X's, Northern League still strong
Posted: Friday, May 06, 2005
I had a long chat a couple of years ago with a certain Northern League baseball manager who always seems to know everything.
To his credit, he did correctly predict that baseball's best independent professional league would be expanding into Calgary and Edmonton, a couple of cities we could probably still label as National Hockey League towns.
This tobacco-chomping soothsayer had a vision of a Northern League striving to upgrade, eventually tossing its Sioux City franchise overboard for a larger market.
"The league (pffft) will be going into one of the (pffft) Detroit suburbs,'' he said, intermittently spitting out words and tobacco juice. "That (pffft) is where your team (pffft) will wind up.''
It isn't "my'' team, of course, although I'm fairly certain the opportunity to spend 48 summer nights watching the Sioux City Explorers makes this burg a little more interesting than it would be without them. And, even though many people can and do live their lives oblivious to all of these games, I'm the guy who has to make sure they get reported.
People who've written off the Explorers -- let's see, I think I heard the first rumors maybe five years ago -- have forgotten how and why the modern era Northern League got off the ground in the first place. Five teams weren't going to cut it when Sioux City jumped in to get this thing started in 1993.
League founder Miles Wolff could never have imagined, I'm sure, that 12 years later the worst attendance numbers in the league would still be well over 2,000 a game, even after expansion to 10 teams, now 12. He probably couldn't have imagined the Triple-A sort of numbers that a Winnipeg or St. Paul would pile up year after year.
Worst of all, people who've grown snooty enough to impugn what happens in Sioux City simply resonate their ignorance over how many affiliated minor league clubs (lots and lots) have drawn far smaller crowds for decades without fear for survival.
They don't know the passion of a John Roost and the rest of the local ownership group, all people who've dipped into their own pockets to sustain the franchise, and they do a great disservice to general manager Chuck Robbins and the rest of a hard-working staff that wants more than anything for all of you to have fun at the ballpark.
That ballpark, by the way, should be receiving higher marks from visiting teams this summer, thanks to the field renovation that forced the Explorers to open pre-season drills Thursday at Briar Cliff's Bishop Mueller Field.
After considerable grading work to repair the ruts and bumps created by everything from bad weather to concerts, installation of new sod was completed on Tuesday. Jim LeMoine, stadium operations director, says things should be ready to go for the season opener on Friday, May 20 -- two weeks from today. In fact, the X's will probably be able to take the field for night practices scheduled May 18 and May 19.
"Right now, it looks bad from the road (Highway 520 bypass that overlooks the park), but we'll fill the holes with a sand and seed mix, just like on a golf course, and we'll roll it a couple times,'' said Le Moine. "The thing I like best is that we play three games at home, then we're on the road for 11 days. That'll give it more time to fill in.''
Next thing you know, we can turn our attention to a team for which Steve Shirley, the new field manager, has high hopes.
Northern League baseball has enabled Siouxlanders to watch dozens of player with major league experience, but here's a new development that should be interesting to follow.
Thursday, the Schaumburg Flyers announced they have signed a rookie pitching prospect named Nigel Thatch.
That name may not mean much to any of you, but Thatch is the actor who portrays the vainglorious professional athlete "Leon'' in a clever series of Budweiser television commercials. He also has quite a string of TV and movie credits, including a recurring role on the series "American Dreams.''
"Everyone who knew me when I was growing up knew me as someone that loved baseball and sports,'' Thatch said in a press release posted on the Northern League website. "My acting career took things in a different direction, but I'm more settled now and this was an opportunity to follow my heart.''
The website further indicates Thatch is a native of East St. Louis, Ill., who now makes his home in Los Angeles. It also states that he's a former college pitcher at the University of Florida. When that might have been is a mystery, though, because the Gators' official athletic website lists baseball rosters all the way back to 1948. Forgive me, but I only checked every roster back to 1970, feeling foolish to have gone that far, and Nigel Thatch didn't show up.
Former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker has resurfaced with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League. And this, you may have read, got Sioux City a little dubious publicity last week.
Mindful that Rocker had alienated everyone in the Big Apple with some outrageous comments in a 1999 Sports Illustrated article, Ducks' owner and league CEO Frank Boulton said, "You can't airbrush away his past, but I think he's a very courageous guy for wanting to come here, instead of someplace like Sioux City or something like that.''
That may have sounded like a slam, but I think Boulton merely picked Sioux City as an independent baseball city that obviously couldn't care less what Rocker thinks of New Yorkers.
For what it's worth, the Explorers are sending Boulton a hat.
