Wednesday Morning Specials, Biscuits New Guy Joe, Scrap News, History

With the Biscuits in the midst of a five game set against the Biloxi Shuckers, the first place team in the south division, its a playoff preview. The Montgomery roster has seen some shuffles but the new faces are welcome additions to the Ensberg squad. Mo knows how to get guys playing time.

no team photo, but most of the guys at autograph day.

There is a rumor that Jackson may beg off of hosting a playoff game, preferring to let Montgomery host the first round in its entirety. If the season ended today, the Generals would only get to host one game in the division series. Maybe their luck is better on the road? They are 15-9 at home in the second half, so that probly aint it.

The Barons are two and a half games behind the Generals, maybe they sneak into the playoffs and save the Jackson staff the decision.

Fox and Josh Lowe before a game vs Biloxi

Earlier in the year I noticed Lucius Fox jumping before each pitch when playing shortstop. Upon his return from Durham, he no longer did the hop. When I asked him about it he said there wasn't a reason other than "... its August and I'm tired!"

However Lucius said he may bring the hop back any day, so be sure to keep an eye out for it!

NEW GUY JOE

New Guy Joe Ryan is fun to watch.
Ryan works fast, with fifteen seconds on the pitch clock, Joe is ready to throw the ball when there are still double digits. He works that fast. Chris Mason fast.

And his routine sparks memories of The Bird. If not THE Bird at least A bird. Before each frame the California kid receives the ball and goes thru an odd stretching routine.

Joe Ryan stands over the pitching rubber and bends at the waist, placing his glove with the ball on the mound between his feet. He tugs at his pants legs and then starts waving his arms straight out at his sides and then whipping them across his chest.

He's on the mound bent over at the waist flapping like a bird looking straight down at the ground.

And it works, his first home start brought in a pile of nine strikeouts and just two walks. He came up a little short of earning the victory, running out of pitches to count with two outs in the fourth inning.

And we love it! Keep flappin those arms, Joe!



 Next blog I will cover the other new guy, Sugar Shane McClanahan. These two are worth the price of admission when on the bump!

Shane and Joe checking out the pregame bullpen activities

Mo can't stand a bad baby shark

During a between inning break, I noticed Manager Morgan Ensberg doing the "Baby Shark" when it was played. "I have to help I.J. out with it sometimes" he told me when I asked him about it.

If you haven't been getting the $2 tacos on Tuesdays, you have been missing one of the best deals at the ballpark!

Kay and Leonard

Former Biscuit Patrick Leonard is with the Shuckers, though currently on the injured list. I noticed Grant Kay having a chat with Patrick during a lull in play. While they weren't Biscuit teammates, Kay and Leonard spent much time together in the Rays system.


Pitcher Blake Bivens, who has some of the best intro music on the staff, optioned to Princeton, has returned. I inquired about the roster spot that he gets and was told Jason Garcia would be temporarily inactive to clear a spot for the reliever Bivens. Basically a paper move, with the day off after this series Garcia will be good to go for his next start. No injury involved. No need to panic.
 

#BULLPENLIFE

THIS WEEK IN MONTGOMERY BASEBALL HISTORY

AUGUST 22 1905 

Lefty Houtz

In spite of scoring three runs in the bottom of the 16th inning, kicking delayed the game and the Umpire Shuster called it on account of darkness, reverting the score to the previous innings 2-2 tie. No mention from Sporting News of who Montgomery was playing....

AUGUST 22 1907 
Montgomery Outfielder Lefty Houtz goes 4-4 off pitcher Hart of Little Rock

AUGUST 23 1906 
Montgomery Starting pitcher Walsh shuts out New Orleans on three hits

AUGUST 23 1908 
Montgomery manager pro-tem Ed Gremminger, establishes a record in the Southern League with 28 out of 29 possible putouts in a 13 inning game. Both teams pitchers throw one hitters as Montgomery wins.

AUGUST 24 1908 
Montgomery Pitcher Frosty Thomas shuts out Memphis on two hits.

AUGUST 25 1906 
Montgomery and Memphis play 13 innings but end in a 1-1 tie

1920 Grey Sox

AUGUST 25 1920 
Columbus, GA and Anniston, AL
"Montgomery Grey Sox Play Two Exhibitions - After losing two out of three games this week to Atlanta, Manager Staples of the Grey Sox, split the team yesterday, and sent one team to Anniston and one to Columbus, Georgia. Both teams won shut out victories, the game in Anniston being won by the locals 7 to 0, and the Columbus game 2 to 0.

Miles and Williams were the batteries in the Anniston game, and Mason and Preston in the Columbus game."

Thoughts On So Many Roster Changes, The Legendary Josh Lowe Throw

Miles Mastrobuoni aka Mr. Clutch-Skitz

On Sunday the Biscuits return to Riverwalk to face the Biloxi Shuckers. With just ten home games left in the regular season, fans should make their way to the park to enjoy this fine club as it gears up for the playoffs and a run at setting a new season high in wins.

