A place to follow the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, the Midwest League, Minor League baseball, Major League Baseball, and everything in between in that order.
Thursday, April 5 is Opening Day for the Timber Rattlers at Fox Cities Stadium. That is 79 days from today.
The number 79 is represented by the 1995 Mariners. The team that rallied from 13 games behind the California Angels on August 2 to tie for the AL West title and win the playoff game.
The Mariners went 79-66 in that strike-shortened year, saved baseball in Seattle, and gave this lasting moment in the playoffs against the Yankees.
...there is no better panacea for the winter chills than thinking about spring training! And ATM will OFFICIALLY get festivities started this Tuesday when we kick off our organizational preview shows. ... The plan is to focus on two organizations, one AL and one NL (until, of course, the final show) and tackle a few key questions about each one ... hoping to bring on a farm director or other highly-placed front office executive for each system who will chat with us about hopes and plans for 2007 ... and it will all wrap up neatly on March 6, just in time for the Minor Leaguers to start reporting to the backfields and Minor League camps in Florida and Arizona (and you know who will be THERE as well for that).
The Seattle show will be on February 20 and paired with the Phillies. I'll mean to watch it, but...well, you know.
You can take it for granted sometimes, what Fort Wayne Komets president Michael Franke sees these days. The game’s a study in miniatures from up here, after all: tiny players moving up and down a gleaming sheet of ice; tiny fans, 5,000 or 6,000 or 7,000 of them, cheering or booing or howling with glee.
Such a small thing, viewed from high up in the Memorial Coliseum press box. Such a huge, huge thing in the larger context.
“We are very blessed to have the crowds we have,” Franke readily acknowledges.
But?
“But there are just way too many cities in minor league hockey that don’t draw well. It’s a concern.”
And so welcome, everyone, to the United Hockey League All-Star game, the third such event to play this city since 1994. I know it’s bad form to rain on these sorts of parades, but you’d best dig out your umbrellas.
The event itself might be glorious, see. But the product’s in trouble.
The product almost everywhere increasingly doesn’t draw flies, and that’s no reflection on the flies. It’s a reflection on a saturated sports culture rapidly approaching its tipping point. It’s a reflection on consumers with not just hundreds but thousands of entertainment choices, all of them competing fiercely for ever-shrinking slivers of a finite pie.
...
Heading into last weekend, the Komets were putting a league-high 7,733 fannies in the seats for every game. That’s impressive, but it’s also a huge anomaly; aside from them, no one in the league’s drawing more than 3,883 a game.
Fully half the league’s below 3,000. Chicago, one of two new franchises this season, is getting only 1,961 per game rattling around the 9,500-seat Sears Centre, where the echoes on game nights must be prodigious. Only Port Huron, putting 1,757 a night in an arena a third the size of the Sears, draws fewer.
Some of this you could have predicted, of course. Putting a franchise in the west suburbs of Chicago, for instance, was a classic “What were you thinking?” moment; with a healthy and successful American Hockey League franchise (the Wolves) and the resuscitated Blackhawks already hogging the Windy City market, it seemed inevitable that a UHL team would be left with scraps. Chicago was never that great a hockey town, even when Bobby Hull was skating a wing.
Throwing all of this into sharper relief, of course, is the soap opera currently underway in Rockford, Ill., where the city has tied renovation of the MetroCentre to ownership of a Blackhawks affiliate. That would force out the IceHogs, the UHL’s second-best drawing team and one of its linchpin franchises.
No way the “U” can afford to lose them.
When I worked for the Gamblers in the USHL, there was a team in Dubuque that was an easy bus ride for everyone else in the league. They didn't draw very well, but there was a not very good ownership. They decided to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma which was the home of an very popular pro hockey team, the Tulsa Oilers. The USHL team was lucky to draw 100 people per night and lasted one season.
The lesson for any league in any sport is this: If you are going to add or move a franchise, know what is there. Like Smith says, the pie is not an all-you-can-eat.
EDITS: I don't like to do this from work, but the error was -- how shall I put it -- glaring. The pro hockey team in Tulsa is called the Oilers. The Tulsa Drillers are the Texas League baseball team. I have also added links to a few of the teams. I was thinking about changing the phrasing at the top from "downtown baseball product" to something that actually makes sense, but why start now?
Tacoma doesn’t have the money to build a new baseball venue, but it does plan to make Cheney Stadium less of a diamond in the rough.
Improvements the crowd will see in time for the first pitch of the new season on April 13 include:
• A sort of “crown” facade atop the outside of the ballpark. • Graphics of ballplayers in action similar to those fans see of Ichiro and other Mariners outside Safeco Field. • A wrought-iron fence replacing the chain-link fence around the ballpark. • Up to three dozen more spaces for fans in wheelchairs to complement the dozen or so already in the stadium.
Tuesday night, the City Council approved a $1.6 million contract with Wade Perrow Construction of Gig Harbor for the work.
I hope they get more specific than "A sort of 'crown' facade" before they start working on the thing.
APPLETON - When Mike Reese first joined the Red Smith Banquet committee in 1985, one of the first questions late chairman Danny Ornstein asked was "Who do you know?" Not to buy tickets, mind you, but someone of significance in the sporting world that would be willing to come to Wisconsin in the dead of winter and speak before a crowd of 1,600 people.
Not an easy task.
