Notes about the River Bandits

Some links about the River Bandits today.

First, there is this from the QCTimes.

Bandits roster will have familiar look

When the Quad-City River Bandits arrive Saturday from their spring training camp in Florida, there will be no shortage of familiar faces.

"The way things shook down, it looks like we're going to have quite a few guys who at least got a taste of what the Midwest League was like last season," Quad-Cities manager Steve Dillard said.

Although the roster remains subject to last-minute changes, 11 of the 59 players who saw action for the River Bandits in 2008 are part of the roster St. Louis minor-league officials put together during meetings with managers earlier this week.

Infielder Domnit Bolivar and pitcher Chuckie Fick have the most Midwest League experience among the returning players.

Bolivar began and finished the season with Quad-Cities, hitting .257 in 91 games in addition to spending part of the year with the Cardinals' New York-Penn League affiliate.

Fick went 6-5 with a 3.17 ERA in 20 appearances for the River Bandits and finished third on the team in strikeouts.

Click the link for more on that line of thought.

The Cardinal Nation has this post on the Midwest League affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The direct family line of today’s Quad Cities River Bandits, the St. Louis Cardinals organization’s winningest affiliate over the last quarter century, can be traced back to 1982, when the Springfield (IL) Cardinals first joined the Single-A Midwest League.


First cousins of the Midwest League club preceded them, starting in 1977. That was the year St. Louis first placed the Gastonia, North Carolina Cardinals entry into the Class-A Western Carolinas League.


For 14 years, from 1982 through 1995, the Cardinals had two full-season Single-A clubs, one in the Midwest League and the other in the South Atlantic or Sally League. Since 1996, the organization has fielded a single club in the MWL.


Here is the log of the last ten years, 25 years, full franchise histories and combined results from both Class-A clubs. The Quad Cities-Springfield branch of the family is on top with the Savannah-Gastonia results below.

Click for the rest. But, keep in mind that Cardinal fans are...a bit odd.

Lastly, The River Bandits have reached the Holy Grail of sports blog links...Deadspin. It's all about one of their promotions.

If your lifelong dream has been to watch a minor league baseball game from a 1978 GMC van parked just beyond the outfield near a major river, then you're in luck, my fat motivational-speaking friend.

Chris Farley's Saturday Night Live sketch lives on with the Quad Cities River Bandits (Class A, Midwest League), whose promotion, Van Down by the River, will be ongoing this season at Modern Woodmen Park.

The question you're asking yourself right now is, What kind of van?

"It really is the kind of van that Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker would have lived in," River Bandits vice president and general manager Kirk Goodman told me by phone. "We bought an old van off of Craigslist. Its a 1978 GMC Rally Six, with rust spots and a carpet that you wouldn't want to see under a CSI light. The guy we bought it from was actually arrested that same day. It was perfect."

A daily jackpot will accumulate, and if the van is hit with a home run ball (which could be a common occurrence, I'm told), the occupants will win the cash. The van is currently being painted with the radio station's logo and outfitted with fuzzy dice, but Goodman promised us photos once that's done.

"We bought the van for $500," Goodman said. "We offered a trade for game tickets, but the guy turned that down. He did say that he would take a bag of weed, though."

The only thing that I can add to that is: That's all well and good, but the windows in the radio booths at Modern Woodmen Park still don't open.