Cedar Grove Baseball players and coaches at last seasons opening ceremonies at Victory Road Park. Photo by Bill Forry

Cedar Grove Baseball has linked up with two of the nations leading youth baseball organizations this year, an innovation that league organizers hope will boost their player development and enrollment in the coming years.

The new affiliations with the Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken programs will give Cedar Grove access to higher-quality safety and training sessions and open up new lanes of competition with the potential to compete in regional and national tournaments.

The league is currently enrolling players from Dorchester and Mattapan with hopes of increasing their base of players by 10 percent this year. The league plays on city and state ball fields in Neponset, Cedar Grove, and Lower Mills. The season begins in mid-April and parents are encouraged to sign up their children as young as age 4 by the end of this month.

Were certainly going to enhance our outreach and we hope more and more young people realize that there are opportunities to play baseball here in Dorchester, said Cedar Grove Baseball president Charlie Maneikis. Part of the boards decision is that we now have a brand awareness with Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken that can help with that.

Aside from new uniforms that will include new identities with the affiliate leagues, Maneikis says that parents and players will see a difference right away in the pre-season preparations. There will be training sessions held at the Marina Bay Sports Complex, an indoor facility that Cedar Grove used on three occasions last year to help prepare players and coaches. This year, Maneikis said, there will be seven workout and practice sessions held at Marina Bay.

Over the next few years, one additional tangible change that will become present in our offerings as a result of our new affiliation will be more specialized skill building clinics, said Maneikis. By leveraging the terrific videos that are now available to us and by being connected to teams and resources throughout Eastern Mass, we will be able to create very focused, creative, and fun skill-building clinics. We did survey our parents this year during the registration process, and as a result, we know that parents are very much interested in these potential offerings.

Another important off-season development is a planned makeover for the Dorchester Park ball field that serves the youngest Cedar Grove players in the clinic divisions. The city of Boston using a grant from a private foundation plans to spend $35,000 on a mini-facelift of the Dot Bowl next month. The funding comes through the Boston Parks and Recreation, courtesy of the Highland Foundation and the Boston Red Sox.

The kids are gonna love it! said Maneikis. Renovations will create an actual look and feel of a small diamond with new clay and actual base paths.

Meanwhile, Maneikis said, the Cedar Grove league itself will spend another $5,000 this season on seeding and treating the grass at the ball fields they use. Thats on top of $5,000 spent on the same treatment last year. The idea of the lawn chemical and re-seeding program is to enhance the good work thats already being done by the guys and gals from the city and the DCR. It should mean even earlier greening and thicker grass.

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New season, affiliations for Cedar Grove Baseball league

Originally published March 16, 2015 at 6:07 PM | Page modified March 16, 2015 at 6:57 PM

Eastern Washington coach Jim Hayford already had told the story many times Monday by the time I got to him, but you wouldnt know it from the genuine wonder still to be heard in his voice.

Hayford spoke of intently watching the NCAA tournament selection show for 30 years, of painstakingly making up his own bracket as a youngster so he could fill in the names. How he had to write fast, because in the early days, there was no Internet to double-check the teams once they were read off.

When the name Eastern Washington, the team Im coaching, came up there, it was a surreal moment, Hayford said.

You want to know something else that is surreal? That the two teams from the state of Washington to make the NCAA tournament this year are separated by a mere 18 miles, an unlikely hoops hotbed in eastern Washington.

Seattle might churn out Division I players, but right now, with the Huskies in a rut and Seattle University still trying to make its mark, Spokane County is where its at.

The rise of Gonzaga, of course, is an old story, but no less notable building a basketball powerhouse out of thin air in Spokane and then sustaining it for 17 consecutive NCAA bids.

The Zags story line has shifted over time, from the lovable little upstarts to a team that is perceived as having underachieved in the postseason. Current coach Mark Few has never made a regional final, let alone a Final Four; this year, the Zags have another highly touted squad that will bring a No. 2 seeding into its South Regional game Friday against North Dakota State at KeyArena.

I feel bad for Mark at times, said his good friend, Ray Giacoletti. People always talk about the Final Four, but thats about being fortunate, getting on a run at the right time, other teams getting beat. The landscape of 17 in a row, sustaining something like that, is the most remarkable story in college basketball.

And Eastern, located just a few freeway stops away on I-90, would love to approach that kind of continuity. After racking up a school-record 26 wins and knocking off Montana in the Big Sky final, the Eagles drew a No. 13 seed and will open the tournament Thursday in Portland against fourth-seeded Georgetown.

