Ottawa Lynx - #19 Jim Rushford (2007)

Having grown up in one AAA town and moved to another, I was quite familiar with the Ottawa Lynx and their noted attendance woes.  As always, and as I would find out, there is more to the story than simple lack of support.  In 2007, the team was purchased by interests in Eastern Pennsylvania, who announced plans to move it to Allentown for the 2008 season.  Naïve to what this actually meant to the Ottawa baseball community, I planned a trip to see the last two games in Lynx history.  Before our trip, I saw a newspaper photo of the Lynx in their road greys, which I thought looked great, and which I would try to buy if possible when visiting.  Sure enough, in an effort to recoup any losses possible, the team store was selling the road uniforms during the last homestand in team history.  As I recall, this was the most expensive jersey I'd purchased to date, and is likely still among the most expensive few.  The U.S. dollar was worth $1.05 CAD that day and by the end of the month, the Canadian dollar would be worth more than its U.S. counterpart for the first time in 30 years.

Jim Rushford was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Brewers in 2000 from San Diego State University.  As the Lynx affiliation was switched to Philadelphia for their final year in anticipation of moving the Phillies AAA to the Lehigh Valley, Jim had spent most of the previous three years playing in Scranton (there it is).  Before his Red Baron days, Rushford made it to Milwaukee in 2002 where he'd make 84 plate appearances in his only major league action.  After his age 33 season in Ottawa, Jim spent a very abbreviated 2008 season in the Mexican league before wrapping up with Tucson Toros of the independent Golden League.

The Lynx were born of the early 90s Canadian baseball mania culminating in back-to-back Toronto championships and the elite 1994 Montréal Expos team.  As Miami and Denver added to the major league ranks in 1993, Charlotte became a AAA city along with Ottawa, who hosted the Expos top prospects in front of 9,764 per night at brand new JetForm Park.  1995 saw the Governor's Cup head north for the first time since 1966 as the Lynx defeated the Norfolk Tides three games to one.  While still drawing almost 7,000 per game, a combination of the luster wearing off and perennial subsequent losing teams began to depress attendance.  As I understand it years later, the coup de grâce occurred when a solid third of the parking lot on the entrance side of the ballpark was consumed to build a pair of hotels and a conference centre.  Knowing me, and knowing Ottawa, I wouldn't consider this an excuse.  After all, Ottawa pioneered the busway system and boasted a nearly 20% pre-pandemic public transit mode share.  Unfortunately, the Tremblay busway station was located across a 400-series expressway (think Interstate in the U.S.).  A long discussed pedestrian bridge would not materialize in time to make a bus to the ballgame a convenient enough option for enough of the potential fanbase.  The Lynx lost to Syracuse on September 3, 2007, in front of 7,461.  I will never forget how sad a scene it was and how badly I still feel about how I acted at the funeral.  Ottawa would go on to host other levels of professional baseball at the same park, a topic I will cover in a future post.

Details:

• Manufacturer - Rawlings
• Size - 48
• Date Acquired - 9/2/2007
• Game Worn - Polyester
• Two Twill Script/Numbers
• Away Jersey for 2007 Season

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons - #66 Sean Fesh (2005)

Approaching the 2005 holiday season, I had a conversation with Mike Cummings, Public Relations Director for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons.  He said I'd need to act quickly and pay up front what I considered at that time to be a sizable amount in order to hold a jersey worn the previous season by a relief pitcher who pitched there the previous summer.  While visiting family that December, I was able to pick up the jersey.  What's the story here?  Settle in.

