Some snow is good, some not so much

The Dugout is dreaming of a white Easter.

Snow is everywhere this weekend. For the second consecutive night, snow postponed several minor league games. The New Hampshire Fisher Catsare threatening to bring in a zamboni to clear the field and are offering free tickets to fans who help shovel their field. Gametime for today's contest has been moved to 4:05 in order to give the sun more time to melt the snow.

On the west coast, the Fresno Grizzlies are giving away snow – kind of. The first 2,500 fans will receive a snow globe containing a replica of their ballpark (right). It looks pretty cool. Think New Hampshire will send Fresno some real snow for their ballpark?

Florida parks don’t have to worry about snow. Rattlesnakes, however, are another story. Last night's Florida State League game between Jupiter and Palm Beach was delayed fifteen minutes when a rattlesnake slithered onto the field.

Rattlesnakes have been spotted before on the back fields of the Roger Dean Stadium complex, which hosts the Florida Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals for spring training. This was the first time one made it onto the main field during a game.

A full story about the incident will appear on the minor league dugout site shortly.

Why sharks can't get driver's licences

Last night The Dugout witnessed one of the worst mascot entrances in the history of minor league baseball. The Jupiter Hammerheads' mascot, Hamilton R. Head, usually enters Roger Dean Stadium from behind the left field wall driving a go cart. He is supposed to speed across the outfield warning track all the way around to home plate.

Usually this takes a few seconds but last night seemed to take forever. The drama grew as the P.A. announcer egged him on. Laughing fans were wondering aloud whether the cart would make it to home plate.

Was the cart out of gas? Did it have a flat tire? Was the engine failing? Was Hamilton driving with two left flippers?

When Hamilton finally arrived at home, he jumped out of the cart and waved to a relieved crowd. Then a Hammerheads' staffer jumped into the cart, released the parking brake, and sped off down the left field line.

Add Hamilton to the long list of Florida drivers who prefer to drive slow in the fast lane.

There's no snowing in baseball: As noted in yesterday's blog, not every opening day goes as planned.

The snow and cold weather that struck the east coast on Thursday cancelled games as far south as Richmond. Rain interrupted several Florida State League games, including the one The Dugout attended in Jupiter. Nothing like an hour and 20 minute rain delay to start the season.

While the rain put a damper on the fans, it came too late to please local fire marshals. Palm Beach became the latest FSL team to cancel a fireworks show. The Roger Dean Stadium front office banged tonight's display before the start of yesterday’s game because of drought conditions.

As disappointing as that is for fans, no organization is having a worse opening weekend than Akron. The Eastern League's Aeros postponed their season opener because of snow and were forced to cancel tonight’s fireworks show because of high winds. It's not a great week to be in Ohio.

The long wait for opening day might be too short

What amazes The Dugout about opening day in the minor leagues is how much shorter most of the young guys are in spring training compared to their big league brethren.

Most of the players who take the field today arrived at camp weeks after their major leaguers, yet the season starts just four days later. Mind you, most of the pitchers have been in camp the full time, which is the group of players who really need the time to shake off the winter. And most of the position players think the spring lasts too long, anyway. After about a week, those guys are ready to hit.

Still, you'd figure major league organizations would have a vested interest in making sure all of their players have sufficient time to prepare for the season, especially considering many of these guys who basked in the Arizona and Florida sunshine are now in less than ideal baseball conditions. It would seem to be a question of protecting one’s investment.

That being said, no one is happier than The Dugout that the season is underway.

Less bang for the buck: Not all opening days go as planned. The dry conditions in South Florida caused the Fort Myers Miracle to cancel their opening night postgame fireworks show. If the drought continues, look for more Florida State League teams to have to move their fireworks nights.

More weather woes: A cold front moving through the northeast is supposed to bring snow to upstate New York and New England, which could make for a very unpleasant opening night for fans of International League teams.

Up in the sky: The Florida State League’s Lakeland team has changed its nickname from the Tigers to the Flying Tigers to honor the World War II flying group. The name works, in part, because the Lakeland complex was built on an old military base. Some of the old buildings are still in use. The Dugout likes the way Lakeland managed to add some local history to its name without losing the connection to their major league affiliation with Detroit.

On rubber ducks and baseball

Today is the true opening day in Major League Baseball (one game on Sunday doesn't count), which means minor league opening day isn't far away – Thursday to be exact.

The Dugout has always found minor league opening day be like that duck pond game at traveling carnivals, where you pick a duck and get the prize that’s on the bottom of the duck. You are guaranteed a prize, you just don’t know how good it’s going to be.

Fans of Major League Baseball have a pretty good idea of who's going to be on their teams well before opening day. That's not the case with minor league fans. Take the Jupiter Hammerheads of the Florida State League.

The Big League Marlins' housecleaning last season left Jupiter unsure of its opening day lineup until the days prior to the opener. The young, mostly unrecognizable roster didn't fare well. The personalities never seemed to click and the team failed to captivate the fan base.

What a difference an off-season makes. The Hammerheads have yet to announce their roster, but it appears it will boast five pitchers drafted in the first round and another early second-rounder. One of those aces, Chris Volstad, is a hometown kid, which should help build the fan base.

So relax and enjoy today's MLB openers. And get ready for the carnival to start this weekend.

Fighting the broken bus blues

The Dugout woke up early and hustled up to Jupiter, Florida's Roger Dean Stadium to catch some minor league Dodgers games. It would have been the first – and possibly only – chance to talk face-to-face with L.A. farmhands this season.

The Double and Triple-A clubs were slated to play the Cardinals, but that game never materialized. The story being told by Cardinals' players was that the Dodgers bus broke down on the way to the game, so the team never showed up.

There are some pretty funny stories in The Funniest Thing I've Ever Seen: More than 100 crazy minor league baseball stories that deal with bus problems. There are a couple of instances where the bus caught fire. In one, the players were jumping off the bus while it was still moving, scattering players along the highway for about a mile.

In the other, players boarded a second bus to the game. When they returned past the original bus, they were shocked to see that it had burned almost completely to the ground. Only the shell remained.

Fortunately for the Dodgers, their problems were not nearly that bad. If the game was a regular season contest, they certainly would have found alternative transportation. During the laid back times of Spring Training, they just decide to scrap the game.

How many times have you started your car in the morning; then wished aloud that you didn't really have to go to work?

The days of Knights and Tunas

JUPITER, Fla. - The St. Louis Cardinals' Triple-A club has found an interesting way to beat the South Florida heat. By starting their games at 10:00 a.m., the players clear the field before the searing afternoon sun is able to do most of its damage.

The Triple-A Cardinals, who call Memphis their regular season home, finished their game against Florida and were off the field before 1 p.m. on Monday. It's a nice deal for Cardinals fans, who can watch some of their top prospects in the morning, then enter Roger Dean Stadium and watch the big club.

Those who don't have a ticket for the big league game can turn the day into a minor-league doubleheader. The Dugout caught the end of the Triple-A game before headlining to a back field to watch the Double-A game.

The only drawback of these quasi-minor league doubleheaders is that they won't last much longer. Memphis will play a couple of exhibition games prior to the start of season - one of which will be against the big league club in Memphis - so they are shipping out earlier than most minor league clubs.

The Dugout ran into old friend Pop Warner for the first time this spring. Warner skippered Palm Beach last year before spending September in the St. Louis dugout as an extra coach for the World Series Champions. He's been bumped up to Double-A Springfield for this season and from the sound of it, he's taking almost the entire 2006 Palm Beach pitching staff with him.

Top-prospect Colby Rasmus, who ended 2006 at Palm Beach, is also slated to start the season in Springfield, as is former first-round draft choice Tyler Greene, a shortstop. Greene started 2006 in Palm Beach, but was sent down to Quad Cities after hitting .224 over the season’s first 71games.

He's apparently performed well enough this spring to leapfrog Palm Beach and head to Springfield. The Dugout isn't sure why he struggled so mightily in Palm Beach, but he wouldn't be the first player to say he simply didn't see the ball well at RDS.

