Jackals Howl Over Northeast League 2004 Title
Jersey Breaks North Shore Spirit in Five

Dan Hickling
Minor League News

LYNN, Mass. - The baseball might not have been big league caliber, but the celebratory mound-mosh? Nothing rinky-dink about that.

Stacked like a cord of living firewood after capturing yet another Northeast League title from the North Shore Spirit, the New Jersey Jackals proved once more that you don't throw cold water on a victory celebration.

"I'm on Cloud Nine," said New Jersey first baseman Kevin Grijak, after the Jackals decisive, 5-3 Game 5 win over the North Shore Spirit. The win delivered the Jackals' their third NEL crown in four years.

"When you're playing for the championship it's the best feeling in the world," said Jackals' righthander Joel Bennett, who started the clincher and came away with the win, "no matter where you are."

Grijak, a veteran who has knocked around the minors for a dozen years, was even more emphatic.

"I don't care if I'm in the major leagues, Triple-A, Double-A, Single-A, or independent ball," he said. "Every championship is a special feeling. We are the best team in this league. And we're going to cherish this moment."

Yet it was a moment that didn't come easily for Jersey. The Spirit nabbed the first two games in the best of five series on the Jackals’ home turf, both by one run, putting Jersey in the unenviable position of a road trip North with the dimming hope that they could sweep three from the Spirit at Fraser Field.

The Jackals bought themselves some time with come from behind marathon wins of 13 and 11 innings, setting up one final winner-take-all showdown.

"The guys did a great job," said Jersey skipper Joe Calfapietra. "We could have come here with our heads between our (legs) but we didn't. We won two big games. "

They were ready to wrap up win No. 3 early on, as they cruised to a 4-1 lead behind Bennett, who had two brief big league twirls with the Phillies and Orioles.

Run scoring hits by Craig Conway and Jay LeFlair in the bottom of the second got the Jackals started. An inning later, league MVP Wilton Veras crashed a wall ball double to score Zack Smithlin, making it 3-1. One out later, Chris Rowan knocked in Veras, to bulk the Jersey advantage to three runs. In the Jackals' dugout, the air of celebration was beginning to ratchet up.

North Shore battled back in the bottom of the fifth, when a pair of Jersey gaffes cut the gap from three runs to just one.

Bennett shrugged off that threat and dampened the Spirit for two more innings, before handing off to reliever Aaron Myers for the final two frames.

"They had me on the ropes (in the fifth)," Bennett said, "but after that inning, they weren't going to get any more. I told the guys, 'that's it....that's it."

This will be a special flag in the bag for New Jersey, to go with the ones from '98, '01, and '02 that already fly over Yogi Berra Stadium:  The league will adopt a new name, the Can-Am Baseball League in 2005.

"This is very important," said Veras, the one time Opening Day third baseman of the Boston Red Sox. "We came from behind. It didn't look like we were going to win, but we played hard every inning. And we got it."

Veras and Grijack have played together before, making an unsuccessful run for the PCL pennant with the Albuquerque Isotopes club in 2003

The second-year Spirit, with its strong Boston Red Sox presence, is already developing it's own Fenway-esque penchant for heartbreak.

The club, managed by ex-Sox infielder John Kennedy, and coached by Sox legends Dick "The Monster" Radatz and Rich Gedman, is now 0-fer-2 in the NEL championship series, having lost last year to the Brockton Rox.

Fraser Field faithful will have all winter to play the "what if" game.

What if the Spirit could have held that 4-1 run lead after six in Game 3?

What if Rob Fischer hadn't been tossed out at the plate in the bottom of the eighth of Game 4, instead of scoring what would have been the winning run for the Spirit?

What if?

"It's tough to swallow no matter what," said Frank Charles, North Shore's classy veteran catcher. "We really battled to get up two games in New Jersey. There was never any doubt we were going to close it out. But they played their butts off. They never quit. We never quit either.

"What an unbelievable series. We just came up a little short."