Super Joe is back on the Frontier

Photo by Bruce Bishop/Chronicle-Telegram

Former Wild Things hitting coach -- and the world's unhandiest handyman -- Joe Charboneau is back in the Frontier League.

Charboneau has been hired as the hitting coach of Lake Erie Crushers.

Charboneau was Washington's hitting coach in 2002 and 2003. Since then, Joe has had short stints in the league with Windy City and Chillicothe. He also has been the director of a youth league complex in Ohio and had a starring role in Catastrophe, Inc., a television show that aired last fall on the DIY channel.

Here's a link to a story about Charboneau's hiring:

http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2014/02/28/lake-erie-crushers-hire-super-joe-charboneau-hitting-coach/

One thing you might notice when reading the story is, it mentions that Charboneau was a coach with the Richmond Roosters in 2001 and 2002. We know that's wrong because Super Joe was with Canton in 2001 and and came to Washington a year later when the franchise was moved.

The thing I find interesting about this hire is, according to sources, the Lake Erie owner nixed the idea of hiring Charboneau for the same job last year because he didn't think Super Joe and all his quirks fit with the organization's image.

Winter tales

Shawn Blackwell
3-0, 0.00 in 19 innings
in Texas Winter league

Winter baseball leagues geared toward independent league hopefuls seem to be gaining in popularity. There were two operating this year, one a 10-team league based in Palm Springs, Calif., the other a six-team league in San Antonio.

Two players who spent much of last season in Washington participated in the winter leagues, either to get ready for the Frontier League season or to attract interest from major league scouts.

Right-handed pitcher Shawn Blackwell, who was 4-10 with a 5.36 ERA in 19 games (18 starts) for the Wild Things, has been the talk of the Texas Winter League. Blackwell has been the league's best pitcher, compiling some off-the-chart numbers: 19 innings, 9 hits allowed, 1 run (unearned), 3 walks, 34 strikeouts. He has a 3-0 record and 0.00 ERA in 5 outings.

Blackwell has attracted some serious interest from the Philadelphia Phillies.

"If I had $1,000, I'd bet (Blackwell) gets another chance at a major league organization," said John Harris, Blackwell's manager in the Texas Winter League.

It's hard to judge the level of competition that Blackwell is pitching against in San Antonio. It does appear that the California league might be a notch about the Texas circuit, though that's just an educated guess on my part.

I found it interesting that the the player currently second in the Texas league in batting average is a former Bethel Park High School player, John Sciullo, who played college ball at Marietta.

Wild Things manager Bart Zeller held the same title for a team in the California league this winter, where two of his players were outfielder Scott Kalamar, who played in 55 games for Washington last year, and designated hitter Tim Leary, who played in 13 games with the Wild Things in 2012. Kalamar struggled at the plate with the Wild Things, batting only .185. In California, Kalmar, a former Seton Hall player, batted .241 in 13 games. The 6-8, 260-pound Leary batted .433 in 11 games and had six doubles, a triple and two home runs among his 13 hits.

According to the California Winter League website, the Wild Things have signed pitcher Casey Cannon, a pitcher out of Le Moyne College in Syracuse. Cannon had a 13-9 career record and struck out 161 in 194 innings. Cannon's best season came as a junior in 2012, when he had an impressive 9-0 record and one save, allowing only 48 hits in 82 1/3 innings.

Last call: Remembering Max McLeary

Max McLeary makes the call
at Consol Energy Park.

One of the best things about covering the Frontier League for the past 13 years is the number of unique people you meet. One of those umpire was Max McLeary, who worked the Frontier League for the vast majority of its existence.

McLeary was unique for many reasons. One was that Max had a sense of humor that, well, only an umpire can have. If you spend your working hours listening to people bitch at you for three hours, then you better have a good sense of humor and not take many things too seriously.

Max combined that sense of humor with being a masterful storyteller, and he had plenty of stories to tell. Everybody who knew him had their favorite Max McLeary story. Many of them made it into a book written by Mike Shannon called "Everything Happens in Chillicothe: A Summer in the Frontier League with Max McLeary, the One-Eyed Umpire."

Did I mention that Max had a glass eye?

One of my favorite McLeary stories was described in the book. It went something like this:

Max was umpiring a high school game, I believe it was in Cincinnati and might have involved Cincinnati Moeller. Max had been umpiring for many years, but had never been the home-plate umpire during a no-hitter, at any level of baseball. In this game, one of the pitchers was three outs away from a no-hitter and Max was convinced this was going to be his first called no-no. The pitcher was overpowering and dominant on this day.

Then, while the pitcher's team was batting for the final time that day, Max heard it. Somebody on the bench told the pitcher, "Hey, do you know you have a no-hitter going?"

Max couldn't believe his ears. He knew that baseball karma was going to get him and the pitcher.

Sure enough, in the next inning, an overmatched batter somehow bloops a base hit. End of no-hitter.
Max calls timeout, walks to the pitcher's mound and calls in the infielders and catcher. The players are wondering what the umpire could possibly need to tell everybody.

With the full attention of the players, Max says, "Guys, there are two things a pitcher never wants to hear. One is 'Honey, I'm pregnant.' The other is, 'Hey, do you know you have a no-hitter going.'"

