Parkville wins early game

Here's the Wichita Eagle article on Clarinda's win.

Parkville won the 8:00 a.m. game today, defeating the Dallas Buffalo 9 runs to 2.

Clarinda wins in extra innings

Here's the story from the NBC website:

The Clarinda (IA) A's win in the 13th over the Maxim (CA) Yankees 9-8 in a thrilling game. Daniel Descalso scored the winning run on an error.

3/8's of MINK represented at NBC

Beatrice lost the Central Regional tournament championship to Clarinda, but Beatrice goes to World Series as Clarinda already has a bid from the MINK regular season crown.

So Clarinda, Beatrice and Parkville will all be part of the field in Wichita this year. We wish them the best of luck.

Looking to the future

The Capital-Journal has an article this morning about the end of the 2005 season, and plans for 2006.

Quotes from the GM:

"We did OK, but we got a little thin on our pitching at the end," general manager Brett Cowdin said Thursday.

"We feel it was a success, without question," Cowdin said. "The big picture is we got the season started, we made it through financially and we were competitive. I think we lost seven or eight one-run games and that swings your record quite a bit one way or the other. That hurt us late in the year when we had a losing streak.

"Financially, we came out fine. We got all of our bills paid and had a little bit left over, so that was good."

"In our communication with the colleges, we're way ahead of last year because now we are established," Cowdin said. "They had never seen us operate before, but I think we've proven ourselves. They know kids can come here and have fun and be treated well.

"The kids we had were great and I think a lot of them will be back next year, and the community was very supportive of us. We'll be better organized next year. There's a lot of things I can do better and that's what we're going to be working on."

Mudcats end Giants season

The Chillicothe Mudcats defeated the Topeka Golden Giants in an elimination game at the Central Regional Wednesday night. The final score was 10-2.

The Giants final record including the post-season was 17-19.

Rainout delays Giants-Mudcats game

See comments below. They will try again tonight at 7:30.

Giants eliminate Omaha

The Topeka Golden Giants defeated Omaha Varsity Gold 7 runs to 4 (thanks Anonymous). Peter Davenport got the win. Nick Carlson hit a two run homer in the first.

The Giants will face the Chillicothe Mudcats tonight at 7:30 in another elimination game. A win tonight would mean the Giants would play again on Thursday at 4:30 against either St. Joe, Parkville, or Omaha winery. The winners' bracket has Beatrice facing Clarinda at 7:30 tomorrow night.

Golden Giants fans should be rooting for fellow MINK leaguers Parkville and Clarinda who already have secured NBC berths. The Central Regional's NBC World Series bid goes to the highest finishing team who has not already secured a bid. It is in the Golden Giants best interest to have Clarinda and Parkville stay alive, rather than teams who are actively competing against them for a bid. However, without a win tonight, all this scoreboard watching is meaningless. Go Giants!

Captial-Journal article

Giants face Omaha at 4:30 today

The Golden Giants opponent in today's 4:30 elimination game at the Central Regional will be fellow MINK expansion team Omaha Varsity Gold.

Bruins send Giants to loser's bracket

From the Bruins' website:

Tony Watson pitched 7 scoreless innings of 2-hit ball with 9 K's as the Bruins went on to defeat Topeka 4-0. Joba Chamberlain will pitch on Sunday night in a winner's bracket game against the Saints.

Which means the Giants will face the winner of tomorrows 1:30 game between Fremont and Omaha Varsity Gold (who apparently lost to the Saints this morning) at 4:30 on Monday.

Clarinda schedule

I found the NBC Central Regional Schedule on the Bruins' website.

If the Giants defeat the Bruins today, they would play the winner of the Saints-Varsity Gold game at 7:30 on Sunday. (Should they lose they would play at 4:30 on Monday against either Fremont or the loser of the Saints-Varsity Gold game.)

Details on yesterday's bizarre win

Despite my Topeka bias, I already felt a little sorry for the Fremont pitcher when I heard that the Golden Giants had won despite being no hit. The details in today's Topeka Capital-Journal generate a little more sympathy:

Fremont pitcher Peyton Lewis threw a no-hitter, and also produced his team's only run with a home run, plus a double.

Here's the other perspective from the Fremont Tribune, with the following quote from Generals manager Rich Ray:

"It was a great opportunity to play a team like Topeka," Ray said. "Peyton was on and he stepped up to the plate for us. Our other guys, I thought, performed well, too. ... We made the plays that we needed to make."

