This will be a semi-regular, "News and Notes/musings" style column. To catch us up on this season, for this issue I'm focusing solely on "Milestones":
Milestones:
The Greenville Moonshiners' Leroy Lane got his 2000th career hit on 6/11/95, going 5-5 against the Bobwhites. Lane is a career .305 hitter who has been with the Moonshiners since 1987. With 732 steals, Lane is 10th on the All-Time list. He's having a career year at age 30, batting .350 this year. I'd put even money on Lane, who broke into the bigs at age 19, making a strong push for 3000 hits.
Ulysses "Sledgehammer" Chang of the Baltimore Monarchs hit the 300th home run of his career 6/11/95 against the Louisville Sluggers. Earlier in the year he also scored the 1000th run of his career. Chang, who signed a 3 year deal with Baltimore in the offseason, is having the worst year of his career. Though never much of a contact hitter (lifetime .241 average), he's batting just .196 this year and is very unhappy. I suppose Baltimore is as unhappy that they are now on the hook for just over $8M over a year year stretch for this fading 34 year old slugger.
Gabriel "Pretty Boy" Steel, shortstop for the Las Vegas Hustlers, notched the 2000th hit of his career on 5/22 in a 5-4 win over Birmingham at The Casino. Steel is often noticed more for his defense than his bat, but looking at his career he is a vastly underrated offensive talent. Many years of 40 doubles, 10 triples, and 20 homers with an average around .280 litter his 12+ year career. He's in position to continue this success throughout his 30's.
The Hawaii Tropics' 3B Dave Manzanillo socked his career 300th homer on 5/3 at Monarchs Park in Baltimore. Sadly he fractured his thumb 9 days later and missed four weeks, but he's back in action now. Manzanillo has as much raw power as any player in the league. His first full season was at age 25, and he hit 48 HR and 147 RBI for the Madison Wolves. Manzanillo is a below average third baseman who would benefit from a move to first base to extend his career and balance his overall value. He will certainly approach the 400 HR barrier, barring injury, and perhaps beyond.
Manzanillo's Hawaii teammate, closer Brian Fisher, notched the 300th save of his MBBA career on 4/19 at home versus the Madison Wolves. Fisher, who was part of the now defunct (or on hold) "Scout a MLB'er" program, left Major League Baseball to come to the MBBA and is glad he did. He's now 10th on the All-Time Saves list, now just 138 saves behind the New Orleans Crawdads legendary Gunga Oogalagunga who, on a sidenote, is no longer the Crawdads closer which is completely and utterly sacreligious. Wherever Jerimy Kopra is now, he just shed a single tear.
