Indy Baseball Chatter: WHAT A DEBUT FOR NEWEST SAINTS GRAD

Sunday, June 04, 2006

WHAT A DEBUT FOR NEWEST SAINTS GRAD

The St. Paul (MN) Saints, who almost certainly have had more of their former players reach the major leagues than any other Independent Baseball team, added another graduate Saturday. In fact, catcher Eliezer Alfonzo may have made the most dramatic debut.

Ten years of minor league duty, including a .300 season for the Saints in 2003, paid off when the 27-year-old Alfonzo blasted a two-run, sixth inning home run off Orlando (El Duque) Hernandez to power San Francisco from behind to a 5-4 lead and eventual 6-4 victory over the New York Mets in the opener of a rain-delayed Shea Stadium doubleheader. Alfonzo's homer spoiled El Duque's first game back in New York, where he had previously starred for the Yankees.

Alfonzo, who saw considerable spring training play with the Giants, had just been recalled from Class AA Connecticut. He went 1-for-4 in the game, and got into the nightcap as a defensive replacement.

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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