Baseball in Fort Wayne

Archive for May, 2008

Dennis Nartker of the The News-Sun recently reflected on his memories of playing Wildcat Baseball and its mid-1960′s introduction to the Kendallville area by North Side Elementary School physical education teacher Chris Stavreti, who had become East Noble High School’s varsity baseball coach.

As a Wildcatter I can recall the high school-age instructors teaching the fundamentals with demonstrations and drills every morning during the summer season for one to two hours at a time. Repetition and proper technique was the norm — throwing a baseball around the infield and from the outfield, catching grounders, line-drives and flyballs, hitting, bunting, pitching and running the bases.

Unlike the youth leagues today, where teams only practice one or two hours at a time twice a week, and often don’t practice when league games begin, the Wildcat philosophy was practice makes perfect, fundamentals taught throughout the season.

A great read. Check it out.

Former Wizards catcher, A.J. PIerzynski returned to San Francisco with the start of the first installment of interleague play in 2008. As far as I can tell, it was in San Francisco that Pierzynski first started developing the reputation that follows him wherever he goes.

But as he makes his return to San Francisco, he attempted to downplay the troubled times he saw there. He recently told some Chicago beat writers about his experiences . . . about how he was asked to play multiple positions, about how many of the stories that originated from the era simply weren’t true, and more.

The story where I supposedly kicked the trainer in the nuts. I think if I would have done that in Scottsdale Stadium in front of 15,000 people, it would have come out before I was gone.

Among these things, he also talks about the trades that sent him from Minnesota to San Francisco and from San Francisco to Chicago.

Update: As expected, Pierzynski was booed greatly on Friday. “I think A.J. loves that,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “But look at the best games he has, look at Anaheim — they start booing him and he got big hits.” In the game, Pierzynski hit a triple; which was his first triple since 2004 . . . when was with the San Francisco Giants.

Tune in Saturday morning at 10 a.m. to Talkin’ Sports (FM 100 Talks 100.1 FM) when our scheduled guests include new Northrop football coach Greg Gehl, Fort Wayne Fever head coach Bobby Poursanidis and Perry Ehrseman of the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department.

If you missed last week’s show, our Talkin’ Sports Top 5 High School Athletes of the Week included:

East Noble softball pitcher Natalie Kovets.
Leo baseball pitcher Ryne Harding.
Norwell softball player Melissa Werling.
Carroll golfer Jared McGinn.
Canterbury tennis player Claire Liles.

If you’d like to nominate a student-athlete for the Talkin’ Sports Top-5 High School Athlete of the Week, e-mail us at talkinsports@wnuy.com.

If you have a guest or show topic suggestion, e-mail me at at talkinsports@wnuy.com.

Join us Saturday morning at 10 for Talkin’ Sports on FM 100 Talks, 100.1 FM!

I wanted to send out word that I will be part of a DeKalb County Author’s Book Singing on Saturday, May 17th. It takes place at MJ’s Bookmark on South Main Street in Auburn from 1-4PM. Hope to see you there. But don’t come for just me. There will be many other local authors there and I know I am pretty excited to meet with them and hear about their books and publishing experiences.

This weekend, the South Bend Silverhawks visit the Castle to take on the hometown Wizards. But I suspect that many in attendance will be rooting for the Silverhawks when their first-year pitcher and 2007 first round pick, Jarrod Parker takes the mound.

This will mark Parker’s first return to Northeast Indiana as a professional baseball player and many groups from the Ossian and Bluffton area are expected to attend the three-game series. On May 9th, the Silverhawks shut out the Wizards; in large part to Parker’s outstanding pitching.

Update: My bad. Parker pitched the game before the Wizards series began. As a result, he did not take the mound while in Fort Wayne. Maybe next time around.

You could go here, here, here or here to read about Asdrubal Cabrera’s unassisted triple play that took place today. If found this interesting because there are a couple Fort Wayne ties (believe it or not).

The most obvious, Cabrera is the player who seized an opportunity to take the 2B position from former Wizard, Josh Barfield (who remains in Triple-A Buffalo). But what I also found interesting is the fact that the ONLY unassisted triple play in World Series play history was turned in by another member of the Cleveland Indians.

In the 1920 World Series, Bill Wambsganss turned an unassisted triple play. “Wamby” grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana where he attended Concordia College. He later returned and managed the Fort Wayne Daisies in 1945 and 1946.

As SignonSanDiego reports:

(Former Fort Wayne Wizards catcher, Luke) Carlin showed off his arm, gunning down Jonathon Herrera stealing second in the sixth and then got his first major league hit with an eighth inning one out double.

He may have already seen more time that Morton did. Wonder what Bud Black had against Colt.

Tonight, Luke Carlin became the 63rd former Wizards Player to make his Major League Baseball debut. In three plate appearances, he struck out three times. But he did something that couldn’t be accomplished in four previous tries by his predecessors. He was the catcher for Greg Maddux’s 350th win.

Luke Carlin caught the future Hall of Famers, Maddux and Hoffman. He looked spry behind the plate, but was overwhelmed at the plate, punching out 3 times. All told, the Friars struck out 12 times. [hat tip to Friar Forum]

I gotta think your first big league game is pretty memorable. I guess that would be the only way it could be made even more memorable.

St. Marys Evening Leader Staff Writer Kay Louth recently had a nice piece on former Fort Wayne Daisies player, Katie Horstman.

As a rookie, she earned $50 a week. By the time she was finished, she was earning $125 a week. She made more money the first year she played baseball than she did the first year she taught school. It was her baseball salary that paid for her college education.

Luke Carlin looks to be the first former Wizard to make his Major League Debut in 2008. He was called up yesterday, while another former Wizards catcher, Colt Morton was sent down to Double-A San Antonio after having been sorely misused during his stay on the roster.

“I got a little nervous,” said Carlin, who until Friday was a backup catcher for the Triple-A Beavers. “The last time I got called in the office, I was released (from Detroit in 2003).”

The 27-year-old, switch hitting Carlin was hitting .387 with 3 home runs and 11 RBI’s in 11 games for Portland. While with Fort Wayne in 2003 and 2004, Carlin appeared in 44 games and had 144 at-bats. He scored 12 runs on 33 hits with 15 bases on balls. If Black actually puts him in a game, Carlin will become the 63rd Former Fort Wayne Wizards player to debut in Major League Baseball.