So far this season Montgomery has figured out every team its faced, finally knocking Jackson out of a series on the road. Now if the club can figure out itself, they will be in a fine spot heading into the postseason.

The good news is that there are a couple weeks left to do just that.

Vidal Brujan thinks about it too

THOUGHTS ON SO MANY ROSTER CHANGES
Whoa, who can keep up with all that?

As die-hard as I am, even I will have to take a few minutes to review the roster before Sundays game. Lots of players have been moved around over the past month, its tough to know what roles the players will have over the final weeks.

Did the Durham Bulls pick up two-thirds of the cost of printing the Biscuits poster giveaway?

Highlights from the roster shuffles include:

Kay from 2017 files

Grant Kay returns, his first Biscuits games since 2017
Matt Krook and Ryan Thompson return from midseason injury
Josh Fleming promoted to Durham
Blake Bivens sent to Princeton, the team not the university

Tommy Milone sidelined with injury shortly after returning from a long injury rehab
Lucius Fox bounced back from Durham for one day, returned to Bulls for one day and back to Biscuits
Phoenix Sanders promoted to Durham, Zombro sent back, again.
New Guys Sugar Shane McClanahan and Joe Ryan arrived to join the rotation


2019 Biscuits Roster Flow Chart Image Not Available

Paul Campbell enjoys a pregame trip to the bullpen

WE SEEN IT CAN HAPPEN WHEN WE DONT SEE IT

Rene Pinto

We saw what we needed to see, which is that it can happen when it won't be seen.

By this I mean the series win at Jackson, where fan attendance is dismal and is too far for most Montgomery fans to drive to. Wednesday nights game in Jackson was attended by 622 announced turnstile clicks at the formerly known as Pringles Park.

With the history between the two clubs, its a good sign that these guys can dispatch the rival Generals in a series that has few witnesses. As it stands, if the Biscuits advance past the first round of playoffs, they will celebrate it on the field in Jackson.


Should that happen, the first two games of the league championship would be held in the South Division winners park, with the North Division winner getting games 3-5, giving Montgomery a chance to claim the flag on its own field for the first time since 2006.

BRUJAN AND WALLS
Vidal Brujan and Taylor Walls are fun to watch, worth the price of admission every night.While other teams are hitting tape measure home runs and striking out at record paces, the Biscuits are showing why speed and defense have been the coin of the realm in baseball for over a century.

Vidal Brujan when he knows there is ice cream and cake at third base

Taylor Walls gets his hits on the ground

MY BAD

Jim

Carl

I mislabeled a photo, mixing up Carl Chester with Jim Haley.
 It was of course Jim Haley who hit the homer for free chicken for everyone.

It happens a couple times a year, confusing the names of a couple guys, as you can confirm with Ryan Thompson+Brian Shaffer. Not sure how it happens exactly, usually it involves a new guy.

So.... my bad!

THE JOSH LOWE THROW

Recently Biscuits outfielder Josh Lowe was featured with an #SCTOPTEN for his dynamite throw to the plate to nail a runner. Certainly it was one of the finest displays of the outfield assist seen in Montgomery, an absolute laserbeam to the catcher.

Well, I managed to have the old camera clicking when it went down and can offer a nice three-piece view of the event up close. These are the actual photos of "The Josh Lowe Throw"

locating target....

target acquired

The ball arrived so far ahead of the runner, the throw was already legendary before the tag was made.

#BULLPENLIFE

THIS WEEK IN MONTGOMERY BASEBALL HISTORY

AUGUST 16 1906 
Montgomery pitcher Breitenstein shuts out Atlanta on 3 hits

Steel Arm Dickey

AUGUST 16 1920 
Montgomery, AL
"Grey Sox Win Second From Knoxville Team - Locals Take Advantage of Visitors' Errors and Win Monday's Game - Taking advantage of errors made by their opponents, the Montgomery Grey Sox team defeated the Knoxville Giants Monday afternoon by the score of 5 to 1.

Dickey and Mason pitched good ball, but the former received poor support at critical stages of the game, while the local twirler was given jam up support whenever the visiting team threatened to score."

Bert Maxwell

AUGUST 17th 1906 
Montgomery Pitcher Maxwell shuts out Atlanta on one hit. Montgomery squeaks out just 3 hits themselves, scoring once off Atl pitcher Childs.

AUGUST 18 1906 
Willie Keeler strikes out for the second time in the season.
 Not Montgomery related, but just... wow.
 
AUGUST 18th 1910 
The Birmingham Barons inaugurated Rickwood Field on August 18, 1910, by defeating the Montgomery Climbers in front of more than 10,000 fans.

AUGUST 19 1906 
Pitcher Phillips of New Orleans one hits Montgomery and shuts them out.

AUGUST 20 1968 
The Rebels use five pitchers to beat Bham and maintain the league lead. Lefty Jim Foor, just 19, gets his third win in four days as a reliever. Montgomery has won seven straight games and 13 straight against the Barons.
- Also on this date Satchel Paige is announced as a pitcher for the Braves.

