Last Series of First Half - At Jacksonville

Its been a great run in the first half, even if the Skitz end up where they sit now in fourth place. Being just two games back is just fine, being over .500 even better, having a shot at the top spot in the last five games is all we can ask for even from Santa Claus!

The team will face some good players in Jacksonville, hopefully that is where the team bus went, the online schedule says JAX and is shown at the bottom as being the abbreviation for Jacksonville - however the overlay on the calendar has the JG of the Jackson Generals, who play in TN! Im guessing the bus driver made the right choice and got our guys to Florida instead of heading north.

JG?

PITCHERS
The Suns have not announced pitchers on the Southern Leagues website, which is frankly as bad a website as has been designed in the past ten years. I had hopes with the new prez but I can see that she cares what the fans get even less than the previous admin!

If the Jacksonville rotation is the same from the last five games, it would set up thusly:

Jake Thompson - Adam Conley 6ip 7h, 1er, 8k for the W
Merrill Kelly - Jay Jackson 6ip, 4h 3er, 8k for the L
Jake Floethe - Eovaldi rehab, 1 IP, Sam Dyson went 5 ip, 1h 1bb 3 K got the W
Mike Colla - Rob Waite 5 Earned in 1.2 IP for the L
Enny Romero - Robert Morey  8Earned in 3.1 innings pitched for the L

Mo Knows Factz

GumpSkitzfactz

Kyeong Kang had three homers last week and is one of the hottest hitters on the team right now.

O'malley is hitting just around .225 in his last 25 plate appearances.

Keiths dad

After a hot start in his first week, Keith Castillo is just one-for-eleven. His dad Tony pitched in the Big Leagues, with the Blue Jays and Braves, among others.


Cameron Seitzer has zero home runs and just a .350 slugging percentage, but leads the team with 19 doubles. His one stolen base was on the back end of a double steal, as was his one caught stealing!

I predict he will hit a home run this year. Hopefully I am there with my vidcam when it happens!






LETS NAME THE TEAM IN BILOXI!
So let us be the first to offer up a team name for Biloxi in the Name The Team contest!

The City of Biloxi seems very serious about building a swanky ballpark to lure a third Double-A team to the Gulf Coast.

This team is gonna need a name, so we can throw out some suggestions and see if they like them! Anyone with a suggestion can post it on the comments section and shortly after the AllStar Break I will compile them for voting, and the readers can choose!

its been done

Historically, Biloxi/Gulfport has been known in the distant past as the Crabs, the SandCrabs and the Tarpons. Im guessin they arent going to use those. So I will choose one suggestion a month and that person will win a Biscuit themed prize packof stuff I gathered at the games!

To start us off I can offer up a few easy cheesy ones - Biloxi Blues, BackBay Brewers (if mil. affiliate), Gulfport Breeze.


Send em on in email or post them in the comments, every unique entry is a potential winner!

THE AFTER EFFECT

Dennis at the ballpark aimed a question at me, after pointing it at the local media writer, who had no answer to what should be an obvious question - how do you like the Biscuits in the North Division next year?

Soon to be vacant?

Biloxi bound?

True enough, if the Stars or Generals vacate south to Biloxi it would mean a redrawing of the Divisons. The obvious answer is to move the Skitz to the North.

My first thoughts on being asked? I love it, it means I see the Smokies more! haha

My second thought? Probly wont happen that way. I would anticipate going back to an East-West division of the league being a real possibility. That would line up as follows:

If Jackson Tn Moves to Biloxi

New Divisions Coming Soon!

EAST DIVISION
Bham
Hville
Chattanooga
Jacksonville
 TnSmokies

WEST DIVISION
Biloxi
Ms.Braves
Mobile
Montgomery
Pensacola

If Huntsville moves to Biloxi
EAST
Jacksonville
Montgomery

The Current layout

Chattanooga
TnSmokies
Pensacola or Bham

WEST
Biloxi
MsBraves
Mobile
Birmingham or Pcola
JacksonTn Generals


NORTH VS SOUTH
It could happen that Biloxi would add a team and Mgm still not move to the North. It could be just as likely that the MsBraves would be shifted to the other division, as the Jackson Ms-Jacksonville trip is one of the longest ones in the South Division. Asking Montgomery to move to the North would mean that they would add alot more travel distance, asking the Braves to shift would be significantly less travel time added.

