Tag Archives: Texas League

18 Apr

remember the time

There was no joy in Jackson when the New York Mets moved their Double-A team to the Eastern League after the 1990 season, ending the team’s 16-year stay. But jubilation was back at Smith-Wills Stadium on April 17, 1991, when the Generals – the Houston Astros’ Double-A team – made their home debut. Before an announced crowd of 3,571, the Gens beat Shreveport 3-2 on Rusty Harris’ pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth inning. Hard to believe it’s been 30 years. … Managed by Rick Sweet, the ex-big league catcher, the ’91 Generals were a talented club. Three members of the original starting rotation made the big leagues: Shane Reynolds, Jeff Juden and Chris Gardner. Todd Jones, a later addition to the rotation, developed into a top-drawer closer in the majors. Minor league veteran Joe Mikulik was the team’s best hitter, batting .293 with 15 homers and 94 RBIs. He never made the big leagues but gained some measure of fame as a minor league manager. (Look him up.) Catcher Tony Eusebio (.261) was the first General to get the call to The Show, and he enjoyed a nice career. Second baseman Trent (Trenidad) Hubbard, shortstop Orlando Miller and pitcher Brian Williams are other 1991 alums who made it to MLB. The roster also included Lance “Bam-Bam” Madsen, Scott Makarewicz, Bert Hunter, Willie Ansley, Howard Prager and Richie Simon. The team finished with a winning record overall (70-66) but did not make the playoffs. Two years later, the Gens won a Texas League championship. Three years after that, they claimed another. Three years after that, they played their final game at Smith-Wills before the TL franchise, having been sold (to a group that included Nolan Ryan), moved to Texas.

02 Feb

a little history

In recognition of Black History Month, here’s a compelling nugget uncovered via a little research. The first black Mississippian to win a game in the major leagues was Dave Hoskins, a Greenwood native who pitched for Cleveland in 1953-54. He got that first win on May 10 of ’53, and there’s quite a story behind it. Hoskins was a two-way standout in the Negro Leagues and then, after “organized baseball” was integrated, in the Texas League, where in 1952 he became the first African-American to play in that minor league. Hoskins made his big league debut with the Indians on April 18, 1953, giving up a hit, five walks and a run in 2 1/3 innings. He worked five scoreless innings in a mop-up role on May 5 before getting the call for his third appearance five days later at old Busch Stadium against the St. Louis Browns. He pinch-hit for pitcher Bob Feller in the seventh inning of a game the Tribe trailed 3-0. Hoskins doubled but didn’t score. He then pitched a scoreless bottom of the seventh. In the top of the eighth, Al Rosen homered to make it 3-1, and with two out and two on, Hoskins was permitted to bat for himself. He blasted a go-ahead homer off Virgil Trucks. Hoskins then struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth and, after the Indians scored eight times in the ninth, closed out the 12-3 victory. A right-handed thrower and lefty hitter, Hoskins went 9-4, 3.81 ERA in 139 1/3 innings over 40 MLB games while batting .227. The homer on May 10, 1953, was his only one.

13 Apr

on this date

On this date in 1952, Greenwood native Dave Hoskins became the first black player to appear in a Texas League game. His story is chronicled in an milb.com piece published today. Hoskins, a Negro Leagues alumnus, debuted for the Double-A level Dallas Stars on April 13 and beat San Antonio. The right-hander yielded just two runs while working around eight hits and seven walks. Hoskins went 22-10 with a 2.12 ERA for Dallas that season – he also batted .328 – and made the majors in 1953 with Cleveland, posting a 9-3 mark with a 3.99 ERA. (He claimed to be 27 at the time, but it was later revealed that he was 36.) Hoskins pitched briefly for the Indians in 1954 but was not on their World Series roster that fall.

16 Sep

title hungry

Congratulations to Phillip Wellman, the former Mississippi Braves manager who piloted the Amarillo Sod Poodles to a Texas League championship on Sunday, beating Tulsa 8-3 in the decisive fifth game. This is the team’s first year in Amarillo after the franchise – still a San Diego affiliate — moved from San Antonio. (Sod poodle is a pioneer nickname for prairie dog.) It was the second championship for Wellman in 19 seasons as a minor league skipper; he won the other in 2008 in the second of his four seasons with the M-Braves. … Condolences to the Biloxi Shuckers, who lost at Jackson, Tenn., on Sunday in Game 5 of the Southern League Championship Series. The Shuckers, a Milwaukee affiliate, have lost in the SL finals in three of their five seasons on the Coast. … It’s now been 11 years since Mississippi celebrated a pro baseball championship, which is beginning to feel like a drought. Over a 15-year span starting in 1981, Jackson’s Texas League clubs won five championships – the Mets in 1981, ’84 and ’85 and the Generals in ’93 and ’96. The independent Senators won a Central League crown in 2003, and five years later, the M-Braves won their lone Southern League title. Long before that, Jackson-based teams won league championships in 1908, 1913, 1925, 1927, 1931, 1940 and 1947, according to research in the Minor League Encyclopedia of Baseball. The 1913 team, known as the Lawmakers, posted an impressive 71-24 record (.747 winning percentage) in the old Cotton States League. Mississippi did not have a pro club from 1953, when the original Senators left town, to 1975, when the Mets moved into Smith-Wills Stadium.

