Home British baseball Roundshaw Hop: Saluting long service

Roundshaw Hop: Saluting long service

by Joe Gray

rh-(128x128)The national finals of the weekend just gone, as always, were about much more than just watching baseball. Top of my extra-curricular list was talking with fans, coaches, players, and officials. While it might be the only chance all year to meet some of the “old timers”, it’s also a great opportunity to catch up with the current players. You might bump into them more regularly than the “old timers”, but it’s only at an event like the finals that they have time to sit around and talk while watching a game not involving their own team.

One of my favourite conversations of the weekend concerned longevity. I was congratulating Ryan Trask on his 11th straight year of top-tier competition, and we were both lamenting the dearth of players who give that many seasons to the league.

The longest streak of continuous seasons in the top tier among players competing in 2010 is 13, held jointly by Michael Osborn (London Warriors and Richmond Flames) and Rob Rance (Bracknell). Trask’s active streak of 11 is third on the list, and one other player has reached double digits, that being Will Lintern (Brighton Buccaneers and London Mets).

For me, it is the players like these that make tracking stats over the years so enjoyable. I’m not suggesting that the British Baseball Federation put in a bulk order for silver carriage clocks, but I do think that followers of the game should be saluting these dedicated individuals. My humble offering is a list below of players active in 2010 with at least 225 top-tier plate appearances (PA) or 150 innings pitched (INN), recorded post-1994. These are the minimum cut-offs to be career leaders in average-based categories.

TRASK Ryan (811 PA)
OSBORN Michael (791 PA; 321.1 INN)
CAIN Cody (630 PA; 289.1 INN)
MATTHEWS Phil (485 PA)
RANCE Rob (476 PA)
DELZOPPO Grant (465 PA)
COLLINS Henry (454 PA; 299.0 INN)
VISSER Martin (366 PA)
LINTERN George (362 PA)
LINTERN Will (358 PA)
MAITLAND Matt (350 PA; 230.0 INN)
CATTERMOLE Mike (327 PA)
SAITO Yoshi (322 PA)
VERNON Paul (293 PA)
CLARK Phil (284 PA)
AZCUY Maikel (273 PA)
GILBERT Matt (256 PA; 236.0 INN)
STABE Martin (250 PA)
TRASK Michael (242 PA)
CRAMMAN Jonathon (225 PA)
  • TRASK Ryan (811 PA)
  • OSBORN Michael (791 PA; 321.1 INN)
  • CAIN Cody (630 PA; 289.1 INN)
  • MATTHEWS Phil (485 PA)
  • RANCE Rob (476 PA)
  • DELZOPPO Grant (465 PA)
  • COLLINS Henry (454 PA; 299.0 INN)
  • VISSER Martin (366 PA)
  • LINTERN George (362 PA)
  • LINTERN Will (358 PA)
  • MAITLAND Matt (350 PA; 230.0 INN)
  • CATTERMOLE Mike (327 PA)
  • SAITO Yoshi (322 PA)
  • VERNON Paul (293 PA)
  • CLARK Phil (284 PA)
  • AZCUY Maikel (273 PA)
  • GILBERT Matt (256 PA; 236.0 INN)
  • STABE Martin (250 PA)
  • TRASK Michael (242 PA)
  • CRAMMAN Jonathon (225 PA)

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5 comments

The Cram-man September 8, 2010 - 2:13 am

Hey guys, read on bsuk that Reid’s no hitter was the only recorded one in the top tier of british baseball but I believe I remember Kyle Gardner throwing two for the London Mets in 2007, wondered if you guys knew of these?

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Joe Gray September 8, 2010 - 8:04 am

The Cram-man:

Posting that thing about Reid on Twitter (which is where it is taken from) meant that I didn’t have many characters to explain it clearly – and so it’s easy to miss “postseason” in the list of words I clumsily strung together. These are all the known no-hitters (Reid’s is highlighted in dark blue as the only one in the postseason) – click here.

There’s nothing about Kyle in 2007 there, but I seem to remember that both his efforts were joint no-hitters – I’ve only recorded complete-game no-nos.

Great to see you joining the group of players with 225+ plate appearances. I hope you’re competing in the NBL for many years to come.

Joe

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The Cram-man September 8, 2010 - 2:31 pm

Sweet, the no-no’s Kyle through in 07 where both complete game efforts. They came against Essex and the Enfield Sidewinders, in that year National league teams played AAA teams. Cheers for the efforts with the stats this year, see you soon!

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Joe Gray September 8, 2010 - 3:07 pm

Sorry – you’re right. Now I remember… I was only tracking no-hitters in games between top-tier teams, so those were ruled out.

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BaseballGB » British Baseball Beat: Reflecting on the NBC September 9, 2010 - 7:04 am

[…] witnessed several exciting games including some controversial umpiring calls, had plenty of time to talk about baseball and were fuelled by some decent food as well.  I bow to Herts’ Rob Jones in his assessment of […]

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