The Generals will play the loser of a Saints-Varsity Gold matchup on Sunday at 1:30. As stated below the Golden Giants play the Bruins today at 4:30.

Giants 1-0 at Central Regional

Per the posted below, the Topeka Golden Giants defeaded the Fremont Generals 2-1, despite being no-hit, apparently scoring the winning run on a wild pitch.

The Giants will now face Beatrice at 4:30 tomorrow (Saturday).

By the way, there was some good stuff in the preview of today's game in the Topeka Capital Journal. The Giants final regular season record was 15-17 overall and 11-17 in the MINK League, so apparently they lost all the road games that don't have results posted here. (Doesn't matter. All that matters now is that they are 1-0 in the postseason.)

Here's an Esposito quote from the article:

We've pitched well lately and we haven't hit, or we hit and we haven't pitched," Esposito said. "Or, we've hit and pitched but we didn't play defense. We have to have all three rolling. We have to find a high level and keep it there to win the regional.

"Nobody up there is better than us. They've played better than us at times, but when we have all three parts of the game going we can compete with anybody."

And just to be complete, here is the preview from today's Fremont paper.

Central Regional Game 1

The Topeka Golden Giants will play their first Central Regional game in Clarinda against the Fremont (NE) Generals at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.

Here's a brief article on the Fremont Generals.

Giants fall to Bruins

No newspaper article yet, but the Beatrice Bruins website is reporting that they defeated the Topeka Golden Giants 7-4 last night.

Final regular season game in Beatrice tonight

As I type this the Topeka Golden Giants should be playing the Beatrice Bruins in their last 2005 MINK league contest.

Score postings below are appreciated, but if all else fails tomorrow's Beatrice Daily Sun should have a story.

The post season begins in Clarinda on Friday with the start of the NBC Central Regional.

UMB leadoff hitter Josiah Enyert steps in against Randy Wild. 

One final Seventh Inning Stretch. 

Giants win final home game

The Topeka Golden Giants won their final home game against UMB Bank of the Ban Johnson league 17 runs to 9.

More details on Sunday

The opponent will be UMB Bank of Kansas City's Ban Johnson League, whose roster includes Ichabod Sam Sissom and a shortstop named Josiah Enyart who is leading that league in several categories. UMB Bank was 17-12 as of July 10th.

The hot dogs are now free. Admission is $2. Game starts at 7 p.m. at Seaman High School's baseball field. Come out and see your Topeka Golden Giants at home one more time this summer.

CJ article

Giants lose in St. Joe

I don't have a subscription to the St. Joseph News-Press, but a Google News Search shows enough of the article on last night's Giants-Saints game to determine that the Giants lost it in the bottom of the ninth. Final score 6-5.

Giants hand game to Saints
St. Joseph News Press, MO - 16 hours ago
... on an error — for a 6-5 victory against the Topeka Golden Giants. ... he wasn’t surprised that good things happened to the Saints (28-12, 14-11 MINK) in the ...

By my count the Golden Giants are now 11-12 in the MINK and 14-12 overall, the Saints are apparently 14-11 in the MINK, and we don't know the rest of the standings. The Giants now have more than their share of the MINK's losses, which doesn't make a pennant bid seem promising. Hopefully the momentum will turn back around in time for the start of the NBC Regional next Friday.

The Giants are playing at Parkville as I type this. Any score postings below are, as always, appreciated.

Speaking of the Sluggers, they have already secured an NBC World Series berth through the SW Missouri Tournament of Champions. So the MINK League will send at least 2 teams to Wichita this summer.

Giants swept by Clarinda

The Topeka Golden Giants lost twice to the Clarinda A's last night at Hummer Sports Park in a rare 2-9 doubleheader.

Game 1 was a pitcher's duel with a final score of 2 to 1. The Giants came close a couple of times with runners in scoring position in the 7th and 9th.

Game 2 ended up with Clarinda having 9 runs to the Giants 3. The game stayed fairly close for the first 8 innings, followed by four Clarinda runs in the top of the ninth.

So the Golden Giants lose 3 games to Clarinda in 2 days, falling to 14-11 overall and 11-11 in the MINK.

While this was the Golden Giants final home game at Hummer, it was announced last night that there will be one more home game on Sunday the 17th, a fan appreciation night at Seaman High School's recently renovated baseball field. $2 admission, $1 hot dogs. 7 o'clock start. Non-league opponent to be announced.

