Baseball in Fort Wayne

Archive for July, 2009

Congrats to the Fort Wayne 16U Cubs. They have qualified for the 2009 NABF Baseball World Series which starts this weekend. The club features local high school standouts, several of whom are NABF veterans. Former San Francisco Giants farmhand and former Canterbury and Purdue standout, Simon Klink is the team’s assistant coach.

For more information about the team and a roster listing, please see this article in the Dupont Times.

Northeast Indiana Baseball Association (NEIBA) Hall of Famer, David Doster will be inducted as a member of the 2009 class of the Reading Baseball Hall of Fame on August 25th.

At age 24, as a member of the 1995 Double-A Reading Phillies, Doster paced the league in total bases, set a club record with 39 doubles, a career-high 21 home runs and earned a share of the Paul Owens Award, which is presented to the top position player in the Phillies organization. He was also selected as the second baseman on the Reading Phillies 30th anniversary team in 1996 in adition to one of the 40 Greatest Players in Reading Phillies history during the team’s 40th anniversary celebration in 2006.

the 1995 Reading squad took the Eastern League championship that year. Doster attributes that experience as one of the best of his career:

“Definitely, the championship has to be No. 1,” Doster says, pointing to the Eastern League title he helped Reading claim in 1995. “Getting called up (to the big leagues), that’s obviously a thrill. But 13 years and one championship, that’s pretty rare.”

Doster was inducted into the NEIBA Hall of Fame in 2007.

Parkview Field was designed to be a ballpark to watch a game and visit with friends and loved ones — but not necessarily in that order. For us, that’s a good thing. TinCaps owner Jason Freier puts an emphasis on the ballpark as a community gathering spot, and that goal was superbly realized by architect Populous (formerly HOK Sport). In year where Populous opened multiple ballparks — including the overrated Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, and the underrated Goodyear Ballpark — Parkview Field is clearly the best of the lot.

Take a moment to hop over to Ballpark Digest and take a look at the full article. Great and accurate review of Parkview Field.

Tomorrow, Mat Latos will make his Major League debut when he takes the mound for the San Diego Padres against the Colorado Rackies. When he does so, he will have gone from A-Ball to the Majors is what amounts to half a season. Granted, this was not his first year in A-ball:

He made his professional debut with the short-season Single-A Eugene Emeralds in 2007, going 1-4 with a 3.83 ERA, although he struck out 74 in 56 1/3 innings. Latos was limited to 56 innings last season with three low Single-A and Rookie teams due to spending three months on the disabled list with a sore shoulder. After spending time in the Padres’ major league camp this spring, Latos’start of the season was slightly delayed by a sprained ankle. He opened with low Single-A Fort Wayne [signonsandiego.com].

The 21-year-old right hander was drafted by the Padres in the 11th round (333rd overall) of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft. In 2008, he appeared in seven games with the Wizards, going 0-3 with a 3.28 earned run average. He struck out 23 and walked eight over 24.2 innings pitched.

This year, he began the season with the TinCaps, where he compiled a 3-0 record and a miniscule .036 earned run average while striking out 27 and walking just three over 25.1 inning spitched.

Since his promotion to Double-A San Antonio, he has dominated nearly as much. In nine games that spans 47 innings, Latos is 5-1 with a 1.91 ERA, while striking out 46.

“He’s answered the call on everything we’ve asked him to do,” Padres vice president of scouting and player development Grady Fuson said after Latos was promoted to San Antonio in May. “He’s down in the strike zone, his velocity is great, his changeup is great. He’s ready to be challenged [MLB.com].

Latos’ debut will mark the 83rd Fort Wayne alumnus to make the Majors. He’ll be the seventh on the season and hold the distinction of being the first (and only for the moment) who played while wearing both a Wizards jersey and a TinCaps jersey.

UPDATE: TinCaps Issue Press Release:

“We knew Mat had huge potential, but this has even exceeded our expectations,” TinCaps team president Mike Nutter said. “I can’t express how proud we are of Mat’s maturation. He is a great example of the baseball talent our fans watch every night at Parkview Field.” 

Read the full release at TinCaps.com.

