Tag: Memphis Redbirds

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Rising Redbirds

CREDIT: Adolis Garcia

The Memphis Redbirds return to AutoZone Park this week after a lengthy (13-game) road trip. Good time for a refresher on a few rising stars as the club seeks a third consecutive Pacific Coast League championship.

Adolis Garcia

• Adolis Garcia — The 26-year-old Cuban is blocked by an abundance of outfielders with the parent club in St. Louis. Which means Garcia will likely anchor the batting order for manager Ben Johnson throughout the Triple-A season. Through Sunday, he leads the club with eight home runs and 25 RBIs. The one thing that might compromise Garcia’s impact for Memphis this season? A trade. A lesson we learned a year ago when the Cardinals dealt Oscar Mercado to Cleveland: extra outfielders are easily moved for more coveted commodities (pitching or low-level prospects).

• Daniel Ponce de Leon — There’s no commodity in baseball more valuable than starting pitching and the Cardinals are blessed in this area. Having fully recovered from a skull fracture suffered during the 2017 season, Ponce de Leon won nine games for Memphis last season and started four games for the Cardinals. With Michael Wacha briefly on the injured list, St. Louis promoted the 27-year-old righty for a start against Milwaukee on April 23rd. He earned the win, striking out seven and allowing but one run in five innings, only to be demoted to Memphis to make room for Wacha’s return to the rotation. “Ponce” is 2-1 with a 3.57 ERA for the Redbirds. There are big-league teams for whom he’d be starting every fifth day. They just don’t call Busch Stadium home.


• Andrew Knizner — Catching prospects in the Cardinal system tend to find themselves eventually making a living in other systems. Carson Kelly appeared to be the man to finally succeed the ageless Yadier Molina in St. Louis, only to be shipped to Arizona in the deal that brought Paul Goldschmidt to the Cardinals. The eighth-ranked prospect in the Cardinals system, Knizner is the latest to carry “heir apparent” status behind the plate for Memphis. The 24-year-old Knizner is a better hitter than Kelly, currently slashing .329/.391/.456 for the Redbirds. He comes equipped with a strong arm and has time to develop his catching skills at Triple-A, with former All-Star Matt Wieters currently backing up Molina in St. Louis.

• Tommy Edman — The PCL has long been a hitter’s league. Edman’s .333 batting average barely places him among the circuit’s top 20. But the infielder’s bat is proving to be a top-of-the-order spark plug for the Redbirds, his versatility — as a second-baseman or shortstop — expanding Johnson’s options when putting together a lineup card. Edman starred in last year’s PCL playoffs, hitting .432 over the Redbirds’ nine-game run to the Triple-A national championship. Keep that performance in mind as the 23-year-old Californian finds his way. There’s no intangible for a professional baseball player like confidence.

• Austin Gomber — Like Ponce de Leon, Gomber has already established major-league credentials. The 25-year-old lefty went 6-2 in 11 late-season starts for St. Louis last season, helping the Cardinals climb within a short winning streak of a playoff berth. (That winning streak, alas, didn’t happen in September.) He’s off to a 4-0 start for Memphis this season, with a 2.97 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 33 innings pitched. The Cardinals are currently functioning with no left-hander in their rotation and only two pitching out of the bullpen. It stands to reason Gomber will get a call for the trip up I-55 this season. Only a matter of when.

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Ben’s ’Birds

CREDIT: Courtesy Memphis Redbirds

When the Memphis Redbirds open their 22nd season Thursday night at AutoZone Park, they’ll do so with their eighth manager. But 37-year-old Ben Johnson will be the first native Memphian to deliver the Opening Day lineup card to the home plate umpire. So it’s a homecoming of sorts for the former Germantown High School centerfielder, but with a recent standard almost impossible to match, particularly for a man in charge of his first Triple-A club.

“I’m in a position to put these players in a position to succeed,” emphasizes Johnson. “I don’t know that every manager puts his players first in their day-to-day. Their dream is my dream; I want them to be great. I can help them with that.”
Courtesy Memphis Redbirds

Ben Johnson

Born at Baptist East in 1981, Johnson entered professional baseball as a St. Louis Cardinal, adding a layer to his homecoming this season. The Cardinals chose Johnson in the fourth round of the 1999 draft, but traded him to San Diego a year later. He made his debut with the Padres in 2005 and played in 98 big-league games, his last with the New York Mets in 2007. (Johnson suffered a severe injury to his left ankle sliding into second base, one that contributed to his early retirement as a player. “The body went,” says Johnson, “and it took some time for the mind to grasp that.”) He chose to stick with baseball, becoming a scout for four years (2014-17) with the Arizona Diamondbacks before joining the Durham Bulls (Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays) as third-base coach for the 2018 season.

