Also new in 2009: Sedalia Sluggers, Joplin Outlaws, and Nevada Griffons

Wow! The MINK League just got a lot more intersting. In addition to the return of St. Joseph to the league, it will expand to 10 teams (hat tip to David Streeter for reporting this first). The 10 MINK teams will split into two 5 team divisions, and play an unbalanced schedule with most games within the division. This should really help with travel expenses and help teams to stay economically viable in this era of higher gas prices. The divisonal split will also mean a best of three league championship series at the end of the season.

This expansion also brings some great ballparks into (or back into) the MINK. Phil Welch Stadium in St. Joe and Joe Becker Stadium in Joplin are two of my favorite regional ballparks. I haven't been to a game in Nevada since the Topeka Capitals were in the Jayhawk League with them, but I remember great atmosphere at the Griffons' games. And I'm intrigued by the little I've read about Liberty Park Stadium in Sedalia.

This site is normally quiet during the off-season, but I'll be making some updates over the next few days to reflect the expanded 2009 MINK.

Links
Mustangs could switch leagues (An article from September about the teams from St. Joe, Joplin and Nevada making the decision to play in the MINK rather than the Jayhawk League.)
St. Joseph baseball team searching for league (another article from September)
Mustangs land big name for GM
Mustangs enter expanded MINK League
Sluggers coming to town
Griffons move to MINK League
RoadRunners, MINK League, and Wizards news

New team in 2009: St. Joe Mustangs!

The MINK league returns to historic Phil Welch Stadium.

Read about it here

One last game

Despite the regional loss, a combination of former Giants, current Giants and members of the 18U Giants are finishing out the MINK schedule. They are playing one last road game in Chillicothe, Missouri tonight.

Live webcast
Update: The game was a 5-2 loss for the Giants.

Giants eliminated from Regional

The Topeka Golden Giants lost to the Wichita Sluggers by the score of 13-3 after 5 innings yesterday, ending their chance at an NBC World Series bid, and ending their 2008 season.

Giants fall to Rebels, 8-4

As noted in comments below, the Topeka Golden Giants lost to the Newton Rebels in their second game of the Midwest Regional. They now must face the Wichita Sluggers in an elimination game at 1 p.m. today.

C-J article

Giants win in first round of regional

The Topeka Golden Giants won in the first round of the NBC Midwest Regional defeating the Air Capital Astros 10-1. They play the 2nd-seeded Newton Rebels at 4 p.m. today.

Midwest Regional Bracket
C-J article

Giants lose close one in Junction City

Final score of an 11 inning game was 6-5 in favor of the Generals.

The Giants and Generals will battle in Junction City again tonight at 7 p.m.

Mudcats over Giants, 10-6

The Giants lose their final home game of 2008. The Chllicothe Mudcats had 10 runs on 16 hits and an error. Topeka had 6 runs on 13 hits and 3 costly late-inning errors.

Despite the high score, this game started as a pitchers' duel, with the score tied 1-1 after 5 innings. The Mudcats took the lead with 2 runs in the top of the 6th, and were able to answer multiple Giant rallies in the innings that followed.

The Topeka Golden Giants (15-16) now have several days off before travelling to Junction City for two non-league games on the 17th and 18th. The next MINK League contest will be at Mac-N-Seitz on the 20th, and they will wrap up with a doubleheader at Chillicothe (to make up for a rainout on the 12th) on the 22nd.

The first news of the Giants' postseason plans was announced tonight. For the first time the Giants will travel to the Midwest Regional in Valley Center rather than the Central Regional in Clarinda.

Update:
Capital-Journal article
Local Sports Blog post

Final home game tonight

The Topeka Golden Giants (15-15) face the Chillicothe Mudcats tonight at Falley Field at 7 p.m.

Road games update

The Giants lost in Beatrice, 9-4, on Thursday night.

The Giants lost in Kearney to FCA, 6-2, on Friday night.