NORTH
Chattanooga
Huntsville or JacksonTn - whichever DOESNT move stays in the North Division.
Birmingham
Tn Smokies
Mississippi Braves

SOUTH
Jacksonville
Mobile
Montgomery
Biloxi
Pensacola


I think it could happen, and already stated I think it will be Huntsville to ultimately move. They have tried to sell the team in recent years without finding a taker, which Biloxi intends to be. Dennis mentioned the contract the team has with the city, but I think the team could buy out the contract and the city might make more money than it would selling seats.

MLB THOUGHTS
I havent weighed in on the big leagues yet this summer, so its about time I stated some opinions and observations.

David Wright has nine homers. So does Marlon Byrd.
There should be an investigation.

Yasiel Puig may be the second coming of Bo Jackson, only without the football injuries or college education.

The next commissioner has alot to do - lets start with doing away with the advertising that can be seen behind the plate and around the dugouts. Advertising should not be the first and most recognizable feature of a ballpark.
 

CUBS
Okay, I am on board with the rebuild but how much better off are we having Dale Swuem instead of Ryne Sandberg?

If the difference is losing a few more games, I say bring it on. We lost over 100 last year for the first time in over forty years, and stand to lose about the same this year. Having the face of the team being that of the Hall of Famer and franchise stalwart would be worth a couple losses in a season where we can barely win four out of every ten games.

HISTORY LESSON

Its appropriate to talk about a team in the league moving on this date, as its the anniversary of the Montgomery Rebels bailing the city for Knoxville Tn. Wiki says "When the Montgomery Rebels needed a new home, they transferred to Knoxville"

In 1951 the city build Paterson Field and the Rebels moved in from across the street at Cramton Bowl. So why then, just five years later, would the team leave the city in the middle of the year?

Low revenue is cited as a major factor, but why werent fans filing in to see the Rebels games at the swanky new ballpark? Sure the team was bad, but we were coming off a year in which we had a winning record.

That team was managed by Earl Weaver, after the move he was replaced by Dick Bartell.

After the Rebels left to become the Smokies of Knoxville, the Little Rock Travellers moved here to become the Montgomery Rebels, though we went from SALLY league to Southern Association. Whats that mean?

One word.
Segregation.

As black players followed Jackie Robinson through the Minor leagues, integration happened. For Montgomery, that was an issue. When the South Atlantic League started having black players on its teams, Montgomery let its parent club know that wouldnt fly here. We had black players, the Rebels were integrated in 1954, but the team and the city officials werent happy about it.

Fans stayed away in droves.
When the rest of the country was falling back in love with baseball, thanks to the efforts of the Pioneers who opened the doors, Montgomery was letting its team fester for involving politics in the game.

Nat Peebles, tried to integrate S.A.

Eventually the league told the Rebels they either took blacks or lose their franchise. Montgomery didnt blink, they waved goodbye to the better ballplayers and sent a message about it by replacing the Rebels with a Southern Association team - the SA was the last league to adhere to Jim Crow laws, and would fold when given the choice between death or integration just a few short years later.

Fans didnt care, they stayed away from this team just like they did with the previous one. It wasnt the ballpark, it was the politics of the front office.

So this is the anniversary of the day that Montgomery gave up its team in an already very futile effort to keep blacks from playing baseball, and thus robbing the fans of the chance to keep seeing players like Hank Aaron come through. The anniversary of the last gasp of what began when Cap Anson didn't want to play against black players. The end was at hand, and this was the last baseball casualty, almost ten years after Jackie broke the color barrier.

Part of the irony is that most of the players that the team was being given grief over were Latin, not black. The insult to fans by the city officials is atrocious, who used it as a way to put a political spin on baseball by backing a dying, whites-only league at a time when most cities couldn't get away from that fast enough.

If the team had stayed, we would have gotten Milt Pappas.

Instead, 1957 we field a D-league team in the Alabama-Florida League, which we won by two games over Graceville Fla. I am gonna guess we had the best ballpark in the circuit!