The Bulls fell to Memphis in last season’s Triple-A National Championship Game but, for Johnson, the event led to a career-altering meeting with St. Louis president of baseball operations, John Mozeliak. “We had a good conversation, and that started the ball rolling,” says Johnson. “He didn’t ask about my interest [in the Redbirds job], but just how interested I was in coaching. How I felt about coaching. He knew from my response that I love coaching.” Mozeliak happened to be the Cardinals’ pro scouting director in 1999 when the Cardinals originally signed Johnson as a player. The reunion had a road map.

“I’d see Mo on the scouting trail, and I covered the Cardinals [as a Padres scout],” notes Johnson. “You make sure you speak to a guy like that when you see him. There was some depth to it, I guess.”

Early in his playing career, Johnson spent offseasons in Memphis, but he and his wife and two children have lived in Phoenix for more than a decade now. “Better weather, more players coming together,” notes Johnson. “It was better for my career [in baseball].” But the lure of Memphis — and the Cardinals system — seemed more than serendipitous. “Interviewing for this job hit home more than any other position I’d ever interviewed for,” says Johnson. “We grew up Cardinal fans.”

Coming of age in the 1990s, Johnson admired the Atlanta Braves dynasty, particularly outfielder David Justice. But the Cardinals were in his heart, notably Ozzie Smith and a man he now counts as a colleague, Cardinals bench coach Willie McGee. “Sometimes when you meet your heroes, they’re not [what you’d like them to be],” says Johnson. “It’s all about the players with Willie, and it’s genuine. He’s transparent with the players.”

When asked about managers who have influenced his own philosophy from the dugout, Johnson starts with his high school coach, Phil Clark. “He helped me through the initial pro phase of my life,” says Johnson. “He helped me with what to say and what not to say to scouts.” Johnson also appreciates the influence of Dave Clark (currently the third-base coach for the Detroit Tigers) and Craig Colbert, his manager at a few levels in the Padres’ system. “There were days we didn’t like each other a lot,” says Johnson. “As I matured, we started to get along better. He had a big part in bringing me up as a player.”

Johnson’s first big-league manager was Bruce Bochy, a man who has since won three World Series as skipper for the San Francisco Giants. “There was no ‘eye wash’ with [Bochy]. No false hustle needed. Fake energy is not necessary. I don’t need you to sprint from field to field in spring training if you’re getting your work in. Be a professional. Show up on time, work hard, and we’ll be fine.”

Johnson chuckles at the notion of filling the shoes of his predecessor, Stubby Clapp, a Memphis favorite before he won two straight Pacific Coast League titles as Redbirds manager. Now the Cardinals’ first-base coach, Clapp is the first man Johnson calls with questions any rookie manager will confront. “The Cardinals have made it clear that it’s my fault if I don’t reach out,” says Johnson. “I’ve probably asked Stubby a hundred questions. He’s genuinely interested in what I have to say. He gives me an honest answer, and in a way that doesn’t make me feel like he’s annoyed.”

Having benefited from his own development as a minor-leaguer, Johnson has a grasp on priorities as the Redbirds take flight under his watch. “We have a really talented young group,” says Johnson. “I’m not judged by wins and losses. It’s how we go about handling our business, and building the foundation of development. The number-one goal is to produce championship-caliber players for our major-league team.”

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Redbirds vs. Grizzlies for PCL Championship

Memphis will spend the next week rooting hard against the Grizzlies.

After a pair of heart-stopping comeback wins last weekend, the Memphis Redbirds advanced to the Pacific Coast League (PCL) championship series for a second straight season where they’ll defend their title against the Triple-A affiliate of the world champion Houston Astros, the Fresno Grizzlies. Battling Mother Nature in both Oklahoma City (where they split the first two games of the best-of-five semifinal series) and Memphis, the Redbirds beat a hot Dodger team in four games, the last two in walk-off fashion.

In Game 3 Friday night, Alex Mejia, Lane Thomas, and Max Schrock delivered consecutive RBI singles in the bottom of the ninth inning to erase a 4-2 Oklahoma City lead and give Memphis a 2-1 series advantage. But that comeback served merely as prelude to Sunday’s epic Game 4.

Courtesy Memphis Redbirds

The Redbirds tied Sunday’s game at a run apiece in the bottom of the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly by Tommy Edman. (The game had been scheduled for seven innings, as Game 5 would have followed had the Dodgers won.) Oklahoma City took a two-run lead in the top of the 10th inning on a home run by Henry Ramos. But the Redbirds rallied again, this time tying the score at 3 on a two-out, two-strike single by Alex Mejia. Then, things got a little weird.

Thomas reached second after drilling the ball off the Dodgers’ first baseman, putting Redbirds at second and third. Oklahoma City manager Bill Haselman then seemed to corner Redbirds manager Stubby Clapp by walking Schrock. Out of position players on his bench, Clapp was forced to let relief pitcher Giovanny Gallegos bat with the winning run 90 feet away. Gallegos had exactly one at-bat in his seven-year professional career.

Gallegos clubbed the baseball over the leftfielder’s head for a series-clinching walkoff victory. Such is Redbirds baseball in what can now be called the Stubby Clapp era. Pieces of a good team are removed. Others arrive, suit up, and impact victories.