Sioux City Journal sports editor Terry Hersom can be reached at (712) 293-4214 or by e-mail at terryhersom@siouxcityjournal.com.
To his credit, he did correctly predict that baseball's best independent professional league would be expanding into Calgary and Edmonton, a couple of cities we could probably still label as National Hockey League towns.
This tobacco-chomping soothsayer had a vision of a Northern League striving to upgrade, eventually tossing its Sioux City franchise overboard for a larger market.
"The league (pffft) will be going into one of the (pffft) Detroit suburbs,'' he said, intermittently spitting out words and tobacco juice. "That (pffft) is where your team (pffft) will wind up.''
It isn't "my'' team, of course, although I'm fairly certain the opportunity to spend 48 summer nights watching the Sioux City Explorers makes this burg a little more interesting than it would be without them. And, even though many people can and do live their lives oblivious to all of these games, I'm the guy who has to make sure they get reported.
People who've written off the Explorers -- let's see, I think I heard the first rumors maybe five years ago -- have forgotten how and why the modern era Northern League got off the ground in the first place. Five teams weren't going to cut it when Sioux City jumped in to get this thing started in 1993.
League founder Miles Wolff could never have imagined, I'm sure, that 12 years later the worst attendance numbers in the league would still be well over 2,000 a game, even after expansion to 10 teams, now 12. He probably couldn't have imagined the Triple-A sort of numbers that a Winnipeg or St. Paul would pile up year after year.
Worst of all, people who've grown snooty enough to impugn what happens in Sioux City simply resonate their ignorance over how many affiliated minor league clubs (lots and lots) have drawn far smaller crowds for decades without fear for survival.
They don't know the passion of a John Roost and the rest of the local ownership group, all people who've dipped into their own pockets to sustain the franchise, and they do a great disservice to general manager Chuck Robbins and the rest of a hard-working staff that wants more than anything for all of you to have fun at the ballpark.
That ballpark, by the way, should be receiving higher marks from visiting teams this summer, thanks to the field renovation that forced the Explorers to open pre-season drills Thursday at Briar Cliff's Bishop Mueller Field.
After considerable grading work to repair the ruts and bumps created by everything from bad weather to concerts, installation of new sod was completed on Tuesday. Jim LeMoine, stadium operations director, says things should be ready to go for the season opener on Friday, May 20 -- two weeks from today. In fact, the X's will probably be able to take the field for night practices scheduled May 18 and May 19.
"Right now, it looks bad from the road (Highway 520 bypass that overlooks the park), but we'll fill the holes with a sand and seed mix, just like on a golf course, and we'll roll it a couple times,'' said Le Moine. "The thing I like best is that we play three games at home, then we're on the road for 11 days. That'll give it more time to fill in.''
Next thing you know, we can turn our attention to a team for which Steve Shirley, the new field manager, has high hopes.
Northern League baseball has enabled Siouxlanders to watch dozens of player with major league experience, but here's a new development that should be interesting to follow.
Thursday, the Schaumburg Flyers announced they have signed a rookie pitching prospect named Nigel Thatch.
That name may not mean much to any of you, but Thatch is the actor who portrays the vainglorious professional athlete "Leon'' in a clever series of Budweiser television commercials. He also has quite a string of TV and movie credits, including a recurring role on the series "American Dreams.''
"Everyone who knew me when I was growing up knew me as someone that loved baseball and sports,'' Thatch said in a press release posted on the Northern League website. "My acting career took things in a different direction, but I'm more settled now and this was an opportunity to follow my heart.''
The website further indicates Thatch is a native of East St. Louis, Ill., who now makes his home in Los Angeles. It also states that he's a former college pitcher at the University of Florida. When that might have been is a mystery, though, because the Gators' official athletic website lists baseball rosters all the way back to 1948. Forgive me, but I only checked every roster back to 1970, feeling foolish to have gone that far, and Nigel Thatch didn't show up.
Former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker has resurfaced with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League. And this, you may have read, got Sioux City a little dubious publicity last week.
Mindful that Rocker had alienated everyone in the Big Apple with some outrageous comments in a 1999 Sports Illustrated article, Ducks' owner and league CEO Frank Boulton said, "You can't airbrush away his past, but I think he's a very courageous guy for wanting to come here, instead of someplace like Sioux City or something like that.''
That may have sounded like a slam, but I think Boulton merely picked Sioux City as an independent baseball city that obviously couldn't care less what Rocker thinks of New Yorkers.
For what it's worth, the Explorers are sending Boulton a hat.
Sioux City Journal sports editor Terry Hersom can be reached at (712) 293-4214 or by e-mail at terryhersom@siouxcityjournal.com.
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