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Gonzaga, Eastern Washington make Spokane area an unlikely hoops hotbed

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Especially given recent temperatures in the 80s, it might seem safe to assume that we have seen our last frost for the winter of 2015. But this being the month of March in Eastern North Carolina, its best to proceed toward April with some caution.

Freezing temperatures during the last week of March following days or weeks of mild weather is a familiar scenario if youve lived in the area for a while. And during my 28 years in Craven County, I can remember snow the first week of April, at least once.

Among other considerations, we should be careful about planting tomatoes, peppers and other warm season vegetables or annuals too early. Buying early for good selection is a great idea, but you dont have to actually plant things in the garden right away. Consider holding these plants in containers in a sunny spot, so that they can be moved into a shelter overnight if a freeze is expected. And remember that temperatures as high as 41 degrees Fahrenheit can subject tomatoes to chilling injury, which in turn can affect growth and fruit set for potentially the rest of the season (and peppers are even more cold sensitive).

Looking at March from a different perspective, we should move ahead with seeding new lettuce, mustard, radish and turnips as soon as possible, so as to sneak in one last crop before hot weather arrives. And if the weather turns out to be unseasonably warm for the rest of March and into early April, these late plants may be in for a bit of a rough ride. Potatoes also need to be set as soon as possible.

As always during March and April, weve been fielding a number of inquiries regarding fertilization of centipedegrass and the use of weed and feed products. Centipedegrass lawns are definitely starting to show some green foliage now, and theres always a temptation to go ahead and fertilize so as to push the lawn into greenup a little faster.

We strongly discourage fertilizing centipedegrass during March and April, and suggest waiting until around the end of May or early June. Since centipedegrass root systems have mostly died back and are starting over at greenup, fertilizer uptake will be very inefficient. Obviously, the portion of applied fertilizer not taken up by the lawn and the weeds will be lost to the environment.

Early season nitrogen that is taken up by your centipedegrass lawn will primarily have the effect of making it more susceptible to Rhizoctonia large patch disease. Furthermore, if we do have a late freeze which admittedly doesnt seem to be in the picture for this year centipedegrass lawns that were fertilized early will be more prone to cold damage. Finally, the case can be made that nitrogen applied in early spring will have the effect of pushing shoot growth at the expense of the recovering root system. Among other consequences, this increases the likelihood of iron deficiency and resulting streaks or patches of yellow (chlorotic) grass.

Regarding weed and feed, perhaps the best answer we can give is that these products are fine on centipedegrass if you apply them in late May or June, and if the fertilizer grade matches the needs of your lawn as determined by soil test results.

Tom Glasgow is the Craven County Extension director. Contact him at tom_glasgow@ncsu.edu.

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Tom Glasgow: Dont underestimate winters last hurrah

Published: 12 Mar 2015 11:30

A NEW grass pitch at a 1.5m football complex in Greenock is diseased and flooded before a ball has even been kicked, says a local councillor.

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Inverclyde Councils redevelopment of Rankin Park has been marred by delays but now there are claims the project is in disarray due to drainage and turfing problems.

Local authority SNP group leader Chris McEleny says he has received a number of reports from people that the 1.5m complex is a disaster and he has pressed officials for an explanation at a meeting of the education and communities committee on Wednesday.

Construction work is still to be completed on site and council officers have admitted there are a number of issues, but they say it should be ready for amateur teams for the next football season.

Despite assurances that turfing the pitch would create a better end product instead of seeding it, Cllr McEleny says he has been told that large areas of the park are dying from disease already and that the park is badly flooded with newly installed drainage at fault.

He said: Ive had reports that the drainage just isnt working and the turfing of the new pitch has been a disaster.

I have requested a site visit with council officials so that we can ascertain if reactive measures are indeed required as feared.

To be perfectly blunt I think people are getting fed up of public money being spent on facilities only to see more money required to fix problems that shouldnt have been there in the first place.

Excerpt from:
1.5m Rankin Park football complex is a 'disaster'

Published: 12 Mar 2015 11:30

A NEW grass pitch at a 1.5m football complex in Greenock is diseased and flooded before a ball has even been kicked, says a local councillor.

Share this image

Inverclyde Councils redevelopment of Rankin Park has been marred by delays but now there are claims the project is in disarray due to drainage and turfing problems.

