Walk off Balk, Huntsville gets Reprieve?

Its been a year since Victor Mateo tossed his no hitter, the first in Montgomery Biscuits homefield history and on Thursday Mike Colla tried to match him. Unfortunately the Skitz are so woeful at the plate that they were unable to give him any run support. A pair of tenth-inning balks handed the win to the Biscuits, likely the best way Montgomery could win a game.

Its been frustrating watching Biscuit hitters swinging for the fences when they really just need a single. Fantastic performance by Mike Colla, who has been a joy to watch develop over the summer from struggling hurler to gritty pro pitcher.

Its a nice win, but just playing out the string kind of takes a little of the zip out of it.

 

HUNTSVILLE STARS GET (TEMPORARY) REPRIEVE

In the news this week, the ownership of the Stars/Biloxi team is now considering playing in Huntsville in 2015. This is a drastic change from just a few weeks ago when it was said that there was little to no chance of that happening.

Seems the date for the Biloxi park opening has been pushed back to August 1st now. That's going to mean just about a full season of missed games, by comparison Montgomery has just 14 home dates in August this year.

Also a factor - the city of Huntsville has not been informed "officially" of the Stars leaving, and in fact holds a lease that should have been keeping the Stars at the Joe through this coming season.

SUSPICIOUS

I find this to be a stunning coincidence.

The Stars lease thru 2015, in July the Biloxi builders chose a 12 month build plan over shorter ones, the team ownership stands to make 10K per game for each game not played in Biloxi.

I would say that there is a sheep being shorn here.
All these are factors the Stars ownership had to be aware of, and get to enjoy milking the press surrounding the pretend confusion.

This has to be by design, the only kink in the plan is the Southern League schedule. League Prexie Webb says there is no including Huntsville in the schedule, but its obvious she will toe the line.
She won't have a choice, Biloxi wont have a ballpark to accommodate the schedule. The question about what division MGM plays in has yet to be discussed.

The bottom line here, the Stars owners are getting a fat check from one city to play in another and building up the anticipation in Biloxi.