Fall is the time when top elite summer baseball travel teams are in the process of solidifying their rosters for the summer of 2006. It is an important time for 07s and 08s, looking to get exposure at the next level, what ever that may be. It’s also the last “travel ball” summer for the 06s before moving on into the college ranks or MLB.

Who’s playing for whom???

Illinois Orioles, Wisconsin Blazers, Top Tier, Norwood Blues, Lombard Lightening, Burr Ridge Barons, Indiana Yankees, Southern Illinois Bullets, Tinley Park Thunder, Humboldt Travelers, Bloomington Normal, Legion Teams, etc, etc……..???? Players…? Coaches…?

“That’s the true harbinger of spring – not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano but the sound of a bat on a ball.” ~ Bill Veeck

The Wisconsin Blazers don't have a summer team.

One hundred veiws and no responses?????

Smokey, looks like all looky and no talky, Yet....

Illinois Orioles 18u team is taking shape. A few new faces so far, Joey Dispensa from Rita, Cedric Redmond from Joliet Township,Seth Blair Rock Falls, Lennel Mcgee from Mt Carmel, Louie Johanns from Naperville Central, Andrew Hagins from OPRF, and a couple guys making decisions. Couple old Orioles back, David Reynolds from Sandburg, Brian Lambert from Pontiac, Steve Crnkovich from Downers South. Few more pitchers and a few more positionals coming soon...
We will start Winter workouts next month and go every week untill end of Feb . We will play at ND, SIU, Purdue, ISU, UofI, and a couple Perfect Game events.
13 yr MLB (White Sox, Pirates, Marlins) Vet John Cangelosi will work exclusivly with our positional players and the pitchers will work with former Pirate Bill Copp. The instruction in the winter will be position specific and we will work hard.
We will have teams for 07- 08, 09 and younger for anyone interested in getting involved.(PM ME, email duecedoc24@aol.com or go to Cangelosibaseball.com email John at CBA10@comcast.net) Top exposure, professional coaching, great college coach to Summer coach relationships, great facility, and just as important , the competition level played will be second to none.
Good luck to all prospective players looking to continue your playing careers at the next level, and remember if your not working at your classwork as hard as your game , your missing the big picture....

I'll take a shot since I don't believe there are any other Bloomington/Normal posters on here.

B/N essentially has a Legion type of set up, though no longer affiliated with American Legion. New organization run by a Board made up of players' parents. Last summer had 3 18u teams and 4 16u teams. Made up of players from B/N's five high schools: Bloomington, Central Catholic, Normal, Normal West and University High. I assume tryouts will be in April, as they were in 2005. Head coach of Bloomington Gold, the top 18u team, has been Steve Clapp the last two years. He is the Bloomington High coach.

Players lost to graduation from the 2005 team:
Alex Berta - Normal West - Edgewood College
Eric Birky - Normal West - Lincoln Land C.C.
Cory McCullick - Normal West - Edgewood College
Mike McMillan - U-High - Bradley
Ben Reeser - U-High - Illinois
Drew Stephens - Normal West - Lincoln Land C.C.

Players I would assume will be returning to the Gold:
Scott Evans - Normal
Louie Joseph - Central Catholic
Craig Lutes - Normal - Illinois
Tyler McNeely - U-High
Brett Moore - Bloomington
Jonathan Moore - Normal
Michael Reu - Bloomington
Jason Solberg - Bloomington
Luke Stewart - Normal West - Georgia
Zach Williams - Normal West
Zach Zwaga - Normal West - UIC

Since I'm not an expert, I won't even try to name who may take the spots of the departed players. Quite a bit of talent in town though, so I would expect the Gold will continue to be fairly competitive with most of the travel teams named and with Legion competition.

deucedoc you have a pm. Thanks

Here is our roster so far. Still looking for outfielders, 2b, 1b, and Lhp. We should add another rhp soon.

Tyler Bullock C DuQuoin (Austin Peay)
Tyler Choate RHP-IF Carmi (SIUC)
Spencer Clifft RHP Huntingdon TN 07
Tim Dunn SS-RHP Bardwell KY 07
Brandon Gass LHP O'Fallon 08
Bryant George RHP DuQuoin (SIUC)
Lucas O' Rear RHP Nashville 07
Spencer Patton RHP South Central (Parkland CC)
Dillon Roark RHP Wilmington
Matt Weeks RHP West Frankfort (Missouri St.)
Lyle Winter RHP Pinckneyville 05
Daniel Palombi C Lexington KY 07

SI Bullets, WOW, what an assembly of talent. Very impressive. You're going to have a lot of fun. Most of these young men (All the ones I know) are as good of people as they are players. Good Luck!