Rained out

Tonight's game appears to be rained out.

Next up for the Giants is a road trip to Beatrice (7/10) and FCA (7/11 in Kearney, MO). The final Giants home game will be Sunday, July 13th at Falley Field. The regular season will then end on the road with 2 non-league games in Junction City (7/17 and 7/18), a game at Mac-N-Seitz (7/20, 5 p.m. start), and a game in Chillicothe (7/22).

July 8th Preview

The Topeka Golden Giants (15-13, 2nd place in the MINK) will face the Junction City Generals (14-7 [thanks ez]) tomorrow night (7 p.m. start) at the SCABA diamond at Lake Shawnee (near 29th and Croco). This will be the Giants first non-league game of the season.

It will be St. Francis night at the ballpark, admission for St. Francis employees and their family members will be just $1.

Also, a crew filming a French documentary about Topeka and the 2008 Presidential election will be in attendance at tomorrow night's game.

Giants lose at Lake

The Giants lost to Mac-N-Seitz at Lake Shawnee last night, 4-3.

C-J article

If anyone has results from July 4th in Clarinda, please leave a comment below.

Giant lose game 2, split with Bruins

The Topeka Golden Giants lost the 6 p.m. nightcap to the Beatrice Bruins. The score was the opposite of the first game: Bruins 3, Giants 1. Each team had 6 hits on the night.

The Giants (14-11) travel to Clarinda tomorrow night, then return to face Mac-N-Seitz at Lake Shawnee on the 5th. They face Mac-N-Seitz on the road on the 6th. It was announced tonight that the game with the Junction City Generals on July 8th will be at Lake Shawnee instead of Falley Field.

Update:
C-J article
Local Sports Blog post

Golden Giants win game 1

The Giants won game one at Lake Shawnee. Final score of the 7 inning game was Giants 3 , Bruins 1.

A commenter below reports the Giants won in Clarinda last night by the score of 6 to 3. So it looks like the Giants will go into the second game of tonight's doubleheader with a record of 14-10.

A's tonight, Bruins tomorrow

The Topeka Golden Giants face the A's in Clarinda tonight at 7 p.m.

They return home tomorrow to play 2 games with the Beatrice Bruins on the SCABA diamond at Lake Shawnee. The first game will start at 4 p.m and the second game will start at approximately 6 p.m. Admission will be free for veterans of military service and also for youth baseball players who come to the game wearing their team jersey. There is a musical salute and parade planned for the time between the two games, and Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten will throw a ceremonial first pitch prior to the second game.

Giants beaten by Grays

Final score was 6-4.

The Topeka Golden Giants are now 12-10 overall and in the MINK. They will have a few days off before travelling to Clarinda on Wednesday night. Their next home games will be a doubleheader with the Bruins at Lake Shawnee on Thursday, July 3rd.

Update:
C-J article

Giants win again

Giants win over the Mudcats, 8-3.

The Golden Giants (12-9) face FCA tonight to close out the weekend home stand.

C-J article

Giants over A's, 11-4

The Giants won tonight's game (in Topeka) against Clarinda with 11 runs to the A's 4.

The Giants (11-9) will face the Chillicothe Mudcats tomorrow night at Falley Field (not in Chillicothe, as noted on some versions of the schedule and in previous posts here).

Update:
C-J article
(game location fixed above)

Game in Topeka

Based on the A's online schedule and a comment below it looks like tonight's game will be played in Topeka.

Giants lose in Beatrice, 9-6

The Topeka Golden Giants lost their road game in Beatrice, Nebraska tonight. The game stayed fairly close until the Bruins pulled away with 5 runs (4 from a grand slam) in the bottom of the 8th, giving them a 7 run lead. The Giants answered with 4 runs in the top of the 9th (including a 3-run homer by Chance Tuttle) but were unable to close the gap.

Giants are now 10-9 both overall and in the MINK. According to their webcasters, the first place Bruins now have an overall record of 11-2.

