Richmond Baseball Club Awards 2021
By Alvin Michael | alvinmichael.com | @AlvinMicWrites
With another year coming to an end and winter drawing in, the 2021 baseball season has finished but, there was still time for one last outing.
On Saturday 30th October 2021, players and managers from all three Richmond teams came together at Richmond’s clubhouse to reward and celebrate the achievements of another successful season.
Paul Tiley (Dukes Single A manager), Dave D’Urbano (Dragons Double A manager) and Euan Shields (Knights Triple A manager) presented the awards for their respective teams. Although it was not the most successful year for the club by winning percentage, there were many other forms of success nonetheless, including some superb individual performances. All three managers spoke with pride about their team’s exploits throughout the season which exemplified what it means to be a Richmond baseball player - hard work, sportsmanship, teamwork and selflessness.
Tiley said, “It was an awesome season. Dukes won 7 games out of 26 but, what makes it really impressive is we had 11 rookies on our team who had never played baseball before”.
Tiley was also quick to thank Sam Hofbeck and James Guerra who were a source of inspirational coaching for the inexperienced team.
“It was a genuine pleasure playing with the dukes this season, everyone pitched in, everyone had fun whether we were winning or losing, the camaraderie and team spirit was nothing short of amazing”, said Tiley.
D’Urbano added, “We [Dragons] won 5 games during the season but, we improved dramatically as the year went on. Overall it was a fun season and we expect to be much better next year.”
Shields capped off the event with many humorous anecdotes from the Knights’ season drawing laughter and applause in equal measure from the audience. He began, however, by giving a special thank you to Spencer Huet who was an incredible support to Shields during the year.
“We had a difficult start to the season but, he [Huet] agreed to step up and put in a lot of hard work and effort behind the scenes. He was always available when I needed him and I can’t thank him enough”, said Shields.
Despite the difficulties on and off the field, the club were able to attract and recruit a wealth of new talent in 2021. They will hope to do so once again in 2022 with the aim of taking the club back to the summit of British baseball.
Award Winners
Richmond Dukes (Single A)
Batting Champion: Paul Tiley
Cy Young: Sam Hofbeck
Gold Glove: Dave Ball
MVP: Danny Pichler
Player’s player: George Clayton & Chris Robertson
Richmond Dragons (Double A)
Batting Champion: Ben Carter
Cy Young: Per Nilsson Eklof
Gold Glove: Tom Wei
MVP: Stephen Abouchar
Player’s player: Craig Taylor
Richmond Knights (Triple A)
Batting Champion: Osmel Vazquez
Cy Young: Rei Martinez
Gold Glove: Ethan Calfisch
MVP: Matt Joplin
Player’s player: Dan Collins & Dave Wrigley.
Richmond Club
Rookie of the Year: Monty Nendick
Most Improved Player: Drice Hellal
Connare Award: Sam Hofbeck