Final note: Bill Parcells and Bobby Knight shared a skybox for Monday's Grapefruit League contest between St. Louis and Florida. The Tuna has seen a couple of Cardinals games this spring, but as far as The Dugout knows, this was the first General sighting. Knight kept RDS soundboard operator Ross Howard busy by requesting an obscure song be played over the public address system. To his credit, Howard took less than an inning to track down the song. No chairs were thrown and Knight isn't believed to have threatened to fire anyone. Wasn't General Tuna a character in the board game Clue???

Where baseball and music combine

ORLANDO - The Dugout first noticed the phenomenon in 2001. Seven Mary Three was in San Antonio touring in support of their fourth album, The Economy of Sound. The San Antonio Missions - at the time the Double-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners – had a day game, affording some players the opportunity to leave the park in time to catch 7m3's late afternoon show.

Following the show, Missions' pitcher Matt Jarvis and catcher Brad King were talking with band members by their tour bus. King had been a fan of 7m3 for years. His eyes were as big as the baseballs he’d just finished swatting, and from the smiles on his and Jarvis’ faces, it was obvious they were thinking, "Wow, we're talking with rock stars."

Though not nearly as popular as when their debut album, American Standard, hit the charts 7m3 was still pretty big at the time. Which made it seem odd that the band members talking with the minor leaguers had the same looks on their faces: "Wow, you guys play professional baseball."

King, who doesn’t really have any musical talent, would often joke about starting a band when his baseball career ended. At least two of the 7m3 guys are baseball fans, frequently watching a few innings of minor league baseball games before their gigs. They talked that afternoon about how cool it would be to be professional baseball players.

That scenario played out again Friday night when members of the Detroit Tigers made the short trip from their spring training home in Lakeland, Fla., to downtown Orlando to see Lucero lead singer Ben Nichols (top photo) and Seven Mary Three's Jason Ross (lead singer, middle photo) and Thomas Juliano (bottom photo, guitar) play acoustic shows as part of the opening night activities for an art gallery expo of rock-n-roll art.

Two of the guys in the Tigers' contingent were wearing Lucero shirts. They talked with Nichols after his set, congratulating him on his performance and just shooting the breeze. The Dugout was fortunate to stand next to a beaming Nichols for part of Ross’ and Juliano's set. The conversation went something like this:

Nichols: Can you believe some of the Detroit Tigers are here?

The Dugout: Some of them are even wearing Lucero shirts.

Nichols: Yeah, how amazing is that?

Ballplayers and rock stars possess talents that ordinary people planned to master before growing old enough to learn that adults, more often than not, cannot grow up to be anything they want to be. Perhaps that's why the average fan becomes so excited to meet people who are living their dream.

Because they know how difficult it is to become an elite athlete or musician, practitioners of those crafts tend to have a mutual admiration for the other’s accomplishments. Or maybe baseball players and rock stars are still young enough that they consider music or baseball to be the career that got away. Either way, after seeing ballplayers and musicians constantly having to respond to the needs of their fans, it's unusual and ultimately refreshing to see the rolls change – to watch the idols become fans. It's a humanizing transformation, and one The Dugout believes makes both the musician and the ballplayer that much more interesting.

The Braves and The Mouse mix well

Orlando – One word to describe the Atlanta's spring training complex: Holy Freakin' Cow! Or, perhaps more accurately, holy freakin' mouse.

The Braves train at Disney's Wide World of Sports, which is located on the massive campus owned by the Disney Corporation. The Mouse did it right. There are some 30 different athletic fields in the complex. On Thursday, the complex was flowing with high school lacrosse teams and softball teams in town for a tournament.

Oh, and there were a few minor league games. Because of the corporate nature of the complex, The Dugout expected a hassle obtaining media credentials. Not so. Walked freely through the lush campus talking with players and management, alike.

The minor league camp setup is the best in Florida. The fields are close together and the bleachers are covered (top photo), a big plus in the burning Orlando sun. The Braves also have a policy that players makes players who don't travel with their minor league teams sit in the stands and watch at least five innings of a Braves game being played on site. As a result, The Dugout talked in great length to some Triple-A pitchers who didn't make trip to Lakeland as they watched the High-A team play Lakeland. Those stories will appear on MinorLeagueDugout.com in the coming months.

The Big League park is even more phenomenal (bottom photo). Aside from being aesthetically wonderful, the park is absolutely huge. It is one of the few Grapefruit League parks that doesn't host a minor league team, which is a real shame. Tampa Bay's Double-A squad played there for three years, but attendance was abysmal and the team moved. Word is the folks ran the stadium as though the Orlando Rays were a major league team. Tickets were too expensive and the promotional stuff – other than Disney tie-ins – was non-existent. If Major League Baseball were smart, it would extend the bleachers to create a full park and move the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to Orlando. Nothing could be worse than leaving the Devil Rays in that awful dome in Tampa.

The Dugout also visited the Astros complex in Kissimmee. The facilities appeared functional, but were no match for the quaintness of Dodgertown and Chain of Lakes Park, or the vastness Disney.

Gotta cut this short. Going to see Seven Mary Three's Jason Ross and Thomas Juliano, along with Lucero's Ben Nichols play tonight in downtown Orlando. Should be a great evening.

Rock down to Edison Avenue

The Dugout has been quiet. That doesn't mean it hasn't been busy.

We've hit four minor league spring training camps in the last two days. Internet issues on the road have kept us from updating the blog until now.

The Red Sox have an interesting set-up for their camp. The minor league camp is located two miles down Edison Ave. from their major league camp/ballpark. The players seemed to split on how much they like the situation.

The younger guys would like the big league players to train in the same complex, while the older minor leaguers are glad to be away from the media circus that follows the Red Sox nation. Look for a full blown feature about the Sox minor league camp on MinorLeagueDugout.com in the coming weeks.

The Sox held a camp day on Monday, which featured a bunch of intra-organizational scrimmages. The highlight was watching Hall-of-Famer Carl Yastrzemski (above, signing an autograph) pull aside some of the younger hitters to give them pointers. He kept preaching “soft hands.”

Left Fort Myers and found a new way to get to Orlando. Took Route 17, which is mostly a rural road through orange groves, churches, cow pastures and the occasional goat farm. It was quicker than the normal I-75 to I-4 route and much more enjoyable.

Hit the Cleveland and Detroit camps today. Does any uniform look cleaner the Detroit Tigers? Too bad most fans don't get to see the minor leaguers. The folks in Lakeland don't have the best setup for viewing the minor league games. Some are completely hidden from fans, and access to players is more restricted than any other complex in Florida. The Dugout managed to talk to a few players. Those interviews will be posted on the site or in this blog periodically during the season.

Atlanta and Houston camps are scheduled for tomorrow. Some basketball; then a beer at the Matador in downtown Orlando on are tap for tonight.

Most minor league seasons open in two weeks. The countdown is on.

Head to the Outback, mate

Want to make an Australian-born minor league baseball player laugh? Ask him about Outback Steakhouse. Turns out we Americans have been duped. The Aussies will tell you there is nothing like Outback in the Land Down Under.

What makes it even stranger for the Aussies is that there always seems to be an Outback near a ballpark or hotel. Unwitting fans often comment to the Aussie players that if they get homesick, they can head across the street to the Outback.

They mostly smile. The players seem to like the food, even if Outback doesn't remind them of home. Here's what a few of them said about the restaurant:

There's nothing like it mate. You come over to Outback and none of the food they serve there is Australian. We don't have any cheese fries with bacon on it. I don't know where that came from. – Minnesota farmhand and Perth native Luke Hughes, who is featured in the currrent lead story on MinorLeagueDugout.com.

I like it. It's a bit of a corny gimmick. I like them even more now that they have Coopers beer. That's the beer from my home state in south Australian. – Florida's Paul Mildren, who also referred to Fosters as a “sell out beer.”

