Monday, May 07, 2007

Cleaning the desk drawer

The Dugout has shamefully allowed a few items to slip through the cracks. The crack stops now.

On April 28th,the Brevard County Manatees attempted to break the record for the most ceremonial first pitches thrown before a game. This was the Manatees' second attempt at this particular record, failing last season when their game was washed out.

Brevard succeeded this time, throwing 6,130 first pitches – breaking the record by more than 1,000. To accomplish that feat, the Manatees opened their gates at 4:30 a.m., throwing the first pitch at 4:55 and finishing just before the start of their 5 p.m. game.

"If I ever do it again my staff will beat my ass," said Brevard General Manager Buck Rogers.

Another Saints record: St. Paul set out to break the record for the tallest baseball player on Sunday and they appear to have succeeded. In the eighth inning St. Paul sent 7-foot-3 Dave Rasmussen to the plate. He struck out on three pitches, which is an official at-bat and likely makes Rasmussen the tallest player ever to whiff.

More to see: Nearly 6 million fans attended minor league baseball games in April – a new record for the first month of the season. The 5.9 million fans is an increase of nearly 122,000 from last season. The California League led the way with a 19.4 percent increase, followed by a 14.4 increase by Pacific Coast League teams.

The increase is even more impressive considering the International, Eastern and Midwest leagues lost more than 80 games to inclement weather.

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