History made...if overshadowed a bit

Jamie McOwen, a Rattler in 2007, is the new owner of a 36-game hitting streak to set a California League record.

When High Desert fell behind by eight runs in the first inning, the Mavericks didn't feel much like celebrating. So when James McOwen hit a bouncer that hopped over the first baseman's head to push his hitting streak to a Cal League-record 36 games, he didn't say much.

"Oh, man, there's going to be an asterisk if that's the only hit I get today," said McOwen, trying to crack a joke when he stepped back into the dugout.

BUT, Lake Elsinore had a little better day.

McOwen eliminated any thoughts of that asterisk with a fifth-inning homer, but it didn't do much for the Mavericks, who fell to Lake Elsinore in record-setting fashion, 33-18, on Sunday.

33-18?!?!?!

Not only was it the longest game in league history -- players from both teams wondered if it would ever end -- at 4 hours, 10 minutes, but the Storm broke the league record for hits (32), topping the 29 shared by Stockton (Aug. 1, 1993) and Rancho Cucamonga (Aug. 10, 1997).

Take a look at this boxscore.

heck...Here is the linescore:

....1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9...R...H..E..
LE..8..3..5..2..4..0..0..6..5..33..32..1
HD..1..2..0..3..5..0..0..3..4..18..26..5

Rule 5 stuff

Baseball America is covering the Rule 5 draft at their Prospects Blog.

So far, the only ex-Rattler I've seen on the list is Andrew Barb. The Rattler closer and all-star in 2007 was selected by the Orioles in the Double-A phase of the draft's fourth round. This strikes me as odd, because, I thought that Barb retired after the 2007 season.

Lou Palmisano, a Racine native (Mehring is an idiot note...Palmisano is not from Racine. He mixed up Palmisano with Vinny Rottino.) and former Beloit Snapper, is now with the Astros. Baltimore selected Loooooou with the fifth pick and traded him to Houston.

If there are more selections involving ex-Rattlers, I'll update this post later.

Posted with one comment

Winston-Salem now the 'Dash'

What began with over 3,000 submissions from the Winston-Salem community has reached a conclusion: the Winston-Salem professional baseball franchise will take the field in 2009 as The Dash.

The announcement was made Thursday at the Millennium Center in Downtown Winston-Salem. The team, previously the Winston-Salem Warthogs, revealed their news uniforms, hats and varied logo marks in the new team colors of purple, black, metallic silver and red.

One comment: TinCaps doesn't sound so bad anymore.

The topic that just won't go away

Must we do this again? Yes, I fear we must.

I have been working on my new topic. I am actually enjoying this topic. After several considerations and rejections of ideas, I decided on a sports related topic. I am conducting a plausibility analysis into whether the Fort Wayne Tin Caps (formerly the Fort Wayne Wizards) could make a move up a division in the minor league baseball system. Currently, the Tin Caps are a "low" Single A division team. I thought it might be interesting to investigate the potential possibility of the team moving to the Double a level.
...
In my research, I am comparing Fort Wayne and it's baseball team to Akron, Ohio and it's baseball team. I chose Akron because it is roughly the same size as Fort Wayne, population wise, and it's baseball team , the Aeros, already plays at the Double A level. I also chose Akron because it is located in the midwest, like Fort Wayne. I was hopeful that the similar geography between the two cities would make their demographics comparable as well. I wanted an apples to apples comparison. I have been very pleased thus far with what I have discovered regarding each. The two cities have some expected similarities, but some striking differences.

In the comments to that post, one of the bloggers from downtownbaseballfortwayne.com pours a bit of cold water on this theory with a link to a post he wrote in January...of 2007.

I don't get that in depth, but this post from July, 2008 has some of the difficulties in bumping up a level or two.

To the curious Brewer fan, use that post as a primer for why the Timber Rattlers won't be going up to Triple-A anytime...ever.

They're the TOPPS in Double A

Topps has announced their Double A All-Stars. Four Huntsville Stars, the Southern League Affiliate of the Brewers, were named to the team.

Those players would be:

Mat Gamel
Alcides Escobar
Michael Brantley
Angel Salome

There was also an Ex-Timber Rattler on the list:

Mike Wilson (25) of Tulsa, Okla., hit 27 home runs for the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx to lead Double-A. The outfielder was among the top four in the SL in slugging percentage (.549), RBIs (84) and extra base hits (55). The Seattle Mariners selected Wilson with their second round pick in 2001 out of Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Okla.

Wilson was a Rattler in 2005.

This may be the most amazing thing...ever

Inside looks like this just don't happen. They don't. But, the Des Moines Register has a long and interesting article about the sale of the SWING and a lot of the financial goings on behind the scenes.

Top business leaders in the Quad Cities blame Kevin Krause for costing them more than half of their investment in the community's minor-league baseball team, saying he also reneged on promises to bring his family's Kum & Go convenience stores and Liberty Bank branches to the area.

According to Krause, at least $450,000 remains in dispute between partners in the former Swing of the Quad Cities baseball franchise and new owners of the team — now called the Quad Cities River Bandits.

Skipping ahead.

Investors in the Swing — now the Quad Cities River Bandits — represented a who's who of top business leaders in the Davenport area. Rob Fick, president of Mel Foster Co., the largest real estate company in the area, invested, as did Stan Bright, a former MidAmerican Energy executive who provided more than $200,000 and was instrumental in swaying Midwest Capital Group Inc., a subsidiary of MidAmerican Energy, to invest $400,000.

Also among 20 Davenport businessmen and companies that bought into the franchise was Mike Duffy, founder of PerMar Security Inc. in Davenport, who formed a partnership of other city business leaders called Came N Went LC that invested $575,000.

Entering April, those investors had received only $607,214 on their overall $1.8 million investment from the sale of the team, records show. Late Friday, however, the Register learned that Kevin Krause unexpectedly distributed more money to partners late last week.

Krause, when contacted by the Register on Saturday, confirmed that he distributed $675,000 to all partners based on percentage of overall ownership. Davenport investors received about $240,000, Krause said. Krause, his family members and related businesses that invested in the club received the remaining $435,000, he said.

There's more. Much more. Click on the link for the whole story.