Former Rutherford Little Leaguer Jack Egbert was called up to the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday 21-Apr, and he made his debut against the Baltimore Orioles that evening.
Pitching the eighth inning at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Egbert got three ground outs but also walked a batter and surrendered a home run to Aubrey Huff, his second of the game, which extended the Orioles’ lead in the rain-delayed contest to 10-3.
The long-time starting pitcher was sent to the bullpen at Triple-A Charlotte at the start of the 2009 season in order to prepare for an early appearance with the big club. In five appearances with the Knights, he pitched seven innings, allowed nine hits and two walks, and struck out six. He earned a victory in a game against Durham on Saturday 18-Apr.
Egbert’s debut appearance for the Pale Hose makes him the fifth former Rutherford Little Leaguer to play in Major League Baseball, and the fourth pitcher, joining Bill Hands, Pat Pacillo, and Bobby M. Jones. The only former Rutherford Little Leaguer to make it to The Show as a position player was Brant Alyea.
Rutherford Little League still has two pitchers working in the high minor leagues. Vin Mazzaro is starting at Triple-A Sacramento, in the Oakland Athletics organization, while Frank Herrmann is a starter for Double-A Akron, a Cleveland Indians farm club.
The Rutherford Little League congratulates Jack Egbert on his debut in Major League Baseball.
The Rutherford Little League and Rutherford High School teamed up for their second annual Little League clinic Sunday 5-Apr.
Head coach Carmen Spina and fourteen Bulldog varsity players conducted the clinic, which was open to all Rutherford Little Leaguers aged 8 through 12. Photos are available.
The Bulldog roster is composed almost entirely of former Rutherford Little Leaguers, and they were eager to give back to the program where they began their baseball careers. Our thanks to coach Spina and the players for their assistance.
At its Annual Meeting 25-Sep-2008, the Rutherford Little League took two steps to improve the safety of players in its program.
The League decided that, effective with the 2009 season, all players newly selected to Major level teams must wear a batting helmet with a face guard while batting, running the bases, or coaching the bases.
Helmets with face guards have been a part of the League since 1987, when they were mandated for all Minor League and Tee Ball players. Parents of players in Major League have been able to sign a waiver allowing their children to wear a helmet without a face guard. Henceforth, the waiver will only be available for players who were in Major League in 2008 or earlier.
“The early model face guards were made of plastic, and while they protected players’ faces, they could also impede vision, and players were reluctant to wear them,” said league president Walt Mager. “The new wire guards offer the same protection with improved visibility.”
The League phased in the wire guards at its Minor and Tee Ball levels over the last several seasons.
The League also passed a resolution authorizing the board of directors to research and implement a form of heart protection for all pitchers in Rutherford Little League.
“With older and stronger players in the league now, we are just one line drive away from a devastating injury,” said Jeff Cassella, a manager and board member for over 30 years. “The cost to the League would be minimal, knowing we may have avoided a tragedy.”
Suitable protective devices have been developed in recent years which do not impede the pitching motion. The intent is for heart protection to be in place for all pitchers in the 2009 season.
Separately, the League resolved to allow players of league age 7 to pitch in the Double-A league, for 6- and 7-year-olds. From 2004 to 2008, this level was restricted to coach pitching.
Managers will be encouraged to develop 7-year-olds as pitchers, as Little League Baseball’s pitch count regulations make it necessary for more players to be able to pitch. The regulations limit 7- and 8-year-olds to 50 pitches in a game, and a pitcher who throws more than 40 pitches in a game may not take the mound for the team’s next game.
No score or standing is kept in Double-A, so managers will be able to develop pitchers without worrying about winning or losing the game.
The Rutherford Little League thanks head coach Carmen Spina and the Rutherford High School baseball team for the coaching and skills clinic they conducted at Memorial Park Sunday 18-May. Photos of the event are available.
Coach Spina and his assistants will be conducting a baseball camp this summer. Contact the Rutherford Recreation Department for more details.
Parents.tv, the video arm of Parents magazine, has featured the Rutherford Little League in a video called “Batter Up!”
The video, shot in part at the Rutherford Little League field in March, shows parents of prospective young players how to get involved in baseball, particularly Tee Ball. Several members of the League are featured, as well as a number of Tee Ball players participating in a practice on the field.
Follow this link to view the video (you will leave the RLL Web site): Batter Up!
