Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Minor Leagues’

Tomorrow is the 2008 edition of the Rule 5 Draft. In addition to the large list of San Diego Padres players who will be up for the taking, many former Wizards are in the farm systems of other clubs. There are too many to list given that relatively few will actually get plucked from their current clubs (though many are predicting that there will be more action this year than in previous years due to the currrent economic climate).

If you are wondering about any players who might possible be exposed to being drafted, Baseball America has published a definitive list by team. Of course, I’ll do my best to report any selections that impact former Wizards or local baseball ties.

Among those local ties is Colorado farmhand, Jarret Grube (DeKalb) and San Francisco Giants minor league Simon Klink (Canterbury).

George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” columns appear in today’s Herald-Standard has a great article about current Fort Wayne Wizards Manager, Doug Dascenzo. Von Benko recalls the young infielder’s Cleveland, Ohio upbringing, his rise through college and an unexpected selection in the draft by the Chicago Cubs.

Dascenzo was raised in Brownsville. He graduated from Brownsville in 1982 and continued baseball at Florida College.

“It was a little Christian two-year school. I spent one year there and then ended up going to Oklahoma State my sophomore and junior years.”

As part of the Oklahoma State baseball team Dascenzo played on College World Series in 1984 and 1985.

“We could start naming all the players that came out of Oklahoma State, but you might run out of tape,” Dascenzo joked. “Guys like Pete Incaviglia, John Farrell and Mike Henneman the list goes on and on. It was a great program and still is a pretty good program. “

He was drafted in the round 12 of the 1985 draft by the Chicago Cubs. He hadn’t expected it. At the time, he had planned to marry and return to college in the fall. Instead, he entered the world of Minor League Baseball.

Dascenzo rose through the Cubs’ minor league system and made his Major League debut on Sept. 2, 1988, against the Cincinnati Reds. In that game, he went 3-for-5. He stayed with the club through 1992 and played in a then-National League record 241 consecutive errorless games.

Dascenzo played parts of seven Major League seasons with Chicago (1988-1992), the Texas Rangers (1993) and the San Diego Padres (1996). He has a career .234 average with 42 doubles, 10 triples, five dingers, 90 runs batted in, 156 runs scored and 49 stolen bases.

In 1998, Dascenzo became a hitting coach in the Padres organization. 2008 begins his second campaign as manager of the Fort Wayne Wizards.