Biscuits Face Montgomery Jinx, Rebels No Hitters & Grey Sox History!

 

WHAT'S COOKIN, DOC?

I am happy to mention that there are a couple new projects of interest coming up. 

Dr. Miraculous has been invited to feature as a co-host on a new podcast along with our good friend from the ballpark, Uncle Mikey, starting this fall. 

I will be offering background and detailed info as we discuss a variety of players, teams and fields that were involved in some of the most unusual and (in)famous baseball moments in history.

Already I have been digging out some top shelf goods for the first episode of the still-unnamed 'cast. We are currently in pre-production and you know I will bring my best info, with a local spin wherever possible. Look for the first epi to drop in September, if thing go as planned.

 

ALSO ON THE STOVE

Also new on the baseball front burner, but keep this one on the down low, okay? The Doc is currently in negotiations on a deal that would drastically expand the information available on a largely undocumented area of Montgomery's baseball story. The SAC in May was very helpful for making connections and there was so much important but forgotten info about Montgomery that didn't get covered that I had to find a way to expand on it.

Both of these budding projects, long in the making, are coming much closer to their debuts and I could not be more excited. Be on the lookout for more info on these coming soon!

FUTURE CONFERENCE

On a somewhat related note - if you are already interested in the Second Annual Montgomery Baseball History & Legends Conference in 2025, I would be very happy to hear from you! Our first event in May of this year was a nice success, with many thanks to the folks at the Ala. Archives Dept and the B'ham SABR group from Rickwood Field, as well as the Montgomery Biscuits and their owner Lou DiBella. 

August 1982 was busy!

 

AND ANOTHER THING..

If you have interest in participating in a Montgomery area chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, please contact me via x/twitter or on Instagram.

 

How many times has Montgomery followed a championship season with a championship season? Take a guess then find the answer below!!

SAD NOTE

RIP to my CRV. A couple weeks ago my ride was hit and totaled. The good news is that the other driver had insurance, I wasn't in the car at the time and noone was hurt. The bad news? If you are waiting for me to send you something, that means it's gonna take even longer for me to get to the post office. 

Also, those old Rebels scrapbooks in the back of the car I was carrying to give away were destroyed. Sorry K, there are only like three books left!

EYEING THE BISCUITS

Dropping to last place in the division and struggling to get to .500, the second half Biscuits have been falling flat as often as not, forcing some Montgomery fans to start looking forward to football season early. Yet a mid-season retool has a fresh batch of Biscuits ready to take on the Southern League with a bunch of fresh faces.

Undeniably the postseason-bound Montgomery Biscuits are working their way through the second half of the season with eyes towards the playoffs. For some its a return to the scene of the crime from last years failure, yet for many others it's the first time facing down the Montgomery playoff jinx.

The Montgomery Jinx has been long in existence but rarely spoken about since the Biscuits came to town. Sportswriters as far back as the 1940's were already spilling ink on the late season woes Montgomery ball teams annually display. While the capitol city is known for a long history in baseball, championships have been much harder to come by, leaving some writers to flat out call the city jinxed.

But before we talk about failures, lets wave the flags we do have!

1920 & 1921 Montgomery Grey Sox win back to back season pennants and one Negro Southern League championship (1920). 

1928 & 1929 Montgomery took championships in the Southeastern League, B level baseball which is akin to double-A in level of play but much more varied in terms of player ages and ability. 

1942 Wartime pennant earned in the Southeastern League amid growing player shortages.

1947 & 1948 Montgomery again doubles up on championships in the Southeastern League, including setting a single season high 86 win mark that would not be bested until 2019, more than eighty years.

1951 Montgomery wins it all in its first season in the SALLY League, stepping into A level ball, the top minor league level.

1957 & 1959 Bouncing to the Alabama-Florida League to accommodate segregation on Montgomery teams, the Rebels win two pennants in the lowest of organized levels, the D-League.

1972-'73, 1975-1977 The Montgomery Rebels dynasty years saw the most productive championship run in Montgomery baseball history, earning five Southern League championships over six seasons.

The Montgomery Biscuits brought two Southern League flags to the city, in 2006 and 2007, for a total of seventeen pro baseball championships in 124 years.

 BUT WHAT HAVE YOU DONE LATELY?

