2009 End of Season Notes
September 9, 2009 - Frontier League (FL)
Rockford RiverHawks News Release
GOING NORTH: The RiverHawks have moved to the independent Northern League for the 2010 season.
The Northern League, which has operated since 1993 and was the first league of the modern independent-baseball era, will expand to eight teams for next season.
The Northern League currently includes three Chicagoland teams, the Schaumburg Flyers, the Joliet Jackhammers and the Gary SouthShore RailCats, along with a Zion-based expansion team, the Lake County Fielders, scheduled to join the league in 2010. The league also includes the Kansas City T-Bones, based in Kansas City, Kan., the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks and the Winnipeg Goldeyes. Four teams are within a 100-mile drive of Road Ranger Stadium.
The league plays a 96-game schedule that begins in late May and ends around Labor Day. The Northern League has no age limit and allows teams to carry a larger number of experienced players. The talent level is approximately that of Class AA.
The RiverHawks have played in the Stateline since 2002. They moved from Marinelli Field to Road Ranger Stadium in 2006. The franchise was a charter member of the Frontier League in 1993, when it was in Portsmouth, Ohio. It relocated to Springfield in 1995 and moved to Rockford following the 2001 season. On July 15, 2009, the RiverHawks hosted the 2009 Frontier League All-Star Game.
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2010: With the move to the Northern League, the RiverHawks drop the age limit of 27 that was a key part of Frontier League rules. That means veterans Tanner Watson and Ferdin Tejeda, both of whom turn 27 before Jan. 1, the FL's cutoff date, are eligible to play for the RiverHawks in 2010.
LOOKING BACK AT 2009: The RiverHawks finished 44-50, the worst record in the team's eight-year history. They finished fourth in the Frontier League West for the second year in a row. The RiverHawks bounced back from a team-worst 4-12 start to go into the all-star break as the hottest team in the league. They won six in a row and 11 of 12 going into the All-Star Game, played on July 15 at Road Ranger Stadium. After the break, however, they went 18-28.
DOUBLE DIGITS: The RiverHawks had a pair of 10-game winners for the first time in team history. Kyle Wright and Brett Durand each went 10-6.
BATTING CHAMP: Jason James hit a team-record .374 and beat Kalamazoo's Josh Short by 14 points to win the batting title. It's the third in team history. Rich Austin batted .359 in 2004 and Joe Anthonsen hit .352 in 2008. Olmo Rosario hit .373, second in the league, in 2005.
James also hit 14 home runs with 48 RBI and had a league-record 40-game hitting streak in June and July. James also led the league in hits (129) and on-base percentage (.455). He tied for third in doubles (26).
ERA CHAMP: Kyle Wright posted a 2.24 ERA to win the league title. Windy City's Matt Jernstad was second, at 2.31. Wright is the first RiverHawk to win a ERA crown since Jason Shelley's league record of 0.83 in 2003. Brett Durand was tied for ninth, at 3.81.
Wright also led the league in complete games (seven) and innings pitched (144 1/3). Wright tied for the lead in shutouts (two) and struck out 129, second in the league.
ALUMNI REPORT: Derrick Ellison (2004-05) finished the year with the New York Mets' Triple-A affiliate at Buffalo. He had no record and a 2.70 ERA in six appearances, one as a starter, with the Bisons in the International League. Ellison began the year with Milwaukee's Double-A affiliate at Huntsville, pitched for Southern Maryland in the independent Atlantic League after his release, then was picked up by the Mets in August. Ellison made just three appearances at Double-A Binghamton before his promotion.
Taylor Sinclair (2008) ended the season on the disabled list with the Arizona Diamondbacks' Class A affiliate at South Bend. Sinclair was 3-5 with a 3.22 ERA and a save in 21 appearances, 15 as a starter, for the Silver Hawks in the Midwest League, but he went to the DL twice because of a groin injury.
In the independent American Association, Joe Anthonsen hit .318, 10th in the league, with no home runs and 34 RBI for the Sioux Falls Canaries.
SAY GOODBYE: The RiverHawks announced the trades of Brandon Cohen and Ross McCoy two days after the end of the 2009 season. Rockford sent the pair of first basemen/outfielders to the Evansville Otters to complete the Javier Brown trade. The RiverHawks acquired Brown, a Frontier League All-Star infielder, on Aug. 7 in exchange for two players to be named.
Cohen hit .310 with seven home runs and 30 RBI in 48 games with the RiverHawks this year. He hit 19 home runs, tied for fourth on the all-time RiverHawks list, in parts of three seasons with Rockford.
McCoy hit .283 with five home runs and 44 RBI in 83 games.
Brown was 3-for-21 and played in just five games after the trade.
JAMES BREAKS ALL-TIME RECORDS: Jason James is the RiverHawks' all-time home runs, hits, RBI and doubles leader.
James homered in each end of the Aug. 30 doubleheader, the 33rd and 34th of his career, to become the RiverHawks' all-time home-run king. James passed Rich Austin (32), who played for the RiverHawks in 2002-04. Austin set the single-season record of 15 in 2004.
