2023 Russia Baseball Preview

The celebrating is over and it's back to work for the Russia Baseball program

March weather in Ohio usually isn't ideal for spring sports. Such was the case this past Saturday when most area games for Opening Day were either postponed or canceled. For the Russia Baseball program, weather wasn't the reason Saturday's opener with Piqua was canceled. Rather, it was the result of Russia's basketball program enjoying a long tournament run that ended on March 17th in the state tournament. Eleven of fifteen multi-sport athletes on the varsity basketball roster will play varsity or JV baseball when the Raiders open the season this week.

Russia is the defending Division IV state baseball champions in case you missed the news last June. That's a memory likely to go unmentioned this year by head coach Kevin Phlipot, who returns for his 8th season with 147 career wins and seven starters from the state final roster. When the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association released their 2023 D-IV preseason state poll on March 20th, the Raiders were absent from the list of top 42 teams voted on by the 32 pollsters. Perhaps that's bulletin board material if you need serious motivation or maybe it's a blessing if you're concerned with unwanted pressure.

Below is a recap of what Russia needs to replace from 2022 and a preview of what to watch in the months ahead.

The program graduated five seniors from their championship team that finished 25-7. Most notable was the SCAL Player of the Year, Grant Saunders, a flame-throwing pitcher that went 7-0 and designated hitter who led the team with a .462 batting average. Additionally, the team has two huge holes to fill with the departures of catcher and 4-year starter Aiden Shappie, along with Jared Poling who was a tall target as starting 1st-baseman. Finally, Patrick Bohman and Sam York both provided strong support roles off the bench that most casual fans probably didn't realize.

Xavier Phlipot, Zane Shappie, and Ross Fiessinger lead the Raiders

This year three seniors are back and all three for their third varsity seasons. If 2020 hadn't been eliminated by the pandemic, the trio likely would have enjoyed four-year varsity careers and maybe a few marks on the school record board from all their success. Leading the way is Xavier Phlipot, arguably the top returnee in the Shelby County Athletic League. Xavier is a veteran shortstop and pitcher, that latter position resulting in a record of 9-0 last year including a complete game win in the state title game. Xavier hit the ball well too with a .340 batting average last season from the second spot in the batting order. Next is the anchor in centerfield, Zane Shappie, a speedster who patrolled both power alleys and everything in between without a single error in 2022. His best performance at the plate came when the Raiders needed him most in both state tournament games. As the #7-hitter, Zane went a combined 3-for-6 with 3 RBI, all three of those 'ribbies' coming at critical moments. The final senior is the proverbial workhorse of the pitching staff and that's Ross Fiessinger. Ross tied for last years team lead in pitching starts with 11 and included in his 5-3 record were six decisions against D-II and D-III teams. When he did pitch against D-IV one of those wins was a no-hitter which clinched Russia's share of the SCAL championship.

Hayden Quinter scored 31 runs and batted .419 as a sophomore

The junior class returns five players and adds one newcomer. At the head is Russia's top returning batter in Hayden Quinter who led the team last year in several offenses categories including hits with 44. He's one of the toughest players on the team too, manning the hot corner down at 3rd-base and wearing the gear as catcher when necessary. Brayden Monnin is back as last years leadoff hitter with speed and power, second on the team in extra base hits with 11. He's also a utility guy versatile enough to play every position in the field. Jude Counts blossomed his sophomore season at the plate batting .327. One of his highlights was a go-ahead three run homer he blasted versus Lima Shawnee that turned into a game winner.

Next in the class are two 6'-5" juniors that recorded limited innings on varsity last year, but could shine this season. One is Felix Francis who was restricted to mostly pinch running, scoring eight times despite just two plate appearances. The other is southpaw Ben Rinderle who aims to make his varsity pitching debut at some point. Ben has bulked up this school year and might even crush a few fastballs at the plate too. Lastly, outfielder Adam Hoehne has a varsity jersey after playing a full schedule of junior varsity the last two seasons.

Opponents will be facing an experienced Braylon Cordonnier on the mound

The sophomore class is talented and one player that needs no introduction is Braylon Cordonnier. As a freshman Braylon's bat made headlines with a .407 average, three triples, and a grand slam. This season it could be his pitching arm making highlights so stay tuned. Three more classmates added to the roster late last season were Vince Borchers, Micah Grieshop, and Zeb Schulze. There's likely not room in the starting group for all three, but if any of them proves they can hit varsity pitching, look for their name on the lineup card. 

Finally, if you're one of those people that likes speculation about incoming freshman - only time will tell. The jump from 14U travel baseball to high school varsity is always daunting. That said, Russia's annual success at all grade levels means Coach Phlipot rarely needs to rebuild and usually just reloads.