Since 2007 the Biscuits have repeatedly been to the well, particularly in recent years, but Montgomery fans thirst for another pennant creeps ever closer to two decades.

Can the 2024 squad do what the last nine Montgomery postseason teams have failed to accomplish? Time will tell, but the team is well equipped to handle itself yet continues to operate a rotating door at the clubhouse entrance.

 

ANSWER: Seven times Montgomery has followed a championship season with a championship season, including three in an row from '75-77!

ABOUT THAT POSTSEASON JINX

I haven't talked about it here because I hate to give it notice, but Montgomery has fully felt its effects the last decade-plus. Even long-time Montgomery baseball fans are hard pressed to recall the exact events with the years they happened.

Mgm closer Jeff Ames

Whether its injury - like closer Jeff Ames broken arm in the last inning of the last game of the regular season one year or MVP outfielder Johnny Field's broken wrist the last week of the following season. Or was it the one before? I can't recall either, without looking them up.

Or ineffectiveness - such as Ian Gibeaut surrendering a two run walk off homer on a 3-2 fastball, or Biscuits reliever Yoel Espinal needing a double-play and getting a groundball, only to watch it roll beyond the shortstops outstretched glove allowing the winning run to end the game and the playoffs. 

closer Ian Gibeaut

Or Mother Nature, who interfered by offering the Biscuits a short path to Southern League Co-Championship via hurricane shortened playoff series. And yet the Montgomery squad was turned away with hardly a run scored. 

Or the outright bizarre - such as the brutal murder of a players family in the closing weeks of the season that sent the entire Montgomery team on a twenty hour bus ride for the funeral because the Rays were too cheap to book a flight for the playoff-hunting Biscuits. Fans understood the players hearts were not into winning a Double-A championship after that experience, which left many with lasting painful memories and took one mans family away.

 
WHY EVEN TRY? SOME DON'T SEEM TO

And of course there have been the sweeps, with the Biscuits always on the losing end. Starting in 2012 when Montgomery backed into the playoffs as the team above them tanked, leading to being swept in an ugly fashion at Riverwalk. 

Since then at least three of the last eight Biscuits have flopped without a single victory in the playoffs, most don't make it past the first round. 

And that's only in the past ten seasons! Later we will go into the past disappointments that led to the coining of the term "the Montgomery Jinx" but you can be sure there has been much excitement and drama leading to those dashed pennant hopes!

The good news? The Biscuits are "in" and just need to get hot at the right moment. We have seen how one player can carry a team through the postseason, it only takes a few things to go right for the Montgomery jinx to fall by the wayside. The big question is, will fans still turn out to see it?

BISCUIT NEWS

Welcome back Heriberto Hernandez! Returned from Durham where he struggled to find playing time and failed to continue the plate success he was enjoying in Montgomery, Hernandez lands back in the middle of the Biscuits lineup.

Heriberto doing Heriberto stuff

 

Adios Ian Seymour! Packing off to the D-Bulls is Montgomery's most successful starter this season. The friendly southpaw earned the promotion with solid mound work and cheerful clubhouse demeanor. After a litany of injuries, its a great moment of personal triumph for Seymour, who has put his career back on track.

Welcome back Sean Hunley! Bouncing between Durham and Montgomery for the sixteenth-ish time, Hunley is the longest tenured Biscuit and obviously needed in two places. However his responsibility to the Montgomery Biscuits kangaroo court demand his being in town for the rain-delayed games this series.

Sean Hunley wondering if he left something in that Durham apt

Adios Nick Schnell! Sent off to Durham in the flurry of trade deadline roster changes, the Biscuits ad-hoc first baseman leaves his Biscuits post open for incoming prospect X.I.

NEW GUYS!

Duncan Davitt and Jack Hartman have been assigned to the Biscuits to help pad out the pitching staff. Hartman, a righthanded relief man, picked up two wins and two saves in nineteen games with Bowling Green while earning a tidy ERA and mostly keeping runners off the pillows.

Davitt, also righthanded, made his first Biscuits start last week. Taking his first turn in the rotation against Biloxi, the Shuckers plated four runs in three innings but struck out five times against Duncan.  

