High school student athletes celebrating the new ECC Website with former Boston Redsox catcher Roger Lafranois. (l-r) Dana Derrico, Woodstock Academy, Quinn Duffy, Bacon Academy, Marcel Simion, New London HS, Mike Green, Woodstock Academy, Ross Spencer, East Lyme HS, Roger Lafrancois, Andrew Hill, Bacon Academy, and Rachael Gavin, New London HS.
Several weeks ago, representatives of the Eastern Connecticut Conference (ECC) announced the creation of their new website at Norwich Free Academy. ECCToday.org, the interactive website, is designed to help raise funds for ECC Programs.
The website allows individuals to find out what is happening with any of the ECC sports. “This gives positive exposure to many of the young athletes. I think this is a good thing for everyone” says Roger LaFrancois, owner of LaFrancois Marketing Consultants and former Boston Red Sox catcher.
Visitors to the site will also be able to find tournament results, view action photography, vote for their favorite schools and sign up for a monthly e-newsletter. “We think it’s an awesome thing it is finally a way to broadcast stats and scores more globally. It gives us more opportunities as student athletes,” said Woodstock Academy student athletes Mike Green and Dana Derrico.
Referee Benji Esteves picks up the count over the fallen Juan Urango as Devon Alexander looks on from a neutral corner at Mohegan Sun Arena
by Alex Pierpaoli
photos by Rich Esposito
Devon Alexander unified the WBC & IBF 140 pound titles in beating Juan Urango by eighth round TKO at Mohegan Sun Arena. Alexander, of St. Louis, used smart, aggressive boxing to checkmate the wild-swinging, hard-charging Colombian, Juan Urango, stopping him for the first time in his 25 bout career. The Alexander-Urango fight was featured live on HBO’s Boxing After Dark to cap an eight bout card promoted by the fight game’s own P.T. Barnum, Don King.
In a sport that sees fewer and fewer American stars each year, Devon Alexander stepped forward as a fighter to watch with his brilliant performance versus Urango. Alexander-Urango pitted two southpaws against each other but it was clear from the outset that Alexander’s speedy right jabs were getting to the target before Urango’s wide right hooks and plaguing the Colombian who tried repeatedly to get his offense started. Alexander, unlike other similarly-styled boxers, uses upper body movement to avoid blows rather than distance and stayed close to the danger zone and well within Urango’s punching range while using constant but incremental side-to-side movement to force the aggressive Urango to pursue him. Alexander’s skillful use of distance kept the fight exciting and competitive. And although Urango was able to connect with power shots in rounds three, five and six, he was never able to hurt or stun Alexander, despite winning as many as four rounds on one judge’s scorecard.
Devon Alexander connects with a left to the mid-section of Juan Urango at Mohegan Sun.
Urango was bleeding from the nose and an abrasion above his left eye in round two that appeared to have been caused by a snappy right hook by Alexander. The right uppercut was another power punch that Alexander had success with from the start. Landing from long range or in close, Alexander strafed Urango with the nasty uppercut which Alexander admitted later he and trainer Kevin Cunningham had worked to perfect in training camp.
Their work paid off.
In round eight, Alexander connected with a picture-perfect right uppercut that caught Urango on the face just as he was throwing a left hand power shot and the Colombian slugger was instantly flat on his back as the crowd of 3117 let out a collective gasp. Urango was up at eight and ready to continue but in true professional fashion, Alexander rushed forward and finished things off with another well placed combination including another uppercut which dropped Urango again. Referee Benji Esteves stopped the bout at 1:12 of round eight.
Afterwards, Alexander, now 20-0 with 13 kos, hinted at an upcoming bout with former 140 & 147 pound titlist Zab Judah, who was ringside for the Main Event. Judah knocked out another St. Louis native, former welterweight champ Cory Spinks in Missouri in 2005 and promoter Don King looks to be setting the stage for Alexander to try and avenge Spinks’ defeat to Judah in the coming months.
After his performance versus Juan Urango, Devon Alexander certainly looks up to the task. During the in-ring post-fight interview with HBO’s Max Kellerman, broadcast to the arena on the PA system, Alexander made it clear what he thought about a fight with Brooklyn’s Judah.
“Zab’s the past tense,” Alexander said. “I’m the present tense.”
In defeat Juan Urango returns to Colombia with a record of 22-3-1 (17).
Providence’s Peter Manfredo Jr. attacks Matt Vanda in a middleweight Main Event at Mohegan Sun. Manfredo was the busier, more aggressive fighter over ten rounds and the Rhode Islander landed a big left hook to the floating rib in round six that put Vanda on one knee. The crowd enjoyed Manfredo’s work rate, chanting: Pete-ah, Pete-ah! as he pursued Vanda, pressuring him throughout the bout. With the decision win, Manfredo improved to 34-6 (18) while Matt Vanda dropped to 42-10 (22).
