Indy Baseball Chatter: MAJOR LEAGUE DREAMS END--AT LEAST FOR NOW

Friday, March 20, 2009

MAJOR LEAGUE DREAMS END--AT LEAST FOR NOW

It is too bad there have to be two sides to most stories.

I wrote extensively in Thursday's Independent Baseball Insider column about Indy grads who are showing well in major league spring training camps. This is the flip side, those players whose time has ended in the major league camps--at least for this spring. All of these players have been reassigned to minor league camps unless otherwise noted. The former Independent affiliations are in parenthesis:

OFF 40-MAN MAJOR LEAGUE ROSTERS: P Travis Schlichting, Los Angeles-NL (Kansas City, KS, Northern League); P R.J. Swindle, Milwaukee (Schaumburg, IL, Northern and Newark, NJ, Atlantic League).

NON-ROSTER INVITEES: R Seth Etherton, Arizona (Long Beach, CA, Golden League); P Charlie Zink, Boston (Yuma, AZ, Western League); INF Brian Myrow, Chicago-AL (Winnipeg, Northern); P Adam Pettyjohn, Cincinnati (Long Beach, Golden); 3B Corey Smith, Kansas City (Newark, Atlantic); P Tom Martin, New York-NL (Long Island, NY, Atlantic); 1B Tagg Bozied, Oakland, (Sioux Falls, SD, Northern); P Jerome Williams, Oakland (Long Beach, Golden); P Gabe DeHoyos, San Diego (Schaumburg, Northern); P Jason Childers, Tampa Bay (Richmond, IN, Frontier League); P Bobby Brownlie, Washington (Newark, Atlantic).

Outfielder Jay Gibbons (Long Island, Atlantic) was released by Florida.

While these players hopes of being in the majors have been dashed this time just think how many other players would have loved the experience of at least being in a major league camp.

By our count, 42 other players with Independent Baseball experience remain in major league camps with a little over two weeks to go before opening day.

Bob Wirz

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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