In the early spring of 1999, Mark Bechtel of Sports Illustrated wrote a short season preview piece in Sports Illustrated entitled, Phillies: A Fesh Face in the Bullpen.  Within, Bechtel told the story of a 26-year-old lefthander named Sean Fesh who just wouldn't quit.  Having missed most of the 1996 season due to elbow ligament surgery, Fesh was released by the Mets at the end of a modest 1997 season spent in AA.  Sean developed a new sidearm throwing motion that increased his velocity and movement and attempted to earn tryouts throughout the summer of 1998.  A fateful drive from his Connecticut home to Scranton would unknowingly alter the course of both of our lives.  There to see former teammates, Sean brought along his father who was able to request a tryout from Dallas Green on Sean's behalf.  Days later the Phillies offered him a minor league contract.  He responded by striking out 41 in 33 innings and was promoted to Scranton.  

Fast forward to May 21, 1999.  Friends and I attended a Red Barons game versus the Durham Bulls.  Fesh was brought in from the bullpen.  In the words of my friend Don, "This guy Fesh came in, he was hammering away, he looked good and we thought it would be fun."  "It" would involve us becoming Red Baron super fans for the better part of two summers, with Sean Fesh as the player at the center of our baseball bond.  Witty posters were hand drawn in marker, a very crude website (we called them homepages back then, lol) was created for our irreverent takes, and we were written about in the Sunday Times.  While we pissed some people off, we had our backers amongst the ushers and the front office.  In those days, the ushers left at the 7th-inning stretch or 9:30PM, whichever came first.  This was our cue to move into the front row behind the home on-deck circle and unleash verbal hell on opposing batters and pitchers.  And the team won.

For only the second time in their eleven season history, the Red Barons posted a winning record.  While it was only the 5th best record in the league, it placed them squarely in a three-way dog fight with the Syracuse Skychiefs and Pawtucket Red Sox for most of the summer.  It was an interesting team, scoring only 13 more runs that it allowed, but a team that fought back on countless nights after being put in a hole by subpar starting pitching.  After noted major league pitcher Randy Wolf was promoted early in the year, the Red Barons featured only one other start with an ERA under 4.5.  This meant bullpen arms like Fesh, Billy Brewer, Joe Grahe, and Steve Schrenk had to hang in there while batters like Wendell Magee, Torey Lovullo, Billy McMillon, and Jon Zuber bashed away to the tune of 800+ OPS in what was quite a pitchers park.  Time and time again the Red Barons pulled off the improbable, culminating in Game 3 of the first round of the 1999 Governor's Cup Playoffs.  Fan club members made their way back to Scranton from college campuses across the northeast to witness one for the ages.  The first home playoff game in Scranton since 1992 had it all.  Charlotte took an 8-2 lead in the fifth, aided by a pair of errors by rehabbing shortstop Desi Relaford, but the Red Barons scored two in the sixth, three in the seventh, and two in the 8th on a two-out triple off the right field wall by Bobby Estalella.  The top of the 9th was white knuckle time.  Quoting Times reporter Randy Yanoshak, "Pay for the whole seat, but use only the edge, and all 6,636 at the stadium did."  Charlotte loaded the bases with no outs against reliever Darryl Scott.  Top prospect Pat Burrell, called up expressly for playoffs to reinforce holes left by September recalls like Lovullo, found himself playing first base in that 9th inning.  With the infield in, former Red Baron Dave Hollins smoked a line drive in Burrell's direction, which he successfully stabbed for the first out.  Finding some fight, Scott beared down to strike out Jeff Abbott before Darren Burton ranged a long way into the spacious foul territory at Lackawanna County Stadium to run down a foul ball off the bat of the dangerous Luis Raven.  In the bottom half, a fired up Burton would lead off with a double.  The next batter would sacrifice bunt him to third.  Relaford, the potential goat, stepped to the dish and laced a low liner to right field.  Chad Mottola slid, but couldn't snag it.  Unsure whether the ball would be caught, Burton got a late break to the plate.  Mottola's throw was strong to catcher David Toth who was unable to apply the sweep tag to the diving Burton, putting the exclamation point on the greatest baseball game I ever saw.  