Well it just so happened Reese’s son, Bret, had attended a couple of former legendary DePaul basketball coach Ray Meyer’s camps in Three Lakes. Reese had gotten to know Meyer a little bit and decided what the heck. He asked, Meyer accepted and appropriately enough was given the Nice Guy Award in ’85.
Granted procuring talent for the Red Smith Banquet is normally not that happenstance, but it’s a formidable task for Reese, who in his role as banquet chairman is charged with the task of identifying, selecting and recruiting three award winners and speakers every year.
"It’s the most difficult job and it’s the most pressure-filled," said committee member Joe Ornstein, son of Danny, who has a first-hand knowledge of the experience.
"Without the big three, you don’t have much of a banquet. It’s trying."
What is the banquet for?
Acquiring high-profile talent is just part of the banquet’s duty, as it goes hand-in-hand with its original mission of raising money to help support local youth sports organizations and has raised nearly $600,000. In addition, $9,000 in scholarships is awarded annually to area student-athletes.
"Our limits are predicated on the commitments we’ve made to these youth organizations and that money comes out of the proceeds from the banquet," said Reese. "So we have to cover the largest cost, which is the (1,585) meals. The next largest cost is the speakers and then miscellaneous costs.
Who are the big three this year?
Former UW-Stevens Point basketball coach Jack Bennett Former Green Bay Packer Gilbert Brown College Baseketball Analyst Bill Raferty Former UW-Stevens Point head basketball coach Jack Bennett, former Packer Gilbert Brown, and current ESPN/CBS basketball analyst Bill Rafferty will be
This week's Sunday flashback is of an extra inning game in Dayton on August 18.
The Rattlers scored tied the game 4-4 with a run in the top of the ninth. In the twelfth, the Rattlers went up 5-4, but the Dragons tied the game in the bottom of the inning. Wisconsin scored twice in the fourteenth and that was enough for the win.
The boxscore is HERE. The log of the game is HERE. To listen to the game, or to skip around to the best parts of this epic, just copy and paste the code below into your internet browser.
On Sunday's during the off-season, there are excerpts from Jonathon Eig's biography of Lou Gehrig, Luckiest Man.
This week, the excerpt is from the chapter Strange Times. Gehrig is beginning to not feel like himself.
Yet Gehrig still wasn't playing like an All-Star, much less the finest first baseman of all time. In five chances at the plate that day against the minor league Kansas City Blues, he walked three times, flied out to center, and reached first on a slow roller to third. His hands were still sore. Over the course of the next week, when he did manage to get a hit, it was usually a soft single. Against bush-league competition that included the New Orleans Pelicans, the Dallas Steers, and Houston Buffaloes, he couldn't hit a home run. In a game against the Little Rock Travelers on April 9, he lobbed a soft double in the first inning but went without another hit the rest of the day. In the fifth inning, he swung so hard at a third strike that he spun around and landed, like a drunkard, on his rear end.
At last, on April 12, in a game with the Knoxville Smokies, Gehrig hit a homer over the fence in left center field. Te ball traveled 360 feet. Given the poor quality of competition (Knoxville allowed nineteen runs on eighteen hits, eleven walks, and two errors) and the fact that he struck out twice, Gehrig was probably somewhat less than elated. The next afternoon, against the Yankees' Binghamton farm team, he had a double and a triple.
In years past, whenever doubt or insecurity crept into his head, he had conquered it with the knowledge that his physical strength and God-given athleticism would pull him through. Now, a few months shy of his thirty-fifth birthday, Gehrig had overcome many of the inhibitions that had plagued him as a younger man. But for the first time he had reason to doubt the reliability of his body.
For years, the Milwaukee Brewers were criticized for not bellying up to baseball's cash bar and paying top dollar to keep or acquire top-level talent.
The Brewers heard the moans and groans last season when they traded slugger Carlos Lee to Texas rather than pay what it took to keep him. Never mind that Lee eventually signed as a free agent with Houston at the exorbitant price of $100 million over six years.
Such criticism was not the driving force in the Brewers' dogged pursuit of free-agent pitcher Jeff Suppan, who eventually was corralled for $42 million over four years, and possibly $52.75 million over five years. But it did prove their willingness to pay the going rate for what they considered the missing piece to their puzzle for 2007.
You can debate all you want as to whether the going rate was advisable for a pitcher with a career record of 106-101 (Suppan's 44-26 record over the past three seasons is more relevant). But when the price of gas goes up, you either pay at the pump or become a hitch-hiker.
"We felt it was a huge decision but the right decision for the organization at this time," said general manager Doug Melvin, who had the full backing of owner Mark Attanasio in courting Suppan.
Why was it the right decision at this time? Because the Brewers correctly surveyed the landscape of the National League Central, which was won with 83 victories by eventual World Series champion St. Louis in 2006, and concluded that with a bit of good health and the addition of an established starting pitcher they could make a run at the division crown.
More at the link. Including this note about McGwire getting into the Hall of Fame:
As for Mark McGwire's chance of going to Cooperstown, t's anyone's guess. Hounded by suspicions of steroid use, McGwire fared badly in his first attempt, getting only 23.5% of the vote.
Others have overcome poor first showings to be elected, including Duke Snider (17% the first time), Don Drysdale (21%) and Billy Williams (23.4%). But none faced the suspicion McGwire does.
TUSTIN - Mark McGwire commented in response to his exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame while appearing at a charity event Friday night.
"I had an absolutely wonderful career that I am very proud of," McGwire said. "I'm not in control of what happens - I was in control of hitting the ball."
