Biscuits on All-Time Pace, Rebels Night Reactions

If you expected the Biscuits to win five out of six games during the final homestand of the first half, book yourself a flight to Atlantic City immediately. You may already be a winner!

The last post was pure juju of course... it was almost a certainty to clinch but after I repeatedly said we would get past Chattanooga in huge series the past few years, well, I just felt it wasn't wise to tempt fate again.

I expected we could, should and would win the series. Probably good for a split. But who could guess that the scheduled games would all go to the good guys for a handful of W's? So they did, leaving just the makeup game in the loss column and that's just fine with me.

Josh Lowe hits em

 

Now pour some rum for Jobu and lets find some fried chicken for the second half.

BISCUITS ON RECORD PACE

This Biscuits team is on pace for an 88w-52L record, if they can keep it up they might just get past the Montgomery All-Time Wins record of 86.

The 2007 Biscuits team is the only club to get to 81 wins in *modern* Montgomery era, losing just 59 games en route to the pennant. Last years club won 79 games regular season games overall, good for second in the Butter era.

Your 2007 Montgomery Biscuits, so far the best batch in terms of wins, took the league flag

The All Time Record? Those Montgomery Grays of 1952 won 86 games, topping their 85 victories in the previous campaign when they were called the Montgomery Rebels. How about 171 regular season wins in two years?

The reason for the name change? There were two teams named Rebels in Sally League in '51, Charleston and Montgomery. To save confusion, Montgomery agreed to call their club the Montgomery Grays. Two seasons later, in 1954, Charleston left the Sally League and Montgomery became the Rebels again until they folded in 1980.

Be Lucky... from 1951 Montgomery Grays Program

Baseball reference doesn't provide win-loss totals from before 1950. Which is okay since Montgomery was a lower level affiliate before that year, dropping from top level minors after 1914 to C and D level ball.

GOLDEN BLUES
Did you notice the umpiring during this series?
If you said no, that's quite okay because there wasn't much to notice from them.

Pretty efficient games even though it was a big series, no ejections and there was very little kicking from either dugout over balls and strikes.

The crew of officials for this series was one of my favorites in the league, headed by veteran arbiter Jonathan Parra along with Anthony Perez and Matthew Brown.

I rarely name umpires here in the blog but this crew deserves credit for their fine work in this important series. They did their job and nobody noticed them - umpiring perfection.

Cheers, JP

The cloud for this silver lining? We won't get them again during the regular season. Which is a shame, its tough to pick out umpiring prospects but several of Parra's past crewmates have made it all the way to the bigs.

Being a member of his crew must be educational, Johnathon has shown his patience with angry players and managers, deftly handled close calls, worked smoothly with his fellow umpires and seems to have the respect of everyone on the field.

From what I have seen, he has earned it.

REBELS NIGHT

Biscuits skipper Morgan Ensberg

 I was a kid when the Rebels bailed for Bham and left us without pro baseball for purt-near twenty five summers. Seeing the Rebs take the field, hearing Joe Marcus calling a homerun, absolutely a childhood flashback. Thank you, Biscuits. Even better was claiming it as a victory, making it so much sweeter when those fireworks went off!

The team looked resplendent in their new Rebels togs, complete with olde-English M atop their dark caps. A finer Rebels uni has not been seen in Montgomery in quite a long time. Over 3500 folks were in the stands for this Rebels game and they were in for a gem.

The Montgomery Rebels dugout

Jesus Sanchez

THROWBACK FUN
The players all seemed to enjoy having their own local history to celebrate after their Rickwood Classic experience a few weeks ago. I gave a brief speech on the Rebels history to the bullpen, which should teach them not to ask me a simple question about our baseball past again.

These Rebels were just as good on the field as their mid-70s counterparts, showing off their skills on the diamond by tossing a two hit shutout that Chips Swanson would have been proud of. Zombro, Bivens and Pelaez combined to toss a "Maddux", two hit shutout win with exactly 90 pitches. Time of the game? One hour, forty five minutes.

Well, except that it was a seven inning game... does that still count as a Maddux?

Zombro the Great

THE GAME

Rebels get a Padlo Bomb

Scoring two runs early and making it stand up easily, the Rebels handled the Lookouts with little problem. These two teams have a long history, becoming almost a rivalry in recent years due to their playoff meetings.

The runs were provided by Kevin Padlo, who hit a two run homer in the first inning. Fans in the stands have dubbed them "Padlo-Bombs" and they are usually impressive to see.

Padlo and Moats

 AS MURPH TELLS IT

Jerry Castle

I talked to our GM Murphy about my appreciation for Rebels Night. Murph kindly provided a little backstory, saying there were some early contacts made with former Rebels players but the source of the contacts passed away before the Biscuits front office could make all the connections. Bummer.

And while they couldn't make it happen as big as they wanted to this time, the GM didn't rule out having it happen again in the future so those bigger plans could be brought to fruition, which would be a joy to fans at the park.

nice detail with the 1979 Rebels capitol dome sleeve logo!

 He mentioned it was fortunate that MiLB still held the copyright to the Rebels logos and that if it happened again, it would likely be a throwback to a different Montgomery team. (hmm... Grey Sox I wondered?)

