The Journal News from White Plains, New York • Page 29

LoHud.com BaseballRecreation A The Journal News Sunday, August 17, 2008 7C A special heritage i Area minor-leaguers ET PHom.toi Pot Tun a Or( AVG 6 AB 2B 3B HR RBI SB mraiMMutr Pace IB Palm Beach A Cardinals 211 38 142 30 4 0 9 26 5 HI "a'ai 1B edCT Dod8ers 281 33 139 17 39 11 1 3 24 0 Jacuaiiley Pace Johnson City Cardinals .329 23 70 16 23 3 0 0 12 1 VicOavilla Westchester C1B Wichita IND .304 21 79 14 24 3 0 4 11 1 NickDerba Manhattan Palm Beach Cardinals .145 58 173 12 25 7 0 0 12 1 irawsGarcia lona SS Chilhcothe IND .291 75 299 56 8 7 21 2 13 60 11 ChnsGaslnn Manhattan IB Schaumburg IND .286 76 276 34 79 16 2 6 49 6 Peter GHardo Dominican Greenville A Red Son .125 8 24 3 1 0 0 3 0 Norm Hutchms GreenDiirgh 18 long Beach IND .305 70 256 47 78 13 0 15 49 13 Jose Made Dominican SS Tennessee AACubs .000 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 John Molhcone Fordham IB Hudson Valley A Rays .262 43 164 17 43 8 1 1 19 1 Matt Rigoli Pace OH Johnson City Cardinals .186 25 59 9 11 4 0 2 7 0 Matthew Riaotti Manhattan IB Lakewood A Phillies .258 85 298 40 77 19 1 7 41 1 Anthony Smith Katonah IB Yakima A Diamondbacks .256 44 164 18 42 6 2 4 23 7 ChnsVasami Mamaroneck IB TtvCity A Rockies .280 27 93 11 26 5 1 2 14 0 MetfHomtom Tun a tot MM EM I (S SI IP II BB SO Garry Bakker Sloatsburg FargoMootliead IND 6-3 3.44 14 13 0 83.2 71 41 63 Bobby Blrnins Briarcliff Great Lakes A Dodgers 2-7 2.84 20 1 5 44.1 35 11 53 ChnsCody Manhattan West Virginia A Brewers 2-1 1.74 5 4 0 31.0 19 3 31 Will Cunnane Congers Newark IND 2-0 5.40 6 4 0 20.0 28 8 15 Jesse Darcy Manhattan Columbus A Rays 6-3 3.21 26 16 1 115.0 110 14 86 Tom Davis Fordham Eugene A Padres 0-4 8.75 8 5 0 23.2 40 9 23 Albert Fagan Yonkers Pirates Pirates 1-2 5.02 7 3 1 14.1 13 5 12 Bryan Hallberg Pace Salem A Astros 4-8 2.94 41 1 5 70.1 46 29 58 TomKoehler NewRochelle Jamestown A Marlins 2-4 3.86 11 9 0 46.2 46 17 36 Javier Marline! Fordham Everett A Mariners 1-2 3.98 17 0 3 20.1 24 17 18 Tommy Mejia Dominican Boise A Cubs 3-1 5.01 14 0 2 23.1 33 12 15 James Mondesir Dominican Edinburg IND 2-2 4.50 8 5 0 30.0 24 27 23 Jason Motte lona Memphis AAA Cardinals 4-2 2.87 55 0 '5 59.2 55 23 99 JohnMuller St Aquinas Peoria A Cubs 0-0 6.75 6 0 0 12.0 11 8 13 EarlOakes Pace Midwest IND 4-2 4.21 30 0 10 36.1 32 22 51 MikeParisi Manhattan Memphis AAA Cardinals 8-2 3.86 15 15 0 84.0 80 33 58 David Qualben Pace lenington A Astros 0-0 1.74 3 0 0 10.1 10 3 8 Matt Reilhr Pace Fort Worth IND 1-3 3.06 32 1 1 47.0 44 24 23 Cory Siordan Fordham Asheville A Rockies 7-8 3.53 23 23 0 147.2 160 26 137 Brian Slocum Eastchester Buffalo AAA Indians 3-6 4.60 24 11 1 76.1 76 39 68 Pat Stanley Pace Newark IND 9-6 4.72 21 19 0 118.1 110 70 128 Statistics through Thursday's games winning, smiling I a Mike GrollThe Associated Press A baseball card featuring Louis Sockalexis is on display at the Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave. A Penobscot from Maine, he's considered the first player of Native American Indian descent to make it to the major leagues. Hudson Valley Renegades photo The Renegades' Joe Alvarez was slowed by an injury during his playing career, but he's had a lifetime of experiences as a manager. MINOR-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK Alvarez Renegades' manager brings worldly view to Hudson Valley Brian Heyman The Journal News WAPPINGERS FALLS It was about three hours before first pitch against Jamestown at Dutchess Stadium on Wednesday, and a 53-year-old right-hander in a gray T-shirt and black shorts stood in front of the mound, throwing ball after ball toward his young Renegades at the plate. Only he wasn't feeling 53 during batting practice, kicking and tossing under the summer sun.

