{"id":4537,"date":"2010-04-23T14:45:38","date_gmt":"2010-04-23T21:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=4537"},"modified":"2010-04-23T14:46:24","modified_gmt":"2010-04-23T21:46:24","slug":"major-leaguers-ponson-spiezio-stand-out-in-openers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/23\/major-leaguers-ponson-spiezio-stand-out-in-openers\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Leaguers Ponson, Spiezio Stand Out in Openers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two of the most seasoned former major leaguers were among the opening night stars in the Atlantic League <\/strong>Thursday.\u00c2\u00a0 Sidney Ponson<\/strong> would have had an unblemished six-inning stint in leading Long Island <\/strong>past Lancaster <\/strong>8-5 if not for a three-run, second inning blast by Joe Gaetti, <\/strong>the son of former big league star Gary. <\/strong>And, former World Series <\/strong>hero Scott Spiezio<\/strong>, hitting seventh in Newark\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/strong>order, drove in three runs, including a two-out, two-strike, game-tying single in the bottom of the ninth to get the Bears to extra innings.\u00c2\u00a0 Newark got its only lead of the night when onetime Pittsburgh<\/strong> <\/strong>catcher J.R. House <\/strong>delivered a two-run double in the bottom of the 10th<\/sup> to end the five-home run contest in a 10-9 victory over Camden<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

York<\/span><\/strong> Has Drama and Top Crowd<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

York, <\/strong>which seems confident of rebounding from a last-place 2009, got off to a winning start, 4-3 over Southern Maryland<\/strong> when Val Majewski <\/strong>delivered a full-count single in the bottom of the ninth, and the Revolution <\/strong>also claimed opening night attendance honors with a gathering of 5,717.\u00c2\u00a0 Perennial leader Long Island <\/strong>drew 5,552, Newark<\/strong> <\/strong>had 2,801 and Bridgeport<\/strong> <\/strong>1,929.<\/p>\n

Walk-Off Blast for Former Newark Star<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>The most dramatic blow Thursday night may well have been struck several hundred miles away when 2007 Newark<\/strong> <\/strong>third baseman Corey Smith <\/strong>cracked a walk-off 10th<\/sup> inning homer over the centerfield fence to give the Los Angeles<\/strong> Dodgers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/strong>Double-A farm club at Chattanooga<\/strong>, TN<\/strong> <\/strong>a 6-5 victory.\u00c2\u00a0 Smith, who had 18 round-trippers (and 72 RBI) for the Bears, also had a run-scoring single and a walk for the night.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>The Plainfield<\/strong>, NJ<\/strong> <\/strong>native, who turned 28 last week, has gone 4-for-8 with three runs batted in the last two games to lift his season average to .259 along with four doubles and seven RBI.<\/p>\n

* * * *WANT MORE INDEPENDENT BASEBALL COVERAGE?\u00c2\u00a0 Check out our blog, \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/a> * * * *<\/strong><\/p>\n

DeRenne Gets Promoted, Hits Strasburg<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Some quick hits.\u00c2\u00a0 The York Daily Record\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/em> Jim Seip <\/strong>was Johnny-on-the-spot in recognizing that former Revolution <\/strong>standout Keoni DeRenne <\/strong>not only was promoted from his player-coach role in Class A to Double-A Reading<\/strong>, but was the only player to get a hit off highly-regarded Stephen Strasburg <\/strong>of Harrisburg<\/strong> this week.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This (promotion) was all I wanted, DeRenne told Seip.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wanted a shot at Double or Triple-A.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 The line drive off No. 1 draftee Strasburg cannot hurt\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6With Alberto Castillo (Newark, Camden, Road Warriors) <\/strong>back in the Baltimore <\/strong>bullpen, the Atlantic League <\/strong>now has three hurlers in the majors\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Nelson Figueroa (Long Island) <\/strong>is scheduled for his first start for Philadelphia <\/strong>on Saturday. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong> (Subscriptions to the <\/em>Atlantic League Notebook <\/em>are available on a monthly or full season basis via www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/a> or www.WirzandAssociates.com<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Bob Wirz also writes a weekly column, the Independent Baseball Insider<\/em>, as well as a blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com. The author <\/strong>has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as chief spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two of the most seasoned former major leaguers were among the opening night stars in the Atlantic League Thursday.\u00c2\u00a0 Sidney Ponson would have had an unblemished six-inning stint in leading Long Island past Lancaster 8-5 if not for a three-run, second inning blast by Joe Gaetti, the son of former big league star Gary. And, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6254,9,78],"tags":[4032,6480,6484,4324,6479,493,6478,60,6481,6483,6482,6487,665,6485,6486,6252,3142,291,677,6477],"class_list":["post-4537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atlantic-league-notebook","category-general","category-minors","tag-baseball-coverage","tag-centerfield-fence","tag-corey-smith","tag-extra-innings","tag-former-major-leaguers","tag-independent-baseball","tag-joe-gaetti","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-night-attendance","tag-night-stars","tag-perennial-leader","tag-plainfield-nj","tag-rbi","tag-scott-spiezio","tag-sidney-ponson","tag-southern-maryland","tag-stint","tag-third-baseman","tag-trippers","tag-world-series-hero"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}