I love Outback. I think it's the greatest marketing idea ever made. But it has nothing to do with Australia, except for the maps on the walls, what they call certain burgers and "Blokes" and "Sheilas" on the bathroom doors. We have no steak. We have no blooming onions. We have no cheese fries. We have nothing like that. – Pittsburgh's Brett Roneberg, as quoted in The Funniest Thing I’ve Ever Seen: More than 100 crazy stories from minor league baseball.

Curing a bout of Madness

Been light on the blog, but with good reason. The first two days of the NCAA men's basketball tournament should be national holidays. I spent Thursday and Friday sitting on virtually the same bar stool at Bru's Room in Delray Beach, Fla. Any bar that allows you to control four TVs at once can't be all bad. (Yeah, I've been there before).

I'm watching Saturday’s games from home. Delray is holding its annual St. Patrick's Day parade, which turns Bru's into chaos. May try to get there for the night games, but don't have much need to get pushed around by drunken green people who aren't interested in the ball games.

Caught up with Chris Ashby, whose story about being hated in Norwich, Ct. was the inspiration for The Funniest Thing I've Ever Seen. He's in camp with the Marlins (Jupiter) and hopes to start the season with Triple-A Albuquerque. I'll keep you posted.

Next week looks like a good one for baseball. I'm planning to spend Tuesday and Wednesday in Fort Myers talking with minor league players from Minnesota, Boston, and maybe Pittsburgh. Thursday features trips to Lakeland (Tigers), where I'm interested to see the complex's makeover, and Winter Haven (Indians), a complex I have never visited. Friday should be Kissimmee (Astros) and Orlando (Braves). Saturday stops in Melbourne (Nationals) and Vero Beach (Dodgers) complete the trip.

As an added bonus, Jason Ross and Thomas Juliano (Seven Mary Three) and Ben Nichols (Lucero) are playing together at the opening of an art gallery. Two greatly underappreciated bands.

Planning to post a story about Australian baseball players on MinorLeagueDugout.com by the end of the weekend.

More soon.

An order of Pujols, some false teeth and a couple of suits

Yet another postcard-quality day for baseball. St. Louis defeated Minnesota 2-1 in a split squad game. Joe Mauer and Johan Santana remained on the west coast, but still got to see Albert the Great and Justin Morneau. A treat, indeed.

Roger Dean Stadium (below), home of St. Louis and Florida, is situated as part of Abacoa, which is like a town within a town in Jupiter, Fla. The surroundings are pretty cool, even if some parts of the stadium lack warmth. After seeing more than my share of sparsely-attended Florida State League games at RDS over the past couple of seasons, it was good to see the stadium filled to near capacity.

Saw two things I still haven't fully processed. When I arrived, I walked past an overweight, mobile-home-living woman getting out of her car. The overweight lady was sporting a quality wifebeater and was bulging out of the bottom of her jean-shorts. As I approached her car, she was bending over to pick something up – trust me, not the best view to start a day. I finally got close enough to see what she was picking up. Apparently as she got out of the car, her false teeth fell out of her mouth and were lying on the grass in the adjacent parking spot, teeth part facing the sky. Unfortunately, I was running late and couldn’t stick around to see what happened next.

I had almost purged that image when, in the third inning, two men wearing full suits and carrying winter overcoats walked into the stadium and down to their box seats. It was 80 degrees. I was hot in shorts. Now, people leave the office and come to the ballpark in suits all the time, but why the winter coats? Did they just fly in for the game? In that case, why didn't they leave the jackets in the car? If they took a cab, where was their luggage? If they stored their luggage, why didn't they store their coats? We made fun of them for an inning. Two innings later, they were gone. They never took their suit jackets off. Maybe they lost a bet.

Minnesota's Tommy Watkins, a favorite of MinorLeagueDugout.com, continues to impress. The utility infielder featured in The Funniest Thing I’ve Ever Seen, made a diving play behind first base to quash a Cardinals' rally. That's three big plays in three days.

Rounding the Bases:

1. I personally am not a big believer in this whole global warming thing, but maybe it explains the weakness of both team's bats. It's hard to generate much offense when bats are shattering all afternoon. No less then six bats broke – some spectacularly, including one barrel that sheared off at the handle and sailed over the third base dugout, clobbering a couple of fans. I'd consider suing Al Gore.

2. RDS is an autograph seeker's Mecca. The bullpen benches are so close to the stands that fans carry on conversations with players throughout the game. Great for fans. For players, not so much.

3. RDS food ranks near the bottom of spring training sites. The hot dogs may be the worst around, the peanuts lack salt and everything was overpriced, even for ballpark cuisine. Two beers and a bag of peanuts: $19.50.

Home: Getting home was no cinch. The quaintness of a stadium tucked into a small community loses some of its appeal when there aren't any officers helping direct the 7,000 or so out of the ballpark. Spent as much time going the first mile as I did going the final 39. That said, it’s still better than working.

Spring is here, even for Australians

I’m a little late getting to spring training, but I’m cutting myself a break because the minor leaguers are just starting to arrive in many camps. Where to start the tour this year? Why not the camp that hosts the reigning AL MVP (Justin Morneau), batting champ (Joe Mauer) and Cy Young award winner (Johan Santana)? Those three and the rest of the Minnesota Twins make Fort Myers, Fla., their spring home.

Plenty of Midwesterners make the trip to Fort Myers, which makes for a pretty friendly atmosphere. Truthfully, I think they are just happy to be away from Minnesota for a week or two. The announced temperature at the stadium was 77 degrees. They were kind enough to announce the temp in Minneapolis – two degrees with the wind chill. Nice.

Minnesota’s minor leaguers don’t report until tomorrow (March 8) but a few guys were already in town working in the cage and the weight room. Three of the guys (Luke Hughes, Trent Oeltjen and Allan De San Miguel) had just flown in from Australia. Travel time: 30 hours. Again, nice.

Funny part of their story is that these guys were happy to play in the cool Florida temperatures. It’s the dead of summer right now in Australia and they left 100 degree days down under. Just shows everything is relative.

Look for a story featuring those guys in the coming weeks on MinorLeagueDugout.com.

Saw Twins host the Dodgers on Tuesday and the Pirates on Wednesday.

Three Ups:

1. MinorLeagueDugout.com fav Brad King (above, left) has a big league invite with the Twins. Good to see him with a major league organization after two years in the Atlantic League sandwiching one year of retirement.

2. Two players featured in The Funniest Thing I’ve Ever Seen: More than 100 crazy stories from minor league baseball, Tommy Watkins and Glenn Williams (also an Aussie) are in the Twins’ big league camp. Williams went yard against the Dodgers and Watkins hit an absolute bomb off the Pirates.

3. Had my first Eb and Flo’s dog, which is essentially a fat hotdog covered in coleslaw. Not a big fan of coleslaw, but decided to give it a try. Excellent. Highly recommend it. Still don’t know where the name comes from. Is this a Minnesota thing?

Heading across Alligator Alley. Will spend tomorrow at Roger Dean Stadium with the World Series-champion St. Louis Cardinals. Many, many more then.

Winter Meetings are winding down

ORLANDO – Baseball’s winter meetings are closing down. I’m sitting in the spot previously occupied by ESPN’s set. They vacated the area last night. I’m about 20 feet from the Christmas tree that yesterday served as their back drop.

MLB.com is still broadcasting from across the room. Looks like XM satellite radio is starting to break down their set. Maybe MinorLeagueDugout.com can do a netcast next year in Nashville.

It’s a cloudy day in Orlando and despite being in the center of the magic kingdom, the hotel feels a bit dreary.

The big news fluttering through the media is that the Cardinals are reportedly interest in talking with the Huge Headed One. Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols in the same lineup? Chris Carpenter could win 30 games.

The other big news of the day was the Rule V draft. None of the players from my book, The Funniest Thing I’ve Ever Seen: More than 100 crazy stories from minor league baseball, switched teams.

