Southern Leaguers on Final Lap, Best Biscuits Ever?

Matt Krook and Brett Sullivan

The Biscuits return to Riverwalk for a five game tune-up before beginning their playoff push.

The postseason bound Biscuits have 85 wins and need just one more W to equal the '52 and '77 Rebels for Most Victories in a Single Season. A couple more wins will seal the second half title and the claim of Best Season Ever.


The opponent for this tune up is the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, standing in third place in the South Division, inexplicably its their first trip of the year to Montgomery. After having games dropped from the sked due to weather and tragedy, skipper Ensberg will have to get the Biscuits club ramped up quickly.

IN THE OTHER DUGOUT

The Twins two top prospects, Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff, lead the third place Wahoos offense. Other top Twins prospects populate the Pensacola roster - outfielder Trevor Larnach, pitcher Jhoan Duran, catcher Ryan Jeffers, pitcher Stephen Gonsalves, pitcher Griffin Jax, second baseman Travis Blankenhorn.

Second baseman Blankenhorn provides a lot of pop, currently third in the circuit in round trippers.
Stephen Gonsalves has been here before, having been in the Southern League in parts of the three previous seasons with Chattanooga.

STATS DROUGHT

Rosenberg and McClanahan

Numbers-wise, its tough to suss out the Wahoos, due to the second half individual player stats not being available to the public. MLB and MiLB have done a bang-up job pulling stats providers off the internet.

As recently as last season it was easy to find full stats and metrics for double-A players like FIP, BaBIP and swinging-strike data. Not anymore, as evidenced by the excitement when I found a single piece of scrap paper with a Biscuit pitchers spin rate info.

So if you noticed less use of statistical breakdowns on the blog this summer, there is your reason! As such, I have suspended the What To Look For for this series. Who knows what can happen in the last series of the year?

BLAKE BIVENS
This is all I will say: What a horrible tragedy for such a beautiful young family, perhaps the saddest moment in all of Montgomery's long baseball history. It is too painful to discuss any further. Please consider donating to the Emily Bivens fund - https://www.gofundme.com/f/emily-bivens-family-fund


TSHIRTS WIN FANS
The Biscuits front office works hard to bring fans to the ballpark. One thing that has been received well is the T Shirt giveaways. Fans line up early to acquire one of the Thursday wearable keepsakes.

Now if only we can put those to good use -

After so many have been given away, it would be impressive to see people decked out when offered an incentive to wear them. Find a way to reward fans for repping the team. How about a good discount for wearing one of them on a certain night.... Free kids hotdog, maybe? Thirsty Thursday beer price on Tuesdays when you wear a Thirsty Thursday shirt?

ATTENDANCE WOES RETURN
This year the Biscuits have five games to bring in 30K people if they want to equal last years attendance total. Normally between 225-235K annually, this year the announced attendance is at 208K.

Dropping off quickly the past five seasons, Montgomery was usually good for 250 thousand visitors each summer through 2013 but has seen a sharp dropoff since new parks have been built in Birmingham, Pensacola and Biloxi. An uptick last year provided hope the new owners would turn the ship around, but that trend has not continued this season.

So while this has been the best year for Montgomery in terms of victories on the field, it has been one of the worst at the turnstile.

#BULLPENLIFE

AUGUST 28 1906

Mullaney

Montgomery's first baseman and team captain Mullaney goes 4-4 against Little Rock starter Allen

AUGUST 29 1906  
Pitcher Malarkey of Montgomery shuts out Little Rock on three hits

AUGUST 30 1920 
Monday the Knoxville Giants crossed bats with Montgomery Gray Sox. It was one of those games that makes you forget your troubles. Safe hitting of the Giants took the game from Montgomery."

AUGUST 31 1920 
Knoxville, TN
"Tuesday, August 31. - Montgomery tried to overcome her bad luck on Monday. They got Steel-Arm for four clean hits, which only merited them two runs."

SEPTEMBER 1 1867 
Pelham club in Montgomery plays match, married vs unmarried, batchelors winning 25-4 and a silver whistle given to the player of the game.

SEPTEMBER 1, 1906 
Southern Association At Shreveport, LA; Shreveport Pirates 4, Montgomery Senators 0.  Thomas C. Fisher of the Pirates pitched a perfect game. He strikes out 14 Mgm hitters.

SEPTEMBER 1 1909 
In a seven inning game, Montgomery is no-hit by Mobile pitcher Allen, who wins 1-0

SEPTEMBER 2 1904 
The unpaid players of Montgomery go on strike, refusing to play. The matter is settled by the sale of the team to E.E.Winters. Winters is manager of Pickett Spring Casino and manager of Montgomery's Traction Co. trolley car company.
Its the beginning of a grand era in Montgomery, as Winters and later E.B. Joseph both turn the Traction Company and baseball team into successful enterprises.

SEPTEMBER 1 1920 

Steel Arm Dickey

Knoxville, TN
"'Steel Arm' Dickey Wins Another Game - Knoxville, Tennessee, September 1 -
"Steel Arm" Dickey, the phenominal pitcher of the Knoxville Giants of the Negro Southern League, added another shut out victory to his long string of victories here this afternoon when the Giants won from the Montgomery Grey Sox 3 to 0. Mason, who opposed Dickey this afternoon pitched a steady game for the Grey Sox but his team mates were never able to connect with the dazzling offerings of Dickey. Preston did the receiving for the Grey Sox and Smith for the Giants."

SEPTEMBER 2 1895 
"The season of the Southern Baseball League closed on September 2. None of the clubs made any money, but they had lots of fun." report from The Sporting News

SEPTEMBER 2 1910 
Enthusiastic Fan Killed by Foul Tip is mentioned in The Montgomery Advertiser