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Our pins feature six blue and six red stars representing each team in our American and National Leagues with a distinctive “R” baseball logo in the middle.
These pins are specially priced so everyone can buy enough to keep some and to trade for other league pins from other teams.
Set of three (3) pins- $10.00
Individual pin- $4.00
To order, download the order form (in Word document format or Adobe PDF format). Be sure to submit your order quickly, as supplies are very limited.
Boiling Springs Savings Bank has donated a board with 7-inning line score and run total. The installed board, seen here shortly after its installation 30-Mar, is a product of the Spectrum Corporation.
The bank previously donated scoreboards to the League in 1966, 1981, and 1996. Those boards, manufactured by Electro-Mech Corporation, only displayed the score, inning, and count.
Former Rutherford Little Leaguer Isaac Pavlik (Tommy’s 1992), who opened the season with the New Jersey Jackals of the independent Can-Am League and was selected to play in the league’s All-Star Game, had his contract purchased by the Chicago Cubs Tuesday 25-Jul.
Pavlik, who was last in Minor League Baseball with the Colorado Rockies organization in 2004, was leading the Jackals in wins (6) and strikeouts (65) when the Cubs came calling. He has been assigned to the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx (Jackson, Tenn.) of the Southern League (Class AA).
Rutherford Little League completed the 2006 season with six former players pitching in the minors. The others are Bobby M. Jones (Park 1984), Erie SeaWolves (AA - Detroit Tigers); Jack Egbert (Kurgan 1995), Birmingham Barons (AA - Chicago White Sox); Frank Herrmann (Rotary 1996), Lake County Captains (A - Cleveland Indians); Jim Wladyka (Sports 1995), Hagerstown Suns (A - New York Mets); and Vinny Mazzaro (Lions 1999), Kane County Cougars (A - Oakland Athletics).
Due to the increasing number of injuries sustained nationwide as the result of the use of high-performance non-wood bats, Little League Baseball has joined with other organizations in mandating modified bats.
Effective with the 2009 season, all non-wood bats used in Little League regular season and tournament play must carry a factory-imprinted certification that they have been tested and comply with a Bat Performance Factor standard of 1.15 or below. This will be displayed as “BPF 1.15”.
The BPF is a ratio that compares the rebound of a ball off an aluminum bat with that of a ball struck by a wood bat. Most wood bats will test to a BPF of 1.00, so a bat with a BPF of 1.15 “performs” 15 percent better than an average wood bat. By introducing a BPF limit, Little League hopes to reduce the danger to pitchers and infielders from hard-hit balls.
Persons looking to buy new bats for their children to use should be aware that existing non-wood bats without the BPF imprint, or printed with a BPF above 1.15, will be illegal in 2009. Wood bats remain legal so long as they meet the restrictions of 33 inches maximum length and 2¼ inches maximum barrel width.
In what may be a first for Rutherford Little Leaguers in professional baseball, two former players were briefly the opposing pitchers in a South Atlantic League game in Hagerstown, Md., Saturday 22-Apr.
Frank Herrmann (Rotary 1996) was the starting pitcher for the Lake County Captains against the Hagerstown Suns, giving up two runs, one earned, in 3 1/3 innings. In the top of the fourth, Jim Wladyka (Sports 1995) took the mound for the Suns, a New York Mets affiliate, in relief of Jonathan Niese. Wladyka gave up two runs, one earned, in two innings and wound up taking the loss as the Captains, a Cleveland Indians farm club, won the game 5-4.
Rutherford Little League has three other pitchers in Minor League Baseball, all in different leagues. Bobby M. Jones (Park 1984) is with the Erie SeaWolves (Detroit Tigers) of the Eastern League; Jack Egbert (Kurgan 1995) is with the Winston-Salem Warthogs (Chicago White Sox) of the Carolina League; and Vinny Mazzaro (Lions 1999) is with the Kane County Cougars (Oakland Athletics) of the Midwest League.
Effective with the 2006 season, the United States Amateur Baseball Federation (USA Baseball) has changed the league age determination date from 31-Jul to 30-Apr.
USA Baseball, of which Little League Baseball is an affiliate member, made the change so that more players would be playing baseball at their chronological age during a given season. Prior to the change, a player who turns 12 in July would play his entire 12-year-old season – his last season of Major eligibility – before his 12th birthday. Under the new rule, that season would be his 11-year-old season.
