Among the many reasons to visit your local minor-league ballpark (the charm, the ridiculously cheap seats behind home plate, etc.) is the possibility of witnessing future greatness. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to catch several big-league stars in action before most people had heard of them: Jay Buhner, Jake Peavy, Carlos Quentin, Felix Hernandez, Edinson Volquez… I still kick myself every now and then for not having driven the hour or so to San Bernardino to check out some kid named Ken Griffey Jr. back in the day. My friends and I threatened to do just that but somehow never got around to it. I heard he ended up making something of himself.
Turning back the clock three decades to 1979, we may recall (or have heard stories, depending on one’s age) that the “We Are Family” Pirates beat Earl Weaver’s Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. We may remember great individual performances that season from the likes of Don Baylor, Ron Guidry, Keith Hernandez, and J.R. Richard.
Meanwhile, events were occurring far away from the spotlight — “down on the farm” — that would shape baseball’s future. Players and managers that later gained a certain measure of fame were busy honing their skills in the decidedly less glamorous environs of the minor leagues.
In the interest of brevity, I will provide only a partial list (courtesy of Johnson and Wolff’s indispensable Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nd ed.) of notable figures you could have seen in the minors in ‘79. There is undoubtedly a great story to go with many of these names, but for now, I offer them with minimal commentary:
Catcher
Bruce Kimm
Mike Scioscia
Tony Pena
Jody Davis
First Base
Randy Bass — Famous for being denied a shot at Sadaharu Oh’s single-season home run record in Japan in 1985; later became an Oklahoma state senator
Greg Walker
Greg Brock
Jim Tracy — Led the Texas League with a .355 batting average at Midland; funny how both 2009 Managers of the Year played minor-league ball in ‘79 (a year earlier, Tracy and Scioscia played in the same league together)
Steve Balboni — Led the Florida State League with 26 homers at Ft. Lauderdale
Second Base
Tim Raines
Tim Flannery
Third Base
Mickey Hatcher — Led the Pacific Coast League with a .371 batting average at Albuquerque
Wade Boggs
Hubie Brooks
Nick Esasky
Otis Nixon — Yep, he started out at the hot corner
Shortstop
Ron Oester
Glenn Hoffman
Rance Mulliniks
Ron Gardenhire
Cal Ripken Jr.
Scott Fletcher — Collected seven hits for Geneva in a July 15 contest against Utica
Julio Franco
Outfield
Leon Durham
Keith Moreland
Mookie Wilson
Pedro Guerrero
Luis Salazar
Joe Charboneau — One of the great one-year wonders
Dave Henderson
Bob Dernier
Reid Nichols
Lloyd Moseby
Mitch Webster
Mel Hall
George Bell
Milt Thompson
Rob Deer
Lonnie Smith
Pitcher
Juan Berenguer — Led the PCL with 220 strikeouts at Tacoma
Dave Righetti
Bob Walk — Led the Eastern League with a 2.24 ERA at Reading
Greg Harris (the ambidextrous one)
Ray Searage — A key part of my first Rotisserie League team in ‘84
Eric Show
Dave LaPoint — Led the California League with 208 strikeouts at Stockton; no-hit Reno on July 25
Bob Ojeda
Mark Davis
Jeff Lahti
Jay Howell
Luis Leal — No-hit Tampa while pitching for Dunedin of the FSL on July 11
Manager
Jim Leyland
Tony LaRussa — Recalled to the big club mid-season to replace Don Kessinger as skipper of the White Sox
Lee Elia
Jack McKeon
Davey Johnson — Led the Miami Amigos to a 51-21 record before the Inter-American League folded on June 30
Gene Michael
Doc Edwards
Rene Lachemann
Jimy Williams
Rich Donnelly
Stump Merrill
Tom Kelly
Denis Menke
Gene Lamont
Tom Kotchman — Casey Kotchman’s dad
Tom Trebelhorn
Greg Riddoch
Again, this list is far from comprehensive, but it gives some idea of the talent you might have seen at your local minor-league ballpark back then. The salient point (isn’t it nice to have one?) is that these guys are out there doing their thing. The same holds true for any given season.