The 2018 Redbirds, for a time, had the finest outfield in the minor leagues: Tyler O’Neill, Oscar Mercado, and Adolis Garcia. Mercado was traded in late July and O’Neill and Garcia are now helping the St. Louis Cardinals fight for a big-league playoff spot.

In April, Memphis had what appeared to be an electric rotation of starting pitchers: Jack Flaherty, Austin Gomber, John Gant, Daniel Poncedeleon, and Dakota Hudson. Hudson won 13 games for the Redbirds and earned PCL Pitcher of the Year honors. But all five men are now pitching for the Cardinals, leaving the likes of Jake Woodford, former Cardinal Tyler Lyons, and Kevin Herget to take turns in the PCL playoffs.

And take their turns they will, now three games from back-to-back championships for a man — already a back-to-back PCL Manager of the Year — who may be on to new ventures next spring. When the Toronto Blue Jays announced last week that manager John Gibbons will not return in 2019, Clapp’s name instantly became an offseason talking point. (Clapp is a native of Windsor, Ontario.) Would a major-league team hire a manager with no experience in such a role on the game’s highest level? Check out the managers’ offices at Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park as the Yankees and Red Sox prepare for this year’s postseason.

For at least three more games, though, Stubby Clapp will command the Memphis Redbirds. (The championship series opens Tuesday night in Fresno, with Games 3 through 5 scheduled for AutoZone Park, starting Friday night.) You can bet against the Redbirds at your wallet’s peril. Clapp has emphasized “never say die” for two seasons now as a Triple-A manager. When relief pitchers are drilling series-winning hits to the wall, perhaps it’s time we all believe in the mantra.

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St. Louis Cardinals in Crisis; Matheny Fired

As the Memphis Redbirds roll toward a second straight appearance in the Pacific Coast League playoffs, their parent club in St. Louis is undergoing a transition the proud franchise hasn’t experienced since the internet was a public curiosity. After a dispiriting loss to the Cincinnati Reds Saturday night at Busch Stadium, the club announced the dismissal of manager Mike Matheny, the first Cardinal skipper fired since Hall of Fame-bound Joe Torre in 1995.

St. Louis is facing a third straight season outside the postseason party, a drought last witnessed in what is best remembered as the McGwire Era (1997-99). Matheny became the first big-league manager to reach the postseason his first four seasons at the helm (2012-15) and won the National League pennant in 2013. But the recent decline in both wins and competent play — they go together — was too much for the Cardinal brass to wait even one more game and dismiss Matheny during the All-Star break. The three-day respite is a good time for self-evaluation — on a team scale — so here are three thoughts on the current mirror-gazing at Busch Stadium.

Mike Shildt


• The Cardinals are still looking for The Guy.
The Man played his last game in 1963, and there will not be a “next Stan Musial.” But the ongoing lack of a slugger in the middle of the St. Louis lineup is becoming somewhat historic. Not since 2012 has a Cardinal driven in 100 runs (Matt Holliday was The Guy that season) and this year’s leader, through Sunday, is Jose Martinez with 56 (68 games remain on the Cardinal schedule). The big acquisition last winter was outfielder Marcell Ozuna, who slashed .312/.376/.548 for Miami last season but has disappointed as a Cardinal to this point with a line of .268/.309/.385.

The Cardinals’ only selection for Tuesday’s All-Star Game — and every franchise is granted at least one — was playing in Japan a year ago. This says as much about the milquetoast Cardinal batting order as it does about Miles Mikolas and his 2.79 ERA. (Catcher Yadier Molina was added to the National League roster to replace the injured Buster Posey.) Matt Carpenter has been a franchise linchpin, for good or ill, and recovered nicely from a dreadful start by hitting .313 and drilling eight home runs in June. But he’s not The Guy. His finest season (2013) came in a complementary role when he set the table for Holliday, Molina, Carlos Beltran, and Allen Craig in helping St. Louis win the National League pennant.

Tommy Pham’s breakout 2017 season now looks like a spike in performance and not the launch of a career trend. A 20-steals/20-homer star a year ago, Pham is hitting .243 and strikes one out of every four plate appearances. Not The Guy.

• An abundance of pitching is always good.
If St. Louis is to find The Guy, it will likely require departing with one of the best young arms in the National League (or, for now, the Pacific Coast League). Jack Flaherty stepped into the injured Adam Wainwright’s rotation slot and has two 13-strikeout games to his credit as a rookie. Reliever Jordan Hicks — 21 years old and having skipped Triple-A seasoning — has tested the limit of radar technology with his 105-mph fastball. Here on the farm, Dakota Hudson has dominated the PCL with 12 wins and a 2.42 ERA, good enough to earn the 23-year-old Tennessean a start in last week’s Triple-A All-Star Game.

