I stepped up to a pro shop counter at one of the beautiful golf courses on North Carolina's Outer Banks one day this week only to have the man who was about to collect my fees ask about the cap I was wearing. He probably expected to hear that it was a new version of Carolina Blue that he had not seen.
It happened to be a New Haven County Cutters cap, in Carolina Blue, and I explained that it was an Independent Baseball team from the Can-Am League and playing in Connecticut.
"Jose Canseco and Rickey Henderson", he said, without missing a beat, remembering that they had played in an Independent league (Atlantic). He didn't seem to know much more about the Indy game, but it certainly reinforces that people far removed from any Independent Baseball team knows something about this brand of baseball. I hope the next time either you or I run into something similar we don't have Jose Offerman's name tossed back at us. We want to be remembered for the positive things in our game, and the Canseco and Henderson references seemed positive.
Changing pages...
My morning collection of emails this Sunday brought news of a terrific strikeout performance in the United League. I had been worried about the league losing more games because of the latest rainy spell, but nothing stopped Santo Hernandez of the Laredo (TX) Broncos Saturday night. He struck out eight of the first 10 Rio Grande Valley batters he faced, and went on to a 16-K night in only eight innings of the 6-4 victory. I do not recall any Indy hurler striking out that many batters this season.
Hernandez is having a great season for himself, winning nine of 13 decisions for a team 13 games under .500.
Rain has played havoc with the Continental League's playoffs this weekend, but the first year circuit still hopes to have a champion crowned by tonight (Sunday).
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