The Giants also have upcoming road games in Parkville, Blue Springs, Omaha, St. Joe and Beatrice on the schedule, followed by the Central USA regional in Clarinda from July 22nd to the 27th.

Giants in Clarinda

The Topeka Golden Giants played against the A's in Clarinda tonight. The A's will come to Topeka for a doubleheader tomorrow to make up for June 4th's rain out. I'd assume it's a 4pm start.

Anyone got a score for tonight's game in Clarinda?

Golden Giants win at Beatrice (in 14 innings)

The Topeka Goden Giants defeated the Beatrice Bruins 5-4 in Beatrice last night. From the Beatrice Daily Sun:

The Golden Giants tied the score with a two-out rally in the eighth inning, benefiting from a Bruins' error, a walk and two singles.With the game in extra innings, the Bruins were able to cut down a potential lead run at the plate in the top of the 11th inning, keeping the score knotted at 4-all.Topeka, however, was able to score a run in the top of the 14th inning on a single, sacrifice, groundout and another single to take a 5-4 lead.The Bruins tried to answer in the bottom of the inning, but Marshall was cutdown at the plate and the Golden Giants recorded the final out before Beatrice had another scoring opportunity.

Article on DH split

Here's the Capital Journal article about the DH-split with the Saints. The Golden Giants are 10-8 in the MINK, 13-8 overall.

Golden Giants split with St. Joe

I guess after waiting so long between posts, I should of just waited for the 10 o'clock news to be over. The Giants split the DH with St. Joe winning game 5 runs to 3, after losing the first game 5-2 in 8 innings.

Still need scores from the weekend road games, please post a comment if you have them.

Giants fall to Chillicothe

Apologies for the down time. The Topeka Golden Giants lost at home to the Chillicothe Mudcats on Friday night. The final score was 10-4.

I've missed a few games, including tonight's home doubleheader against Clarinda. Anyone out there have info on the road game in Clarinda or tonight's games?

Mudcats in Topeka tonight/down time

My apologies, but updates to the site may be limited for the next few days.

The Golden Giants face the Chillicothe Mudcats tonight at 7 p.m. at Hummer Sports Park. The Golden Giants are currently 9-5 in the MINK League and 12-5 overall (thanks to a win in Wichita, tip of the hat to the anonymous poster of that score).

Thanks to having yesterday's MINK standings we know that the race is tight, making the importance of tonight's game (and every remaining game) clear.

Standings!!!!

I finally got around to reading the paper today. And what did I find next to the article on last nights loss:

MINK STANDINGS
League Overall
W L W L
Omaha 9 4 11 5
St. Joseph 9 5 19 6
Topeka 9 5 11 5
Beatrice 6 6 8 7
Parkville 7 9 14 9
FCA 5 11 5 11
Chillicothe 4 11 9 12

Sorry, I can't seem to get those to look right using Blogger's interface. Anyway, Topeka is 1/2 game back from Omaha, in a tie for 2nd place with St. Joe.

If anyone has Wichita results, please post a comment below.

Standings info

KMAJ reported this morning that the Topeka Golden Giants are only 1/2 game behind first place Omaha Varsity Gold in the MINK standings.

Giants fall to Bruins

The Giants lost to the Beatrice Bruins tonight 5-1. Next home game is against the Chillicothe Mudcats, Friday night at 7 p.m. The Giants also have a non-league road game against the Wichita Gators of the WJL tomorrow night.

Doubleheader with Saints on July 5th

Today's paper has a brief article on last night's rainout and says it will be made up as part of a July 5th doubleheader.

The Giants will play someone tonight at 7 p.m. The schedule says the Bruins, the article mentioned above says the Mudcats.

Rain out

Apparently today's rains haven't adequately drained away, there was no activity at the ballpark tonight.

No info on a make-up date with St. Joe. The Golden Giants will try again against the Bruins tomorrow night at 7 p.m.

Topeka CJ article on last night's doubleheader

Looks like I missed a good game 1 yesterday. The exciting conclusion from the Topeka Capital Journal:

Each game was scheduled for seven innings, but the first game went to extras tied 4-4. Topeka's Reed Kreiser was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the eighth. Tych Cowdin laid down a would-be sacrifice bunt, but was able to reach first for a single.

Two batters later, Omaha reliever Tommy Masten delivered a wild pitch, moving the runners up to second and third and prompting an intentional walk of Truman Marek.