Local authority SNP group leader Chris McEleny says he has received a number of reports from people that the 1.5m complex is a disaster and he has pressed officials for an explanation at a meeting of the education and communities committee on Wednesday.

Construction work is still to be completed on site and council officers have admitted there are a number of issues, but they say it should be ready for amateur teams for the next football season.

Despite assurances that turfing the pitch would create a better end product instead of seeding it, Cllr McEleny says he has been told that large areas of the park are dying from disease already and that the park is badly flooded with newly installed drainage at fault.

He said: Ive had reports that the drainage just isnt working and the turfing of the new pitch has been a disaster.

I have requested a site visit with council officials so that we can ascertain if reactive measures are indeed required as feared.

To be perfectly blunt I think people are getting fed up of public money being spent on facilities only to see more money required to fix problems that shouldnt have been there in the first place.

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1.5m Ranking Park football complex is a 'disaster'

The grass seeding took off a lot better than Zachary Peterson expected, so now there's a place to sit and throw a picnic for anyone visiting Davenport's River Heritage Park.

The park along River Drive near where 3rd and4th streets connect is open to the public just in time for this week's early spring weather. Peterson, a landscape design architect for the city, called it a "soft launch" at Wednesday's Levee Improvement Commission meeting.

The big-deal opening is scheduled for Memorial Day, when he said the city will dedicate the park with a boulder etched with the names of thethose who made it possible.

With a gazebo, river walk and railing designed to mimic the Centennial Bridge arcs, there's something for visitors to see now apart from the river view.

The Davenport Rotary Club invested more than $100,000 in the construction of the gazebo. The city and state are investing about $725,000.

"We're definitely getting bang for our buck here," Peterson said.

One project that remains undone is construction of a bioswale. The city and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continue to investigate clogged sewer infrastructure in the area.

"It's a real mess, but it's being worked on," Peterson said of the sewers.

Another future project that awaits private donations includes meandering paths through a prairie landscape on the west end of the park.

The Davenport City Council is expected to approve future plans at its April 8 meeting.

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River Heritage Park now open; set for Memorial Day grand opening

A section of McKinstry Street will close for 45 days beginning March 23 so workers can remove the final, big obstacle to completing the downtown Napa flood bypass channel.

That obstacle is McKinstry Street itself. The street extends across the eastern end of the bypass like a 6-foot-high dam. For the bypass to function as planned, McKinstry Street needs to be reconstructed at a lower elevation.

Once the McKinstry Street section is lowered, water will be able to flow over it during those rare times when the bypass is handling Napa River floodwaters.

The McKinstry Street work signals that the $12.6 million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bypass construction project is entering its final stage. Besides lowering McKinstry Street, remaining tasks include hydro-seeding parts of the bypass to provide more vegetation.

Well be out of there come mid-June, Corps spokesman Tyler Stalker said Monday.

Then Napa will have an escape valve for the Napa River when big storms hit. Rising floodwaters will top the weir at the eastern end of the bypass near the Oxbow Public Market and run for a quarter mile through the bypass to rejoin the Napa River just below First Street near Veterans Memorial Park.

Most of the time, the bypass will be dry and Napa will have a 13-acre, park-like setting with walking paths linking the downtown with the Oxbow business district.

McKinstry Street is not a thoroughfare. It provides a secondary entrance to the Oxbow district, which has shops and restaurants. People during the street closure will still be able to reach the Oxbow through the primary entrances at First Street from either Soscol Avenue or Silverado Trail.

In addition, the northern section of McKinstry Street outside the bypass will remain open.

Nordic Industries is the contractor doing the McKinstry Street work. A letter from the company said it will demolish the McKinstry Street asphalt in the bypass section, lower the street and build new curbs, gutters and a concrete street surface.

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Flood bypass construction to close McKinstry Street

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We feel your pain, college football fans.

Ever since Ohio State was crowned as the first playoff-determined national champion back in mid-January, we've been mired in a seemingly endless offseason. It's still almost six months until the first games of the 2015 season are on our TVs, and it feels like there's nothing to keep us entertained until then.

Or is there?

Believe it or not, there are other sporting events between now and then. And while nothing can match the excitement of those Saturdays filled with collegiate action, they're better than nothing.

Check out our suggestions for events to help tide you over during college football's long offseason.

USA TODAY Sports

When: March 17-April 6

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8 Events to Get College Football Fans Through the Offseason

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