The Giants travel to Clarinda to face the A's tomorrow night.

Upcoming games

The Golden Giants will have had several days off prior to their road game in Beatrice on Thursday night. They will then play in Clarinda on Friday and in Chillicothe on Saturday.

The Giants then return to Falley Field on Sunday, June 28th to face the FCA Grays.

Ozark Series

KSNT has reported that the Giants and Genreals split today's doubleheader, each winning a game by the same score, 5-3. I have not seen results from Saturday night's game.

If you know the score from Saturday night's game, please leave a comment below.

Update: As noted below by Anonymous, Saturday night's game in Ozark was rained out.

Giants lose by a dozen

This was an ugly one. The Mudcats scored 5 in the top of the 1st and never looked back. Final score was 15-3. Chillicothe had 14 hits to the Giants 8.

The Golden Giants (9-7) will travel to Ozark this weekend to face the Generals in a 3 game series. The game schedule for the weekend has changed somewhat. There will now be a single 8 p.m. game on Saturday night and a Sunday doubleheader scheduled to start at 1 p.m.

Update:
C-J article

Chillicothe at Topeka tonight

The Topeka Golden Giants (9-6) face the Chillecothe Mudcats at Falley Field tonight at 7 p.m. If you can't make it to the ballpark, there may be a Mudcats webcast availiable.

Rained out

No activity at Falley, looks like we are rained out.

Update: This game will be made up by playing a doubleheader with Beatrice at Lake Shawnee on July 3rd.

Giants come back, but fall short

After falling behind 4-0 to the visiting Beatrice Bruins, the Topeka Golden Giants came back to tie the game with a 4 run eighth inning fueled primarily by a 3 run double off the bat of Drew Biery. Unfortunately the Giants were not able to move the go ahead run across. The Bruins scored 2 runs in the top of the 9th. They cut the deficit to one in the bottom half of the 9th, but ultimately fell short, losing 6-5

The Giants had 5 runs, 6 hits and no errors. The Bruins tallied 6 runs, 11 hits and 2 errors.

The Giants (9-6) will have another shot at the undefeated Bruins on Thursday night.

Update:
C-J article

Bruins coming to town twice this week

The next two Golden Giant games are both at home, and both are against the same team. The Giants will face the Beatrice Bruins at 7 p.m. on both Tuesday and Thursday nights.

The home stand will close out with the Chillicothe Mudcats coming to town on Friday the 20th. That will also be a 7 p.m. start. The Giants will then travel to Ozark, Missouri for a 3-game, 2-day series versus the Ozark Generals.

Giants return home, win

The Topeka Golden Giants won tonight's game at Falley Field, scoring 4 runs and holding the FCA Grays scoreless. Giants now have a record of 9-5.

Update:
C-J article
Local Sports Blog

Giants lose in Clarinda, 7-5

Here's the boxscore. The Giants are now 8-5 both overall and in the MINK. They'll face the FCA Grays at 7:00 tonight at Falley Field on the Washburn University Campus.

Giants win in Chillicothe

From KCHI Radio in Chillicothe:

It was an active first inning but then became a pitchers dual as the Topeka Golden Giants beat the Chillicothe Mudcats 5-3. Topeka scored 4 runs in the top of the 1st inning only to be answered by 3 Mudcat runs in the bottom of the 1st. The only other run came in the 7th for Topeka for the 5-3 win. Chillicothe stranded 7 runners in the game.

The Topeka Golden Giants (8-4) will now face the A's in Clarinda tonight at 7 p.m.

Update:
Local Sports Blog

Blown out in Beatrice

The winning streak has come to an end. The Topeka Golden Giants were outslugged by the Bruins in Beatrice, Nebraska tonight. Final score was 9-3.

The Giants (7-4) will look to start a new winning streak in Chillicothe tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. (Webcast)

Bruins preview

Some articles on the topic of the Beatrice Bruins:

Bruins field stacked to defend title
Scoreboard a reality with help from Joba

This should be a direct link to the Bruins' webcast of tonight's game.

