss, despite only pitching in start of the 7th innings. Without starting pitchers James Hatherley, Rick Garcia and Dimtcho Dimov the Express have struggled in early iinningsof the first few games with just their relief pitchers available. Rick and James should be back in contention from next week, and with the Express 2:1 they are still in a good position, and things should get better.

Express players and spectators take cover during one of the rain breaks

View the post game discussion on the Bulletin Board

Game Four : Glasgow Stars - by Roger Young

The Express played the Glasgow Stars for the first time at Allen field. The match kicking off on a very sunny breezy day in Manchester at 2pm, but only after junior manager John Eaton (who came down to spectate) stepped in at the last minute to umpire the first innings. This was because new SA umpire Ivan Salvesen had not found the ground on time, on his first visit to Allen field. Ivan arrived during the first innings and started umpiring from the top of the second. The sun had also bought out long-time Manchester baseball legend Harold Booth who offered to umpire the bases. With two very experienced former players and umpires at the helm the players concentrated on the game in hand.

The game started with a bang as the Stars scored 3 runs in the top of the first and the Express replied with 6 runs. However the Stars kept the pressure up in the first few innings and the Express for the third time in four weeks found themselves behind in the match, being 8-7 down after 3 completed innings. Express Starter Roger Young (1:0) then gave way to Hervé Boutin (2:0) who pitched the middle 3 innings giving up just 2 runs and picking up the win. An impressive Sam Allen (0:1) then closed the last 3 innings without giving up a single run, and recorded 4 K's. Whereas the Stars found scoring increasingly hard as the match progressed the Express bats came to life, especially in the 6th innings with 8 runs scored, including Danny Allen and Hervé hitting back to back homers - for the second week running. Danny also hit a solo shot in the 5th to take his tally to 4 homers in 4 games. In the end the Express racked up 22 runs to the Stars 10, with the Stars not scoring again after the 4th innings.

The match should have seen the first appearance of the season for Rick Garcia, but being a vet he was unfortunately called out to a case just before the start of the match. Not thinking he would make it to the game at all manager Hervé Boutin left him off the line-up. Rick made it before the match had progressed too far, but the Stars stuck to the letter of the law and wouldn't let him into the game. Rick the former Express manager (2000), 3 times batting champ (1999-2001), former MVP (1999) and current holder of the record for most homers in a season (8 in 1999) will now have to wait for the DH v Menwith Hill in 2 weeks to join the home run race - which Danny and Hervé are setting alight! Menwith's form to date suggests Rick needs to get off to a flier if the Express are to match today's win. Before then there is a small matter of the DH v local rivals Liverpool.

Harold Booth and Ivan Salvesen officiate the match;
a combined 140 years of experience.

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