Northern League Newsletter

Published on July 13, 2007 under Northern League (NL) News Release


Gary SouthShore and Calgary Crowned First Half Division Champs

The RailCats led their division wire-to-wire en route to notching the best record in the league and the South Division First Half Crown. The RailCats clinched the division with nine games to go on June 29th.

The Vipers had a tougher time picking up the North Division title as they were in a threeteam dog-fight with the Winnipeg Goldeyes and Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks. The RedHawks weren't eliminated from contention until July 6th and the Goldeyes didn't run out of time until only one game remained after the July 7th games. In all, the Vipers only finished one game ahead of Winnipeg in the loss column as they earned their first playoff berth in franchise history.

By virtue of winning the first half, Gary and Calgary earned the right to choose their home games for the first round of the playoffs. The first round of the playoffs will be a best of five series, with a 2-3 format. The RailCats have chosen to go with hosting games three, four (if necessary) and five (necessary) of the South Division Finals, while the Vipers went the other route and decided to host games one and two of the North Division Finals.

Northern League Post-Season Schedule

Date South Division Finals North Division Finals

Sept. 4 & 5 Gary @ South 2nd Half winner North 2nd Half Winner @ Calgary

Sept. 7, 8*& 9* South 2nd Half winner @ Gary Calgary @ North 2nd Half Winner

note: If one team wins both halves, the team with the next best overall total season record in the entire league is their opponent. If two teams win both halves, the two teams with the next best overall season records in the entire league become the playoff opponents.

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Northern League Alumni - Updates

Joliet JackHammers' rookie left-handed pitcher Justin Fiske became the fourth player of the 2007 season to have his contract purchased by a major league organization. On July 5th the St. Louis Cardinals acquired Fiske and immediately assigned him to their Class-A affiliate in the New York-Penn League. He became the 603rd Northern League player to be acquired since 1993.

Outfielder Brad Correll (T-Bones) went on the disabled list on June 30th for the Lancaster JetHawks (California League) a day after going 4-for-5 and raising his batting average to .395 after 38 at-bats...Outfielder Todd Martin (Gary) was named Player of the Week for the week ending July 2nd for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers (NY-PENN League)...Outfielder Jon Weber (Fargo) is batting .363 as the every day right fielder for the Bakersfield Blaze (California League)... Tim Byrdak (Joliet/Gary) was placed on the 15-day disabled list because of left elbow tendonitis for the Detroit Tigers (American League).

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Former Northern Leaguer Chris Coste Chronicling His Major League Dream

On June 28th the Philadelphia Phillies recalled catcher/infielder Chris Coste from their Class-AA affiliate in Reading (Eastern League). After playing in 68 games for Philadelphia in 2006, Coste is making his second visit to the big leagues in 2007 filling the roster spot vacated because of the injury to Jayson Werth. He had an abbreviated stay back in May and appeared in three games where he went 2-for-5. On the season, he is batting .364 (8-for-22) versus major league pitching, just slightly above his career mark of .332.

The former Fargo-Moorhead catcher is in the process of writing his autobiography. The book, "Catching the Dream" is due to his publisher (Random House) on August 1st. The book is set to come out next spring. Coste says that he writes about 3,000 words a day and e-mails it to his literary agent.

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Gold Glove Awards Through the First Half of the Season

First Base: Jason Colson, Calgary 48 G, .996 Pct., 497 TC, 2 E

Second Base: Mike Just, Fargo-Moorhead 43 G, .988 Pct., 245 TC, 3 E

Third Base: Tanner Townsend, Gary SouthShore 48 G, .964 Pct., 165 TC, 6 E

Shortstop: Nelson Castro, Calgary 41 G, .975 Pct., 238 TC, 6 E

Catcher: Brian Munhall, Edmonton 34 G, .995 Pct., 207 TC, 1 E

Outfield: Drew Miller, Calgary 48 G, 1.000 Pct., 85 TC, 0 E

Pitcher: Nat Harris, Schaumburg 11 G, 1.000 Pct., 18 TC, 0 E

Calgary Vipers - En route to earning their first playoff berth in franchise history, the Vipers also established a franchise record for wins in a half with 29... Calgary's previous best finish came in the second half of 2005 (26-22)...The Vipers first half pennant also broke a string of two straight last place finishes in the North Division...The Vipers 18 road wins (18-6, .750) in the first half matches their season-long total from '06 (18-30, .375)...Calgary finished the first half 7-1 (.875) versus the Kansas City T-Bones.