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Posted
on March 3rd, 2010
| category: Boxing, Sports
For Victor Alexander Baltov, Jr., “Baseball is a miniature version of the American culture.”
by Roger Zotti
The author contends that “Baseball is a miniature version of the American culture. The exposure of mass fraud in baseball is simply a small slice of the overall corrupt nature of corporate America.” He continues: “I feel as if I have lost a good friend, baseball, to the spirit of secularism and am writing about it, speaking truth.”
“Baseball Is America” is the first book in a trilogy. Victor’s next is Origins and History: The Good Bad and the Ugly, which will will be followed by Reclaiming the Strike Zone. That book, he says, will “boldly [offer] solutions to changing baseball and laterally America back to where it once belonged… identifying the trade-off between a noble America… and a toxic baseball culture too big to punish or fail.”
Jim Bouton (Ball Four), Howard Bryant (Juicing the Game), Viktor Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning), Steve Courson (False Glory) and Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Life) are authors who have influenced Victor, an outstanding amateur ballplayer years ago. As for Bouton’s book in particular, Victor writes that it caused “outrage and betrayal [from] the baseball community…the good, bad, and the ugly were revealed in print. The players couldn’t handle the truth about themselves being a bunch of party pill-poppers…”
While Joe DiMaggio is Victor’s all-time favorite player, he believes Curt Flood, one-time St. Louis Cardinals Centerfielder, is “the bravest man ever to wear a big league uniform.” Victor tells us that Flood informed then-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, in a 1969 letter, that he “was not a high-paid slave; he asked Kuhn to allow the American free enterprise system to operate within the baseball structure, thus allowing him to shop his services to the most interested party instead of being shipped to the City of Brotherly Love… at the time very harsh toward blacks.” It took several years for Flood’s words to become reality, but “Free agency would follow in the mid-1970s.”
Though Victor’s Oklahoma State baseball coach, the unforgettable Chet, runs a close second, the book’s most compelling individual is the author’s grandfather, George J. Minges, a man of principle and courage. An ardent Cincinnati Reds fan, he was appalled with the team’s “fix in the [1919] World Series.” From then on the “Reds were a tainted team” – and Mr. Minges protested by making “a conscious choice to never spend a red cent to see [the Reds] in person…”
Yes, some self-editing would’ve streamlined the book, but if you like a writer who isn’t shy about being politically forthright, or timid about expressing his Judeo-Christian beliefs – “I grew up seeing America through the lens of the Catholic Church” – read Baseball Is America. Victor Alexander Baltov Jr. is a knowledgeable, insightful, and forceful writer.
Victor Alexander Baltov, Jr. has hit a homerun with his first book, Baseball Is America: A Child of Baseball (AuthorHouse). An informative, passionate, humorous, and scrupulously researched autobiography, it’s concerned with the good and bad aspects of baseball, along with the sport’s link with religion, history, politics, music, movies (especially “Field of Dreams”), and Victor’s family and friends.
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on March 3rd, 2010
| category: Author, Sports
The Connecticut Sun is inviting Connecticut students in grades 4-8 to participate in the Second Annual Women in Sports Essay Contest, sanctioned by the Connecticut Association of Schools, in honor of National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD).
The Connecticut Sun is inviting Connecticut students in grades 4-8 to participate in the Second Annual Women in Sports Essay Contest, sanctioned by the Connecticut Association of Schools, in honor of National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD). All Connecticut students that are interested in participating in the project may submit a one-page essay answering the question: Who is your favorite female athlete and why? All essays must be received by the Connecticut Sun front office by Friday, April 9th. Sun players, along with members of the organization, will judge the essays. Entry forms are now available on www.connecticutsun.com.
NGWSD began in 1987 as a day to remember Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman for her athletic achievements and her work to assure equality for women’s sports. It has evolved into a day that acknowledges the past while recognizing current sports achievements, the positive influence of sports participation and the continuing struggle for equality and access for women in sports.
One grand prize winner will receive an exclusive school assembly with Sun mascot Blaze and/or players to recognize the winning student, essay and school. The winner will be recognized at a Sun pre-season game, receive four tickets to a pre-season game and have their essay posted on www.connecticutsun.com. Five runners-up, one from each grade level, will receive four tickets to a Sun pre-season game and their essays posted on www.connecticutsun.com. The first 50 entrants in the contest will receive a special gift from the Connecticut Sun as well as two complimentary tickets to a Sun pre-season game.
The Connecticut Sun tip off its eighth season at Mohegan Sun Arena on May 15th with a 3:30 p.m. game against the Chicago Sky. Season tickets and mini-plans are on sale now and can be reserved by calling a Sun Ticket Representative at 1.877.SUN.TIXX (786-8499) or by visiting www.connecticutsun.com.