The 43-year-old, who ranks seventh on the all-time list with 583 career home runs, received only 23.5 percent of the votes according to results released last week by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. In a rare public appearance, the 12-time All-Star was one of over two dozen sports personalities on hand for the event, "Luck be a Lady." The casino-themed fundraiser, organized by a committee of players' wives, benefited the Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Center. Clad in a stylish grey suit, McGwire chatted amicably with John Lackey, Adam Kennedy and Teemu Selanne, amongst others.
There are a few notes about McGwire's reclusiveness and his charity work, but that is about it for the article.
Wisconsin’s roster candidates are very similiar to those above with High Desert, with the exception of [Tony] Butler and Chris Tillman.
Righthander Michael Schilling is also likely to land with the T-Rats, as is Jose Suriel and possibly a few of the arms from the Peoria roster, such as Nate Adcock, Terrence Parker and Doug Salinas.
Offensively things could be pretty damned dynamite. This is where Halman, Avila and Peguero should begin their 2007 seasons, but we have learned how smart the Mariners front office is when concerning the development of their prospects, specifically the bats.
Alex Liddi COULD see some time here, too, if for no other reason than to get his bat going early rather than a long, extended spring training before the short seasons begin.
Catcher Jair Fernandez could end up at either Class A stop.
There has been some talk about how quickly the Mariners want to get their international gems, infielder Carlos Truinfel and outfielder Mario Martinez, into the states to gain experience and begin their trek to Mariner stardom as soon as possible, but at 16 and 17 years of age, I can’t see them starting the year anywhere but Peoria.
Truinfel hasn’t been seen by a whole lot of people but from all I can gather, his physical tools are matched by his desire and acumen for learning how to take instruction and put it into play in game. Yes, at 16, he’s already being taught how to use film to help his swing.
Martinez is a very athletic talent who could end up playing anywhere but shortstop or catcher, depending on how his bat plays out.
Jason also has started his top 50 prospects in the Seattle system list. He begins today counting down prospects from 50 to 41. Here is something to remember about this. Jason does not slot the prospects from 50 to 21. The ranking begins at number 20. Here are the names Jason has from 50-41 with some of his notes.
Jason Snyder, RHP - Snyder just needs to stay healthy to give himself a chance. His ceiling is probably as a back-end, spot starter or middle reliever, but a sound right arm has more juice in it than that.
Welington Dotel, OF - Not a ton to say about Dotel except that he’s a bit fo a free swinger - surprise - and that he won’t don a uniform until June at the earliest after serving out his suspension for testing positive for a banned substance. Dotel, 21, will have to massively cut into his strikeout rates to remain any sort of a prospect, but his power (7 HR, 23 XBH, .469 SLG @ PEORIA) is intriguing and he can hold down a corner outfield spot.
Israel Nunez, C - Sometimes referred to as Francisco, Israel Nunez is a late-blooming backstop who put up plus offensive numbers in the VSL last summer. The 6-1, 205-pound Mexican-born catcher bats from the right side and hit .324/.420/.414 with 13 walks and just 10 strikeouts in 38 games.
That’s the good news. The bad news is, he was 20 all season and turned 21 in September. His time is running out and it’s unclear whether he’ll hit the states this upcoming summer or not.
Eddy Fernandez, LHP - Another Latin talent putting up good numbers but also running out of time… Fernandez is very intriguing and it’s a bit of a surprise that he didn’t taste the US last season.
At 20, the Dominican native went 8-2 with a 1.06 ERA including three complete games and a shutout. He logged 68 innings, giving up just 46 hits (.193 BAA) fanning 73 and walking just 10.
Miguel Marquez, RHP - Perhaps the first actual prospect in the group, Marquez features a four-seamer in the 88-91 range and split-finger that he’s been known to fall in love with and is still learning to command.
The 19-year-old Venezuelan made 12 starts in the VSL last summer, tallying 56 2/3 innings and allowing 49 hits (no home runs). He struck out 53 but issued 29 walks.
Kallian Sams, OF - There’s not much available on Sams, except the M’s claim that he has the “athletic abilities you want in an outfielder, even if they are surrounded by raw baseball skills.”
Sams, 20 and from the Netherlands, is expected to bring his all-around game to Peoria this summer. I was told that he won’t get past the Cal League, so he’s truly one of those wait-and-see athletes who may or may not ever translate their big-time physical tools into baseball success.
Anthony Phillips, 2B - Phillips, 16, along with Sams, was just signed this past July and may also see time in Peoria, probably at second base.
He’s listed at 5-9, which means he’s probably 5-7 3/4, so we’ll see how that turns out.
He’s said to have quite the swing and plays the game the way former (that hurts to say) M’s prospect Chris Snelling did. That is never a bad thing.
Gregorio Rosario, RHP - Rosario is the most projectable pitcher in this group at 6-4, 185 and just 18 years of age. He made 13 starts in the DSL a year ago and piled up 68 1/3 innings allowing 67 hits (2 HR), striking out 62 and issuing 25 walks.
Rosario’s fastball already sits in the 86-88 range with “acceptable” movement. As he matures physically, his velocity could reach into the low-to-mid 90s, setting up his breaking ball, which is an overhand curve.
Chia-an Huang, RHP - This one is mystery. Tons of ability, built like a tank, hitting 90-93 as a teenager, but he’s yet to make an impact any level due to off field issues.