Topeka Golden Giants infielder Jason Cooper throws out an Omaha Varsity Gold batter during the Giants' doubleheader sweep Friday. Head came to the plate with one out. His chopper to short left Omaha no chance of a force at home or a double play, and pinch runner Mike Grosdidier scored the winning run.

Giants sweep Varsity Gold

The Topeka Golden Giants won both games of a doubleheader with fellow expansion team Omaha Varsity Gold on Friday night. The Giants are now 9-4 in the MINK and 11-4 overall.

Unfortunately, I missed game one so I can't provide any details. The Golden Giants won 5-4 in 8 innings. (this was a 2-7 DH).

Game two was never close, Topeka scored 7 runs in the first and 5 in the 2nd. Topeka eventually won 14-1. As you can imagine, offensive highlights were numerous, but there were some defensive gems as well. In the 3rd, shortstop Jerad Head made a long 1 hop throw to Daniel Heflin at 1st from on or near the outfield grass for an out. Head also made a nice little flip to Jason Cooper at 2nd to end the same inning. Tommy Mangino was involved in all 3 outs in the top of the 4th. He made the tag in a close play at the plate after a throw from Jake Dean, gunned down an Omaha runner attempting to steal 3rd, and caught a foul ball up against the backstop for the 3rd out.

Hopefully the new and improved league site will post standings soon, a 9-4 record surely puts our Golden Giants in the pennant race for an NBC berth.

Golden Giants down Bruins

The Topeka Golden Giants keep winning at home. Tonight they defeated the Beatrice Bruins 6 to 3. Highlights include Gus Milner's long home run to straight away center with 2 outs in the bottom of the 3rd and Jesse Schmidt legging out a bunt single in the bottom of the 5th.

The Golden Giants are now 7-4 in the MINK and 9-4 overall. They take a well deserved day off tomorrow and then continue the home stand with a doubleheader against Omaha Varsity Gold on Friday.

By the way here's an updated schedule from the Capital-Journal and the write-up on Tuesday night vs. Chillicothe. (Check out their picture of Heflin's stretch at first base.)

Golden Giants defeat Mudcats

The Topeka Golden Giants defeated the Chillicothe Mudcats 8 -4 at Hummer Sports Park on Tuesday. The bottom of the 7th was again kind to the Giants, they scored 6 runs via three 2-run home runs by Jake Dean, Daniel Heflin and Nick Carlson.

The Giants continue the home stand against the Beatrice Bruins tomorrow night at 7 p.m.

Emerick drove in winning run last night

Here is the Topeka Capital Journal article on last night's victory over Parkville. Looks like the writer got Truman Marek and Russ Emerick confused.

The 14-inning home opener was still fresh in fans' minds, as well as the minds of both teams, as the bottom of the ninth began. But Dean blasted a shot to left-center field and ended up on second.
Marek followed with a towering drive to right center that looked like it had walk-off homer potential. The ball fell short of the wall, but Parkville had trouble getting the ball back in, and Dean scored standing up to win it.

3 victories to report

The Golden Giants defeated the Parkville Sluggers in Topeka tonight 9 runs to 8, pulling ahead in the bottom of the ninth. The game was a pitchers duel for the first 6 innings, with a 1-1 score going into the top of the 7th.

It wasn't the happiest 7th inning stretch for the Golden Giants fans after Parkville scored 4 runs in the top of the 7th, but the Giants answered with 7 runs in the bottom half, most in the form of a 2-out rally. For me, the play of the game had to be Russ Emerick's head first slide into first base to keep the rally alive. Parkville managed to tie the game 8-8 in the top of the ninth, requiring one more half inning of Giants offense to win the game 9-8.

I was able to touch base with GM Brett Cowdin, and the Golden Giants swept the doubleheader against Springfield on Saturday, winning 7-4 and 2-0.

By my count, the Golden Giants are now 5-4 in the MINK and 7-4 overall. Next game is 7 p.m. tomorrow against Chillicothe at Hummer Sports Park.

Esposito article in Pittsburg Morning Sun

This article ran in the Pittsburg paper yesterday, the day of the Golden Giants-Springfield Generals doubleheader at Pittsburg State. Still no results to report from those games.

Golden Giants watch the action from the dugout. 

Great atmosphere. 

After sunset. 

The history of "The Phil" inspired a black and white photo. 