Tune in to Talkin’ Sports Saturday morning at 9:00 as we’ll be talking Officiating with Indiana High School football and basketball official Justin Shippy.

We’ll also check in with TinCaps President Mike Nutter for our weekly segment as the TinCaps continue to tear up the Midwest League.

We’ll be naming our PSI/One Eleven Design Athlete of the Week in the 4th Quarter of the show.

Any athlete (youth, adult, high school, collegiate, neighbor) can be a PSI/One Eleven Design Athlete of the Week. Nominations for the PSI/One Eleven Design Athlete of the Week can be submitted to this e-mail address or: wkjg1380@yahoo.com.

Have an idea for a show topic or local guest? Let us know.

Tune in Saturday mornings at 9 for Talkin’ Sports on WKJG-ESPN Radio 1380. Phone lines are always open at 260-447-8500.

Talkin’ Sports is brought to you each week by: INdigital Telecom, Perfection Bakeries/Aunt Millie’s, Wise Insurance, PSI/One Eleven Design and Kraft Foods.

Talkin’ Sports. Local Guests. Local Topics. Local Opinion.

Stop out and see me. Bring historic local baseball photos, talk baseball, hang out, buy a book and I’ll sign it for you. Hope to see you there!

Location: Sam’s Club
Address:  6736 Lima Rd., Fort Wayne, IN 46818
Date: Saturday, July 18
Time: 1-3pm

About a month or so ago, I met up with Matt Nelson from KCRG-TV at Parkview Field. Matt is a photojournalist in Iowa and was doing a tour of Midwest Ballparks – he even went and found Moonlight Graham. To say I was jealous is an understatement. His piece of Parkview Field is now posted on his site. I highly suggest. Thanks for the great story Matt.

 Parkview Field in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is not only a ballpark that stands out in the Midwest League, but one that stands out nationally. The TinCaps forgot no detail and spared no expense in building this ballpark. It feels like a ballpark you would find at a higher minor league classification.

Word over at MadFriars is Mat Latos – yes the same Mat Latos who started the year at Fort Wayne – is getting called up to San Diego in the near future. He’ll become the first player who wore both a Wizards and TinCaps jersey to make his MLB debut. More on this as it develops. Congratz Mat!

The San Diego Padres will call up right-hander Mat Latos to the big leagues in the coming days. On Monday he put together an impressive performance at the Futures Game.

Latos hit 96 mph five times during an eight-pitch inning, netting two ground outs and a fly out in his lone inning of work at the Futures Game.

He has not allowed a run in four of his nine starts across two leagues and has given up two runs or less in seven of those. He had a perfect game through five innings in his last outing with San Antonio before being removed due to pitch count.

Two great photos of Steve Sprunger’s work on this year’s chalk walk. He took first in the History of Baseball in Fort Wayne category. Great job and congratz Steve.

Photos courtesy of Steve Sprunger

Been a while since I’ve done a Fort Fragments post, so ths one may get a bit long. Here’s some news and info tidbits related to Fort Wayne:

Former Wizard and Major League, Cory Doyne has signed with the Long Island Ducks.

Doyne joins the Ducks for his first season in the Atlantic League . . . Prior to last season, the Florida native spent eight years in the minors toiling in the Astros, Padres, Cardinals and Orioles organizations, earning a call up to the Major Leagues on June 16, 2007. The former eighth round draft selection appeared in five games for the Orioles that season, pitching three and two-thirds innings, while striking out three. He has 29 career minor league victories with a 3.32 ERA in 586 innings pitched.

Norwell native and current Arizona Diamondbacks’ farmhand, Jarrod Parker is ranked number twevle on Baseball America’s top 25 Prospects list. He’ll also pitch in the Baseball Future’s Game.

After a quick whip through the high Class A California League, Parker moved up to Double-A Mobile, where he has shown a fastball that can sit 92-96 mph with a plus slider and the makings of a potentially above-average changeup. A line drive off his wrist slowed the 20-year-old Parker down a bit, but he’s on pace to be one of the youngest pitchers in the big leagues by 2010 [Baseball America].

