Legends are fired up for new season
The Menlo Park Legends are gearing up and ready to take on the upcoming summer season setting the team goal to win the CCL North Division and make the playoffs.
Starting as a team for friends eight years ago, the Legends have grown into a nationally recognized baseball team playing in the prestigeous California Collegiate League (CCL), which is supported by Major League Baseball. With new players and coaches, the Legends have set high expectations for this season and Founder and General Manager, David Klein, wants this year’s baseball squad to be the Legends’ best-organized team yet.
Each player has excelled in their current college seasons and come to the Bay Area with different talents and skills to build on during the summer.
“We have nothing but hardworking, high character players that are going to play their butts off all summer long, more depth than years prior in general,” Klein said.
Klein is excited to coach this year’s squad made up almost entirely of new players with only two returning Legends.
“Everyone has a clean slate—no one is a starter, no one is a reliever just yet, the positions are opened and available to be won,” Klein said. “The players that come out, work hard and compete on the field will win those positions over”.
To achieve their goal of making the playoffs, the Legends must focus their attention and energy to win against the other teams in the CCL Northern Division: the Neptune Beach Pearl, the Walnut Creek Crawdads, and the Pacific Union Financial Capitalists.
Starting from opening day, Legends players are expected to come out throwing strikes and find their timing at the plate in order to win games.
New pitching coach Charlie Henderson is ready to help the Legends finish at the top of the league. Henderson wants to help players stay in shape as they transition from college ball into summer ball.
“The whole point of playing summer baseball is to get a lot of repetitions and get better for when guys return to school,” Henderson said. “I’ve been a part of summer teams where guys don’t take it seriously and it’s something I will not tolerate with this group”.
Pitcher, Jackson Lancaster, is ready to go. Lancaster just finished his freshman year at Texas Tech University, majoring in Petroleum Engineering. He plans to develop his curve ball and velocity so that by the end of this summer season, returning to school a stronger baseball player.
“It’s awesome [here] and my host family is awesome,” Lancaster said. “I’ve only been here for not very long but I love the weather. It’s a pretty awesome experience so far”.
The Menlo Park Legends will play a total of 50 games this season and the players and coaching staff are ready to start strong on opening day.
“ [I am] very excited for the team I have, the coaching staff and the interns that will be supporting us off the field as well,” Klein said. “Fire it up”.
