The Association of Blind Citizens operates a program allowing visually
impaired individuals the opportunity to play baseball in a competitive
environment. The team is called the Boston Renegades. It is comprised
of visually impaired athletes and volunteer coaches from the greater
Boston area. They play an adaptive form of baseball for the blind
called Beepball or Beep Baseball. 2010 marks the ninth year the
Renegades will compete at the National level. If you are interested in
sponsoring or playing this sport please contact
us.
The
Renegades are on Facebook! BECOME A FAN TODAY!
In
late
February, the Renegades launched the first Facebook fan page for a team
in the
NBBA. In less than one month the team had 500 fans and it is
growing every day. We've found this to be a great way
to keep you in touch with the team and its members because we
have multiple players and
coaches posting articles, pictures and wall posts. Become a
fan of the Renegades and stay up to date with the team and your
favorite Renegades with information
such as:
Stories
about the players and
coaches of the team
Hundreds
of photographs of the
Renegades in action
Links
to our videos and other beepball videos
Information
about beep baseball and
the league
Information
about games and events
involving the Renegades
Understand
some of the inside jokes
of the Renegades
Links
to news and media from other
teams in the NBBA
Get
updates on when our web page is
updated
Share
your thoughts on the team and the information we post
Much
much more!
World Series, Here We come!
The Renegades are heading to Rochester,
MN for the 2010 Beep Baseball World Series. Boston goes with
the most confidence it has ever had with 8 wins in 11 games in the 2010
season. The Renegades are on a 6 game winning streak and are
clicking on both sides of the ball. The road is not going to
be easy. Day #1 of the World Series has the Renegades playing
two teams that have combined to win 3 championships in the
past three years and one of these two teams has played for the title in
every season since 2003. The Kansas All Stars are game #1 to
be played on Tuesday, August 3. The West Coast Dawgs are Game
#2 and the Carolina Pride round out the round robin portion of
the World Series. Follow the team on facebook all week long
for up to the minute information on the games. We will update
the web site when we return from the Series
Here
are the Pairings (With the Renegade's historic win loss record against)
Bracket A
1.
West Coast
Dawgs (0-7)
2. Kansas All-Stars (0-3)
3. Boston Renegades
4. Carolina Pride (1-1)
Bracket B
1.
Taiwan Home Run (0-0)
2. Chicago Comets
(0-4)
3. Wichita Sonics
(1-0)
4. Lone Star Road
Runners (0-0)
On
Saturday, July 24th the Association of Blind Citizens hosted the
1st ever Blind Citizens Beep Baseball Championship at Lincoln Sudbury
High school in Sudbury, Mass. This was the first time that 4
blind baseball teams have ever played together in one tournament in the
New England area. The Renegades would start the day by
defeating the Pennsylvania Wolfpack 8-1. The only team to
beat them to date in the Beast of the East was New Jersey.
The Lightning entered the game after losing a heart break
game to the Long Island Bombers 13-12 and one of their starters, Paul
Daye to injury. Boston jumped on them early and after three
innings invoked the 12 run mercy rule and would go on to win 13-0.
The last game was for all the marbles as the Long Island
Bombers entered with identical records of 2-0 in the Blind Citizens
Championship and 5-1 in the Beast of the East. Boston jumped
all over them winning 13-3 to become the first ever winners of the
Blind citizens Beep Baseball championship AND the Beast of the East.
When it came time to give out All Star awards. Boston would have two
players on each side of the ball. Shayne Cantan would lead
all players on Offense with a .710 batting average (22-31).
Larry Haile would hit .500 (13-26) to finish 3rd in hitting
after eye surgery kept him off the field till late June. On
defense, Justen Cantan would finish 2nd with 21 stops and Guy
Zuccarrelo would finish in a tie for 4th with 15 stops. This
was the first ever awards for Zuccarello (playing since 2002), Haile
(playing since 2005) and Justen Cantan (2nd year player).
Great Article on the Renegades and Beep Baseball in the MetroWest Daily
News
Check
out the latest article on the Boston Renegades from the MetroWest Daily
News from July 25, 2010. Here you can see some great photos and they
created a good youtube video that you can see to the right that
features JJ Ward. JJ was instrumental in helping the Renegades find
Licoln Sudbury High school as the home for the 2010 Blind Citizens Beep
Baseball Championship.
Thrown Bats and Rain Bring Stop to the Philly Hall of fame Classic. Boston Improves to 5-3 on the Season.
Boston
Traveled to Haddonfield, New Jersey to participate in the Philly Hall
of Fame Classic as part of the second leg of the Beast of the East
tournament. The first game was played in heavy rains for the
entire game. The rain fell heavy and the Boston bats were mighty.
In a game in where Boston hit the ball hard and far, their
opponents, the Pennsylvania Wolfpack played amazing defense. A
hard fought battle left the Renegades on top 5-2. In the other
match up of the day, the Long Island Bombers defeated the New Jersey
Lightning 9-7. With heavy rains making the fields unplayable the
umpires also stopped play due to the fact that three bats flew out of
the hands of different players with one of them hitting the Captain of
the Wolfpack, Greg Gontaryk. No more games were played.
