By Majors' Alumnus Dave Byers, SS, #18, Riley Nowokowski and Barry Wells
The 2008 London Majors won the John Coppes Memorial Trophy with the best win-loss record of 27-9 during the regular season (a .750 winning percentage). London's first pennant since 1988.
Majors' RHP Josh Palmer, 22, won the 2008 Ted Earley Memorial Trophy with the lowest ERA during the regular season (2.14). His record was 8-0, pitching seven complete games.
IBL All-Stars were: Majors' SS David Narodowski, RHP Josh Palmer, 1B Jess Bechard, OF Christian Riuz and MGR Roop Chanderdat.
2008 IBL All-Stars: theibl.net/awards2008.html
2008 Regular Season Stats: theibl.net/documents/RELEASE12_001.pdf
2008 Playoff Stats: theibl.net/documents/RELEASE15.pdf
Majors' SS David Narodowski was named MVP of the 2008 IBL All-Star Game in Toronto.
Majors' Co-owners Scott Dart and Roop Chanderdat won the David E. Hastings Trophy as IBL Co-executives of the Year.
In Game 7 of the best-of-seven-game championship series at Labatt Park, the Brantford Red Sox defeated the London Majors 8-2, before a sold-out crowd of 5,200.
Majors' INF Jeff Helps won the Max Roseman Memorial Trophy as the MVP during the IBL Playoffs.
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After the 2008 all-star game in Toronto, Dave Narodowski was named Game MVP. (L-R): RHP Josh Palmer, MGR Roop Chanderdat, SS Dave Narodowski, 2B Jeff Helps and OF Christian Riuz. | 2008 Majors' team leader and fan favourite, Kyle Piwowarczyk. | 2008 Majors' Playoff MVP Jeff Helps, INF |
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Aug. 29, 2008 at Labatt Park, Brantford Red Sox defeated London Majors 8-2 in Game 7 of the championship series before a full house. | 2008 Majors' Co-owner, General Manager and Field Manager Roop Chanderdat. | 2008 Majors' All-Star RHP Josh Palmer. |
Remembering the Season
Jeff Helps, 2B and SS
"It was a summer of memories. The players were a great group of guys; the ones you wanted on your team. We had bulldogs on the mound, matched with good defence and good hitting.
"Roop was in his 3rd season as the manager and he was good at communicating with the players. I always knew where I stood with Roop, what his expectations were and what my role was. He put all the pieces together and let us play."
On winning the IBL Playoff MVP Award (Jeff batted .408 with 29 hits), Helps reflects: "It was a team effort. The guys would always work out together and talk about hitting. Mentoring from Jess Bechard helped me understand myself and helped me turn a corner.
"2008 was bitter-sweet. It was more than just the playoff run. It became a part of my life. Without that summer, I don’t meet former Major Leaguer Adam Stern, owner of Centrefield Sports, where I now work. I wouldn’t have set up in London. It was kind of like the stars aligned.
"The season was special; you’re playing baseball at a good level and seeing the big playoff crowds made it great. Either being booed or cheered, it didn’t matter, it was a great experience.”
Kyle Piwowarczyk, 3B
"My memories of the 2008 season began the same as most, with a lot of new faces. There was always turnover from year to year when I played. And you never really knew what kind of team you had until you got onto the field.
"In '08, you could see early on that we had a special group; really good players and really great guys. I can't remember having any problems of any kind with anyone. There were no egos to navigate around and the leadership that guys like Jess Bechard and Kevin Virtue provided kept everyone in check and moving towards the common goal.
"One thing I do remember that summer is winning a lot of one-run games in late innings. We were always confident that someone would step up with a big hit and our pitching staff always gave us the chance to win. We were 2nd in the league in team hitting and defense and our pitching was the best in the league.
"There were a lot of capable players that accepted their roles and contributed whenever given the chance. No matter what our lineup looked like, we felt we had a chance to win.
"As is the case with most successful teams, we had team chemistry and fun off the field. We had guys from different backgrounds, different ages and guys that were there for different reasons, but in the clubhouse everyone connected ... Our clubhouse manager Cam (Snacks) Simpson made sure the guys had everything needed before, during and after games.
"Scott Dart was always close by to make sure the players had everything needed to be successful. He did a lot of behind-the-scenes work, that most fans aren’t aware of.
"Of course, the unfortunate end of the summer is something I will never forget. I had to leave during the championship series against Brantford to fulfill my first professional hockey contract in Germany. An extremely difficult position to be in, but it was an opportunity I simply couldn't afford to jeopardize. There is no feeling in the world worse for me than not being beside your teammates in competition. However, I was extremely proud of how we competed and coming up short is nothing to be ashamed of. It's fair to say that 2008 was my most memorable as a London Major."
Jess Bechard, 1B and 3B
"I’d played off and on in a few leagues in Ohio but when I moved back to Canada in 2007, I hadn’t thought about putting the spikes on again. One day, the itch just hit me and two days later I was at practice with the team. It immediately felt like a great fit. I was really just looking to have some fun and to be totally honest, my motivation was I wanted to prove to myself that I could still play at a high level. It turned out to be more fun than I ever imagined.
"Getting off to a hot start in the IBL regular season can give you some breathing room for later in the season when teams are fighting for playoff position, so our strong start played a big part in helping us win the pennant … It became evident that the key to the team being a close-knit group was Kyle Piwowarczyk. ‘Peo’ was one of the greatest teammates I ever stepped on a field with and a good friend to this day.
"The biggest addition was Jeff Helps, who came about eight games into the season. He was the final piece of the puzzle and we just kept rolling. We now had a lineup where you could put the same starting nine out there each night and let the players go after it. I think Roop knew that he had something special and let us have fun and play and Roop did a great of job of that. He had a professional infield [Piwowarczyk 3B, Narodowski SS, Helps 2B] and an outfield of talented athletes [Vallejos LF, Ruiz CF, Virtue RF]. Every night we stepped on the field expecting to win and we knew we had the team to do it.
"The pitching staff might have been even more impressive. We had two veterans in Adam Echlin and Josh Palmer who you knew were going to give you a chance to win each time they toed the rubber. They were going to go deep in games and give the bullpen a rest when you needed a shutdown outing.
"While one of the storylines of the playoffs is the fact that we lost the left side of our infield for the Brantford series [Piwowarczyk to Germany for pro hockey and Narodowski to start his school year at the University of Kansas], it's more important to focus on the guys who stepped up and filled the vacated roles ... Moving Jeff Helps to SS to cover for Narodowski was seamless. Helpsy is arguably the smoothest infielder I’ve ever played with.
"In my opinion, the hero of that series was Vince Burke. He jumped in at second base and played like an all-star that whole series. Vince was a solid player all season and an unbelievable teammate.
"With Josh Palmer starting in game 7, we felt pretty good about our chances. Long story short, we lost … but the effort we put in and the team that came together to overcome obstacles was really impressive. Not winning game 7 doesn’t change how I feel about that team. We gave Brantford everything they could handle. They were a veteran team who had to fly in every weapon under the sun to beat us. We danced with the ones who brought us and we went down fighting."