Alas, this would be the last win the 1999 Red Barons would experience.  They dropped the next two of the best-of-five game series to the eventual league champions.  The fan club went its separate ways until it was reunited the following spring.  The team was more talented, but as is always the case, the vibe wasn't the same.  Sean Fesh put together perhaps the finest AAA season of his long career, but he and the club suffered a stomach punch in mid-July when he was traded to the Colorado Rockies.  The wild-card Red Barons would go on to upset a strong Buffalo team in the first round of the playoffs before falling in the finals to Indianapolis.  Sean Fesh would go on win a Southern League championship in 2003 with the Carolina Mudcats and post what may have been a better AAA season in 2004 with Richmond, but was not rewarded with a call to the big leagues.

This jersey?  Oh yeah.  The jersey represents a unique look in Red Barons history. In 2003, the Red Barons switched their primary color from what had been a brick red to a primary red in order to harmonize their look with the parent Phillies.  In 2005, the home whites would add red sleeves.  Long before that season got underway, one more chapter was written in this story that encapsulates my bonds with baseball.  In November of 2004, the Red Barons official website reported the news that Sean had re-signed with the Phillies organization.  Later in March, Van Rose of the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader wrote a story entitled Home Sweet Home, explaining Sean's desire to return to the Phillies organization.  On the field, Sean struggled and was sent to AA Reading in June.  I was fortunate to be able to catch up with him that summer in Syracuse, Rochester, and Erie.  He finished his professional career over the following two seasons closer to his Connecticut home with the independent Bridgeport Bluefish.

Details:

• Manufacturer - Russell Athletic
• Size - 48 (2" Extra Length)
• Date Acquired - 12/2005
• Authentic Game Worn - 100% Polyester
• Two-color Twill Script/Numbers
• American Flag on Sleeve
• Worn in 2005

Batavia Muckdogs - #11 Paul Vasquez (2007)

In April 2008, the Rochester Business Journal announced that the "Rochester Red Wings began their 2008 season this week in partnership with the Batavia Muckdogs, with the teams sharing resources in marketing, sales and concessions."  As part of the deal, for each year that Rochester Community Baseball managed the Muckdogs, they'd acquire 5% equity in the eventual sale of the team.  Another part of the deal saw the Muckdogs play two games at Frontier Field, home of the Red Wings, that summer.  While hosting Batavia early in what became a New York-Penn League championship season, a Muckdogs team store was set up in the old firehouse integrated into the left field corner.  As #11 was my number my last year playing organized ball, and I still thought I should be wearing extra large shirts (hard to beat the 90s out of me), I chose this one.

Paul Vasquez was an undrafted catcher out of Auburn-Montgomery who hung in there for three seasons in the Cardinals system.  If he was really 5'10"-160, this must have fit like a blanket (I'm 5'11"-180).  Promoted to Quad Cities the following year, Paul hit a ton and earned another promotion to Palm Beach where it appears he hit the wall offensively.  After a 2009 season with a nearly ten-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio and a rehab stint in the Gulf Coast League, Paul hung them up for good.

As there was no name on the back, it's possible this jersey was worn in seasons prior to 2007.  The jersey is in pretty good shape, which jives with 31 games of use, so perhaps it wasn't used for multiple seasons.  There are no sleeve patches or tagging beyond the manufacturer tag.  This is the first jersey profiled for a team no longer part of professional baseball.  Major League Baseball took control of the minor leagues in 2001 and discontinued all short-season leagues.  An apparent reincarnation of the team has since joined the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League.

Details:

• Manufacturer - Rawlings
• Size - XL
• Date Acquired - 6/20/2008
• Authentic Game Worn - 100% Polyester
• Two-color Twill Script/Numbers
• No Sleeve Patch
• Worn in 2007, possibly earlier

Scranton Wilkes-Barre Red Barons - #18 Darren Burton (2000)

During the summers of 1999 and 2000, I likely attended 100 Triple-A ballgames, the vast majority at Lackawanna County Stadium in Moosic, Pennsylvania, just minutes from where I grew up.  In 1999, the Red Barons won the International League North Division for only the 2nd time in their history, and for the first time since 1992.  Darren Burton slotted in as the full-time right fielder on that improbable division winner, a team adept at climbing out of the holes their poor starting pitching put them in.  On a visit home from college early in the 2001 season, the auxiliary souvenir shop at the stadium was selling previous year jerseys relatively cheap (on the order of $35-40).  This was the first double-knit game worn I ever purchased, with no thought that it would ever turn into a collection.  I don't recall what others were for sale or why I chose Darren's jersey aside from familiarity with his play in Scranton over parts of four seasons.