Fans wanting to catch the Raiders this week can watch them at Russia Community Park in their only preseason scrimmage hosting Minster on Tuesday, March 28th. They open the regular season on Thursday with a road trip to Fairlawn and then travel to D-II Lima Shawnee on Friday. On Saturday they will face D-III backyard rival Versailles at the home of the Dayton Dragons in Day Air Ballpark. Folks heading to Dayton for the action can purchase tickets at the following link. 

Jude Counts and the Raiders will be home to scrimmage Minster on Tuesday 

Machine Learning - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Machine Learning

The news has lots of hype about the latest developments in artificial intelligence which brought to mind my college days doing research in that field circa 1970. As part of my studies for a mechanical and electrical engineering dual degree at General Motors Institute (now Kettering University), we had a course on machine learning, which was the name coined by British mathematician Alan Turing in the 1950’s for an electronic brain.Turing was the scientist who in the 1930’s invented the first computer and during WWII, he used his invention to decipher the Enigma code allowing the Allies to intercept and interpret German communications, helping to shorten the war. A superb 2014 movie entitled the “Imitation Game” is about Turing decoding Enigma. The movie was nominated for 8 Emmy’s and won for best screen play adaptation.

Turing in his 1950 book entitled “Computing Machines and Intelligence” used the term “artificial neurons”, which eventually transformed to the term "artificial intelligence so prevalent today. He predicted that machine learning will evolve just like a baby learns, gradually over time. And to evolve, a source of information akin to an electronic library will have to be developed, thus the internet. Imagine being like Turing, able to conceive of things that would transpire generations later? I can easily go back decades as I do in these blog posts, but looking forward that far is inconceivable.

That 1970 college class on Machine Learning utilized an analog computer, which was thought by our professor at the time to be more “brain-like” than a digital computer. The above photo looks exactly like our classroom with the professor showing us how to program the computer using plug-in devices called nand and nor logic gates connected by innumerous wires. Our class project was to design a closed loop servo motor for an infinitely variable speed windshield wiper that automatically sensed moisture on the glass. But it was all for naught, as digital computers literally obsoleted analog computers for all the reasons shown below and intermittent wipers with rain sensors powered by digital circuits are now the norm. Shown below are the clear disadvantages of analog computing. Data storage was the primary reason for analog’s demise and ironically the godfather of digital memory, chip maker Intel CEO Gordon Moore, just died this week at age 94. He conceived what became Moore’s Law in the 1960’s when he predicted digital memory would double every 18 months, a trend that continues to this day and likely beyond as shown on the Intel chart below. He was clairvoyant just like Alan Turing!

Turing’s prediction that AI would gain capabilities like a baby seems to have been accurate, as AI today is about as capable as a graduate student in college. Below are some of the AI milestones along the way which will give a sense for its current level of maturity:

1966 – MIT’s ELIZA gives computers a voice, direct ancestor of Alexa and SIRI.

1988 – IBM researchers tackle the challenge of computer translation of human languages and using probability theory to create rules rather than training them with rules - mimics the cognitive process of the human brain.

1991 – The Internet was the catalyst for society at large to plug itself into the online world and with it, AI uses the Internet to connect, generate and share data.

1997 – IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer defeats world chess champion Garry Kasparov by tackling the game with moves described mathematically. Essentially the computer used brute force to calculate all the possible moves and pick the best one.

2005 – The DARPA Grand Challenge was a race for autonomous vehicles across over 100 kilometers of off-road terrain in the Mojave desert. Five vehicles made their way around, with the team from Stanford University taking the prize for the fastest time.

2011 – IBM Cognitive computing engine called Watson’s defeated Jeopardy champions. The concept of a computer beating humans at a language based, creative-thinking game was unheard of.

2012 – Stanford and Google collaborated to develop a computer that could learn to recognize and identify pictures of random cats! This was accomplished with a neural network with one billion connections, albeit along way from the human brain with 10 trillion connectors.

2015 – Machines “see” better than humans. The visual acuity accuracy rate of AI algorithms hit 97.3% – promoting researchers to declare that computers could identify objects in visual data more accurately than humans. The breakthrough allowed the widespread commercialization of facial recognition.

2016 – Google subsidiary AlphaGo AI computer defeats world champion Lee Sedol in the Japanese game Go with over 100,000 possible opening moves compared to only 400 in chess, making a brute force approach impractical. AlphaGo used neural networks to study the game and learn as it played.