The biggest name to move was troubled Tampa farmhand Josh Hamilton, who was selected by the Cubs and traded to the Reds. Hamilton was the first overall pick in the 1999 amateur draft by Tampa. Since then, then five-tool outfielder has injured his back in a car accident, reportedly became addicted to cocaine and alcohol, and was suspended for violating Major League Baseball’s substance abuse policy. Hopefully a change of scenery will allow him a fresh start.

Also, just saw a report that Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty is not interested in Bonds. Still a fun rumor.

Going to head on over to the MLB.com set before heading back down to the lobby. I’ll post a full wrap up of the meetings tomorrow.

Chuck

Winter meeting trade show free-for-all

NOTE: This post originally appeated on Dec. 6. Technical issues forced this re-post.

Closing day for the trade show portion of the winter meetings is a treasure hunter’s delight. I spent most of Wednesday on the show floor looking for the next big promotional giveaway - a feature story will be posted in the coming days on MinorLeagueDugout.com)

The trade show contains everything you’d need to start a baseball team – from turf to bleachers to scoreboards to concessions to promotional giveaways. There were even some minor league players in the booths. Any company that has even a remote baseball inclination is there showing their wears.

They bring all their cool stuff to Orlando, but many don’t want the hassle of taking it home, so the final hours of the show turn into one big giveaway. Bobbleheads were being snapped up faster than they could nod yes. The New Era baseball cap rack was nearly picked clean. Various minor league front office personnel were running around grabbing anything with a cool logo on it.

Ran into one job seeker who I’d talked with a couple times during the show who said this was the best day of his life. Earlier in the day he’d received a job offer with the Texas Rangers ticket office and now he was walking the trade show floor with an Oakland A’s trash basket filled with mini baseball bats, pennants and hats.

The show is noticeably thinning out. While more deals were made today than on the first couple of days, the lobby isn’t nearly as crowded. Didn’t get to see Bonds, but did talk with ESPN’s Steve Phillips.

The former big league-GM-turned-analyst said he enjoys the winter meetings more as a commentator because there isn’t as pressure to make a big splash. That was before he got the on-camera brush off from Bonds. Can’t wait to see him again to ask whether he’s changed his mind.

More soon.

Chuck

Baseball's Winter Meetings Day 1: Gammons owns the lobby - repost

NOTE: This post was originally published on Dec. 5.

ORLANDO – Baseball’s Winter Meetings really get interesting when the day’s scheduled events conclude and everyone heads to the lobby for cocktails and conversation.

MinorLeagueDugout.com loves the odd mix. Jim Leyland spent about an hour being congratulated by seemingly everyone in baseball for leading the Tigers run to the World Series. Agents were everywhere, many of them shadowed by their free agents – a la Jerry Maguire.

The best dressed people at Baseball’s Winter Meetings are the unemployed. Nearly 500 young, jobless baseball hopefuls show up at the Baseball Winter Meetings in their new suits, hoping to land front office jobs with minor league teams.

The most amazing guy to watch, though, is Peter Gammons. The Boston Globe and ESPN reporter owns the Baseball Winter Meetings. The lobby is Gammons’ domain. He can’t walk five feet without an agent, reporter, general manager or fan stopping him to talk.

Still, the winter meetings are not his favorite time of the year.

“It doesn’t beat the World Series or Spring Training,” Gammons told me shortly after one of his updates for ESPNNews.

The Winter Meetings continue to grow and Gammons says the expansion has taken away some of the fun.

“It’s getting out of control because there are too many people and the general managers don’t come out to the lobby,” he said. “They just sit in their room. It’s too big. You don’t talk about the game anywhere near as much as you used to.”

That’s it for day one. I’m heading to the convention floor for tomorrow’s updates. As always, any new updates will be posted immediately.

Oddly-dressed bobbleheads, Gammons, Veeck and more

ORLANDO - Day one of baseball’s winter meetings. In a morning session designed to stimulate minor league promotional ideas, the Eastern League’s Trenton Thunder announced a new twist on bobbleheads.

Starting this summer they are going to distribute bobbleheads featuring the likeness of major leaguers who played for their competitors.

When the Thunder hosts the Binghamton Mets on June 5th, the first 2,000 fans will receive a David Wright figure dressed in a Binghamton uniform. On June 17, fans will receive Ryan Howard bobblehead dolls. Howard will be depicted wearing a Reading Phillies uniform.

“In our market in Trenton, between Philly and New York, we’re right there embedded with Yankees fans, Mets fans and Phillies fans,” Trenton’s Brad Taylor said. “A couple people thought it was kinda funny that we’re giving away something with someone else’s name on it, but that went away in two seconds.”

Most sessions seemed to break for lunch early, leaving a who’s who of baseball front offices wandering the lobby. Had lunch at a table next to Peter Gammons. He looks great. Steve Phillips just walked by with a TV crew. Already bumped into MLD.com favorite Mike Veeck twice.

The convention floor opens in a few hours. Can’t wait to see the new promotional stuff.

chuck

Myers shines with glove and bat

I was searching through some minor league baseball stories tonight when I came across this headline: Myers keys triple play, offense for Barons.

Birmingham shortstop Mike Myers, a good friend of MinorLeagueDugout.com, turned in one of the best nights of his professional career.

It started early. With no outs and runners on first and second in the first inning, Tennessee's Jesus Cota hit a ground ball to short. Myers scooped it up, tagged the runner heading to third, stepped on second base and threw on to first in time to get Cota.

The triple play was the first for the Barons since the early days of Gerald Ford's presidency.

Myers continued his big night when he stepped into the batter's box. Entering the game with a .244 average, Myers smacked three hits and drove in a run as the Barons defeated the Smokies 5-3.

A back injury slowed Myers during his first few professional seasons. He's finally healthy and is looking like he may develop into a quality utility player for the White Sox. This season he's done everything but catch and pitch for the Barons. His versatility and speed are smilar to Cincinnati's Ryan Freel.

One big play won't make a minor league prospect's career. It will, sometimes, make the higher-ups within the organizatin take notice of a player. This may be the break that gets Myers career rolling.

MinorLeagueDugout.com hopes he is able to build some momentum.

Hats off to Toledo

MinorLeagueDugout.com takes pride in highlighting the best minor league promotions in our "Promotion of the Day" segment. We also enjoy following up pn those events.

The Toledo Mud Hens' Hilarous Hat Night was selected as our Promotion of the day for August 3. Our Mud Hen friends sent us some pictures of the event.

The Mud Hens gave away hats ranging from the normal to the surreal to the first 2,000 fans entering the ballpark. Regulation baseball caps were everywhere, along with the occassional velour covered, zebra striped hat and a few metallic blue ones.

Congrats to Toledo for a successful promotion.

Featured player Smith involved in trade

While Bobby Abreu was the big name involved in Sunday's trade deadline deals, the player who caught my attention was Matt Smith. I sat down with Smith in Birmingham in 2004 and he told me a story which was included in my book The Funniest Thing I've Ever Seen: More than 100 crazy stories from minor league baseball.

Smith is on his way from the Yankees to the Phillies. MinorLeagueDugout.com wishes him the best of luck. Enjoy Smith's contribution to my book.

Mom Always Said, “Don’t Play Rough In The Shower”

Matt Smith is an example that not all baseball players are illiterate jocks. The Birmingham Barons pitcher left Southwest Missouri State in 1999 without a degree when he became the New York Mets 18th-round draft choice.

He’s already gone back and earned his business degree, which he may put to use in a baseball front office when he retires. Smith hopes that day is a long way away.
Smith has just finished stretching for the evening’s game against Jacksonville. As a short reliever he doesn’t have to worry about mentally preparing for the game for another four or five hours, giving Smith plenty of time to think about his other hobbies: golf, weightlifting and reading.

“Lots of guys read,” Smith said. “You’d be surprised how many guys sit down on a bus ride and pull out a book. You get tired of watching the same old videos over and over.”

