Midland Rockhounds April 27, 2009 Program

When I go to Midland Rockhounds games I buy a program from them as it showed the team rosters for the night along the news and notes of the team from the previous games. Instead tossing them away I kept every single one of them I bought. I stashed them in a backpack I drag with me to the games. With that in mind I decide to scan and post it showing who was on the roster and playing that night. It's fun looking back at the rosters on which players made it or didn't and which prospects achieve success, flamed out, or have longevity.

Most of the scorecards are from Wednesday night games because it used to be player photo night to first 500 fans. They stopped doing it and became "They win, its free on the next game that falls on Wednesday" promotion. My Wednesday nights during spring and summer became baseball game night.

Let's travel back 10 years ago to 2009. It was the year Midland won their third Texas League championship in franchise history. Now off to beginning of their run.

The first game I went to that year was April 27. They were on top of their division with 11-6 record.

Adrian Cardenas was a prospect who had good numbers in the minors. I expected him to crack A's lineup but they put him on waivers in 2012 which Cubs claimed. He would play his only season bouncing back and forth between Cubs and Triple-A Iowa calling it a career after the season.

The promotions includes the very popular fireworks nights along appearance of Johnny Bench (never did go) along giveaways of caps, t-shirts, and even pillowcases. I still have the beach towel they gave away from years prior to 2009 season.

Looking at top 10 leaders only Manny Pina, Daniel Descalso, and Chaz Roe remained active.

Talk about statistic breakdowns of both teams along notes and players hot streaks and probable starters for the next five games.

Luis Pujols managed Hooks that year. Keith Bodie would manage the team later in the years. The roster included Roger Clemens kid, Koby, who didn't make it to the show. Neither did Astros top prospects at the time such as Jimmy Van Ostrand, Collin DeLome, Brad James, and Sergio Perez. To see how bad Astros minor system at the time only Wilton Lopez made it to the majors. I was expecting Locke to make years down the road but never got the call up. Andy Van Hekken and Drew Meyer never returned after previously playing in the majors.

Josh Donaldson and Chris Carter were two big players to comes from this roster. About eight players would go on the majors years later after 2009 season. "Dangerous" Danny Putnam never returned after short majors appearance in 2007. The power hitting Tommy Everidge returned back to Midland last year as hitting coach. This is his second year with them. Darren Bush, Scott Emerson, and Webster Garrison are still in A's organization to this day. Bush and Emerson are now coaching for the A's while Garrison managing A's A+ club Stockton Ports.

Now to the scorecard. I feel old seeing the Blockbuster ad. Sam's Club is nearby within .75 mile to the stadium. Those local businesses are still around to this day. Universal Valve still advertises on the program to this day.

Hope ya'll enjoy the trip to memory lane.

Bowman Blaster Break

With Bownan released yesterday I venture out hoping to find a blaster box. Luckily today Walmart got a box and snagged one. On the six packs I got the following:

Pack 1:
Base - Christin Stewart, Luis Guillorme, Jake Cave, Shohei Ohtani, Jose Ramirez
Prospects - Taylor Widener,Luis Robert, Shane Baz
Prospects Chrome - Jose de la Cruz, Anthony Seigler
Top 100 Prospects - Travis Swaggerty

Pack 2:
Base - Ramon Laureano, Ozzie Albies, Mookie Betts, Francisco Lindor, Mitch Haniger, Matt Chapman
Prospects - Cole Ragans, Jose de la Cruz, Triston McKenzie
Prospects Chrome - Casey Mize, Nolan Gorman
Talent Pipeline - Alex Kirilloff/Brent Rooker/Nick Gordon

 

Pack 3:
Base - Enyel de los Santos, Jonathan Loaisiga, Cedric Mullins, Justus Sheffield, Chance Adams, Ryan Borucki
Prospects - Victor Mesa Jr, Chad Spanberger, Tirso Ornelas
Prospects Chome - Jordan Adams, Ke'Bryan Hayes
Ready For the Show - Fernando Tatis Jr

