The End of the Season and some thoughts for next

Tonight's game in Oklahoma was a great capstone for the season. The Cats nailed the Richmond Braves 7-1. They had two more homers (Merloni and Colamarino) Before the game Tony DeFrancesco named Lou Merloni as the Captain for the game. It was well deserved. Merloni has been an inspiration to the team. He did not disappoint tonight and hit a homer.

The Bee had a story this morning about Tony D our manager for the last five years. He has been great. He won three championships in those years. There is a good chance that he could be moved up in the As organization or could be seen in some other team. Tony D has the reputation of keeping the locker room and the dugout loose. When we have seen him at the team luncheons he has a graceful presence. He seems to genuinely care about his players.

His record is an amazing one. In his five years we played in three championship series and had a sweep in all three series. In a couple of years like this one, the parent club seemed almost indifferent to the problems of running the AAA franchise - there were hundreds of moves (this season more than 180) and yet he figured out a way to get players to work together.

But if Tony D gets his chance in the bigs - either in the As organization or somewhere else - the team should think about trying to attract Merloni in as a manager. Lou probably has a couple of good years left in his career and the Framingham native has a big commitment to Massachusetts. But his leadership of the team during this season were pretty clear. On the field he played in 110 games,100 hits and three homers. In the post season he had a total of four homers. He has had experience in the bigs but also demonstrated leadership capabilities for the team.

Merloni had a great season in 2007 - although before the first 2008 game (April 11) he will have just turned 37. In the current roster only reliever Julio Mañon is close to him in age. That is not to say he looks like someone his age or plays like someone his age. Merloni had a number of great plays at 3d base.

Two other comments about tonight's game. First, the ESPN 2 people were underwhelming in their coverage of the game. At several points in the game they would claim a situation for a batter which was about two pitches off. They also butchered several Cats names. They seemed almost indifferent to the AAA players. I got to listen to the radio coverage which had Johnny Doskow and his Richmond counterpart - they were both pretty good. Second, Oklahoma looks like a good park for baseball. At some point it would be a kick to see every AAA ballpark. I've been to a couple including the Zephyrs field in New Orleans and the Sounds. The Zephyrs stadium is a bit junky, the Sounds one is pretty nice. I've also been to the Grizzlies place in Fresno. What is fun about AAA ball is the individual personalities in the stadiums that we have visited so far.