An extra innings view of Phil Welch Stadium from the 1st base side. 

Golden Giants winning streak ends in St. Joe

The Golden Giants fell to the St. Joseph Saints 9-8 in 13 innings Friday night. The Giants nearly took the lead twice in the 11th when a squeeze play and an attempted staight steal of home resulted in close plays at the plate.

Things looked promising for the Giants early, when some Saints miscues resulted in 3 runs in the top of the 1st. The Saints came back with 1 run in the 1st, 3 in the 2nd, and 4 in the 3rd. The Giants tied the game at 8 with 3 runs in the 5th and 2 more in the 6th. The scored stayed 8-8 until the game ended in the unluckly 13th. Jon Hansen had an impressive long relief performance on the mound.

The Golden Giants are now 4-4 both overall and in the MINK. The Giants have a neutral site, non-league double header against the Springfield Generals today in Pittsburg. I not going to make it to Pittsburg, and may not be able to post again this weekend. If anyone has results from Pittsburg, please leave a comment below.

GGs win at FCA Grays

The Topeka Golden Giants defeated the FCA Grays for the third time this week, winning 4-2 in Blue Springs, Missouri.

The win brings the Golden Giants record to 4-3, and brings the winning streak to 4 games.

The Golden Giants face the St. Joseph Saints at historic Phil Welch Stadium in St. Joe tomorrow night at 7 p.m.

Two Bruins articles

Here's an article from the Beatrice Daily Sun about some of this year's Bruins and another article about Bruins that were drafted.

Giants win game 2 against FCA Grays

The Topeka Golden Giants won the nightcap against the FCA Grays, 4 runs to 3. The Giants are now 3-3 after a 3 game winning streak.

MINK League site updated

The MINK League web site has been updated and now acknowledges the Topeka Golden Giants and Omaha Varsity Gold. There is a Standings page as well, it currently has no numbers, but if it is kept up to date, it should be a great way to follow the MINK pennant race.

New Golden Giant Gus Milner runs down the line after a hit to left field, while Vince Rodden streaks toward second. 

Golden Giants win game 1 against FCA

The Topeka Golden Giants won game one of tonight's doubleheader 8-7 in the bottom of the 7th. Jerad Head hit a game winning double after Vince Rodden's sacrifice bunt moved the winning run into scoring position.

Doubleheader tomorrow

There is an early 4 p.m. start tomorrow for 2 seven inning games against the FCA Grays of Blue Springs, Missouri.

See below for images from the Golden Giants game at Parkville on 6/10/05

Welcome to Grigsby Field, it's a bee-yoo-tiful day for baseball. 

This creek runs behind the left field fence. 

A view of the field. 

The fans at Parkville, with the concession stand and the Missouri River in the background. Several foul balls found the water during the game. 

Matt Wulfers at bat for the Sluggers, with downtown Parkville in the background. 

See below for images from Saturday's game at Chillicothe

Topeka dugout, pregame. 

About 600 in attendence. 

Shaffer Park features Old Kauffman Stadium club level seats, in no particular order. 

Heflin at bat, Cooper on deck. 

Daniel Heflin, ready for a pickoff throw. 

Golden Giants infield reacts to a ball hit to the 3rd base side. 

Steve Soper bats for Chillicothe. 

Rain out

Looks like Sunday's game is rained out. No activity at the ballpark.


Update: Topeka Capital-Journal article on the rainout

Golden Giants win slugfest in Chillicothe on Saturday

The Golden Giants got their first win in Chillicothe on Saturday, defeating the Mudcats 16 runs to 12.

Golden Giants highlights were numerous, but the momentum seemed to turn in the top of the 3rd. The Giants were down 3 runs when Mudcats starter Josh Davis hit batters Jake Dean, Tommy Mangino and Nick Carlson, loading the bases. All three scored on Brian Martinek double to right field, tieing the game. Martinek ended the game 2 for 4 with 4 RBIs and 3 runs scored. Also hitting well were Russ Emerick (3 for 6 with 1 RBI and 1 run scored), Jason Cooper (2 for 4 with 2 runs scored) and Daniel Heflin (2 for 5 with 2 RBIs).


box score from Chillicothe

Golden Giants lose in Parkville on Friday

The Golden Giants lost to the Parkvile Sluggers by the score of 7-2 in Parkville on Friday. The Giants consistently made contact at the plate, but most of the balls put in play found a Parkville glove or went into the tall infield grass for an easy groundout.