Duncan Davitt

 

Those moves came just before the flurry of changes at the MLB trade deadline that brought six players onto the Montgomery roster. Returning is catcher Ricardo Genoves, replacing Durham-bound Kenny Piper. 

New on the scene are shortstop Brayden Taylor and righthanded pitchers Nate Dahl and Paul Gervase.

And last but not least, Xavier Issac made his much-anticipated debut for Montgomery. Issac brings a power bat to the heart of the Biscuits lineup but also offers plenty of swing-and-miss in his game.

THIS WEEK IN MONTGOMERY BASEBALL HISTORY

This weeks history has a lot of info and as Blake Snell recently learned, this is the time of year No-Hitters are often authored!

AUGUST 6 1920 

Montgomery, AL
"Errors Were Costly For the Grey Sox - Due to costly errors by the Grey Sox the Atlanta Black Crackers won the first game of the series yesterday afternoon at South Side park, 4 to 1. 

The Crackers had only one earned run, the other three being the result of errors. Hampton pitched a good game and was given jam-up support. The locals only score came in the third inning when Scales hit for three bases and was scored by Preston. They threatened to upset the dope in the ninth inning but were unable to ever get a run across. 

The honors of the game go to Scales, whose heavy hitting was a feature of the game, and to Red Cunningham, who made two sensational stops at first that held the score down. 

The teams will play a double-header this afternoon, the first game to begin at 3:30 o'clock." 

 

 

AUGUST 7th 1969

Pitcher Lerrin H. LaGrow of the Montgomery Rebels throws five wild pitches in a game against the Birmingham A's.

 

 

AUGUST 7th 1972 

Montgomery pitcher Danny W. Fife of the Rebels gave up 5 intentional walks.

 

 

AUGUST 8 1906 

Southern league Umpire F.F.Rudderham is convicted by jury in Montgomery County Court of using abusive language and fined $50 for cursing at a spectator on May 30th at Montgomery Ball Park. 

Reports from the game in question indicate that Umpire Rudderham was likely favoring the visiting team and cite multiple calls by the official that aided one visiting Shreveport player in particular. Fans became enraged and a couple coke bottles were thrown during the 2-1 Montgomery loss, which prompted the umpire to "give utterance to some very objectionable epithets" for which he was arrested after a warrant was signed.   

 

Dave Lemanczyk

AUGUST 8 1973 

Montgomery Rebels hurler Dave Lemanczyk no hits Ashville 3-0

 

AUGUST 9 1920 

Montgomery, AL
"Grey Sox Open With New Orleans and Win - Black Pelicans Trounced 6 to 3 Yesterday; Moss Hurled Air tight Ball for Locals - By hitting the lil pill to all parts of the lot and playing tight on ball behind Moss, the Grey Sox broke their losing streak yesterday afternoon, and won the first game from New Orleans, 6 to 3. 

Marion "Red" Cunningham

The honors of the playing go to Red Cunningham, McCormick, and Carpenter, whose heavy hitting was largely responsible for the locals six scores. New Orleans started the scoring of the game with two in the second and one more in the fourth but after this frame Moss tightened and held them scoreless for the remainder of the game. The Grey Sox scored five runs in the sixth inning when Carpenter slammed out a three bagger, with three men on bases and Red Cunningham hit for two bases with two men out another score was added in the seventh frame when Scales walked and scored on McCormick's three bagger. 

In spite of the fact that the Grey Sox lost four straight games in the last series, they are still leading the league by a safe margin as the strong Knoxville team, which is second in the standing, was going to Nashville, while the Grey Sox were long to the Black Crackers. Out of a four game series played with Nashville, the strong Knoxville Giants were able to witness another game which gives the Grey Sox practically the same lead that they held before the series with Atlanta. 

The Grey Sox showed up in old time form Monday afternoon and it looked as though they were trying to take out their Atlanta, grudge on the New Orleans team. Every player on the team played a good game and did good work with the stick, and the team showed the old time pep and enthusiasm that was lacking in the Atlanta series."

AUGUST 10 1968 

Montgomery pitcher Jim Brown tosses his second Rebels No hitter of the season!

 

AUGUST 14, 1970 

At Patersen Field in Montgomery, AL with the score of Montgomery Rebels 3, Savannah Indians 0 Montgomery starter Charles "Chips" Swanson of the Rebels pitched a perfect game.