Though Smith does not come across as religious, he is enthralled by books about the Bible – including Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code.” A product of Marquette Catholic High School in Alton, Illinois, Smith has traveled to Rome and visited Vatican City. He says books like “The Da Vinci Code” that deal with Bible codes bring another interesting perspective to religion.

Smith got a little clubhouse perspective in 2002. His call up to Double-A was a blessing until a couple of shower incidents had Smith searching for divine intervention.

Matt Smith: I came up to Birmingham from Winston-Salem and this guy named Jake Meyer was in the bullpen. We’re in West Tennessee the first night and we got rained out. We were all getting in the shower. I’m taking my shower and Meyer dumps a bucket of ice water on me and says, “Welcome to the bullpen.”

The next day another pitcher, Brian West, who played football at LSU, came up to me and said, “You’re not going to let him get away with that, are you?”
I said, “All right, we’ll get him back.”

He said, “Jake usually takes a shower at 5:00 (p.m.) before the game. Get a bucket of ice water and throw it on him in the shower. Once you do it, just run back to your locker and act like you don’t know what’s going on.”

I go around into the shower, nail him with the water and sprint back to my locker. There was this wooden shampoo [holder] in the middle of the shower. As soon as I threw it, I heard this big crash in the shower. I was like, “What was that?”
Everybody starts looking in the shower and starts yelling for the trainer, Joe Geck. They’re like, “Joe come out here to the shower.”

I’m sitting at my locker wondering what the hell’s the matter.

Two guys are carrying [Meyer] out of the shower. He has blood pouring down and he’s soaking wet. He has blood coming down from his hair. He has real dark hair and it looks like he has this real big gash in his head.

They went to the manager and said, “We have to get him to the hospital. We have to get him stitched up.” I thought he was going to kill me.

Wally Backman, our manager, comes out. “What the hell is going on?” he starts [yelling]. “You guys have been messing around all year. I knew something would happen. Who did it?”

Everybody points at me.

I said, “Wally, I didn’t mean to do anything.”

He starts chewing my ass – getting in my face about doing stupid stuff. I was like,
“God, I’m going [to be sent] home.”

Jake starts getting up and he’s looking at me like he’s going to come at me. The guys are holding him back.

Wally says, “Let him go. He’s got to do what he’s got to do.”

So he comes at me. Then he puts his hand out and puts a tube of fake blood in my hand.

Everybody just lost it. They have pictures. I was so happy. I was so in shock I didn’t know what was going on. I was just so relieved. I didn’t care about the whole [payback] thing. It was the most elaborate, choreographed prank I’ve ever heard of.

"C" is for Cool Promotion

Charleston's "Let Them Eat Cookies" promotion was a success, and we have the pictures to prove it.

The RiverDogs held the promotion to protest Sesame Street's decision to cut back on Cookie Monste's cookie intake. The show figured Cookie was setting a bad example for today's overeating kids.

Charleston thought Cookie should be allowed to do what he does best – eat cookies. After all, the "C" doesn’t stand for Celery Monster.

The picketing (photo) was well received, and the fans went wild for the cookie eating contest. But putting kids in those inflatable sumo wrestling costumes and having them chase a cookie around the field was pure genius.

MinorLeagueDugout.com is glad teams like Charleston are out there to poke fun at the politically correct.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with Mrs. Fields.

Saints honor Gaedel with walk-a-thon

You may remember that MinorLeagueDugout.com chose St. Paul's Tribute to Ed Gaedel as Saturday's Promotion of the Day. Now we have the pictures.

The Saints, one of the teams owned by a partnership headed by Mike Veeck, honored one of the craziest stunts played by Mike's father, former Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck.

Veeck signed midget Ed Gaedel and used him as a pinch hitter. Predictably, Gaedel walked on four pitches. The next day, in the best interest of baseball, the commissioner banned midgets.

St. Paul decided to see how a team of midgets and dwarfs would fair in today's game. Saints television announcer, former Boston Red Sox pitcher Dana Kiecker, took the mound with the Saints regulars behind him and attempted to pitch to the miniature batsmen. The Saints cut the promotion, well, short, after Kiecker walked all nine men he faced.

Kiecker then served up some batting practice fast balls, which a few of the Gaedel stand-ins hit. What did this prove? Nothing, really. But wouldn't major league baseball be a little more interesting if there were more midgets playing? Come on Bud, do it for the little people.

By the way, the Saints also retired Gaedel's number, 1/8, noting that no Saints player will ever wear that number again. Nice touch.

Twin Cycle: West Michigan's Michael Hernandez pulled off a rare feat last night. For the second time this season Hernandez hit for the cycle. It was the third time a Whitecaps player hit for the cycle this season. Mike Holliman also notched a single, double, triple and home run on July 9.

Saints honor Gaedel with walk-a-thon

You may remember that MinorLeagueDugout.com chose St. Paul's Tribute to Ed Gaedel as Saturday's Promotion of the Day. Now we have the pictures.

The Saints, one of the teams owned by a partnership headed by Mike Veeck, honored one of the craziest stunts played by Mike's father, former Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck.

Veeck signed midget Ed Gaedel and used him as a pinch hitter. Predictably, Gaedel walked on four pitches. The next day, in the best interest of baseball, the commissioner banned midgets.

St. Paul decided to see how a team of midgets and dwarfs would fair in today's game. Saints television announcer, former Boston Red Sox pitcher Dana Kiecker, took the mound with the Saints regulars behind him and attempted to pitch to the miniature batsmen. The Saints cut the promotion, well, short, after Kiecker walked all nine men he faced.

Kiecker then served up some batting practice fast balls, which a few of the Gaedel stand-ins hit. What did this prove? Nothing, really. But wouldn't major league baseball be a little more interesting if there were more midgets playing? Come on Bud, do it for the little people.

By the way, the Saints also retired Gaedel's number, 1/8, noting that no Saints player will ever wear that number again. Nice touch.

Twin Cycle: West Michigan's Michael Hernandez pulled off a rare feat last night. For the second time this season Hernandez hit for the cycle. It was the third time a Whitecaps player hit for the cycle this season. Mike Holliman also notched a single, double, triple and home run on July 9.

Cuban defector Marti is St. Louis Cardinals mystery man

The story of Cuban defector Amaury Marti became one of the most difficult and rewarding articles I've ever written.

I'm always interested to talk with people like Marti who are willing to risk everything to come to America. When I walked into Palm Beach's clubhouse four hours before the Cardinals Florida State League game, a smiling Marti eagerly put down his lunch to give his first interview as a professional baseball player.

The St. Louis Cardinals’ prospect glowed when talking about baseball, but didn’t realize just how interested I was in his escape from Cuba. At first he gave only cursory details about his time in Cuba and his escape.

When it came to talking about the harrowing 21-hour boat trip out of Cuba, a visibly upset Marti couldn't talk anymore. Through translator and teammate Jaime Garcia, I asked Marti if he wanted to take a short break. He said he might be ready to talk about the ordeal in a month or so.

We moved on to other subjects, but I quickly realized Marti was too shaken by the memories of the escape to concentrate on any of my questions.

I left the Cardinals clubhouse feeling as bad as I've ever felt after an interview. My intention was to celebrate Marti's trip to freedom. I should have, but didn't expect the tale to be so painful for Marti to tell.

After spending parts of the next three days in the Cardinals clubhouse, Marti and I eventually talked baseball. I never mentioned the defection again, and he didn't bring it up. Some day I hope to sit down again with him and hear the rest of story.

Many other characters emerged in this tale. Shreveport's Bob Flori is probably still angry he didn't get more money from the sale of Marti's contract. Former Elmira manager Greg Keagle spent the spring of 2006 as SUNY-Albany's pitching coach, but left in the summer to join the automobile industry. Marti's agent, Michelle Deaguirre, has been chased out of hotels by Cuban baseball security guards.