The Biscuits Buttery Buzzsaw, Worth Noticing

This year Montgomery's Biscuits have just about faced them all down.

The Biscuits have dispatched every opponent in the league, winning series after series, proving their dominance to everyone, with just one objective remaining for Mo's squad.

JIM FRALEY got everyone chick-fil-a

This club has been setting the league on fire, having already won the first half and now leading the division to start the month of August, in what has been an historic season for Montgomery.

About the only thing left is for these guys to look at themselves in the mirror and know that a champion is staring back at them.

Vidal Brujan is just waitin it out

Zombro breaks the news to O'Brien

ZOMBRO ON THE MOVE
Zombro the Great has made his final appearance in Montgomery, presumably for good. The mound magus folded the tent and headed to Durham quietly last week, under cover of night.
Fans in Montgomery will always recall him fondly.

NO WORD
Nothing yet on a team photo. With all the roster changes, it seems pretty late to take a picture of guys who haven't been here all year.


TENEROWICZ RARE FEAT

Robbie Tenerowicz

Robbie Tenerowicz managed an unusual accomplishment, making two trips to the Injured List at the same time. An undisclosed injury has him back in Florida to be checked out, but it made for some interesting reading to those of us who frequent the league page when he was added to the IL a second time without being activated!



THOSE GUYS ARE GOOD
You could field a team with all the ex-Biscuits who changed addresses over the past two weeks. AllStars like Jesus Sanchez, Joe McCarthy, Jacob Faria, Ryne Stanek, Adam Kolarek and many more were moved or shifted to new clubs around the trade deadline.

WORTH NOTICING

Josh Fleming throwing a "Maddux"

Now that there has been a wave of changes to the Biscuits roster, its a chance to see the guys who have been under the radar garner their own accolades.

Josh Fleming tossed a couple complete game shutouts and won a league award, Josh Lowe fills the cleanup spot uncontested and Brett Sullivan gets back into games behind the dish.

Taylor Walls and Vidal Brujan have made fans forget Lucius Fox led the league in swipes, plus the pitching rotation is rounded out nicely with Rosenberg and Paul Campbell on the bump.

Life is pretty good for Biscuits fans this summer!

Vidal Brujan is smilin about it!

PING PONG IS OUT
A while back I asked a few of the players who was the best ping pong player and got blank looks in return. I inquired if there still was a ping pong table in the clubhouse and was told it was there but there weren't any ping pong balls to play with, "Ping pong table is now known as just 'Table' and we eat lunch on it sometimes."

#BULLPENLIFE

THIS WEEK IN MONTGOMERY BASEBALL HISTORY

JULY 31 1905 - 
Yellow Fever shuts the Cotton States league, meaning no more baseball for teams in Mobile, Meridian, Vicksburg, Jackson Ms, Baton Rouge and Greenville.

John Gaddy

JULY 31 1941 
Montgomery beats first place Mobile in the ninth inning on a homer by pitcher John Gaddy followed by a three run homer by Quimby, scoring five to win 8-3.

JULY 31 1965 
At Paterson field the Rebels and Columbus Confederate Yankees play 19 innings to a six-all tie that ends at 1:23am after five hours, twentythree minutes.


AUGUST 1 1905 
Montgomery beats Memphis, 2-1 in 13 innings at home in Montgomery

AUGUST 1 1907 
Montgomery and Atlanta play to 1-1 tie in 12 innings.

AUGUST 1 1920 
Montgomery, AL
"Grey Sox Walloped Atlanta's Crackers -
Local Negro Team Wins Pretty Ball Game Sunday 2 to 1; Mason Hurls Good Ball -

With the best balanced team that the Grey Sox have ever had on the local diamond, and playing a good jam up game behind Mason, the local aggregation won the game from Atlanta yesterday afternoon at South Side park by the small score of two to one. The pitchers engaged in a pretty battle and both teams played excellent ball. It was one of the best games that the fans have been treated to this season and quite a large number were present.

Hub McGavock

The locals scored the first run in the third inning when Carpenter hit safe and was advanced to third on McGavock's single and scored on a balk by Hamilton. The second score came in the seventh frame, when McCormick stepped into one for three bases and scored on a wild throw to third by Hamilton.

The Black Crackers threatened to score in the fourth but Mason buckled down to the task before him and with three men on bases and no outs he retired the side scoreless. Their only run came in the eighth and was made wholly on account of errors.

Two of the Grey Sox players who have been absent from the line-up for some time were back in the game yesterday. Wesley, better known to the fans as "Two-Sides" was at his old position at second base and Bob McCormick was holding down third. Both played the game as though they had never been absent and it was McCormick's three bagger that gave his team the run that won the game. The two teams left early this morning for Atlanta, where they will play three games."


AUGUST 3 1906 
Montgomery Pitcher Breitenstein shuts out Atlanta on two hits

AUGUST 4 1906 
Atlanta pitcher Zeller returns the favor, and shuts out Montgomery on two hits