"I love it," Joe Alvarez said, sitting now in the dugout "It keeps me young. Thirty-five years in this business, if I didn't enjoy being out there, I don't think I would do it." Alvarez has enjoyed seeing the world over his years in this game. Hudson Valley has a true globetrotter as its new manager, a man who played as a child in his native Cuba and has been in 12 countries as a manager, coach or instructor, not to mention Guam. After coaching in the Phillies' system the previous two years, he brought his small-ball, speed game to this latest stop. And he has helped develop his kids into a contender.

The Tampa Bay Rays' Single-A New York-Penn League affiliate was first in the league in steals and second in the McNamara Division heading into last night's game vs. visiting Oneonta, standing at 33-24 after six straight wins. They were just 2 games behind Staten Island. "Joe has done an amazing job," said Eben Yager, the 'Gades' first-year GM. "You look at our team and we're competing for the playoffs.

It's getting the fans of the Hudson Valley excited again. We're playing fundamental baseball, and it's definitely helping us out." It was back in 1966 when a 10-year-old Alvarez flew out of Cuba with his younger brother, George, toward a new life in America. Their parents, Rene and Ernesti-na, wanted them out before military age 13-25 which would have made them ineligible to leave. So they lived with an aunt and uncle in the Boston suburbs until their parents could depart Fidel Castro's country in 1968. "Back then, he let you go, but you left everything behind," Alvarez said.

"We probably had a suitcase here and there, but mostly it was just what we were able to pick up and take off with." Soon his family moved to Elizabeth, N.J. Dad and Mom worked in a clothing factory there by day Native Americans have made an impact on baseball history The Associated Press HOWES CAVE Long before Jackie Robinson endured torrents of racial taunts in breaking baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, Louis Sockalexis had a bull's-eye on his back. From the day in 1897 when he first donned a uniform for the Cleveland Spiders, Sockalexis suffered more than his share of racial slurs. "If the small and big boys of Brooklyn find it a pleasure to shout at me, I have no objections," Sockalexis told the Brooklyn Eagle during his rookie season. "No matter where we play, I go through the same ordeal, and at the present time I am so used to it that at times I forget to smile at my tormentors." Sockalexis figured the tormenting was just part of the game.

A Penobscot Indian from Maine, he's considered the first player of Native American descent to make it to the major leagues. Games Madison Toy played with Cleveland a decade earlier and was said to be of Sioux ancestry, but he never publicly acknowledged his Indian heritage and his 1919 death certificate lists his race as white.) Sockalexis' story is one of many chronicled in "Baseball's League of Nations: A Tribute to Native Americans in Baseball," an exhibit on display through the end of the year at the Iroquois Indian Museum. The exhibit features photos and several artifacts, many on loan from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in nearby Cooperstown. "There's never been an exhibit like this before," said 61-year-old Mike Tarbell, an Akwesasne Mohawk who serves as an educator at the museum and was a pitcher in his athletic heyday. "For myself, it's like a breath of fresh air.

We're always doing something that involves pottery or basket making or painting or sculpturing of some kind. We've forgotten that baseball was a part of our history as well." Indeed. Counting current players Joba Chamberlain (Winnebago Nation) of the Yankees, Jacoby Ellsbury (Navajo) of the Boston Red Sox, and Kyle Lohse (Nomla-ki Nation) of the St Louis Cardinals, more than 50 Native Americans have played major-league baseball. "We came up with a lot of cool stuff that we didn't think we were going to find," said museum curator Stephanie Shultes, who assembled the exhibit. "It was kind of amazing, once we started, how much there really was out there, how many of these guys that you did find out about you may have never realized before were Native (Americans)." American Indians were introduced to baseball in several ways.

Lewis and Clark are said to have tried to teach an early version of baseball to members of the Nez Perce during the famed explorers' trek across North America from 18044)6. And in the late 1800s, Native American prisoners of war at Fort Sill, played baseball, including Apache warrior Geronimo. An integral part of early attempts at formal education, religious conversion and assimilation into white society was the playing of sports such as baseball at federally operated boarding schools. More than 100,000 Native American children attended the 500 boarding schools that followed the opening of the first in Carlisle, in 1879. Jim Thorpe, considered by many to be the greatest athlete of the 20th century, was among those children for whom success in baseball and other sports became a source of pride and success.

