Cooking Something Good!

 

I'm cooking something. Of course we will all get to taste it when it's done, but first lets catch up.

 

I thought I had been traded to ASU but after a few attempts to get in touch with them I was met with noticeable apathy which abated my own ambition to pimp their team and ballpark. It's a shame as they have a long baseball history that I am not sure even they are aware of, with pedigree ties to the game that are unrecognized today. Perhaps they will yet decide to work together but I admit my desire to force myself on a scholastic athletic club is somewhat lacking. 

 

In other news the Biscuits look to break the bank with their jersey sales this year, including, but not limited to, Star Wars, Marvel superhero, camo jersey. In the past its been noted that the same group of fanatics go hard for the jersey auction and its thought the team often trys to give as many opportunities as possible to get fans shirts. Or they make money on the deal. Or both. Either way they are going all-in this year to fill fans closets and empty their wallets. Sadly, no throwback uni for Montgomery this year.

COOKING UP GOOD NEWS

The big news from my offseason wasn't just compiling the team roster for Montgomery to fill out a decade-wide gap in the history books. Okay, it was for me but everyone else will probably be more excited to learn that Montgomery will host the 2024 Southern Association Baseball Research Conference!

The conference, known as the SAC, brings together the top baseball historians, authors, researchers and enthusiasts as concerns the game in the southern USA. Usually held in Birmingham at historic Rickwood Field, the conference offers a chance to meet and compare notes, networking among the attendees and viewing displays of rare memorabilia. Speakers give presentations to share their research among their peers and baseball history is the focus. 

 

Other cities that have hosted the SAC include New Orleans, Atlanta and Memphis with this years meeting being held in Nashville, all cities in the former Southern Association. After nearly twenty years of exploring the history of the segregated Southern Association, its teams, players and ballparks, organizers agreed there is a need to branch out to cover all types of baseball in the area of the city hosting the conference. That includes Negro League, independent teams, industrial leagues, barnstorming games and a wide variety of places and individuals that have been too long overlooked by historians.

The organizing committee has asked me to be the point-of-contact for the SAC in Montgomery.

The planning is for the SAC Montgomery 2024 is moving along swiftly, with a huge assist from the State Dept of Archives, who recently added new items to their collection and agreed to display them during the SAC. Their curators have even been kind enough to invite me to personally help select items for display, and I have a few choice requests that I am sure will be fascinating, ones that even my good friends in the Archives may not even have noticed in their storage!

Also on board is the fantastic Biscuits front office and owner Lou DiBella, who kindly took the time to take my call concerning the SAC and made the experience even more fun than I could already imagine. Having the Biscuits as a part of the conference seemed a must, as the most important part of Montgomery baseball history has been its pro teams.

 

In fact, 2024 marks 70 years since Montgomery's first integrated team in 1954 and will be the focus of my presentation for the SAC, and after ten years of study on the Rebels clubs, I have some real surprises in store! 

Also it's the twentieth season of Biscuits, having lost one to that recent unpleasantness. It's my hope we can tie in the history of the Biscuits with the integration of the Rebels and Montgomery's other great teams, players and games in a way that fans can digest easily and appreciate fully.

BULLPEN LIFE