July 2020 – A Baseball Blog

Week 3 – Winnipeg x 7

The momentum we had leaving Chicago with a series win faded by the time we hit Fargo the next morning. The bus went immediately to a Covid testing site to make sure we were all staying healthy and were able to play.

This weeks games were all against Winnipeg. I knew from the start of the year that we play our hub city team the most out of any team and this week was the big seven game series in six days. The first four games had us as the home team and the next three we were visiting. It is nice knowing that you will be in one spot for the whole week and not worrying about hopping on the bus for a series.

It was a tough week for the Hawks as we came out the other side with a 1-6 record to look back on. There isn’t one thing that the team is doing. This is a good team. I know that August will be a big month for the team and there is no time to waste as we are already 22/60 games into the season. Each game counts for extra in a shortened environment.

When I watch the games from the bullpen and I see our guys out there I think we are going to win every night. Then at some point something happens that flips the momentum and we never get it back. It isn’t a lack of hustle, lack of trying, lack of talent, anything like that. These are the guys I want to go to battle with on the diamond. It seems the bad hops have gone our way and again in a shortened and quick season they start to add up quickly. The chemistry of the team is there to make a run at this championship Covid season.

The Hawks will be hot in August is my prediction. The first third of the season we were warming up and now we roll. This upcoming week we play a new team, the defending champion St. Paul Saints. Their field is currently being used as the training site for the Minnesota Twins taxi squad. St. Paul is being hosted by Sioux Falls in South Dakota and this will be our first meeting of the year. Always exciting playing a new team and scouting over their roster to see if I recognize any names. We play St. Paul for three, then head to Milwaukee for the first time for three to wrap up week 4. I’m looking forward to the week and giving a good update about games 23-28, just before the halfway mark.

Outside the American Association the MLB returned to their own 60 game season. The eyes of the baseball world have shifted from the AA to the MLB. This is good news though. This means that teams will be looking to add talent for their shortened seasons. From what we are being told now that the MLB is back in season that employees of MLB teams will be back on the road. The eyes are still on the American Association. If you got released from the big leagues this year then this is the only place you can go to showcase yourself to get back. The MLB also agreed to a 16 team playoff this year, meaning that teams will be playing deeper into the post season and they will need bodies. The other positive is the west coast baseball to watch after our games are finished.

The MLB are having their first test of the season with the Miami Marlins have an outbreak of Covid on their team. From what the news is reporting the teams they played are not testing positive yet, and members of their team are quarantining themselves so the show can go on. This is why the MLB came out with the 60 man player pools to have the next man up mentality and keep the season going. It stinks it happened right after opening weekend when the hype train was starting again for baseball to be back. Other teams are looking toward the MLB to see how they respond and if they actually meant safety first for the players. I don’t question any players that don’t want to play or not travel to the virus hot spots. As they say it is currently a fluid situation and next weeks update I’ll have more info.

I’m always excited to update everyone on the happenings of baseball. Thanks as always for checking in and supporting my journey. Especially through this Covid season.

Week 2 – First Road Trip of 2020

The Redhawks hit the road for the first time this week as we look back on the week of July 14-19th of games.

As part of the shortened season each team will play 42 of their 60 games in their hub city which means travel is limited. The start of the week we played the Milwaukee Milkmen. The Milkmen were dubbed a host city and would be hosting Chicago until Chicago pulled a fast one and said no we want to be in Illinois.

The series went in favor of the Milkmen as we lost two of three and my action came in an 8-7 victory for the Redhawks. I came into the game in the top of the 8th, two outs, and a runner on third. It was an 8-7 game at the time which meant the margin of error was small. It was also my job to get this guy, then get the next inning to secure the win. I was able to get a groundout in the 8th. The 9th started a tad rockier, and I had to work around a leadoff single. Leadoff single, popout, double play. It was a sweet feeling on the mound watching the double play develop and hope that the play was made. The next day was a 12:30 day game and then we hit the road for the first time this season. A true road trip to the Land of Lincoln.

