Hudson Valley pulls out, and ESGs are in danger
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- January
- 17
We found out yesterday that the Hudson Valley region decided not to host the Empire State Games, which were scheduled to be held in Poughkeepsie this July. Now it appears the Games may be canceled altogether, according to Hudson Valley coordinator Frank Intervallo.
The state has yet to decide what to do, but obviously this is a major blow. The Games take the good part of a year to plan, so how would they proceed now?
You can check out Jake’s story from today’s paper. Let me know how you feel.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, January 17th, 2009 at 7:39 pm by Josh Thomson. 
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Josh Thomson has done some of everything since joining The Journal News in
March 2003. He began working for the Gannett weeklies during the winter of
2002 as a freelance writer. He joined the daily staff soon after and has
since covered various high school and pro sports. Away from sportswriting,
Josh lives in Westchester and spends his free time either with his
fiancee, Sarah, or expertly managing his various championship-winning
fantasy sports teams. He's visited 21 major-league baseball stadiums and
insists that Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are the best by far. Josh
graduated from Carmel High School in 1998, then went to Boston University,
where, in 2002, he received a degree in communications with a minor in
history. 
Jake Thomases has covered baseball, hockey, girls basketball, and girls soccer for the Journal News since arriving in 2003. He previously interned at The Poughkeepsie Journal while attending Vassar College. He is socking money away under his mattress to buy the Knicks, at which time he will trade Jerome James to Cleveland for a ham sandwich.
Josh,
I hear that C.J. Rifenhauser has left Iona after only one semester to attend a community college. Do you have any info on this matter?
yeah i hear the same thing I heard hes in north carolina the same place where Alan from cross river is going in the fall next year is that true?
Great job NY State!!!
ESG was the ONLY place that all college coaches could go to scout the talent in NY. As if our kids were not at a big enough disadvantage. Thanks alot!
The Clippers are still looking for a few seniors looking to play before they head off to college. If your interested e-mail info@clippersbaseball.org. You may be that guy that really didn’t get seen this past summer.
Our winter workouts have gone well and have attracted a lot of attention from the college and pro scouts. Over 40 underclassmen have been working hard to put themselves in a great position for the upcoming HS season. Some of the schools that have been to the workouts include, Manhattan, Stony Brook, Fairfield, High Pont, and Central CT. Scheduled for the next few weeks are Siena, Rhode Island, Winthrop, Elon, BC, Sacred Heart, Eastern CT and Jacksonville.
Clipper coach
Is it true that perfect game cancelled the qualifier in june?
If that is true and ESG is cancelled there really is no place for the areas best to play around here.
It is true from what I’ve been told. We have been in contact with the folks from Portchester who ran the Battle of the Boarder Tournament the last few years. They are going to hold their event during that weekend and some of us coaches have agreed to help get some of the college coaches there. Teams that have committed are Bayside, Clippers(2), NY9, Taconic Rangers(2) and then some of the others from past years.
Perfect Game ran into a conflict because the US Open Golf tournament is being held at Bethpage in LI, Hotel rooms were at a huge cost and traffic between the golf and beach would be crazy. The NE is also hosting the PG Academic Underclass National in NH.
This really stinks. I can’t beleive the two biggest area tourneys are cancelled.
My son played in the tournament at Port Chester the last two years. It sounds as if many more of the good teams will be there. It was a good last year to.
Nice for the kids to get in front of the college coaches without traveling all over the country.
No ESG and No perfect game arghhhhhh
C.J. not on IONA’s roster for 2009. Don’t know why.
ESG Baseball has not been eliminated for 2009. Please check the website at http://www.empirestategames.org for the correct information and updates.
New Ro, the team from new Ro was very good last year and I think the organizers are hoping that they will be back. We had a meeting with Mr Lovallo last week and they are trying to secure more fields to take a few more teams and really make it a good event that will attract the coaches that would have gone out to Baseball Heaven. I know one our roster is set as well as these other programs mentioned above, many schools will still make the trip.
As far as the ESG go, it’s really to bad that it may not happen. We always made our schedule to leave it as an option for any players to tryout. I believe if you check rosters, many of the kids on the ESG team played for one of these travel teams also. 4 or 5 Taconic kids, 4 or 5 NY9 kids a kid or 2 from the Clippers or Bayside.
Just some other local FYI stuff. The Peekskill Robins of the ACBL will be the summer home to a large group of local players. This will be a fun group to watch. Their roster will include, Mike Imbriale(Kennedy)SCAD, Joe O’Hagan(Fordham Prep)Guilford, Nick Alsoco(Mahopac)Johnson & Wales, Brandon McNelis(JJCR)Northeastern, Haadi Raad(Hastings)Weaton, Tom Luciano(Fox Lane)Duke, Joe Pedevillano(Lourdes)Duke, Joe Frabasile(Fordham Prep)UNC-G, Mike McDonell(Fordham Prep)Wofford, Maybe a few more to be added. Information can be found here: http://www.robinsbaseball.com/index.asp
ESG
You better check your info. The group that runs everything for the Hudson Valley and was supposed to host and co-ordinate the 2009 event has pulled out. The ESG will most likely not be played this year and even if it is Hudson Valley will not be participating. This event is likely over fore-ever.
We are very excited to say that we will be expanding the teams to 16 for this year. The quality of teams also will be greatly stepped up this year with some of the better teams in the North East playing. We already know that all of the local talent will be represented between the World Yacht Clippers teams,Taconic Rangers ,New Rochelle Athletics, Bayside Yankees and the two time Champions New york Nine. Our goal will be to get all of the players in our tournament to play in front of as many college coaches and pro scouts as possible in one weekend.We will reach out to every college coach in the North East and with help from the Ny Nine coaching staff and the World Yacht Staff we are expecting a great turn out. Check out our new site for the tournament just created this week at http://www.pcbattleattheborder.com
This year’s Battle at the Border is shaping up to be something special.Keep an eye out for the latest news at http://www.pcbattleattheborder.com
Teams Already Committed:
New York Nine Scout
New York Nine Showcase
New York Nine Futures
World Yacht Clippers American
World Yacht Clippers National
Bayside Yankees 18u
Taconic Rangers American
Taconic Rangers National
Team Connecticut American
Team Connecticut National
Connecticut Bombers 18u
Connecticut Bombers 17u
Richmond County Baseball Club 18u
Richmond County Baseball Club 17u
New Rochelle Athletics
Stamford Cardinals
The games are off and probably forever…so sad.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=764346&category=SPORTS
Just an update of first hand info from the Clippers workout. Lots of players from Albany to NR to NJ. More every week but lots of reps to go around. Last night coaches from Elon, Rhode Island, Siena, Manhattan, Sacred Heart, Dominican were all on hand and working with the players at different stations. Really pretty cool.
I feel for my son that this program is doing great things getting kids ready for the start of the HS season. It’s interesting to watch.
Updated team list
Probable Teams
in alphabetical order
Bayside Yankees
Connecticut Bombers 18u
Connecticut Bombers 17u
Long Island Titans
Long Island Titans
New Rochelle Athletics
New York Nine Futures
New York Nine Scout
New York Nine Showcase
New Jersey Twins
New Jersey Twins
PBI Eagles New Jersey
Richmond County Baseball Nationals
Richmond County Baseball Americans
Stamford Cardinals
Taconic Rangers Nationals
Taconic Rangers Americans
Team Connecticut Bluejay Nationals
Team Connecticut Bluejay Americans
Tri County Bulldogs Banter
World Yacht Clippers American
World Yacht Clippers National
23.TBD
24.TBD