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Boston Renegades Home Page

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. 2009 marks the Eigth year the Renegades will compete at the National level. If you are interested in sponsoring or playing this sport please contact us.

Renegades Don't Quit and Come Back to Win Long Island Classic The Boston Renegades returned to Hofstra for the Long Island Classic to face two of their rivals in the North East.  For the 2nd consecutive year, the Renegades won the tournament by winning both their games.  They have now won six games in a row at Hofstra in the past three years including two amazing come from behind victories.  Boston defeated the Pennsylvania Wolfpack by the score of 7-4 in the early match up.  In the second game, Boston stunned New York with an amazing comeback which was captured by the YES network in New York.   Heading into the last inning, Boston was down 8-3 and huddled in front of the team bench.  Coach Weissman asked the team if they believed they could win this game and in unison, the team screamed "YES".   Boston went out and plated six runs to take a 9-8 lead.  Long Island then scored in the last of the 6th to tie it up.  In the longest game ever played by both Boston and Long Island, Boston was the last team standing with a 13-12 victory in 9 innings of play.   All of New York will get to see some of the highlites of this game as it will air as part of a  New York Yankee broadcast.  Check back later this month for a look at the footage!   JJ Ward, Rachel Buchanon, Justen Cantan and Joe O'Neill keep their fingers crossed that the Boston Defense can hold the lead in an amazing come from behind victory against Long Island Line score of the game Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Runs Strike Outs Defensive Put-outs Boston 0 1 1 1 0 6 2 1 1 13 9 21 Long Island 0 1 4 1 2 1 2 1 0 12 6 18 First Place: Boston Renegades 2-0 2nd Place: Long Island Bombers 1-1 3rd Place: Pennsylvania Wolf Pack 0-3 Boston defeats Pennsylvania 7-4 Boston defeats Long Island 13-12 (9 innings) Long Island defeats Pennsylvania 14-3 Renegades Play well in Chicago but come away with just one win Dino Vasile finished 2nd on the Defensive All-star team with 21 defensive stops in 4 games at the Bolingbrook Tournament in Chicago.  Vasile becomes just the 2nd Renegade player to ever make a Defensive all-star team.  He is pictured here with his spotters, Bryan Grillo and Jacki Jones The Boston Renegades returned to Chicago for the 6th time in the past 7 years on the weekend of June 12 to play 4 games.    The most exciting game of the entire tournament took place in front of a local cable broadcast as the Renegades came one out away from upsetting one of the top teams in the country, the Chicago Comet A.  Check back later for some video of this game.  The Renegades results were as follows Indianapolis defeats Boston 6-5 Boston defeats Cleveland 5-4 Chicago Comet A wins 6-5 (7 innings) Chicago Comet B wins 14-5 Chicago A won the tournament by winning all four of their games. Team W L Chicago A 4 0 Kansas 3 1 Indianapolis 2 2 Cleveland 1 3 Boston 1 3 Chicago B 1 3 8 is Enough - Renegades Take 8th Place and finish 2008 with 8 wins The Boston Renegades wrapped up the 2008 season by taking 8th place at the 2008 World Series in Houston Texas.  This was a banner year for the Renegades as it marked the best finish ever at a World Series and their second consecutive winning season as they finished with 8 wins and 6 losses.   Boston would play the 4th toughest schedules at the World Series and had highlite wins against the North Carolina Pride and the Indianapolis Thunder.  In a year when 4 starters from the previous years team were not on the active World Series roster, Boston would rely on the depth of their program.  Below are the player stats for the World Series.  For more information on the games see the Results and Line Scores for 2008 Player Avg AB PO Player Avg AB PO Haile .433 30 3 Zucarello .250 4 15 Vasile .387 31 15 Silver .241 29 6 Inkiala .375 24 10 Houston .154 13 0 Quintanilla .333 30 8 Genikos .000 7 0 Flinn .278 18 0 O'Neill .000 2 0 Avg= Batting Average, AB= At-Bats, PO= Put-outs on Defense Photo taken by John Lykowski Jr Guy Zucarello Holds up the final out against the Indianapolis Thunder as the Renegades won in extra innings.  The team celebrates around him (from Left to Right Justin Manjourides, Joe Quintanilla, Bryan Grillo, Dino Vasile, Zucarello, Tony Flinn, JJ Ward, Rob Weissman and Chris Genikos) Photo taken by John Lykowski Jr Finish Team Starting Seed Record Strength of Schedule 1 West Coast 2 8-0 1 2 Kansas 1 6-2 2 3 Bayou City 4 6-2 6 4 Austin 6 6-3 3 5 Chicago 3 5-2 5 6 Colorado 5 5-4 10 7 Long Island 11 4-3 Tied 8 8 Boston 10 2-5 4 9 Indianapolis 8 4-3 11 10 North Carolina 14 3-6 7 11 Cleveland 9 1-5 12 12 Pennsylvania 7 2-5 13 13 Tyler 12 1-5 14 14 Stockton 13 0-7 Tied 8 Renegades Split in Philly The Boston Renegades participated in the 2nd annual Philly Hall of Fame Classic in Haddonfield, NJ on July 11th.  Looking to extend their 6 game winning streak they faced the Pennsylvania Wolfpack for the 4th time in the 2008 season.  The Wolfpack ate up the Renegades and defeated them 4-3 in another tight contest that could have gone either way.  