6/12/10 Odds & Ends - Actually playing baseball edition

Mark Joukoff will be on the sidelines for the
next couple weeks.
Photo: AnchorageBucs.com

Holy cow, it's actually here. Alaska Baseball is happening for real. And what a start. The Oilers are pacing the league with a 3-0 record (didn't I tell you they'd be better this year?), there have been a ton of tight games and pitching duels, and I can't get enough. I'm obsessed. So here's the dish on this week's odds & ends:

- Let's start it off with a little trivia. Did you know that today is the birthday of the Mat-Su Miners? The Valley Green Giants -- precursors of the modern Miners -- played their very first game on this day in 1976.

- So far we've had a couple ABL draftees sign pro contracts. I already reported (and scooped the world!) that Panners recruit Darian Sandford has signed (real name is Clifford) with the Royals, and that Ryan Cole (Miners, 2009) has come to terms with Houston. Houston and KC have been the most active as far as getting their players to sign. Oakland has been aggressive in coming to terms as well, but the only draft pick out of AK they have is Matt Thomson (Oilers, 2007) who was taken in the 12th round, and so far there's no indication that those two parties have come to terms. Every other team has been pretty quiet as far as signing their draft picks, but we'll continue to monitor the situation.

- We've already got at least one injury on the short season. The Bucs' Mark Joukoff was injured while taking infield practice on Monday; twisting his ankle while leaping for a high throw. He'll probably be out for about two weeks, which means he'll miss about two starts on the hill.


- I would have mentioned it last weekend had I done an Odds & Ends, but I was recently interviewed via phone by Jeff Helminiak of the Peninsula Clarion for an article about 49th State Hardball. I just wanted to say thanks to Jeff for the great write-up and to the Clarion sports crew for doing such a good job covering the Oilers. They really keep it going all winter long, covering whatever news there is to tell about the team. They're one of the better local papers as far as that goes and I know that I appreciate it, and the Oilers faithful must as well. We've also got an influx of Oilers fans coming this way, no doubt some of them from that article, and man that team has some hardcore fans. Thanks to all the Oilers fans -- and everyone else -- for leaving comments with your thoughts on the team and their games.

- In case you hadn't noticed, a lot of the players have been out due to NCAA Regionals, and now Super Regionals. Is it selfish to want certain teams to lose so we can get their players? I'm watching this Texas/TCU game and Kevin Lusson just smoked an RBI line drive. The Pilots could really use that guy right now.Oh well, either way, a lot of them are coming up this weekend, so we should have some more-complete teams this next week. On the other hand, this part of the season is a great opportunity for some local guys to get into the game, and that's really cool too. So it goes both ways I guess. 

- On a personal note, I'm back in ALASKA, finally! I'm going to hold off on seeing any live action games until at least Monday, possibly Wednesday, and catch up on some housekeeping around here. There's a lot of loose ends as far as my projects go, such as doing the Miners' players to watch and updating the other teams, maybe some other early-season stuff that I've been planning to do. I don't want to let that stuff get too far away from me, plus I want to make sure I'm as familiar with the rosters as possible before I start hitting the parks. I also need to catch up with family, start looking for a real job (anyone got the sweet hook-up?), go buy a score pad, stopwatch and tape recorder, go to my daughter's first soccer game, all that good stuff. I'm already more or less officially slated to see the Panners at Miners on Wednesday and the Heroes at Bucs on Thursday. So if you're at the park, don't be shy, come say hello and tell me how much you love/hate the blog.