Pack 4:
Base - Josh Hader, Salvador Perez, Scooter Gennett, Mike Trout, Rowdy Tellez, DJ Stewart
Prospects - Will Smith, Jesus Luzardo, Luis Garcia
Prospects Chrome - Keibert Ruiz, Jesus Luzardo
Rookie of the Year Favorites - Christin Stewart

Pack 5:
Base - Khris Davis, Brian Anderson, Eugenio Suarez, Zack Greinke, Edwin Diaz, Aaron Nola
Prospects - Ronny Mauricio, Jarred Kelenic, Sixto Sanchez
Prospects Chrome - Andres Gimenez, Victor Victor Mesa
Top 100 Prospects -  Matthew Liberatore

Pack 6:
Base - Rougnod Odor, Bryse Wilson, Aramis Garcia, Trey Mancini, Kris Bryant, Ronald Guzman, Brandon Crawford
Prospects - Carter Kieboom, Dane Dunning, Nico Hoerner
Prospects Chrome - Franklin Perez, Griffin Canning

Not earth-shattering blaster box, but I notice only 5 of the prospect cards I got are their first Bowman cards. I took a look at checklist and pretty much 3/4 of prospects already have cards in previous Bowman sets. How many Blake Rutherford, Peter Alonso, and Eloy Jimenez can you get if you're player collector of them? Glad I got a blaster box (since they're always sold out quick), but looks like I rather purchase singles and get them autographed at minor league games.

Indycar Classic Weekend - Day 3

It's race day. Jon and I arrived at the track by dawn and Mazda MX5 Cup race starting. I made last minute shopping at Indycar tent and venturing around fan village before going to my seat at the main grandstand. MX5 race finished when I got there with Selin Rollan taking victory.

Race two of Indy Lights race with Robert Megennis taking the lead for first five laps before teammate Oliver Askew passed him and lead the rest of the way to take weekend sweep taking the points lead as well. Megennis and and David Malukas takes the remaining podium. Have some Rich Energy. (note: running gag on one of auto racing message boards)

Follow it up with race 2 of Stadium Super Truck race. Gavin Harlien lead the field to the green. Matt Brabham took the lead and the victory.

Then the main race, the 60-lap Indycar race around COTA. Teams wheeled their cars and got prepared along with drivers getting introduced on stage and driven around on a back of a truck.

Will Power lead the field to the green flag and watched the field jockeying positions at turn 1. Caught Zach Veach in the gravel on the big screen.

There were plenty of empty seats around me that sat in various seats in the main grandstand catching the cars stream past the start/finish line straight and into turn 1 as well cars pitting in and out. I was cheering on Will Power and Patricio O'Ward in the stands. First three cars over 2/3 of the race was Will Power leading following by Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta.

Most of the field pitted including Herta when Felix Rosenqvist got clipped by James Hinchcliffe and crashed causing a yellow flag. Power and Rossi who was first and second haven't pitted yet and got caught out by a caution.

As the remaining cars pitted under yellow Will Power, who lead the entire race before pitting, broke a driveshaft ending his race. Rosenqvist got his car repaired went back out. Herta inherit the lead with 14 laps to go.

The race restarted with Herta pulling away and lead the final 14 laps to win his first ever race and becoming youngest winner in Indycar history.

After the race it was fan track invasion as I walked on the start/finish line stretch taking various photos including kissing start/finish line made famous by drivers winning Indy 500 kissing the yard of bricks. My last photo at the end of turn 1 going into turn 2.

That ends the fun weekend at the track. I had super blast along with Jon walking around various parts of the track as well snapping photos of the racing action. I saw and met drivers, owners, and mechanics around the paddock. Chat up with random fans around the track and commenting on the t-shirts they wore. I saw one with the late Bryan Clausson and a mother/daughter with Labontes shirts. One wore Bobby Labonte Grand National (no. 44 Penrose from the early 90s) shirt while the other wore Terry Labonte 1984 NASCAR (no. 44 Piedmont). I chatted with a couple at the main grandstand who is making a trek to Texas Motor Speedway the following week for a NASCAR race. Hope this race remains on the schedule for a long time. I can't wait for next year's event.

My last parting shot on this Indycar Classic weekend is this video I put together from the video clips I recorded during the weekend. Enjoy!