Huang can pitch, but it seems he can’t get on the field, or in the country, to use his fastball-slider-forkball combo on bats in the states.
Remember the note the other day about the Memphis Redbirds changing their logo? That new logo was unveiled yesterday...
(Photo Credit: Allison Rhoades)
That looks pretty good. What was the change again?
The most striking change to the Redbirds' logo occurs on the team cap, in which a stylized "M" replaces its much blander predecessor.
"I remember we were at one of the Minor League seminars a few years back and someone was talking about logos," said Chase. "And they hauled our 'M' up there as an example of a logo that was not a very good one, primarily because it would be impossible to trademark. But don't get me wrong, the old logo worked very well for us."
In addition to the revamped "M", the team's jersey features an updated type style. However, the Redbirds will remain one of the few Minor League clubs that features its city name on the home uniform (only the Sunday uniforms say "Redbirds"). And, as with the old uniform, a cardinal is perched atop the letter "h" in Memphis.
This week's Baseball on TV post is from Futurama, the animated series from the creator of The Simpsons.
The show is summed up like this from tv.com:
Futurama , set in the next millennium, follows the exploits of Fry, a pizza delivery boy who was cryogenically frozen by accident for 1,000 years; Leela, a female cyclops; Bender, an immoral robot, and others as they work for an intergalactic delivery service owned by Fry's great, great, great...nephew, Professor Hubert Farnsworth.
The episode featured today is about the Leela and her being signed as a blernsball (Baseball's jazzed up name in the year 3002) pitcher for the New New York Mets. More as a novelty act that would bring in the crowds than anything else.
Before going farther with this post, here is a clip from youtube to introduce you to blernsball and Futurama:
The episode opens with the crew from Planet Express meeting a group of aliens who have opened a pizza parlor across the street. The aliens aren't very good at adapting their cooking to the eating habits of the people of Earth. (They use toppings like silt, asbestos, flaming magnesium, and guano).
After a brief explanation that includes using oregano instead of live bees for ingredients, Fry turns on the TV. Bob Uecker (or more appropriately, Bob Uecker's head) is calling the final out of a New New York Mets game. Fry feels that to help the aliens truly feel like they belong on Earth, they should all play a game of Blernsball.
Leela is pitching, but she winds up hitting all the batters. In cartoons, is there anything funnier than someone getting hit in the head. (Well, yeah. A door slammed in someone's face. But, that is a discussion for another day)
The owner of the New New York Mets sees the performance and decides to sign Leela as a novelty act.
Leela gets her uniform (number 7/8, becase all the whole numbers have been retired) and gets into the game against the Sweedish Meatballs during a blowout.
Leela immediately beans the first few hitters she faces and gets a positive reaction from the crowd. (Leela's Bean Counters hang pictures of a beans on a railing for every beanball).
An autograph session at the Pizza Parlor starts out well. A young girl tells Leela that she wants to injure men by throwing things at them too. Then, the girl asks Leela to make out her autograph to e*Bay. But, Jackie Anderson shows up. Jackie is a good female blernsball player and Leela is making it tougher for her to break into the majors. Leela sets a goal of becoming the best blernsball player of all-time. When she finds out that is maybe shooting a bit too high, she resets the goal to not becoming the worst blernsball player of all-time.
The crew heads to the Blernsball Hall of Fame (Blernsball Fever -- Contract It!) and meets the worst blernsball player of all-time, Hank Aaron (Actually, Hank Aaron XXIV a clone). This episode is worth it just to hear Hank Aaron, who does the voice for Hank Aaron XXIV and the head of Hank Aaron to say the following lines: You stink, lady! and Ah, Wade Boggs...Goes down smooth.
Hank Aaron XXIV helps Leela with some tips and she hopes to get into the final game of the season at Fenway Park against the Boston Poindexters.
Uecker: The Mets close out a season that will rank among one of mankind's most awful crimes.
The Mets are actually winning 8-5 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Leela begs to be put into the game. The Poindexters load the bases and Leela gets into the game by saying that she has been training with Hank Aaron.
Manager: You've been training with the Hank Aaron? Leela: I've been training with a Hank Aaron.
The Poindexters send up Jackie Anderson to pinchhit. Leela actually throws two strikes, but Jackie Anderson hits a game winning homer. Leela becomes the worst blernsball player ever.
Now for the Blernsball parts of the episode (again, from youtube)
I found it through Brew Crew Ball, who had a post that picks up on a potential Brewer trade with the Padres that could affect a former Rattler. Follow that?
First information on ex-Rattler Jorge Sosa:
Jorge Sosa. Ramon Ortiz. Aaron Sele. Those are the types of free-agent pitchers the Mets are considering as they continue their search for additional help for their starting rotation, with Sosa perhaps the leading option.
The Mets are not interested in right-hander Jeff Weaver, and they're not one of the two teams offering righty Tomo Ohka a two-year contract, according to major-league sources.
Ohka, 30, spent 77 days on the disabled list last season with a partial tear of his rotator cuff. The condition of his shoulder is a concern for several clubs.
Sosa, who turns 30 on April 28, intrigues the Mets because of the quality of his arm and his ability to work both as a starter and reliever.
The problem with Sosa — and virtually all of the remaining free-agent pitchers, frankly — is that teams can't be certain of what they're getting.
The Mets would want Sosa to start. He went 10-3 with a 2.62 ERA in that role for the Braves in 2005, 1-8 with a 5.53 last season.