Giants extend streak to 6

The Topeka Golden Giants won at home tonight over the Mac-N-Seitz Athletics. Giants scored 3 runs on 4 hits with an error. The Athletics outhit the Giants, but scored only 2 runs on their 7 hits and had 3 errors.

The Giants (7-3) will now leave the friendly confines of Falley Field for a 3 game, 3 city road trip. They will play in Beatrice on Thursday (webcast avialiable via the Bruins' site), Chillicothe on Friday (webcast via the Mudcats' site), and Clarinda on Saturday. They'll return home Sunday night to face the FCA Grays.

Update:
C-J article

Giants over Grays, 5-3

Well after some last minute maneuvering to find a playable field the Topeka Golden Giants got their first "road win" as the visiting team in a game at Lake Shawnee. Neither of the Grays two home fields were playable, and the game was moved to Topeka.

Giants had 5 runs on 9 hits, Grays had 3 runs on 8 hits. Giants are now 6-3 with a 5-game winning streak. Cole Armitage got the win tonight, Dustin Holthaus earned the save.

Updates:
C-J article
Local Sports Blog post

Giants over A's, 4-1

The Topeka Golden Giants defeated the visiting Clarinda A's at Falley Field tonight. Giants had 4 runs on 9 hits, A's had one run on 8 hits.

Winning pitcher Kevin Burk threw 8 innings, giving up only one run. Curtis Hamilton pitched the 9th for the save. Giant shortshop Drew Biery hit a solo homerun to left in the bottom of the 4th.

The Giants (5-3) hit the road tomorrow to face the FCA Grays at Kearney, Missouri again at William Jewell at Lake Shawnee!(webcast should be availaible). The Giants return home Wednesday night to face the Mac-N-Seitz Athletics at Falley Field.

Update:
C-J article
WIBW video

Giants win 3-1, sweep weekend series with Generals

The Topeka Golden Giants won Sunday afternoon's game with the Ozark Generals, bringing their record to 4-3. Giants had 3 runs on 6 hits and an error. Generals had 1 run on 6 hits and 3 errors.

The Clarinda A's return to Topeka to face the Giants tomorrow night at 7 p.m.

Update:
C-J article
KSNT video highlights

Giants win second game of the day, 4-1

The Topeka Golden Giants won game two of this evening's doubleheader with the Ozark Generals. Giants had 4 runs on 4 hits and no errors. The Generals had 1 run on 2 hits and 7 errors.

The Giants are now 3-3 on the year with a chance to sweep the series with the Generals and go over .500 in tomorrow's 1 p.m. game.

Update:
C-J article

Giants shutout Generals in game 1.

The Topeka Golden Giants won the first game of Saturday's doubleheader. The Giants scored 2 runs on 7 hits. Generals scored no runs with 3 hits.

Hurley and Hornbeck drafted

As noted in comments below, two Golden Giant pitchers were selected in Major League Baseball's amateur draft. More information availiable on David Streeter's Local Sports Blog.

Giants lose in extra innings, 3-2

For the second time in as many games, the Topeka Golden Giants and FCA Grays went to extra innings. The Giants came back from a 2-0 deficit in Kearney, Missouri tonight and tied the game 2-2 in the top of the 9th. The Grays loaded the bases in both the 9th and the 10th. They were unable to answer in the 9th, but were able to move the winning run across in the bottom of the 10th.

Giants had 2 runs on 5 hits. The Grays 3 runs came on 9 hits.

The Giants are now 1-3 and host a three game series with Ozark this weekend. Game one of the Saturday doubleheader starts at 4 p.m.

Update:
C-J article

Errors prove costly, Giants lose 7-1

The Topeka Golden Giants lost to the visiting Mac-N-Seitz Athletics tonight. Topeka struggled both at the plate and in the field, scoring 1 run on 4 hits and committing 6 errors. The Athletics scored 7 runs on 13 hits with 2 errors.