Rutherford Little League will comply with the new league age determination date. No player will be accepted into the League who does not turn 5 by 30-Apr of the playing season. However, a significant group of players in the League in 2005 will gain an extra year of eligibility. Players born from 1-May through 31-Jul who are already in the League will “repeat” a season in 2006; for instance, a player born 15-May-1993 was league age 12 in 2005 and will be league age 12 again in 2006.
In order to accommodate the development of younger players already in Tee Ball and Minor League, Rutherford Little League has adopted the following practices.
A player who participated in Tee Ball at league age 5 in 2005 will be assigned to the coach-pitch Double-A league in 2006 even though that player may once again be at league age 5. The parent reserves the right to elect to retain the player in Tee Ball.
A player who has participated in two seasons of coach-pitch Double-A through 2005, 2006, or 2007 will be assigned to the player-pitch Triple-A league in the following season even though the player may only be at league age 7. The parent reserves the right to elect to retain the player in Double-A.
A player who is not at least league age 9 will not be eligible for selection to the Major League. A player must turn 9 years old by 30-Apr of the current playing year in order to be evaluated and selected.
Former Rutherford Little Leaguer Vin Mazzaro (Lions 1999) was selected by the Oakland Athletics in the third round of the 2005 Major League Baseball First-Year Draft.
Mazzaro, the 101st selection overall, is a right-handed pitcher at Rutherford High School. The Bulldogs (25-3) advanced to the NJSIAA Group 2 championship game Tuesday 7-Jun by defeating Wallkill Valley, 2-1, at Wightman Field at William Paterson University. Mazzaro struck out 12 and walked none in going the distance. The Bulldogs won the championship game against Seneca the following Saturday in Toms River, also behind Mazzaro’s arm.
Prior to the draft, Mazzaro signed a National Letter of Intent to attend and play baseball for St. John's University in Jamaica, N.Y. However, he signed a contract 7-Sep and instead reports to Athletics training camp in Arizona 18-Sep.
The Rutherford Little League congratulates Vinny Mazzaro and wishes him well in his future baseball endeavors.
Former Rutherford Little Leaguer Isaac Pavlik, who played for Tommy’s Towing through , has been signed by the New Jersey Jackals of the independent Canadian-American League.
Pavlik, who made a name for himself as a pitcher at Passaic Collegiate High School and became the closer for Seton Hall University, was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in 2002. He reached the high Class A level with the Visalia (Calif.) Oaks before the Rockies released him in early 2004. After his release, Pavlik hooked on with the Bangor Lumberjacks of the Northeast League, the Can-Am League’s predecessor.
After the Lumberjacks’ season ended, Pavlik was signed by the San Diego Padres, but he was released early in the season. Signing with the Jackals gives him the opportunity to pitch close to home.
Pavlik becomes the second former Rutherford Little Leaguer to appear for the Jackals. Henry Manning (Flash 1980) was a coach for the Jackals from 1998 to 2000, and he caught in several games in 1998. Manning is now the head coach at Pace University.
The Jackals, who have won four league championships in their seven years of existence, play at Yogi Berra Stadium on the Montclair State University campus in Little Falls. They are scheduled for 54 home games between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend.
Local Link: Rutherford Little Leaguers in the Pros
External Link: www.jackals.com (New Jersey Jackals official site)
A.W. Van Winkle & Co. joins the list of Major League sponsors in Rutherford Little League for the 2005 season. The company is a real estate firm whose current office on Station Square opened in 1867 and which has roots in Rutherford dating to the 17th century.
Van Winkle first sponsored a Rutherford Little League team in 1992 but was also a sponsor in the Rutherford Baseball Council prior to 1987.
The new sponsor assumes the National League slot occupied by the Rutherford/East Rutherford Kiwanis Club since the League’s founding in 1951. The local chapter of the service organization was unable to continue its sponsorship due to declining membership. We thank Kiwanis for their 54 years of support to the League.
Former Rutherford Little Leaguer Jack Egbert was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 13th round of the 2004 Major League Baseball First-Year Draft Monday 7-Jun. He has signed with the White Sox and has been assigned to Great Falls in the Pioneer League.
Egbert, a 2001 Rutherford High School graduate, just completed his junior season at Rutgers University. He won 18 games in three seasons for the Scarlet Knights, and finished 7-4 in 2004, including a 2-1 victory against Old Dominion in which he outdueled Justin Verlander, the second player chosen in this season's draft.
