Indy Baseball Chatter: JON WEBER LANDS IN TIGER SYSTEM AND BRIAN SWEENEY WITH PARENT MARINERS

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

JON WEBER LANDS IN TIGER SYSTEM AND BRIAN SWEENEY WITH PARENT MARINERS

The telephone rang this morning, and I found the familiar voice of Jon Weber on the line.

Jon, who many people remember for his brilliant spring training with the New York Yankees (.483 and the outstanding rookie award)followed by a disappointing few weeks with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and his eventual release, had just signed with Detroit where he will start play with the Toledo Mud Hens Thursday.

This is, once again, a happy guy. Now, if only his usual run of hits follow maybe, just maybe, the 32-year-old lefty outfielder will get his first trip to the major leagues.

Another classy guy, reliever Brian Sweeney, got the call he had hoped for yesterday, rejoining the Seattle Mariners, for whom he last pitched in 2003. Sweeney spent parts of 2004 and 2006 with San Diego, went to Japan for a time, and was signed out of the Somerset Patriots' Atlantic League preseason camp in April.

Weber and Sweeney are both veterans of Independent leagues, Weber with Canton, OH in the Frontier League and later with Fargo, ND of the Northern League while Sweeney started in the departed Heartland League with Lafayette, IN.

We will include some of Weber's thoughts and have more to say about Sweeney in this week's subscriber-based Independent Baseball Insider.

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Bob Wirz

Former chief spokesman for Major League Baseball Commissioners Bowie Kuhn and Peter Ueberroth. Six years as publicity director for the Kansas City Royals, and a background in newspaper, radio and television. Started Wirz & Associates, a sports PR and consulting firm, in 1985. Has written extensively on Independent Baseball since 2003.

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About 'My Nebraska'

It seems almost universally accepted that Nebraskans are friendly, hard-working people.

A native son, who eventually transitioned to the East Coast because it was the best avenue to follow his passion of continuing to work in major league baseball, has published a book to share a lifetime of memories of growing up in the Cornhusker state.

You may have guessed it when you saw the title: My Nebraska. Yes, Bob Wirz, now a youthful 85, is sharing his "rich memories of growing up in rural Nebraska" in the 1940s and 1950s in a delightful 136 pages in the book produced by Dorrance Publishing in Pittsburgh, PA.

Wirz, who got to live his passion of working at the highest levels of baseball and later developing his own sports public relations and marketing company, lovingly empties out his memories of everything from counting millions of tiny trees to playing grass-roots baseball where the age of teammates might run from the early teens to the 50s.

The colorful cover of My Nebraska, which features two paintings from Dunning, NE rancher/artist Laron McGinn that depict the beautiful landscape of rural Nebraska and the ranching lifestyle, sets the tone for the 5 x 8 book also filled with meaningful pictures.

It is "a wistful and endearing love letter to Nebraska filled with memories shared by generations raised in small towns throughout the Midwest", praises Shari Veil, who heads up the journalism and mass communications department at the University of Nebraska.

My Nebraska, a 5x8 paperback, is priced at $19.95 plus $4.00 for handling and shipping. Autographed copies may be ordered at www.WirzandAssociates.com