Forest City Owls Ranked #1

http://www.coastalplain.com/index.p...emain_no_1_in_perfect_game_crosschecker_poll/ The forest city owls are the number one ranked summer college league team in the nation, They are loaded with NC players , Seth Baldwin, Wade Moore, Ryan Arowood, Pratt Maynard, Kyle Jones, Cameron Ohl. There record is 29 - 5.

 

This is an amazing accomplishment. When you consider all the teams in summer college baseball--from Cape Cod to the CPL-- this is quite a feat. To be considered the best team in the country---Wow!!!!

It says a lot to the people in Forest City that are running this team; a beautiful complex coupled with marvelous talent. I hope people take note that one does not have to travel to the Cape to play on a very good team---a team that just happens to be located in NC......pretty good stuff!!!

 

It is a great honor, but lets be realistic. That team would not even be invited to play on the same field as any of the Cape teams. Kind of like the Observer Sweet 16 polls that somehow rank private and 1A schools as better than top-10 4A schools.

 

Baseball Man:

Ouch.
Nice swipe at the Sweet 16.

Which private schools did you feel were wrongly ranked ahead of 4A's ?

Surely not Charlotte Christian, which beat Ardrey Kell and Providence, and won a prestigious tournament in Florida?

Cliff Mehrtens
Charlotte Observer

 

The PG Crosscheckers is the only organization that actually scouts and follows the players and the summer teams. It's a well respected organization across all spectrums of amateur baseball.

What I think, it is indicative of the increased talent pool across the country and in our own state. The Alaskan League is a perfect example. The one time Big Daddy of summer ball has become just another league---no better, no worse. And why is that? Because players have more opportunities to play elsewhere. While Alaska is an unique area to play in, the players did not like having the sun up 24 hours a day...and having to put aluminum foil on their windows to shut out the light---and the mega-ton mosquitos.

I do believe The Cape is the mecca of college summer baseball. The experience in playing there can't be dismissed. But just like in every avenue of baseball, the talent has diluted because it's being spread out. Northwoods is an outstanding league, so is the Valley, Clark Griffith, Ripken is getting better. Then you have the highly competitive Texas and California leagues. But if you ask most kids where they would like to play, they would say Cape Cod followed closely by Hawaii.

Whether Forest City is the most talented team or not, I'll let others with experience in determining to decide, but my point is it speaks volumes about the talent in our state at the collegiate level and the summer team levels that a CPL team is considered one of the best by a well respected organization.

By the way, I hope people know that Cape Cod teams are sprinkled with D2 players, as well. Which speaks well for those programs they represent.

 

Charlotte Christian was ranked #13 in the final Baseball America High School poll. The only other team from NC to make the top 50 was Ardrey Kell at #35.

In the 2009 Jack Sink tournament, there were four solid 4A public schools participating (Providence, Ardrey Kell, Myers Park and South Meck) and four Charlotte area private schools (Christian, Providence Day, Country Day and Latin). Public schools won 7 games and private schools won 5. In addition to the wins Cliff mentioned, Providence Day won two games and Country Day won one. South Meck was the only public school to not lose to a private school in the event.

 

Not to get too far off the topic, but in my opinion, Charlotte Christian was the most talented team in the state last year. Up and down the lineup were D1 players...and I'm talking about ACC/SEC calibre talent.

 

I never said anything about any particular school. Actually, I was talking more about football polls in the past that would rank say, Charlotte Latin ahead of, say, Richmond County. In baseball, a top NC private school could compete with a 4A school. Football, no way.

 

Then I guess we should do away with rankings all together. By your assessment, the only way for them to be fair would to have everybody play everybody else. If that were the case, we wouldn't have RANKINGS. We could just look at the STANDINGS and see who was best.

BTW..4A only means you have more students in your school.

 

Agreed. And the law of averages says that the more students you have, the better chance of finding great ballplayers.