Washington Township Senators 35+

On Saturday, October 21, 2006, our own Ken Bevenour joined the Philadelphia Pharmacy Men's Athletic Hall of Fame Award. The big guy, a 1987 Pharmacy grad, was enshrined for his exploits on the baseball field. This is a quote right from the event program:

Ken Bevenour was a four year starter for PCPS from 1983-1987. Primarily a centerfielder, Bevenour was co-captain and captain his junior and senior years respectively. His performance on the playing field earned him three consecutive NAIA District 19 All-Conference First Team honors. In his sophomore year, his .483 batting average set a PCPS team record and ranked him 17th nationally in the NAIA. Upon graduation, Bevenour had set eight individual batting records that included 138 hits, 33 doubles, 14 homeruns, 99 runs batted in, a .650 slugging percentage, a .543 on base percentage. A .406 batting average, and 98 walks. He is still listed in the team's all-time top 10 in each of those statistical categories. Today, Bevenour continues to play baseball, showing his skills with the Washington Township Senators of the South Jersey Men's Senior Baseball League.

Centerfielder??? Who knew??? :-) And Beave has had a pretty good career so far in Senator red & blue, as the lifetime leader in many offensive categories. The entire Senator family congratulates Beave on receiving this great honor!

Please make your selection for the 2007 Senator Cy Young Award winner:

Please choose your team MVP from our 2007 Season:

Once again the Senators get to spend the winter basking in the glow of a championship season. It was a year filled with adversity, challenges, and fun, and I feel very, very privilged to be standing on top of the mountain once again. And I am proud to have been able to share the experience with all of you. Right now, I want to provide a brief reminder of that #41 we wore on our caps this year. This championship season was and is dedicated to the memory or Joe Pavlik, former Senator and great friend to many of us, brother to our 28+ catcher, Mike Pavlik. How Joe would have loved being a part of these past two years! I have two very fond baseball memories of Joe, a true gentleman, and a true character if there ever was one. 1. We visited the Northeast Reds up at Riverside AA field. At this point, Joe was badly hobbled by a case of gout -- think Jim Toth BEFORE and subtract about 10 steps of speed. Well, Joe lets fly with a blast on this field that soars over the centerfielder's head and lands (I'm not kidding) almost on the PITCHER'S MOUND of the field directly opposite the one we were playing on. This had to be a 480 foot blast if it was a yard. It was hit so far that gout and all, Joe was able to take a home run trot around the bases and score without a throw. To this day, it's the longest home run I've ever seen live outside a big league ballpark. 2. We traveled up to Middlesex one Sunday morning to play a Middlesex White Sox team that was LOADED. We had NO SHOT to win this game, as we were as short-handed as we've ever been in team history. Mike Malatesta, all 5'2" of him, was our first baseman. Dean Marchese was in right. Miles Reader was at shortstop, and Pete Elliot (a pitcher) was in left. Those guys all had one fact in common: they were playing positions they had NEVER played in a Senator uniform, and to my knowledge, positions they never were to play again as Senators. The rest of the players were in position -- Mark Alessandrini (cf), me (2b), Mike Pavlik (c), and Frank Rose (3b). And on the hill was #41, our second string hurler with a big, looping curveball, no fast ball whatsoever, and a ton of heart. Well, Mike Pav hit a first-inning three-run dinger off this big, hard-throwing pitcher (who had started the All-Star Game that year), and our lefty spent the entire day playing pepper with those guys. Grounder after grounder to the left side, and a few to the right as well. He survived a beautiful FOUR-ERROR performance by Mr. Reader at short (sorry Miles!), and held those guys down as we beat them 4-3. I have never seen a team as vexed as those White Sox were on that morning. You could almost see steam coming from under their batting helmets. It was the most unexpected victory perhaps in team history. Joe LOVED it. And that's how I'll always remember Joe Pavlik. I hope #41 is up there starting the Senator Heaven Squad, so we'll all have a place to play when we join him.

The Tabernacle Tigers showed no quit on Sunday, rallying for a come-from-behind 10-9 victory to send this terrific Championship Series back to Tabernacle next weekend for a rubber match. The Senators got three hits and two RBI from Jim McAllister, three hits from Mark Alessandrini, and two hits and two RBI from Ken Bevenour. Bevenour's line drive homer to left in the eighth provided a key insurance run, but Senators pitchers were simply unable to hold down the powerful Tiger offense to close it out. Dale Amos gave a gritty effort on the hill, and Gene Michalski threw two shutout innings later, but gave up a few runs in the ninth. John DiPietro, heretoforth knows as "Iron Man", came out of the bullpen after throwing 140+ pitches the prior day, but he wound up taking the tough loss after a great win on Saturday. Maybe the manager asked too much of his ace? I dunno. Anyway, we get to do it all just ONE MORE TIME here in 2006. I don't think I have to tell you who will be pitching for us. They will certainly have to think about their rotation, with Gabe seemingly out of the picture. They will appeal the ejection, but I don't think there is any chance the league will allow it. We intend to play this game on SUNDAY unless the mid-week forecast shows any danger of rains either late Saturday or early Sunday. If that's the case, I will have no choice and will have to play on Saturday morning. I will post the lineup as soon as I know more about who can and cannot be there on which days. I know Rick Amos is out for the weekend, and Rich Kulikowski won't be able to make Saturday. And Bill Trotman is questionable for Sunday as well. We will hit Thursday night. Hang in there -- it's only baseball!