TinCaps in Full Motion: If you haven’t seen the commercial yet, take a look here (John King of Metta Audio).

Former (and recently retired) Wizard, Shawn Garrett is helping to develop players on an American League League roster.

I didn’t get to cover any of his visits to Parkview Field, but like Kyle Day, Justin Parker was wowed by the park when he visited with his South Bend Silverhawks.

“It’s a beautiful place,” Parker said Sunday. “I heard a lot of nice things about it, but I had no idea it was going to be this nice. It’s a really nice place.”

Former Fort Wayne Daisies player, Dr. Lois Youngen has endowed a baseball scholarship in honor of her father (Elden “Ty” Youngen) at Kent State University.

Baseball was quite prominent among the Youngen household. “Ty” Youngen was a member of the Kent State baseball team from 1924-26, earning three varsity letters and was a captain for his final season. Lois would follow in her father’s footsteps of playing baseball as she was a pitcher and catcher in the All-American Girls Professional League for the Fort Wayne Daisies and the South Bend Blue Sox.

In a game that involved many former Wizards/TinCaps, the Lake Elsinore Storm scored a 33-18 win over High Desert in Adelanto during late June. The Storm set league marks for RBIs, time of game (four hours, 10 minutes) and hits. Former TinCap Matt Clark went 5-for-6 with two doubles, a homer, five RBIs, two walks and scored a record-tying seven runs. Former Wizard, Felix Carrasco was 4-for-7 with two doubles, a triple, six RBIs and four runs. 

Left fielder Brad Chalk (4-for-9, two doubles, three RBI) . . . right fielder Sawyer Carroll (4-for-7, double, homer, three RBI, four runs scored) . . . third baseman James Darnell (4-for-7, two doubles, homer, three RBI, five runs scored). Center fielder Dan Payne (4-for-6, double, homer, three RBI, four runs scored). Second baseman Andy Parrino (2-for-6, two doubles, two RBI) . . . Left-handed reliever Matt Teague picked up the win allowing three runs on eight hits over 3 1/3 innings. Storm starter Jeremy McBryde allowed 11 runs on 13 hits over 4 2/3 innings. But he departed with a 22-11 lead.

Last season, after being released from the Yankees, former Wizard LaTroy Hawkins didn’t go home. He quitely came back to Fort Wayne. While back in town, he reconnected with agent, Matt Kinzer:

Kinzer is more than an agent. He’s a former major league pitcher and scout, and through the years has become the person who knows Hawkins as well as anyone . . Together, they studied video, did some bullpen sessions and attempted to rediscover the command of a fastball that has helped keep Hawkins in the big leagues for 15 years.

Memorial Stadium is pretty much long gone. Just some rubble left. The auction brought in about $20,000.

About 200 people attended the auction Saturday. Stadium general manager Randy Brown says the grand total for the day was $210,588. Aluminum bleachers along the third-base line brought the most money, selling for $65,000.

Former Wizard, Todd Donovan collected two hits off of future Hall of Famer, John Smoltz while the pitcher was rehabbing before making his season MLB debut with the Red Sox.

The TinCaps’ Blake Tekotte was the Midwest League Offensive Player of the Week for the week eneded June 29, 2009:

.538 (7-13), 2 R, 2 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SO, 1 SB, 1.154 SLG
Currently on a 10-game hitting streak, Padres prospect Blake Tekotte put together another week of impressive plate appearances. The center fielder homered in consecutive games on June 25 and 26, amassing six RBIs in those two contests. He also recorded three multiple-hit games this week.

A couple transactions you might have missed. The Padres released Josh Alley and Derek McDaid while the Blue Jays called up Dirk Hayhurst. Alley was hitting .192 with Triple-A Portland at the time and has since signed with the St. Paul Saints. McDaid was 0-2 with a 7.42 ERA with Double-A San Antonio. He has since signed with the Quebec Capitales of the Can-Am League. Brockton (also of the Can-Am League) has released former Wizard Stevie Delabar. Hayhurst has quietly been productive with Toronto. In eleven appearances, he has a 1.84 ERA with nine strikeouts over 14.2 innings.