You won’t necessarily know which players will end up having careers (ask me how good I thought Mark Phillips was going to be), but chances are, if you catch even a few games, you’ll get a glimpse of someone on his way to bigger and better things. Then, 30 years later, you can tell people about the time you saw Peavy pumping mid-90s heat from six rows back of home plate with 3000 of your closest friends.
But I imagine you already have stories of your own. Let’s hear ‘em.
I flew from NY to St. Petersburg, Florida to pick up my son so we could then drive to Chatanooga to see Andruw Jones play. He was on the visiting team. We got there in the evening intending to see the next day's game, but as it was early enough we drove out to the ball park to catch the last 3 innings. So we did see Andruw at bat; he struck out.
The next day, it poured and the game was cancelled. We thought we might stay another night to catch the last game of the series, but as we were driving to lunch we got the report that Jones had just been promoted to Richmond. Our schedule did not permit us to go there, so that was that.
Among the future major leaguers I have seen are Rolen, Wohlers, Jeter, Leiter, Grace, Chamberlain, Hughes, Hamels, Longoria, Price, Klesko and many, many more. You are absolutely right. It is a terrific bargain and a great time for any baseball fan, whether it is rookie ball or AAA.
Frankly, one of my favorite memories was seeing Vito Chiaravalloti in a NY Penn league game on a roadtrip with my college buddies in the fall of 2003. We knew he wasn't much of a prospect, but he was destroying the league, finishing at .351/.469/.605 (and his 01 and 02 seasons were even better). It was dollar beer night, and we'd had a few. At one point, late in the game, the plate ump called a strike on our hero and I stood up and yelled "Mr. Chiaravalloti will tell you when it's a strike!" I think the fans appreciated that, and there's no way that Vito and the ump missed it.
Seriously, that's one of my favorite baseball games of all time. Amazingly, the next night we went to another stadium that didn't sell beer. How does a minor league team survive without selling beer?
I also remember seeing Miguel Cabrera in the MWL and JD Drew on a rehab in the same league. I recall going to a Beloit Snappers game to see Prince, but for some reason I don't recall him playing that day. Or maybe it got rained out.
Anyway, this is all a long way of saying "you're right, minor league games are great."
Be sure to bring your Sickels or BA handbooks with you, but don't be so tied to them that you fail to appreciate the guys that are out there playing hard and having fun, even if they're not more than 25s on the 20-80...
One of the great coincidences of my life was the day in 1997 that I happened to be on a crazy road trip in Calgary at the same time as a rehabbing, 41-year-old Eddie Murray and the Albuquerque Dukes.
I had the great fortune of growing up in the Denver area in the late 70s/early 80s. The Bears always had strong teams and Mile High Stadium was a great place to watch a game (cheap GA seats along the base lines and it was always fun to watch foul balls fly over your head, rattle around the empty upper decks and then drop softly into the crowd in the lower level). Among my favorite memories was watching Tim Raines hit an inside-the-park home run off of Omaha's Steve Busby during the July 4 game in 1980. The fireworks games always drew huge crowds - I want to say around 70,000 that year. It was minor-league but it sure felt like the majors. Anyway, really appreciated this nostalgic review of the minors during a period I remember well, and I certainly agree that minor league games are fun and a great value.
I was in junior high in 1973. My oldest sister and her husband lived in Denver. I was a huge Reds fan, and their AAA team, Indy, was in Denver to play the Bears. I convinced them to take me to the game, and I got to see J. R. Richard face off against Ken Griffey, Sr.
This is kind of sad/embarrasing, but when Casey Candaele was playing for the Indianapolis Indians, I truly, in my pre-teen heart of hearts, thought he was going to be a superstar. I mean he DID hit .300 that year.
