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Home , Dave Duncan (baseball), Duffy Dyer, Frontier League, George Tsamis, Josh Kinney, River City Rascals

Wirz & Associates, Inc. Sports Consulting, PR and Marketing Specialists ------665-A North Trail Stratford, CT 06614 203 380-9931 Email: [email protected] www.WirzandAssociates.com

Independent Insider (Vol. 4, No. 30, October 12, 2006)

A Year in the Would Have Satisfied , Let Alone Being Part of Cardinals’ Postseason

By Bob Wirz

A baseball fan never needs extra hype when it is championship time because, well, that is the level everyone is seeking. At the same time, the interest builds even more when you know someone—or at least know something about a certain personality—who is at center stage.

I am here to tell you--if you do not already know it--that added bonus for Independent Baseball fans during ’s League Championship Series of 2006 is St. Louis Cardinals relief Josh Kinney.

Cheer for whatever team you like, but Josh Kinney deserves attention. He is one of our own; the only one of the 100 players active for either LCS who played in an Independent league.

Kinney did not have “star” written across his chest when he finished playing at Quincy (IL) University as a 22-year-old in 2001 and headed for a tryout with the Frontier League’s in the St. Louis-area community of O’Fallon, MO. He had gone undrafted.

“I did it (the tryout) because I liked to play,” the 27-year-old native of Coudersport, PA told me Wednesday, a few hours before he and his St. Louis playmates were due to open the Championship Series against the Mets.

Kinney said it would be “pretty neat” if he could make the River City team and get another summer out of baseball.

You might say he surpassed his goal. Future Hall of Fame Tony LaRussa first waived Kinney in from the bullpen July 3, and even though he went back to -A Memphis after a few weeks and did not in another major league game until September 6 he built up the team’s confidence to the point he was added to the postseason roster. It might have been a no-brainer for LaRussa and veteran pitching since the 6-foot-1 righthander was scored on in only one of his 10 September appearances in which he allowed just six hits and three walks in 11.1 innings. What’s more, Kinney was solid out of the bullpen twice in Cardinals wins over in the Division Series, including making another future Hall of Famer, Mike Piazza, look bad on a breaking ball, then into a play to end the eighth inning in Sunday’s clincher.

No. 5 Starter at River City

Typical of someone just starting out in , Josh Kinney said he didn’t know much about what to expect once he made the Frontier League roster. He knew he liked the idea of the team playing every day, and enjoyed the road trips during his brief stay, during which he called himself “the No. 5 starter”.

“I don’t remember much about it (his first start) to be honest,” he said. “I think I got the win, and I was pretty pumped about it.” The record shows he went eight innings and allowed six hits to Dubois County (of Huntington, IN). Two more starts (1-0, 1.71 in 21 innings in all) and St. Louis swooped in for his contract.

Potential Was Evident to Rascals Staff

Josh Kinney may not have expected much when he turned pro, but River City Manager and pitching coach Randy Martz knew they liked what they saw.

“You could see right away he was one of those guys (with promise)”, Fiala said. Not a major leaguer necessarily, but some potential. Fiala, who is entering his 14th season as head coach at Southwestern College in Belleville, IL and is a home-games-only coach for the (Sauget, IL) in the Frontier League, felt Kinney might reach Class AA or AAA, “then hope he gets in the right situation” where a major league team needs him.

Fiala praised the hurler’s “running ” plus a good breaking ball “so he could get both lefthanders and righthanders out”, liked his arm angle and “he threw strikes”. “He dominated right away,” added Martz, the head coach at Lewis & Clark Community College in Godfrey, IL. “He pretty much threw it past guys,” said Martz, who also coached injured Cardinals closer Jason Isringhausen when he was primarily a centerfielder in college. “And you could tell he (Kinney) was motivated. He was all business.”

Chris Carpenter Was an Early Fan

Cardinals ace liked what he saw in Kinney when they were teammates in and AA baseball in 2003. “I really thought (at that time) that Josh…had the stuff to pitch in the major leagues,” Carpenter told MLB.com. “No question about it.”