2018 – Self-driving cars hit the roads, launched by Google spin-off Waymo’s self-driving taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona. The first commercial autonomous vehicle hire service, Waymo One is currently in use by 400 members of the public who pay to be driven to their schools and workplaces within a 100 square mile area.

2020 - Oxford University’s CurialAI was able to distinguish between COVID-infected patients and patients with other respiratory defects with greater than 90% accuracy in less than an hour after being trained. Healthcare AI developments are one of the most beneficial uses of AI to humanity because they allow for quick treatment solutions and diagnosis, as well as improving the efficacy, speeding up the development and lowering the cost of new pharmaceuticals.

2022 - ChatGPT - An AI tool that interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests. For example, ChatGRP has passed the bar exam to be a lawyer. Next thing you know it can write my blogs! I’m on the waiting list to gain access to ChatGPT, so once I try it out, look for a blog on what I discover. The chart below depicts how it works according to the NY Times.

Some AI cartoons you might enjoy:

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Lent - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Lent

Cross made by Dad for Mom, Michelangelo’s La Pieta Statue, Lucy’s Easter Basket

With Lent half over, our priest on Sunday asked the parishioners how we are doing so far, especially regarding fasting, almsgiving and prayer, the three pillars of current Lenten observances. His sermon caused me to recollect (after mass, not during!) as a kid how the Lenten practice back then seemed primarily focused on giving up something as a penance for the 40 days of Lent. No meat on Friday was first and foremost, which meant Mom would make us kids each an egg sandwich packaged in a brown paper bag to eat after mass before school started each Friday during Lent. To this day, I love egg sandwiches, my meal of choice when going out for breakfast.

So giving up meat on Friday’s was not really that difficult during Lent. Neither was giving up candy as we never had any around the house anyway, plus I preferred to spend my weekly $1 allowance money as a kid on other more important things like baseball cards or sports equipment.

Sara

My sister Sara recollects that Mom’s cooking really changed during Lent with plenty of soft boiled eggs, corn bread with milk for supper and left over fried corn bread topped with syrup for breakfast the next morning, Toasted cheese with tomato soup was also a Lenten mainstay for supper. Yum! She forgives Mom for the lard used in preparation! The worst Lenten meals Mom made were the salmon patties and tuna fish salad. Yuck! Friday fish fries during Lent at the Loramie Legion also provided special memories and were definitely not much of a Lenten penance.

Probably the most challenging aspect of Lent for me and my siblings was the daily rosary in the family living room with an established seating arrangement to separate us 5 kids, plus assigning each of us to recite one of the five mysteries, forcing us to pay attention. Mom sure had her techniques! Sara recalls always staking out the seat across from my little brother Luke to watch him squirm and make grimaces during the rosary which admittedly she may have sublimely instigated! If one of us got too rowdy we had to kneel until the rosary was completed.

The last week of Lent was also especially demanding with the long church services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. Plus, typically I was an alter server for many of those services, which meant arriving early and staying longer to extend the church times even more for our family. And Dad or Mom always volunteered to have their feet washed during services on Thursday. My sister did as well. Not for me! I stuck to serving.

Prayer and fasting were prevalent during our Lenten services back then, almsgiving not so much, as our family had little money to give! I can recall Dad complaining about the annual $5 pew rent that was charged to all parishioners back then. Looking back, we definitely were financially poor, but as a kid we never considered ourselves in that plight. Mom and Dad likely felt that way, but fortunately we never went hungry and thanks to Mom’s seamstress skills, we always had new clothes; at least us older kids, as the younger one’s got our hand-me-downs! Self sufficiency on the farm keep my parents afloat at the time, important skills learned during the earlier Great Depression and WWII.

Sara, Ann, Lucy, Dave Praying at Maria Stein Relic Chapel 1958

Finally Easter Sunday would come and Lent was over. We started celebrating immediately after services on Holy Saturday by going over to my grandmother’s place. Check out this blog about a very disappointing Holy Saturday night back in 1961 when the undefeated Buckeyes lost the NCAA championship to the Cincinnati Bearcats in overtime.

Easter Sunday meant everyone was dressed to the nines, thanks to Mom’s sewing skills. Everything was homemade but looked absolutely perfect, especially the Easter bonnets!

Sara, Lucy & Ann with Mom in their Easter Outfits - 1957

Here are some more Lenten memories from my other siblings:

Luke

Brother Luke - Going to the 3-hour mass seem like an eternity when I was younger. But afterwards we would run to Sidney to Murphy's and get some last minute things Mom needed. My outfit was pretty much standard white shirt black pants for Easter Sunday. Helping dad plant the garden on Good Friday happened a few of those years with the weather permitting. After Holy Saturday services was usually when the candy showed up along with waiting for the Easter Bunny on Sunday morning. Hunting Easter eggs around the yard was always a fond memory.