St. Louis Cardinals prospect Jaime Garcia also showed poise uncommon in a 19-year-old. Garcia volunteered to act as translator and didn't mind the role even on the day he was scheduled to pitch. A few weeks later, Garcia was in Pittsburgh as a Cardinals representative in the Futures Game. If Garcia keeps that demeanor on the mound, and in the starts I've seen he has, Garcia has a bright future ahead.

Canseco is nuts, but entertaining

It's the good news and the bad news. Jose Canseco continues to talk.

The Juiced One reportedly named some more steroid users to George Mitchell's committee investigating steroid use in baseball. But that was only the start. Canseco also reportedly offered to help the investigation, acting out his own little version of good cop/bad cop.

That Canseco truly cares about cleaning up the game is laughable. He wants to gain publicity, soak in the limelight, and wring as much money out of a broken baseball career as possible.

That is sad. And entertaining. I've said it before, I'm willing to milk Canseco's antics for all they are worth. Which is why I almost fell off my chair with glee when The Master Injector announced plans to make a movie about baseball's steroid scandal. It got better. Canseco announced that if former slugger and positive steroid tester Rafael Palmeiro wanted to talk about his experiences, Canseco would bring him into the movie as a consultant.

Amazingly, Canseco still has time to play baseball. The Sultan of the Syringe is hitting .313 with a home run and four RBIs in five games with the Long Beach Armada. From the Golden Baseball League to the silver screen, Canseco is one colorful character.

A familiar name: Last night the Milwaukee Brewers called up Anthony Gwynn, son of former San Diego Padre Tony Gwynn. The younger Gwynn was hitting .305 with 55 runs scored and 35 RBIs for the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. If the son is anything like the like the father, it will be MinorLeagueDugout.com's pleasure to follow his major league career.

Tourists auction thrown base

Asheville made the best out of manager Joe Mikulik's massive tirade. Last month MnorLeagueDugout.com profiled the minor league manager's magnificent meltdown. His zany antics, including a dive a base toss and a homemade mud pie, gained worldwide attention when they were featured on SportsCenter.

The Tourists asked Lexington for the base Mikulik threw during his meltdown so they could auction it off for charity. Philadelphia resident Tom McGowan's $1,700 big was the highest, but McGowan didn't want the base. He told the tourists to keep the money, but give the base to the next highest bidder.

Turn's out the second place bidder, Craig Boyce, didn't have a place to put the base. He decided to pass it on to the third place bidder, a local tavern called Hannah Flanagan's Irish Pub, where it will be displayed for the town to visit.

McGowan, who had recently visited Asheville and fell in love with the team, added a significant donation, bringing the auction's gross to $5,000.

The Tourists hope the auction brings some closure for Mikulik, who was suspended seven games for his outburst, but they realize his meltdown will live on in minor league baseball lore.

"We've joked about it, but he's kind of over all the attention," Asheville assistant general manager Chris Smith said. "It's tough on him. He'd like to put it behind him. We realize it's going to stay with him until he wins an ESPY next year."

Altoona is great at being awful

MinorLeagueDugout.com considers Altoona's Awful Night promotion to be one of the top five recurring promotions in minor league baseball. The Curve held their fourth incarnation of the Awful Night – deemed Beating A Dead Horse – on Thursday night.

Altoona gave away some marginally useful items (the bottle of glue was a nod to the dead horse theme) and some things both useless and horrific. When general manager Todd Parnell was told he needed his gallbladder removed, was his first thought concern for his health or that the used organ would make a great door prize?

Overweight male staffers dressed in skimpy cheerleader outfits, David Hasselhoff songs blared from the PA, and liver and onions was the food special. You've got to be pretty good to be this bad.

Just ask Reading. A former Reading staffer told me yesterday they tried to copy Altoona, but their Awful Night was truly, well, awful. The highlight came when the Reading mascots switched heads, scaring the bejesus out of children and sending many of them home in tears.

Congrats to Altoona. We can't wait for the fifth edition.

Of All-Stars and Men: How about ESPN putting the WNBA All-Star game up against the Triple-A All-Star game on ESPN2. Remove political correctness from the equation and ask yourself this question: How can ESPN continue to give priority to a dying league (overall attendance has declined every year since 1999 and TV ratings continue to head south) and not cover minor league baseball?

Triple-A and Double-A baseball players are step away from the bigs. The WNBA doesn't approach the quality of the NBA's Development League. Yet the WNBA gets their highlights on SportsCenter, serving as a Pavlovian signal for any viewer with a conscience to go grab a beer.

The end of the WNBA All-Star game where the teams let players take turns trying (and failing) to dunk set the league back fifty years. ESPN, stop wasting our time with this worn out novelty act and give us the top plays, promotions and antics from minor league baseball.

Atlantic League settles it on the field

The Atlantic League got it right.

The league used MondayÂ’s scheduled off day as a mini-playoff. Long Island hosted Atlantic City with the North DivisionÂ’s first half title on the line. A Long Island win brought the title to Central Islip. A Ducks loss gave the crown to Bridgeport.

Fervent readers will recall the dilemma that faced the Florida State League a couple of weeks ago. FSL teams are not required to make up missed games, which set up a situation where Brevard County almost won the East Division despite having fewer wins than Palm Beach.

Faced with the same situation, the Atlantic League said, Play Ball! Long Island scored first, but trailed 3-2 after five innings. The Ducks bats came alive late, giving them 9-4 victory and the title.

MinorLeagueDugout.com congratulates the Ducks on their title and commends the Atlantic League for settling it on the field.

Futures Game too short

Why is the Futures Game seven innings?

Since its inception, the minor league all-star game has been truncated. That doesn't mean it can't change.

Unlike regular season games, this exhibition is designed to showcase as many young talents as possible. It's counterintuitive to shorten the game. If anything, the game should be lengthened. Two seven-inning doubleheader? That I can understand.

What makes this worse is that the lone representative from the Florida State League, World pitcher Jaime Garcia, didn't get into the game. The poise shown by the 19-year-old Palm Beach Cardinal on the field and inside the clubhouse belies his age. It would have been interesting to see how he fared against Triple-A hitters.

St. Lucie manager Gary Carter was the most visible FSL face at the ballpark. The Hall-of-Famer managed the U.S. to an 8-5 victory. Carter also ended the game with reserves on his bench.

Two more innings – six more outs per side – would have made the Futures Game a regulation ball game. MinorLeagueDugout.com wants to know: Is that too much to ask?

Here's the windup and the hitch

There will be a wedding following Saturday's Brooklyn Cyclones game. The MinorLeagueDugout.com staff isn't sure whether this is one of the best promotions or one of the most ridiculous.

Neither Dave Kerpen or bride-to-be Caroline Fisher have any real affiliation with the Cyclones. To pay for their wedding, they got sponsors. A local bank, for example, paid for the rental of the stadium.

They are giving away bobbleheads of themselves to fans who attend the game. A nice gift or egomaniacal? They're bringing their own ideas, such as a sponsored bridal bouquet toss, for between inning promotions. Wedding cost saver or a lot of extra work?

And they are really asking for trouble by inviting a bunch of New Yorkers they don't know to the wedding but not to the reception.

It seems more like a radio station publicity stunt than a joyous occasion. Awesome or ridiculous, the wackiness of the idea will make it part of minor league lore.

Anyone want to bet the memory of the event outlasts the marriage?

Canseco saga has possibilities

The baseball world may not be a better place with Jose Canseco in it, but it certainly is more interesting.

Canseco played just one game in his return and has already struck out three times, given some weird steroid hot-potato speech, compared Major League Baseball commissioner's office to the Mafia and been traded.

Baseball purists are trying their best to ignore the Jose Canseco Fiasco. At MinorLeagueDugout.com, we revel in the idiocy.

Canseco played for the San Diego Surf daisy of the independent Golden Baseball League, a six team league which features a traveling Japanese team.

After his 3K debut, Canseco requested a trade. The Juice reportedly didn't realize his nine year old daughter would be living with him this summer. The trade to the Long Beach Armada allows Canseco to live in his Los Angeles house, making it easier to look after his daughter. Or is it the other way around?