Edmonton Cracker-Cats - The Cracker-Cats had a franchise record crowd of 7,415 fans June 30th at Telus Field...Scott Richmond accounted for seven of the team's 19 wins and Cracker-Cats are 9-2 (.818) in games he starts...Edmonton pitching has allowed the third fewest base on balls, but have allowed a leaguehigh 569 hits...Ryan Radmanovich is third in the league with a .607 slugging percentage, he has hit eight home runs in only 107 at-bats (leads the league with a 1-to-13 / HR-to-AB ratio).

Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks - Over half of Fargo's 21 first half losses were by one run (11)...The RedHawks have allowed the fewest stolen bases in the league (36 SB in 47 games)...The RedHawks have a 3.50 team ERA at home, led by Adam Rowe who has only allowed one earned run over 25.2 innings pitched (0.35 ERA)...Fargo had led the league in scoring for most of the season, but their offense stumbled in July (May -.293, June -.304, July -.238)...Joe Mathis is fourth in the league in total bases (112).

Gary SouthShore RailCats - Through the first half, the RailCats continue to have hit more triples (18) than home runs (16). In recent NL history, no team has come close to accomplishing that feat over an entire season...The RailCats pitching staff has a league-low 1.39 WHIP (walk & hits per innings pitched) ...Despite losing seven of their last 10 games of the half, Gary notched a leaguebest 30 wins in the first half...The RailCats were one of only two teams to finish with a road record over .500 (14-11, .560), Calgary was the other (18-6, .750).

Joliet JackHammers - Joliet has had four of the seven Player of the Week winners in 2007 (Derek Nicholson, Cory Harris, and Juan Diaz-twice)...Despite being under .500 (22-26), the ‘Hammers have outscored their opponents 276- 262...Joliet is 0-5 in extra inning contests in '07...Joliet is 16-0 when they have the lead after six innings...Bats Heating up in July, the JackHammers have connected for 13 home runs through the first eight games in July. Diaz, the league leader with 14 home runs, led the way hitting five in July.

Kansas City T-Bones - Headed into the break, Calvin Pickering had reached base safely in 28 consecutive games. He is one game shy of the season high (29) set by Edmonton's George Sandel...The T-Bones lead the league in scoring, averaging 6.4 runs a game (309 in 48 games)...In losing six of their last seven games to Winnipeg and Calgary to end the half, the T-Bones finished 6-20 (.231) versus the North Division...With 106 doubles through the first 48 games, Kansas City is in contention to reach the league record of 220 set by Lincoln in 2005.

Winnipeg Goldeyes - The Goldeyes finished only game back in the loss column in the first half standings...Streaky Fish, the Goldeyes had three streaks of four or more wins...Fehlandt Lentini leads the league with 23 stolen bases and with a .885 (23-for-26) stolen base percentage. On June 26th versus Calgary, Lentini was caught stealing for the first time since August 15, 2006...Winnipeg tied with Gary for the best home record in the first half (16-7, .696)...The Goldeyes do not have a player in the top 20 in the league in batting (Brent Matheny 21st).

Schaumburg Flyers - The Flyers lead the league in stolen bases (75)...Demetrius Heath (19) and Sandy Almonte (17) have combined for the most stolen bases of any two teammates (36)...James Morrison has appeared in more than half of the Flyers games (25 appearances/48 games)...Headed into the All-Star Break, Patrick O'Sullivan had reached base safely in 21 consecutive games...The stretch from June 10th to June 26th hurt the Flyers first half chances, the team lost 12 of 14 games, including going 0-6 versus eventual first half champion Gary.

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Northern League Stories from July 13, 2007


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