{"id":5379,"date":"2010-05-26T11:41:19","date_gmt":"2010-05-26T18:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=5379"},"modified":"2010-05-26T11:41:19","modified_gmt":"2010-05-26T18:41:19","slug":"moved-by-jose-lima%e2%80%99s-death-joe-klein-looks-back-at-going-to-the-dominican-to-sign-him-and-on-his-atlantic-league-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/26\/moved-by-jose-lima%e2%80%99s-death-joe-klein-looks-back-at-going-to-the-dominican-to-sign-him-and-on-his-atlantic-league-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Moved by Jose Lima\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Death, Joe Klein Looks Back at Going To the Dominican to Sign Him and on His Atlantic League Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jose Lima\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/strong>sudden death was felt throughout baseball, amplified by the fact he was pitching as recently as last summer, but the depth of the loss of the fun-loving 37-year-old may not have been felt much deeper than in the Atlantic League\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/strong>home office in Camden<\/strong>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I knew Jose when he was 16, and I am very moved by his death,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Executive Director Joe Klein <\/strong>said in an email. \u00c2\u00a0It was Klein, then on a special assignment scouting mission for the Detroit Tigers<\/strong>, who signed Lima to his first professional contract.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not a bad scouting trip to the DR (Dominican Republic)<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, explained Klein, since he also landed outfielder Danny Bautista<\/strong> on the same junket.\u00c2\u00a0 Both players went on to play for the Tigers and to have significant major league careers.\u00c2\u00a0 Lima was 89-102, including back-to-back 16 and 21-win seasons for Houston<\/strong> in \u00e2\u20ac\u212288-\u00e2\u20ac\u212289, which helped him earn more than $24 million as a major leaguer.\u00c2\u00a0 Bautista hit .272 in 895 games and was one of the thorns for the New York Yankees <\/strong>in the 2001 World Series <\/strong>when he batted .583 (7-for-12) and drove in seven runs in Arizona<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seven-game triumph.<\/p>\n

Klein pointed out another memorable involvement with Lima, and probably could site many more since the hurler was in the Atlantic League twice, with Newark <\/strong>in 2003 and with Camden <\/strong>in 2008 after he had posted another 27 major league wins, including a five-hit shutout for the Los Angeles Dodgers <\/strong>over St. Louis<\/strong> <\/strong>in the 2004 National League Division Series.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One memory came during the player strike in 1994, when he and Tigers Manager Sparky Anderson<\/strong> drove to Toledo<\/strong> <\/strong>to see the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s top farm club.\u00c2\u00a0 All Lima did on that August 17 date was no hit Pawtucket<\/strong>. <\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153How did you get him to do it in front of me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sparky asked.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have to bring him up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 The Tigers did just that the same year for the first three of Lima\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 348 major league games.<\/p>\n

Boulton Says One Western Team Not Enough<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Frank Boulton<\/strong> added his support to last Friday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Notebook<\/em> story saying \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sugar<\/strong> Land (Texas) <\/strong>is a great starting point\u00e2\u20ac\u009d toward Western growth by the Atlantic League <\/strong>although the league founder and chief executive officer had a few added thoughts.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to approach it as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsmart growth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, he explained, saying he did not feel it would be wise (from an expense standpoint) to take on one team by itself.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

* * * *WANT MORE <\/strong>INDEPENDENT BASEBALL COVERAGE?\u00c2\u00a0 Check out \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/a> and www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/a> * * * *<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

York<\/span><\/strong> Much Better, But Etchebarren Not Yet Satisfied<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

York<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/strong>17-15 record and second place standing in the Freedom Division<\/strong> is a runaway success in comparison to the Revolution\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/strong>first three seasons in the Atlantic League, <\/strong>yet I get the impression Manager Andy Etchebarren <\/strong>is so determined to make the club better that he is not relaxing one bit.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have 13 wins\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, Etchebarren said Friday before winning four of the next five, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but it could easily have been 17 or 18.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 The manager, who took over in the middle of last season, added:\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a chance (at winning the division).\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The record certainly would be better if the bullpen had been as strong as the starting staff during the early weeks of the season.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll fix the bullpen shortly,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Etchebarren said, before adding that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I said I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d give everyone a month\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to prove their worth.<\/p>\n

(These are excerpts from the <\/em>Atlantic League Notebook<\/em><\/em>. <\/em>Subscriptions to the Notebook <\/em>are available on a monthly or full season basis via www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/a> or www.WirzandAssociates.com<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Bob Wirz also writes a weekly column, the Independent Baseball Insider<\/em>, as well as a blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com. The author <\/strong>has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as chief spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jose Lima\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sudden death was felt throughout baseball, amplified by the fact he was pitching as recently as last summer, but the depth of the loss of the fun-loving 37-year-old may not have been felt much deeper than in the Atlantic League\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s home office in Camden. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I knew Jose when he was 16, and I […]<\/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":[7652,5806,7655,270,7656,565,516,7580,7657,996,60,1459,444,7651,4291,7653,7654,875,1928,7658],"class_list":["post-5379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-2004-national-league-division-series","tag-boulton","tag-danny-bautista","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-director-joe","tag-hurler","tag-joe-klein","tag-jose-lima","tag-junket","tag-league-games","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-major-leaguer","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-outfielder-danny-bautista","tag-professional-contract","tag-scouting-mission","tag-scouting-trip","tag-seven-runs","tag-sparky-anderson","tag-special-assignment"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379","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=5379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}