Four Postseason Organizations ‘Loaded’ With Independent Grads

While Josh Kinney is the only Independent Baseball player still active in the major league postseason, I can count nearly 20 people with some type of Indy experience who work for the Cardinals, Mets, Tigers or Oakland.

To name a few, Detroit infield coach Rafael Belliard played at Albany, NY in the and the Tigers’ Double-A manager, Duffy Dyer, led Bridgeport, CT in the Atlantic League for a time. Oakland’s assistant general manager and professional scouting coordinator, , worked for Springfield, IL in the Frontier League and scout Jeff Bittiger was a longtime pitcher and pitching coach for Fargo, ND in the Northern League. , who managed a number of the Mets players at Triple-A Norfolk, VA this season, formerly was skipper of both Sullivan (NY) County and Elmira, NY in the Northeast League.

Would Cory Lidle Have Made Majors Without Indy Season?

Only a month before his tragic death Wednesday, veteran major league pitcher Cory Lidle was making light—poking fun at himself, perhaps—about the 1993 season when he played Independent Baseball.

In reality, that summer with the Pocatello (ID) Posse, one of three Independent teams in the eight-time Pioneer League, gave him the second chance he needed to launch his eventual nine-year major league career with seven different teams.

Minnesota signed the non-drafted Lidle as an 18-year-old in 1991, but after two non- descript seasons (3-2 record) of rookie league baseball the Twins released him. Along came an offer from Pocatello. “Lidle laughed last month as he recalled his indifference; he hit the snooze button one morning and missed the tryout,” veteran baseball writer Tyler Kepner reported in The New York Times Thursday.

He was given a second chance, won eight of 12 decisions that summer and Milwaukee signed him at season’s end. Four years later he debuted in the majors with the .

Twin brother Kevin Lidle, who said Thursday he knew the reality of the plane crash had not yet set in with him, played with two Atlantic League teams during his professional career which spanned from 1992 to 2005. The irony for the twins was that Kevin was drafted (24th round by Detroit), then topped out at Triple-A. Basically a although he dabbled with pitching during his career, Kevin Lidle spent part of 2000 as a backstop at Somerset, NJ in the Atlantic League (.167 average in 20 games). He finished up with Bridgeport, CT in 2005, hitting .190 for the Bluefish while catching, playing the infield and making three mound appearances.

‘Frustration’ Award Goes to Brian Mazone

While nothing compares to the disaster of the Cory Lidle story, if there was an I-Am- Entitled-To-Be-Frustrated Award in baseball, my nomination for this season would go to onetime Northrn and Western League pitcher Brian Mazone. Mazone hurled one full season and parts of two others for Joliet, IL in the Northern after two years at Zion in St. George, UT, where the Golden League will have a team in 2007.

As we told you a few weeks ago, the 30-year-old lefthander was scheduled to make his major league debut by starting for playoff-minded Philadelphia September 6 only to have the previous night’s game rained out. The Phils juggled their rotation, and sent Mazone back to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the International League playoffs.

Despite his 13-3 regular season record in Triple-A and the close call, Mazone never did get to join the parent team. He was even snubbed on the International League All-Star team although his 2.03 earned average was nearly a full run ahead of the league runnerup, who was at 2.96. One can only hope he will soon be promoted to the 40-man roster, and get his chance next season. Saints Winning Both Games and Fans in Japan

The historic trip to Japan the St. Paul (MN) Saints were wrapping up Thursday seems to be an overwhelming success. Not only had the American Association team won its first four games by a combined scored of 36-11, but the Saints have been creating untold amounts of goodwill with their clinics, and in teaching the Japanese the unique style of promotions they helped popularize in the .

Goldklang Group publicist Tyler Tumminia points out the Saints, who are believed to be the first U.S.-based team to play games in Japan, were the No. 3 national news story one day.

Now, if only I can get a picture of Manager George Tsamis and coach Jackie Hernandez wearing their kimonos.

(The author has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as chief spokesman for two Commissioners and runs his own sports PR/marketing company in Stratford, CT. He is the author of The Independent Minor Leagues: ‘2005 Season in Review’ and a new blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com. Subscriptions to this weekly Independent Baseball Insider column are available at www.WirzandAssociates.com .)