{"id":8093,"date":"2010-09-16T15:31:36","date_gmt":"2010-09-16T22:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=8093"},"modified":"2010-09-17T00:19:06","modified_gmt":"2010-09-17T07:19:06","slug":"what-fabulous-match-ups-in-major-league-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/16\/what-fabulous-match-ups-in-major-league-games\/","title":{"rendered":"What Fabulous Match-Ups in Major League Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The influx of Independent Baseball players into the majors this month has been exciting, and it is much more than a pure numbers game.\u00c2\u00a0 Think about these feats, which should have every non-affiliated player, executive and fan jumping for joy:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/indylogo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2992\" title=\"indylogo\" src=\"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/indylogo.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"165\" height=\"125\" \/><\/a>When <strong>Bobby Cramer <\/strong>made his debut in a start for <strong>Oakland<\/strong> his mound opponent was none other than <strong>Luke Hochevar, <\/strong>who started in an Independent league.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Jay Gibbons\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/strong>latest headline-grabber in a series of events that has him playing virtually every day for the <strong>Los Angeles Dodgers<\/strong> was a monster home run off a pitcher <strong>(Nelson Figueroa, Houston)<\/strong> who had played for one of the same Independent teams <strong>(Long Island, NY, Atlantic League<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>No fewer than five Indy graduates played significant roles in a single series between the <strong>Dodgers <\/strong>and <strong>Houston Astros.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>John Lindsey <\/strong>got his first hit, and everyone seemed to be cheering.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong> <\/strong>In other words, <strong>Christmas <\/strong>came early and no less than seven Independent leagues could show pride for the role they played.<\/p>\n<p>The series at <strong>Minute Maid Park <\/strong>when Jay Gibbons homered off Nelson Figueroa<strong> <\/strong>was important on the Independent Baseball scale for a few other reasons.\u00c2\u00a0 First baseman <strong>John Lindsey (New Jersey Jackals, Can-Am League) <\/strong>made the first start of his 16-year professional career, and collected his first hit\u00e2\u20ac\u201da line drive single to left\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe next day.\u00c2\u00a0 He is 1-for-7 in six appearances so far.\u00c2\u00a0 And, the Dodgers and Astros paraded no less than five Indy players with reliever <strong>George Sherrill (Evansville, IN, Frontier League, Sioux Falls, SD<\/strong>, now in the <strong>American Association<\/strong>, and <strong>Winnipeg, Northern League) <\/strong>for LA and another southpaw, <strong>Tim Byrdak (Joliet, IL <\/strong>and <strong>Gary, IN, <\/strong>both Northern League), for Houston.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong> <\/strong>* * * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.atlanticleaguebaseball.com\/\">www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/a> ADDED TO <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indybaseballchatter.com\/\">www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>FOR ADDITIONAL INDEPENDENT BASEBALL COVERAGE?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Shreveport Triumphs, Pittsfield, Maui in Finals<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While four Independent leagues are in their championship finals and the <strong>Atlantic League <\/strong>is about to start its playoffs, underdog <strong>Shreveport-Bossier, LA <\/strong>is the latest team to enjoy a title run.\u00c2\u00a0 <strong>Ricky Van Asselberg <\/strong>added to the managerial resume he built with <strong>United League <\/strong>titles at <strong>Alexandria, LA <\/strong>in \u00e2\u20ac\u212206 and \u00e2\u20ac\u212207 by leading the <strong>Captains <\/strong>to a three-game sweep of powerful <strong>Sioux Falls, SD <\/strong>to take the <strong>American Association <\/strong>title.<\/p>\n<p>Two first-year teams are in the finals, <strong>Pittsfield, MA<\/strong>, led by Manager of the Year <strong>Brian Daubach<\/strong>, is in the <strong>Can-Am League <\/strong>championship round and <strong>Cory Snyder<\/strong> has <strong>Maui <\/strong>in a similar situation in the <strong>Golden League. <\/strong>A complete rundown of the remaining playoffs:<\/p>\n<p><strong>American Association:\u00c2\u00a0 Shreveport-Bossier, LA <\/strong>swept <strong>Sioux Falls, SD, <\/strong>in three straight to win its first championship.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Atlantic League:<\/strong> Defending champion <strong>Somerset, NJ <\/strong>will be at <strong>York, PA <\/strong>and <strong>Bridgeport, CT <\/strong>will open at <strong>Southern Maryland (Waldorf) <\/strong>when the best-of-five division finals begin Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Can-Am League: <\/strong>2009 winner <strong>Quebec<\/strong> and league newcomer <strong>Pittsfield, MA <\/strong>are 1-1 with the balance of the five-game series starting Thursday night in <strong>Canada.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Frontier League:\u00c2\u00a0 Traverse City, MI, <\/strong>leads <strong>River City (O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Fallon, MO)<\/strong>, 1-0, in best-of-five finals.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Golden League:\u00c2\u00a0 Chico, CA <\/strong>leads <strong>Maui, HA<\/strong>, 2-0, in best-of-five finals with the rest of the games in <strong>Hawaii <\/strong>starting Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Northern League: <\/strong>Defending champion <strong>Fargo, ND<\/strong> has a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five championship series with Game 2 at <strong>Kansas City, KS <\/strong>Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p><em>(This is an excerpt from the column Bob Wirz writes year round on Independent Baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans may subscribe at <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/\/\"><\/a><em>www.WirzandAssociates.com, enjoy his blogs, <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.atlanticleaguebaseball.com\/\"><em>www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/em><\/a><em> and <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indybaseballchatter.blogspot.com\/\"><em>www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/em><\/a><em>, or comment to <\/em><a href=\"mailto:RWirz@aol.com\"><em>RWirz@aol.com<\/em><\/a><em>.\u00c2\u00a0 The author<strong> <\/strong>has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The influx of Independent Baseball players into the majors this month has been exciting, and it is much more than a pure numbers game.\u00c2\u00a0 Think about these feats, which should have every non-affiliated player, executive and fan jumping for joy: When Bobby Cramer made his debut in a start for Oakland his mound opponent was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4746],"tags":[4032,542,10917,508,3427,10918,3215,493,512,10920,6158,7391,6161,60,2030,10851,536,7384,7110,10919],"class_list":["post-8093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-indy-baseball-insider","tag-baseball-coverage","tag-can-am-league","tag-first-baseman-john","tag-frontier-league","tag-george-sherrill","tag-headline-grabber","tag-houston-astros","tag-independent-baseball","tag-independent-league","tag-independent-teams","tag-jay-gibbons","tag-john-lindsey","tag-long-island-ny","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-luke-hochevar","tag-minute-maid-park","tag-nelson-figueroa","tag-new-jersey-jackals","tag-sioux-falls-sd","tag-tim-byrdak"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8093","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=8093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}