Playoffs set

Southern Illinois clinched the final wild card playoff spot Sunday by defeating Lake Erie in the second game of a day-night doubleheader. The Miners, who are in the playoffs for the fourth time and trying for their first series victory, will begin the playoffs Wednesday at East Division champion Traverse City.

Two teams that made late-season playoff pushes will meet in the other series. West Division champion Gateway will host Florence, which finished in second place in the East. Florence is in the playoffs for the first time in the franchise's 10-year history.

Windy City and Schaumburg each missed the playoffs by two games. The Boomers led the West Division for the majority of the season. Lake Erie fell 2 1/2 game shy of the postseason.

Of the four playoff teams, only Gateway (2003) has won a league championship.

Early trends

Each Frontier League team is five series into the season and some trends are beginning to appear. Some are quite surprising. Here are some things this guy has found most interesting about the first three weeks of the season:

* The most disappointing team to date has to be the Lake Erie Crushers. I had Lake Erie pegged for second place in the East, but the Crushers currently share the basement with London at 5-10. While the first 15 games of the season do not make or break a team, or are even cause for alarm, the stunning part of Lake Erie's start is where they're losing. The Crushers are only 1-8 at home.

* Word is that London has three players with passport problems and they're being put on the suspended list each time the Rippers return to Canada. When you're crossing the border each time you start a homestand or a roadtrip, why do you sign players who don't have passports? Not a smart move by the Rippers.

* River City is off to a 12-3 start, which isn't shocking considering the Rascals' recent success. But keep in mind that River City is doing this without two starting position players from last year, second baseman Doug Sanders and catcher Danny Sawyer, who are expected to join the team later in the season. Sanders is an assistant coach at Kent State, which has advanced to the Super Regional round of the NCAA tournament, and Sawyer earned a baseball part in the Jackie Robinson movie that is currently being filmed.

* Don't know which is more surprising: Washington is 6-8 with an anemic .187 team batting average or Gateway's pitching staff has given up the most home runs and walks in the league, yet is 8th in the league in team ERA at only 3.89.

* Traverse City's Jeff Flagg has a league-leading eight home runs. That's more than three teams, including Washington.

* While River City has the league's best record, the most impressive start might be that of Traverse City. The Beach Bums are 9-6 and have played only three home games.

DiMatteo to the Frontier

Former California University of Pennsylvania standout outfielder Sam DiMatteo (picture) has signed a contract with the Traverse City beach Bums of the Frontier League.

DiMatteo played his first season of professional baseball this year. He was in spring training with the Washington Nationals but was released. He eventually found a spot on the roster of the Ruidoso Osos of the independent Pecos League. DiMatteo played in 40 games for Ruidoso, batting .333 with eight home runs, 29 RBI and eight stolen bases.

DiMatteo was one of the best players Cal has ever produced. The Beaver County native was the first player in PSAC history to steal 100 bases in a career, and batted .375 with 31 home runs and 161 RBI. He helped Cal win the PSAC championship in 2010.

This is a good signing by Traverse City. Based on what he did at Cal, I felt DiMatteo was good enough to make a Frontier League roster and contribute.

All the right moves

We are roughly 38 percent of the way through the Frontier League season, so what do the standings tell us? Well, nothing if you're Traverse City manager Greg Langbehn or any other skipper in this league.

Langbehn's Beach Bums are in third place in the East, four games behind first-place Windy City and a half-game ahead of the Wild Things. He's not worried about the standings. Heck, Lake Erie manager John Massarelli says he doesn't even look at the standings until after the all-star break.

"Last year, we were 10 games out of first place, at one point," Langbehn said over the weekend. "Windy City was 12 games out. They were behind us. And both of us made the playoffs. That's why we're not even worried. It's still early."

Langbehn knows from seeing four of the other teams in the East (the Beach Bums have not played Windy City) that nobody is prepared to run away from the pack. But one or two key roster moves could push a team from worst to first in the East. Rockford needs relief pitching. Washington needs hitting. Traverse City needs a starting pitcher and a hitter. Windy City could use another hitter. ... etc.

"That's why we're making a couple of moves when we get home," Langbehn said. "Making the right moves could be the difference."

Will the Kings be overthrown?

