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ENJOY! JULY 2014
Cardinals
enjoying banner season By Jeff Nations
The Valley Baseball League has seen its share of teams come and go, a natural product of such a long-lived enterprise.
The original Valley League, founded May 15, 1897, in Edinburg, consisted of charter members Winchester, Woodstock, Strasburg, Front Royal and Edinburg.
Those original teams are long gone, though each of those towns except Edinburg -- which can support nearby New Marketʼs franchise -- currently has a team competing in the league. The Front Royal Cardinals, continuously operating since 1984, have been a model of stability and consistency in the league since joining the VBL. Itʼs hard to imagine, then, that Front Royal was initially rebuffed from joining and needed a late franchise fold to gain membership. “We had been trying to get into the Valley League for a few years, and they kept telling us our stadium was too small,” said David Wines, a member of the Cardinalsʼ original board of directors and still active with the team today as senior vice president and unofficial historian. “They had a team pull out and came to us late in 1983 to see if we still wanted a team.” Wines said a stock sale of the team netted close to $15,000, “so we were in business, and away we went.” The VBLʼs concerns about Front Royalʼs home field, Bing Crosby Stadium, were all too legitimate in the Cardinalsʼ early days. The small dimensions of the park were a hitterʼs paradise, true, but an absolute nightmare for pitchers. “We had trouble getting pitchers to play here,” Wines said. “They used aluminum bats when we played at the old Bing. There was one game Iʼll never forget when we played Staunton, they must have hit 12 or 14 home runs in the game.” Those early days did produce one of Front Royalʼs greatest seasons, locked up by one of its native sons. Dana Allison, a pitcher who starred at Warren County High School and
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Rich Cooley/Daily Front Royal Cardinalʼs Hunter Newman, right, taps helmets with Shell McCain, left, after hitting a two-run homer during a Valley League baseball game against Staunton at Bing Crosby Stadium. James Madison University, pitched the Cardinals to the clinching Game 4 victory in the best-of-five league championship against Harrisonburg. That was in 1986, and the Cardinals have been trying to add to that championship resume ever since. The Cardinals have been around long enough to change with the times. The VBL ditched the aluminum bats in favor of wood in 1993 -- a relief to many a Cardinals hurler, no doubt -- and moved to full nonprofit status in 2011. Bing Crosby Stadium changed too, transformed from a run-down, inadequate facility to one of the true showplaces in the VBL. The “new” Bing Crosby Stadium reopened in 2006, with more reasonable dimensions, comfortable and shady seating and first-rate scoreboard and sound systems. Both public high schools use “The Bing” as their home stadium during the spring, and the Cardinals share time with the local American Legion Post 53 squad in the summer. “Our stadium has been a help in recruiting players,” Wines said. “Especially in the last two or three years, itʼs been a big help.” It can also lure managers, as it turns out. Current Cardinals skipper Brad Neffendorf admits that playing
home games at Bing Crosby Stadium was a selling point during the interview process. “Front Royal obviously has a good organization and they play in a great stadium,” Neffendorf said. “I knew it was an organization that I could work with just in talking to them and asking questions during the interview process. Theyʼve put full trust in me to go out and recruit and put together the type of team that I wanted to coach this summer.” Neffendorf, in his first year managing the Cardinals, has had the team at or near the top of the standings all summer. Front Royal has already locked up one of the eight VBL postseason slots and will begin its quest to claim the Jim Lineweaver Cup championship on July 29 with the start of first-round playoff action. The Cardinals boast strong pitching and productive hitting, sure traits of a successful squad. Thereʼs a chance, always, that fans are watching future Major League ballplayers suit up for their team. Front Royal has had its share of Major Leaguers. Wines counts Roberto Hernandez, a longtime closer and two-time All-Star who compiled 326 saves in the big leagues for 10 different teams over a 17-year
Major League career, as one of the best to ever play for the Cardinals. Allison went on to briefly pitch for the Oakland Athletics, and Wines could instantly rattle off some names of former Cards turned big leaguers like Greg Harris, Jeff Manto, John Flaherty and Chris Nabholtz. “Thereʼs more than that,” Wines said. “Weʼve had a lot of good baseball players come through here.” Neffendorf said he thinks heʼs got a group with as much potential as any Front Royal has seen, maybe even enough to win that long-awaited second championship. Like any good baseball man, Neffendorf is not about to look that far ahead. “Itʼs been good,” Neffendorf said. “Weʼve got a really good group of guys and itʼs been a really good summer.” Wines said the crowds have always been reliable for Front Royal home games, although the winning seasons do help the gate a bit. This yearʼs team certainly fits that bill. “Weʼve got an exciting team this year,” Wines said. “Win or lose, weʼre exciting.” Contact staff writer Jeff Nations at 540-465-5137 ext. 161, or jnations@nvdaily.com
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