Stepping Out

Taking another quack at bat

The Ducks’ 19th season gets underway

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The defending Liberty Division Champion Long Island Ducks are aiming for a fourth consecutive division title and fourth overall Atlantic League of Professional Baseball Clubs crown as the team’s 19th season got underway with a six-game road trip April 27-May 3, with the home-opening series this weekend against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.
Playing in Bethpage Ballpark in Central Islip, the Ducks will host the league’s All-Star game for the third time. The game is on July 11. The fan friendly park with its $12 tickets and host of promotions has helped the team attract more than 7.3 million fans to its 6,002-seat capacity stadium in 18 seasons.
“We don’t rest on our laurels,” said team President and General Manager Michael Pfaff, “right after the season ended we got right back to work on how we can improve the ballpark and the team.”
Owned by Brightwaters resident Frank Boulton, Seth Waugh and former Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson, the Ducks are the flagship franchise of an independent minor league with seven other teams. Being an independent league, the players are seeking to be picked up by a major league organization. The most recent success stories are Henderson Alvarez, Quintin Berry and Tim Melville in 2017.
Along with the Ducks, the Road Warriors, New Britain Bees and Somerset Patriots are in the Liberty Division. The Blue Crabs, Lancaster Barnstormers, Sugar Land Skeeters and York Revolution make up the Freedom Division. The Road Warriors are the displaced Bridgeport Bluefish. A new iteration of the team will play in High Point, North Carolina next season.

“It’s a great baseball market and there were fifteen-hundred people at the [stadium] groundbreaking,” Boulton said, referring to the new team.

New season, new team
Former major leaguer Kevin Baez is in his eighth season as Ducks manager. The former Mets player called it an “honor” to manage the team. “I look forward to a championship season,” he said, “we have a nice mix of new players, young players and experienced players.”
Right-hander John Brownell who has pitched for the Ducks since 2012, will double as pitching coach. Saying that his routine for getting ready for games is “simple” he’ll have “plenty of time to focus on everyone.” “I have a lot of experience and I’ll look to help KB (Kevin Baez) manage the game,” Brownell said.
The finalized roster includes former Met infielder Jordany Valdespin, longtime Duck Lew Ford, who plays the outfield and serves as the team’s hitting coach, and three Long Islanders: Dennis O’Grady, Rob Rogers and Alec Sole.
O’Grady, from Floral Park, is another righty pitcher who played with the Ducks last season. His professional career started in 2011, where in was in the San Diego Padres organization until 2015. “Being here last year was good and knowing some of the players from organized ball is a help,” he said, adding that Baez does create a good working environment for the players who are scheduled to play 140 games in 154 days.

Come out to the park
The home opener on May 4, will include the first of several post-game fireworks shows. “There is a lot going on,” Pfaff said, including former Duck Ray Navarrete sponsoring the All Star game’s Home Run Derby through his Port Washington-based DIGMI clothing company. Navarrete is the career team leader in home runs, 137, RBI, 548, hits, 963, runs 599, doubles, 245, and games played 863.
On the uniform there is a JK patch in honor of longtime baseball executive Joel Klein who died last year. Boulton said Klein was instrumental in his career as a minor league team owner and founder of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball Clubs.
For Boulton, in his 28th season of minor league baseball, owning the hometown Ducks means a lot to him. “Having friends and relatives and people you know come to the park in the summer it’s wonderful and it’s very personal for Buddy and I.”