Indy Baseball Chatter: BREWERS PROMOTE JOE THATCHER TO MAJOR LEAGUE CAMP

Saturday, March 17, 2007

BREWERS PROMOTE JOE THATCHER TO MAJOR LEAGUE CAMP

How often do we hear of a player being promoted during spring training? Not often.

But that is exactly what happened to onetime Frontier League hurler Joe Thatcher. Milwaukee elevated the former River City Rascals (O'Fallon, MO) lefthander to their major league spring training roster virtually simultaneously with the writing of our latest Independent Baseball Insider column, which was singing his praises as perhaps second in line behind incumbent southpaw specialist Brian Shouse.

The promotion doesn't mean Thatcher will be on the Opening Day roster, of course, but it is further proof of how much they like the soon-to-be 26-year-old who Brad Del Barba signed the day after seeing him in the 2005 Frontier League All-Star Game. His future seems bright.

"Anybody who wears a uniform over here (major league camp) has a chance to make the club," General Manager Doug Melvin told The Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal.

And, it gives fans of Independent Baseball one more player to cheer.

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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