Lucy with Daughter and Grandkids

Sister Lucy - I remember almost always giving up candy for Lent. Now I give up all sweets and alcohol. It makes everything taste so good on Easter. On Ash Wednesday all the classes went to Mass and wore the ashes all day at school. Only one regular meal was allowed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and no snitching in between meals; fasting only! We always had to rake the grass and do spring clean up outside so the Easter Bunny wouldn't trip up and drop the eggs and candy, which was our incentive to do the work. Good Friday was church, which included stations of the cross & Mass, followed by work but no play or shopping per my recollection. We were able to fish in the creek if our yard work was done. Good Friday services also included exposure of the cross, kissing or touching the feet of the cross along with lots of chanting, kneeling and standing. The Saturday night Easter vigil was always long, as well. But then there was a visit with Grandma, Uncle Bob and Aunt Carolyn following the services.

 

Uncle Bob

Avid hunter Bob of course said he shot the Easter Bunny again as he claimed every year! :) But when Easter bunny came the next day, we knew better! Mom stored the baskets in a big copper kettle. Dad had a bunny basket from his baby years that held just one egg!!

I remember coloring eggs once I didn’t believe in the Easter bunny any more after seeing Dad hide some eggs one Easter from my bedroom window before we were all up. My Birthday unfortunately occurred during Lent every year!

 

Ann

Sister Ann - After seeing the earlier photo of the three sisters with Mom all dressed up on Easter 1957, she exclaimed, "Dang, we’re a good looking bunch!”

At the end of Lent, click this link.

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Pumps - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Pumps

The first real job in my eventual field as an engineer occurred during the summer of 1966 at Copeland’s, now Emerson’s, as a lab technician working on developing a new air conditioning compressor, which is essentially a pump that circulates refrigerant to provide cooled air. That experience coupled with an engineering degree led me to the Frigidaire Division of General Motors in Dayton as a compressor engineer and then to Ford where I performed similar work as described in this previous blogpost. But before all of that, the very first pump I was exposed to was the hand pump on our farm like shown above. I can recall having to prime it by pouring a little water in the slot to get things started, pumping like crazy to fill the buckets, then hauling the water to the hogs, cattle and chickens. There was also a hand pump over our cistern where rain water was collected from the barn and house roofs that was used for washing clothes and bathing. It was a happy day when our first electric-powered well pump was installed.

My grandparents had a wind driven pump that was used to fill a huge cement water tank next to the windmill. I can recall on hot summer days, taking a dip in their water tank while visiting their place. Cool and refreshing!

Well lo and behold, some distant relatives in Germany are also pump engineers, so the apple must not have fallen far from the tree! There’s a German pump company with the brand name Borger. Here’s a short video about the company and their products.

My ancestors who immigrated to Ft. Loramie from Germany in the 1830’s spelled their last name the same way, as evidenced by this tombstone of my great-great grandparents. They kept the old German name Borger before converting to the Boerger name during WWI to distance themselves from Germany.

In Germany, the Borger pumps have an umlaut over the “o”, but are marketed here in the states converting the umlauted “o “ to “oe” as Boerger, as indicated on the photo above.The German pump designs are very exact using complex geometry for their pump designs. Check out this video of the internal functioning of their pumps. You’ll be impressed by the precision of the design, as they have to be that precise because their most prevalent applications are ironically designed to pump liquid farm manure and human sewage! Imagine the stuff you flush down the toilet; their pumps have to push it on no matter what’s coming its way. Hard to fathom is the testing my German relatives have to endure to make sure the pumps work as intended.

By the way, my German relatives and the company bearing their name are located near Munster, Germany, with operations in suburban Minneapolis and elsewhere around the world as shown on the map above.

Alois Borger, pictured above, founded the firm in 1975, around the same time my career in pump design was emerging. We are both about the same age. What a coincidence? I’ll send the company this blog to see if they respond. Stay tuned. Incidentally, my father’s middle name was Aloys, so that’s also a similar twist of fate! No doubt Alois enjoys pilsner beer like I do?

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Boating - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Boating

Over the winter, we're having our pontoon boat converted to electrical power, and as regular blog readers know so well, current events tend to trigger past memories. My first power boat ride was at age 10 during a family reunion held in the summer of 1958 at Lake Loramie. My uncle Pat had a motor boat and he offered everyone a ride. Pat needed someone to help him launch the boat and get fellow reunion goers on and off, so I happily volunteered for that duty, which gave me the opportunity for multiple rides on the boat around the lake.

