Looking in obvious places

Here are where ex-Rattlers are in the Seattle and Milwaukee minor league systems.

This is more difficult than it would appear. Tacoma's online roster is not completely, um, completed.

The best I can tell is that Caesar Jimenez, Greg Halman, and Michael Saunders are there.

West Tennessee is would be best described as who on the team is not an ex-Rattler.

Only two of the 12 position players never played for Wisconsin. Half of the 12 pitchers are ex-Rattlers.

High Desert...I don't know...According to the roster, Ryan Feierabend is there...Marwin Vega is there...Here is the release, you can figure it out.

Clinton has Danny Carroll and Kalian Sams.

Also from the Mariner side of things (Welcome back to the internet, Mariners Minors!) comes this piece of bad news from one of the exhibition games in Albuquerque last weekend.

James McOwen, famous for last year’s hit streak, separated his right shoulder yesterday in an exhibition game after he ran into a wall. Funny thing about that, he’s already done it twice before. So, in essence, a player rewarded by the organization for his hard work by being brought along with the big club has gone and injured himself in a way that will likely put him out for the entire season. Ouch.

Ouch indeed.

Over on the Brewers side of the ledger:

No ex-Rattlers in Nashville...yet.

Huntsville has Jim Henderson, Alex Periard, Taylor Green, and Brett Lawrie.

Brevard County w/ a lot of former Rattlers: Mike Fiers, Ruben Flores ('06), Evan Frederickson, Corey Frerichs, Daniel Meadows, Dan Merklinger, Wily Peralta, Brandon Ritchie, Cody Scarpetta, Nick Tyson, Martin Maldonado, Brock Kjeldgaard, Juan Sanchez, Erik Komatsu, Erik Miller.

True Stories of the Midwest League

It's in Newsday so it can't be embellished.

In 1977, young outfielders Mickey Hatcher and Ron Roenicke arrived in Clinton, Iowa, home of the Dodgers’ Class A Midwest League affiliate. Their first game turned into a nail-biter, and when a late-inning situation called for a pinch hitter, Hatcher and Roenicke were stunned to see their manager, Dick McLaughlin, call out to a young man in the stands for help.

“I’m looking at Ron, saying, ‘They bring people out of the stands to hit in this league?’ ” Hatcher recalled on Tuesday. “This is unbelievable!”

That pinch hitter, it turned out, was Mike Scioscia. The catcher felt under the weather that day, and McLaughlin, not wanting to get his other players sick, ordered Scioscia out of the dugout -- until he needed him late, at least.

Scioscia and Hatcher proceeded to become roommates and great friends, and both played for the 1988 Dodgers, the last Dodgers team to win the World Series. They have been together for 10 years now with the Angels...

The story doesn't say if Scioscia got a hit in Clinton that night, but it does go on to make a pretty interesting read.

Clinton and Seattle

This was in the Quad Cities Times Monday.

LumberKings,Mariners join forces

“They want to be in Clinton and be in the Midwest League, and honestly, sometimes it’s nice to know that someone wants you,’’ LumberKings general manager Ted Tornow said. “We had a good six-year run with Texas, but the difference is that the Mariners want to be here and be a part of our league.’’

That couldn’t necessarily be said about the Rangers, who were the last major league team to sign a contract with a low-Class A affiliate when they renewed with the LumberKings two years ago.

Tornow said Rangers officials hinted that the club was searching to place its low-A team in the South Atlantic League in anticipation that Texas’ high-A team — located in the California League — will be one of two clubs that will be relocated to an expanded Carolina League within the next two years.

“With that reorganization on the horizon, they told us that they were looking at the structure of their organization, and there were no guarantees that we would fit into those plans,’’ Tornow said.
...

Mariners director of player development Greg Hunter visited Clinton’s Alliant Energy Field and quickly offered to sign after touring the recently-renovated stadium.

...

Following the June firing of general manager Bill Bavasi, Seattle’s organization is in a transition period this offseason and Tornow said Hunter acknowledged that during his visit.

“He was honest and upfront with us,’’ Tornow said. “I think they may have rushed a few prospects through the system and that may have hurt them a bit at the lower levels in their system. We saw that firsthand with Texas in 2006 and it takes time to recover.’’

Like when the LumberKings made the playoffs in 2007 and 2008?

Outside the Stadium

Just wanted to share a few pictures from outside Alliant Energy Field in Clinton.

These signs have cracked me up for years. I'm sure it will be extremely funny with the windshield of the El Camino is cracked by a foul ball during the game.

Alliant Energy Field!

Every ballpark should have train tracks behind it.

8:30pm

New start time of 8:30pm for the night game of this day-night doubleheader.

Internet broadcast should start in about 20 minutes.

We will wait

To be fair, the Sun has come out from behind the clouds and it has stopped raining since I took these pictures 10 minutes ago.

Here are some reasons why they will try to get this game in tonight.

Here are some more.

To be really fair, I am adding this picture of the tarp coming off the field mere seconds ago.
I don't think it will be much longer before this game starts. It's just a matter of when the field can be made playable.

Walking around the stadium (Clinton)

This is the original.

Does that look good? I don't think that looks good...

Often, I am asked to come back home with ideas on how the Timber Rattlers can make some money with additional events......Maybe one day, I'll think of something....Wait a minute...Something is coming to me....

...and they never asked Mehring again.

This is an appropriate Flag Day photo from the Lumber Lounge.

Does that look good?

Views from the Press Box

Early in the day game on June 14.