Majors Update: 7 April 2013
April 8th, 2013 | 
Author: 
When the Yankees’ play-by-play radio announcer, John Sterling, says (as he does every game) “You just can’t predict baseball,” I can’t help laughing—because he says it so often. The thing is, though, he’s right.
And in the first week of baseball for 2013 I saw that he is right again. Who would have predicted, even given his strong performance in spring training, that the Mets’ John Buck would have the best batting average among the Mormons in professional baseball? Better than Bryce Harper? Better than Jacoby Ellsbury and Darwin Barney? But here we are, after a week of play, 20 at bats for Buck, he is hitting .400 with 9 rbis and 2 home runs.
Starting the season last week, I thought Harper was the one with the hot bat. He homered in each of his first two at bats for the season (what a hot dog!) and had to endear himself to fans when he checked with his team mates (because he didn’t want to seem cocky) after the second home run to see if it was all right to take a curtain call. Alright? Of course its alright! You just hit back-to-back home runs! when no one else on the team could hit Ricky Nolasco! Yes, Bryce, take the curtain call.
Posted in Weekly Updates | 
Tags: Brandon Lyon, Bryce Harper, Darwin Barney, Eric Sogard, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jeremy Guthrie, John Buck, John Sterling, Roy Halladay | 
No Comments »
Twelve
This April we begin the month looking forward to what comes from 12 men and a few more. We will watch what they do and say, perhaps learning some lessons from them. We may disagree and perhaps even be disappointed in what they do. But we will watch, and what we see will inform how we see the next six months. One of these men has already made a strong statement this week, raising our expectations for this year. Will our expectations be met?
Final Spring Training Update: 31 March 2013
If I have to pick one Mormon player as the strongest performer during this spring training, there is really little question about who should be picked: Bryce Harper. His performance has simply been stunning. During his last week of the spring, he hit .778! He led all batters (those with at least 30 at bats) in spring training in batting average with .478 and hit 3 home runs, and he did it with a respectable 67 at bats. You almost wanted his coaches to tell him to calm down and save something for the regular season. But Harper isn’t the only Mormon player to perform well in the spring.
Spring Training Update: 25 March 2013
Even though spring training numbers favor hitters, and don’t really mean much, its hard not to be impressed with the batting performances of several Mormon players. In particular the exploits of the Oakland A’s Eric Sogard are stunning. Sogard has hit .600 or more for two weeks in a row, and has an average for the spring of .525. Sogard’s exploits are closely matched by the National’s Bryce Harper, who hit .500 last week and has a .431 average for the Spring. But unlike Sogard, Harper has nothing to prove.
We’re “incredibly reliable-looking”
Sean McKissick over at Curveball City, which has covered all things Oakland Athletics since 2005 (!), paid us the very nice compliment above in his post today about the trade of minor leaguer Stephen Parker (who we have on our list of Mormon players). Sean apparently came upon Mormon Baseball in a google search, and filled out the trio of Mormon “proto-Athletics” that have been so impressive in Spring Training this year.
Wow! Thanks for the shout out, Sean!
Spring Training Update: 18 March 2013
A Mormon trio has made spring training very interesting for the Oakland Athletics and their fans. Shane Peterson, Adam Rosales and Eric Sogard are all playing outstanding ball, sporting high batting averages and making managerial decisions anything but obvious. Sogard jumped to the front of the group last week, hitting a stunning .692 (9 for 13) for the week, bringing his spring training batting average up to an even .500!
Spring Training Update: 11 March 2013
The hottest Mormon player in baseball, Shane Peterson, remained hot last week, hitting .545 over 11 at bats with a home run and 3 rbis, continuing an impressive spring training for the Oakland Athletics’ prospect. If Peterson keeps this up, its hard to imagine that the Athletics won’t bring him up during the year, or perhaps even make space for him on the starting team. Of course, these decisions have as much to do with the quality and experience of the other outfielders that the Athletics can draw on, so well have to wait and see.
Spring Training Update: 4 March 2013
While it is perhaps not wise to make too much of performance in spring training, especially at the very beginning, the early results from several Mormons in baseball are quite encouraging. And leading the pack is last year’s National League MVP Rookie of the Year, Bryce Harper, who is hitting over .500. But the encouraging results are not just those from Harper, but also from a trio of Mormons who play in the Oakland A’s organization (two of whom were added to our lists just this past week!)
Mormons in Spring Training
With spring training beginning this past weekend, we should probably look at which Mormon players are with which teams, including the minor league players who have been invited to play in the early games. I hope to begin weekly updates of player stats on Monday.
Several recent changes have led to changes in this list. First, I was told of a couple of minor league players who are Mormon, Nik Turley and Boone Whiting, and Turley made spring training for the Yankees this year. In addition, the Marlins signed Mitch Talbot to a minor league deal, bringing him back from Korea and several other players have been traded or landed on other teams, including Brandon Lyon and Elliot Johnson.
When did baseball reach Utah?
I don’t have a very definitive answer to this question yet, but thought I’d raise it in case readers have information I don’t. To me, it seems likely that the first groups of pioneers included those who knew how to play baseball. If, as I’ve already demonstrated, baseball was played in Nauvoo, then those who played baseball there were likely those who brought it to Utah.
But while I haven’t yet found evidence of early games, I did come across some early mentions of baseball in Utah that I thought I would share.