The “nice” bus that we were going to use for road trips this year had an accident that meant we were back in the old Fargo bus. What was unique about this bus was the seats. The seats looked like train seats where they faced each other rather than the traditional coach bus. The seats also folded and contorted their way into beds. This was the first time that I had an actual bed like structure on a bus without laying on the floor. My bunk mate below was a tad nervous that the bed wouldn’t hold me but we didn’t have any problems.

The Chicago trip was an interesting one to say the least and we were all tired from the overnight bus ride. What usually happens during the game following a long ride is one team beats up on the other. It is never a 2–1 ball game. The Hawks came out hot for the first game and we won 14-2. I pitched in the 9th and put up a 0 which is always nice. The name of the game. The Saturday game didn’t go in our favor but the Sunday getaway game was the most interesting of the three.

The Sunday game was a 7pm start which was weird to begin with. The reason we found out later was the Dogs stadium had been scheduled for high school tournaments all weekend during the day, and then we would play at night. Since there are no tournaments going on because of Covid, we stayed on the original schedule. All this meant was we would get back on the offday around 10 am instead of sometime in the middle of the night.

We jumped out to a 4-0 lead that would stand until the 7th inning when we had a hiccup and allowed 5 runs to make it 5-4 Dogs. I was told I would pitch the 9th if we tied or took the lead. The 9th inning was a long one. A couple base hits, a couple of walks, a couple of misplayed but hard hit balls kept the inning alive and by the time I came into the game it was 7-5 Hawks. I faced the same three Dogs hitters I have faced all three times I have pitched against them and I kept my streak of doing well against them alive.

A nice part about being close to home was seeing some family members and friends. Of course the night the friends came out I did not pitch, and the outings I did pitch were sandwiched around the social evening. That’s the tricky part of being a relief pitcher and scheduling visits for people to watch. There is no schedule for the most part like a starter who can say here is what day I’m throwing and also what time the game starts.

If felt like we had been away from Fargo for weeks by the time we returned but it had been a three day trip. I think it was because we haven’t left Fargo since June and this was our first bus ride as a team. The first bus ride can be interesting because guys egos get in the way and can cause trouble with who is sitting where and who gets what seat but on this team it wasn’t an issue.

After Week 2 our record was at 6-9, and we are 25% of the way through this 60 game sprint. There is a lot of baseball left to be played and anything can happen this early into the season. Our team needs a few hops to go our way and we will be right back in the running for a championship.

How y’all doin?

First and foremost I’d like to say hello to everyone after a bit of an extended absence. The quarantine season has been a strange time for everyone and I hope everyone is doing well. With that being said, let’s talk baseball.

If I remember right my last post was about spring training down in Jupiter. Then training was pushed back and everyone including the major league was in a holding pattern waiting to see what happens with the season. My timeline was a bit different.

It was announced that minor league players will get $400/week for the remainder of the season. There were teams that were split on this but after peer pressure all teams relented to paying something through the end of the season. With that being said, the day or so before the paychecks started flowing I was notified that I am no longer with St. Louis. I’d like to say this was a pandemic related release but I don’t think I fit into their plans going forward. Either that or my 25 pitch all fastball bullpen didn’t impress them enough. Where do we go from here you might ask?

The New Plan

What does a young professional like myself do during the middle of a postponed baseball season do? I think physically I am still capable of helping a team win and showing that I am available and ready to go. I took a few days to think it over and ultimately decided that if there was a season to be played this year then I would like to play. I worked out all winter and now early spring for a season. I was contacted by the manager of the Kansas City T-Bones a team in the American Association, an independent baseball league. If you’ve been here for a while it is similar to Joliet and when I played for them.