Murph also dropped a side that he really enjoyed the Rickwood Classic and would like at some point to be able to highlight the Bham-Montgomery rivalry with a two city throwback series type of thing. It was purely conceptual, perhaps a bit of dreaming for all the hoop jumping required, but it would be a fantastic treat!

Lucius Fox's Sweet Lou Whitaker impression

While shooting photos a guy stood next to me, a little older than myself. He was gazing at the players on the field while he shook his head, a slight smile curling his lip.

"Nope" he said "Never thought we would see that again". The smile slowly took over his entire face and he turned away, having drunk in the sight to its fullest.

Fans were looking forward to this one, snatching up the throwback jerseys auctioned and startling players who were asked not to sign them. It's not about who is wearing them, it was about what they represent, a rare showing of local civic pride.

We always love our Biscuits. 

Now they love us back.

TED BRAZ DAY
Also a treat was seeing Ted Brazell and his son Craig. Craig played in the majors and Ted was a Rebel in the 1970s as a player, coach and manager.

Ted Brazell

Ted is a colorful guy with wonderful stories and a fabulous sense of humor, telling tales with ease of his experiences in and around baseball. He also has a fabulous collection of Montgomery memorabilia from his time as a Rebel, including some pieces that go way back to the 1940s.

Throwing out the first pitch and seeing the fans who turned out for Rebels night, Ted said he felt it was an honor to be there and that it was such a nice atmosphere that it felt like Ted Brazell Night at the ballpark.


HEY JOE

Joe Marcus, voice of the Rebels

There was Joe Marcus, throwing out a first pitch and later getting a turn at the microphone for a half inning. Calling out the players and numbers in much the same tones he used during the disco-era to bring Rebels to the plate, Joe was in pretty good form.

Brett Sullivan completed the throwback script by hitting a homer and allowing Joe to deploy his signature call after a big hit. I recall well hearing Joe say the players name and prompting the crowds applause, it always punctuated a Rebels run being scored at Paterson Field.

Hearing Joe say simply "Brett Sullivan, ladies and gentlemen, Brett Sullivan!" made sure everyone knew something had happened and who should get the credit for it. Just like old times.

It was a great moment that completed the illusion of the "throwback" perfectly to those who were there at Paterson Field so many years ago.

Joe is a regular at Biscuits games now after supporting Montgomery baseball for decades during his long career as a radio announcer and talk show host, as well as being the stadium voice of the Montgomery Rebels from 1972-78.

Joe was so excited to throw out the first pitch, when I went to the dugout at the end of the first game of the doubleheader, Joe was already there with a baseball in his hand.

Murph told me Joe rejected the first ball he was handed, asking instead for an official league ball since that was what he had been practicing with. Joe had a good time and faked a throw before letting loose his league sanctioned orb. 

Alas the toss was low, a daisycutter that bounced on the grass and fell a few feet wide of the target. Still, it was great to see (and hear) Joe have a good time and get a little recognition for his place in the Montgomery baseball history books.

NEWS AND NOTES

Biscuits Emcee Victor T

Biscuits on-field Emcee Victor, aka Angel, will be away from the team for a couple of weeks. He lined up his two week vacation to coincide with the All Star break in order to head to Costa Rica for ten days of mission work. Victor will follow that up with a few days in Los Angeles where he has a few auditions lined up, including a chance at a part in NCIS. "I hope to play the killer, but even if they offer me the part of the victim you know I would take it!" Victor said the movies were yet unnamed films and he wouldn't know much about them until he got to the audition. Such is the path of an actor!

Pitcher Aaron Slegers didn't actually come to Montgomery. Pitcher Ryan Merritt probably won't either, both being paper moves to shuffle some players at the triple-A level. Should guys who were assigned but didn't suit up be counted on the official tally of Biscuit players? Not sure what the consensus is there, I tend to lean to the "must have appeared in a game" camp.

When Tyler Zombro took the hill, he became the first Montgomery Rebels pitcher since August 1980. No, I don't know who we had on the mound back then, if you saved the box score from the paper send me a scan.

I noticed Curtis Taylor wasn't with the team for this series, he has been sent back to the big clubs home base to be checked out. Taylor had some lingering soreness and they want to be sure how it looks before telling him how to proceed.

After clinching the first half championship, Biscuits coach Gary Redus really tied one on for the last game.

#BULLPENLIFE

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THIS WEEK IN MONTGOMERY BASEBALL HISTORY

JUNE 18 1907 
Montgomery and Little Rock play to a 13 inning tie, 3-3.

JUNE 18 1920 

Steel Arm Dickey

Knoxville, TN "Grey Sox Win and Lose to Knoxville -

Knoxville, Tennessee, June 18. - In two games thus far played between the Montgomery Grey Sox and the Knoxville team of the Negro Southern League of baseball clubs, each has one game to its credit.

Today's game was won by the visitors, 5 to 2, with Maddox in the box. Streeter hurled for the locals and was hit at opportune times by the Alabamians. In yesterday's game the Knoxville team defeated Montgomery 5 to 3, Dickey working for the visitors, while Moss hurled for the local club."

 Maddox is likely Forrest "Wing" Maddox, the one armed pitcher/outfielder who was reported as the winner of the 1920 Negro Southern League batting title.

John Dodge

JUNE 19 1916 
John Dodge of Mobile is killed by a pitched ball during a Southern league game. Oh, the irony!