Angel to "take this season off"
April 28, 2004
BOSTON- The news that the Lowell Football league and especially the Crazy 98 have been hoping to avoid has become official tonight.  Due to his knee injury, Angeluis Nales will not be able to participate in the league this spring/summer.  The big man who was widely known as the most dominant player on any of the rosters stated in an email tonight: " The knee isnt as good as it should be and it seems as tho i twisted my foot in nashua. So im gonna take this season off. I guess you can call me Eli Manning just im not holding out and its more for injury then anything."

Angel, who hit a three-run home run for the Filthy Animals on Sunday, is apparently going to instead concentrate on his primary sport of softball.   Jim serves a coach for the team and does the scorebook.

James Ostis, the Crazy 98 team founder, left open the possibility of a return by Angel sometime this summer if his knee were to heal.  Officially, Angel will be placed on the 15 Day Disabled List, although that may be wishful thinking. but the team is now left with a (literally) huge hole to fill.

In addition to Jim and Angel, the members of the Crazy 98 are Wilson Rith, Patrick Casserly, and Jon Casserly.  The team will likely now have to officially name a fifth member to their team. 

Hakmeng Kang is a likely candidate, and he would give the Crazy 98 more former members of the LHS Swimming Team than any other team in the league (Currently the Crazy 98 and Mustangs each have two).  He, like Patrick and Jon, is a student at the University of Massachusetts and wouldn't be available until the end of the month at the earliest. 

Shawn Paradise is another unassigned player who could possibly join the team. Jim's brother Nicky also could be the one, although he appears earmarked for a spot on the Mustangs.

A real dark horse candidate would be James Higson, although he would give the team their token Vokie.  Higson is also the only person who would keep the name scheme accurate as he like the other members of the team was at the Bartlett School in 1998 (although the name refers to the original members, and therefore any possible new additions would not change that.)

 There's also the very real possibility that the fifth member of the team will be someone that hasn't been even mentioned before.  It is unlikely that there will be any changes to the other three teams' rosters unless there is some sort of trade made.

For now the search for a fifth guy is on the backburner since the Crazy 98 cannot play a regular schedule until the Casserly brothers return from Amherst.  Even if they are able to work out a situation for Pat and Jon to come in for one game during the next couple weeks, it is likely that a fill-in will play in Angel's spot.