When DeLino DeShields broke into the majors, I was convinced he was going to break Rickey's SB record and bought all of his rookie baseball cards I could find (and afford.) In retrospect, I think I just liked the alliteration of his name (another favorite player from slightly earlier in my life was Henry Cotto, which is just an awesome name). I guess my point is that I certainly hope that we can be excused for what we thought about baseball when we were 12.
To be fair, DeShields was a very good player when he first arrived in the big leagues and looked like he might develop into something special. Just be glad you never traded Pedro Martinez for him.
Dos Carlos (Beltran and Febles) in Wichita in '97...
Newer memory...Buster Posey ending the game with a mammoth walk-off for San Jose this year. That one was only shared by about 500 of my closest friends who lasted that long, since the beer batter struck out 3 times!
I've been to a lot of minor league games and I couldn't agree more with the above sentiments. I prefer minor league games to the majors. I make my wife go to a game or two every time we go on vacation.
I also made a trip to see Andruw Jones in A-ball. My cousin was graduating from the Naval Academy in 1996 and another cousin and I noticed that Durham was playing in Frederick that night. It was about a 90-minute drive from where we were staying. I don't remember what he did, but I saw him in May and he was in the World Series in October. Good times!
The best game I remember was in 1991. I had season tickets on the third row behind the plate for the San Antonio Missions (or were they still the Dodgers?). Pedro Martinez facing Donovan Osborne. Martinez won a 1-0 game that lasted about 1:45. Great game..I mean GREAT. GAME.
I also saw Mike Piazza hit 2 home runs over the trees in left field on opening night in 1993. He was gone by the end of April.
The Arizona Fall League is even better. $5 to sit behind the dugout and see the guys who will be stars the next year or two. First year I went, Ryan Howard was a beast. McCutchen, Butler, Weeks, Francouer, McCann, Martin, etc. Go if you haven't. Go again if you have.
I saw Madison Bumgarner this year on a fluke in Portland this spring. The family had no idea, but I told them this was a 19 year old kid that would be pitching in the pennant race this year. I hope it pans out for him, as he was just dominant that day....
Auburn Astros at Utica Blue Sox, 1995. I told my dad to watch out for Auburn's catcher Ramon Castro, because he was a first round pick the year before. Castro hit two home runs that night, and even though he never became the star I thought he'd be, he's still hanging around as a backup all these years later.
The last minor league game I saw featured Michael Bourn as a 21-year-old burner for the Lakewood Blue Claws. I'd never heard of him, but next to him everybody else looked like they were in slow motion. I still root for him.
I've still got a scorecard from a minor league game that I saw in 1963, between the Nashville Vols and the Knoxville Smokies...Knoxville's OF consisted of Willie Horton, Mickey Stanley, and Jim Northrup...no wonder that the Tigers won the World Series a few years later...and the starter for Knoxville in that game was the Yankee killer -- Frank Lary
My story became all the more sweeter when Peralta, Martinez, Sizemore, Garko, Carmona, and Sabathia made their push for the World Series a couple years back. It had only been a couple of years prior to that season that I had a chance to see each one of those guys done the old Bisons green and orange. Peralta`s IL MVP season is one i`ll never forget, although sadly, he didn`t turn into the MLer that would have truly made me proud.
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I flew from NY to St. Petersburg, Florida to pick up my son so we could then drive to Chatanooga to see Andruw Jones play. He was on the visiting team. We got there in the evening intending to see the next day's game, but as it was early enough we drove out to the ball park to catch the last 3 innings. So we did see Andruw at bat; he struck out.
The next day, it poured and the game was cancelled. We thought we might stay another night to catch the last game of the series, but as we were driving to lunch we got the report that Jones had just been promoted to Richmond. Our schedule did not permit us to go there, so that was that.
Among the future major leaguers I have seen are Rolen, Wohlers, Jeter, Leiter, Grace, Chamberlain, Hughes, Hamels, Longoria, Price, Klesko and many, many more. You are absolutely right. It is a terrific bargain and a great time for any baseball fan, whether it is rookie ball or AAA.