By DAN VALENTI

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, JUNE 16, 2011) — This just in. The Pittsfield Colonials will conduct a press conference today at 3 p.m. at Beloved Wahconah Park (BWP) to address the future of the franchise. This comes in light of a hatchet job a couple days ago in the Boring Broadsheet.

Hint: The team is here to stay, which will cause long faces among the GOB mafia.

Sappy Sullivan Inflates Dowd Attendance; PLANET Gets It Right

Now that the rational and objective among us know that we can’t believe anything we read in the Boring Broadsheet, we must mention the coverage of the Paul Dowd ceremony at Beloved Wahconah Park. We will mercifully leave alone the more sappy elements, such as the windbag speeches by ex-mayors (particularly Gerry Doyle) and point to Brian Sullivan’s fictitious number of the attendance.

Sully claims there were 1,500 at the park. Right, and The Planet is going to lead the NHL in scoring next season.

N-O. W-A-Y. Get real, BB. Our Josh Cutler pegged the number, the exactness of which shall remain unknown, at 500. Again, those without a vested interest in inflating the number, which precludes our good friend Sully, will agree with The Planet’s count as the truth. The Planet fearlessly predicts that this will be the only Colonials’ related attendance number the BB inflated for the rest of the year, since the bosses there must do all they can do defeat ANY baseball enterprise that tries to succeed at BWP.

Speaking of the rest of the year, there will be “a rest of the year,” despite the BB’s best efforts to sandbag the team by burying game stories on game two and concocting fiction of doom and demise and screaming it from Page One. To that end, the team will conduct a press conference at 3 p.m. tomorrow at BWP to address the near future.

Scoop: The team is staying put. It will ride out the year. Attendance will begin to chart upward with summer vacation and the height of the tourist season. The Planet will have coverage.

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Colonials’ Owner Lewis Issue Challenge to BWP ‘Naysayers’

By JOSH CUTLER

PLANET VALENTI Sports

Following a cover story in Saturday’s Berkshire Eagle publishing a grim picture of the Colonials’ future in Pittsfield, Owner Buddy Lewis has called a 3:00 p.m. press conference for Thursday afternoon at Wahconah Park to address rampant speculation and to set the record straight about the immediate future of his franchise in the Shire City.

In an interview Wednesday afternoon, Lewis reinforced his belief that Pittsfield and the Berkshires can still be a long-term match for his franchise: “The bottom line is that (neither) I nor the Can-Am League want The Colonials to leave Pittsfield.”

Though the Colonials have started the early portion of the 2011 better than last year (8-9 through Wednesday afternoon’s doubleheader split with New Jersey compared to a 7-20 start in 2010), attendance numbers have yet to catch up with the team’s progress. Through 10 home dates, Pittsfield has averaged 731 fans per game, well below the league average of 1,559. The next closest team is Newark, which has averaged 1,001 fans per game through 11 openings.

Team Has Three-Year Lease at BWP
During the offseason, the Colonials and the City of Pittsfield entered into a three-year license agreement that would keep the team in Wahconah Park through the 2013 season. Lewis indicated that despite the team’s struggles to pull in fans in the early going, he intends to honor that agreement: “I am a FULL-time resident of Richmond and am totally committed to keeping pro baseball in The Berkshires.”

The publication of the Eagle article has led to polarized feedback regarding the Colonials’ tenure in the venerable Wahconah Street facility. Lewis believes that his product can still win the naysayers of his franchise over: “I will invite those who have not been to a game or Wahconah Park to come on down and give us a try”.

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COLONIALS SPLIT TWINBILL; PARONTO SHINES IN OPENER

By CHAD COOPER

Special to PLANET VALENTI Sports

(LITTLE FALLS, N.J. June 15, 2011) — Chad Paronto pitched the first complete game shutout of his 16-year professional career in game one of a doubleheader as the Pittsfield Colonials defeated the New Jersey Jackals 9-0.

The Colonials got Paronto all the runs he would need in the first inning as they posted five runs, keyed by a two-run triple from Danny Bomback and a two-run homer by Billy Mottram, his third of the year.

Pittsfield would extend the lead with two runs each in the fourth and fifth innings. The offense was more than enough for Paronto (1-3), as he tossed his first complete game since July 9, 2000, allowing six hits, walking none, and striking out six. Phil Bartleski (1-1) took the loss.

In the second game, Nick Giarraputo had two hits for the Jackals, leading them to a 4-0 win. Isaac Pavlik (4-0) tossed a complete game shutout. David Qualben (1-1) also went the distance for the Colonials, taking the loss.

The series finale will be on Thursday with Miguel Flores (0-2, 2.91) on the mound for Pittsfield against James Leverton (1-2, 4.50) for the Jackals. Game time is set for 7:05 p.m. Coverage on pittsfieldcolonials.com begins at 6:45 p.m. with the Colonials Pregame Show.

Pittsfield will return home for a doubleheader against the New York Federals on Friday, June 17 at 6 p.m. For tickets, call 413-236-2961 or log on to www.pittsfieldcolonials.com.