American Association Insider: Monday Sept. 7th Takeaways

 Kevin Luckow

(non member of IBWAA)

Not much on the news front to report from today. Four teams concluded their seasons today. Kudos to the players, coaches, broadcasters, front offices, and fans for getting through the 100 game grind. With the Milwaukee loss and the Kansas City win, the Monarchs clinched the #1 overall record and home field throughout the playoffs. The playoffs start on Wednesday. Hopefully AABTV will have the quad screen thing going for all four games. 

Sioux City 20 Lake Country 9

The Explorers ended their season with a bang. Alberto Osuna homered three times and drove in eight runs. J.D. Rogers hit his first professional home run as Kamp Oconomowoc was doing Kamp Oconomowoc things. 

Kansas City 5 Winnipeg 1

The Monarchs as mentioned earlier earned the top overall seed in the Miles Wolff Cup Playoffs. Luken Baker had an RBI to end the season with 78 in just 62 games, good for 10th in the league.



Cleburne 8 Kane County 0

Cody Thomas set the tone in the first inning with a three run home run and five pitchers combined to shut out the Cougars. 

Gary SouthShore 7 Chicago 6

The RailCats edged the Dogs in the season finale for both clubs. Tyreque Reed homered twice for the Dogs as he finished a strong last month. Chance Sisco played in his last professional game. Best wishes to Sisco in whatever career path he chooses. 

Fargo-Moorhead 2 Milwaukee 0

Dillon Thomas homered and four RedHawks pitchers combined to shut out the Milkmen as both teams look ahead to playoff action on Wednesday.

Lincoln 12 Sioux Falls 6

The Saltdogs stormed back from a 5-2 deficit with a six run sixth as they won their last two games of the season. Canaries pitchers walked ten batters in defeat. 

Thanks to everyone that followed along throughout the season. There were times during the season when I was tempted to close up shop, but the support I got from those around the league kept me going. Readership trended up during the season and the followers on my American Association Insider Facebook page have increased in the last month. I've got a year of being a "league guy" left in me, then we'll see if the Blaine franchise has a "seat at the table" for me, then I become a Blaine Townballers apologist (If I use that nickname enough, maybe it'll catch on with the decision makers). Over 29,000 fans attended the Minnesota Amateur Baseball Tournament the last three weekends, so it may be worthwhile to attract those fans. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

American Association SUNDAY Insider: Speaking in terms of "what if?"

Image
 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...
Read more

American Association SUNDAY Insider: The underpaid, overworked liaisons of the American Association

Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA)  The idea of this Insider came to my head on Thursday night as I was watching a game in Cleburne. It was the 750th American Association broadcast for voice of the Railroaders, Brad Allred. The Railroaders produced a video for Allred with numerous colleagues from the past, former players and current players paying tribute to Allred.  It got me to thinking just how important the play by play men are to the teams which they are employed. Teams in the AAPB do not have local newspapers following the teams on the road. Often times it is the play by play guys that may put a game story on their team website that the local newspaper picks up to condense into a tiny part of the newspaper. Not to discount the media relations director who also do gamers with no byline given if the newspaper picks it up.  For myself this goes all the way back to the Northern League. Although St. Paul had great coverage from Mike Augustin (mentioned a few weeks ago in...
Read more

American Association SUNDAY Insider: American Associaiton returning to Minnesota

Image
 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...
Read more