MLB teams relying on the Indys

by Bob Wirz
June 12, 2003 - Northern League (NL)

It would be understandable if every Independent professional baseball player said he was a fan of the San Diego Padres.

The National League West club may be struggling at present, but one of the Padres' efforts to get better includes scouting and signing players from the Independent leagues, something they are doing at a pace virtually double that of any other major league organization.

According to records compiled by the Independent Baseball Insider, the Padres have 21 players with experience in Independent leagues in their chain, including pitcher Brian Tollberg with the parent club, five players with Pacific Coast League division-leading Portland, OR (Triple A), eight at Class AA Mobile, AL and seven in Class A.

Milwaukee has 11 Independent players followed by St. Louis with 10, Montreal with nine, and there are eight players working with Houston, Kansas City, the New York Yankees and Seattle. Only the New York Mets and Cleveland are without any players from the non-affiliated leagues. National League clubs have 94 of the 160 Independent players who showed up in the survey but the American League has 11 of the 21 who are wearing major league uniforms.

Run Rickey, Run

How's this for a trivia question involving the Newark (NJ) Bears' Rickey Henderson, the future Hall of Famer? Bridgeport owner Mickey Herbert, who does a regular column for friends on the Bluefish and other sports happenings in Connecticut's largest city, points out two of the three major leaguers who have stolen a base in four different decades have played in the Atlantic League. Tim Raines played briefly for Somerset, NJ prior to Henderson's arrival.

Who was the third player? How about The Splendid Splinter, Ted Williams. Teddy Ballgame stole 24 bases in his marvelous career, but two came in 1939 and one in 1960. Those were his rookie and retirement seasons.

(This excerpt is from the weekly column on Independent Baseball by Bob Wirz, who has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience and runs his owns sports PR/marketing company, Wirz & Associates, in Orange, CT. The column is not for reproduction without authorization. Details are available at www.WirzandAssociates.com under Projects or at 203 877-5800.)

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Northern League Stories from June 12, 2003

• MLB teams relying on the Indys - OSC Original by Bob Wirz

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