American Association Baseball Insider

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) I'm going to stray off script here. For those that didn't know, Kansas City finished the sweep of Lincoln. Winnipeg was no hit into the seventh but came back to win. Sioux Falls and Sioux City both won easily to keep pace with each other. Milwaukee swept Fargo-Moorhead at Newman Outdoor Field. And Cleburne clinched the last spot in the East finishing a six game sweep of Chicago.  Let's look at all the possible scenarios to keep tabs on this week.  East Milwaukee. Leads Lake Country by four games, Kane County by 5.5, and has a game lead over Kansas City for best overall record. The division title seems to be a formality, but the race for best overall record will go down to the last weekend.  Photo courtesy of Jennifer Andreachi Lake Country. Leads Kane County by 1.5 games, Cleburne by six games. With a seven game home stand against Gary SouthShore and Sioux City, I see the DockHounds holding second place, though Sioux City comes in ...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) What was once a rumor passed between league colleagues, has now been reported by media. The story being the potential move of the Kane County Cougars and Cleburne Railroaders to the Frontier League, soon to be renamed National Association of Professional Baseball. The move would be made for the 2027 season. A real blow to an American Association that has ambitions of expansion.  To get a real feel for what this would mean to AAPB, let's go all the way back to 2006. In the Fall of 2005, the St. Paul Saints, Sioux Falls Canaries, Sioux City Explorers and Lincoln Saltdogs all departed the Northern League. Philosophical differences between ownerships being cited as a major reason for the defection. But a four team league was not going to cut it. Enter the St. Joe Blacksnakes as a stopgap, a team that likely would not have long term stability but filled an immediate need.  Enter Texas. The Texas-Louisiana League was winding down. So the five...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) Once again the games in the American Association were having an impact on playoff seeding. The roster freeze/trade deadline came and went with no impact moves made by anyone. I really miss those days where you'd hear the rumors right before the deadline and then anxiously await, refreshing the league transaction pages to see who did what. It seems like those days are long behind us. I have no idea why. Is there a sense of "why build for next year, I may not even be here". Are they wanting to show their current players they believe in them. As a sell off would not make a good impression on players that they want to return next season. Whatever the reason be, it's made the deadline really really dull. I'm doing this from the CHS Field Press Box, likely to finish when I get home. It's nice that the Saints still give me a seat "at the table". Frankly, the local media really drops the ball when it comes to Saints covera...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) Well, it was yet another adventurous and noteworthy night in the ol' Association. Instead of dilly dallying around, let's get to the games.  Kane County 4 Sioux City 3 The Cougars led 3-0 before the Explorers offense possibly sluggish from the overnight trip, finally woke up, tying the game at three in the seventh inning. Cooper Weiss singled in a run to give the Cougars the lead again in the eighth, 4-3. That set the stage for controversy in the ninth. It appeared to many eyewitnesses tin the ballpark that an Austin Davis drive to left field should've been a game tying home run, but the umpire crew huddled and upheld a foul ball call, causing the ejection of Explorers manager Steve Montgomery. I couldn't pick up the ball on the replay on AABTV. The Explorers would get a runner on base but could not tie the game. A crushing loss that will be looked back at if the Explorers miss the playoffs by a game.  Gary SouthShore 8 Sioux Falls 6 ...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) Earlier today I was alerted of a column coming out of the Observer-Reporter of Washington County, PA. The columnist said he has been told the Cleburne Railroaders and Kane County Cougars are headed to the Frontier League, soon to be named National Association, next season. For full disclosure, I was sitting on this scoop since the All Star Break. I didn't want it to distract from the season. But now the can of worms is opened. Nothing is official yet, though a Frontier League official with knowledge of the situation informed me that it is indeed a done deal. It seems like at this point we will likely not hear anything official from either side until after the Miles Wolff Cup Playoffs.  Now onto the games Thursday night, we got the closer games all over that we did not have on Wednesday. Five games in all, let's get to them. Lincoln 10 Milwaukee 8 (10 innings) Give the Saltdogs credit, they have shown that they are not going to roll over and ...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) Happy National Dog Day to all that celebrate. L to R Yoshi, Millie, Mayzie, Ovi I'd love to come on here and give you my reactions to the action of another thrilling night of American Association Baseball. But other than late inning heroics in Milwaukee and Cleburne, it was a rather uneventful night in the Association. Gary SouthShore 5 Sioux City 3 It was a 12:00 start at venerable U.S. Steelyard, and it looked like the RailCats at least remembered to eat their Wheaties, getting off to a 3-0 first inning lead. The Explorers got their wake up call in the second and third inning as they tied the game before the RailCats countered with a Kevin Watson Jr. home run in the bottom of the third that gave the RailCats the lead for good. Deyni Olivero won his second start in a row allowing three runs in six innings.  