I’m sure many of you read last Friday’s story in The Journal News and on LoHud.com about budget cuts forcing Section 1 to condense the boys and girls basketball schedules at the County Center from seven days to two. What you may not have noticed is that our stuggling economy will have an impact on the baseball season, too.

For the forseeable future, baseball teams can only play a maximum schedule of 20 games – four less than in the past. The max had been 24 for several years. I’m not exactly sure for how long, although I believe my high school team played 24 regular season games as far back as 1998.

The spring season is so condensed that this change won’t hurt everyone. It will actually help teams with shaky pitching depth, allowing them to pitch their No. 1 and 2 starters more regularly. It will also prevent rain (like those soggy early April days) from ravaging a team’s schedule late in the year. Oftentimes, clubs were scrambling to schedule games in late May, leaving them running on fumes come playoff time.

The greatest impact comes for schools that schedule games outside of the section, be it within the state or on spring trips to the south. Let’s take the defending Class AA state champ, Mamaroneck. If the Tigers still must play league opponents three times apiece, that’s 12 games. Now if you add in two games from Mamaroneck’s annual tournament and games against the first-place clubs from the three other leagues in Conference 1 (a fairly standard part of the schedule for most teams), here’s what I’d imagine the Tigers’ schedule would look like:

Mount Vernon (3)
New Rochelle (3)
Scarsdale (3)
White Plains (3)
Mamaroneck tournament (2)
League 1-B champ
League 1-C champ
League 1-D champ

Total: 19 games. That would leave Mamaroneck with one game to schedule. The Tigers would have to choose between the likes of Don Bosco, Clarkstown North, Clarkstown South, Ketcham and Arlington, rather than play them all.

The verdict: slashing four games is a big, big deal

If you’re a coach or an AD out there who has started looking at the spring schedule, e-mail me at jthomson@lohud.com and let me know how trimming four games will affect your baseball season.

Every week on our Gameday Central blog, readers can vote for the Gameface of the Week. If you want to check out one of our newest features, head over to the Gameday Central blog now. Don’t be afraid to chime in and vote.

The list of recruiting updates has been…for lack of a better word, updated. You can check out the new list here.

If you, your son or your player will play college ball and isn’t on the list, or you (or he) is on the list but has made a decision, shoot me an e-mail at jthomson@lohud.com.

Suffern’s Jim Brennan is, indeed, headed to St. John’s and will likely sign his letter of intent this week. The senior center fielder hit .467 last year with 25 runs scored and a whopping 19 extra-base hits. He helped lead the Mounties to a berth in the Class AA championship game against Mamaroneck.

UPDATE, 11/12, 12:02 p.m.: I talked to Jimmy last night. Here’s what he told me:

His decision came down to four schools: St. John’s, Boston College, Seton Hall and Tulane. He visited St. John’s and Seton Hall, and had planned to visit BC and Tulane before he made the decision to commit to St. John’s. Part of the decision was based on location; he simply wanted to be close to home. But it was also based on St. John’s commitment to him. Coaches had followed him since the previous summer, and had even made it out to a few high school games last spring. Throw in appearances in the Area Code Games in Long Beach, Ca. and the East Coast Pro tournament in Lakeland, Fla. and Brennan had given St. John’s and others every indication he could play at the next level.

“St. John’s has been in contact with me for a while,” Brennan said. “They were there from the get-go.”

Like I said, Brennan was drawn-in by the location, but also because the school offers his desired major, sports journalism. (He is now my new favorite player.)

The Red Storm has also recruited several guys from his summer team, the Richmond County baseball club of Staten Island, where Brennan plays with players from some of the best programs in the tri-state area, like Don Bosco and CHSAA-powerhouse Moore Catholic.

“They’re doing a great job recruiting,” Brennan said. “A lot of good guys from our section are going there. (Some names: JJEF’s Joe Panik, Mamaroneck’s Sean Hagan, Beacon’s Anthony Cervone). And a lot of great players from outside our section, too.”

Here’s one interesting thing I noted to Brennan: It seems he and Matt McGovern of Mamaroneck were on the same radars. Think about it, McGovern and Brennan are similar players, center fielder/speedy leadoff types, and they were recruited by the same northeast powerhouses. Brennan said he wasn’t surprised. He ran into McGovern at a Reds tryout this year, and they have crossed paths elsewhere as well.

“That’s what happens in baseball,” Brennan said after complimenting McGovern. “Great players cross paths.”

Brennan expects to be used in that center field/leadoff type role when he lands in Jamaica. St. John’s center fielder Brian Kemp, a junior, is a draft prospect, but Brennan knows it’ll be challenge to be Kemp’s replacement.

“Nothing’s guaranteed,” he said. “I know I’d have to go in there and win the job, but I know that nobody’s going to work harder than me.”