Walk-off Win Improves BT to 4-1; Nats Racing Presidents at Povich Field Tomorrow!

Walk-Off Win in 10th Inning Improves BT to 4-1     The Big Train hosted the Baltimore Redbirds on Friday night, as they looked to avenge a 2-0 loss from Opening Night last Thursday.  BOX SCORE | VIDEO: Post Game Interviews The Big Train found themselves trailing early, as the Redbirds scored runs in the third in fourth innings to make the score 2-0. However, Bethesda responded in the bottom of the fourth, tying the game and then claiming a lead of their own thanks to three runs. After Tucker Tobin (George Mason) scored on a ground ball by Mike Miedzianowski (High Point), Ryne Willard (Tallahassee CC) - pictured above - hit his first home run of the season, driving in Josh Spano (High Point) and making the score 3-2 in favor of the Big Train. Following a scoreless fifth inning by Justin Hepner (San Diego State), the Big Train would add two more runs in the bottom half of the inning. After the Big Train worked the bases loaded, Tyler France (San Diego State) would come up with a big two-out single to score David Del Grande (Sacramento State) and Kyle Wernicki (Virginia Tech) and make the score 5-2. However, the Redbirds rallied in the top of the seventh, pushing across four runs to take a 6-5 lead. But the Big Train kept their composure, and with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Kevin Tatum (Cornell) drew a walk on four straight pitches to plate Logan Farrar (Virginia Commonwealth) to tie the game at six. Neither team would score runs in the eighth or ninth innings, meaning the game would have to be decided in extras. Excellent pitching by Bubba Derby (San Diego State) in the final two regulation innings played a large role in getting the Big Train into extra innings, as he gave up no hits. The story would be the same in the tenth, giving the Big Train offense a chance to win by scoring a single run in the bottom half of the inning. Wernicki would be the first base runner for the Big Train in the tenth, reaching on a one-out single. Wernicki would then move into scoring position on a ground ball by Johnny Cole (Coastal Carolina), and after a two-out walk by Farrar, Spano would have a chance to play hero with runners on first and second and two down. Spano came up big for the Big Train, driving in the game-winning run on a single to give Bethesda the 7-6 victory. The win improves the Big Train's winning streak to four consecutive games, they sit atop of the league in first place. The Big Train will look to stretch their winning streak to five straight as they face the Presstman Cardinals in Hanover, Maryland tonight at 7:00 PM.

Tonight's Game Rescheduled Due to Upcoming Storms; Truck Night Tomorrow with FREE Stadium Blankets!

First Place Match-Up Rescheduled Due to Storm,   Truck Night At Povich Field on Friday     Tonight's scheduled first place match-up that had scheduled the Vienna Riverdogs to visit Povich Field to take on the Big Train is postponed toTuesday, June 18th at 5pm due to the upcoming storms. Bunt Mini-Bobbleheads will be distributed at the make-up date. The next Big Train game will be a rematch of last season's CRCBL championship game against the Baltimore Redbirds on Friday night at 7:30at Povich Field. Fans should make sure to show up early for a few reasons. The first 100 fans will receive Big Train Stadium Blankets courtesy of MyOfficeProducts. Friday night is also Truck Night at Povich Field and the parking lot in front of the stadium will be full of plenty of great vehicles for kids to see and maybe even explore between the time the gates open (6pm) and when the game starts (7:30pm)! A monster truck, some food trucks, the Game Truck, and more will be there and so should you! Click here to get your tickets now!

Big Train Keeps Rolling, Beats Youse's 5-1; Bunt Mini-Bobblehead Night on Thursday!

Big Train Keeps Rolling, Beat Youse's 5-1      The Big Train pushed their current winning streak to three games on Tuesday, beating the Youse's Orioles 5-1 with Hall of Fame shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. in the house. BOX SCORE | VIDEO: Post Game Interviews Cody Mizelle (Florida Atlantic) got the start for the Big Train, and showed off incredible control with his pitches, not walking a single batter in six innings of work. Mizelle gave up just four hits and struck out four. "I just wanted to get on the mound tonight and get a good feel for all of my pitches, get ahead, and get batters out," said Mizelle. A big second inning for the Big Train bats backed Mizelle's mound mastery, as the offense put up five runs. Tucker Tobin (George Mason) - pictured above - led off the inning with his first home run of the season, which would set the tone for the rest of the inning. RBIs by David Del Grande (Sacramento State) and Kevin Tatum (Cornell) pushed the lead to 3-0. Johnny Cole(Coastal Carolina) then extended the lead to 5-0 with a two-run single.   After Mizelle's six shutout innings, Kit Scheetz (Virginia Tech) gave Bethesda two innings of quality relief before allowing several Orioles on base in the ninth with the Big Train up 5-1. Big Train closer Trevor Charpie (Tennessee) came in with the bases loaded and no outs but quickly disposed of the Orioles with a strikeout and a double play. He earned his third save in as many games. The Big Train improve to 3-1 on the season with the win, and will look to extend their three-game winning streak on Thursday against the Vienna Riverdogs. Thursday is Bunt Mini-Bobblehead Night at Povich Field, and the first 500 fans get a miniature bobblehead of Homer's best pal! Tickets to the game can be purchased here or at the gate!