McLeary stopped umpiring a few years ago and became the general manager of the Cincinnati Steam, a highly successful team in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League.

Max McLeary died Tuesday morning at the age of 66 after battling lung cancer.

The Frontier League will begin its 22nd season this year. IT could be around for another 22 years and it won't have another character quite like Max McLeary.

Here's the link to a good Max McLeary story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/06/sports/baseball-an-umpire-with-everything-in-perspective.html

Future home for the Greys?

There are at least two cities actively exploring the possibility of attracting a Frontier League franchise.

Officials in Franklin, Wis., a suburb about 20 miles south of Milwaukee, are seeking permission to develop a ballpark of 2,500 to 3,000 seats, and the only league mentioned in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about the project is the Frontier.

"We like that a lot," Mike Zimmerman said when asked about the Frontier League. Zimmerman is the owner of The Rock, a 128-acre sports complex in Franklin that would be the site of the ballpark.
Zimmerman said the ballpark would cost $7 million to $11 million to build and he's seeking financial assistance from the city for the project. The stadium could be open in time for the 2015 season.

The other city talking with the Frontier League is Parkersburg, W.Va., which recently released the results of a survey that showed strong support for a new multipurpose ballpark.

AECOM Technical Services surveyed 1,000 Parkersburg-area residents (half in West Virginia, the other half in Ohio) and 75 percent supported building a ballpark, and 25 percent of 150 businesses surveyed indicated interest in becoming sponsors.

Wild Things owner Stu Williams was in Parkersburg last Tuesday and spoke at a luncheon organized by the Wood County Development Authority's Parkersburg Baseball Study Committee. According to the Parkersburg News and Sentinel, Williams said the Frontier League would like to add a 14th franchise with a permanent home, and that Parkersburg isn't the only city inquiring about filling that spot.

"Once the 14th team comes, then things get more complicated as far as joining the Frontier League," he said.

The second phase of a feasibility study for the Parkersburg project - focusing on locations and financing - will begin soon.

"Whatever we're going to do, we're going to do in the next few months," Parkersburg mayor Bob Newell said.

One thing has already been determined: If the city gets a Frontier League franchise, "Parkersburg" won't be in the team name. It will be either "Ohio Valley" or "Ohio River" to attract a regional following.

One other nugget from the News and Sentinel story is that Williams has at least some interest in putting a women's softball team in Parkersburg:

And if the ballpark is built, it might one day be home to more than a baseball team.

Starting this year, the Wild Things will share Consol Energy Park with the (Pennsylvania) Rebellion, a new member of the four-team National Pro Fastpitch women's softball league.

"This is the highest level of play in the United States," Williams said.

As part of the deal to bring the Rebellion into the NPF, Williams also obtained the rights to eventually have teams in other areas.

"I do have the rights to Parkersburg," he said.

Zeller's winter vacation

While most of us in Western Pennsylvania have been dealing with below-zero temperatures, shoveling snow and driving in ice storms over the last month, Wild Things manager Bart Zeller has been busy working.

In Palm Spring, Calif.

Zeller has been managing a team in the California Winter League, a pay-to-play league for players who hope to get signed by an independent team or affiliated organization. The league is based in Palm Springs.

As Bart would likely tell you, it's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

The California Winter League is one of two winter/tryout leagues that have ties to the Frontier League. The other is the Texas Winter League, which started Tuesday. The California league produced a few Frontier League players last year, including Washington catcher Maxx Garrett and a couple players who were with the league champion Schaumburg Boomers.

This year, in addition to Zeller from Washington, Frontier League teams in Rockford, Schaumburg and Windy City, along with the Greys, are represented on the coaching staffs of California Winter League teams.

Looking at the rosters, there a few familiar names, including current Washington  outfielder Scott Kalamar and former Wild Things Tim Leary and Scott Fleishman. There also is a player from Westminster College, one from New Castle and another who is a graduate of West Allegheny High School.

The California Winter League season started Jan. 23 and runs through Feb. 16.

Wild Things' Latimore going back to Pirates

The Washington Wild Things have sold the contract of outfielder Quincy Latimore to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Latimore played half a season with the Wild Things after being signed as a free agent last July.

This will be Latimore’s second stint in the Pirates organization. He was Pittsburgh’s fourth-round draft pick in 2007 and spent six years in the organization, including two with Class AA Altoona. He was traded by the Pirates to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for major-league pitcher Jeanmar Gomez in January of 2013. The Indians released Latimore after he played 81 games with their Class AA affiliate in Akron.

With the Wild Things, Latimore batted .232 in 41 games, hitting six home runs with 22 RBI and five stolen bases.

“We are really excited and happy for Quincy. He came to us at midseason last year and provided the lineup with a genuine threat from affiliated baseball,” said Washington manager Bart Zeller. “He also was a strong leader in the clubhouse and we will miss that a great deal.

“We talk about moving players from the Wild Things to affiliated baseball so the players are able to chase their dream of being in the (major leagues). We wish him nothing but success and hope that the next time we see him will be at PNC Park.”