Tag: Minor League Baseball

This day in baseball: The Clemens faceoff

February 27, 2021

In a minor league exhibition game held on February 27, 2006, 19-year-old Koby Clemens of the Lexington Legends of the South Atlantic League hit a home run off his 43-year-old father, Roger Clemens. In Koby’s next at bat, Roger threw a brushback pitch at Koby in retaliation. The father-son duo would later play another game together in 2006, as the elder Clemens was making his comeback with the Astros and pitched a game for Lexington.

Roger and Koby Clemens - sbnation
Roger and Koby Clemens (sbnation.com)

The Kansas City T-Bones become the Kansas City Monarchs

January 22, 2021

In case you missed it, yesterday, the minor league team Kansas City T-Bones announced they have changed their name to the Kansas City Monarchs. The name change comes as part of a partnership with the Negro Leagues Museum (also located in Kansas City).

This day in baseball: Birth of the Northwestern League

January 2, 2021

Considered the first minor league circuit in baseball history, the Northwestern League was organized in Rockford, Illinois on January 2, 1879. The organization included the Davenport Brown Stockings, Omaha Green Stockings, Dubuque Red Stockings, and Rockford White Stockings. Unfortunately, the stocking league became defunct before the season even came to an end as a result of lacking a fixed schedule and financial mismanagement.

Team standings and league leaders are listed in the charts below, courtesy of Baseball Reference:

Northwestern League 1879
baseball-reference.com

Bull Durham

November 15, 2020

I re-watched Bull Durham last night, and while I’ve made reference to the movie a number of times in this blog, I am a bit stunned that I have not yet devoted a post to it. I watched The Shawshank Redemption a few weeks ago, which got me thinking about the younger Tim Robbins’s performance in this classic baseball flick. It had been a while since I last watched Bull Durham, and it’s a bit stunning to see the younger Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon, as well.

While the semi-pornographic nature of the film is a bit of a turnoff for some folks (pun intended), one can’t deny that this movie is chock full of some pretty fantastic baseball speeches. Some make one nostalgic about the game:

Others amuse the hell out of me:

Grand speeches aside, I also really enjoy the individual dialogues a lot of the characters have with themselves: Crash talking to himself at bat, Nuke talking to himself on the mound, and Annie’s narration over the entire movie. The film romanticizes the experience of minor league baseball a little too much, I think, but really, it’s just a fun film to take in as a baseball fan.

This day in baseball: Connie Mack to the Brewers

September 21, 2020

On September 21, 1896, Connie Mack announced his intention to leave the Pirates in order to manage the minor-league Milwaukee Brewers of the Western League. Mack thus retired as a full-time player to accept his new role, which included a $3,000 a year salary and 25% ownership of the club. He managed the Brewers for four seasons from 1897 to 1900, their best year coming in 1900, when they finished second. 

ConnieMack1887
Connie Mack baseball card, 1887 (Wikimedia Commons)

RIP Gene Budig

September 8, 2020

Dr. Gene Budig held a lot of titles over the course of his lifetime. He was a university president at Illinois State University, West Virginia University, and the University of Kansas (one building at KU, Budig Hall, is named in his honor). He was a newspaper executive, an author, a major general in the Air National Guard, and a senior presidential adviser for the College Board.

Gene Budig was also the last President of the American League in the MLB. He served in that role for six seasons, before the position was officially eliminated. In addition, for the last fourteen years, Budig was part-owner of Minor League Baseball’s Charleston RiverDogs, an affiliate of the New York Yankees.

Dr. Budig passed away earlier today, September 8, 2020.

Rest in peace.

Gene Budig - Post and Courier
Gene Budig (Post and Courier)

“Nine Men Out,” by Michael Ceraolo

March 3, 2020

Here’s a piece by Michael Ceraolo based on the Jun 24, 1946 crash involving a bus carrying the Spokane Indians of Minor League Baseball.  The bus crashed on Snoqualmie Pass in Washington State in what is considered one of the worst accidents in the history of American professional sports.  Nine players were killed in the accident, and six were injured.  Eight of those who died had served in World War II.

*

Since I was the player-manager
(though only 25),
I will take the responsibility to speak for the rest
Frederick “Marty” Martinez
Bob Kinnaman
George Risk
Bob Patterson
Bob James
George Lyden
Chris Hartje
Vic Pacetti
and me, Mel Cole,
were members of the Spokane Indians team
On June 24, 1946,
enroute to Bremerton for the next day’s game,
our bus swerved to avoid an oncoming car,
falling three hundred feet down and bursting into flames
Marty, George Risk, the three Bobs, and I
were dead at the scene
Vic died on the way to the hospital,
George Lyden died the next day,
and Chris died two days later
Vic, not yet 19, was the best prospect among us;
the rest of us were older and had served during the war,
probably ending any major-league dreams for us
The driver of the oncoming car was never found

This day in baseball: The longest hit streak comes to an end

August 20, 2019

The longest hit streak in professional baseball history ended on August 20, 1919, when Joe Wilhoit of the Wichita Jobbers was held hitless by the Tulsa Oilers in the Western League.  From June 14th to August 19th, 1919, Wilhoit went 153-for-297, giving him a .515 batting average en route to the record streak.  The streak included four home runs, nine triples, and twenty-four doubles.

Joe_Wilhoit
The Sporting News