Why that conventional cancer drug won't work

Why Conventional Cancer Drugs Don't Work:
Drug Companies have Cooked the Results

    It's no secret that mainstream American medicine relies heavily on evidence-based, peer-reviewed scientific studies. But that world is being turned on its head. According to researchers C. Glenn Begley and Lee Ellis, writing in the prestigious journal Nature, 89 percent of the published cancer studies they reviewed cannot be reproduced.

    What does this mean? Easy: Those studies are wrong. Or at the very least, they don't provide the irrefutable evidence on which doctors claim to base their treatments. Not to beat around the bush, Begley and Ellis have exposed a whole world of fraud. Let's hold our noses and take a look. . .

Continued below. . .

Is Fire In The Belly Slowly and Silently Killing You?     You bet it is. Inflammation is the number one ager and killer. It destroys tissues and organs. It marches you to the grave faster than any other aspect of health.     You need to understand how the gut is the origin of over 95% of the inflammatory processes in our bodies. Down there in the warmth and dark swarm trillions of microbes. Collectively they share one hundred times the genes we do.     In one of the most startling medical discoveries of recent times, it has been discovered that these microbial genes tell our human cells what to do (not just human genes).     The microbes in us set up inflammatory reactions, from heavy metals and food allergies, to enzymes dysfunction and toxic overload.     Our guts are far more complex than ever recognized; we even have a second brain down there, with over 90% of our serotonin. No wonder all this affects our moods too!     Get the real story from one of the world's top MD writers, in his sensational book: Fire in the Belly.

    The whole foundation of science is that if one scientist's experimental results are valid then another scientist can reproduce them by doing exactly the same thing in the same way. If you get a different outcome each time you run an experiment then the results are random and — essentially — meaningless.

    It's fraud, pure and simple, to use non-reproducible research to guide medical practice. That's the very accusation medical doctors are always hurling at alternative medicine. Now we see the pot has been calling the kettle black. It's major drug companies that are conducting bogus research and who are missing the mark on exactly what kinds of chemical cocktails are needed to fight cancer.

    Worse, the problem goes deeper than flawed scientific research. A lot of money, power, and influence appear to play a role — and the beneficiary isn't public health, it's Big Pharma.

Outdated and misguided cancer treatments

    While any kind of study is subject to some human error, the studies reviewed by Begley and Ellis are missing the boat in major ways. Only six out of the 53 "landmark" published papers they reviewed could be reproduced in a clinical setting.

    Instead of being taken with a grain of salt, as they should have been, these studies became the basis for introducing revolutionary approaches to cancer treatment. Entire healthcare guidelines and clinical treatment protocols have been designed around these results.

    Worse still, a significant amount of published research appears to have been conducted under the cloud of conflicts of interest. Dr. Reshma Jagsi, M.D., who authored a study through the University of Michigan, found a considerable percentage of cancer research was made questionable by ties to the pharmaceutical industry. In other words, Big Pharma is behind the research, paying scientists to confirm that certain drugs will work in cancer treatment.

    Once those treatments are officially "confirmed," they're pushed into hospitals and doctors' offices with a heavy price tag attached. Now, funding by a drug company isn't proof as such that a study is dishonest, but it's a red flag.

    Funding of studies through Big Pharma was the most common type of conflict of interest, seen in 17 percent of papers. The next most common problem was studies in which the authors were drug industry employees, which happened in about 12 percent of studies.

    Without pointing the finger at any one study, the results of these studies are suspicious when taken as a whole. For example, in the studies with reported conflicts of interest, randomized trials were more likely to find the drug was safe and effective. Truly independent studies were less likely to reach the same conclusion.

Why the majority of cancer research is compromised

    The data from any legitimate scientific study should be treated objectively, but this new research makes it clear that those with a conflict of interest are biased in their analyses — whether the scientists are deliberately committing fraud or are biased without realizing it.

    Sadly, evidence suggests the majority of these scientists know they are working with tainted research. When Begley and Ellis approached study authors for details of their experiments, the two were asked to sign agreements that they would not disclose their findings or their sources — proof that the study authors were aware of their own misleading results.