Is this whole situation good for baseball? Probably not. But think of the potential.

Some team has to give away free juice boxes when the Pumped One comes to town. How about bringing few lucky fans onto the field to practice heading balls over the outfield wall? Certainly a Madonna look-a-like contest/kissing booth isn't out of the question.

It's hard to imagine Canseco's comeback lasting very long. He'll pull an appendix or tweak a tonsil. Can't recover quickly from something like that without a little needle knocking.

And in the Golden Baseball League, at least he's not taking a spot from some kid who has a legitimate shot at reaching the major leagues. Maybe the attention he brings to the Golden Baseball League will make the league financially viable.

If that's the case, it's worth putting up with his antics – and even reveling in them.

Fireworks cause attendance explosion

It's a wonder what pretty explosions in mid air can do. Jupiter had its two biggest nights of the season on Monday and Tuesday, mostly because of fireworks displays.

On any given Monday night, counting the amount of fans in the stands at a Jupiter game is relatively easy. On July 3, Jupiter drew more than 6,000 fans. Four the fourth, Jupiter packed its house. There haven't been that many people in Roger Dean Stadium since the big league teams flew north.

The Hammerheads milked the nights for all they could. The entire staff worked both nights. They charged for parking. Normally that would draw a raspberry from MinorLeagueDugout.com, but there may have been 100 cars that drove to the ballpark just to watch the fireworks. Can't fault them for making money off of people who never entered the gates.

The fans were treated to a couple of good games. Both went into extra innings which turned out to be a good thing because in both instances the ninth inning ended well before darkness set in.

The electric atmosphere in the ballpark caused multiple staff members to remark about how nice it would be to have a crowd every night.

If the last few days in St. Lucie are any indication, that won’t happen. The Mets, who play 40 miles to the north, lit their fireworks on Saturday night, drawing a little more than 4,000 fans. The expected crowd for July 4? They were hoping for 400.

No jail for candy: We are happy to report that there were no arrests for excessive candy giving last night in Boise. The Hawks celebrated Idaho's 116th birthday by breaking an arcane state law that prohibits any person from giving away a bag of candy that exceeds 50 pounds. The Hawks presented a trivia winner with a 51-pound bag of candy. Everyone was allowed to walk away.

FSL settled on the field

Good news to report from the Florida State League. The East Division's first half title was decided on the field.

Brevard County, which lost four games to rain outs, had the potential to claim the title based on its winning percentage despite winning fewer games than either St. Lucie or Palm Beach. The Manatees drew within one game of the top spot after a Monday night victory over the Mets, but couldn't draw any closer.

St. Lucie eliminated Brevard the next night, and rallied late Wednesday night to win the East by one game over Palm Beach.

The Cardinals closed the first half by winning 10 of 11, and they were one strike away from winning all 11. The Cardinals, who stood to win a tiebreaker with the Mets, were waiting in their clubhouse when they heard the Mets had claimed the crown.

The West Division also went down to the final day. Dunedin lost to Tampa, but still won the title when Fort Myers was unable to take advantage of the opening.

The FSL was lucky the titles were claimed on the field. That won't always be the case. Late summer in Florida carries rain almost every day. The league should adopt some of the fixes MinorLeagueDugout.com offered in an earlier blog. Time to stop relying on luck.

This can't be good: Saturday night's game at Fort Myers and the scheduled Hurricane Awareness Night promotion were rained out. Yikes.

Immigration worthy of its own night

One of the benefits of sifting through all the minor league promotions is that I'm occasionally inspired to create promotions I'd like to see.

My latest creation: Illegal Immigration Night.

The way I see it, there are plenty of ways to go with the promotion. How about a free ticket for any fan that arrives at the ballpark in the trunk of a car?

The ballpark can offer amnesty to any fan who scales the outside gates to gain entrance to the ballpark, provided "immigrant" works for an inning doing a job that no one at the park wants to do (scrapping gum off the concourse walkway). Of course, the teams would have to place minute man-like centenaries armed with water pistols along the border to deter potential border crossers.

A team could offer citizenship in the means of a lifetime pass to the ballpark for any baby born at the park.

And, during the seventh inning stretch, instead of singing Take Me Out To The Ballgame fans can recite the oath of citizenship.

Now that's a promotion worthy of a green card. MinorLeagueDugout.com looks forward to covering this event.

Rain is good for Manatees

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and sometimes it rains. – Nuke LaLoosh, Bull Durham.

In the Florida State League, rainouts can be just as good as wins. With two games remaining in the first half of the season, Brevard County stands to benefit greatly from games they didn't play.

Because of rainouts, the Manatees will play four fewer games than rivals St. Lucie and Palm Beach. If the Manatees end the season in a virtual tie with Palm Beach, Brevard will be given the crown based on winning percentage.

This has Palm Beach fans a little steamed. Rightly so.

The disparity in rainouts is peculiar on several levels. The county of Brevard was so dry during the first half of the season that it was under a fire watch. The Manatees even had to move the location of their fireworks for fears that they could start a fire.

Sure, Florida received plenty of rain over the past month, thanks in large part to Tropical Storm Alberto. Brevard couldn’t play back-to-back games because of rain that came with Alberto. Palm Beach, just an hour south, managed to play three games during that same two-day span.

Did Brevard call rainouts to improve their chances of winning the division? Probably not. Had the Manatees won the four games they missed this season, they would be leading the division instead of relying on mathematicians.

But that doesn't change the fact that the title may be decided as much by games that weren't played instead of those that were.

With the amount of rain that annually hits Florida, the league should schedule at least one extra day during the All-Star break to ensure there is time to make up at least one game. In addition, the league needs to change the rule so that the team with the most wins in a half claims the crown. At least that will give teams extra incentive to play games that otherwise might not be considered financially lucrative.

The FSL is in the middle of a fantastic pennant race. It needs to take measures to make sure the title is determined on the field.

MinorLeagueDugout.com will let you know how this race ends.

Boggs excites with bid for perfect game

Palm Beach pitcher Mitchell Boggs sure knows how to impress the brass.

The Cardinals starter carried a perfect game into the ninth inning before settling for a complete-game one-hit shutout as Palm Beach defeated Jupiter 4-0 in Florida State League action.

Boggs reached near perfection infront of many top Cardinals officials, including general manager Walt Jocketty.

Boggs was in total command all night. He struck out 11 and allowed few hard hit balls.

Jupiter's J.T. Restko led off the ninth with a bloop single to center to end Boggs' bid for a perfect game. Boggs struck out the final three batters he faced to give the Cardinals the victory.

I was in the Jupiter broadcast booth for the final innings of the game and I must say it was one of the most exciting baseball nights I've witnessed. Jupiter broadcaster Jeff Grant could barely contain himself in the late innings. And as deflating as it was to see the perfect game slip away, the Palm Beach clubhouse was hopping after the game.

Boggs, who said the closest he's ever come to a perfect game before Wednesday night was a no-hitter when he was 9, didn't give much thought to having Jocketty present for his performance. He did, however, think about his parents, who were in town from Duluth, Ga., to see the game.

Congrats to Boggs and keep an eye on Palm Beach. The Cardinals were left for dead when they fell six games back with two weeks remaining in the first half of the season. Wednesday's win and St. Lucie's loss to Vero Beach left the Cardinals two back with four games remaining in the first half. Stay tuned…

Edmonton gets anthem right

If you attend as many minor league baseball games as I do, it's hard not to become a bit disillusioned with the presentation of our National Anthem.

It’s not a very good song to begin with. America the Beautiful is much better. But that likely won't change anytime soon. So we’re stuck with it.

Nowadays the Star Spangled Banner is most memorable when a star mangles the Banner. Think Carl Lewis and, no, he never really made it up to us. Around the minors, the moments before the game tend to turn into second-rate American Idol wannabe's trying out for stardom. Note to all of you: the song was never meant to take five minutes.

