“You can’t win a national championship unless you win the first game.”
– NU Head Coach, Pat Fitzgerald

Well, game one is in the books.  I won’t go over last Thursday as I’ve already written about that, elsewhere.  As for Saturday, there are no odds, for the game, that I can find, which is probably due to New Hampshire being a 1-AA team.  I wouldn’t consider it a walkover, though; New Hampshire is, I think, the number 2 team in the 1-AA polls.  And it’s imperative that the ‘Cats win all four pre-season games, I think, if they want to see post-season play. 

This issue of the Ponderings is going to be mostly about alumni.  Most minor league baseball seasons are either finished or very close to being finished.  NFL pre-season is over now and the regular season begins on Thursday night.  I’ll give you as much of an update as I can on the fates of the baseball and football alums.

First, baseball:

Two guys I followed last year, Gabe Ribas (02) and Dan Konecny (04), were released by the Phillies and Tigers, respectively.  As far as I can tell, neither has since been picked up by any other organization.  As far as I know, they are out of professional baseball, entirely.  If someone knows otherwise, I’d be thrilled to hear from you.  Drop me an email at: briarbowl@yahoo.com.

J.A. Happ (photo courtesy of readingphillies.com/Ralph Trout)

The alum most likely to reach the majors this year, if only for a minimal September stint, is J.A. Happ (04).  He’s kind of hung up with the International League playoffs.  Over the weekend, the Phillies promoted Happ from the double-A Reading squad to the triple-A team in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.  He was thrown right into the fire on Monday night as he got the call to take the hill against the Rochester Red Wings, the triple-A squad of the Minnesota Twins, where he gave up one run in six innings, walked one and struck out four on his way to an 8-1 victory in the first triple-A outing of his career.  It’s pretty obvious to me that the Phils have no intention of bringing Happ up permanently this year but I wouldn’t be surprised if, after Scranton’s run in the playoffs is over, he makes his way to Philadelphia for the proverbial “cup of coffee.”  In any case, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he ends up on the Phillies roster sometime next season. 

Mark Ori. (photo courtesy of lexingtonlegends.com)

Mark Ori (05) also saw playoff action this week.  Ori plays first base for the Lexington Legends, a single-A affiliate of the Houston Astros.  In one game against the Lakewood Blue Claws, Mark is 1-4 with a strikeout.  If you remember, Ori struggled at the beginning of the season but he finished up the 2006 regular season campaign batting .352 with 8 home runs and 60 RBIs.  Pretty impressive, I’d say.  Hopefully next year Mark will make the jump to double-A Corpus Christi.  Of course, he could end up with the Astros’ advanced single-A team in Salem, Oregon, but that will be up to the Astros to decide.

Dan Pohlman (photo courtesy of jethawks.com)

For Dan Pohlman (04) and the Lancaster JetHawks, this season is a memory and not a terrific one, certainly.  Lancaster will miss out on the California League playoffs in 2006.  For Pohlman, you’d have to chalk this year up as a learning experience, I guess.  Dan’s final stats were 3-8, 6.95 ERA.  He was second on the team in both saves and holds, however, so there is a bit of a silver lining.  That, and the fact that the California League is not known as a pitcher’s league seems to indicate that just getting out alive is a good thing.  But it’ll be interesting to see what the Diamondbacks (who are the JetHawks’ major league affiliate) have in mind for Pohlman’s future.  Could he move up to double-A in Tennessee in 2007?  Or perhaps be sent to a lower level of class-A ball in South Bend, IN?

Jon Mikrut (photo courtesy of swingbaseball.com)

Jon Mikrut (05) of the Swing of the Quad Cities has been somewhat enigmatic to me.  Perhaps it’s the way the St. Louis Cardinals chose to use him that’s thrown me.  Jon was at Johnson City in rookie ball and was splitting time between third base and pitcher and not doing terrifically well in either capacity.  With the numbers he put up last year, I was sure the Cards would release him.  Instead, they jumped him up a level to the Quad Cities.  He’s no longer splitting positions and focusing all his energy on pitching and it has made a heck of a difference.  He’s pretty much spent the season in the bullpen in long relief but he’s tossed 60 innings in 50 appearances with a 3.45 ERA and led his team in holds.  Obviously, focusing on pitching only was his ticket.  Anyway, the Swing are in the Midwest League playoffs facing Kane County in the first round.

