Southern Illinois Miners sign Danny Almonte
March 26, 2007 - Frontier League (FL)
Southern Illinois Miners News Release
Marion - The Southern Illinois Miners announced today the signing of one of the most famous Little League players in Little League World Series history, Danny Almonte. Almonte becomes the ninth pitcher to join the Miners pitching staff.
The Southern Illinois Miners are newest member of Frontier League, an Independent Baseball League with teams in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana and Missouri. The Frontier League began play in 1993. Famous alumni of the Frontier League include current Boston Red Sox Brendan Donnelly and Josh Kinney of the World Champions St Louis Cardinals. The Miners will begin play in their $15 million, 4000 seat stadium on May 29.
Almonte was thrust into the national spotlight during the 2001 Little League World Series. At the time, Almonte was a member of the Rolando Paulino All Stars when he threw the first perfect game in Little League World Series in nearly 55 years. His statistics during the 2001 Little League Series were an amazing 46 strikeouts and only three hits in three starts. He helped lead his team to a third place finish. Shortly after the conclusion of the World Series, it was discovered that Almonte was 14 years old, two years older than then maximum age limit. The Rolando Paulino All Stars were stripped of their third place finish and all of Almonte's records were erased from the record books. Almonte, who at the time didn't speak English, knew nothing about the falsified documents and was exonerated of any wrong doing by Little League Officials.
Almonte played his high school baseball at perennial powerhouse James Monroe High School in New York City. Alumni of Monroe's baseball program include Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg. During his career at Monroe, he helped lead the Eagles to the 2004 PSAL Championship. Almonte was named MVP of the 2004 PSAL Title Game, striking out 11 batters and allowing just one hit in a seven inning complete game shut out of #2 ranked George Washington. The following season, Almonte helped Monroe repeat as PSAL Champions.
"Danny is a nice addition to our pitching staff. Two different major league scouts, whose opinions I value greatly gave me excellent reports after seeing him throw recently. There are not too many young lefties with his quality of stuff sitting out there. He has a 90's plus fastball and an excellent slider. From our conversations, Danny is a quiet and shy young man who just wants a chance to showcase his talents. This will just be the start to his professional career" added Southern Illinois Miners Manager Mike Pinto
"The signing of Danny shows our continued commitment to signing the best players in country in order to put the best team on the field. We extremely excited to have Danny start his professional baseball career with the Miners. Like all of our players, we hope this will be the first stop on Danny's road to the Major Leagues" stated Miners General Manager, Tim Arseneau.
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Frontier League Stories from March 26, 2007
- Southern Illinois Miners sign Danny Almonte - Southern Illinois Miners
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