    Along with that, very few scientists involved in anti-cancer research disclose any potential sources of bias, even though all scientists are expected to sign conflict-of-interest and sources-of-funding statements before publishing any work.

    The fact remains that cancer is a major killer. Over half a million Americans died from cancer last year, and another 1.6 million cases were diagnosed. The amount of money involved in their treatment is stupefying — more than enough to light up the eyes of the greedy. Big Pharma is well aware that a lot of money can be made off these people, who are often frightened and willing to try any treatment, pay any price.

    It's a classic example of "disease mongering" where the industry widens the definition of treatable illness just to expand the market, when really, the vast majority of small cancers and early-diagnosis cases can be treated naturally and by supplementing a patient's immune system, while the expensive treatments are all but worthless against late-stage cancer.

How can we raise standards for cancer treatment?

    Our medical community, our government, and the public at large have essentially been hoodwinked by the unscrupulous players of the pharmaceutical industry. Of course, the government and some members of the medical community are partners in the fraud. The end result is that major drug companies determine which treatments can be legally used, and how much they'll cost.

    The question that remains is how to separate legitimate cancer research from a manipulative, self-interested drug industry. Dr. Jagsi calls for more public funding and general support so medical research doesn't have to rely on industry funding.

    I believe more aggressive and generous funding of research into alternatives would yield important breakthroughs, with the important stamp of scientific approval the public craves. This taxpayer-funded research should then be non-patented and available to all.

    Instead, the system works in the opposite way: Research that's largely funded by the taxpayers and by private "nonprofit" sources somehow becomes someone's private property and the very taxpayers who paid to find the cure have to pay millions to get access to it if they have cancer.

    I believe eventually the present system is going to collapse because it's so incredibly expensive and it doesn't cure people. The public is turning to alternative treatments because they're affordable and effective. Many oncologists as well as doctors from other specialties are frantically trying to learn about natural and alternative treatments because that's what their patients are asking for.

    The kind of fool who tells his cancer patients, "Eat whatever you like, there's no evidence of a connection between food and cancer," is going to wind up as a museum exhibit, in the same category as those barbers who used to moonlight as doctors by bleeding people. (George Washington was killed by a doctor who "bled" him to cure an infection — it was considered advanced medical science back then. Lucky were the poor people who couldn't afford the "best" medical care.)

    In the meantime, your best bet is to question everything. If your own well-meaning doctor quotes a study that he or she feels should determine your cancer treatment, question it. Get a second opinion. Look at other studies. Dig for results on natural treatments and herbal remedies. We do our best to present them here to you, but without the deep pockets of Big Pharma it's virtually impossible to get the same kind of exposure for natural treatments that work as we see for invasive drug methods.

    And of course, do everything you can to take your health into your own hands and practice smart eating and consistent exercise habits. Care of your own body's immune system is the one thing that's been proven time and again as the best way to prevent and treat cancer.

UDC Hosts Press Conference to Announce Mike Riley as New Head Men's Basketball Coach

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June 11, 2013

University of the District of Columbia Hosts Press Conference to Announce Michael Riley as New Men’s Basketball Head Coach

WASHINGTON, DC – The University of the District of Columbia hosted a press conference in the UDC Sports Complex lobby on Tuesday afternoon, June 11^th, 2013 to announce Michael Riley as the new head men's basketball coach.

Director of Athletics Patricia Thomas, while introducing Riley, said she was elated to have him on board as the school's new head coach.

"[Mike] will develop an outstanding rapport with the young men under his leadership. He is a mentor, and so he will guide them…he will make sure that they achieve academic success, he will ensure that they are viable members of this community, and that they go out and serve the community…"

"And I have no doubt that we will be very successful in the East Coast Conference and throughout the NCAA [Division II] as well…"

"Michael is a good, honest person, and I trust him with everything that I have, and I just know that he's going to do a tremendous job, and he's going to make this University very proud to have him as our head coach."

When Riley took the podium to address supporters and the media, he said his first mission is to build a program.

"When you take these [coaching] jobs, people always ask, 'Are you going to win?' These jobs are always taken by people who think they're going to win…I'm not any different," Riley said. "I think that we can win. But what I'd like to do first though is build a program. Build a program by putting things in that you know that you can do, and that you feel comfortable with. And that's what we plan to do."

Riley said the men's basketball program was very fortunate, under the direction of Patricia Thomas, to have joined the East Coast Conference in 2011.

"It's great to be in a league, because you know if you win [the conference championship tournament], you're in [the NCAA Tournament]. You don't have to worry about formulas or anything like that," Riley said. "So from that standpoint, the East Coast Conference is a very good conference, it's a very competitive conference, and we're very happy to be a part of it."