Dan Brauer (06) did so well as a Batavia Muckdog (3-4, 1.56 ERA in 55 innings) that the Phillies promoted him to single-A Lakewood.  Unfortunately, he’s finding it a bit tougher sledding in the South Atlantic League where he’s currently 0-1, 4.50 ERA in 8 innings of work.  Nevertheless, Brauer faces off against fellow alum Mark Ori in the playoffs as his Blue Claws go up against the Lexington Legends.

Mark Ori isn’t the first NU alum that Brauer has gone up against this season, however.  On June 26, of this year, Brauer, and his Muckdogs, squared up against George Kontos (06) and the Staten Island Yankees.  Kontos fairly well dominated as Staten Island won 6-1.  In fact, George has pretty well dominated all year, not just Brauer and the Batavia Muckdogs, but the whole New York-Penn League.  He finished the regular season at 7-3, 2.64 ERA over 78 1/3 innings.  His seven victories were the most on the Yankees staff.  Now, Kontos gets to show off his abilities under the pressure of the playoffs as Staten Island faces off against the Brooklyn Cyclones. 

Gilles Lezi (04) has returned from his June knee injury.  He took the field for the Calgary Stampeders on Thursday, Sept. 7, versus the Edmonton Eskimoes.

The NFL season has begun.  Several NU alums were vying for positions with various teams.  There were some surprises both because of guys who got jobs and guys who lost them.  The list, as of Sept. 8,  is as follows:

• Damien Anderson (02) was waived by the Arizona Cardinals.
• Mark Philmore (06) was waived by the Chicago Bears.
• Austin King (03) was retained by the Atlanta Falcons as their backup center.
• Barry Cofield (06) will be starting at nose tackle for the New York Giants.  This was a pleasant surprise.
• Noah Herron (04) was kept by the Green Bay Packers as a backup to running back Ahman Green.
• Brett Basanez (06) was cut by the Carolina Panthers but subsequently named to their practice squad.  This was a nice surprise in that the Panthers only kept two QBs on their roster.  Stefan LeFors, with whom Brett was competing, was released entirely.
• Tim McGarigle (06) was cut by the St. Louis Rams but subsequently signed to their practice squad.
• Ike Ndukwe (05) was released by the Washington Redskins.  This was an unpleasant surprise.  Ike made it through final cuts but the day after, the Redskins picked a guy off waivers and released Ike to make room on their roster. 
• Zach Strieff (06) was named backup right tackle for the New Orleans Saints.
• Kevin Bentley (02) was named backup outside linebacker for the NFC champion Seattle Seahawks.
• Napoleon Harris (02) was named starting middle line backer for the Minnesota Vikings.
• Barry Gardner (98) hurt his knee in the last preseason game for the New England Patriots.  The Patriots placed him in injured reserve meaning that Barry is still a Patriot but will not, by rule, play at all this season.
• Jason Wright (03) was named the number three running back for the Cleveland Browns.  This was a slight pleasant surprise.  It meant that two veterans, Lee Suggs and William Green, would have be to released by head coach Romeo Crennel before Jason got the job.  A tall order, but it happened.
• Trai Essex (05) continues to be the backup to Max Starks of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• Matt Ulrich (05) was released by the Indianapolis Colts.  This was a huge disappointing surprise.  I thought Tony Dungy was happy with Matt’s play.  I was very surprised by this.
• Luis Castillo (05) remains as the starting left defensive end for the San Diego Chargers.  The most solid of all the players on this list, many pundits are looking for this to be a break out year for Luis.  Is he, at least, Pro Bowl bound?  We’ll see in January.

That’s it for now.  I’ll try to keep you updated as much as I can.  Until next time, GO CATS!!!