Courtesy of THE MELVILLE ADVANCE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2011



The baseball version of the Melville Millionaires should have their lottery tickets available any day now. According to Jeff Bouvier, team governor, the packages for the 
Western Major Baseball League team’s Farm and Leisure Lotto should be on sale this week. “Our lotto is a go,” says Bouvier of the club’s most important fundraiser. “We need a sell-out every year because without the funds from the lottery, we have no team.”


Tickets for the draw which will feature a few different choices as far as farm packages as well as a couple for leisure are $100 each, with a three-pack available for $250. “We’ll have a farm package with a tractor and baler and a mower/conditioner and a grain-bin package. There will also be   a chance to win a package with two vehicles and two ATVs and a boat or a cottage package,” explains Bouvier of the lottery, which will hand out 117 
prizes with a limit of 3,500 tickets available.


The Millionaires have also begun fleshing out the roster for the upcoming season with five recent signings from the Seminole State College ranks and if last season’s numbers are any indication, they should have some offensive punch with these players in the line-up. All the players are from Oklahoma and were scouted by returning manager and head coach Michael Crabtree.

Sophomore Matt Helms of Eufaula will be patrolling the outfield for the Millionaires come summer. The six-foot, one-inch, 190 pounder batted .357 last season as a freshman with the Seminoles. The All-State player registered 20 hits, 14 runs and was five-for-five in steals.
Big John Clark will be counted on as a corner-infielder with plenty of power. The six-foot, four inch Norman native is also a sophomore and last season he launched 14 home runs and amassed 38 runs-batted-in to go with 64 hits, 42 runs and a batting average of .374 as a freshman.

Outfielder Cody Ferrell may be one of the players counted on to fill the shoes of departed WMBL All-Star James Green and the speedster may be just the ticket on the base-paths.
Last year, Ferrell, who hails from McLeod, stole 19 bases in 21 attempts and had 32 runs on 35 hits to go with an average of .354. 
Freshman Ryan Wilson, currently in his first college season had an impressive Senior year at the High School level where he had a batting average of .463. The second-team All-American also knocked in 58 runs while scoring 63. The outfielder from Owasso, who will also do some pitching from the left side, also had 19 circuit-clouts last season.
This season, Wilson has an earned-run-average of 0.54 with 21 strikeouts in 13 innings.
All-State catcher Mitchell Osburn will don the ‘tools of ignorance’ for the Millionaires.
No stats from last year are available for the five-foot, eight-inch freshman who hails from Broken Arrow, but he was an All-State high school senior.