“Field of Dreams” actor Kevin Costner is part-owner of the Lake County Fielders in the new North American Baseball League.
What happened in Lake County over the last 72 hours has been a nightmare.
Fielders manager Tim Johnson resigned before the game Saturday against the Yuma Scorpions, and in a show of support, 11 players wouldn’t play. The Fielders were upset about not being paid. The players remained on the bench.
Fielders hitting coach Pete LaCock, a former Cub who has seen many strange things, took over as interim manager. He put all listed pitchers in positional spots for the game. Non-pitchers pitched.
To even out the playing field, Scorpions player-manager Jose Canseco did the same. He also named himself starting pitcher.
Canseco pitched six innings and got the win as the Scorpions prevailed 8-3…
Then, Monday afternoon, the Fielders traded nine players and released 14 others they couldn’t trade. The only survivor from Saturday’s game was 27-year-old catcher Alan Rick. The former Cubs prospect only arrived in Lake County on Thursday.
“We want to start fresh,” Fielders general manager Mike Kardamis said. “It’s a privilege to play professional baseball. If these guys don’t want to play here, we will find guys who want to play here. We could have put them on the suspended list, but we don’t want to ruin their careers. The players weren’t happy, and it wasn’t going to be good to make them stay. They can cash their checks tomorrow once the Bank of Waukegan opens.
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1. The elusive Robert Denby Posted: July 13, 2011 at 04:47 PM (#3876667)And it's kind of required to pay professionals. Should have learned that in GM school.
Canseco pitched six innings and got the win as the Scorpions prevailed 8-3…
The mind reels.
On getting paid in a timely fashion: indy teams sometimes have issues with this, yeah. (Unrelated, but so do European basketball teams are really bad about this, generally speaking.)
Canseco has been pitching somewhat regularly for Yuma all year. He's not very good.
Tim Johnson has had managing gigs at the indy level on a steady basis for years now, with some success.
12 runs in 13.2 innings as a pitcher. As a hitter, .244 with only 2 homers in 90 AB. He's got Joey Gathright, Willy Aybar, and brother Ozzie on that team.
On Canseco, there was an article (on ESPN? By Caple?) on him and Yuma linked here recently that was pretty good.
EDIT: Yup, Caple. Surprisingly low in a Google search.
His father changed his name to Peter Marshall, hosted Hollywood Squares.
I've had far too many days this year where I wanted to do this with my fantasy team.
This story got me thinking about Rinku Singh (one of the Indian pitchers discovered by the 'Million Dollar Arm' program). Apparently he's still doing well and was recently promoted to Pittsburgh's short-season State College affiliate. It's probably a long shot, but I'd love to see this kid make it to the majors in a few years, if just for a cup of coffee. I'd settle for a Futures Game appearance -- might get me to actually watch. The marketing potential would seem obvious.
They rejected Brauns and Weeks.
Maybe Cecil owns them.
Eri Yoshida just signed a deal with Maui (in the same league* as Chico). She was in the semipro Western Baseball Association (with Otsuka as a pitching coach!) and has reportedly gained some velocity by changing for a sidearm to ¾ slot.
* That league is a mess, by the way - it's the (very likely temporary) merger of three struggling far-flung leagues - so Maui is in the same league as a suburb of Chicago, or a club in Texas.
Fielders actually was a name chosen via a contest; clever fans there.
And Canseco?
Sample size caveats, TINSTAAPP and all that, but for this kid to make it to A-ball is huge. Good for him.
How exactly do teams make money in this league? The traveling costs must be ridiculous...
Singh: only 7 chances, but I'm impressed that he has yet to commit an error.
On his BBRef page, it looks like he's from Lucknow, Indiana.
Cristopher Richardson, winner of a show called "El Rookie". Some info about it in this article.
Dude gets to use a glove... probably thinks it's child's play. In rec softball in grad school, all the cricketing Indian players had really great hands after they got used to the mitts. And these are super nerdy Indian statistical types... but, man, those guys could field. Their hitting was more up and down... although when they made contact, the natural shifting forward of their hips really allowed them to drive through the ball.
Thanks, Vlad - I'd never heard of the guy/show until a day or two ago...
I don't think he's much of a cricketer. IIRC, he was a javelin thrower.
Canseco pitched six innings and got the win
...is far from the strangest thing about the story.
Shaky finances do seem to be endemic. There's not an indy team in Long Beach this year. There was a round of three-cornered legal posturing and threatening among the city of Long Beach, the university (CSULB or Long Beach State), and last year's team, the Armada, about the stadium. Blair Field is city owned, but the city wanted a deal that would turn it over to the university's athletic department for management (and possible improvements). The Armada had a lease agreement that got in the way of that. However, the Armada was also seriously behind on the rent, giving the city the grounds needed to terminate the contract. As I said there were threats and blusterings, but I think the controlling legal principle is "money talks and bull*** walks."
There's no Armada this year. I think they - or someone - do have plans for next year or beyond. Der Komminsk-sar did include the words "very likely temporary" in his post above, not that anything at all about next year should be taken as certain.
The article indicates that this rule is in the league's bylaws.
I hope we hear more about this story.
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