Baseball people realize this is a magnificent time of year for numbers crunchers because of the pursuit of various individual and team records, and there certainly will not be any disappointment as this season works toward its climax.<\/p>\n
The Independent game is right in the mix with such heady topics to drool over as a couple of league wins totals never seen previously, a great shot at a 20-game winner and all sorts of marks to consider, partly because of the plethora of talented players who are finishing the season on the grandest stage of all, the major leagues.<\/p>\n
We probably have not seen the last of the promotions to the majors since the minor league playoffs are only getting started, but the American Association <\/b>can br<\/b>ag about 10 of its former players now with American <\/b>or National League <\/b>teams and the Atlantic League <\/b>is <\/b>only one short of that lofty plateau.<\/p>\n
Thirty-one players who have worn Independent uniforms are in the majors right now, and no less than 12, which is believed to be a record for one season, have broken into the big time this year alone. The most recent to get the cherished first call are southpaw James Paxton (Seattle)<\/b>, who threw his first professional pitches for Grand Prairie, TX <\/b>in the American Association, and catcher Cody Clark<\/b> (Houston)<\/b>, who has been working his way up the ladder ever since spending virtually all of 2005 with a team known as the San Diego Surf Dawgs<\/b> of the Golden League<\/b>, a circuit that expired after the 2010 season.<\/p>\n
Wichita<\/span><\/b> Sets Wins Record, Skeeters in Tie<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n The Wichita (KS) Wingnuts<\/b> have the distinction of the ultimate in regular-season achievements since they established a new American Association <\/b>record for most victories (68-32). Lincoln<\/b>, <\/b>NE<\/b> <\/b>set the mark in 2006; Fargo<\/b>, <\/b>ND<\/b> equaled it last year. And, Sugar Land<\/b>, <\/b>TX<\/b> <\/b>(88-41) <\/b>has tied the Atlantic League <\/b>mark (<\/b>Lancaster<\/b>, <\/b>PA<\/b>, <\/b>2012)<\/b> with 11 games to play. <\/b>Somerset<\/b>, <\/b>NJ<\/b> <\/b>also seems a virtual lock to break the record set just last season since the Patriots <\/b>have 85 wins with 11 remaining. SugarLand and Somerset seem destined to be first-round opponents when the Atlantic League playoffs start in two weeks.<\/p>\n “I want to keep grinding (to the end of the regular season),” longtime major league standout and Sugar Land Manager Ga<\/b>ry Gaetti <\/b>said shortly before the Skeeters <\/b>failed for the third time to eclipse the wins record Wednesday night, not for record sake but to be certain the team is eager for the postseason.<\/p>\n Lancaster’s Pollok Nears New Plateau of 20 Wins<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n It is difficult enough to win 20 games in a 162-game major league season although Detroit’s Max Scherzer <\/b>(19-2), who threw his first professional pitches for the Fort Worth (TX) Cats <\/b>who were in the American Association<\/b> when that took place in 2007, is trying to prove otherwise. Now <\/b>try it <\/b>in a shorter Independent season and see how big the challenge becomes.<\/p>\n That is exactly what Dwayne Pollok <\/b>is trying to accomplish. The right-hander has tied the Atlantic League <\/b>record with 18 victories (Dan Reichert <\/b>did it originally for Bridgeport, CT <\/b>in the same league in 2010), but the 32-year-old Pollok, who has won his last 12 decisions and was named Pitcher of the Month for August, still has time for three more starts for Lancaster, PA, <\/b>the first of which was scheduled for this very night (Thursday). <\/b><\/p>\n * * * *<\/p>\n ANXIOUS FOR MORE INDEPENDENT BASEBALL COVERAGE?<\/b><\/p>\n We Have It Regularly at <\/span><\/b>www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n * * * *<\/p>\n Clemens’s Sound Like Typical Father and Son<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n <\/b>The father-son <\/b>team of Roger <\/b>and Koby Clemens <\/b>continue to draw attention to the Atlantic League <\/b>as the 51-year-old, who won 354 major league games and seven Cy Young <\/b>awards, travels to some of the cities to watch the 26-year-old catcher with the Sugar Land (TX) Skeeters, <\/b>based 30 minutes from their Houston<\/b>-area home.<\/p>\n “It’s all for my boys”, Roger told The Connecticut Post<\/i> when he visited Bridgeport <\/b>this week, of his concentration on the activities of his four sons, who include a restaurant owner, a University of Texas <\/b>freshman baseball player and a high school junior.<\/p>\n As for Koby, who has a team-record 21 home runs and is the No. 1 backstop, he told The Post<\/i> “he’s (Roger) still dad to me. Just a big three-year-old <\/i>like most dads are. So he’s a goofball and I’m a lucky son.”<\/p>\n By BOB DUTTON The Kansas City Star<\/p>\n Updated: 2013-03-26T05:37:57Z<\/p>\n (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 reduced rates at www.WirzandAssociates.com<\/a>, enjoy added stories on the blog www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/a>, or comment to RWirz@aol.com<\/a>. The author <\/b>has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)<\/p>\n <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Baseball people realize this is a magnificent time of year for numbers crunchers because of the pursuit of various individual and team records, and there certainly will not be any disappointment as this season works toward its climax. The Independent game is right in the mix with such heady topics to drool over as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[20844,20845,20846,4744,2473,11520,6458,1374,6165,20843,20842,20839,20841,20838,20840,18545,379,11521,8670,12521],"class_list":["post-25674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-cody-clark","tag-crunchers","tag-drool","tag-fargo-nd","tag-game-winner","tag-grand-prairie-tx","tag-independent-game","tag-james-paxton","tag-lancaster-pa","tag-magnificent-time","tag-mark-lancaster","tag-minor-league-playoffs","tag-san-diego-surf","tag-san-diego-surf-dawgs","tag-season-achievements","tag-skeeters","tag-southpaw","tag-sugar-land-tx","tag-talented-players","tag-wichita-ks"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}