Former Wild Things make impact in Game 1

The Southern Illinois Miners have three former Wild Things -- relief pitchers Nick Cicio and Steve Grife, and catcher Chris Anderson -- on their roster. Each played a big role in the Miners' 5-3 victory Wednesday night over Florence in Game 1 of the Frontier League championship series.

Anderson, who began the season as Washington's starting catcher but was released after beginning the year 0-for-13, hit a two-run homer that gave Southern Illinois a 3-1 lead in the third inning. Anderson was signed by the Miners in early August and hit .274 with one home run down the stretch in the regular season.

Cicio and Grife were acquired from Washington in an August trade for outfielder Darian Sandford and pitcher Anthony Collazo. Cicio pitched and Grife combined for 1 1/3 perfect innings of relief and two strikeouts in Game 1.

Since joining Southern Illinois, Cicio and Grife have given the Miners superb pitching in setup roles. They have pitched 30 2/3 innings (regular season and playoffs), allowing only 11 hits, four runs and six walks with 38 strikeouts.

They can still trade in the Frontier League

Though the nonwaiver trade deadline in Major League Baseball passed yesterday, the transaction deadline has not been reached in the Frontier League. The Wild Things made another trade Wednesday, sending relief pitchers Steve Grife and Nick Cicio to Southern Illinois in exchange for center fielder Darian Sandford (pictured) and lefty reliever Anthony Collazo.

The hard-throwing Grife (0-2, 6 saves, 4.79) and soft-tossing Cicio (0-4, 1 save, 4.25) each have been erratic this season. Though I like Grife as a power arm in a save situation, it seemed as if Grife was never a favorite of this year's Wild Things' coaching staff and his role has diminished in recent weeks.

Sandford, who leads the Frontier League in stolen bases, spent two years in the Kansas City Royals system before signing with Southern Illinois this season. He's a speedy switch-hitter who made the Frontier League All-Star game and is batting .256 with 45 stolen bases.

It seems that pitchers might have figured out Sandford as he ended his run with Southern Illinois on a 6-for-41 slide.

Collazo (3-0. 1 save, 2.28) has been a setup guy for the Miners. This is his first year of pro baseball. Collazo played at Howard Junior College and the University of Oklahoma.

By my count, with the addition of Sandford and Collazo, the Wild Things have had 55 players on the roster during the regular season. Yes, that's a team record. The previous record for most players used was 46, set in 2009, when Mark Mason was the manager.

The trading of Cicio meands that only seven of the 24 players who were with Washington on opening day in Evansville are still on the roster. The seven include five pitchers (Casey Barnes, Justin Hall, Jhonny Montoya, Chris Smith and Shawn Smith) and two position players (Michael Bando and Shain Stoner).

Ch-ch-ch-changes

The revolving door on the Wild Things' clubhouse has been in full swing the last two days.

As manager Chris Bando said over the weekend, he's a patient man, but not that patient. He saw enough of the Wild Things' struggling offense (league-low .191 team batting average) during the six-game homestand and made several roster moves leading up to tonight's series opener at Windy City.

Gone is catcher Chris Anderson, who was off to an 0-for-13 start, and veteran outfielder Luis Rivera, who was batting .227. Rivera's average is fourth-best on the team. Third baseman/catcher Davis Page (1-for-5) was traded back to San Angelo of the North American League to complete an earlier trade. Page apparently was traded for himself. Washington acquired him five days ago from San Angelo.

Re-signed was catcher David Peters, who joined Washington in the offseason from the Florida Marlins system and then was dealt to the Pecos League before spring training. Peters has played in two games in the Pecos.

Also signed was outfielder Jeriel Waller, who was drafted in the 47th round last year by the Marlins. I can found no evidence that Waller played in any games in the Marlins' system after being drafted out of Grossmont College, a JC in California. On Waller's Facebook page, it says he attended San Diego Christian College.

Waller is the son of Reggie Waller, a former San Diego Padres scoring director, and nephew of Tye Waller, the Oakland A's first-base coach.

Left-handed relief pitcher Shawn Smith was put on the suspended list, apparently to make room for Steve Grife, who can be activated from the same list Friday. Washington also could activate pitcher Gary Lee, who has been serving as the bullpen coach.

Washington still has one open roster spot (assuming Grife or Lee fill one) and has room for an Experienced player.

The biggest surprise for the Wild Things this season is the trouble at the catcher position, especially when you consider Bando is a former major-league catcher. Washington has played four different catchers in nine games, and has had eight catchers on the roster since the start of spring training.

UPDATE: Shawn Smith was placed on the 7-day injured list and Gary Lee was activated for tonight's game.

If you don't build it, they will leave

In its 20 or so years of existence, independent baseball has had its share of success stories (see places like Lincoln, Neb., or some of the franchises and leagues that have been around for a decade or more). However, without ties to major league organizations to help pay the bills, indy baseball is crapshoot at best. At its worst, it's a mess for all involved. An example of the latter can be found in Zion, Ill., home of the Lake County Fielders of the North American Baseball League.

