Click to return to the home page
Canadian Baseball League
2011 Articles


Turning the Corner. For Now

(CBL Newswire) - by B-Mac of the Sherwood Shitrag

When the season started, Sherwood Park fans were feeling the pains that they had felt for previous seasons and every season since they made the move out of Banff. Inconsistencies on the mound and at the plate led to low win totals and fans chanting for player's heads handed to them on platters. This season was no different, starting off with the worst record in the CBL and led to the benching of several veterans.

Then, Owner Brendan Macgranachan decided to shake up the line-up a bit, moving closer Carey Lasecki to the rotation and making ex-ace Candy Subdeck there new closer. Macgranachan also decided to call up OF Laverene Kass, 2B George Criscola and CF Boris Cruell and give them some playing time and increased the playing time and roles of veterans Pokey Pinherio, Skyrocket Funaro and 2B Edward Deere. Funaro and Deere were one of the several players who sat on the pine. "Basically, I thought that we had nothing to lose by making these changes and it was also a good time to give some younger players some playing time and veterans to prove they can still play baseball.", Macgranachan said.

This all came before a 6-game road trip in Moose Jaw and Regina. In those six games, the Ice won five, including a sweep of the Dragons and three extra-inning games. There loss? A 15-inning thrilling that ended in a losing cause for the Ice. "Defiantly, we are excited. This isn't supposed to happen to us. I don't expect this to be the beginning on a miracle run to the playoff as that won't happen. Our look currently is 2-3 years down the road and we are making sure that our team will be competitive in that time but on the contrary, this is almost going to be a taste of what the future will be like." Macgranachan said.

"I was disappointed with my play earlier on in the year, I got benched and whether I liked it or not, I almost deserved." said 3B Skyrocket Funaro, "I'm happy that we are turning it around and I'm apart of it."

"For sure, starting ballgames is a lot different from closing ballgames but it's helping the team so I'll keep it up." Said pitcher and team captain Carey Lasecki, "Obviously, we aren't going to go to the playoffs, that's not really in our minds now, I think we blew that chance in the first month of the season but we will continue to try to win and we don't want to finish dead last in the CBL again."

3 games again the Winnipeg Cobras are up next for the Ice.

Back to Archive