This leaves the standings for the Beast of the East at
Boston 3-1
Long Island 3-1
New Jersey 2-2
Pennsylvania 0-4
Shayne Cantan is pictured here at the plate right before the game was called in a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the first inning
Renegades Win 1st leg of the Beast of the East
Larry
Haile gets a base hit against Long Island on his way to a 7 for 12 day
and a .583 batting average, 2nd best in the tournament behind teammate
Shayne Cantan
The
Renegades took 2 out of three games in New York to win the Long
Island Classic for the third year in a row. The Renegades got off
to a slow start dropping their first contest to the New Jersey
Lightning 11-6. The team rebounded to score 10 runs in two
innings against their rival, the Long Island Bombers on their way to a
16-8 win. This would be their largest margin of victory against
the Bombers in the history of the rivalry. The last contest of
the day was against the Pennsylvania Wolfpack which the Renegades won
15-5. Boston won the tie breaker which was based on run
differential.
Boston 2 Wins and 1 Loss
Long Island 2 Wins and 1 Loss
New Jersey 2 Wins and 1 Loss
Pennsylvania 0 Wins and 3 Losses
The
Renegades started off the 2010 season in Bolingbrook, Illinois on the
weekend of June 12th. This was their 7th year participating in
this tournament. The Renegades would play 4 games over two days and
battle the elements as well as the other teams. Boston lost game
#1 to the Indy Thunder 15-8. They then played a tight match against the
Minnesota Fighting Lions and they clung to a 7-5 victory. The
third match of the day was against the Kansas All-Stars. The game
was suspended in the 4th inning due to rain and picked up at 7:00 am on
Sunday morning. With a chance to go to the championship game or
potentially play for last place (due to a tie breaker scenario)
every run mattered for the Renegades. The 13-7 loss to Kansas
caused them to finish one run behind Minnesota in run
differential and sent the Renegades to the 7/8 game against the
Cleveland Scrappers. Boston defeated Cleveland 8-6 to take 7th
place. Click here to see box scores and read more about those games
Left to right front row: Evan Silver, Guy Zuccarello, Sengil Inkiala, Justen Cantan, Dino Vasile, Aqil Sajjad, Joey Buizon 2nd row: Aaron Proctor, Ron Cochran, Shayne Cantan, Rob Weissman, JJ Ward, Bryan Grillo, Darren Black, Matt Nippins
Shayne
Cantan earned an All-star award for his piece of NBBA hardware as he
hit .625 in the 2010 Bolingbrook tournament. He is pictured
with his catcher, Rob Weissman and pitcher, Ron Cochran
Duggans Dig in to Help Renegades
On
June 5th a team of 11 friends and family of Joey Duggan came to
Watertown to take on the Renegades in a charitable game. The game
raised $500 for the ball club and opened the eyes of all participants.
The game faced a few challenges including losing a field in Franklin,
a knee injury to Joey Duggan (who would be unable to play) and weather
reports that screamed "cancel the game". Team Duggan was fantastic.
They waited till the last possible moment and everyone decided, game
on! Mother nature gave us a window of good weather to play the game and
cook out. As soon as the food was packed away, the rains came! The
final score of the game was Boston 8 and Duggans 0. Though the Duggans
did score a few runs after the game hitting and running without their blindfolds on! A great time was had by all.
Joe, Joey and Terri Duggan
There were two highlites of the game. On the Renegade side, Joey
O'Neill made a stop on a ball in deep left field which hit him in the
leg then stopped beeping and the beep later came back to life when he
scooped it up for his first ever defensive stop in a Renegade uniform.
On team Duggan, Joey's mom, Terri was the only player to put a ball
into play with a blindfold on.
On offense for the Renegades,
JJ Ward and Guy Zuccarello paced the offense with two runs each while
Dino Vasile, Joey Buizon, Evan Silver, and Justen Cantan scored once.
On Defense Vasile led the way with three stops. Zuccarello (2),
Shayne Cantan, Aqil Sajjad, Buizon and Silver each had a stop as well.
Eight Coaches Honored by ABC with Presidential Volunteer Services Award
The Association of Blind Citizens honored eight of its coaches of the
Boston Renegades with the Presidential Volunteer Services Award.
This award comes from President Barack Obama and was presented to
the coaches for their work in the 2009 season. Not all coaches
qualified enough hours for this award but each and every one of them
has given the team many hours of dedication over the years and has
helped mold the team we have today.
America has a long and proud tradition of volunteer service. Now more than
ever, volunteers are renewing their commitment to helping others and making new
connections that bring us closer together as families, as neighbors, as
communities, and as a Nation.
The President's Council on Service and Civic Participation (the Council) was
established in 2003 to recognize the valuable contributions volunteers are
making in our communities and encourage more people to serve. The Council
created the President’s Volunteer Service Award program as a way to thank and
honor Americans who, by their demonstrated commitment and example, inspire
others to engage in volunteer service.
To qualify for the award a volunteer had to log a minimum of 100 hours
with the organization. Six Renegade coaches exceeded that to earn
a Bronze level award. Two coaches exceeded 250 hours to achieve
the Silver level award. Each Recipient received a lapel pin, a
congratulatory letter from President Obama on White house stationary
and a personalized certificate of achievement.
Shayne
Cantan earned an All-star award for his piece of NBBA hardware as he
hit .625 in the 2010 Bolingbrook tournament. He is pictured
with his catcher, Rob Weissman and pitcher, Ron Cochran
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