{"id":70076,"date":"2013-07-02T12:50:09","date_gmt":"2013-07-02T12:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rcntv.rcn.com\/?p=70076"},"modified":"2023-04-14T19:35:05","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T19:35:05","slug":"the-sportstalk-shop-blue-mountain-league-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/the-sportstalk-shop-blue-mountain-league-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"The SportsTalk Shop: Blue Mountain League Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong>SportsTalk Shop: Blue Mountain League Thoughts<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s always good to sit down and chat with the people of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hometeamsonline.com\/teams\/?u=THEBLUEMOUNTAINLEAGUE&amp;t=c&amp;s=baseball&amp;p=home\">Blue Mountain League<\/a>, as we had President Bob Varju, Secretary\/Treasurer Tim Fisher and Orioles Player\/Manager Dave Stoudt on our most recent \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d show. In addition to talking about the first half of the season, their charity All-Star event and previewing what looks to be a certain horse race for the top four playoff spots this summer, we had to spend some time talking about the man the league was dedicating this season to, the legendary Ron Punkin Miller, and how much he meant to the league and to this area:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ifp2jniZZzQ\">www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ifp2jniZZzQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The entire show is available on RCN\u2019s Video-on-Demand for free for the next several weeks.<\/p>\n<p>A few other items we discussed during the program and in-between segments during our commercial breaks (when Fisher wasn\u2019t chopping me to bits:)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u00a0\u2022 If you haven\u2019t been following along, this is one of the most competitive BML seasons in recent memory; as recently as this past Tuesday, there were four teams tied for first, and two more teams no more than a game-and-a-half back.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2022 Although rain has been a major issue and most team are very backed-up with numerous games left to be played with less than a month left in their season, pitching on most nights as been very solid. We had a nice 2-1 pitchers\u2019 duel last Tuesday on RCN\u2019s \u201cGame of the Week\u201d and there have been a bunch of young pitchers stepping up and performing well.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2022 Speaking of youth, how about all the major contributions of the rookies and one- and two-year players this season! It used to be rare for more than one rookie on a team to earn even a regular starting role, but the talent of the league this year has really been on the rise with multiple rookies per team making significant contributions. This should make for some great careers to come for individuals and for the league.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2022 Northampton Giants\u2019 first baseman Dave Gulick has been making bats, not just for the BML, but also for local teams, minor league teams, and even bats that were used in the World Baseball Classic. If you want a good deal, get in contact with him.<\/p>\n<p>What are your memories of Punkin? What BML teams have impressed you so far this season, and which squads are most likely to make the playoffs? Post a comment or email them to RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SportsTalk Shop: Blue Mountain League Thoughts It\u2019s always good to sit down and chat with the people of Blue Mountain League, as we had President Bob Varju, Secretary\/Treasurer Tim Fisher and Orioles Player\/Manager Dave Stoudt on our most recent \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d show. In addition to talking about the first half of the season, their charity&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[43,57,437],"class_list":["post-70076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-the-sportstalk-shop","tag-baseball","tag-blue-mountain-league","tag-punkin-miller"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The SportsTalk Shop: Blue Mountain League Baseball Thoughts - RCN-TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The SportsTalk Shop: Blue Mountain League Baseball Thoughts - RCN-TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SportsTalk Shop: Blue Mountain League Thoughts It\u2019s always good to sit down and chat with the people of Blue Mountain League, as we had President Bob Varju, Secretary\/Treasurer Tim Fisher and Orioles Player\/Manager Dave Stoudt on our most recent \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d show. 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