Now, Ex-Appleton Fox Ryan Franklin:
A SLEEPER IN ST. LOUIS? The Cardinals' signings of free-agent left-hander Mark Mulder and right-hander Ryan Franklin on Wednesday won't preclude them from giving Weaver a two-year deal at the right price, but such a move is less urgent than before.
The addition of Franklin was all but lost in the news about Mulder, but the Cardinals were impressed by the pitcher's determination to return to a starting role and desire to work with pitching coach Dave Duncan.
Franklin, 33, turned down more money from another team to sign with the Cardinals, according to his brother and agent, Jay Franklin. That team was the Blue Jays, according to a major-league source.
Finally, this little bit about ex-Rattler Termell Sledge as the Padres search for a left fielder:
For now, the Padres plan to go with Terrmel Sledge in left field while using Jose Cruz Jr., a switch-hitter, against certain left-handers. However, a trade for Brewers outfielder Geoff Jenkins remains possible.
WOODBRIDGE, VA— The third member of manager Randy Knorr’s staff has finally been determined. Potomac Nationals Vice President and General Manager Bobby Holland announced today that Randy Tomlin will serve as the team’s pitching coach for the upcoming 2007 season.
"We are very excited to have someone like Randy Tomlin be a part of the Potomac Nationals coaching staff,” said Holland. “His experiences, especially in terms of pitching at the Major League level, will be a great asset to our team.”
Tomlin joins the Washington Nationals organization from his Alma mater, Liberty University, where he spent the past nine seasons as the pitching coach. He joined the Flames coaching staff in 1997 after a nine-year professional career that included five seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1990-1994). The former 18th-round pick of the Pirates was the organization's Minor League Player of the Year in 1990 and compiled a 30-31 career mark in Pittsburgh including leading the pitching staff in ERA (2.98) in 1991. That same season he started game four of the National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves.
In 106 Major League games, Tomlin recorded a 3.43 ERA and struck out 297 batters in 580-1/3 innings pitched.
Why did this catch my attention? Randy Tomlin was a member of the Duluth-Superior Dukes in 1997. That was one of the season I was a radio announcer for the Dukes. Tomlin was a great guy to work with on interviews or just to listen to as he talked to the younger pitchers on the staff.
Quick story about this nice guy who almost started a brawl during a game on July 6, 1997 at Wade Stadium. (I went back to my scorebook to jog the memory a bit)
Jose Peguero was a third baseman for the Madison Black Wolf. He was a fastball hitter and Tomlin knew it. The first three times he faced the Peguero, Tomlin (who wasn't the hardest tossing pitcher at the time) threw one fast ball, but it was about two feet outside. The batter was retired easily each time on breaking stuff.
The fourth time Peguero batted in that game, Tomlin started him off with about a 57-foot curve ball and the hitter swung and missed. The hitter stepped out of the box, stared at Tomlin, and yelled at him to throw a fastball. Tomlin threw a couple of fastballs way outside and ths count went to 2-1. Peguero was all set up for a fastball in that count. Tomlin's next pitch was a change up that the Peguero missed badly. This time, the hitter took a step towards the mound and dared Tomlin to throw him a fastball. Peguero managed to foul the next pitch, another changeup, off to keep the count at 2-2.
Tomlin's final pitch was like that slow pitch that Bugs Bunny threw in Baseball Bugsagainst the Gashouse Gorillas. Peguero missed it and looked very bad in doing so. He took about four steps to the mound and yelled something. Tomlin took about four steps off the mound and yelled back. The dugouts emptied, but no punches were thrown.
The classy thing about this -- if a near brawl could be classy -- was that the manager of the Black Wolf, who may have been Wayne Krenchicki, took Peguero out of the game the incident.
After the game, I asked Tomlin about Peguero and he said something like, "There was no way that guy was getting a fastball from me once he started begging for one. That was great getting inside his head like that."
He's going to make a good pitching coach in the Nationals system.
On Feb. 15, all will be right with the world again.
Andy Pettitte and the rest of the Yankees' pitchers and catchers will begin their first workout that day in Florida. Yadier Molina, whose bat came out of nowhere to help the Cardinals to the World Series last October, will be on the field again for the first time since the celebration, just across the Everglades.
Barry Zito will be tossing a baseball as a Giant in Arizona while new manager Brucy Bochy watches, and Ted Lilly will be working with Cubs pitchers for the first time while Lou Piniella looks on with great anticipation.
For fans of 30 Major League Baseball teams, there ought to be a chill going down your spine right now. One of the coolest announcements of any offseason came down from Major League Baseball on Tuesday, and that is the one with the following heading: "SPRING TRAINING WORKOUT DATES ANNOUNCED."
Seattle's pitchers and catchers report on February 15 with the rest of the team scheduled for the 20th.
Side note or something that makes you go hmmmmmm: Isn't it interesting that the official mlb.com story on the starting dates of Spring Training leads off with the latest addition to the New York Yankees?
Left-hander Cesar Jimenez has carried his exceptional regular-season performance with the Cardenales de Lara into the Venezuelan Winter League playoffs.
Jimenez, who was signed as non-drafted free agent by the Seattle Mariners in July 2001, owns one of the Cardenales' three playoff victories. The 5-foot-11 southpaw has surrendered six hits and a walk while striking out two over four scoreless innings spanning four games.
The 22-year-old completed the regular season with a 1-1 record and 0.98 ERA in 15 appearances. He yielded four runs -- two earned -- on 10 hits over 18 1/3 innings, walking six and fanning 12.