I get the call from KC and their season is also on hold. Their season starts in May which gave them an extra month to prepare for a response to sports being on hold. It went from we are still playing on time, to a shortened season, to the final form of a shortened and also condensed teams playing season. The final call was a 60 game season from July 3-Sept 10 in 3 hub cities. There are 12 total teams in the league, and six of them due to their states local laws and Covid response decided not to play their season. One of these teams is Kansas City, meaning I was again put on hold.

The league decided that the six teams that were playing would hold a dispersal draft to bolster their rosters. In a normal season this league has strict roster limitations as far as rookie, veteran, etc level players. This year they nixed that which means the rosters of the six playing teams will have a heavy veteran presence as well as the addition from the six non participation teams. Also if a player did not want to play they were not forced to show up.

I told my Kansas City manager to let me know and I was still mum on the whole situation with the 60 games and what protections they were having for the players. He called and let me know that the Fargo Redhawks selected me in the draft. There was no live draft tracker or anything like that but hey this was the first time I had ever been drafted. 7th rounder no less! Sure there were only seven rounds but if you think each team had 25 guys available to pick from that means out of the 150 guys available I was worth a late round pick. Being selected guaranteed nothing because I know how these teams operate. In a 60 game sprint I imagine each game being worth so much means that they will flip the roster as much as possible to win games.

The six team schedule was set and the draft was two weeks before the season started. Draft on a Tuesday, I drove to Fargo the next Tuesday, and then we practiced as well as played Winnipeg for the next 10 days then it was to time against Winnipeg to open up the season.

The First of my name in North Dakota

As one of the six hub cities, Fargo is a storied team that has been around since 1996. Fargo is a host city because North Dakota hasn’t been hit that hard, and they are hosting the northern most team Winnipeg at their stadium. We play Winnipeg a lot I found found. The other four teams are St. Paul, MN playing in Sioux Falls, SD, Chicago, IL playing in Milwaukee, WI. This was the original six team set up with each team playing 42 games in their hub cities to limit travel. Chicago reverses and said they will play in their home ballpark and St. Paul is currently, as of writing, to open up their stadium again.

When we started on July 3 the MLB was still figuring out the details of their own 60 game season which meant we will be the only professional baseball team playing. All eyes on the American Association. One of the main goals of playing independent baseball is to get back to the minor leagues and sign with an affiliate team. As we know now there is no minor league season to be played. Good and bad for the league this year. It is good because we are the only gig in town meaning that if you do need to add a random player for next year or potentially your 60 man player pool look no further than Fargo. It is bad because why would a team add anyone when there is not a team to add to? It is a mixed bag but I think the pros outweigh the cons. Mainly that a group of men get to play ball this summer and will forever be part of Covid season. That is what I told myself after my disastrous first outing, and reminded myself that even though it was bad, I was still on the ball field.

The season so far for the Redhawks hasn’t been our best effort. On paper we are looking good but like I said every team is going to be stacked with talent. There is no minor league baseball which means a lot of players are looking for employment for the rest of the summer as a loaner or a permanent player. I’m fortunate to get in on the front end and be selected and still have a chance to make some plays this year. The season goes until September 10 and I will do my best to update everyone on how things are progressing as well as documenting the #quarantineseason for future internet historians.

Ka pow!

The strangest part about all of this is how small the baseball world is. There are former teammates or guys I’ve come across in my six years spread throughout this league. Another cool part of being in Fargo is that the new manager here, Chris Coste, is a former World Series champion. How often do you get to play for a man who has won at the highest level? Also, he made his MLB debut as a 33 year old, which gives all the old folks like me a punchers chance to crack a roster. As he says, sometimes Fargo feels like a million miles from the big time, but it really isn’t. When the MLB starts back up and scouts are allowed to work again, I’m hoping there will be eyes on us. Who else would they be watching? If there aren’t any eyes this year then that is also out of my control bubble. My bubble is making sure I stay healthy and have fun out there.

I want to again say thanks to everyone who has been waiting for an update. I also want to say stay safe out there. This is going to be an interesting summer and I look forward to reporting live from Fargo!