The Giants are now 1-2, both overall and in the MINK League. Their next game will be on the road vs. the FCA Grays this Friday, June 6th at 7 p.m. According to the Gray's website, this game will be played at Kearney High School in Kearney, Missouri. The Grays are splitting time this year between Kearney and the William Jewell ballpark in Liberty.

Update:
C-J article

Giants back in action tonight

The Topeka Golden Giants (1-1) face the Mac-N-Seitz Athletics tonight at Falley Field on the Washburn University campus. The action starts at 7:00 p.m.

Giants win 5-4, after 12 innings

The Topeka Golden Giants won tonight's game over the visiting FCA Grays, winning on an RBI hit by Kenny Burkhead in the bottom of the 12th. Final score was 5-4.

Update:
C-J article
David Streeter's Local Sports Blog post
David Streeter's photo gallery

T-shirt Night!

The Giants will host the FCA Grays tonight, beginning at 7 p.m.

It's also Capitol Federal T-shirt Night (for the first 100 fans at least).

If you can't make it to the game, you may be able to get FCA's play-by-play at this site. Based on information on that site, there may also be a low-wattage FM signal of the Grays broadcast availaible at Falley Field.

Clarinda A's bus destroyed by fire

On the way home after Sunday night's game in Topeka the Clarinda A's bus caught fire near St. Joseph and was completely destroyed. Luckily all the players, coaches and people on board were able to exit the bus and there were no injuries. However the team has lost all their equipment and uniforms, and many players lost personal property.

From stjoenews.net (via the A's website):

The team was returning home from a weekend road trip to Kansas when one of the bus’s inside dually tires blew out shortly after midnight and started a fire. A fire extinguisher carried aboard failed to control the blaze, Mr. Eberly said.

“It’s almost like, when you sprayed it on there, it flared up even more,” he added. “It just (went) boom.”

All team members were able to safely exit the burning bus, which was destroyed.

Understandably, tonight's Mudcats-A's game in Clarinda has been postponed.

Opening Day pics

Giants drop opener to A's

The Topeka Golden Giants lost to Clarinda at Falley Field tonight. Clarinda scored 4 runs on 9 hits with no errors. The Giants had 2 runs on 7 hits with 3 miscues.

Be sure to come out to Falley Field on Tuesday, June 3rd to see the Giants take on the FCA Grays. It was announced tonight that Tuesday will also be Capitol Federal T-Shirt Night, with free T-shirts to the first 100 fans. First pitch is at 7 p.m.

Update:
Topeka Capital Journal article
David Streeter's Local Sports post
David Streeter's photo gallery
video highlights from KSNT

Opening Day

The Topeka Golden Giants face the Clarinda A's in their home opener tonight at Falley Field. First pitch at 7 p.m.

Preview, part 2.

The position player portion of David Streeter's Golden Giants preview is up at CJOnline.

Pitching Preview on CJOnline

David Streeter takes a detailed look at the Golden Giants pitching roster in today's entry on the Local Sports Blog. Be sure to check it out.