Jimenez was a Rattler in 2003. He was the starting pitcher in the first Miller Park game between the Timber Rattlers and the Beloit Snappers.
Final stats on the rest of the Rattlers in winter ball at the link.
The Kane County Cougars annual Winter Baseball Banquet and Silent Auction for Charity, presented by Provena Mercy Medical Center, will be held on Friday, February, 2, 2007 at the Wyndham Hotel in Lisle, Illinois. The event includes cocktails, dinner, a silent auction to benefit Ozzie’s Outreach, and a speakers program featuring ESPN baseball analyst John Kruk.
For more about John Kruk, go to the Shrine to John Kruk. It's not as disturbing as you might think.
If you were planning on going to the West Michigan Whitecaps winter banquet, you should have planned better because it is sold out. Sounds like a good time.
West Michigan will be treated to a night of champions on Wednesday, January 17 when the 2007 Whitecaps Winter Banquet rolls into town. Jim Leyland, manager of the 2006 American League Champion Detroit Tigers, and Tom Brookens, a member of the 1984 World Series Champion Detroit Tigers and the Whitecaps new manager, will headline the event, which raises funds for the Whitecaps Inner-City Youth Baseball and Softball Program. A portion of the night’s proceeds will also benefit the Detroit Tigers Foundation.
The Great.Lakes.Loons. are ready to go with their radio broadcasts.
The Great Lakes Loons have announced a partnership with Citadel Broadcasting Company, Inc., which will make WHEELZ 101 (WYLZ-FM 100.9) the club’s flagship radio station for the 2007 inaugural season.
The club has also announced the hiring of Brad Golder as the team’s play-by-play broadcaster and Director of Broadcasting and Media Relations. ... Brad Golder , 25, will be the Loons’ first play-by-play broadcaster and will serve as the Director of Broadcasting and Media Relations. Brad is responsible for all aspects of the radio broadcast and will manage all media communications for the Loons. He comes to the team from the Atlanta Braves Radio Network, where he was the Operations Manager and performed on-air duties including post-game show host and reporter. Previously, Brad served as play-by-play broadcaster of the Nashville Sounds and the Vanderbilt University baseball team. He graduated in 2003 from Vanderbilt University with a degree in political science.
Great. Another guy in the MWL better than me.
This is old, I mean September 7, 2006 old, but its new to me.
For the first time in Oldsmobile Park history, the two teams that call the facility home will face-off in an exhibition game on April 3, 2007. The Lansing Lugnuts will challenge the Michigan State Spartans before the Lugnuts open the 2007 campaign, their 12th in Lansing.
World Series winner RHP Anthony Reyes will undoubtedly be the highlight of the 2007 Cardinals Caravan to be held at John O’Donnell Stadium on Sunday, Jan. 14 at noon. However, Reyes will be part of a great lineup that includes, Colby Rasmus, the Cards No. 1 pick in 2006 who racked up some impressive numbers in Quad Cities before being promoted to Class A Palm Beach. Joining Reyes and Rasmus will be Aaron Miles, Brad Thompson, Blake Hawksworth, Danny Cox and Al Hrabosky. The afternoon’s master of ceremonies will be John Rooney, play-by-play announcer for the Cardinals.
Jackson played 23 games for the Sox in 1991, missed the 1992 season, and hit 16 homers in 85 games in 1993. Then, he signed with the Angels and finished his career with 13 homers in 75 games in 1994.
April 5, 2007 is Opening Day at Fox Cities Stadium. That is just 83 days from today. The Timber Rattlers are taking on the Peoria Chiefs and Ryne Sandberg is making his minor league managerial debut in that game.
Appropriately enough, the number 83 is represented by Sandberg.
The above picture is from The Ryne Sandberg Home Page, a fan site that looks like it hasn't been updated since early in the 1996 season. Think of clicking on that link as an archeological expidition to the early days of web design.
From ballparkdigest.com there is a link to this note for the groundskeepers.
Easy Fix To Be Tried On Warning Track Norwich — The Baseball Stadium Authority and the Connecticut Defenders believe they have found a low-cost solution to drainage problems on the Dodd Stadium warning track for the coming year. The city was to have replaced the warning-track drainage system this fall and winter, but both parties agree that an expensive renovation would be fruitless one year before the entire playing surface is to be replaced. Authority member Gary Schnip has been in contact with field specialist William Dest on a proposal to use a machine that could cut fine vertical slits into the warning track to allow water to seep through to the drainage level beneath the surface material. The problem is that the top three inches of material has become packed down and too dense to absorb rain water, causing postponement of games when the playing field itself was fine. The authority voted unanimously to explore renting the Verti-Quake machine — which attaches to a tractor — and experimenting with it this winter and spring, before the baseball season starts. The machine is used commonly on golf courses to improve drainage, Schnip said.
I must find a picture of the Verti-Quake! Oh, and there is this too.
The city's lease with the Defenders had called for the city to resod the playing field last fall, but that work was postponed until fall of 2007, when ESPN asked to use the stadium to film the mini-series “The Bronx is Burning” about the 1977 New York Yankees.
So, not only is ESPN going to make another bad movie (or since it is a miniseries -- movies) they are holding up much needed work on a baseball field. Way to go, Worldwide Leader.
Everyone knew the Hall of Fame class of 2007 had two no-doubt-about-it candidates in Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. -- followed by an All-Star lineup of question marks.
