Indy Baseball Chatter: INDEPENDENT PLAYERS MAKE BIG JUMP OVER ONE YEAR AGO ON OPENING DAY ROSTERS

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

INDEPENDENT PLAYERS MAKE BIG JUMP OVER ONE YEAR AGO ON OPENING DAY ROSTERS

With 16 of its former players on Opening Day major league rosters, Independent Baseball made a huge jump over one year ago. The list would be even more impressive if not for the fact five near certain roster candidates are one disabled lists. We will have the full list, including salaries, when our weekly Independent Baseball Insider column goes out to subscribers on Thursday.

One who did not make it to opening day was Nelson Figueroa (Long Island, NY, Atlantic League), a standout for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic. The 38-year-old right-hander was in spring training with Arizona.

RICE GETS FIRST MAJOR LEAGUE OUTING BEHIND HIM

Terry Collins played it perfectly with Scott Rice, getting the 14-year minor leaguer into his first major league game in a non-pressurized situation.
With the New York Mets leading San Diego 11-2 on Opening Day at Citi Field, Collins brought the southpaw reliever in for the ninth inning. The Atlantic League veteran (York, PA, Long Island, Newark, NJ) struck out the first two batters he faced (Nick Hundley and Cameron Maybin), then got a routine grounder to second to finish the game.

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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