Tag Archives: Birmingham Bloomfield Beavers

Independent Ball

United Shore League Opening Week, Rosters

2 Comments

The United Shore Professional Baseball League (USPBL) officially opened their season one week ago. The Utica Unicorns faced the Birmingham Bloomfield Beavers at Jimmy John’s Field on Monday, May 30th – the Unicorns defeated the Beavers 5-1 in front of a sold out crowd. (Exact attendance figures have not been posted on their Pointstreak statistics page).

United Shore League

The league, which features three teams, will play all of their games at the newly built Jimmy John’s Field in Utica, Michigan. For more information on the league, a Q&A with their Director of Baseball Ops can be found on our website HERE.

So far, there have been four completed games with another game being suspended due to rain (Saturday June 4th’s game with the Unicorns and Beavers).

The promotions have been in full swing as well:  Star Wars and Super Hero Nights, Meet the Team events and fireworks with much more scheduled for the rest of the season!

Each game can be found live on their Youtube channel. Video replays are also uploaded after games.

Rosters have finally been released as well. The official website has a list of players on each team page; However there is no order (numerically, alphabetically, or position-wise) to their roster list. Pointstreak has the rosters listed in an easier to follow layout, so I will link to those for each team below:

Birmingham Bloomfield Beavers
East Side Diamond Hoppers
Utica Unicorns

united shore league 4

Based on the pictures and posts on their Facebook page, opening week has finished with great fanfare and feedback. The competition on the field looks good, and the players and fans both seem to be enjoying themselves.

Hopefully the magic of opening day doesn’t wear off any time soon, especially when the same three teams will be playing in the same stadium all summer long.

If all goes as planned, the next few years will include many expansions with more teams in other areas. According to Crain’s Detriot Business, they hope to have four to six teams playing in 2017, 10 to 12 teams in 2012, and 20 teams in 10 Midwest stadiums by the next decade.

Here’s hoping that this is just the beginning of a very successful independent baseball league!

(All photos courtesy of the USPBL Facebook Page)

Independent Ball

USPBL Announces Tryouts, Names Assistant Managers

10 Comments
UNITED SHORE PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE ANNOUNCES OPEN TRYOUTS TO FIND LOCAL “DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH” 
Nearly 20 Players Already Signed From All Across Country, Assistant Managers Named 
To ensure no stone is left unturned when searching out the nation’s top baseball talent, the United Shore Professional Baseball League (USPBL) has announced it will hold open tryouts May 16-19, 2016 at Evolution SportsPlex in Auburn Hills.  The tryouts are just one avenue the league is utilizing to obtain players for the USPBLs three inaugural teams.  Since its announcement in late 2015, the League has been actively scouting across the country to recruit top talent for the new professional independent baseball league.  Play will begin Memorial Day.
·    May 16, 2016: Light workout including batting and infield/outfield practice.
·    May 17, 2016: Professional player evaluation drills.
·    May 18-19, 2016: Situational baseball and live games.
“We’ve been actively communicating with more than 1,000 coaches from top universities and colleges, as well as monitoring over 100 seniors from NCAA Division I and Division II, to identify and sign players from the best schools to bring our fans the highest level of professional baseball,” said Andy Appleby, League Founder and CEO. “We want every player that comes through our League to get a chance at making it to Major League Baseball, and we’re extremely confident that will happen and that dreams will be realized.”
Among the nearly 20 players nationally signed by the league to date:
Forest Koumas
Position: RHP
College/Team: University of South Carolina
Hometown: Lugoff, South Carolina
Highlights: Gatorade player of the year in South Carolina in 2010. Drafted by the Texas Rangers. Starting pitcher for game 1 of the 2011 and 2012 College World Series national championship series. All-SEC Freshman team. Team won the National Championship in 2011
Kyle Richards:
Position: Outfield
College/Team: Florida Southern College. Played for Kansas City T-Bones in American Association
Hometown: Glastonbury, CT
Highlights: Career stats for Florida Southern .321 Avg in 140 AB…OBP .395…SLG .457…2 HR…2 3B…9 2B… 28 Runs…10 SB. KC T-Bones hit .154 in 26 AB
Cam Walker:
Position: IN,OF
College/Team: Wayne State University
Hometown: Clinton Twp. MI
Highlights: DII Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Champs Set school record in Wins in a Season 2014 GLIAC All Tournament Team 2011 GLIAC All Academic Team 2011, 12’, 13’ Coach’s Honor Roll 2009 Athletic Honor Roll

The USPBL also announced the hiring of three Assistant Managers:

Assistant Manager Shane McCatty 
Utica Unicorns
A 2009 graduate of Oakland University, Shane played professional baseball for five years for the Washington Nationals. During his professional career he was a key member of the 2009 Gulf Coast League (GCL) Nationals Rookie League Championship team. McCatty was awarded the 2011 Hagerstown, Maryland Community Service Award as a member of the Hagerstown Suns, a Washington Class A affiliate.
Assistant Manager Richard Donnelly 
Birmingham-Bloomfield Beavers
Donnelly brings 43 years of coaching experience including a minor league managerial background in the Texas Rangers system. On the major league level, he has served as bench, bullpen and first and third base coaches with a number of teams, including the Rangers, Pirates, Marlins and Rockies (the latter three for former Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland). More recently, Donnelly has coached for the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers Dodgers and Seattle Mariners.
Assistant Manager Jim Essian 
Eastside Diamond Hoppers 
Essian began as an All-Star rookie in 1970 with the Philadelphia Phillies and played in the Majors for 11 years, including with the A’s, Braves, Cubs, Indians, Mariners, White Sox. He also served as manager for the Chicago Cubs in 1991.
During the summer of 2015, General Sports and Entertainment announced the creation of the United Shore Professional Baseball League (USPBL), an independent professional baseball league in Metro Detroit. The league, headquartered in Rochester, Michigan, initially will be playing in a brand new state-of-the-art $12 million ballpark named Jimmy John’s Field, which is located in downtown Utica, Mich. First of its kind for Metro Detroit, USPBL will provide a fun and exciting family atmosphere while showcasing top baseball talent to fans of all ages. The inaugural season, which begins this Memorial Day 2016, will feature three teams—the Utica Unicorns, the Eastside Diamond Hoppers and the Birmingham Bloomfield Beavers. Additional teams and ballparks will be forthcoming each year.