01 Aug

historically great

Fans of Double-A baseball in the Jackson area have seen some great hitters put up some great numbers over the years. Think Darryl Strawberry in 1982 or Roberto Petagine in 1993 or Ernesto Mejia in 2011. Picking one particular season as THE best is a very subjective exercise, but suffice it to say that current Mississippi Braves star Drew Waters belongs in the conversation. Waters, 20, leads the Southern League in hitting at .324. He also leads in doubles (35), triples (nine) and runs (62). He is third in on-base percentage (.369), fourth in slugging (.490) and has five homers, 41 RBIs and 13 steals in 105 games. Those numbers compare favorably to the luminaries of the past. Strawberry, playing for the Jackson Mets at Smith-Wills Stadium in ’82, put on a show worthy of the hype he was already receiving as the No. 1 overall draft pick of 1980. He hit a modest .283 but slugged .602 with 34 homers, 19 doubles and nine triples. He also stole 45 bases and drove in 97 runs. He was the Texas League’s player of the year. Gregg Jefferies won the TL award in 1987 after a season that topped Strawberry’s in some respects. Jefferies hit a ridiculous .367 with a .598 slug; he added 20 homers, 48 doubles and five triples while also stealing 26 bases and driving in 101 runs. Petagine, playing for the Jackson Generals in ’93, also was a TL POY and won the league batting title with a .334 average. He hit 15 homers and 36 doubles (.529 slug) and drove in 90 runs. A year later, Bobby Abreu put up a .303 average with 16 homers, 73 RBIs, 25 doubles, nine triples and 12 steals. Mejia, playing for the M-Braves at Trustmark Park in 2011, batted .297 with 26 homers, 99 RBIs and 37 doubles. He slugged .531. He did not win Southern League MVP, however. That went to some guy named Paul Goldschmidt. In 2013, Tommy La Stella of the M-Braves hit .343 but didn’t have the other big numbers (21 doubles, four homers, seven steals). In 2016, the M-Braves’ Dustin Peterson enjoyed an MVP-caliber season (Tyler O’Neill won the award) with a .282 average, 12 homers, 88 RBIs and 38 doubles. Waters doesn’t have the big homer and RBI totals, but he should certainly be in the running for league MVP. (The last Atlanta prospect to win it was Javy Lopez in 1992, when the franchise was in Greenville, S.C.) Win it or not, Waters has had an unforgettable season.

19 Jul

running on schedule

The projected MLB arrival time (per MLB Pipeline) for Petal’s Demarcus Evans is 2020. The big right-hander, pitching at Double-A Frisco in the Texas system, appears to be running on schedule. Evans, 22, has not allowed an earned run in nine straight appearances and has a 1.40 ERA over 15 games since being promoted from Class A Down East in late May. He posted an 0.81 and six saves for Down East. On Thursday night, Evans worked a clean ninth inning in a 4-2 win over Tulsa to notch his first Double-A save. He has 33 strikeouts and 13 walks in 19 1/3 innings. The 6-foot-4, 270-pound Evans, a 25th-round draft pick out of Petal High in 2015, throws what is described as an exploding fastball and a quality curve. He has averaged 13.7 K’s per nine innings in his five-year pro career. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him move up to Triple-A before this season ends. P.S. Playing shortstop for Tulsa in that Texas League game was Errol Robinson, the former Ole Miss star. He had two hits, including a homer, and boosted his average to .318 for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ affiliate. (He did not face Evans.) Robinson started this season in Triple-A but struggled (.220) and was sent down in late June to Tulsa, where he has begun to perk up.

27 Jun

flashback coming

Once upon a time, there was a Double-A team at Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson. Twenty years ago, the Jackson Generals, a Houston Astros affiliate in the Texas League, played their ninth and final season before bolting for Round Rock, Texas. Twenty years is a long time. No former Generals are still playing in the big leagues. There isn’t – or wasn’t — much left to remember them by here in central Mississippi. Until now. The Mississippi Braves will rekindle good memories for some old Smith-Wills fans on Friday night when they don throwback apparel and give away Generals replica jerseys at Trustmark Park in Pearl. Former Generals have been invited to attend. Con Maloney, former owner of the Texas League franchise, will throw out the first pitch. (Yes, the M-Braves are playing a team called the Jackson Generals, a Southern League club from Tennessee. Don’t let that confuse you.) The Mississippi-based Generals, who followed the Mets at Smith-Wills in 1991, won two league titles during their time at the ballpark on Lakeland Drive. Future big league stars such as Bobby Abreu, Lance Berkman, Billy Wagner, Freddy Garcia and Richard Hidalgo played there. (There’s a long list.) Former big leaguers Rick Sweet, Gary Allenson and Sal Butera managed there. Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell rehabbed there for the Astros. If all goes well, maybe a Jackson Mets throwback game will be next — though the idea of putting Braves prospects in Mets unies seems a little weird.