With the newest members of the most famous Hall of Fame in sports still five months away from their official enshrinement in Cooperstown, N.Y., it's time to peek further into the future and explore the makeup for the 2008 class of Hall of Fame hopefuls.
The next Hall of Fame ballot will include 15 players that received at least five percent of the 545 votes cast by lifetime members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. That list starts with Rich "Goose" Gossage, who garnered 71.2 percent of the votes, and ends with Harold Baines, named on 5.3 percent of the ballots. A player needs 75 percent to be elected. ... Among the names that stand out are: Shawon Dunston, Travis Fryman, David Justice, Mike Morgan, Tim Raines and Randy Velarde.
Of that group, Raines probably has the best chance to become a first-ballot selection. The switch-hitter had 2,605 hits during a 23-year MLB career that started with the Montreal Expos and ended with the Florida Marlins.
Not to make light of the achievements and careers of the other names on that list, but the above paragraph could very easily be rewritten to begin: Of that group, Raines probably has the only chance to become a first-ballot selection.
Rockford developer Kurt Carlson has been planning for an adjacent development along Interstate 90 ever since the Beloit Casino Complex began to take shape.While the casino plan has gone through many twists and turns, his original ideas have changed little over the past six years.
When preliminary plans were first unveiled in mid-1999, Carlson listed the following options for about 80 acres of land under option, facing I-90: an outlet mall, a classic auto and sports car museum, an antique mall and recreation of an early 1900s town, additional hotels, food shops and other retail, and a new sports stadium.
There is a joke about there not being a need to recreate an early 1900's town in Beloit, just a need to walk about ten minutes from the team hotel to get that early 20th century experience. But, I'm not going to be the one to make it.
What about the sports stadium for the Snappers? Why aren't they calling it a baseball stadium?
The sports stadium idea still has potential, Carlson said, but it would depend on whether the Beloit Snappers would consider relocating to tthe site.
“One of the big advantages of building a stadium next to a casino is that you can share parking. That's a big part of building a ballpark. You can build a ballpark on six acres, but you need 20 acres with parking,” Carlson said. “It's a distinct possibility (as a site for the Snappers), but we'd have to work something out.”
Dennis Conerton, Beloit Snappers board chairman, said the site was considered a few years ago when the idea was first proposed, but he doesn't think it's something the Snappers will be looking into as a new home.
“We did have a conversation, and he showed us the site, but what we needed was larger acreage,” Conerton said. “There was a narrow parcel that wasn't conducive to the property. What he had was more designed for independent leagues, and not along the lines of what we're required to have as a minor league team.”
Conerton said another concern would be the proximity of the new RiverHawks stadium Carlson recently constructed near Riverside Boulevard and I-90.
“It's within nine miles - I don't think we'd want to be that close, so that's not something we would be considering at this point,” Conerton said.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The Memphis Redbirds will reveal new uniforms for the upcoming 2007 season on Saturday prior to the Cardinals Caravan. ... Memphis' new uniforms were designed by local branding company Oden. Before developing the uniforms Oden researched nearly 100 years of baseball uniforms, with a special emphasis on the St. Louis Cardinals.
According to Oden, the new uniforms blend existing Redbirds graphic elements for a more modern look, but they retain the classic feel so prevalent in the game of baseball.
"We didn't reinvent," Oden Senior Designer Spencer King said. "We revitalized the design to capture the energy of Redbirds baseball today, but with a nod to baseball's rich tradition and heritage."
Why do I have a feeling that this is going to be a Cardinal wearing an 1880's baseball cap with lightning bolts coming out of its eyeballs?
A familiar name -- Shawn Estes -- has been added to the Padres' starting pitching mix.
Estes, who underwent reconstructive elbow surgery last June after making one start for the Padres, has agreed to a Minor League contract and an invitation to Spring Training.
Because of the complex nature of the surgery and the long recovery process, requiring at least a year, Estes is not expected to be ready to pitch in a game until June at the earliest.
Estes, a left-hander who turns 34 on Feb. 18, had a career-high 19 wins for San Francisco in 1997 and is confident he can return to his former form.
Estes pitched for the Appleton Foxes in 1993 and 1994. In '94, he was 0-2 with a 4.58 ERA in five games (four starts). In '95, he made two starts without a decision but an ERA of 0.90. In May of '95 he was traded to the Giants organization with Wilson Delgado for Salomon Torres. Estes made four starts for the Burlington Bees and moved on to San Jose, Shreveport, and eventually San Francisco in the 1995 season.
Dwight Schrute updated his blog last week with a recap of past resolutions and what he has resolved to do in 2007 in a post titled Dear World Wide Readership.
Dwight Schrute’s New Years Resolution ‘07
I, Dwight Schrute, resolve, in the year 2007, to display more wisdom and benelovence to my inferiors.
It is said, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Well I say, keep everyone as close as possible to you because you don’t know who is your friend or your enemy. Keep the people below you even closer if that’s possible. Even if they have to be inside you.
Remember: they work for you. They must respect you. If you can fool them into thinking that you really care, you can get them to do anything for you. Even kill if necessary.
Now I’m not saying I want Ryan or Kevin to kill a competitor or Andy or anything, but it would be nice to know that they would if I asked them to.
On second thought would you really take resolution advice from this man?
