Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Thought I'd start a new subject -- should be fun:

Which pros did you see play in the minors -- before anyone knew who they were?

For me:
Kirby Puckett - Fresno Giants field - he was with Visalia Oaks

Robby Thompson - also Fresno Giants -- saw him a lot.

Adam Dunn - 1st-3rd Field in Dayton

Ken Griffey Jr. - Moana Stadium Reno Single A I think he was 18 -- of course he'd gotten a lot of hype coming out of high school what with his dad and all his talent, so lots of people were there for those games.

Rodney MacRae -- name might not be familiar, but you probably remember a play he made that is still shown -- playing right field at Beaver Field in Portland, Oregon, he caught the ball, then ran right through the outfield fence, which was apparently thin, rotten plywood, but still!

I also saw Dave Dravecky's comeback game at Moana Stadium after his first bout of cancer, I think this was after he had broken his arm on the mound with the Giants. Big crowd that night too.

I've got more, but I have to look through my scorebooks, which I do from time to time -- sometimes I don't relize that I saw a player in the minors until I look back through and see his name listed in the books.

Josh Hamilton
Rocco Baldelli
Delmon Young
BJ Upton
They all played for the Charleston Riverdogs when they were associated with the Rays.

Phil Hughes- played for Charleston Riverdogs who are currently associated with the Yanks

Jon Lester- make his first rehab start with Greenville Drive against the Riverdogs.

Jose Tabata- plays with AA Trenton Thunder, will be a big hit with the Yanks

Jesus Montero (C) and Abraham Almonte (OF) are 2 current Riverdogs who are expected to be in the Yankees lineup no later than 2012.

And I've seen Hunter Pence play with the Tri City Valley Cats in Troy, NY.

When I worked for the South Bend Silver Hawks I used to talk to Justin Upton in the dugot out quite a bit before the games...Wish I would have asked him for a glove or bat!!

Good thread. I've seen mike piazza play for the Norfolk (VA) Tides, as well as lastings millidge and David Wright when the tides were still associated with the mets. Outside of the minors, BJ and Justin Upton went to high school in my area. BJ is known to have hit a homerun over the concession stand past rightfield (Three stories btw) and his brother is a local legend as well. Also, Mike Cyddyer (sp?) used to take batting practice with me. Virginia may not be blessed with vintage gloves, but we do have some great baseball talent!

fuzzydogg22 wrote:Good thread. I've seen mike piazza play for the Norfolk (VA) Tides, as well as lastings millidge and David Wright when the tides were still associated with the mets. Outside of the minors, BJ and Justin Upton went to high school in my area. BJ is known to have hit a homerun over the concession stand past rightfield (Three stories btw) and his brother is a local legend as well. Also, Mike Cyddyer (sp?) used to take batting practice with me. Virginia may not be blessed with vintage gloves, but we do have some great baseball talent!

yeah, this past high school season, we played Greenbrier Christian Academy, the hs BJ went to, and they were pretty good.(they beat us like 8-5 or something)

Julio Franco -- Reading Phillies

I was at a Fresno Giants game (Euless Field) in the late 70's.

They had a Trivia contest - prize was a baseball signed by many of the 1974 Cincinnati Reds Squad.

Question was "Who finished second in the 1968 AL Batting Championship?"

I turned to my date and said, "Go up to the Press Box and tell them *****."

She looked at me like I was crazy, but went and of course I was right.

Anyone else know (and bonus points if you know why I remembered such an obscure fact)? No fair peeking! And no -- you're not getting the ball if you know the answer!

I'm fortunate to live within a 45 minute drive of two AAA International League teams & an A team in my town.
The major leaguers from the AAA teams are too many, but from the A teams:
Chase Utley
Ryan Howard
Pete Rose
Manny Sanguillen
Steve Blass
Dale Berra
Cito (Clarence) Gaston
Tyler Green
I'm sure there are more and if my memory permits, I'll add them later.

although not major leaguers, they did make it to the bigs:
John Elway & Ricky Williams

Even though I'm not particularly a Yankees fan, one nice thing about having their AAA-affiliate here in town was that you got to see a lot of future Major League players coming up through the ranks. Pretty much any player that was "home grown" and came through the farm system, I had a chance to see them play.

Righetti, Mattingly, Williams, Posoda, Cano, all passed through, to name but a few. We also had the chance to see a lot of guys like Strawberry and Clemens come through town on various rehab assignments.

But one sticks out. Back in the mid-90's a promising young shortstop came to town. For one brief summer, Derek Jeter thrilled the Columbus crowd with his electric play.

It was about that time that my own daughter was first getting into fastpitch softball and the Columbus Clippers (so named because of the famous Yankee clipper sailing ships and Mr. Steinbrenner's association with the ship building industry) had an after-game instructional clinic open to all the kids at the game.

So there I am, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the future Yankee great as he gave my kid personal tips on fielding and throwing! And, not being much of an autograph guy- and Jeter not being much more than a "prospect" at the time- I didn't have him sign a ball, a glove, a program, my arm or anything!

Of course, a few years later I kind of regretted that...

One more I almost forgot about...

During the strike of 1994, I went to our local minor league park to get my baseball fix. We had great seats, right behind home plate in a section alongside the player's wives and team officials.

Setting in front of me was Mike Hargrove, who was the manager of the Cleveland Indians at the time. I thought that was kind of cool, but even better was that later in the game I was standing right behind him in a concession stand line as he was waiting to buy a hot dog!

I didn't really want to bug the guy, but we were standing there for a few minutes and I eventually said, "Hello, Mr. Hargrove". He said "hello" back and we actually got to chat for a few minutes- until his hot dog came!

It seems that with Major League games temporarily suspended, he was required to do some scouting work to keep earning his paycheck!

Jim Thome, Richie Sexton, Brian Giles, Manny, Enrique Wilson, and Joey Belle.

Oh, yeah, and last year, in Charleston, the 3B, Mitch Hilligoss, was going for the hit-streak record and one of the co-owners, Bill Murray, was there and he was sitting in the same row of seats as me! I tossed him a ball to sign and he, being the jokester that he is, threw it back at me and we did that a couple of times, and then he finally signed it for me. It was pretty funny.

I can remember seeing Willie McCovey play with the Dallas Eagles in 1957. I have an old '57 Scorecard with his picture in it.

OK -- the answer to the question of who finished 2nd in the 1968 batting championship was Danny Cater, Oakland 1st baseman.

Yaz won with a BA of .301. Cater's average was .290. I remembered this because it was the closest that the BA Champ ever came to not hitting .300 (1968 is known as the "Year of the Pitcher"). It believe it is also the only time that 2nd place hit under .300 (either league).