Breaking Radio Silence, Biscuits on the Move

After a few weeks with no posting, its time to break radio silence and get caught up on the latest.

BISCUITS ON THE MOVE

Taylor G.

Former Biscuit Taylor Guerrieri was claimed by the Toronto Blue Jays, the Rays had placed the 2011 first round pick on waivers. Limited to just two starts this past season, Taylor is a good bet to turn in a bounceback season next year.



Another former Biscuit, catcher Curt Casali enters free agency. He's another great Rays catcher who will likely be playing their best baseball for another team while Tampa pays big bucks to veteran replacements at the major league level.

Former Biscuit Wade Davis also is a free agent, having completed his one year deal with the Cubs, pending his likely refusal of a qualifying offer.


OZZIE GETS NEW GIG

Timmons handles loudmouth drunks, a useful skill in MLB

In perhaps the best offseason news so far, Ozzie Timmons has been promoted to the big leagues as Tampa's new first base coach.

I, myself have said for years that Ozzie was a prospect first base coach and now its come to pass, we wish the best of luck to Timmons who will no doubt enjoy his new assignment!



MORE SKITZ NOTES

Former Biscuit pitcher Alex Cobb was given a qualifying offer of over $17m by the Rays. He can accept it or test free agency.

Also in the parade of old skitz, pitcher Bradin Hagens has said his goodbyes to Hiroshima Carp fans. Its unlikely he will return to Japan, but could find more work stateside.


STILL EMPLOYED
Yet another ex-Biscuit, Matt Moore had his option picked up by the SF Giants, bucking the trend of former Montgomery players looking for a job. Also in the "still employed" category, pitchers Scott Kazmir and Adam Liberatore were activated to the 40 man roster by the LA Dodgers.

Matt Moore with Biscuits

A THRONE SITS EMPTY
A favorite of many fans, Myron Noodleman had been battling cancer and recently lost his fight with the disease. Many people spoke out on social media with their support for his family and shared their appreciation of the longtime baseball clown, including former Biscuit Brent Honeywell.

Myrons shtick included variants of crowd entertainment that date back centuries and borrowed heavily from Jerry Lewis lovable characters. He will be missed in ballparks where he brought smiles to so many fans.

Emmett Kelly eating his breakfast from home plate

Baseball clowning is a lost art in many ways. Noodleman was the flagbearer for the cause, having been approved by the famed Max Patkin.

Patkin was the reigning Clown Prince of Baseball for decades, ascending a throne occupied in the past by the likes of Al Schact, King Tut, Germany Schaefer and the immortal Emmet Kelly.

Now that throne sits empty, awaiting its next monarch.


BAYBEARS SOLD

The Baybears franchise sale went through without a hitch, signaling the end of Mobile baseball. Next the owners plan to put forth a relocation proposal, which is where we will start to see the rubber meet the road. Included in that proposal the owners must reveal their proposed location and secure the needed ballpark arrangements.

Mobile's mayor says they will continue to fight to keep the team "as long as we can", which doesn't sound overly optimistic. And it shouldn't.

It is a shame though, as the Mobile-Montgomery rivalry is the oldest in the state, perhaps one of the oldest in all of baseball, with the two teams first facing off way back in 1867!

 RESEARCH - WHO THE HELL ARE THESE GUYS?

Unknown Grays Player

As baseball was often a back page item in the 1800s, I find it tough to come up with info on some of the local players in ages long past. I'm currently working on a list of players that fall into the "deep digging required pile".

Somehow, that stack just gets bigger and bigger. With just a last name (possibly misspelled) and sometimes a first initial (often erroneous) there is much work to be done in the archives this winter.



SWING AND A MISS
Other guys I can look up more easily, but what we find about them isn't baseball.
Fr'example... In historian John Thorn's book he discusses the early game and Alabama makes its entry pretty early.

In 1868 Alabama sent representatives to the national baseball meeting in New York to request that we be recognized as a sanctioned state association. Basic stuff, really, legitimizing our state championship, getting player contracts standardized, adopting the nationally recognized rules, etc.

However the two men sent to represent the state are a bizarre pair. From Montgomery, Alfred H. Moses and Mobile John A. Payne. The two men are well written about for their notable achievements, however history does not record their baseball activities beyond the fact that they were the ones chosen to travel to New York for the National Association meeting.

The results of the trip were successful, Alabama's twelve teams were recognized nationally and we began a long tradition with the national pastime.

But there isn't much more info on it. Local New York newspapers carried one whole line.

1868 news report on Montgomery baseball

A.H. Moses

The choice of Moses is easy to understand, he had been Court Clerk in the Montgomery district during the Confederacy and likely to comprehend the legalese encountered in formal documents.

Moses was well known, he received a death sentence for his work in the Confederacy but was pardoned by President Jackson. Later he would finance Montgomery's first skyscraper and help found the city of Sheffield, Alabama.

Yet it could benefit us to have a keener knowledge of how Moses was chosen to represent baseball and what his connection to the early team was.


John A. Payne

John A. Payne

More of a mystery is the Mobile representative.

John A. Payne is also a Confederate, a survivor of the first sinking of the CSS Hunley submarine (it sank more than once, few survived). Most of his wartime career is spent in and around Virginia. His military career is well documented by Civil War buffs, but there is not much on his life after the war.

It is not known why he was in Mobile, what his connection to baseball might be or how he came to be selected for the trip to legitimize Alabama baseball.



Great info on two men with interesting stories, but not a word about baseball!