MINK Media Hits

A few articles from around the MINK league

Cam Seitzer to play for Athletics
Mudcats preview from Chillicothe

2008 Schedule

Topeka Golden Giants
2008 Baseball Schedule

* represents a doubleheader

Date	Opponent	Time	Site	Location
1-Jun	Clarinda	7:00 PM	Home	Falley Field
3-Jun	FCA	7:00 PM	Home	Falley Field
4-Jun	Mac&Seitz	7:00 PM	Home	Falley Field
6-Jun	FCA	7:00 PM	Away	FCA
7-Jun	*Ozark	4:00 PM DH	Home	Falley Field
8-Jun	Ozark	1:00 PM	Home	Falley Field
9-Jun	Clarinda	7:00 PM	Home	Falley Field
10-Jun	FCA	7:00 PM	Away	FCA
11-Jun	Mac&Seitz	7:00 PM	Home	Falley Field
12-Jun	Beatrice	7:05 PM	Away	Beatrice
13-Jun	Chilicothe	7:05 PM	Away	Chilicothe
14-Jun	Clarinda	7:00 PM	Away	Clarinda
15-Jun	FCA	7:00 PM	Home	Falley Field
17-Jun	Beatrice	7:00 PM	Home	Falley Field
19-Jun	Beatrice	7:00 PM	Home	Falley Field
20-Jun	Chilicothe	7:00 PM	Home	Falley Field
21-Jun	*Ozark	4:00 PM DH	Away	Ozark
22-Jun	Ozark	1:00 PM	Away	Ozark
26-Jun	Beatrice	7:00 PM	Away	Beatrice
27-Jun	Clarinda	7:00 PM	Home	Clarinda
28-Jun	Chilicothe	7:00 PM	Home	Chilicothe
29-Jun	FCA	7:00 PM	Home	FCA
2-Jul	Clarinda	7:00 PM	Away	Clarinda
3-Jul	Beatrice	7:00 PM	Home	Lake Shawnee
4-Jul	Clarinda	7:00 PM	Away	Clarinda
5-Jul	Mac&Seitz	7:00 PM	Home	Lake Shawnee
6-Jul	Mac&Seitz	2:00 PM	Away	Mac&Seitz
8-Jul	Junction City	7:00 PM	Home	Falley Field
10-Jul	Beatrice	7:00 PM	Away	Beatrice
11-Jul	FCA	7:00 PM	Away	FCA
12-Jul	Chilicothe	7:05 PM	Away	Chilicothe
13-Jul	Chilicothe	7:00 PM	Home	Falley Field
17-Jul	Junction City	7:00 PM	Away	Junction City
18-Jul	Junction City	7:00 PM	Away	Junction City
20-Jul	Mac&Seitz	5:00 PM	Away	Mac&Seitz
22-Jul	Chilicothe	7:05 PM	Away	Chilicothe
25-Jul	Regional Tourney	TBA	Away	TBA
26-Jul	Regional Tourney	TBA	Away	TBA
27-Jul	Regional Tourney	TBA	Away	TBA
28-Jul	Regional Tourney	TBA	Away	TBA
29-Jul	Regional Tourney	TBA	Away	TBA

2008 Roster

2008 TOPEKA GOLDEN GIANTS

Pitchers
1. Max Ellenbecker, Kansas University
2. Travis Blankenship, Kansas University
3. Tyler Bean, Missouri State University
4. Brandon Droge, Johnson County CC
5. Matt Paige, Evansville University
6. Dustin Holthous, Washburn University
7. Ryan Romo, Central Missouri State University
8. Curtis Hamilton, Washburn University
9. Trevor Hurley, Kansas State University
10. Ben Hornbeck, Kansas State University
11. Kevin Burk, Kansas University
12. Cole Moore, Neosho County CC
13. Jake Hosey, Allen County CC

Infielders
1. Joe Hosey, Washburn University
2. Kenny Burkhead, Barton County CC
3. Anthony Drieling, Emporia State University
4. TJ Schieber, University of Missouri
5. Drew Biery, Kansas State University
6. Brett Lisher, Kansas University

Utility
1. Jake Leonardo, Central Missouri State University
2. Chance Tuttle, Central Missouri State University

Outfielders
1. Michael Sickenger, Barton County CC
2. Jimmy Waters, Kansas University
3. Pat Deao, Neosho County CC

Catchers
1. Jake Monaham, Dartmouth
2. Shawn Deisler, Kansas State University

Coaching Staff and Front Office
Kent Becker, Manager
John Tetuan, Pitching Coach
Brett Cowdin, General Manager

2008!

Golden Giants fans should check out our old friend ezstreet's latest blog entry over at CJOnline.