Indy Baseball Chatter: 18 INDEPENDENT PLAYERS SPOTTED SO FAR ON THIS SPRING'S WBC ROSTERS

Thursday, January 17, 2013

18 INDEPENDENT PLAYERS SPOTTED SO FAR ON THIS SPRING'S WBC ROSTERS

I have not had sufficient time to examine all of the rosters closely since the provisional rosters were announced for the 16 World Baseball Classic teams today, but I have picked up 18 names so far, including several players who were in Independent leagues this past season. I expect to have considerably more to say in next week's Independent Baseball Insidercolumn and possibly in this space. The players identified so far, the team they will play for and their Independent affiliations of the past:

AUSTRALIA (1): LHP Chris Oxspring, Cook County, IL, Frontier League.

CANADA (5): LHP Andrew Albers, Quebec, Can-Am League; RHP Shawn Hill, York, PA, Atlantic League; RHP Scott Richmond, Edmonton, Northern League; INF Jonathan Malo, Quebec; INF Jimmy Van Ostrand, Sugar Land, TX, Atlantic.

ITALY (3): RHP John Mariotti, Quebec; RHP Brian Sweeney, Lafayette, IN, Heartland League, and Somerset, NJ, Atlantic (DNP); 1B Chris Colabello, Worcester, MA, and Nashua, NH, Can-Am.

PUERTO RICO (1): RHP Nelson Figueroa, Long Island, NY, Atlantic.

SPAIN (8): RHP Eddie Morlan, Southern Maryland, Atlantic; LHP Richard Salazar, Sioux City, IA, American Association; Nick Schumacher, Sioux City; INF Barbaro Canizares, Winnipeg, American Association; INF Paco Figueroa, Southern Maryland; OF Daniel Figueroa, Grand Prairie, TX, American Association; OF Yasser Gomez, McAllen, TX, North American/United League; OF Gabe Suarez, Newark, NJ, Long Island, NY, Camden, NJ, Road Warriors, all Atlantic, and Kansas City, KS, American Association, Florence, KY, Frontier and Lincoln, NE, American Association.

Oxspring, Hill, Richmond, Figueroa and Sweeney all played in the major leagues after being in an Independent league.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE INDEPENDENT BASEBALL INSIDER FOR 2013. 40 issues for only $48 through December, 2013; Scouts: $32

REQUEST A FREE WEEK OF THE INDEPENDENT BASEBALL INSIDER

Get the independent minor league baseball trivia question of the day by clicking this link: Independent Minor League Baseball Trivia Questions

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment

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