The three-ring circus in Kalamazoo continues, and it's apparently reached the crisis point.

According to commissioner Bill Lee, the Kalamazoo Kings are still in the Frontier League. The league's schedule, released months ago, still shows that the Kings will open the 2011 season at home May 21 against the Traverse City Beach Bums. Spring training begins in less than three months.

However, according to team owner owner Bill Wright, there's no guarantee the Kings will be around in May.

Wright still hasn't stated publicly that the Kings will play their 11th season in Kalamazoo. In early January, Wright told the Kalamazoo Gazette that a decision on whether the Kings will play in 2011 will be made "early next week." No announcement has been made and Wright hasn't returned phone calls made by the newspaper.

Several front office employees, including the general manager and director of baseball operations, are no longer with the organization. According to the newspaper, the Kings' office has been empty during the winter, except for somebody stopping by to pick up the mail from time to time.

The Kings did pick up the contract options on 27 players, including designated hitter Brendan Murphy. That was in December, and Murphy says that's the last contact he's had with anyone associated with the Kings.

“It’s not looking too good as far as playing in Kalamazoo,” he told the Gazette. “I’ve just been telling the other guys (from last year’s team) to find another place to play, if they can.”

During the Wild Things' Hot Stove Banquet last month, I asked members of Washington's front office and coaching staff if they knew what is going on in Kalamazoo. The answers were "I don't know. I haven't heard anything," or "Who knows? What have you heard?"

Unless there is something going on in Kalamazoo that the Frontier League isn't telling us (very likely), then the league is taking a laissez-faire approach to something that should be treated with the seriousness of a heart attack.

Perhaps the situation is Wright is finalizing the sale of the Kings. If this is the case, then Wright might not want to make any hirings or enter into contracts with players or advertisers until the sale is complete. If this isn't the scenario, then you have to wonder if the Beach Bums will show up in Kalamazoo May 21 only to find Homer Stryker Field locked and empty.

Packed house

I don't catch this until checking the Frontier League's homepage today. The Wild Things' game Sunday at Traverse City was played before a crowd of 8,211 at Wuerfel Park. It was the largest crowd to see a Wild Things game in their history, easily surpassing the previous record of 6,820 for a game at Evansville on July 24, 2004.

The Consol Energy Park attendance record is one that won't be broken any time soon. It's 4,247, set Aug. 23, 2003 for a game against Florence.

It doesn't matter who wins, it's how fast you play the game that counts

The headline for this post is the sportswriter's motto. The last thing you want when covering a night game is to be writing on deadline after a four-hour game.

The Wild Things-Traverse City game Thursday night was a sportswriter's delight. It lasted only one hour and 46 minutes. Think about that – it ended before 9 p.m. Jason Neitz needed less than 90 pitches to beat Traverse City on a two-hitter and improve his record to 4-1.

It was the fastest nine-inning game in Wild Things history – by a whopping 10 minutes. The previous fastest was played last July at Kalamazoo, a 3-0 win for the Kings. Trent Lare pitched that game for Kalamazoo against the Wild Things' Brooks Dunn.

This season, we've had only two nine-inning games played at Consol Energy Park that lasted less than three hours. The fastest was Tuesday afternoon against Midwest (two hours and 28 minutes).

Traverse City hires manager

The Traverse City Beach Bums announced that Gregg Langbehn has been hired to manage the team in 2009.

Langbehn has a similar background to former Wild Things manager John Massarelli. He spent the last 10 years as a coach in the Houston Astros system and was manager of the Lexington Legends of the Class A South Atlantic League last season. Lexington is the Astros' low-Class A affiliate. Massarelli had managed the Astros' high-Class A affiliate in Salem, Va., before coming to the Wild Things in 2004.

Langbehn replaces former Wild Things shortstop Jon Cahill, who managed the Beach Bums to a 96-96 record in their first two seasons in the Frontier League.

"I think we may have outdone ourselves," said beach Bums owner John Weurfel. "Sometimes you can sign someone way out of your league, and it doesn't work. But I was like, 'If I want somebody, I'm going for it.'

"He's been around. To stick with one organization 10 years tells you there's something there."

Langbehn was one of eight candidates to make the final cut. He interviewed for the vacancy in mid-October.

Photo from the Traverse City Record-Eagle.