With Michael Wacha ailing (again) and Luke Weaver struggling for consistency, the Cardinals can ill afford dealing a young arm whimsically. But president of baseball operations John Mozeliak — as he stares deeply into that mirror — must do some smart math in the weeks and months ahead. How much value does a pitching surplus bring if a hitting deficit leaves St. Louis on the wrong side of 3-2 and 2-1 scores?

• The NL Central is a two-team race . . . and neither team wears red.
Among all the self-evaluation, this has to be the hardest for Cardinal management to accept. For the better part of two decades, discussion of World Series contenders in the National League Central began with a scouting report of the Cardinals. The club’s answer, at least through the end of this season, is interim manager Mike Shildt. “Shilty” is a baseball professor who won three championships (two at Class A, one at Double A) before managing the Memphis Redbirds for two seasons (2015-16). There’s some irony to the title Shildt was given upon his promotion to St. Louis for the 2017 season: quality control coach. The Cardinals’ quality standards need some controlling, to say the very least.

In covering Shildt for his two seasons in Memphis, I found two distinct character traits not found in every professional baseball clubhouse. Shildt has virtually no ego, at least not the kind that impacts decision-making in a dugout. He won’t be surprised by in-game scenarios, which means he won’t panic. And Shildt is grateful. A protege of the great George Kissell (father of “The Cardinal Way”), Shildt did not play professionally, so has found his way to the major leagues along a distinctive path, one where credentials had to be earned without the benefit of any past achievement on the field. He appreciates making a living in baseball, and particularly with the St. Louis Cardinals.

In this unusual time of crisis at Busch Stadium, gratitude and appreciation may prove to be guiding principles. There are teams to chase in the National League Central.

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J.B., Penny, and Redbirds Alumni

I’m glad the Memphis Grizzlies named J.B. Bickerstaff — officially — their head coach last week. Compassion isn’t (and shouldn’t be) a factor in hiring a person to lead a professional sports franchise, but Bickerstaff has earned this chance, particularly having coached 63 games last season with the requirement, in roundball terms, that he dribble with one hand only. Exactly zero of those games included Mike Conley at point guard (to say nothing of departed icons Tony Allen or Zach Randolph). The 39-year-old son of a longtime NBA coach (Bernie), Bickerstaff has paid his dues with more than 10 years as an assistant and was unable to earn the Houston Rockets’ trust over the course of 71 games (and a playoff appearance) in 2015-16. The least the man deserves is an 82-game season, a healthy roster (Conley and Chandler Parsons are crossing all fingers and toes), and the mission to win every game he can. Throw in a top-five pick in this June’s draft, and Bickerstaff may look back at his first winter calling the shots at FedExForum as one of those disguised blessings that shapes a career.

• It’s hard to imagine a wider disparity between what I’ll call the “buzz rating” of the Memphis Grizzlies’ head coach and that of the new Memphis Tigers’ coach. On a scale to 100, I’d put Bickerstaff’s number somewhere in the 40s. He’s recognizable among regular followers of the Grizzlies (and there are indeed many of them in this town). But Bickerstaff could walk into Huey’s and find a table without much ado.

Penny Hardaway eating at Huey’s? He’d never get the toothpick out of his burger. The Tiger icon is the most talked-about, photographed, and cheered human being in Memphis right now. And his college record is 0-0. This isn’t so much about one coach being better than another. It’s not even about relative popularity. (Though the last Memphian as popular as Penny Hardaway died at Graceland 41 years ago.) The disparity speaks to the difference an NBA coach can make in a league dominated by its superstar players and the difference a college coach can make on a landscape dominated by superstar coaches. Next winter will be fun as both these “rookies” establish credentials for the near and long-term future of their beloved teams.

• Last Friday in Seattle, Albert Pujols became the 32nd player in baseball history to reach the 3,000-hit plateau. In the age of WAR and OPS, any achievement involving “counting stats” is somewhat diminished, but we should appreciate Pujols’s climb up the national pastime’s Olympus. He’s only the fourth player to count more than 600 home runs among his 3,000 hits (following Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Alex Rodriguez). Pujols may have played only 14 games as a Memphis Redbird (in 2000), but he has a permanent place — and red seat — in Bluff City baseball history for the walk-off home run he hit at AutoZone Park on Sept. 15, 2000, to give Memphis its first Pacific Coast League championship.

There’s already discussion about whether Pujols’s Hall of Fame plaque will feature a St. Louis Cardinals hat or that of his current team, the Los Angeles Angels. When Pujols wins a pair of World Series and three MVP awards with the Angels, this will be worthy of debate. There is one player in the history of the sport who can claim ten consecutive seasons with a .300 batting average, 30 home runs, and 100 RBIs. All ten of those seasons (2001-10) happened with Albert Pujols wearing a Cardinals uniform.

