By the end of the night the first month of the season will be complete, albeit with just three days of games. The May 29th start was the earliest in Northwoods League history. The reason for the early beginning had more to do with the way the calendar fell than anything else. For the last few seasons the NWL has started on the Thursday of NCAA Regional weekend.

The weather hasn’t cooperated very well thus far. More than one-third (5 of 14) of the scheduled game through two days have either been postponed or suspended. Historically, weather causes more problems in the first couple weeks of the NWL schedule than any other part of the season. The year 2008 in general has been abnormal when it comes to weather. Much of the upper-Midwest experienced extreme cold and above average snowfall this winter. The cold trends then carried well into Spring. I’m no meteorologist so I’ll just hope that we’ll have a beautiful summer and uninterrupted baseball.

You may have noticed that the video webcasting has been a little slow to go. Some of the teams are experiencing bandwidth issues and are in the process of correcting this. The first week may be a little shaky, but with continued hard work we expect this issue to be resolved soon. In the meantime, take notice of the Northwoods Radio page and the ease of access in picking up each team’s online radio broadcast. In instances where teams aren’t currently able to produce a live video webcast, you still may find the game to available as an archive.

Notes from around the League

• Tonight the Duluth Huskies will have their 2008 Home Opener featuring a “FAN-ny cushion” giveaway to the first 300 in attendance and an incredible “Thunder by the Bay Fireworks Extravaganza” following the game.
• Huskies second baseman Joey Bonadonna is currently tied for the Northwoods League career stolen base record and with his next steal will sit alone atop of the leader board.
• The Rochester Honkers have teamed up with Silver Lake Foods, a local grocer, to help “Shut Out Hunger in Rochester”.  For every pair of shutout innings recorded by the Honkers, Silver Lake Foods donates a bag of groceries to local food response groups.  This is the first year of this promotion.  Silver Lake Foods and the Rochester Honkers each hope to make a difference in the fight against hunger in our community.
• In Brainerd, C &L Distributing confirms an appearance by the world famous Budwieser Clydesdales at Mills Field, Wednesday, Augsut 6th.
• Former big leaguer, and Loggers special assistant, Greg Vaughn made his regular season debut at Copeland Park last night. His son, Cory (San Diego State), is an outfielder for La Crosse.
• The Madison Mallards are excited to announce the addition of the DuckWear Depot, a covered store located down the third-base line that will offer fans a comfortable setting to shop at their own leisure.
• A tradition begins on August 29 and 30, 2008, as historic Riverfront Stadium will host the first annual River Jam, an outdoor celebration of music. The Waterloo Bucks and Twin Sports Group are thrilled to welcome legendary rock bands, Styx and Survivor to Riverfront Stadium. Tickets went on sale Thursday.

Weather caused problems around the Northwoods League on Opening Night 2008. The game in Alexandria between the Thunder Bay Border Cats and the Alexandria Beetles was postponed. The opener in Rochester between the Honkers and the Mankato MoonDogs also was washed out. 

Two games started but didn’t finish. St. Cloud at Brainerd and Wisconsin at Eau Claire will both have to be completed in June.

The other three games battled through some weather problems of their own but all went final. Check the Northwoods League scoreboard for those results.

The northwoodsleague.tv video webcasting debut took place on opening night. Quite honestly, there was both good and bad. A few locations struggled with technical issues, but adjustments are being made to eliminate all problems as soon as possible. Elsewhere, some webcasts went flawlessly.

Thunder Bay and Alexandria have scheduled a doubleheader for Friday night, beginning at 6:05 PM at Knute Nelson Memorial Park in Alexandria. The teams will play two seven-inning games. None of the other postponed/suspended games will be played on Friday night because in all three cases the two-game series was a home-and-home series. In all, five teams (Alexandria, La Crosse, Mankato, St. Cloud, and Wisconsin) will have their home opener on Friday.

You’re invited to become a member of this blog and add your questions or comments. I look forward keeping you, the fan, up to date on everything Northwoods League throughout the summer.

Curt Carstensen
Director of Operations
Northwoods League

Former Alexandria Beetles RHP Carlos Muniz was called up by the New York Mets Tuesday. Muniz, who spent his 2002 summer in Alexandria, is back to the big league roster for the second time this season. He takes the place of Mets pitcher Matt Wise who hit the disabled list with a shoulder injury. Muniz made his Major League debut on September 25, 2007. He has a 2.84 ERA in five career relief appearances. In his first stint with the Mets in 2008, Muniz pitched in three games and didn’t allow a run in four innings of work.

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080527&content_id=2781571&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym