Indy Baseball Chatter: EYES ON CROW, RYAN, ALDRIDGE, JONES AS MINOR LEAGUE SEASON STARTS.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

EYES ON CROW, RYAN, ALDRIDGE, JONES AS MINOR LEAGUE SEASON STARTS.

In this week's Independent Baseball Insider column, we wrote about the sterling pitching battle between the first two touted right-handers who prepped at Fort Worth, TX in the American Association. We were talking about Kansas City's Luke Hochever and Max Scherzer of Detroit.

The third such hurler to get in work at Fort Worth prior to being drafted, Royals hopeful Aaron Crow, also had a solid outing on opening night for Class AA Northwest Arkansas (Springdale). Crow, who continued to open eyes during his first major league spring training in Arizona, went 4.2 innings and was touched only for an unearned run.

Crow allowed four hits, walked three and struck out two, but needed one more out to qualify for the 5-1 win over San Antonio. Crow threw 80 pitches (48 strikes).

ALDRIDGE, RYAN OKAY IN FIRST TWO AT SALT LAKE CITY

Many eyes will be on former Atlantic League outfielders Michael Ryan (Somerset, NJ) and Cory Aldridge (Newark, NJ) early this season after they came so very close to crowding their way onto the Los Angeles Angels Opening Day roster.

Salt Lake City has dropped its first two games, but Ryan, who has been in rightfield and DH, is 3-for-7 with a double. Aldridge, the leftfielder and cleanup hitter, has a triple and single in eight at-bats.

Jacque Jones's comeback effort got off to a good start when he homered on opening night for Rochester, NY, Minnesota's top farm club. Jones played for a time last summer at Newark.

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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