Back then and perhaps still today, the lake had many tree stumps preserved under the surface of the water from the early 1840’s when the Loramie Creek was dammed up to provide water for the nearby Miami-Erie canal under construction at the time. In preparation, the land had to be cleared on the lowlands adjacent to the shoreline of the creek, and the easiest way to do so was simply cutting down the trees but leaving in the hard-to-remove stumps. Canoes and flatboats prevalent back then would simply float right over them so no big deal.The recreation use of the lake came decades later in 1917 when the state park was created around the lake and powered outboards for boats were invented .

Motor boats with propellers protruding into the water meant any hidden stumps could damage a prop or even worse a motor. So Uncle Pat also had me look out for those nasty stumps, which meant a full afternoon of boat riding. But most of the rides entailed zipping around the designated speed zone in the deeper part of the lake where the original creek had flowed obviously devoid of any stumps. Needless to say, that was one of my favorite family reunions. By the way, my introductory blog written in July of 2015 was about my first family reunion. You won’t see me in the 1947 family photograph taken in front of the old St. Patrick’s school because I’m still in my pregnant mother’s womb waiting patiently to be born six months later!

The idea of converting my boat over to electric originated last summer when I had the opportunity to cruise around in an electric powered pontoon owned by a friend who had just built a home on a lake that doesn’t permit gasoline powered boats. It was impressive how quiet the cruise was, with just the slightest ripple of water rushing noise in the background allowing the passengers to easily hold a conversation. Years ago, I had ridden in an electric boat called a Duffy like pictured below and wasn’t impressed, because the electric motor was underpowered and the v-shaped hull was very susceptible to the wake from any nearby power boat, unlike my friend's new electric powered pontoon.

Also, as a retired automotive engineer, I was intrigued by the conversion to electric power for cars as documented in this previous blog on the topic. So doing the same for our pontoon was compelling. Beyond just the quietness benefit, the cost to fully charge an electric powered boat is only $1.25, while never having to deal with carrying gas cans down to the lake again. The range is 6 hours at cruising speed and while at full speed, 1 hour, but we seldom if ever use the pontoon under wide open conditions and definitely not for a full hour. Initially trading in my existing pontoon for a new electric boat was considered, but several problems surfaced; first, the cost of an electric boat is very high, the supply very limited, plus the trade in value of my pontoon relatively low. One other problem, I would need a new hoist as well since most of the available electric boats were about 6” wider than my current hoist that I had converted from a powerboat to a pontoon set-up back in 2018 when we traded in our 20’ bow-rider I/O boat for the narrowest pontoon available so it would fit on the converted hoist.

While searching for electric pontoon boats, I happened to talk to the sales person at the place where the hoist was originally purchased, a place called Decks and Docks. He indicated they had done successful conversions of existing pontoons to electric, which could be a better solution. He gave me the quote below for over $10,000 to convert the pontoon, which seemed high. But he explained that this cost does not factor in either the sale of the gas motor as well as the higher trade-in value down the road for an electric versus gas powered pontoon.

Before pulling the trigger, I went on-line to research electric motor reviews and discovered this video from the Facebook page of the Ray motor quoted for our pontoon. The noise level was way too high and the comments were negative, so my friend with the electric pontoon we rode in last summer provided the brand of motor on his boat, a German-made Torqeedo.

Turns out there are two types of electric boat motor designs, one with the motor integrated underwater directly driving the propeller and another design with the motor above the water having gears and a shaft driving the propeller. The typical whining of an electric motor as well as the gear noise is shielded when mounted underwater but very audible when above as was very evident in the video. The following sound data found on-line, albeit for a lower HP electric motor than mine, indicates a 15 decibel improvement with the direct drive, underwater design at wide open throttle. Not shown but at cruising speed, the noise level drops to a very quiet 30 dB. Note the very high noise level for a gas motor.

Another plus is a direct drive underwater motor is less expensive since no shafts or gears are required, which helped to cut some cost out of the quote. So we kicked off the conversion, which is currently underway scheduled for completion next month well in time for this summer’s boating season. After the pontoon was taken out of storage, the 5 year old Mercury 40 HP gas powered motor was listed on Facebook Marketplace and surprisingly received 2500 hits generating 26 inquires from interested buyers, which created the opportunity for a bidding war among 8 bidders resulting in a $5500 sale price, $1500 over ask! and just $1000 below a new motor. The high bidder was an architect from Columbus, Ohio. I was amazed and pleased at the response; however, there were a lot of disappointed people who sure wanted that motor.

We’re looking forward to a wonderful season cruising quietly around the lake this summer, no doubt creating some brand new memories.

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