Published: August 10, 2009 11:34 pm      

AAABA Sidelights | Philly team has links to majors

Fans of Major League Baseball might recognize some of the names on the roster of Philadelphia’s AAABA team, but the players don’t go out of their way to show off their big-league ties.

Steel Russell, who is the son of Pittsburgh Pirates manager John Russell, is a catcher for the Philly Bandits while Rob Amaro, who is a nephew of Philadelphia Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr., plays third base.

Philadelphia manager Mike Gossner said the team is used to the attention that the high-profile names garner, but it doesn’t go to his players’ heads.

“Everywhere we go they talk to us about it, but these guys are a great bunch of guys,” Gossner said. “Those two gentlemen, you wouldn’t know they came from baseball families. They’re just good people. Good baseball people. It’s fun being around those guys.”

Russell said he wasn’t sure if his father would be able to make it to Johnstown for a game this week, but he knows that people will connect him to his father anyway.

“Some people have heard of me – or they’ve heard of my dad, more likely,” he said. “It gives me some motivation though. I don’t want to be known just for my father. When I come out here I want people to say ‘There’s Steel Russell,’ as opposed to ‘There’s John Russell’s son.’ ”

Russell, who lives in Philadelphia and plans to play for Ohio State, has learned to deflect the attention.

“You kind of take it day by day and not let it get to your head,” he said. “Yeah, my dad’s the manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Yeah, he’s done a lot of great things, but if I rely on him, I wouldn’t make it to where I want to go on my terms. And I wouldn’t be OK with that.”

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Local traditions: Delweld and Martella’s Pharmacy bring plenty of local AAABA Tournament tradition.

Including this year, Delweld has been in five tournaments since 1999 going 13-8 overall through 1999 (3-2), 2003 (5-2, national runner-up), 2007

(3-2) and last year (2-2).

Current Delweld manager Chris DelSignore fronted the 2003 team that won five games and advanced to the title round before falling to Baltimore. He also managed the 2007 squad.

DelSignore also was an assistant coach to Ross Kott in 1999 and the general manager last year when former pro pitcher Rick Roberts was manager.

“It never gets old,” DelSignore said. “The crowd comes out and they’re awesome every night. We feed off of that as does any Johnstown team. We haven’t won a tournament yet. Any opportunity we can get to play in this tournament and be the first one to win this thing, we’ll embrace that opportunity and try to take advantage of that. We’re just thankful for that opportunity.”

Manager Chris Pfeil has a different sponsor in Martella’s Pharmacy, but he and his veteran coaching staff have been here before with the Johnstown Grays.

The Grays were in the tournament in 2002 (3-2), 2004 (4-2) and 2005 (4-2) for an

11-6 record. Martella’s assistant coach Paul Knupp managed the 1998 Wise Trailer Sales team that went 2-2.

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New look: Not only will there be a different franchise as champion for the first time in seven years, the most valuable player also will be from a team other than Baltimore for the first time since 2002.

Six-time defending champion Baltimore was knocked out of last week’s Altoona Regional, sending shockwaves through the AAABA community. Baltimore went a cumulative 36-6 in those six straight tournament championship runs, going 6-1 each time.

As usually is the case for the championship team, Baltimore also had produced the previous six tournament MVPs in Kevin Hart (2003); Joe Krebs (2004); Bernard Robert (2005); Jason Bour (2006); Joe Velleggia (2007) and Scott Swinson (2008).

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Johnstown MVP: This year for the first time, The Tribune-Democrat will officially honor the most valuable player from Johnstown in the tournament.

The Tribune-Democrat Award will go to the top performer from the Johns-

town entry and will be presented after the local team has completed play.

With two entries this year from the host city, both Delweld and Martella’s players would be eligible for consideration.

“We’re hoping this becomes yet another AAABA tradition,” Tribune-Democrat Editor Chip Minemyer said.

“The best thing would be if we were giving this award to the Johnstown MVP, who was also receiving the tournament MVP award. That might mean that this would be the year Johnstown wins the tournament.”

The MVP award is being produced by Cummings Trophies, which also produced the Johnstown AAABA League championship award presented Monday night to Delweld.

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NORD fielding gems: In a losing effort, New Orleans left fielder Mason Katz put on a show in the field on Monday afternoon at Roxbury Park.

In the top of the first, his lunging catch robbed New Brunswick’s Dan Avella of a potential three-run home run.

Then in the top of the sixth, Katz gunned down New Brunswick’s Alberto Ruiz at the plate. Ruiz was attempting to score from second on a single by Steve Nappe.

Also in that sixth inning, New Brunswick had a second runner thrown out at home, when Dylan Laguna was nailed trying to score from third on a grounder to first.

Ultimately, none of that mattered, as New Brunswick left the field with a 5-4 win.

New Orleans shortstop Beau Boudreax did a little bit of everything in the game. He walked in the first and was hit by a pitch in the seventh. He drove in a run with an infield out in the third and hit a two-run home run in the ninth.

He also stole a base and committed two errors.