How the Fielders' situation is tied to the Wild Things and ends up on this blog is this: Steve Grife, a relief pitcher who re-joined the Wild Things Friday, spent the first half of the season with Lake County after being traded there by Washington late in spring training. The Fielders' story and Grife's recounting of his experience with the team makes you appreciate the Wild Things and the Frontier League.

A little background on the Fielders: The team was an expansion outfit last year, billing itself as having actor Kevin Costner as one of its owners. The primary owner, however, is a guy named Rich Ehrenrich, who left a trail of unpaid bills after owning the Northern League team in Schaumburg, Ill.

The Fielders lured Fran Riordan away from the Frontier League to manage the team last season. They played much of the season's first half on the road while a "temporary" ballpark was being built. Riordan got out of Lake County after the season and returned the Frontier League as the Florence Freedom's manager. It was the best move Riordan has ever made.

This year, Lake County joined the new North American Baseball League and was put in a division with teams in Calgary, Edmonton and Hawaii (can you see how money is going to be a problem?). The Fielders and the league, from what I can gather, were told that their temporary ballpark would be completed by midseason. So the NABL scheduled the Fielders to start the season with a 31-game road trip.

That's right, 31 consecutive games on the road. Two trips to Hawaii, trips to Canada, Arizona and California. The team flew from city to city, except for a bus trip from Edmonton to Calgary.

"The flights were hectic," Grife said Saturday. "We didn't always have the players and coaches on the same flight. One time, when we went to Hawaii, we were split, on two flights. By game time, we had only half the team there and no coaches. All the position players were there plus two or three relievers. The players made out the lineup. The manager got there sometime in the first inning. We ended up winning the game in 14 or 15 innings."

Throughout their seven weeks on the road, there was one serious problem: a lack of money. In part because they were on the road and not generating revenue from home games, and in part because of lousy ownership, the Fielders were rarely getting paid or their $20 meal money per day.

According to Grife, sometimes the money was there, sometimes the paychecks bounced. Meal money was always a problem.

At one point, the Fielders held a team meeting and discussed whether they should play that night's game or not, and whether they should quit or continue the season. But as Grife pointed out, how would the players get home if they decided enough was enough and they were quitting? After all, they weren't getting paid.

"Our coaches were phenomenal," Grife said. 'They were behind us 100 percent. They paid for some of our meals out of their own pockets. They kept us afloat."

So the Fielders marched on, hoping that things would change when they returned to Zion for their home opener July 3 against the Yuma Scorpions and their player/manager Jose Canseco.

Through all the troubles, the amazing part of the Fielders' story is they returned home in first place in the NABL's East Division.

"We took an attitude of us against the world," Grife said. "The team was awesome. We knew we were going to win. We would hit three or four home runs a night, steal some bases and our starting pitchers would go eight or nine innings."

The Fielders finally made it to Illinois and found that their ballpark was still a "temporary" facility. But, the home opener drew approximately 5,000 fans. And, during one game in the middle of the seven-game homestand with Yuma, Grife capped a Fielders victory by striking out Canseco to end the game.

"I kept throwing him fastballs and he kept nipping 'em and fouling 'em off," Grife recalled. "I know a younger version of (Canseco) would have hit a couple of those fastballs out of the park. I finally got him on a fastball up and in. I think he he got tired from swinging and fouling off so many pitches. He got worn out."

Still, though they were playing at home, the Fielders weren't getting paid. Shortly before the July 9 against Yuma (the next-to-last of the series), Fielders manager Tim Johnson quit. It was reported that Johnson, the former manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, hadn't been paid since May.

Out of protest, 11 Lake County players refused to play that night.

Hiting coach Pete LaCock, a former Chicago Cubs player (and son of longtime Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall) ran the team that night. With a limited roster, he put pitchers in the field. Grife played five innings at shortstop. Some non-pitchers pitched.

To level the playing field, Canseco decided to let some of his pitchers play the field. Canseco even pitched six innings, throwing fastballs and knuckleballs. Grife had one hit off Canseco.

LaCock quit after the game but was fined $2,500 by the league for "making a farce of the game."

Earlier that day, the Fielders players had filed for free agency because they were not being paid. By Monday (two days later), 13 of them became free agents. Nine others were traded. Grife was among those released.

In all, the Fielders had four managers in less than a week and either released or traded 23 players in three days.

"It came down to a lot of promises that weren't kept," Grife said. "When we became free agents, you should have heard the cell phones ringing. A lot of teams were looking for players. We had two pitchers go to Windy City, one to Normal."

Grife called Washington manager Darin Everson, who offered the right-hander another shot with the Wild Things and, yes, a regular paycheck.

Here are a few links to stories about the Fielders' fiasco:

Read the story here.

Read the story here.