Highlights for the Golden Giants: Nice defensive plays by Jake Dean in the 5th and Nick Carlson in the 6th, Jon Hansen's solid pitching performance in the 8th, and Jerad Head's stand-up double off the left field wall in the 9th.

Capital Journal article

Late Night with the Golden Giants: June 7th vs. Parkville. 

Chillicothe article on June 5th game

Here is an article from the Chillicothe newspaper on the Mudcats' 1 run win over the Golden Giants last Sunday.

Giants lose 14 inning marathon

It was a game that had everything, except a positive outcome for the home team. The Topeka Golden Giants lost to the Parkville Sluggers 11 runs to 9 on Tuesday night. (Or was it Wednesday morning by the end?) It was both an exciting game where every pitch mattered and a frustrating game where things never quite fell in to place.

Highlights for me include: Vince Rodden's leg single in his first at-bat; Russ Emerick's shutting the Parkville batters down, ending a costly 2nd inning, and setting the tone for a great performance by the Topeka bullpen, a long stretch to get the out at first base by Daniel Heflin in the third, and the Jesse Schmidt 2-run homer in the 7th.

From today's Topeka Capital-Journal:

"I'm proud of or guys for battling back," Giants coach Daniel Esposito said. "We were six in the hole in the second inning and we came back and got it tied. There's no quit in these guys."

Can't argue with that. Also in the CJ article:

The Giants left the bases loaded twice, in the second and 10th innings, and straned a total of 24 runners on base.

"We were one big hit away from breaking it open and winning it in regulation," Esposito said.

In this game that hit never came, but throughout the season I expect it will more often than not.

Royals draft a Beatrice Bruin

With the 2nd overall pick in the MLB draft, the Kansas City Royals selected third baseman Alex Gordon from the University of Nebraska. Two short years ago, in the summer of 2003, Alex Gordon played in the MINK League for the Beatrice Bruins.

From the May 2nd edition of the Daily Nebraskan:

Alex Gordon will be a millionaire at 21. Next month, Gordon will be drafted – likely one of the first five picks, definitely in the first round.
From then, it’s only a matter of time.
Gordon isn’t really thinking about what his future holds for him, but Bob Steinkamp, a scout with the Seattle Mariners organization, believes the Lincoln native will be in “The Show” within a few years.
Besides being a scout, Steinkamp has spent 3½ decades coaching the Beatrice Bruins, a summer team full of talented college players from around the nation. He’s managed more than 200 future minor leaguers.
Few, if any, have stood out as much as much as Gordon, who was on Steinkamp’s team during the 2003 summer.
“He’s one of the most gifted and talented players I’ve coached in 35 years,” Steinkamp said. “He’s pretty close to being big league ready.”
In scout talk, Steinkamp grades Gordon with plus marks in ability, work ethic and makeup. He’s “above major league average” in everything but pure running speed.
“It’s really hard to say anything negative about him.”

In other draft news, former Topeka Capital Cesar Carrillo was drafted 18th overall by the Padres. Here's a quote from an old Capital-Journal article about a game in which Carrillo pitched well:

Topeka, which out-hit the A's 9-3, opened the scoring in the third inning. Catcher Kyle Dahlberg doubled and scored on Shawn Smarsh's groundout to shortstop. Designated hitter Kyle Wilson's sixth-inning sacrifice fly made it 2-0.
Meanwhile, Capitals starter Cesar Carrillo cruised until the eighth inning, allowing one hit and striking out six batters through seven innings.
Suddenly, the game was tied at 2, and Carrillo was pulled in favor of Derek Dunne, who retired the only two batters he faced.
"That's the best he's thrown since high school," Abney said of Carrillo, who redshirted last year at the University of Miami and will be eligible next season as a freshman.

Home game against Parkvile tonight

The Parkville Sluggers (aka Kansas City Sluggers) come into Hummer Sports Park tonight at 7:05. The Sluggers are a unique team in the MINK, in that the MINK League Sluggers are the top team in a Sluggers system that starts with 15 year-olds. Chris Carlson, brother of Golden GIant Nick Carlson, was a former Slugger. A roster is availiable on the Sluggers website.

The stats and the Golden Giants half of the box score from Sunday's game in Chillicothe are posted on the official site.

Giants lose close one in Chillicothe

Here's the article from the Capital Journal. The Giants lost 6 to 5 after a rally in the ninth inning fell short.