Thanks Coach. They are a bunch of great guys and players. Hopefully we can get a few more metro east guys on our roster. By the way speaking of the subject you have a pm on ihss.

Thanks ducedoc, CentralIl, and SIBullets. Just trying to get the baseball juices flowing again as we approach the winter/holiday baseball doldrums. Looks like great representation from the best teams from the south, central, and north east Illinois. SIBullets you had one heck of a team last year! Looks like you have a great foundation going into the summer of 06. CentralIl, watched Gold in a close one against ducedoc’s Orioles last summer at SIU. You guys can bring it! ducedoc you have a great eye for talent as usual.

What about the Blues, TT, and the Lightning? TT was loaded with talent last year, how are you guys shaping up for this year? How about the Cardinals and Humboldt? You guys have solid programs that never let up. Represent?

“There are two theories on hitting the knuckleball. Unfortunately, neither of them work.” ~ Charlie Lau

i am sure several players are making their decision where to play next year. There is a lot of talent to go after...did the blues pick up any new players?

Making proclamations about who is playing where is a bit premature right now. Teenages can be rather capricious. With that said, I would think Top Tier has a good working nucleus from last year's juniors: Joe Benson, Conner Powers, Wade Kapteyn.

Lombard Lightning should have the bulk of it's players returning from our 17U team last year. It's still a little early and we should have a better idea once winter workouts start up in about a month or so.

PBR,


Of course Top Teir will field a strong team. As will Norwood, Siu, Illinois Orioles, Bloomington, White Sox, Lombards, Mattingly Baseball, Illinois Northstars, Sparks 17's, Lakeside Cards. Has the making for a nice tourny right up here.
I can't speak for SIU, Central and the others
but my proclamations are from only parents of the kids and the kids telling me they are in. I wouldnt consider putting a name on this site without the peoples permission to do so.

Definitly right on about kids being unpredictable though.... Good luck to all the Summer teams out there. The competition level in this area is picking up again, like it used to be in the old days. Smokey, I liked the post and judging by the 600 veiws in a day , people want to know too..

Deuce

Thanks smokey. Maybe the Orioles(Cangelosi) and us can meet up again down here for another championship trophy. I'm ready to start now. I have only put up names with permission. There is a long way to go till summer, most will be there a few may not. Who knows. Either way we will be playing baseball next summer. There are a few rated highly on the PBR lists and baseball america lists that I havent added yet just in case something happens.

SIU,
you had to bring that game up did'nt you..lol
Look forward to seeing you guys this Summer. Summer means the work starts for the guys and ends (for the most part ) for us. Anytime I can put my team in a situation to play against talent like yours and the others mentioned, that to me is what its about. You want to be the best you got beat the best. Smokeys post got my juices flowing and here we are stuck talking about it. Smokey, you did this on purpose! Look forward to seeing you guys soon and say hi to Coach Halstead and Todd for me. Good club, ran professionally and it was our pleasure to have met up with you guys.

Thanks coach. Sorry to mention that game. It was last year and I know the score was'nt an indicator of your teams talent or coaching. Looking at some of your guys now makes me think you might pound us. The feeling is mutual as far how we feel about your organization. There should be more teams like you guys out there.

What a difference 3 years makes!
3 years ago it was the Norwood Blues with a weak schedule and virtually no competition.
Now there are enough top programs for all the players in Illinois and the surrounding area.

Alphabetically listed.

Illinois Orioles with Bill Copp
Indiana Yankees with Buddy Swift
Lombard Lightning with Bill O'Brien
Southern Illinois Bullets
Top Tier with Todd Fine
Wisconsin Blazer's with Andy Stack

That's some Big Time opportunity for our kids!

Imo, the next big thing would be for a couple of these solid program's to combine for Jupiter
and East Cobb type tournaments.

How good (for example) would the Blazer's be if they were to get pitching help from the Oriole's!?
I'd be inclined to think that team would win or come very close in Jupiter.

PBR....For the record. The proud Irish name of Connor is spelled with an "O".

as an ex-coach and now a fan of high school baseball, I was just wondering if any local kids such as Livermore, Herrera, Allen and Reid are part of the above mentioned organizations. I have seen all play and would believe they would be valuable to any of these organizations.