Given all that, there was a fantastic rendition of the National Anthem preformed last night in, of all places, Canada. Paul Lorieau sang our anthem – many in Edmonton join in – then started Oh Canada.

Instead of making himself the star attraction, he let the fans take over the song. The result is passionate, far more moving than any anthem I've heard over the past five years. It's worth tuning in early to a hockey telecast just to hear it. Unfortunately, there is only one more possible game in Edmonton and that won't even happen if Edmonton can't win the next game in Carolina.

I hope it happens. MinorLeagueDugout.com salutes the fans of Edmonton and hopes that minor league ballparks take Edmonton's lead and realize that simple is often the most beautiful.

If you'd like to see the performance, copy this link into your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meLpuF9UMvk

Rocket circus a little calmer

Roger Clemens made his second minor league start last night for Double-A Corpus Christi. He looked sharp, allowing just two hits in six innings of work.

Clemens treated this start like work, not the comeback party he threw for himself in Lexington. Clemens’ first start in Kentucky launched a media circus. Clemens fed the frenzy by spending so much time in Lexington.

Sure, he wanted to spend some time with his son. Can’t blame him for that. And he rewarded Lexington for putting up with the craziness by more packing the house to a tune of 150% capacity. He also furnished the club house with couches, televisions and computer games. The young Legends players probably appreciated the four days of free food the most.

There were no reports of this type of generosity coming out of Corpus Christi. Clemens undoubtedly picked up a nice post-game spread. The meal may be the only mark Clemens left in the Texas League. He spent more time between his two minor league starts in Houston with his future team than in Corpus Christi.

The next stop on the Clemens minor league tour is Round Rock. The Express, located just outside of Austin, Tex., already draw well. The ballpark should be nuts when The Rocket comes to town.

Good Bye Moe: Noted major league prankster Moe Drabowsky died Saturday. He had been sick with multiple myeloma. Drabowsky's best prank came when he gave Bowie Kuhn, at the time the commissioner of baseball, a hot foot. A master of voice imitations, Drabowsky also popularized the fake phone call to the opposing team’s bullpen. Drabowsky will be missed, but his antics will always be with us.

Biggest gamble in AC may be eating Surf food.

I was standing in the Atlantic City press box when director of media Chuck Betson noticed me and started wondering who I was and what I was doing in his press box.

I introduced myself and told him that at MinorLeagueDugout.com, we were constantly looking for interesting and bizarre stories.

He paused, smiled at me, and said, “How about a hot dog wrapped in a Twinkie?”

“You have my attention,” I said.

The Surf's crazy fare was inspired by the Krispy Krème burger in Gateway. That's cool. Could minor league baseball be on the verge of a food war?

The recent trend in major league and minor league cuisine has been the addition of regional foods at concession stands. The Surf Burger is Atlantic City's attempt to incorporate boardwalk funnel cakes into their ballpark menu.

But they are also elevating their creations to include the bizarre. If other teams follow Atlantic City and Gateway’s lead, we my need to start a weekly food column on MinorLeagueDugout.com. That would be cool.

In the meantime, here are some of our suggestions.

In Bowie, a burger that uses soft shell crabs as buns. In
In New Orleans, a gumbo topped with a bratwurst, with a slice of pizza for dipping.
In Tucson, a footlong hot dog wrapped in rattlesnake meat.

That’s a good start. Let's hear some other ideas.

Minor league teams bedeviled by 666

Happy Beast Day!

Knock it off. Today's date has nothing to do with Satan. It has nothing to do with religion. It will, however, cause crazy people to do nutty things. That should be celebrated.

No, the world isn't going to end today. I defy any doomsayer to prove me wrong. (They can’t – if they’re right, we’ll all be dead.)

That being said, I'm a little disappointed with the way minor league teams are underplaying 6-6-06. Potomac is conducting a salute to the No. 6, which was almost good enough to earn minorleaguedugout.com’s Promotion of the Day award.

Fort Myers earned the award by hosting a Halloween celebration – and even those masters of promotion had to tone down the celebration. The Miracle were asked by a few area churches not to celebrate the calendar anomaly. They complied.

That's a shame, because this really has nothing to do with religion. At best, it's about horror – the made up kind. The kind that causes teenagers to jump into each others arms to protect themselves from Freddy Kruger. And stupid people. Face it, those who believe the world will end are basically hoping there is no tomorrow. If only…

6-6-06 was begging for promotions such as:

The first pitch being thrown out by four guys on horseback.
Free admission for anyone who can make their neck rotate 360 degrees.
Free admission for anyone 666 years old.
A projectile vomiting contest between innings.
Iron Maiden singing the National Anthem.

That's just a few quick thoughts. Remember 6-6-6, it's not just a number, it's the area code of the beast. Which, by the way, makes 6-06-06 the full house of the beast.

More tomorrow – if we last that long.

Goelz trades bats for hoses

A few people have asked recently why we include independent leagues on MinorLeagueDugout.com. To those who continue to wonder, I give you Jimmy Goelz.

The Long Island shortstop decided to play one more year in the Atlantic League, in part, so that he could be on a team with younger brother Bryan. That itself is a good story – see Roger and Koby Clemens.

Jimmy Goelz's season ended Sunday afternoon. He walked away from baseball to become a fireman. Four years ago, Goelz applied to become one of New York City's Bravest. He was accepted last week and reports this week.

Goelz went out in style this past weekend. He drove in the Ducks lone run on Saturday and picked up what will likely be the final RBI of his career on Sunday.

The Atlantic League, Northern League, Can-Am League and the American Associations are full of players like Jimmy Goelz who are looking for one more summer with the game they love. These leagues, even more than the affiliated leagues, contain players who simply want to play baseball.

That is a big reason why these leagues continue to flourish. It doesn't matter to the fans that the players may not be on the fast track to the major leagues. They just appreciate the game being played with verve.

We will continue to cover the Atlantic League. In fact, we will revel in it.

So, good luck to Jimmy Goelz. And, by the way, Goelz spot on the roster will be filled by Juan Gonzalez. Yep, that Juan Gonzalez. More on that later.

Minor league umpires settle strike, but questions remain.

I've been trying to figure out which side "won" the minor league umpires' strike and I have to admit I'm still a bit perplexed.

The umpires settled the strike earlier this week, agreeing to an extra $100 per month across all levels and what amounts to about an extra $90 per month in their meal money. The per diem will increase in each of the contract's five years.

The numbers don't sound like a lot, but then again, the umpires really weren't asking for much. The top minor league umpires barely make $15,000 and rookie league guys are down in the $5,000 range.

So the extra hundred is at least statistically significant. But the extra salary barely covers the increase in their health care deductible – a point the umpires were eager to make during the strike.

It looks like the sides were arguing over a small sum, which begs the question, why was there even an argument? Minor league baseball is making more money than ever. And even if it wasn't, it was certainly in Major League Baseball's best interest to have the professionals behind the plate.

Look no further than the game in Birmingham last month where the Barons pulled their team off the field because they felt the umpires had lost control of the game as an example of what could happen with inexperienced umps. Major league clubs have too much invested in their players to let something like that happen.

In addition, I've had several managers and scouts tell me the strike zone inconsistencies made it difficult to evaluate how well their players were progressing – especially pitchers.

From the management side, it just seems more cost effective to have paid the minor league umpires to be there at the start of the season.

They say all good deals leave both sides a little upset. That's probably the case here. It's just hard to image this deal took so long.

Minor league umpires will return to the field no later than June 12. Each individual league sets the date. Florida State League commissioner Chuck Murphy doesn't expect them back before the 12th because the league needs the time to work out administrative and travel difficulties.

Those of us who revel in some of the craziness caused by the replacement umpires have a few games left with the high schoolers calling balls and strikes. If lucky, we may get one more performance like the confusion in Jupiter on Wednesday.

Come the 12th, however, I think everyone will be pleased the men in blue will be back to normal