Scouting the Mudcats

Here's a selection of recent articles from the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune about the Mudcats' roster and facility.

Improvements at Shaffer Park continue
Seven former Chillicothe Mudcats returning
Mudcats to mix in Bass, son of ex-big leaguer

CJ article on last night's rainout

Well it looks like I didn't miss any baseball by leaving when the typhoon hit. The Golden Giants and A's never got past the top of the third. Here's the story from this morning's Topeka paper.

There is a road game tonight in Chillicothe, then Parkville comes to Topeka on Tuesday. The Clarinda game will be made up by a doubleheader on July 11th.

I won't be making the trip to Chillicothe today, if anyone does and has results please post a comment below.

Opening Night

Well I managed to see a little baseball tonight. After a few false starts the rain hit with a vengence with one out in the top of the third. Let the record show that I wimped out about 15 minutes into the rain delay.

I'm relying on memory here, since my scorecard turned to mush in the bottom of the second, but the highlight of the first two inning was an RBI single by Zack Walton. I believe it was Nick Carlson who scored from second on that play. The Golden Giants were up 1-0 when the rain delay began.

The game may very well restart. Hopefully there will be a happy box score in tomorrow's paper. If anyone reading this stayed longer than I did and knows the ultimate result, please post a comment below.

Opening Day rainout story from CJ

http://www.cjonline.com/stories/060405/gol_gameppd.shtml

Southwest Slashers preview from Joplin

This article may be of interest to Golden Giant fans since it discusses a team in Joplin which has many parallels to ours. A new team (well...new to Joplin, at least) that focuses on recruiting local players and keeping costs down.

Missed CJ article with updated schedule

I missed this one when it was first published, and am posting it now because it contains the most current schedule that I am aware of.

GIANTS SCHEDULE

JUNE

3 SALINA, 7 p.m.; 4 CLARINDA, 7 p.m.; 5 at Chillicothe, 7 p.m.; 7 PARKVILLE, 7 p.m.; 10 at Parkville, 5 p.m.; 11 at Chillicothe, 7 p.m.; 12 WICHITA GATORS, 7 p.m.;14 FCA, 4 p.m. (DH); 16 at FCA, TBA; 17 at St. Joseph, 7 p.m.; 18 Springfield Generals at Pittsburg, 4 p.m. (DH); 20 PARKVILLE, 7 p.m.; 21 CHILLICOTHE, 7 p.m.; 22 BEATRICE, 7 p.m.; 24 OMAHA, 7 p.m. (DH); 28 ST. JOSEPH, 7 p.m.; 29 BEATRICE, 7 p.m.; 30 at Wichita Gators, 7 p.m.

JULY

1 CHILLICOTHE, 7 p.m.; 3 at Clarinda, 7 p.m.; 5 ST. JOSEPH, 7 p.m.; 6 at Beatrice, 7 p.m.; 10 at Clarinda, 7 p.m.; 11 CLARINDA, 7 p.m.; 13 at St. Joseph, 7 p.m.; 14 at Parkville, 5 p.m.; 15 at Omaha, 6 p.m.; 16 at FCA, 7 p.m.; 19 at Beatrice, 7 p.m.; 22-27 NBC Central Regional at Clarinda.

It also includes a roster which has new addition Reed Krieser from Dallas Baptist, and does not include K-State pitchers Adam Cowart and Chase Mitchell.

Opening Day Rained Out

It's Official. Tonight's game against Salina has been rained out.

Tonight's game

Apparently two days has't made any difference in Omaha's roster, looks like we are playing the Salina Blue Jays of the Walter Johnson League tonight and not a league game against Omaha Varsity Gold as planned. Jake Lenherr is the probable starter.

Here's a link to the Topeka Capital Journal's opening day article.

Opening Day-eve

See below for pictures from the media day/open practice. It was nice to see the players out on the field. No real insights except that I was impressed by the infield and outfield arms in general. That's something that you can't determine from internet box scores.

Opening Day is tomorrow, first pitch at 7:05 at Hummer Sports Park. As far as I know the broadcast on KMAJ 1440 AM is still planned, so bring your headphones.

The Royals just swept the Yankees, and NBC baseball returns to Topeka tomorrow. It's a great time to be a baseball fan in northeast Kansas. See you at the ballgame!

Taking infield at first base. 

Wood bats. 

The cap 

The GM is interviewed by 27 News.