Flashback Friday postponed

In the rush to get ready and make sure I had everything before leaving yesterday, I forgot to scan in an old program.

Flashback Friday will return next week.

To somewhat make up for it, here is the MiLB.com story about the 1983 Appleton Foxes. That team was ranked #93 out of the top 100 minor league teams in history from a few summers ago.

The article has a brief history of baseball in Appleton and that leads into information about the players on that '83 Foxes team.

Team # 93--1978 APPLETON FOXES (97 – 40)

Some great teams win with offensive firepower, while others win with overpowering pitching. Some teams have the benefit of a superstar’s presence in the lineup, individually lifting his team to the top. The Appleton Foxes of 1978 had none of these factors on their side. What they did rely on was quickness and speed - running their way onto the list of the top 100 great minor league teams behind one of the smallest players to play the game.

A team from Appleton, Wisconsin, joined the Class D Wisconsin - Illinois League in 1909 in the circuit’s second year of operation. During the Papermakers six years of existence, the team finished in the first division five years, winning the pennant once in 1910. When the league was renamed the Bi - State League in 1915, Appleton’s Papermakers dropped out.

In 1940, a new league was formed in the Badger State. Calling itself the Wisconsin State League, the Class D loop fielded eight teams including a revised version of the Appleton Papermakers. During the next three years, the team finished last once and fourth twice - the latter two as a farm team of the Cleveland Indians. Following the 1942 season, the league disbanded for the duration of WWII.
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After finishing last in 1977, the Foxes pushed their way to the forefront in 1978. Behind manager Gordon Lund, who had played for Seattle and Montreal, the club won the first half of the split-season with an astonishing 51-17, .750 record. They cooled off a bit in the second half , finishing second with a 46-23, .667 record - 3.5 games behind Waterloo. In the playoffs, the team defeated Waterloo two games to none in the first round before dispatching Burlington two games to one in the finals. The team drew 94,730 fans in 1978, the highest attendance for an Appleton franchise prior to the opening of the new Fox Cities Stadium in 1995.

Click the link for the whole story.