Tucson Mexican Baseball Fiesta
Hey folks, I have a big announcement: My job is sending me to Afghanistan for a year in late January / early February. After being unemployed for most of 2011, I decided to take a job working for a military contractor out of MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. The job was contingent on my ability to go to Afghanistan for a year. So after I take my physicals, get my shots, do my...
It’s Awards Week here at Bus Leagues, that annual event in which we unveil the seasons that our voters determined to be the best in Minor League and Independent baseball. This year, we have nine awards to give out: Player of the Year, Starting Pitcher of the Year, and Relief Pitcher of the Year for Full-Season Minor League Baseball, Short-Season Minor League Baseball, and Independent Baseball. The voters for the third annual Bus Leagues...
In yesterday’s post about the funky Atlantic League playoff race, I mentioned that while I had contacted Executive Director Joe Klein for some opposing perspective on what I viewed as a crazy way of resolving the dilemma that Irene wrought, he had not yet responded. This morning, after a second email, he did get back to me, and we spoke for a few minutes this afternoon about the league’s decision to negate Bridgeport’s 1...
The playoff procedure for the Atlantic League is fairly straightforward: the teams that win the first half and the second half in each division play one another, with the winners advancing to the League Championship Series. If things get wild and crazy and one team happens to win both halves in its division, the team in that division with the next best overall record makes the playoffs as a wild card. If things get...
I love Butch Hobson. More than that, really: I love watching Butch Hobson get ejected. For a guy who turns 60 in less than a month, he is capable of summoning up and dispensing an impressive amount of rage in a very short period of time. Last night, Hobson’s Lancaster Barnstormers were in Somerset to take on the Patriots. I don’t know any other details, and I don’t care. All I know is that...
The other night, there was a brief conversation on Twitter about the upcoming team movement in the Southern and Carolina Leagues, specifically the franchise that will land in Pensacola, Florida next season. (Beginning in 2012, the Carolina Mudcats will move to Pensacola, taking the place of the independent franchise that played there from 2002 to 2009, and the Kinston Indians will move to Carolina. Kinston, sadly, will be left without a team, at least...
Picture: Reference.findtarget.com (my computer wouldn’t open the link, but the map was cool so I wanted to mention it) I was working on one of my many projects the other day when I started wondering about the classification history of the modern minor leagues. Perhaps one day I’ll delve into this in greater detail – I’d love to research and write a series of books about the history of each individual league – but...
A few days before Christmas, I contributed a post to Jessica Quiroli’s High Heels on the Field about why I love minor league baseball. I came up with a bunch of reasons, all of them valid in my eyes, but one thing that didn’t make the cut was the story of the first minor league baseball game I ever attended. Part of the reason I left that game out and avoided turning the piece...
Ten days ago, I’m not sure I knew that the independent California Winter League existed. Now, it’s serving as a temporary home to two of our favorite baseball people. The first, as Eric told us a few days ago, is Tiffany Brooks, who is listed as a pitcher with the Canada A’s. The other name was more unexpected: Jonathan Johnston, the catcher from the United States Naval Academy who was drafted by Oakland and...
The newborn Atlantic League team in Sugar Land, Texas may have you beat when it comes to skin-crawling mascot choices. Sugar Land’s minor league baseball team has yet to be formed, but planners have begun selling tickets for its 2012 inaugural season Wednesday after unveiling the team’s name, the Skeeters The Skeeters would become the first of the four to six teams to be created for the independent Atlantic League’s planned Western Division. Planners...