Fargo-Moorhead 8 Sioux Falls 1 The Canaries knew before they got on the bus at the Holiday Inn for the short drive to Newman Outdoor Fi...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) I now know how the people on Hoarders feel when they arrive at a house. They take a look inside, and the feeling is, where can we even start? That's how I felt as the night went on tonight following the games. Let's try to clean up the carnage. Cleburne 9 Chicago 8 This one is going to be a box score regurgitation. With Chicago on the outside by quite a ways, it was hard to justify lending much attention to this one. Cleburne got into the endzone and kicked a PAT in the second inning. But Chicago got back to within a point after the fourth period, I mean inning. Frankie Tostado had one of several grand slams around the league tonight in the second inning. Chance Sisco, Sam Biller and Jaxx Groshans all homered for Chicago as they tried to rally. Sisco drove in four and Groshans knocked in three runs. Sioux Falls 13 Fargo-Moorhead 12 This one had to be seen to be believed. It was your innocent 2026 garden style 8-7 in the ninth before the Canar...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) I'll preface this much like I did with last night's takeaways. I did not see much American Association Baseball this afternoon. I decided for the first time in over 20 years to take in a Demolition Derby. My friend and I left early as it had already gone 3.5 hours. It just wrapped up at 7:50 CST after beginning at 2 pm. It was fun to watch for a while, but I had my fix. I can do one in another 20 years. Active Sunday in the Association. Lost opportunities abound. Kane County let an early lead slip away. Gary SouthShore lost a chance to gain a game on Cleburne who lost in Milwaukee. The only team that seemed to seize the moment was the Sioux City Explorers who won their series with Winnipeg and in the process gained a game on Sioux Falls and Fargo-Moorhead.  Getting away from the format of boxscore regurgitation. Let's take a look at the standings and see what lies ahead in the last two weeks of the season. East 1. Milwaukee Milkmen 51-35 ...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) In thinking of last week's Insider, I feel like I had all the bases covered on what Blaine should do to make a go of it in the American Association. But I left out one major thing.  Minnesotans are very provincial. I don't know where it comes from, but it exists. They need time to warm up to outsiders, outside of government who warm up to and allow people to come into the state and steal taxpayer's money through fraud.  There is nothing Minnesota sports fans like more than having "one of us" make an impact. Especially with the home team. Look at recent history, Adam Thelen was one of the most popular Vikings in recent history. Joe Mauer had a Hall of Fame career for the Minnesota Twins, playing his entire career with the Twins. And now, Brock Faber is on the verge of becoming captain and cornerstone for the Minnesota Wild.  The Minnesota pipeline proved valuable for the St. Paul Saints. Jim Manfred, Brent Krause, Charlie Ruud. N...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) First of all, I have to admit I didn't see much of the action on Saturday night so some takeaways will be color by numbers with the boxscore. I spent the night with my family at the County Fair. Bourbon Chicken Mac and Cheese, Shrimp and Steak Baked Potato with Tom Thumb mini donuts for dessert.  I have to share a baseball story from today. I had a random 1981 MLB Game of the Week on YouTube. It was right before the strike. Since it was 1981, of course it was a Dodgers game as they were in Cincinnati. Tony Kubek was talking about Pete Rose's run at Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak. He said maybe nobody will break that record, just like nobody will break Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak of 2,131 games. The next season Cal Ripken Jr. debuted. Lake Country 5 Kane County 4 The DockHounds led this one 3-0 with help from a couple of unearned runs. In the seventh the Cougars scored a run, and in the eighth, Jairus Richards hit a dra...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) I'm going to be honest, I'm much too tired to do a fancy lede. Just like with the players and fans, the season is taking a toll on me. I was considering taking the night off yet here I am. Lake Country 23-2 Kane County 10-5 Boy did game one drag on. I fell asleep at the top of the third, I woke up 15 runs later. The 15 runs by the DockHounds broke an American Association record for most runs in an inning. The all times run record was in jeopardy if they went nine innings. All the runs were scored on 13 hits as walks haunted the Cougars to a tune of 12. Joshua Mears hit home run #32 as he closes in on the league single season record. Game two was a drastic turnaround as the Cougars pounced for five early runs and Jake Gilbert was great for the second straight going five innings allowing one run and striking out nine to pick up the win. Fargo-Moorhead 13 Lincoln 6 The RedHawks left no doubt in this one scoring 10 runs in the first two innings a...

Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) Six series wrapped up tonight. The playoff picture is not any more clear than it was when Sioux Falls and Fargo-Moorhead started the week off with a lone standing game on Monday. It was nearly a historic night, let's get right to it,  Gary SouthShore 10 Chicago 0 If this is how things go for Chicago teams in Indiana, the Chicago Bears may want to reconsider where they're going to build a new stadium. The RailCats wrapped up a three game sweep where they outscored the Dogs 43-3 out hitting the Dogs by a 58-14 margin. But the story of the night was Deyni Olivero nearly twirled the first RailCats no hitter since Karl Triana threw one against Kansas City on June 2, 2016. I was at a Hairball Concert when Tanner Hoops gave me the no hitter alert while Hairball was playing Kickstart my Heart. I kept tabs on iScore until the ninth when I tuned in with Tom Sawyer playing in the background. Sam Biller barely beat out an infield single. A liberal scoreke...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) As someone who has not had a dog in the fight called the American Association, I have to admit I'm thoroughly entertained by the races and the jockeying for position going on in the league right now. It's like a horse race going around the final turn and there's five or six horses in the race yet. The only horse left behind being Chicago Hope who stumbled out of the starting gate and was left behind.  Gary SouthShore 8 Chicago 1 It wasn't a bludgeoning for the record books like we saw last night, but it was a no doubter once again as the RailCats dispatched the Dogs with ease once again. Korry Howell homered twice and drove in four while Kevin Watson Jr. collected another four hits as he makes a run for hitter of the week. Marc Flores homered for the third time in two games and collected three hits. Peyton Long went seven innings allowing one run to pick up his first win in over a month (June 29th vs. Kane County). Kansas City 12 Linc...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) As predicted, the games around the league have a playoff feel to it. Every game meaning so much as eleven of the twelve teams in the league have a claim that they are in the playoff race. It makes for fun viewing. Milwaukee 6 Kane County 4 If you were a Kane County fan and I told you that you'll have Konnor Ash throwing six innings and Art Warren pitching the ninth, you'd say sign me up for a win, right? Well, not against Milwaukee as the Milkmen continue their domination against the Cougars winning their 10th game against no losses this season against their East Division rivals. With the game knotted at four in the ninth, two walks and a hit versus Warren contributed to a two run inning that proved to be the decisive runs. Delvin Perez and Alec Olund both had solo home runs for the Milkmen. Kane County relied on the power game too as Armond Upshaw hit a two run home run to make it a one run game and Jairus Richards had a solo home run in the...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) Six series wrapped up on Sunday with every team looking at being swept finding a way to win. If you get a chance, check out the Sunday Insider for my thoughts opinions and ideas for the new Blaine franchise. I put a lot of time in crafting the blog.  Lake Country 11 Chicago 8 In a game that had a line score with more ones than a stripper's G-string, the DockHounds salvaged the final game of the series at Impact Field. Lake Country scored a single run in six innings, the Dogs did it five times. The DockHounds homered five times, all solo shots until a two run blow by in the eighth by Dylan LaRue. LaRue went deep twice and Joshua Mears had two solo bombs to once again take the league home run lead with 31. Givoanni DiGiacomo, Chance Sisco and Ethan Wilder all had solo home runs for the Dogs with Sisco driving in four runs for the day.  Kane County 8 Lincoln 6 Knotted at four in the eighth inning, Sam Dexter singled home two runs and the C...

 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) It's been funny. I've seen stories, thoughts and opinions all around about the announcement of an American Association team in Blaine. They are nice recaps, crosses the t's and dots the i's. But all from an outsider perspective. There's a phrase I like to use when people refer to me as knowledgeable about the going ons in Independent Baseball. It's not that I'm smart, it just means I've been around a long time. For this story I think we have to go back to September of 2020. The St. Paul Saints were playing their final game of the Covid season against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks. It was in front of a relatively sparse crowd. A weeknight in mid to late September and there was nothing at stake outside of who was going to win the American Association batting title. Drew Ward would end up edging Correlle Prime after Prime was robbed of a base hit late in the game. After the game I talked to Jeff Bittiger who was traveling w...