Darren was something of a sparkplug, a high-energy grinder at the Triple-A level.  Listed at 6'1" (unlikely), Darren was drafted in the 5th Round of the 1990 draft by the Royals immediately after being named Mr. Baseball in the state of Kentucky on the strength of his senior season at Pulaski County High School.  He steadily moved up the ranks, putting together his strongest AAA season at Omaha as a 23-year-old in 1996.  Following that season he was selected in the minor league portion of the Rule V Draft by Philadelphia.  Assigned to Reading initially, Darren dominated in 45 games before being promoted to the Red Barons.  In 1998, he tied the franchise home run record with 18 in 117 games (LCS was a strong pitcher's park despite the first generation turf field).  It appears Darren did not last long with the 200 edition of the Red Barons before finding himself in Altoona in the Pirates organization for the remainder of his professional career.  Darren may or may not have bought shots of Goldschläger for a bunch of kids 22 years ago.

Given no name on the back, it's not clear if this jersey was worn for multiple seasons.  The road pinstripe design is interesting.  As of 2019, no major league teams wore pinstripes on the road.  In 2020, the San Diego Padres brought the design back.  Back in 2000, five teams (Colorado, Arizona, Pittsburgh, Anaheim, and Minnesota) went with pinstripes on grey.  The jersey is in good shape, but features no interesting tagging or sleeve patches, a rather minimal minor league road look.

Details:

• Manufacturer - Russell Athletic
• Size - 46 (2" Extra Length)
• Date Acquired - 2001
• Authentic Game Worn - 100% Polyester
• Two-color Twill Script/Numbers
• No Sleeve Patch
• Worn in 2000, possibly earlier

Scranton Miners - #50 Joel Bennett (1999)

June 20th, 1999 saw the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons face off against the Columbus Clippers in a turn-back-the-clock game.   The Scranton 'Miners' walloped the Columbus Redbirds 7-1.  The Red Barons were portraying the 1953 Scranton club, a Washington Senators affiliate in the Eastern League that was the last professional baseball team to call the city home before the 36-year drought was ended in 1989.  Columbus was representing a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate from the old American Association.

Having just graduated from high school days earlier, I was flush with cash (for those days), and in a position to acquire this jersey in a silent auction.  While some friends went in on a #66 Sean Fesh uniform, I wanted clear title to one, but was generally limited to players who I'd win the auction on with the minimum bid of $100.  This auction was for the entire uniform and included game pants and a cap.  More on that later.

Joel Bennett was a right-handed pitcher who enjoyed enough success in 1998 and 1999 to see time with the Orioles and Phillies respectively.

The jersey is in pretty good shape since Mr. Bennett did not take the hill that day.  There are what appear to be tobacco stains near the top button.  The pants that came with the jersey certainly did not belong to Joel.  Upon acquisition, there was a significant accumulation of dirt on one hip from sliding.  There are no number or players tags in the pants however.  The hat was brand new and was likely not one issued to the players.

While I cannot find a boxscore for the game, the old Sean Fesh Fan Club archives state that Wendell Magee and Darren Burton hit homeruns as Rodney Bolton and Ryan Nye turned in outstanding pitching performances.

Details:

• Manufacturer - Maple
• Size - 48
• Date Acquired - 6/20/99
• Authentic Game Worn - 65% Acrylic/35% Wool, Embroidered Script/Numbers, No Patches/Name On Back
• Season(s) Worn - 1999 (replicating 1953)