Kansas Teams Excel in American Association, Wichita on Diamond, Kansas City at Box Office

Kansas‘s only two professional baseball teams, both in the American Association, have been creating positive headlines of late although for largely separate reasons.

Wichita has been doing in mostly on the diamond where the Wingnuts, aptly named because of that city’s major aircraft-building industry, have the best record (26-14) in the sprawling, 13-team league.  Kansas City, a couple hundred miles east where it plays in the unusually attractive sports complex which also hosts major soccer and auto racing and must also compete for attention with the major league Royals, who are just across the river into Missouri, normally is competitive as well.  But the T-Bones‘ legacy at the moment, aside from reminding out of town visitors juicy steaks are easy to find in the area, is more for the major crowds they are attracting to CommunityAmerica Ballpark.

Never mind Kansas City’s summertime heat, a bevy of promotions helped the T-Bones attract consecutive crowds of 7,011, 7,932 and 4,971 in one series—19,914 in all—and maintain its ranking among the attendance elite in all of Independent Baseball.  Kansas City is luring an average of 5,569, an increase of more than 350 per game over one year ago when its final average of 5,212 ranked fifth best in the Indy game.  The T-Bones, despite a 15-24 record, lead the American Association in overall attendance this season (116,958) although they trail league rival Winnipeg, which currently has the best average (5,972) in any league for non-affiliated teams.   

For added glitter for the fans, the T-Bones offer all-time Royals second baseman Frank White on their coaching staff on a regular basis.   Kevin Hooper’s Wichita team is winning in a variety of ways, as shown by its .301 team batting average and composite 3.43 earned run average.

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Not One But Two Can-Am Umps Debut in Majors

The Can-Am League is enjoying a week that often comes only in dreams, and this time its players are not the ones in the spotlight.  The men in blue deserve one giant salute because two of this league’s umpire graduates achieved rare major league status only 24 hours apart.

Adding to the story, 2006 Can-Am product Adam Hamari and 2007 umpire Will Little were both scheduled to call balls and strikes for the very first time on Thursday, Hamari, 30, at Milwaukee in the afternoon and Little, 29, at Baltimore in the evening.  They are believed to be the only former Independent umpires in the majors although Lance Barrett, who came from the out-of-business All-American Association, debuted in the majors October 1, 2010.

“What were the statistical odds (of the two men debuting the same week),” Director of Umpires Kevin Winn asked when I reached him Thursday afternoon.  “Both are very humbled and honored.”  Hamari, who has been working regularly in the International League, was only assured of being in the majors to work the three-game Cubs-Brewers series, but he had “a slew of family” on hand, Winn said, since he lives in Marquette, MI.  Little’s father was among those who got to witness the four-game Cleveland-Baltimore series while the Fall Branch, TN resident will have his mother, sister and fiancée on hand when he works a Cincinnati at Texas series this weekend.

Can-Am’s Albers, Colabello Stay Hot in Triple-A

It is difficult to believe southpaw Andrew Albers, who is continuing an exceptional run for Rochester, NY, will not be alongside his fellow Can-Am League grad and Red Wings teammate Chris Colabello when the Triple-A All-Star Game is played in Reno, NV July 17 unless one or both of them are with the parent Minnesota Twins by that time.

Albers, the Can-Am’s Reliever of the Year for champion Quebec in 2010, saw his earned run average drop below three runs per game (2.93) this week as he stretched his winning streak to seven (in eight starts).  The ERA has been an even better 2.45 his last 10 starts, while improving to 7-2 overall with 76 strikeouts in 86 innings.

Colabello obviously has not allowed his return to the minor leagues after three brief trips to the Twins (2-for-16, seven games) affect him because the longtime Worcester, MA first baseman continues to lead the International League in both batting (.369) and RBI (61) and he shares second in homers with 18.

By BOB DUTTON The Kansas City Star

Updated: 2013-03-26T05:37:57Z

         (This is an excerpt from the column Bob Wirz writes year round on Independent Baseball.  Forty columns are planned during 2013.  Fans may subscribe at newly-reduced rates at www.WirzandAssociates.com, enjoy added stories on the blog www.IndyBaseballChatter.com, or comment to RWirz@aol.com.  The author has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)