• It was a big weekend for another man who enjoyed a brief moment in the sun as a Memphis Redbird. Vince Coleman led the National League in stolen bases six straight seasons (1985-90) as a St. Louis Cardinal, then attempted a comeback in 1998, signing a minor-league contract with the Cards. He was the first Memphis Redbird to step into a batter’s box (on April 9, 1998). Coleman left the Redbirds after 20 games — and eight stolen bases — when it became clear a big-league promotion wasn’t imminent. Last Friday, Coleman was elected to the Cardinals Hall of Fame. He’ll be inducted along with a star from the 1940s (Harry Brecheen) and another from the 1990s (Ray Lankford) on August 18th.

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PCL Championship: Memphis vs. El Paso

Patrick Wisdom, Redbirds president Craig Unger, and Manager Stubby Clapp

The Memphis Redbirds are headed to the Pacific Coast League championship series. This may have seemed pre-destined, the Redbirds having posted the most regular season wins (91) in the PCL since 2006. But the cruel nature of postseason baseball forces a Triple-A team built over five months and 140 games to prove itself in a best-of-five series, and often (as noted in last week’s column) with stars long gone to expanded major-league rosters. Having split the first two games of its conference final with Colorado Springs last week at AutoZone Park, Memphis didn’t so much as win a three game series on the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains as survive the closest thing to beer-league softball professional baseball will see this year.

Consider some numbers from Games 3 through 5 (the latter two won by the Redbirds). Memphis and Colorado Springs combined to scored 73 runs on 99 hits in the three games. The fewest runs scored by a losing team was eight (by the Sox in Game 4), and the Redbirds lost a game in which they scored 15 runs (Game 3). Memphis manager Stubby Clapp — the PCL’s Manager of the Year — made a total of 14 pitching changes to bring his team back to Memphis with its season alive.

I’m convinced the Redbirds won their semifinal series in a game they actually lost. Down 16-7 in the eighth inning of Game 3, the Redbirds rallied for seven runs in the eighth and one more in the ninth, coming up a run short in what looks like the final score of a bad-weather football game (16-15). When asked what distinguishes his club, Clapp has insisted it’s a refusal to quit, however bleak things might look on the scoreboard. The Redbirds may have entered Game 4 (and Game 5) with their season on the line, but they had every reason to believe they could make more than a dent in the Colorado Springs bullpen. (Three home runs in the first inning of Game 5 made it clear the Sky Sox starters weren’t safe either.)

The roster shakeup (thanks to St. Louis and Milwaukee promotions) made for some bizarre moments. Sky Sox pitcher Aaron Wilkerson made his Triple-A debut this season in Game 2 at AutoZone Park . . . and no-hit the Redbirds for seven innings. (Wilkerson was removed after seven, having reached a pitch-count limit. This is still the minor leagues, and still primarily about development, no-hitters be damned.)

There was an uncomfortable moment for Memphis in the 10th inning of Game 4 when the Redbirds loaded the bases, the score tied and one out. His club’s season on the line, Clapp sent Tommy Edman to the plate. Edman starred last year on the campus of Stanford University. A sixth-round pick of the Cardinals in the 2016 draft, Edman split the 2017 regular-season between Class-A Palm Beach and Double-A Springfield. That key at-bat was Edman’s third at the Triple-A level, all as a pinch-hitter in these playoffs. He struck out, but Nick Martini followed with a walk, the Redbirds rallied to score four runs, and Stubby’s gang improved to 12-0 in extra-inning games this year. Perhaps there is some pre-destiny in the mix.

The Redbirds will have to beat the PCL’s defending champs to raise their third pennant. And the El Paso Chihuahuas — an affiliate of the San Diego Padres — have retained plenty of offensive firepower since the MLB roster expansion, including this year’s PCL batting champ, Nick Buss (.348). Outfielders Franchy Cordero (.326) and Rafael Ortega (.317) would make life difficult for the likes of Luke Weaver and Jack Flaherty (now pitching in the St. Louis Cardinals’ rotation). Clapp will send Dakota Hudson (eight Triple-A starts), Kevin Herget (10), and Ryan Helsley (two) up against this formidable lineup.

It’s somewhat eerie to compare this Redbirds postseason run to the one Clapp enjoyed (as the team’s second baseman) in 2000. Seventeen years ago, Memphis fell behind its semifinal opponent (Albuquerque) two games to one, only to rally and win a pair of games (at home, a significant difference from last weekend’s fun in Colorado Springs). Those Redbirds also relied on lower-level reinforcements, one of them — Albert Pujols — delivering the most famous hit in franchise history, a home run to win the PCL title at AutoZone Park.

This year’s PCL champion will be crowned in El Paso (where Games 3 through 5 will be played, as many as necessary). Clapp played his college ball at Texas Tech in Lubbock, a short (by Texas standards), 350-mile drive from El Paso. In a year of coming home for Stubby Clapp, you get the sense this story’s final chapter may include one more dose of pre-destiny.

