Indy Baseball Chatter: COUNT WILL GO UP, BUT 43 ONETIME INDEPENDENT PLAYERS ALREADY HAVE MAJOR LEAGUE INVITATIONS

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

COUNT WILL GO UP, BUT 43 ONETIME INDEPENDENT PLAYERS ALREADY HAVE MAJOR LEAGUE INVITATIONS

The count of former Independent players expected when major league spring training camps open next month is up to 43 but will go considerably higher when free agents Stephen Drew and Jerome Williams sign and all teams get around to announcing their non-roster invitees. The records maintained by the Independent Baseball Insider column, which resumes March 6, includes 26 players on 40-man rosters and 17 non-roster players at the moment.

The most recent non-roster invitees, mostly with Atlantic League ties, includes pitchers Jarrett Grube (Southern Maryland, Atlantic) with the Los Angeles Angels, Logan Kensing (Bridgeport, CT, Atlantic) with Seattle and Robert Coello (Edmonton and Calgary, Canada, Golden League) with the New York Yankees and corner infielder Andy Marte (York, PA, Atlantic) with Arizona. Kensing was in the Colorado organization last season and Coello with the Angels.

PATTERSON, GOLSON CHANGE ORGANIZATIONS

Free agent outfielders Greg Golson and Eric Patterson, who played with Pennsylvania-based Atlantic League teams Lancaster and York, respectively, have signed with new organizations. Golson has gone from Atlanta to Milwaukee (Class AA) and Patterson, who also plays the infield, from the Brewers to the Chicago White Sox where he has a Triple-A contract.

DI FELICE MOVES FROM MOUND TO BECOME A PITCHING COACH

Mark DiFelice, who got in some major league time with Milwaukee after pitching for both Somerset and Camden, NJ in the Atlantic League, is starting a new career. He was recently announced as Pittsburgh’s pitching coach for the Pirates’ Jamestown, NY team in the New York-Penn League.

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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