The games also provided freedom from the boarding school regime. Sockalexis broke new ground with the Spiders. Nicknamed the "Deerfoot of the Diamond," he attended college at Holy Cross, where he participated in baseball, which is why parking lots at Kensico and other walking areas start to fill up when the workday is over. Nadir Poma of Mount Kisco is training for the 2008 Jarden Westchester Triathlon on Sept 21 in Rye, and spends several evenings a week along the North County Trailway where she likes to run at least four miles. At 32, the dental assistant can't train in the day and she likes to be outside, running over a trestle bridge toward Yorktown.

"There are a lot of people coming on the weekends and it can get to be a little bit crowded," Poma said. Instead, she has much of the route to herself as the sun fades, running past the Queen Anne's Lace and honeysuckle bushes. Regina Correra isn't a morning person. The roller blader from Millwood likes an uphill stretch of the North County Trailway and takes it once her day at IBM in Hawthorne is done. "It's uphill so it's a good work and studied in New York at night, Rene to be a dentist and Ernestina to be a pediatrician.

And Alvarez played at St Patrick's in Elizabeth. He was rather good. The Yankees took him as a shortstop in the third round of the 1974 draft But after his first season in the minors, he tore a ligament in his left ankle playing basketball and was never the same. Alvarez reached Triple-A as a utilitymancoach in the Orioles' system in 1977 before going into coaching full time with them in '78. He managed in the Dodgers' chain from 1984-90.

Alvarez is also set to manage Veracruz in the Mexican Winter League for the fourth straight year, working in front of those passion-filled fans. "It's one of those things where if you're going to pay attention or listen to them, you'd probably drive yourself crazy," Alvarez said. "So I try to do my job to the best of my ability." There was also an opportunity for him to coach pro ball for seven years in South Korea. In 1995, his Lotte Giants set a steals record and went to the Korean Series. And he was "Coach of the Year." A friendship with farm director Mitch Lukevics led to Alvarez being offered this opportunity with Hudson Valley.

"He knows the game pretty good," pitching coach Rafael Mon-talvo said. "The good thing is he lets me do my job pitching-wise." "He's very intense, which I like about a coach, because he gets everybody fired up," catcher Mark Thomas said. "He's one of those guys who's the first one to tell you when you do something wrong, but he's also the first one to tell you when you do something right" "He's got a good sense of humor," second baseman Michael Ross said. "He makes us feel com fortable since we're around each other all the time." So how about a sequel next season? The head teacher would consider it Alvarez's wife, Jacki, has also enjoyed it here. But it could depend on if the Renegades decide they want to continue their marriage with the Rays and vice versa.

The contract expires after this season. The 'Gades have wanted to field a more competitive product And this year, they have the players and the manager. At the end of this night, Matt Gorgen fanned Kevin Mattison to finish off a five-out save Hudson Valley 5, Jamestown 4. "You go and you execute against the best club in the league and you stand right up to them, it's got to be rewarding," Alvarez said along the walk to the clubhouse past right field. "It's got to be telling you that you're doing things correctly.

So I'm very proud and happy with how things are going." Mets update: Brooklyn starters Brad Holt and Christopher Schwinden and reliever Yury San-tana made the NL roster for the New York-Penn League All-Star Game Tuesday in Troy. Yankees update: Catcherfirst baseman Brian Baisley, shortstop Addison Maruzak, third baseman Mike Lyon, starter David Phelps and relievers Pat Venditte and Andy Shive made the AL roster for the game. Renegades update: Outfielders Kyeong Kang, Anthony Scelfo and Jason Corder, third baseman Jason Tweedy and Gorgen will be on the AL roster. Starter Nick Bar-nese won't be participating due to some stiffness in his right arm. Reach Brian Heyman at bheymanlohud.com.

RECREATION Pepper Martin, an Osage who starred at third base and the out-, field for the Cardinals' famed "Gashouse Gang" of the 1930s, and in 1931 was named the first? Associated Press Male Athlete the Year. Zach Wheat, a Cherokee out fielder who starred for Brooklyn' in the early 1900s and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1959. 1 Rudy York, a Cherokee who as a rookie catcher with the De-1 troit Tigers in 1937 broke Babe Ruth's record for most home in a month, hitting 18 in August, and also drove in 49 runs that month to break Lou Gehrig's record by one. York finished hisf career with 277 home runs, 1,152 RBI and a .275 batting average. Jack Aker, of Potawatomi de; scent spent 11 seasons as a reliev-i er with seven teams in the majors' and since 1994 has been teaching; baseball to Native American children in Arizona and New MexicoJ Thorpe, a SacFox from Oklahoma and direct descendant of the warrior Black Hawk who played for the Giants, Reds and Braves' from 1913-19.

