2021 Manager of the Year

Adam Recker was once again voted as Manager of the Year. In 2021, he led his Bushkill Blue Jays to a second consecutive title and 3rd Champioinship overall. Nice work Adam and Congratulations!

I am extremely honored to be voted as the league manager of the year by my fellow Coaches.  

It was a very weird season with Covid-19, but I am thankful for the League giving us the opportunity to play this year given what is going on in the world.   

Want to thank all of my guys for sticking with me throughout the season, it is very difficult to commit every Sunday on your weekend to play baseball.  The team battled through adversity and no one gave us a shot to make it to the championship game, we believed in ourselves and that is all we needed. Even though the guys always give me crap for batting myself 3rd I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anyone else.  

The "old guys" will be back in 2021 to defend our title.

Can't wait!

Adam

Adam Recker, whose steady hand and key acquisitions guided his team from pre-season afterthought all the way to the AA Division championship, has earned the 2020 Lehigh Valley Baseball League Manager of the Year Award.

Recker, who now has three championships in nine seasons, earned the most first-place votes out of eight managers who earned first-place votes. Fourteen managers earned Manager of the Year votes overall.

Thomas Bonilla, who guided his first-year Angels team all the way to the championship series where it lost to the Blue Jays, finished second in the voting. Brad Vangeli, who lost only once in 18 contests as his Salisbury Falcons won the Premier Division championship, finished third.

The Blue Jays were buried in the preseason headlines as new teams like Bonilla's Angels and Vangeli's Falcons grabbed attention by acquiring high-profile college players and, in Vangeli's case, a current San Diego Padres Minor Leaguer. The Wilson Warriors had a current pro pitcher, the Cardinals had two former pro pitchers, and so on.

But Recker was busy on the transactions wire himself. He acquired centerfielder Brandon Robinson, who finished sixth in MVP voting after batting .438 (8th in the league) with nine extra-base hits. Recker also convinced pitcher Nick Basenese to come over from the Jays' northern Northampton County rivals the Nazareth River Otters, and Basenese earned the complete game win in the do-or-die championship clincher.

The final part was getting the most out of players already on the roster, like shorstop Tom Crimi who usually splits his time with another league but played the full 2020 season with the Jays. Recker also got the most from himself, as his sudden power surge earned him the division's Silver Slugger Award.

The LVBL Manager of the Year Award is awarded to the top manager across the league as a whole, as voted on by the the league's fellow managers.

The managers looked at their peers this season and decided no one made more of their situation than the Blue Jays skipper, earning Recker the title of Manager of the Year.

John Poretta, Bethlehem A's

John has built his team from the ground up over years. John started in the league as an assistant coach with a team called the Vipers years ago. John stepped away for a bit for personal reasons but reconnected to coach again with the Devil Rays for a season before starting his own team in 2017. 

Just a few years later His team took the Premier Division by storm winning the Championship in 2019. "It's an honor to be voted Manager of the Year by my peers" said John. "I look forward to the upcoming season as I know we are a marked team in this Division for sure."