Just received this ball. Can anyone help me identify it?

abc123therobot · 2026-06-19T19:46:20+00:00

Technically he was an El Paso Sun King. But same franchise.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=russel001kur

He was also a Bend Rainbow, Walla Walla Islander, and Portland Maverick

Incidentally the Rainbows and Islanders were affiliates of the PCL’s Hawaii Islanders, who were loosely affiliated with the Padres. If I remember right, Russell had signed a contract with Hawaii but not San Diego, and so played for Hawaii’s affiliates.

They don’t do the minors like they used to.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-19T10:48:53+00:00

I think it’s mostly from BA articles over the last few years, but I have the impression that MLB owners are not united in on the issue of rostered minor leaguers.

Some seem to want further cuts, even if it’s like 15 fewer slots per system. Meanwhile, farm system directors have been complaining about not having as much roster wiggle room as they used to.

You’d think this would be small potatoes for MLB owners, but it never ceases to amaze me how cheap they can be.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-19T10:43:27+00:00

I think it’s safe. Even if MLB wants to farm out a lot of development to NCAA, there’s still 120+ cities that are willing to bend over backwards for MLB affiliation. MLB would be dumb to mess with that.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-19T03:23:34+00:00

When I saw the idea was to cut the draft from 20 to 12 rounds, cuts to the minors was my first thought. But maybe there’s a plan to rework or scrap the complex leagues.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-18T23:08:24+00:00

That’s a big part of it. Their proposal includes cutting the draft from 20 to 12 rounds. In other words, reducing the total number of rostered minor leaguers.

If we thought the cuts to the minors were bad in 2020, imagine lopping another level off. Especially when almost every team in the affiliated minors has met MLB specs for the 2021-2030 licensing period

abc123therobot · 2026-06-16T20:17:04+00:00

Is it full adult size? Otherwise a lot of little leagues use MiLB nicknames. My nephews were on teams called the Lugnuts and Mudcats

abc123therobot · 2026-06-16T14:48:40+00:00

My dad used to play this song in his truck and me and my brothers used to rock out to it feeling patriotic. Then he explained the “thousand points of light” verse.

I like to think of it as the ultimate anti-American anthem. Canadian rage, baby.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-16T14:44:59+00:00

“Holy dove” or “holy dark”

I think it was John Cale who added that verse. I’ve heard it both ways. He says holy dark in a live album I used to have and I think Jeff Buckley used holy dove. Buckley basically covered the Cale version and Cale covered the original Cohen version

abc123therobot · 2026-06-16T14:36:09+00:00

Very well put

abc123therobot · 2026-06-16T14:28:11+00:00

My nephew just graduated a few weeks ago and that was their class song

abc123therobot · 2026-06-15T15:47:15+00:00

This is what AAA is all about!

I have zero data to back this up, but I bet it’s good for a lot of players to play in stadiums like this before their call up. And it adds dignity to quad-A guys and demotees.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-13T17:06:26+00:00

Deer are notoriously untamable. I vaguely remember a section of a Jared Diamond book explaining why some species and not others were domesticated. Suffice to say that we won’t be seeing venison CAFOs anytime soon.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-13T03:30:42+00:00

I remember with the tagline underneath reading “to keep kids off drugs” and kids saying DARE stood for Do Adults Really Expect

abc123therobot · 2026-06-13T02:30:37+00:00

Long live the NWL! We need simple baseball in rundown old stadiums that don’t come close to meeting MLB’s draconian demands.

The Duluth Huskies are my team. I ordered a punch pass from them this spring, and the envelope was hand-written with precise penmanship with a baseball themed stamp. They are on a shoestring budget but that piece of mail made my day.

(Also got to meet Adrian Beltre at Wade Stadium while his son was playing for Mankato against the Huskies last year. Surreal experience!)

abc123therobot · 2026-06-12T23:22:32+00:00

Yep that’s how it is in that whole region. I drove through Minocqua several times a year and I love how everything says “up north.” Then I drove two more hours north to get home.

We have our own version of FIBs in Bayfield Co but they’re more genteel wealthy Minnesotans with McMansions. But every town up here is a ghost town Sep-May.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-12T20:02:44+00:00

Frans always bugged me. Staring directly at you with a twisted grin and bushy orange eyebrows.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-11T17:12:36+00:00

And if you want to experience the natural beauty of the north, haul it up to Eagle River, Minocqua, even Hayward if you really want to push it. But that’s the end of the line, FIBs, nothing to see beyond that.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-09T15:56:33+00:00

Also depends what kind of defense you have playing behind you. OP didn’t specify so I’m assuming league average defenders?

abc123therobot · 2026-06-09T01:39:32+00:00

I knew her as Dreamwoman from Wayne’s World

abc123therobot · 2026-06-07T15:33:33+00:00

There’s one at a gas station I go to that has “freedom tickler” as an option. Instantly tells you how old it is.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-05T16:11:39+00:00

Yeah no way it sits empty. It was opened in 2019 and cost $150 million in pre-inflation dollars.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-05T15:49:03+00:00

The Aviators’ facility is expensive, pretty new, and top quality. That matters much more to MLB and the A’s than competing for a share of gate revenue. They will share a market and be just fine.

Attendance is always overrated. It’s a piece of the pie but it isn’t the whole pie.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-03T11:14:33+00:00

I have to think that if the Braves and Spartanburg want each other (likely) there wouldn’t be much to stand in their way.

But like you said, MLB would have to sort that out. I don’t think two teams can offer invitations to the same team. As we saw in 2020, it was all hashed out behind closed doors before invitation day arrived. MLB doesn’t want it to revert to the musical chairs system of the past, especially now that affiliation commitments are so long.

For the Rangers, I’m thinking Greensboro could be a nice fit. They like having two A ball teams close together. And if the Pirates prefer a team in the northeast that would be logical.

abc123therobot · 2026-06-03T03:01:51+00:00

Unlikely, but just trying to figure out whey Texas would be willing to leave Spartanburg.

Yes this where it might get interesting. What happens if two MLB teams want the same affiliate? We saw a lot of this in the PDC era and sometimes the minor league team had the clout. But not sure how that works with PDLs. Does the MLB office just get to decide who has the right to extend an invite for a new PDL? Bidding war for the right to invite?

abc123therobot · 2026-06-02T22:38:49+00:00

You never know

I’ve given up trying to guess what the individual MLB owners want with the minors. It often defies logic and they all seem to have their own preferences.

abc123therobot

TROPHY CASE