Vancouver Player Spotlight - The Mennes

Backstory and history of a particular player- make them come to life!
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Vancouver Player Spotlight - The Mennes

Post by scottsdale_joe » Thu Jul 12, 2018 11:02 pm

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Vancouver Player Spotlight
Rashardo Menne III
by Caitlen Sullivan
Vancouver Sun Sports Reporter
June 15, 2035


PLAYER SPOTLIGHT
RASHARDO MENNE III


This is the story of Rashardo Menne Sr., Rashardo Menne Jr, and Rashardo Menne III.

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Rashardo Menne (the elder) was born in Ethiopia in 1919. At just 16 years old in 1935 he wed a young Ethiopian girl named Gelila who was only 15 years old. It was a marriage arranged by his parents and the parents of Gelila. Ethiopia was in the midst of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in which Italy had occupied Ethiopia. In early 1936 the young couple fled Ethiopia with one of Rashardo’s older cousins. They made it through the Sudan and ended up in Egypt. In 1937 Rashardo and Gelila stowed away on a freighter bound for Canada. They were discovered mid-trip after which they both worked on board to pay for their passage. The ship landed in Montreal where they requested and received asylum.

With very few skills Rashardo got a job in a bakery where he worked long hours while his wife became a house cleaner. They saved what little money they could, and in 1940 the couple was granted political asylum in the United States. Rashardo was just 21 years old at the time. Rashardo and Gelila settled in Burlington, Wisconsin where he was able to find a decent job with a large bakery. In his spare time he earned his high school GED. Gelila found work as a health care assistant. The couple lived a quiet life. Rashardo became a baseball fan of the Chicago Cubs.

Their life changed dramatically in 1962. Rashardo was 42 by this time and Gelila was 41. Suddenly Gelila was pregnant! On January 4, 1962 Rashardo Menne Jr. was born at a hospital in Milwaukee. Rashardo and Gelila doted on their son who would be an only child. The young Rashardo loved sports and played Little League Baseball in Burlington. He was good enough to be an All Star third baseman and eventually became the star player for the Burlington High School Demons.

In 1982 Rashardo Junior was offered a contract to play Major League Baseball in the then Monty Brewster Baseball Association. He had impressed scouts of the Vancouver Mounties and signed a deal with them. He quickly impressed his coaches as well. Just one year later at age 21 he became the starting third baseman for the Mounties, a position he held for five years.

In his best year in Vancouver (1985) he hit .301 and clubbed 30 home runs and knocked in 111. To this day he remains eighth all time in Mountie stolen bases and is in the top six in career Mountie OBP, OPS, and slugging percentage.

Rashardo went on to play six years with Omaha where he hit over .300 every year save one. He continued to be among the league leaders in stolen bases. After he left Omaha in 1994 he career went slowly downhill, but he continued to play until 1998. He posted a career WAR of a mighty respectable 79.2. He retired from baseball in 1999.

Rashardo had married his high school sweetheart Maryanne in 1983, his rookie year with the Mounties. The couple settled down in Vancouver where they had two girls, Julie in 1990 and Andrea in 1994. Maryanne passed away suddenly in 1998, an event that probably hastened Rashardo’s retirement from baseball. Rashardo and the girls moved back to Wisconsin in 1999 to be near family. They settled back in Burlington. Rashardo Sr, his dad, passed away in 2000. Then in 2003 Rashardo accepted the position of high school baseball coach at Kettle Moraine High School in Wales, Wisconsin. They lived in nearby Delafield, 10 miles away.

At Kettle Moraine Rashardo met Kelly Simpkins, a science teacher at the school. They fell in love and got married in 2008. Kelly was sixteen years younger than Rashardo, but they were a loving and happy couple. Rashardo retired as Kettle Mountain baseball coach in 2015, but stayed on as a team mentor and assistant coach, positions he holds to this day. Then on Saint Patrick’s Day in 2016 Kelly gave birth to Rashardo Menne III. Another ballplayer was born!

Rashardo Menne III grew up on the baseball diamond. Even as a toddler he hung out with his father on the Kettle Morraine High practice field and at team games. He became a star in Little League and American Legion baseball. He started for Kettle Morraine High, but he made his name in high school playing two years for the Samsung Lions, a high school all-star traveling team. His .453 batting average in 2031 was the highest ever recorded by a Lion. He had a 3.0 WAR one season and 2.6 WAR the other, in 40-game seasons, Samsung’s two best ever single season WARs.

In the 2033 BBA first year player draft, Rashardo III was the first round pick (17th overall) of the Vancouver Mounties, the very team his father started out with. He spent 2033 moving up the ladder from Lamarie (Rookie League), to Coxen Hole (Short A), to Prince George (A). In 2034 he started with Charleston (AA) and got called up to the Mounties in the last weeks of the season at age 18. Now he’s 19 years old and the starting third baseman for the Mounties. After a slow start, he’s doing well. His father, now 73 years old, comes to as many of his son’s games as possible and never misses one on television. His grandfather watches from above.
Last edited by scottsdale_joe on Thu Aug 30, 2018 5:06 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Vancouver Player Spotlight - The Mennes

Post by Ted » Fri Jul 13, 2018 1:39 am

Wonderful
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Re: Vancouver Player Spotlight - The Mennes

Post by bschr682 » Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:46 am

Not an accident that I drafted him...
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Re: Vancouver Player Spotlight - The Mennes

Post by bcslouck » Fri Jul 13, 2018 10:03 am

This is fantastic.
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Re: Vancouver Player Spotlight - The Mennes

Post by scottsdale_joe » Sat Jul 14, 2018 11:28 am

bschr682 wrote:
Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:46 am
Not an accident that I drafted him...
Figured that
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Re: Vancouver Player Spotlight - The Mennes

Post by bschr682 » Sat Jul 14, 2018 11:34 am

scottsdale_joe wrote:
Sat Jul 14, 2018 11:28 am
bschr682 wrote:
Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:46 am
Not an accident that I drafted him...
Figured that
although it was a really easy choice with that bat he has...
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Re: Vancouver Player Spotlight - The Mennes

Post by RonCo » Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:48 am

Great read.
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