Thorpe also played in the NFL and won gold medals at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics in the decathlon and pentathlon. That was my hero," said Tarbell, whose grandfather attended the Carlisle school with Thorpe. "I kind of did myself like him. Jim Thorpe was in my mind whenever I did something. I wanted to follow his path." Native Americans were expected to ignore racially charged ridicule.

Nearly every player of Indian descent who stepped onto a ballfield during the first half of the 20th century was called "Chief." It wasn't the only taunt: "Redskin," "Heap-Big Injun" and chants of "Back to the reservations," "Dog Soup" and "Whoop, Whoop" were part of the racist cacophony that emanated from the stands. Even teammates and opposing players sometimes did the taunting as teams around the country began calling themselves Indians and owners recruited Native! American players as gate attractions. black-eyed Susans along the way, watch the dogs and practice running. It's an opportunity for them to get out their extra energy before the end of the day. "It's good for them right before bedtime," Mata said.

"The bedtime routine is much easier." Jing Chen and her husband, Shen Xi Meng, have come to know the reservoir near their Millwood home from the evening walks they take. Chen said it's the one time of day they can speak together. "My husband is off from work and we're talking about our on our mind," Chen said. Over the years, they have come to know some of the other people who walk the same paths, and have noticed small changes in their envif ronment, such as the algae that now blooms freely on the water. For Chen and many others, an evening walk has become the highlight of the day.

Reach Jane McManus at jmcmanuslohud.com. "If the small and big boys of Brooklyn find it a pleasure to shout at me, I have no objections. No matter where we play, I go through the same ordeal, and at the present time I am so used to it that at times I forget to smile at my tormentors." Louis Sockalexis, speaking to a reporter from the Brooklyn Eagle during his rookie season football and track. When his baseball coach left for the same position at Notre Dame in 1896, Sockalexis transferred. He was expelled because of problems with alcohol, but signed with the Spiders.

Sockalexis had a batting average of .313 with three home runs and 33 RBI in three seasons before injuries and struggles with alcohol led to his release in 1899. He finished his career in the minor leagues and returned to Maine to coach juvenile teams. Despite his brief stint at the top echelon of the sport, Sockalexis paved the way for the likes of: Charles Chief Bender, a Chippewa from Minnesota who starred on the mound for the Philadelphia Athletics, compiling 212 wins in 16 seasons. In 1953, 28 years after retiring, Bender became the first Native American elected to the Hall of Fame. Allie "Super Chief Reynolds, a hard-throwing right-hander of Creek descent who went 131-60 in eight years with the Yankees and finished his 13-year major-league career in 1954 with a 182-107 record.

out" Correra said. Once she's done, the way back is pleasant and downhill. There are call boxes along the way that when operational, make her feel safer, although she would like to see a light added to an overpass. Since it isn't as crowded, she doesn't have to worry about taking up too much space on the pathway. Even so, she said she's never had a problem with the bicyclists and walkers with whom she shares the trail.

Safety is one of the reasons that Debbie Rosario chooses Kensico, which has picnic tables and a concession stand in addition to the broad quadrangle for walkers, strollers and skaters. She chooses the evening because, as a teacher in White Plains, it's when she has free time. "Once you get out of work if you don't start it you won't do it," Rosario said. Joanna Mata brings her twin girls, Maya and Jayla, to walk around the plaza in the evening. The toddlers like to smell the There's plenty to do when the work day is done 7 Exercise options are bountiful during nice summer evenings Jane McManus The Journal News Most temperate evenings, Toby Nadler dresses her long-haired white Maltese in her faux diamond collar and purple bows and takes her for a walk around the promenade at the Kensico Dam.

Actually, Chablis calls most of the shots, stopping to sniff any of the people and dogs that the two come across on the wide walkways. "A lot of people come here," said Nadler, holding Chablis in her arms as people walked the paths behind her. The summertime calls people out of doors for exercise, but in the heat of August the heat of midday is not usually the best time to work out. For those tied to the 9-to-5 workday, it's not even an option, Mike RoyThe Journal News Purchase resident Toby Nadler talks about why she likes walking her long-haired Maltese, Chablis, at Kensico Dam in Valhalla..