The Atlantic Hockey Association announced that it received applications from two institutions regarding expansion of the league following the departure of Connecticut after the 2013-2014 season.  The league, which held its spring meetings at Bentley University this past week, also announced it would increase the scholarship limit from 12 to 14 in time for the 2015-2016 season.

In a USCHO.com report during the spring, commissioner Bob Degregorio announced the league had entered discussions with four potential expansion targets.  At the time, the four schools were St. Anselm, Rhode Island, Alabama-Huntsville, and Navy.  UAH has since gained admission to the WCHA.  The league previously said that “the ball is in their court” in relation to St. A’s, while the status is unknown in relation to Navy, URI, or other suitor schools mentioned in the discussion.

Additionally, the maximum amount of scholarships allowed by member institutions will increase from 12 to 13 for the start of the 2014-2015 season.  Following that season, the league will allow a maximum of 14.  In 2011, the league shot down a proposed increase from 12 to 13 by one vote.  The NCAA allows for a maximum of 18, but the league restricts that limit to 12.  That 2011 vote needed eight votes out of the 12 member schools to pass, but it fell short by a 7-5 count.  By most accounts, the league was predominantly split with the western schools looking for an increase in scholarships, and the eastern schools voting against it.

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Click here to see Part I of our Cape Cod Baseball League preview.

If finding the right players was easy to build a winner, every team would compete for a championship every year. A championship team needs the right combination to gel together at exactly the right time. If a team peaks too early, they won’t have enough left in the gas tank to finish the season strongly. If a team peaks too late, they might not get a chance to showcase themselves on the grandest stage. And if a team doesn’t peak at all, the season is lost.

In the Cape Cod Baseball League, finding the right combination year-in and year-out is a near impossibility. With roster turnover and the constant steady flow of ballplayers coming in and heading out, the CCBL churns out professional prospects every season. But where Major League Baseball restocks its coffers in the minors with Cape League talent, teams need to find the right players to come into their uniforms every season in order to win championships.

Some teams developed a formula. The Wareham Gatemen and Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox each have formulas built from their manager and general manager. For years, Wareham scouted every single great low-level Division I ballplayer in the northeast. Former GM, the late John Wylde, was a Harvard man himself, and the brains behind the Gatemen scoured New England’s baseball landscape for the best hungry ballplayers offered up.

Y-D, meanwhile, built a dynasty in the 2000s out of pipeline schools and states. Manager Scott Pickler is a California guy, managing at Cypress Junior College in Cypress, California. Using a formula of speedy runners and guys who could get on base, Pickler and general manager Jim Martin built ballclubs out of players from places like Cal State-Fullerton, Fresno State, and Stanford. Their championships had a number of players from Texas and Florida-based schools, baseball factory states in the heartland of the collegiate game. Between the west coast and the SEC, Y-D has been a factor in the championship hunt almost every year since the turn of the century.

With different theories, how do teams build winners? Our second part looks within the rosters to determine what makes a winning combination on the tiny peninsula with so much baseball tradition.

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Anywhere in the world, someone knows who David Beckham is, football-related or not. (Photo Credit: Fanpop.com)

–Damian James–

Michael Jordan was arguably the greatest overall basketball player ever to play the game.

Hank Aaron was arguably the greatest overall hitter to ever play baseball.

David Beckham is the greatest footballer ever to play the game.

David Beckham announced on Thursday he would retire from Paris Saint-Germain, ending a 20-year career that saw him conquer four countries, leading a resurgence of English football in ways previously unimagined, and help create the concept of the European pop culture crossover icon.  For the 38-year old born in the Leytonstone section of London, he might not have been the best scorer, but there’s no doubting that he will go down in history as the most important athlete in England in the 21st century.

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Just 72 hours removed from arguably the most amazing comeback in playoff hockey history, the Boston Bruins will take to the TD Garden ice to begin their second step towards a hopeful second Stanley Cup in three years.  On the bench next to them will be, for the second straight series, an Original Six foe.  But this time, instead of the snakebitten Toronto Maple Leafs, the Bruins will play an American hockey institution when they square off with the New York Rangers.

It’ll be the first meeting in the playoffs between the two teams since 1973, when the Eastern Division’s third-seeded Rangers defeated the second-seeded Bruins.  It was during the heart of the Big, Bad Bruins era, a year when Phil Esposito had 130 points, including 55 goals, and Bobby Orr had 101 points, including 72 helpers.  Both men were in their prime, backstopped by the legendary Eddie Johnston.  But the Rangers took the first two games at Boston Garden, and they never looked back en route to eliminating the B’s in five games.

In the 1970s, no rivalry was hotter than the Bruins and Rangers.  It exemplified the entire cultural difference between the two cities; at the time, Boston was a hard-hat, working-class city with a reputation of being hard-nosed and, at times, prejudiced against outsiders.  New York, meanwhile, was metropolitan, flashy, and loud.  The two were like oil and water, much more so than during the Red Sox-Yankees era of the 2000s.  The players, indicative of the rivalry hated each other.

In 1970, Derek Sanderson skated by Eddie Giacomin, the Ranger goalie, when the teams met in the first round of the playoffs.  Giacomin told Sanderson, “We’re getting paid to get you.”  Sanderson essentially told the Rangers to bring it on.  The ensuing bloodbath helped rain batteries from the MSG rafters onto the ice, cementing it as one of the most violent series in NHL history.  In 1972, the Bruins defeated the Rangers for their final Cup before 2011.

Now it’s 2013.  Most of the players weren’t even alive when the teams last met in the playoffs.  But the two teams are etched by their Original Six routes.  The fan bases are steeped in hatred and disdain for one another.  And the teams are virtual doppelgangers, preparing to square off to determine who will have the right to play for the Prince of Wales Trophy and a chance at the Stanley Cup Final.

After a jump, a look at the key storylines:

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