James broke the team's career hits record of 311, set by Ben Fjelland, on June 10. No. 312 was a third-inning single to center field. James has 415 career hits and is now in the top 10 on the Frontier League's all-time hit list. He is within 100 of Mike Breyman's league record of 458.
James broke Fjelland's career RBI record of 165 with a run-scoring groundout on June 14. James now has 199 RBI.
James broke Fjelland's all-time doubles record of 68 on July 2. James has 86 doubles.
James, a career .347 hitter entering the year, holds the highest career average in RiverHawks history.
100K: The RiverHawks have a pair of 100-strikeout pitchers - Kyle Wright and Brett Durand - for the third time in team history. Wright has the third-best strikeout total in team history.
They're the seventh and eighth RiverHawks with a 100-strikeout season. In 2002, Jason Shelley struck out a Frontier League-record 156 batters and Bryan Batthauer struck out 118. In 2005, Justin Olson struck out 114 and Derek Roper struck out 102. Roper struck out 101 the following season. In 2008, Garrett Bauer struck out 151, the third-highest total in league history and the best by a left-hander.
ALL-TIME WINNING RECORD: The RiverHawks had an all-time record of 396-352 (.529) in Frontier League regular-season play.
KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY: Jason James' .374 average gave the RiverHawks back-to-back Frontier League batting titles. Joe Anthonsen hit .352 in 2008 and James batted .350 to finish second for the second straight year.
The Frontier League hadn't had consecutive batting champs from the same team in the last decade. In 1997, Keith Habig hit .353 for Richmond. The following season, Morgan Burkhart hit a then-record .404 for the Roosters.
LEADERS: The RiverHawks' Jason James and Kyle Wright won the batting and ERA titles, something that hadn't happened in the FL since 2001. Eight years ago, Clay Snellgrove hit .364 and Joe Thomas posted a 1.36 ERA for the Canton Crocodiles.
MOVING UP: Jason James leaves the Frontier League sixth on the all-time hit list, at 415.
SITUATIONAL: Doug Sanders hit .376 with runners in scoring position. Derrick Walker hit .364 in those situations.
DOUBLE DOWN: The RiverHawks grounded into a league-high 78 double plays. The league record of 84 was set in 2004 by Chillicothe.
FALLING BEHIND: The RiverHawks' opponent scored first in 21 of the last 30 games. The RiverHawks scored first in just 42 games. Just two teams - Evansville (40) and Gateway (40) - struck first fewer times.
SERIES-LY: The RiverHawks won just three series after the All-Star break.
PLAYER NOTES
MULTI-MULTI: Jason James had 37 multi-hit games.
CENTURY MARK: Jason James doubled in the fourth inning on Aug. 5 for his 100th hit of the year. No other Rockford player has had three 100-hit seasons.
MORE RECORDS FOR JAMES: Jason James has played in more games than any other RiverHawk. He played in his 279th game on Aug. 5 and broke Joe Anthonsen's record. James played in every Rockford game this season and played in 306 games in 2006-09.
On Aug. 1, Jason James broke the RiverHawks' all-time at-bats record of 1,053 held by Joe Anthonsen (2006-2008). He had 1,170 at-bats in 2006-09.
ACTIVE INGREDIENTS: Jason James has 415 hits, second among active Frontier League players, behind Washington's Chris Sidick. Sidick set a new FL record with his 459th hit Saturday against Florence.
TEAM NOTES
FREE PASSES: Rockford pitchers cut 2008's team-record walk total of 458 by more than a hundred. They walked 333, fourth-best in the league, in 2009.
ERRANT: The RiverHawks had 15 error-free games of at least nine innings.
HOLD ON: The RiverHawks were 31-1 when taking a lead to the ninth inning.
EARLY DECISIONS: The RiverHawks were 6-38 when trailing after six innings.
HIGH SCORE: The RiverHawks scored at least five runs in 35 of their 44 wins.
DUBIOUS DISTINCTIONS: Jono Brooks broke his own year-old team record of 79 strikeouts. He went down on strikes 85 times. Brooks has struck out 193 times in three years with the RiverHawks. The old career record of 172 was held by Ben Fjelland.
Brett Durand gave up 139 hits, more than any pitcher in team history. The old record of 133 was set by Dane Towery in 2006. Durand also gave up 18 home runs, two more than the record of 16 set by Garrett Bauer in 2008.
Frontier League Stories from September 9, 2009
- Rascals Take 2-0 Series Lead With Another Walk-Off Win - River City Rascals
- Kings Knot Series with 10-4 Win - Kalamazoo Kings
- Kings battle back to tie series - Lake Erie Crushers
- Bolts put in must win situation - Windy City ThunderBolts
- RiverHawks' "Franchise" player returns - Rockford RiverHawks
- Koopmann to manage RiverHawks in 2010 - Rockford RiverHawks
- 2009 End of Season Notes - Rockford RiverHawks
- River City Rascals Events - River City Rascals
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