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Q & A: Stubby Clapp

In his first year as a Triple-A manager, Stubby Clapp has led the Memphis Redbirds to the longest winning streak in franchise history (11 games), the most single-season wins in franchise history (83 through Sunday), and a division title clinched with more than 20 games to play in the regular season. (The Redbirds will likely host Colorado Springs in the opening round of the Pacific Coast League playoffs, with Game 1 of their series scheduled for September 6th at AutoZone Park.)

Have you taken any time to celebrate (or at least contemplate) what this team has already accomplished?
We celebrated the night we clinched the division, then back to work. The work’s not done. Everybody knows the kind of season it’s been, but we don’t talk about it. You can feel it in the atmosphere. But we don’t talk about numbers; we just go out the next day and play. That’s the easiest way and humblest way to do it.

Your club is 10-0 in extra-inning games and either won or split 27 consecutive series. These are major violations of the law of averages. How do you explain such numbers?
They don’t quit. Don’t have “quit” in their vocabulary. We don’t have one superhero. We have a team full of very capable, highly talented athletes who try to play 27 outs every night . . . and some (in extra innings). I’m not a big numbers guy. I’ve never looked at how it all stacks up until the season’s over.

Has there been a game or moment that, in your eyes, represents what this team has become?
Every extra-inning game. Every game they’ve won by one run, or come back late in the game. It’s not just once. First game of the season: 13 innings. We won. That was the first time I’d ever managed a National League-style game, learning how to double-switch. We got through it and the players pulled it off.

A few significant members of your team — Paul DeJong, Luke Voit, and Carson Kelly to name three — are now playing with the St. Louis Cardinals. If anything, your club’s record has improved. Again, how do you explain?
We’ve kept all 25 guys involved. Every day. Somehow, some way, all 25 guys are involved. I don’t like to let position players sit more than two days. All of our players have big-league value, so it wouldn’t be fair to let them sit three or four days, then ask them to be ready when someone gets called up. I’ve tried to keep everyone hot and involved. So they’ve been ready to play. I can’t take credit, because I read it in one of my books: include everybody. There have been several things that have happened to me in life that have made me think about including everybody. When you make the extra effort to do that, it’s usually a positive response. You get a good clubhouse atmosphere and the by-product is [winning] results.

Are there unsung heroes in the clubhouse, players fans might not realize have played a critical role in the team’s success?
Nick Martini, Wilfredo Tovar, and Alberto Rosario. Rosey was our backup catcher. He accepted his role, and he was great at what he did. When Carson [Kelly] was gone, he stepped right in and helped us get quality starts [from our pitchers]. Same with Tovar. When DeJong got called up, I didn’t think twice about what I was going to do [at shortstop]. Martini came up from Double-A and was ready to play.

How would you compare the gratification of an 83-45 record with telling players like DeJong and Voit they’re going to the big leagues for the first time?
I can’t take one from the other, because they’re two different things. When you tell a DeJong or Voit they’re going up for the first time, that’s an individual thing. But when I look at our record, that’s the clubhouse. Our team.

It’s rewarding to send someone to the big leagues, both for [the player] and for me. I get to see that the work they’ve put in is rewarded. Looking at the record, I get to see the rewards of the team paying attention, getting it put together, and doing it from 7:00 to 10:00 every night.

Do you see any similarities between the 2017 Redbirds and the 2000 club you helped win a PCL championship?
The chemistry. When guys are pulling for each other. All in for the right reasons, everyone involved. Players are doing the right thing for each other, and not just themselves.

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2017 Memphis Redbirds: Wisdom Prevails

The Memphis Redbirds are enjoying a season for the ages. In beating Las Vegas Sunday afternoon at AutoZone Park, the Redbirds improved their record to 65-35, reaching 30 games above .500 for the first time in the 20-year history of the franchise. With more than 40 games still to play, the team record for wins in a season — 83 by the 2000 Pacific Coast League champions — is all but sure to fall. The winning continues as the club continues to sacrifice talent to the parent St. Louis Cardinals.

No fewer than four of the eight position players who took the field for Memphis on Opening Day can now be found wearing Cardinal uniforms. Outfielder Tommy Pham and shortstop Paul DeJong are playing every day for St. Louis. (DeJong is just the second player to hit 10 home runs for both the Redbirds and Cardinals in the same season. The first was Rick Ankiel in 2007.) Slugger Luke Voit is playing some first base for the Cards and delivering right-handed pop off the bench. Just last Friday, St. Louis promoted Carson Kelly, the top-ranked catching prospect in baseball. Memphis has won all four games (through Monday) since Kelly’s departure.

What has kept this team so steady, so consistently strong despite the roster fluctuation? The first place you might look is third base, where 25-year-old Patrick Wisdom — in a supporting role — has put up numbers that could earn him team MVP honors by season’s end. Through Monday, Wisdom has clubbed a team-leading 22 home runs, driven in 66 runs (also tops on the team), while hitting .251 with a .506 slugging percentage. The power numbers are already career highs for Wisdom, a 2012 supplemental draft pick of the Cardinals. (He entered this season with a career batting average of .237 and hit 14 home runs in each of two seasons at Double-A Springfield.) 

