Heels On The Field: A Baseball Blog

Girls Gone Pro?

I was insane when I read this: A sixteen year old girl, Eri Yoshida was drafted by an Independent Japanese baseball team, making her the first to achieve this.

While I don't think Major League Baseball will ever be a unisex sport, I would love to see more girls play at the Indy level. They will develop skills that, perhaps, just playing softball they would not. It's a challenge and one I know more girls will feel inspired to pursue. Will we see a higher level league for women in the future that is similar to MLB? I am not in any way diminishing the toughness or credibility of women's softball, but I wonder if there won't be a more similar league where girls are playing the same way the boys are.

Yoshida just took the first swing.

(Like how I did that? Wasn't that clever?! Of course she is a pitcher....)

Mike Coolbaugh Award Makes Debut

Oklahoma City Redhawks Manager Bobby Jones has been honored with the first Mike Coolbaugh award.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081117&content_id=480995&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp

There is also a golf tournament taking place on November 8th in honor of Mike Coolbaugh. It will be held at the Tipatio Springs Golf Resort in Boerne, Texas.

Congratulations to Jones. Knowing Mike Coolbaugh's great name goes on in this way is so wonderful.

Mike Coolbaugh Award

Mike Coolbaugh may no longer be here, but baseball is making sure to not forget him.

Coolbaugh, the only coach in baseball history to lose his life on the field, will be honored with an award in his name. The annual award will be given to a person with an outstanding work ethic and knowledge of the game of baseball. Coolbaugh played mostly in the minor leagues, but also played some major league ball with the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals. He came back to the game as a coach for the Tulsa Drillers and was struck by a line drive that instantly killed him.

The recipient of the award will be announced on November 17th.

Indy Notes

Independent baseball continues to raise the bar with the Atlantic League Long Island Ducks hiring of former Major Leagu catcher Gary Carter to manage. Also adds to that "Catchers make good managers" bit.

Atlantic City Surf late-season pickup Matt Pike is pitching well in Venezuela in the Winter League. He's got five saves with a 2.08 ERA. With the retirement of pitcher and coach J.C. Huguet it will be interesting to see what direction the Surf go in with both filling that spot in the rotation and getting a bench coach for Fielder.

Also interesting? Seeing if the officiating improves in the Can-Am League.

No surprise: Hal Lanier will return as skipper of the Sussex Skyhawks. He won the MOY award last year for his incredible achievement with the Can-Am League champs.

And the Worcester Tornadoes picked up INF Jeff LaHair's option.

Oh, and ESPN is looking for sluts. In case you hadn't heard.

http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2008/11/14/espn-drops-ad-campaign-because-of-horrible-casting-call-stereoty/

Thunder, Marson and the AFL

Lou Marson, where are you going after winning the World Series?

The Arizona Fall League! Oh...well, yeah.

Marson arrived from his Phillies WS win and got a three bagger and two RBI to start his time off in Phoenix.

Kevin Russo is doing well for the Javelinas. He's got a seventeen game hitting streak going and is hitting .406.

Phil Hughes, Jeff Marquez and Kevin Whelan have all pitched well in the AFL. Don't let Hughes high ERA fool you. It was one really bad outing in an otherwise fantastic showing so far. Marquez has given up only one run in his past two appearances. And against Whelan opponents are hitting only .167 off him.

While Thunder manager Tony Franklin said that the guys who played for him this past season may not all be ready to pitch consistently at the highest level of the game, they are certainly making huge progress. Franklin is a calming force and it's worth noting that his influence has likely helped keep guys focused. Marquez in particular seems to have bounced back from the injury that had given him problems last season.