Friday, September 05

Welcome to the final fully in-season edition of the Baseball Traveler newsletter. The Single-A and High-A seasons end on Sunday, so please get to a game should you be able to do so. You’ll be glad you did. Let's talk about Minor League Baseball.

Crooked Numbers is a monthly column dedicated to Minor League Baseball on-field oddities and absurdities. Keeping track of this weirdness is a team effort, so get in touch if you've witnessed something weird at a Minor League game (benjamin.hill@mlb.com).

Excuse me?
George Wolkow of the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers went viral on Aug. 12 when, batting during the first inning, he tried to call a timeout before the first pitch of his at-bat against Augusta's Ethan Bagwell. Time wasn't granted, but Wolkow took a listless one-handed swing anyway. This swing, improbably, resulted in an infield RBI single.

The viral video doesn't tell the full story, but fortunately Ben Weinrib got to the bottom of this strange affair. Turns out that the field umpire had called a balk on Bagwell, so Wolkow had carte blanche to get creative.

"I was always taught like, 'Hey, if it's a balk and he throws it, it's a free swing, swing out of your shoes,'" Wolkow said. "But I only had one hand on the bat, so I was like, 'Alright, free swinging.'" 

"That's a balk, and that's the ballgame!"
If you are hankering for another example of an anomalous run-scoring balk, check out what transpired on Aug. 15.

Let it Gleed
Dub Gleed, third baseman for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, has one of the coolest names in the game. And if this bizarre happenstance from Aug. 21’s ballgame is any indication, he also has the strongest wrists in the game.

A couple big taters
As you know, Aug. 19 was National Potato Day. The Fredericksburg Nationals celebrated by giving fans a ticket to the game in exchange for a potato, offering $250 to whomever brought the biggest potato. This energy carried over into the team’s ballgame against Fayetteville, as Cristhian Vaquero and Luke Dickerson both mashed grand slams in the third inning.

It ain't over 'til it's over
Before the Red Sox finally won the World Series in 2004, Yankees fans were fond of chanting "1918!" at Boston fans to remind them of the last time the Sox had won a championship. 19-18 had a different meaning on Aug. 13, as that was the final score in an epic game between the Eugene Emeralds and Tri-City Dust Devils.

This absolute barnburner was tied at 7-7 after two innings and 11-11 after three, with Eugene knocking Tri-City starter Yeferson Vargas out of the game before he recorded an out. Tri-City scored two in the ninth to knot the game at 14-14 and send it to extras, then both teams scored three in the 10th to make it 17-17. Eugene held its final lead after scoring a run in the 11th, but Juan Flores led off the bottom half with a two-run homer to give the Dust Devils the 19-18 victory. Caleb Pendleton, usually a catcher, was the game's winning pitcher.

All told, this game featured 37 runs on 37 hits and 20 walks. It took four hours and 27 minutes to play (the second-longest game of the 2025 MiLB season). The next day, neither team scored a run over the game's first eight innings. They were all tuckered out.

Rule of threes
The Greensboro Grasshoppers featured prominently in last month's edition of this column, on account of their pitching staff logging two perfect games in the span of nine days. Now, it's time to focus on the offense.

On Aug. 9, the Grasshoppers visited Asheville and crushed the Tourists on their home turf by the odd and memorable score of 27-4. Not only did the Grasshoppers put up a near-inconceivable number of runs, they did it by scoring in multiples of three: 3 runs in the second and third innings, 6 runs in the sixth and seventh and 9 runs in the eighth. (That prodigious eighth frame came at the expense of Asheville catcher Fernando Caldera, who was summoned to pitch after all else had failed).

The game was played in 78-degree weather and took 3:18 to complete. Fitting, as these numbers are both multiples of three. The Grasshoppers have the best record in the South Atlantic League, as their mastery of both perfect games and offensive explosions would suggest.

Double digit dingers
The Omaha Storm Chasers, established in 1969, set a franchise record by bashing 10 home runs in their 23-7 win over the Columbus Clippers on Aug. 23. MJ Melendez, one of three Storm Chasers to hit two homers in the game, set the tone with a long ball on the game's first pitch. Jesse Waters, meanwhile, became the first Omaha player to homer from both sides of the plate since Tim Raines, Jr. on Aug. 20, 2009.

Only one MLB team has ever hit 10 home runs in a game, when the Toronto Blue Jays did it against the Baltimore Orioles on Sept. 14, 1987.

Brothers in Arms
Catcher Austin Nola made his professional debut in 2012 and his younger brother, pitcher Austin Nola, entered the scene two years later. This pair of closely-related Louisianans have played against each other on multiple occasions, including in the 2022 NLCS, but August 6 marked a quirky first in their overlapping careers: They pitched on the same day. This had never happened before because, well, Austin had never pitched before.

Aaron, making a rehab start for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs prior to his return to the Phillies rotation, allowed one run over 3 2/3 innings. That was significantly better than Austin's performance, as he took the mound for the Colorado Rockies in the ninth inning and allowed eight runs. 

The Isaacs have it
The Aug. 20 tilt between the Modesto Nuts and Rancho Cucamonga Quakes featured a pitching matchup for the ages: Isaac Lyon vs. Isaac Ayon.

Ayon pitched three scoreless innings as his Quakes eked out a 4-2 win. Lyon took the loss allowing one run over two innings of work.

Squawkin' Baseball
On Aug. 14, the Biloxi Shuckers erased an 8-3 deficit enroute to a 14-8 victory over the Columbus Clingstones. What led to this explosion of unanswered runs? Two words: Rally Parrot. 

Happens to the best of us
Runners don't usually score from second on a routine fly ball to the outfield, but, well, just watch the video from the Aug. 13 game between Hartford and Harrisburg.  

Delino DeShields Jr.'s brain cramp on Braylen Wimmer's fly ball allowed Dyan Jorge to score from second on the play, resulting in a most unlikely sacrifice fly. Despite DeShields' miscue, Harrisburg won the game, 4-2. (For those wondering: DeShields Jr., 33, is back in affiliated ball for the first time since 2023. His manager on the Senators is his father, Delino DeShields Sr.) 

Please note that the Modesto Nuts and Carolina Mudcats have played the final regular-season home games in the history of their respective franchises.

Last week’s episode of The Show Before the Show podcast features an interview with Amarillo Sod Poodles president Tony Ensor, who spearheaded the Texas League's Hill Country flood relief efforts. LISTEN HERE

Riverwalk Stadium, home of the Montgomery Biscuits, will be home to a Negro Leagues Baseball Museum exhibit beginning next season. READ ABOUT IT HERE

Thanks for reading and please get in touch anytime. Also: Please tell everyone you know (and everyone you don't) to subscribe to this newsletter and follow me on Instagram (@thebensbiz) and X (@bensbiz). I appreciate you.

Contact Benjamin Hill

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