As a Rutherford Little Leaguer, Egbert compiled a 5-2 record for Kurgan-Bergen Realtors from 1992 to 1995, pitching mostly in relief. In his 12-year-old season, he struck out 88 batters in 37 1/3 innings, and he was second in the National League with a 1.61 earned-run average.
Former Rutherford Little Leaguer Rob Walton concluded his first season as head coach of Oral Roberts University with an NCAA tournament appearance.
Walton led the school, located in Tulsa, Okla., to the Austin, Texas, region, where the Golden Eagles were eliminated by host Texas, 7-3, in the regional final Sunday 6-Jun. Under Walton's direction, Oral Roberts finished with a 50-11 record and captured the Mid-Continent Conference championship for the seventh consecutive year. For his efforts, Walton was named conference Coach of the Year.
From 1973 to 1975, Walton played for B. Altman & Co., a National League team in Rutherford Little League. In 1975, Altman (9-6) finished one game behind Critchley Candy in what remains one of the tightest pennant races in league history.
In 1981, Walton was named Most Valuable Player of the Babe Ruth Baseball 18-and-under tournament, in which Rutherford's entry won the national championship. The next spring, he pitched Rutherford High School into the NJSIAA Group 2 state championship game.
After high school, he passed on an offer from the Texas Rangers and went on to play for Oklahoma State University, appearing in the NCAA College World Series at Omaha with the Cowboys in 1986. From there, he played in the Baltimore Orioles organization from 1986 to 1988.
Walton joined the Oral Roberts coaching staff for the 1999 season as pitching coach and recruiting coordinator under head coach Sunny Golloway, who moved on to the University of Oklahoma when the 2003 season ended.
Nick Urbanovich, a senior second baseman at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J., and a former Rutherford Little Leaguer, has been honored as the best defensive player in NCAA Division 3 baseball for 2003 by Collegiate Baseball magazine.
Urbanovich played shortstop for Boiling Springs Savings from 1992-95, and he went on to play the position at St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City through 2000. He moved to second base upon his arrival at Rowan.
During his junior season of 2003, Urbanovich committed just five errors at second base, none of which involved fielding a ground ball. He posted a fielding average of .975 and was a part of 31 double plays in 41 games. That, combined with his .373 batting average, helped lead the Profs into the NCAA Division 3 tournament.
In recent seasons, Rutherford Little League has placed numerous players onto college and professional rosters. Three former players are currently pitching in the Big East, Joe Reid and Jim Wladyka at St. John’s and Jack Egbert at Rutgers. In the pro ranks, pitcher Bobby M. Jones spent the season with the Richmond Braves of the International League; pitcher Isaac Pavlik was with the Visalia Oaks (Rockies) of the California League; and third baseman Jason Kane toiled for the Washington (Pa.) Wild Things of the independent Frontier League.
Former Rutherford Little Leaguer Isaac Pavlik, a pitcher at Seton Hall University, was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the tenth round of the 2002 Major League Baseball amateur draft Tuesday 4-Jun. He has signed with the club and expects to be assigned to the Tri-City Dust Devils (Pasco, Wash.) of the short-season Class A Northwest League.
Pavlik, who played for Tommy's Towing from 1990 to 1992, did not take up pitching until his 12-year-old season, when he went 3-3 with a 3.96 earned-run average and 52 strikeouts in 33 1/3 innings.
The left-hander went on to hone his craft at Passaic Collegiate High School before going on to Seton Hall, where he was used primarily as a reliever. He set the Pirates' records for career pitching appearances, with 84, and for saves, with 22. In 2001, he was named Most Outstanding Player of the Big East tournament, which Seton Hall won.
The last Rutherford Little Leaguer to play in the Colorado organization was Bobby M. Jones (Park Exxon 1982-84), who was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers but made his major league debut for the Rockies in 1997. He is currently with the New York Mets.
Congratulations to Isaac Pavlik on his imminent debut in professional baseball.
For the 1999 season, the 49th year of Little League Baseball in Rutherford, the League has added two new Major level sponsors.
DiNoto Fuel Oil and P.B.A. Local 300 move into the Major ranks, replacing Naborhood Pharmacy and Rotary.
