Your 2006 Brevard Manatees, Latest: Space Coast Repairs

[Mass Haas]

Welcome Aboard to Manatees' Radio Voice Scott Pinner -- I've sent him a separate note via email welcoming him to the Brewerfan "family". Here's today's press release from Buck Rogers:

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...p;sid=t503

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

www.advancetitan.com/stor...story=5502

 

Yost makes the leap from Oshkosh to the minors

by Tyler Maas, of the Advance Titan

University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh

 

From the first pitch of spring training, to the grueling 162-game regular season schedule, to the pressure of the playoffs, Major League Baseball players strive for one common goal: winning the World Series.

 

As the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Detroit Tigers to win World Series crown Friday, players like Ned Yost IV watched, waited and hoped for their chance to one day play in the major leagues and compete for such glory.

 

Yost spent 2005 playing first base for the UW-Oshkosh baseball team. He transferred to Oshkosh from Dallas Baptist University after breaking his wrist. He spent his first two seasons at the University of Georgia, a Division I school, where he struggled for regular playing time and at bats.

 

?My goal in playing collegiate ball was to get drafted,? Yost said. ?I knew that I needed to leave and go to a school where I could play every day.?

 

Oshkosh senior Adam Roos played with Yost during the 2005 season and thinks of him as a very talented player.

 

?He is a hard-nosed player who is not afraid,? Roos said. ?He was the guy to ?clutch up? and make the key plays at first base or drive in the winning run from second base.?

 

During his time at Oshkosh, Yost posted a .413 batting average with 11 home runs and 42 runs batted in during the 38 games he donned a Titan uniform.

 

?I totally enjoyed my time at UWO,? Yost said. ?I had a blast playing under Tom Lechnir and I also made some really good friends.?

 

Prior to the 2005 Major League Baseball amateur draft, Yost signed a professional contract with the Milwaukee Brewers.

 

Yost?s father, also named Ned, once played for and now manages the Brewers.

 

?It was a great feeling,? Yost said. ?Just to sign a contract was awesome, but also knowing that it was with the team my father was the manager of and to maybe one day have the opportunity to play under him made it even better.?

 

Yost feels no additional pressure being the son of his potential future manager. He believes he belongs in the Brewers farm system just as much as any other player.

 

?I know that I am here because of the way that I can play,? Yost said. ?None of my teammates ever put pressure on me.?

 

Ryan Crew began playing with Yost this year on the West Virginia Power, the Brewers? Low-A minor league affiliate. By season?s end, both had been advanced to High-A Brevard County (Fla).

 

?As a member of the Power, he started as a role player,? Crew said. ?Around mid-season he became the go-to guy relied upon for the big hits.?

 

In the combined 117 games Yost spent at West Virginia and Brevard County in his first minor league season, he hit .259 with seven home runs, 52 runs batted in and over 100 hits.

 

Crew, a friend who keeps in contact with Yost in the off-season, sees him the same way he sees any other player, but with a bit more at stake.

 

?Minor league players have tons of pressure placed upon them every season,? Crew said. ?Having people, critics and fans constantly judge you in the way some do for Ned is indescribable.?

 

Still, teammates remain confident he will continue to overcome speculation and work his way toward a spot on a major league roster.

 

?He has the same goal as everyone else around him with some extra incentive to achieve it and it shows in his work ethic,? Crew said. ?He?s always in the cages doing extra and whatever he can to make it to his objective of becoming a big leaguer and proving some people wrong along the way.?

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

www.floridatoday.com/apps.../611010386

 

County puts $2.6M in play to upgrade stadium

BY JAMES DEAN

FLORIDA TODAY

 

Brevard County will pay at least $2.6 million to fix leaking roofs, peeling paint and flood-prone dugouts at Space Coast Stadium before the Washington Nationals return for spring training in February.

 

That's about five times more than the county had budgeted for upgrades this year on the 12-year-old stadium, but $1 million less than new team owners requested last month.

 

"The building's turned into a sponge," Andy Dunn, the team's director of player development, told county commissioners Tuesday.

 

The commissioners voted unanimously to get started on the work with $2.6 million, which has been generated by hotel taxes paid by tourists. If that's not enough, they'll consider borrowing to finish the work by Feb. 1.

 

"We need to make sure we take care of it all," Commission Chairwoman Helen Voltz said.

 

The county is responsible for capital improvements under the terms of a stadium lease that expires in 2017, while the Nationals handle operations and maintenance.

 

Though the county doesn't make money from ticket sales or concessions, tourism officials estimate Brevard's economy gains about $12 million annually from spring training.

 

Because county staff had already budgeted for some of the upgrades and the Nationals' requests are still being reviewed, the total project cost could drop, Assistant County Manager Stockton Whitten said.

 

So far, the county has agreed to replace canopies over seats, repair leaky roofs and improve field and dugout drainage.

 

Michael Shapiro, the Nationals' senior vice president for business affairs, told Whitten in a letter last week that because of leaks and flooding, "basic sanitation and cleanup must be achieved before the facility can be safe for patrons, ballplayers and staff."

 

"The importance of addressing these substantial health and safety items can't be minimized," he wrote.