Last week, I posted a story I wrote about New Hampshire Fisher Cats infielder Kevin Howard and the path his career has taken the past couple years. We’ve had a pretty good week around these here parts, so I figured I’d bust out a little weekend Q&A action and post the transcript from my recent conversation with Howard. Last year, you came in late, but I feel like you were one of the feel-good...
When Blue Jays minor leaguer Kevin Howard was 13-years-old, he played on the Thousand Oaks team that won the 1994 Little League Junior World Series, vanquishing the Sean Burroughs-led Long Beach squad along the way. “I think when you’re that age, everything is a little bit more fun and better,” Howard said with a laugh last week in the Media Room at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, home of his current team, the New Hampshire...
James McOwen is a guy who has been on our radar since way back in 2009, when he put together a California League record 45-game hitting streak while playing for Seattle’s affiliate in High Desert. This earned him a permanent spot in our ever-evolving pantheon of favorite players, so when I saw he had been released by the Mariners at the end of spring training and picked up by the Long Island Ducks, I...
No, not that Cassel. This is not an NFL news site. (Not yet, anyway.) The Cassel in question is actually Justin, the seventh round pick of the Chicago White Sox in the 2006 draft. Justin, of course, is the younger brother of NFL quarterback Matt* and former MLB pitcher Jack**. The Atlantic League’s Somerset Patriots (“the Five-Time Atlantic League Champion Somerset Patriots” as they like to be called) announced on Tuesday that they have...
Atlantic City historically has been a failure as a professional sports venue. Less than an hour away from Philadelphia, baseball has ironically been its biggest flop. Going back to the early part of the 20th century, successful franchises have consistently failed off the field in the “Las Vegas of the East”. The most glaring sports failure of recent memory was the folding of the Atlantic City Surf. This professional baseball team called Bernie Robbins...
Nine years ago, months after the end of our internship at the Baseball Hall of Fame, Trish convinced me that it would be a good idea to drive down to New Jersey so we could head into New York City in the middle of the night with our friend Nadine and wait in line for “Saturday Night Live” tickets. It was early January and frightfully cold (as the temperature fell into the single digits,...
The batter hits a frozen rope between second and short. The crowd cautiously begins to clap. After several innings of monotony, a rally has begun. I think for a moment. Should I get excited? It’s “Indy” ball. I think the first baseman tried to sell me insurance last week. A lot of ballparks in Independent Baseball fall into that post-1992 era of stadiums. Campbell’s Field has the same great site lines and amenities that...
Why are mascots important to minor league baseball? In the current economy, you would think a budget-friendly version of our national pastime could stand on its own. Let’s face it though. There’s a lot of competition for our entertainment time and dollars. With rosters full of “Who are you?” and “Didn’t you used to be?” there are more empty ballparks and folded franchises than we care to admit to. Mascots give your team brand...
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...
2012 05 14 Scranton Wilks Barre/ Empire State Yankees vs Pawtucket Red Sox