Patrick Wisdom

Wisdom spent the 2016 season with Memphis, but missed 64 games with an injury to his left hand (broken hamate) that required surgery. He’s been healthy since spring training, though, and has focused on the same development priority of every Triple-A player from Pawtucket to Tacoma: consistency. Instead of muscle memory, though, Wisdom’s emphasis has been on the organ that controls muscle memory. “It’s being able to switch off from baseball once you leave the field,” he says. “Finding an outlet, whether it be reading, video games, hanging with the guys, a TV show. This game is so mental. Leave baseball at the field.”

Wisdom’s quick to credit Redbirds manager Stubby Clapp for instilling a don’t-quit, never-panic culture in the Memphis clubhouse. This has come in handy not just in game situations — the Redbirds are 7-0 in extra-inning contests — but in adjusting to the roster fluctuation as the Cardinals continue searching for a winning mix. “We just have an expectation to win,” says Wisdom. “Individually, we all bought into that mindset. We know what we need to do to be successful. When that comes together, you see the results. We have a lot of high-character guys in the clubhouse, and that carries over to the field. Whether we’re playing card games, or just sitting around the table, we’re laughing, having fun together. We come to the park ready to win. And we bounce back after a loss.”

Wisdom has heard stories of Clapp’s playing days in Memphis, which hasn’t hurt the rookie manager’s standing among the players he now must lead. “When he played, he played with a lot of grit, liked to get dirty on the ground,” says Wisdom with a smile. “He’s rubbed that off on us. Have fun, but play hard. He allows us to be ourselves, and that’s a big part of [our success].”

Barring a calamity of Hindenburg proportions, the Redbirds will return to the PCL playoffs in September, their first postseason venture in three years. And Wisdom offers a confident nod when asked if this team can win the franchise’s third PCL championship. “I like our team,” he stresses. “I like the way we play baseball. There’s no panic. Our pitching has kept us in games, we play solid defense, and we’ve been hitting the ball. I like our chances. It’s been a fun year.”

A native of California, Wisdom grew up rooting for the San Diego Padres and L.A. Angels. He confesses to having to do some research upon being drafted by the Cardinals. “I knew they were one of the two top franchises, along with the New York Yankees,” he says. If Wisdom continues to produce as he has in 2017, he may soon be able to continue that research in the clubhouse at Busch Stadium.

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From My Seat Sports

Boca, Bartow, and Backflips

As “Group of Five” football program, the University of Memphis stands little chance of playing in one of the prestigious New Year’s Six bowl games. Exactly one of 12 slots is guaranteed for a “Group” team, the best among five conferences (those not classified as “Power Five”). With that the case, it’s hard to envision the Tigers landing a better postseason ticket than the Boca Raton Bowl, where they’ll play Conference USA champion Western Kentucky on December 20th.

To begin with, there’s the destination. South Florida in December is good for the mind, body, and spirit. The Tiger players, coaching staff, administrators, and fans should relish a few days on the east coast of the Sunshine State. (Let’s go ahead and say it: This beats Birmingham, five days before Christmas.)

But the opponent and timing of the game could make this a significant event in the continued development of coach Mike Norvell’s program. The Tigers and Hilltoppers will have the football world to themselves, the game kicking off on a Tuesday night and relatively early (7 p.m. on the east coast). And while the rest of the country may not initially be revved by a Memphis-Western Kentucky showdown, football fans enjoy scoring, and the Boca Raton Bowl should have between 80 and 100 points on the board before the night is over. Western Kentucky has scored at least 44 points in 10 of its 13 games and ranks second in the country in scoring with 45.1 points per game. The Tiger offense has been potent itself, averaging 39.5 points, good for 17th in the nation. Only the Peach Bowl (a national semifinal between Alabama and Washington) will have two teams as highly ranked in scoring this season.

A “Group of Five” program has to be seen to attract recruits. And it has to put points on the board. The 2016 Boca Raton Bowl offers Memphis much more than a sun-splashed vacation.

• There are too many empty seats at FedExForum for Tiger basketball. Tubby Time is here, but the new coach has yet to see 10,000 fans in his new home arena (one that will hold more than 17,000). Memphis athletic director Tom Bowen simply has to secure regular appearances from non-conference rivals. And this Saturday’s matinee against UAB should be considered a small step in that direction.

Gene Bartow created the UAB basketball program. On the gridiron, the Tigers and Blazers once competed in “The Battle for the Bones,” the prize a massive bronze rack of ribs. For more than 20 years (1991-2013), the teams played at least twice a season on the hardwood as conference rivals. It will be good to see UAB back at FedExForum.

Let’s bring Louisville back. And Arkansas. And Tennessee. Along with UAB, Memphis should aim to host two of these four programs every season. This simply has to happen. It’s a matter of relevance in a city that’s come to be foremost a Grizzlies town. Savannah State, McNeese State, and Jackson State will not move the attendance needle, no matter the strength of the Tiger roster or the popularity of the Tiger coach.