Boston also played the Cleveland Scrappers, a team they had never beaten in 5 tries.  That would all change as the Boston bats dropped bombs all over the Scrappers.  Boston defeated Cleveland by a score of 13-2.  Greg Gontaryk of the Wolfpack would be named defensive MVP with 11 defensive stops.  Boston's Joey Buizon would hit .556 (5 for 9) and be named the offensive MVP.  This was Buizon's first ever offensive MVP award.  Pennsylvania would win the three team tournament by defeating both Boston 4-3 and Cleveland 4-3.  Their win vs Cleveland came in walk-off fashion as they scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 6th to win the trophy  Boston finished second (1-1) and Cleveland third (0-2).  For more details on Boston's games, click here SWEEP!  Renegades Tame Wolfpack With Gloves & Bats! The Pennsylvania Wolfpack traveled to Boston to play a doubleheader on Saturday, June 28 in Watertown, Mass.  Boston won the first game by a score of 3-0.  Dino Vasile scored twice while Joey Buizon scored once to pace the offense for the Renegades.  This was the third shut-out that the Boston defense has earned in its team history.  Vasile was the star of this game with 2 runs and 2 defensive stops.  Evan Silver and Guy Zuccarello also had 2 defensive stops for Boston.  For the WolfPack they were led by Kevin Burton who made a game high 6 defensive stops.  In game two, the teams put on a great show for the fans.  Boston scored twice in the 2nd inning to take a 2-0 lead on runs by Joey Buizon and Sengil Inikiala.  The Wolfpack would roar back and would take a 3-2 lead in the 5th inning as Sherlock Washington plated runs in the 3rd and 5th innings.  Sengil Inkiala plated a run in the 5th to tie it.  The Boston Defense played stellar defense in the 6th and won it in walk-off fashion with a base hit by Joe Quintanilla to sweep the series for the day.  Dino Vasile and Darren Black each had 4 defensive stops for Boston and Greg Gontaryk led the game with 6 for Pennsylvania. The amazing 6th inning was captured on Renegade coaching films.  If you would like to see and hear this amazing 6th inning, please click this link to view the video. Renegades Are in the News The Boston Renegades have been in the news recently.  In early June, the team appeared on Chronicle (A local favorite news show with a focus on New England).  This show had a theme of volunteerism and focused on the hard work the Renegade volunteers do.  Click this link to see a video of this three minute clip The Holbrook Sun (a local newspaper) wrote an article on Rob Weissman and his work with the Association of Blind Citizens.  This article was page 2 news on June 13th.  The tie here is that Weissman was awarded a grant for his efforts with ABC by the Patriots and ABC is headquartered in Holbrook.  Click this link to read the story Weissman Honored By New England Patriots The New England Patriots Charitable Foundation selected Rob Weissman as one of 21 people for the New England Patriots Community MVP.  Weissman was nominated for this award by the Association of Blind Citizens and ABC was awarded $1,500 by the Patriots.  The award was given to people who have made outstanding contributions to the community.  The Patriots Press release read:  "Since 2002, Rob Weissman has served as the head coach of the Association of Blind Citizens beep baseball team, the Boston Renegades. Rob coaches these players utilizing creative practice drills, coordinates volunteer coverage for each practice station and transports players when needed.  In addition to coaching the team through practices and games, Rob also books travel arrangements, acts as a sighted guide through crowded airports, coordinates fundraisers and recruits volunteers for the league.  The Boston Renegades are the only beep baseball team in New England and would not be possible without Rob".  Weissman accepted this award on behalf of the organization and all of the dedicated volunteers the program has had over the years.  The volunteers of the Renegades are truly an amazing group of people who have made an impact on many people's lives. Weissman is pictured here holding the Patriots community MVP Award with Bob & Myra Kraft and NFL Hall Of Fame Line backer Andre Tippet   ESPN Visits the Beep Baseball World Series ESPN was at the 2006 World Series in Cleveland Ohio this year.  They put together a great production explaining the game and some of its players.  Boston was very familiar with the players mentioned in the video as they faced off against all of these teams in 2006.  The West Coast Dawgs were represented in the video by Lupe Perez and Chance Cranford.  Perez scored 5 times in 6 trips to the plate and led the Dawgs in put-outs with 4 against Boston.  Chance Cranford was a perfect 6 for 6 against the Renegades in 2006 and 5 for 6 in 2005.  This Dawg Combination was responsible for 50% of the runs scored in their game against Boston as they banged in 11 of the Dawgs 22 runs.  Kalari Girtley from the Chicago Comets was 1 for 9 with 2 put-outs against Boston in 2006 after she went 3 for 6 against them in 2005. (Click the link to the right to see the 10 minute video on ESPN, Make sure to turn those speakers on.)   This site in The Blind and Visually Impaired Ring is owned by John Oliveira. Previous Next List Sites