Riley concluded his remarks by explaining that his program would be built on the idea of sustainability so that the Firebirds would have the opportunity to win year in and year out.

"I'm not going to do a Joe Namath right now…I'm not going to predict anything…not going to predict a championship, not going to predict the NCAA [Tournament]…but I would like, as a coach here, to leave some mark, a positive mark. Something that we can point to and say, 'hey, this is the way we did it.'"

UDC Hires Michael Riley as Men's Basketball Head Coach

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June 11, 2013

University of the District of Columbia Hires Michael Riley as Men’s Basketball Head Coach

WASHINGTON, DC – University of the District of Columbia Interim President, Dr. James E. Lyons, Sr. and Director of Athletics, Patricia Thomas, announced today that Michael Riley has been hired to lead the University of the District of Columbia Men's Basketball program. There is a press conference scheduled for today, June 11th at 4:00 PM in the UDC Gym in the Sports Complex.

"Mike Riley is an outstanding choice to lead our Men's Basketball program," said Patricia Thomas. "He has exceptional credentials and experience as a coach and administrator. Most importantly, though, he is a person of extremely high character and values. He is a tremendous leader of men. I have no doubt that he will take the University of the District of Columbia Men's Basketball program to new heights, and our student-athletes will benefit tremendously on the court, in the classroom, and in life by having him at the helm."

Riley has a distinguished coaching resume which includes more than 20 years as an assistant coach at Georgetown University. He was also an assistant coach on the 1988 Olympic basketball team that earned the bronze medal. Riley came to the University of the District of Columbia in 2009 and has served as the Associate Director of Athletics for Internal Operations during that time. 

"I am ecstatic to be able to take over as the new Head Men's Basketball Coach at the University of the District of Columbia," said Riley. "The Firebirds have a long and rich tradition.  As the University continues to move in a positive direction, I look forward to leading this program as one piece of the successful future of the University. We will recruit young men that will work hard and intelligently in the classroom and on the basketball court. We will be positive citizens on campus and in the community.  We will represent the Firebird family well in all that we do. It is an honor and a privilege to be selected as the Men's Basketball Coach at the University of the District of Columbia."

Riley is a Washington, DC native, having graduated from Cardozo High School, where he was a standout guard on the men's basketball team. Riley earned team Defensive Player of the Year honors while at Cardozo and was also selected Most Valuable Player during his senior year. Riley was inducted into the Cardozo High School Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.

After attending Cardozo High School, Riley served in the U.S. Navy on the USS Holland stationed in the Mediterranean. 

Riley went on to graduate from Georgetown University with a Bachelor's of Arts Degree in Sociology. While at Georgetown, Riley was a member of the Hoyas Men's Basketball Team where he was named the Defensive Player of the Year.

Riley went on to serve as an assistant basketball coach at Georgetown University from 1983 to 2004.  While at Georgetown, Riley coached the Hoyas to six Big East Conference Championships, four Big East Tournament Championships, two Final Fours, and the 1984 National Championship.  He also served as the academic coordinator during his tenure at Georgetown. 

In addition to his accomplishments at Cardozo and Georgetown, Riley also served as Athletic Director at St. Augustine Catholic School.  From 1980 to 1982, he was an Assistant Headmaster, Economics teacher, and junior varsity basketball coach at Gonzaga College High School. 

Big Train top T-Bolts

Big Train Best Bolts 5-4

The Big Train won their second straight game on Sunday night, downing the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts 5-4. Pitcher Michael Boyle (Radford) - pictured above - made his debut for the Big Train, and gave the team five solid innings. Boyle gave up just one run on two hits while striking out four. But perhaps the bigger story in the game was the day that Kevin Tatum(Cornell) had at the plate. Tatum would finish the day 2-4 with a home run, a double, and a walk, driving in the first two of the Big Train's five runs. Tatum's home run gave the Big Train a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, and they wouldn't look back from there. After Tatum's homer in the first, the Big Train would add to their lead in the fifth, pushing across three more runs. RBIs from Harrison Bruce (San Francisco) and Johnny Cole (Coastal Carolina) would give the Big Train the 4-1 lead, before Tatum scored his second run of the day on a wild pitch. The T-Bolts would rally in the sixth inning, scoring three runs on a single play that included a few Big Tran mishaps. However, solid relief by Brock Larson(San Francisco) and Trevor Charpie (Tennessee) would close the door on any chance of a comeback. Charpie picked up his second save in as many days. The 5-4 victory pushes Bethesda's record to 2-1 on the season. The box score can be found here.