• The Memphis Redbirds made some late-fall news with a pair of announcements last week. The franchise is welcoming back perhaps the most popular player in team history, Stubby Clapp. After 14 years away (most recently as hitting coach with Double-A New Hampshire in the Toronto Blue Jays system), Clapp will be the Redbirds new manager in 2017, succeeding Mike Shildt (who took a bench job with the St. Louis Cardinals). Clapp spent four seasons (1999-2002) as a player with Memphis and was an integral member of the 2000 Pacific Coast League champions. He endeared himself to fans with his scrappy play and backflips as he took the field to start each home game. (The backflips were in tribute to one of Clapp’s favorite players, Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith.) Modern folk heroes are hard to come by. AutoZone Park and manager Stubby Clapp should be a nice fit.

The Redbirds also announced that team president Craig Unger has joined the team’s ownership group, led by Peter Freund. The significance? A former executive with the St. Louis Cardinals, Unger and his family have been in Memphis three years now. He and his wife are raising three daughters here. The Redbirds can now be said to have local ownership. (Freund lives in New York and Montana.) Unger presided over a significant renovation to AutoZone Park and has embraced the challenge of attracting — and keeping — new fans for minor-league baseball. (Attendance last summer was 17 percent higher than the previous season.) Any concerns about a disconnect between ownership and management at AutoZone Park should be reduced significantly with Unger’s new stake in the franchise.

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From My Seat Sports

Redbirds, Cardinals, and MLB All-Star Musings

The St. Louis Cardinals’ Aledmyz Diaz

Tuesday night’s All-Star Game marks baseball’s midseason point, a four-day break (for players not in All-Star uniforms) during which we sharpen focus toward what might be, what could be, and what will be come October.

• There’s a reasonable chance the 2016 season will end with a Great Lakes Series. If it does, an armada of fans could turn Lake Michigan and/or Lake Erie into a scene from some twisted, pinstriped version of Game of Thrones. The Chicago Cubs, most fans know, haven’t won a World Series since 1908 and haven’t even reached the Fall Classic since 1945. Then you have the Cleveland Indians, a franchise that hasn’t won the Series since 1948. Combined, that’s 176 Octobers of “wait till next year” for fan bases that now find themselves atop MLB’s two Central divisions. Until July hit, the Cubs appeared on their way to 110 wins. The Indians recently reeled off a 14-game winning streak behind stars — Francisco Lindor, Danny Salazar, Corey Kluber — most fans wouldn’t recognize in street clothes. (Each will be in San Diego for the All-Star Game.)

There are other teams that will have a say in how this script unfolds. Remember, it’s been eight years since the San Francisco Giants — owners of the most wins (57) at the break — did not win the World Series in an even year. But for the Cubs and Indians to be standard-bearers at the All-Star break is healthy for the sport.

• A year after a record six former Memphis Redbirds suited up for the All-Star Game, there will be only one such player — St. Louis Cardinal shortstop Aledmys Diaz — in San Diego. (Matt Carpenter was named to the team shortly before straining his oblique muscle and going on the disabled list.) Diaz is hitting .315 with 13 home runs and 48 RBIs for St. Louis and is a candidate for National League Rookie of the Year. This will be the first MLB All-Star Game since 2006 without multiple former Redbirds in uniform.

• The Triple-A All-Star Game will be played Wednesday night in Charlotte. Relief pitcher Ryan Sherriff (3-0, 2.20 ERA) will be the lone Memphis representative at the event. A factoid Sherriff would do well to ignore: Only two Redbirds (Dan Haren and Michael Wacha) have played in the Triple-A All-Star Game and then later appeared in the Midsummer Classic. What to make of this oddity? Well, it’s really not that odd. Young players talented enough to eventually become Major League All-Stars don’t typically play at the Triple-A level long enough to capture an All-Star nod. Look for Cardinal rightfielder Stephen Piscotty — a 2014 Triple-A All-Star – to join Haren and Wacha in this exclusive club someday soon.

• On the subject of the Redbirds, Memphis may be the only team in the Pacific Coast League not glad the All-Star break is here. The Redbirds enter the hiatus having won five straight games and 21 of their last 31 to climb above .500 (45-44) and within three games of first place in their division of the PCL (behind Nashville). They’ll resume play with the first of eight road games Thursday, a trip that will take them to Albuquerque and El Paso. Which means the Redbirds could be a first-place club by the time they return to AutoZone Park on July 22nd.

• There’s a statistical oddity involving the Cardinals I like to share this time of year. It’s been 42 years now since a Cardinal player has homered in the All-Star Game, the longest such drought for any franchise in the major leagues. Who connected in a St. Louis uniform at the 1974 game in Pittsburgh? Outfielder Reggie Smith, who entered the game for Pete Rose in the sixth inning. Considering Diaz is unlikely to get more than a single at-bat Tuesday night, look for this “curse” to live on another year, at least.