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Manchester Express 2003

This feature, and those to follow, will deal with the Manchester Express and their exploits on the playing fields of England during the 2003 season.

Preseason - by Roger Young

The Manchester Baseball Club players came together in the early months of this year, and spent February and March 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. There was no smooth hand over of club management this year as last year's GM had left at the last hour to set up a new team in Bolton. Roger Young accepted the difficult task of getting the club ready for the new season.

In the playing area last season's French Manager Herve Boutin has moved to Paris (where he has joined a new club - see links page), so Roger Young, Herve's assistant in 2003, took over the reins of managing the Express, bringing in longtime MBC players David Gould and Yobert Pino to join him in making a management team. For the A's 2002 MVP Chris Jackson took over from Ian 'Skipper' Marchment, and appointed the very experienced Ronan Dunne and Steve Smith as deputies.

The first step was to work at improving the roster, not just in playing ability, but also in numbers. A very active recruitment drive over the winter saw many new faces turn up to pre-season, numbers were never a problem and even home Man Utd games and poor weather didn't drop numbers training on frosty (but mainly dry) Sunday mornings below 20.

Sorting out the Express squad was relatively easy, it was not easy to replace States bound Rick Garcia or Herve Boutin. Plus the late news that Alex Rossi had been sent back to work in the States was a blow, as was the news that longtime British players Dave Garret (retired) and James Hatherley (injured) were unlikely to be available this year. However the regular Express quartet of Roger, Dave, Yobert and Matt Cooper were still there. The Allen brother Sam and Danny also returned bringing their younger brother Matt to join them, plus another GB junior Mark Brick also joined from National League southern team Bracknell, strengthening both the infield and pitching roster. Our South American contingent was also increased by the arrival of experienced infielders Luis Arrevillagas and Ramon Urdaneta. While younger junior MBC members William Fusi-Rubiano and Jonathann Woodall look more than ready to play a bigger role in the Express team this year. Unfortunately the third junior Karim Ariane injured himself before the season started, as did new Scottish recruit Neal Bearne. Hopefully they will recover to play some part in the season, but the late arrival of 2001 pitcher Yang Wu saw him step in to become the 13th team member - the minimun required by the BSUK to roster a team. With the new rookies the A's were also able to roster 20 players, making MBC by far the largest club in the North of Britain.

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

The Full MBC roster is available here.

Game One : Bolton Brewers - by Roger Young

The Manchester Express (1:0) produced a solid start to the 2003 season, beating the rookie Bolton Brewers 21-5 in 7 innings at Allen Field.

Mark picked up the win in his first game for the Express, he startd on the mound and pitched 4 stong innings - 3 of them scoreless. Roger pitched 2 innings middle relief and then another MBC GB Junior Jonothan closed the match K'ing all 3 batters he faced in the seventh innings. All the pitchers were backed up by an error free defense, and a very strong infield display.

Offense saw 12 hits shared around the order, with Mark, Roger, Luis and Ramon picking up 2 each, but there were also doubles from Yang and Yobert. Luis became the third MBC player to hit a debut homer and the first at Allen Field, he also recorded 4 RBIs, while Roger recorded 5 RBIs, including his 100th career RBI for MBC. Jamie Sherlock got the loss pitching all 6 innings fro Bolton. Updated stats here and records here

Batting	Player	Fielding
1	David Gould	LF
2	Mark Brick	P/3B
3	Roger Young (c)	RF/P/-
(sub)	Martyn Gough	-/RF
4	Danny Allen	CF
5	Luis Arrevillagas	1B
6	Yang Wu	3B/-
(sub)	William Fusi-Rubiano	-/2B
7	Ramon Urdaneta	2B/-
(sub)	Jonothan Woodall	-/RF/P
8	Matt Cooper	SS
9	Yobert Pino	C

Express players after opening day win

Game Two : Glasgow Stars - by Roger Young

The Express (1:1) lost to an improved Glasgow Stars 30-5 on a cold wet day in Scotland. Jonny was unfortunate to pick up the loss while Brad Jones got the win for Glasgow. Updated stats here and records here

Express players at Glasgow.

Game Three : Edinburgh Diamond-Devils - by Roger Young

The season continued on 11 May with the Express again on the road to Scotland, this time for a DH in Edinburgh. The Express still seemed to be on the motorway at the start and trailed 9-2 after the 1st innings, but this was not the team that lost to Glasgow, and the Express rallied behind injured reliever Yang, who after giving up 3 runs in the third pitched 5 scoreless innings. In offense the Express clawed their way back into the game, with three 2 run homers, from Luis, Roger and Matt (his first ever). They finally overhauled Edinburgh in the 8th (first extra innings), then a great catch in left from Dave, follwed by a K and a 1-3 by Yang defended the one run lead for a great 14-13 victory. Yang picked up a deserved win while Tommy Booth got the loss for Edinburgh. Updated stats here and records here

Yang gets the win for the Express.

Matt beats a close call at home to score the go ahead run on a Dave fly ball.

Game Four : Edinburgh Diamond-Devils - by Roger Young

In this second match of the DH the Express fought hard but in the 5th innings they ran out of steam and went down 12-2, but left Scotland happy to record a win, and see a bit of sun! Roger picked up the loss while David Farr got the win for Edinburgh. Updated stats here and records here

Game Five : Manchester A's - by Roger Young

In the first match of the DH the Express took an early 3 run lead in the top of the first and never gave it up. There was good hitting all around from the Express plus Yang was perfect through the first 2 innings on the mound, and when Dimo came on to close his first match of the year the Express held onto their 10 run lead to finish it 5 innings. Yang picked up the win for the Express and Paul Fagan the loss for the A's in a very fast game of baseball. Updated stats here and records here

The Venezuelans against the A's

Game Six : Manchester A's - by Roger Young

In the 2nd game the A's led off but only put 2 runners on base in the first 3 innings pitched by Roger, and neither of them made it past 2nd base. Roger left the game after the 3rd and Matt took over the pitching duties. 2 more runners reached in his 2 innings, but again neither got past 2nd base. Meanwhile the Express batters had scored in every innings to rack up 16 runs by the top of the 5th, including a first homer at Allen field for Mark. This also stopped the game in 5 innings with none of the A's batters getting a hit. Roger picked up the win while Chris Jackson go the loss in a battle of the managers. Updated stats here and records here

An enthrawled crowd watch on at Allen field

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