In the American League, DiNoto Fuel Oil, a supplier of heating oil sales and service since the 1950s, moves into the Major League lineup. DiNoto has sponsored teams in the Rutherford Baseball Council and the Rutherford Little League for four decades.
The new National League sponsor is P.B.A. Local 300, the Rutherford chapter of the state Police Benevolent Association, which provides benefits to police officers and their families and sponsors local community programs. The local P.B.A. has been involved with the League since the 1980s.
The League welcomes its two newest Major League sponsors, and thanks Naborhood Pharmacy and Rotary for their many years of support.
On Wednesday 29-May-1996, the Pioneers of William Paterson College (Wayne, N.J.) won their second NCAA Division 3 baseball championship in five years.
The Pioneers (39-5-1) rallied for five runs in the eighth inning to defeat California Lutheran, 6-5, in the showdown game.
Among the players on the WPC roster are pitcher Bob Slomkowski, catcher Dan Egbert, and utility man Steve Cook. All three are Rutherford residents and former Rutherford Little Leaguers.
Slomkowski played for Kurgan through 1987, and he holds the league record with 100 career runs scored. His Kurgan team won the National League title in 1984 and 1985, and the division crown in 1987, when he went 7-1 on the mound.
Egbert was on Tommy's Towing through 1987, as his team won the town championship in his 12-year-old season. Egbert finished the year with a .465 average and a 5-0 pitching mark.
Cook played for Kiwanis through 1987, hitting .426 in his 12-year-old season to help his club to a 12-4 record, one game behind Kurgan in the final standings.
Sean Rooney, another former Rutherford Little Leaguer, was one of the assistant coaches for William Paterson. Rooney won the National League pitching title in 1983, as a member of town champion B. Altman & Co.
Congratulations to the William Paterson College baseball team on a job well done.
The Board of Directors of Rutherford Little League has opted to comply with a directive by Little League Baseball regarding Web sites on the Internet. As a result, many of the planned site upgrades, which would have enhanced the site's usefulness, have been scuttled.
Little League's directive says, in part:
Never place the name of any Little Leaguer on the Internet (including individual stats). With a child's name and a phone book, it is not difficult to ascertain a child's address.
As a result, the team rosters which were placed on the Web site in late March have been deleted, leaving only the names of the teams, the names of the managers, and the team schedules. Plans to give complete game-by-game results of Major League games, including scoring summaries and box scores, have likewise been scratched, although the line scores will continue to be posted.
We have also deleted the Birthday List, as it contains both former players and current players. Also coming down, regretfully, are the Stat Server and the Record Book, since current and recent players are listed.
We apologize for these late changes in plans, but the Board of Directors believes the potential value of the information to the local community is outweighed by the potential harm that may come to our players by the widespread dissemination of the information.
At our Tips for Starting a Web Site, you will find both our original guidelines for Web sites and the memo from Little League headquarters.
Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
Boiling Springs Savings Bank, a community presence in Rutherford for over 50 years and a Rutherford Little League sponsor since 1957, has agreed to donate a new scoreboard to the League for the 1996 season.
The new board, manufactured by Electro-Mech Scoreboard Corp. of Wrightsville, Ga., features solid-state electronic control, as well as the ability to display up to 99 runs per side and 19 innings. Like the League's previous boards, also made by Electro-Mech, the board will have numeric display of balls, strikes, and outs, as well as indicator bulbs for hits and errors.
The board, which will be in place for opening day 13-Apr, weather permitting, will also feature a plate above the team score reading "Donated by Boiling Springs Savings Bank".
Through the mid-1960s, players posted inning scores manually on a board in right center field. Electric bull's-eyes showed the count and number of outs. Boiling Springs Savings donated the first all-electric board for the League, the "Dial-O-Magic" model, in 1966. The bank also funded its replacement, the "Scorebrain", in 1981.
Rutherford Little League welcomes the Wallington franchise of Inline Skating Clubs of America to its roster of Major League sponsors.
Inline Skating takes over the sponsorship previously held by Rutherford Sports. Mike Formisano, who for over a decade was the principal owner of Rutherford Sports and its predecessor, Rutherford Sporting Goods, has an interest in the new venture.
Inline Skating is located on Main Avenue in Wallington, across the street from Farmland Dairies near the Erie tracks at the Wood-Ridge and South Hackensack line.
Additional sponsors will be welcomed for Tee Ball teams or outfield advertising. See below for more details.