30 Apr

spirit of ’99

Has it really been 20 years? The first home game of the final season of the old Jackson Generals was played on April 19, 1999, at Smith-Wills Stadium. It could’ve gone better, to say the least. Gov. Kirk Fordice bounced the ceremonial first pitch. The Generals, the Double-A affiliate of the Houston Astros, then surrendered five first-inning runs and lost to Texas League rival Arkansas 9-2. Rick Ankiel got the win and also homered for the Travelers, who were managed by Jackson native and current Mississippi Braves skipper Chris Maloney. The loss dropped the Generals’ record to 3-8. Only 1,955 people turned out to see the lame-duck club, which had announced a year earlier that it was moving to Round Rock, Texas. The ’99 Gens would prove to be a pretty good team. Quite a few future big leaguers appeared on the roster, including Chris Truby (who hit 28 homers), Julio Lugo (.319, 25 steals), Keith Ginter, Brian Dallimore, Jeriome Robertson (15-game winner) and Wayne Franklin. They also occasionally started an all-Johnson outfield: A.J., J.J. and Ric. The Generals, managed by Jim Pankovits, finished 68-72 overall after making a run at the TL East second-half title. The championship actually came down to the last game of the season, also played at Smith-Wills. Alas, before the biggest crowd of the year (a turnstile count of 4,367), the Gens lost in heartbreaking fashion, 9-4 to Tulsa. It was 3-3 in the seventh inning when the Drillers’ Juan Pinella hit a grand slam that sucked the energy out of the old ballpark. The 25-year Texas League era at Smith-Wills began on April 19, 1975, with a pitch by the Jackson Mets’ Greg Pavlick. It ended on Sept. 8, 1999, on a pitch by Tulsa’s Matt Miller, a Delta State alum from Greenwood who would go on to pitch in the big leagues. … The M-Braves will pay tribute to the Generals and that bygone time during a series at Trustmark Park in Pearl from June 25-29.

06 Mar

the general idea

Cool idea by the Mississippi Braves to give a nod to the old Jackson Generals as part of the M-Braves’ celebration of the franchise’s 15th year in Pearl. The M-Braves will wear some throwback apparel when the Jackson (Tenn.) Generals (no relation to the other one) visit Trustmark Park from June 25-29. On June 28, the first 1,000 fans will receive a replica Jackson (Miss.) Generals jersey. As a refresher, the Generals were the Double-A Texas League affiliate of the Houston Astros and played at Smith-Wills Stadium from 1991-1999. That club produced a bevy of big league stars, including Billy Wagner, Lance Berkman, Bobby Abreu, Carlos Guillen, Freddy Garcia, Richard Hidalgo, Todd Jones, Julio Lugo, Daryle Ward, Melvin Mora, Brian Hunter and Scott Elarton, to name, well, more than a few. The Generals won two Texas League pennants (1993 and ’96). Of course, Jackson’s pro baseball legacy extends well beyond the Generals. The Mets – New York’s Double-A club – occupied Smith-Wills from 1975-1990, turned out an array of stars, as well (see Darryl Strawberry, Jeff Reardon, Mookie Wilson, Kevin Mitchell, et al.), and won three TL titles. And before the Mets there were a number of minor league teams that played in a long-gone ballpark at the Fairgrounds for many years up until the early ’50s. Included in that group was a Boston Braves farm team. And let’s not forget that after the Generals departed for Round Rock, Texas, two independent pro teams played at Smith-Wills: the DiamondKats (2000) and the Senators (2002-05). The Senators also won a championship. Bottom line: When it comes to pro baseball in central Mississippi, there’s a whole lot to celebrate.

15 Apr

pioneer spirit

On the day we celebrate Jackie Robinson’s historic feat of breaking the MLB color line in 1947, let’s also give a nod to Greenwood native Dave Hoskins. Hoskins was the first black player in two minor leagues, the Central League in 1948 and the Texas League in 1952. While there are reports about difficulties Hoskins bravely faced in both situations, he said this in a Society of American Baseball Research article: “All in all, I had no complaints.” “He was such a nice man, you couldn’t not love the guy,” a teammate, Joe Macko, said in that same piece. Hoskins got his start in the Negro Leagues and was a standout as both a pitcher and hitter. Recruited to the Dallas Eagles of the Texas League in 1952 by team owner Dick Burnett, Hoskins went 22-10 and batted .328. That got him a shot with the Cleveland Indians in 1953, and he went 9-3 with a 3.99 ERA as a 27-year-old rookie. (The SABR report says he was actually in his mid-30s by then.) Hoskins pitched for the pennant-winning Indians in 1954 but was not on their World Series roster. His big league career was over after 40 games, though he did play a few more years in the minors. He died in 1970.