Baseball in Fort Wayne

YorkRegion Profiles George Kottaras

Following his MLB debut, George Kottaras gets some coverage from his native area press. A very good profile that covers the Red Sox’s fourth string catcher from being drafted, to his career in the minors, to the Olympics and to the eventual call-up. Unfortunately, they can’t spell his last name correctly.

“There was a lot of stuff going on with our AAA team (playoffs) and I wasn’t aware that I would be called up.” About a half hour after the team got knocked out of the playoffs, he got a call to go into Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson’s office. “He told me I was going up right away,” Kottaras recalled.

Will Venable is Impressing

The San Francisco Chronicle recently took a brief look at “Max’s son” – Max being former Wizards’ hitting coach, Max Venable and Max’s son being former Wizard, Will Venable. At the time, the 25-year-old rookie was hitting .340 in 47 big-league at-bats. But the irony of the situation is that it was not Will’s Dad, but his mother, Molly, who encouraged Will to pick up baseball again after having not played his freshman college year while playing baseball at Princeton.

“She told me to think about maybe trying baseball again because she saw the opportunities that it gave my dad,” he said. “I went to Princeton with the intentions of trying both. I didn’t play my freshman year because I couldn’t handle it. She just continually reminded me to keep it in mind, and it ended up working out.”

Mott Reflects Fondly on Fort Wayne Memories

TOM MOTT was recently named as one of the All-Time Wizards based upon his performance as a Wizards player. He wrote in to the Journal Gazette to reflect.

Although my dream of getting to the big leagues was never realized, when I think about my five-year baseball career, Fort Wayne is always the first thing that comes into my head. Great people, great stadium, great teammates and an absolutely wonderful community.

Mott is now the founder and director of a non-profit organization that helps disadvantaged kids from around the world come to the United States to receive a fully sponsored education. Check out his site at  1dreamfoundation.com. The link has also been added to the right panel links.