MILB.com gets in on the BaseballAmerica Era hall of famers with stories from the minor league days of the Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken:
Gwynn's quick ascent preludes storied career Hall of Famer spent just 13 months in Minors before joining Padres Tony Gwynn made his professional debut in June of 1981. Thirteen months later, he was in the Major Leagues. With that sort of spectacular career trajectory, one would think that an article on the newly elected Hall of Famer's Minor League career would be as short and non-essential as a story detailing Cecil Fielder's stolen base exploits. One would be wrong. While Gwynn's time in the San Diego farm system didn't last long, he certainly made an impression on those he played with, for and against. After all, he hit a spectacular .347 (246-for-708) with four teams over three levels of play. That sort of offensive output is bound to get people's attention, even when the player generating that level of production is as unassuming and humble as the esteemed Mr. Gwynn. ... The Padres selected Gwynn in the third round of the 1981 First-Year Player Draft on the same day that the San Diego Clippers chose him in the 10th round of the NBA Draft. In what proved to be a fortuitous choice, Tony opted for a baseball career. ... But before Gwynn could begin his career as an everyday corner outfielder in the big leagues, he had to ascend the rungs of the Padres' Minor League ladder. Walla Walla, Wash., was his first stop. Walla Walla was home to the Padres' Class A Short-Season franchise, which competed in the Northwest League. Gwynn played in 42 games for the club in 1981 and put up spectacular numbers -- a .331 average, .411 on-base percentage and .612 slugging percentage. Here is a Gwynn story that I've never heard and it is related by former teammate Greg Booker.
"Tony could flat out run, too. He had two or three inside-the-park home runs in Walla Walla, but I remember one of them was called back after the umpire said he missed first base. That was in Eugene, Oregon. Tony was so mad that he threw his tobacco at the umpire and got ejected. That was the only time I ever saw him try to get thrown out of a game."
Gwynn's Double-A stop was the Amarillo Gold Sox of the Texas League. While the jump from Class A to Double-A is usually considered one of the most difficult for a Minor League ballplayer to make, Gwynn handled his new surroundings with ease. He arrived in Amarillo in August and hit a gaudy .462 (42-for-91) over the final month of the 1981 season.
Gwynn opened up the 1982 campaign with the Triple-A Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League, and he picked up right where he left off. Over 93 games in Hawaii, he hit .328 while striking out just 18 times over 366 at-bats.
Walla Walla to Amarillo to Hawaii to San Diego to Cooperstown.
Thanks in large part to playing in a record 2,632 consecutive games, Ripken became known as our nation's "Iron Man," a stoic, durable workhorse whose on-field accomplishments transcended baseball and became the stuff of legend. With this image of Ripken so firmly embedded in the popular imagination, it's a bit difficult to imagine him as an untested, error-prone, mischievous teenager.
Yet that's exactly what he was when he began his professional career in 1978 at the age of 17. Ripken was selected with the 48th pick of the draft by the Baltimore Orioles, the organization that also employed his father, Cal Sr., for 36 years.
Although Ripken, a Maryland native, was an offensive standout in high school, most of the teams who had scouted him felt his true potential was on the mound. After all, he had gone 7-0 with 100 strikeouts over 60 innings in his senior season.
In a decision that ultimately had a great impact on baseball history, Cal decided he wanted to play the infield rather than pitch, largely because it would give him a chance to play every day. After signing with Baltimore, Ripken was assigned to the Rookie-level Bluefield Orioles. In 63 games as the club's starting third baseman, he hit .264 and drove in 24 runs, none of which came via the long ball.
That's right, the man who redefined shortstop as a power position after slugging more than 400 Major League home runs failed to go yard in his first professional season.
Now a look at Ripken the prankster:
Ripken spent most of the 1979 season with Class A Miami, where his numbers improved. In 105 games, the 18-year-old hit .303 with five homers and 54 RBIs. He ended the season with Double-A Charlotte, but not before finding a way to make [teammate John] Shelby very, very angry one day in Miami Beach.
"We were having a team party, and Cal and a few of the guys were trying to teach me how to body surf," recalled Shelby. "At the time, I had a pair of Converse sneakers, which I treasured. They were my favorite pair of shoes in the whole world. So I left my Converse on the beach while I tried to body surf, and when I got out of the water Cal told me he'd thrown one of my shoes in the ocean. I ran into the water to get it, and when I came back out Cal told me he'd thrown the other shoe in. I never did find that one.
"I was so mad at Cal, but next thing you know, I started getting free cleats. They were from Cal, and he ended up buying my cleats for years and years after that. That never quite compensated for my Converse, though."
Now a picture of Ripken with the Rochester Red Wings from milb.com and the Red Wings:
And for the 1983 season, the Yankees went 91-71. But that was a third place finish, seven games behind division champion Baltimore. That wasn't good enough and Yogi Berra became the manager for the 1984 season. Don't worry. Billy would be back.
Was there anything else to say after the final buzzer sounded in the University of Wisconsin's 72-69 victory over fifth-ranked Ohio State on Tuesday night at the Kohl Center?
The third-ranked Badgers had a 10-point lead with 54 seconds left but saw it shrink to two points before a free throw by senior Kammron Taylor and a last-second three-point miss by Buckeyes junior Jamar Butler allowed Wisconsin to escape with its 12th straight victory.
Taylor finished with a season-high 25 points for the Badgers, who improved to 16-1 overall and 2-0 in the Big Ten. The Badgers point guard overcame a couple of poor shooting days in practice to make five of eight shots, including three of six three-pointers.
Don't answer that. I ain't volunteering to try.
