IAL Hall of Fame: Barry Larkin

IAL Accomplishments:

• 7th all-time in career triples with 82
• 1269 career runs and 961 rbis

IAL Hall of Fame: Frank Thomas

IAL Accomplishments:

• 9th all time in career homeruns with 475
• 2nd all time in career walks with 1372
• 6th all-time career OBP with .390
• Highest all time single season OBP with a .501 mark in 1995
• 7th highest all time single season in rbis with 162 in 1998
• Third highest all time single season in walks with 151 in 1995
• World Series Championships:  1998, 2006

IAL Hall of Fame: Greg Maddux

Greg Maddux Gets the Call

Greg Maddux was inducted into the IAL Hall of Fame. He finished his career with a record of 354 wins versus 232 losses. Besides leading all time in wins, Greg also tops the charts in starts 749, complete games 193, 63 shutouts, and innings pitched 5,086’. Maddux is 2nd all time in strikeouts 3,925, compared to only 1,271 bases on balls, over a 3-to-1 ratio. His career ERA of 3.59 is just out of the top ten, #10 currently stands at 3.57.

In 1988 the Chicago Champions drafted Greg Maddux as D-Y, after he’d posted a 5.61 ERA, a 6-14 record, and allowed 181 base hits over 155” innings of work for the Chicago Cubs. He started 42 games for the Champs in his rookie season, finishing with a 4-15 record and a 6.83 ERA, who knew of the greatness that was to come. Maddux was one of several Champions drafted, who shared their birthday, April 14th, with Chicago skipper Tedd Mallasch.

The six-time Cy Young Award winner, relied on guile, grit, determination, along with competitiveness, but his pinpoint control was what defined Maddux as a pitcher. In 1997 he walked only 13 batters in 245 innings worked. In fact from 1996-98, he only issued 59 free passes over 712’ innings pitched. Greg was a winner, winning twenty or more games 1993-96, and then again in 2001.

It wasn’t just about personal performance for Maddux, if the team wasn’t winning Greg wasn’t happy. Fortunately the Champions finished in 1st place in his rookie year and then again in his last season in the bigs, with a lot of reasons to celebrate in between. Four times Chicago finished in first place and five times they won it all.

It’s kind of neat to compare his MLB numbers with his IAL numbers. Here are his real life stats compared to his in the Illowa APBA League:

He came in as the Batboy and went out as the Professor. Here’s to the greatest pitcher in the history of the Illowa APBA League, Greg Maddux!

- Tedd Mallasch, manager of the Chicago Champions

IAL Hall of Fame: Tom Glavine

Tom Glavine had a pretty unexciting start in the Illowa APBA League.  Winning just two games in his first years, I’m not sure anyone paid much attention to him.  After a ten-win season in his third season in 1990, his trade value was as high it would ever get so it seemed.  So Chicago Champion management traded him for an aging Kirk Gibson to the Twin City Thunderchickens.  After that he never looked back. 

After a mediocre 7-9 season, Glavine put together a string of 12 seasons of double digit wins (after a season of injuries in 2004, he won 10 or more for three more years).  That first year in 1996, he showed his talent winning 17 with a 2.96 ERA and struck out 219.  Glavine was a workhorse. For 14 out of 15 years, he threw at least 210 innings for Twin City explaining why he’s in the top ten in so many pitching categories. 

Glavine’s best season was arguably 1999.  That was the year everything just came together for the Twin City Thunderchickens.  Glavine’s amazing performance was almost overshadowed by teammate Mark McGwire’s record breaking 70 homeruns but that year, he simply couldn’t lose.  With a record of 21-7 and a 3.23, he showed why Thunderchicken management had already deemed him “untradeable”.  By the end of the year, Glavine had not only helped the team to their first 100 win season under their current manager’s reign but also brought home a league championship.

After 19 years with the team, Tom Glavine retired a Thunderchicken in 2009.  He will forever epitomize what it means to be part of that team. 

Glavine’s accomplishments

• tied for 3rd all-time in wins with 247
• 5th in strikeouts with 2797
• third in shutouts with 36
• third in games started with 582
• fourth in complete games with 148
• third in innings pitched with 4231 2/3
• 12 years in a row with 10 wins or more
• World Series ring in 1999

Hall of Fame Candidate: Mike Piazza

This is the fourth in a series of articles about candidates for the Illowa League Hall of Fame.

Now we move on to the first player in our series who seems like a real slam-dunk first ballot Hall of Famer.  Over 15 years, Mike Piazza was the best offensive catcher in the IAL by a long stretch.  He stepped into a key role immediately with the Posse, hitting 22 homers and driving in 83 runs as a rookie in 1994, and stayed dominant for the first decade of his career – after which he was merely very good, hitting 23 homers with a .272 batting average in his second-to-last season in 2007.

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Hall of Fame Candidate: Kenny Lofton

This is the third in a series of articles about candidates for the Illowa League Hall of Fame.

It’s always difficult to predict how leadoff hitters will do in IAL Hall of Fame voting.  Kenny Lofton was one of the best for about six or seven years, but like Craig Biggio and Shawn Green before him in this series, his period of dominance was brief.  Lofton played 16 seasons in the IAL, but only played in more than 140 games five times, all in the first seven seasons of his career.  He ranks first all-time in triples, with 113, second all-time in stolen bases with 652 (over 200 behind Tim Raines) fell just short of 2,000 hits (ranking 24th all-time with 1,983), and scored 1,233 runs (also ranking him 24th). [more after the jump]

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Hall of Fame Candidate: Shawn Green

This is the second in a series of articles on candidates for the Illowa League Hall of Fame.

Shawn Green played 13 seasons in the Ilowa League, splitting time between the Bunchies.  He had a slow start to his career, not really breaking out and playing full-time until his fourth season, 1999, when he hit 36 homers, stole 34 bases, and scored 121 runs.  That started a streak of eight seasons where he played in at least 152 games, scoring and driving in 100+ runs four times.  His best season was 2002, when he hit .295/.363/.589 with 46 homers, 24 steals, 135 runs scored, and 130 RBI.  After 2006 he faded fast, and after two seasons as a part timer, retired. [more after the jump]

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Hall of Fame Candidate: Craig Biggio

This is the first in a series of articles about candidates for the Illowa League Hall of Fame.

Craig Biggio came into the IAL in the expansion draft of 1997, taken by the State Street Sluggers.  He was immediately dealt to the Aurora (now Three Rivers) Gamblers.  Despite missing what would have been the first eight seasons of his career if he had been drafted when first eligible (probably 1989) he played 11 excellent seasons, exclusively playing for the Gamblers.

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2010 Hall of Fame Voting

I’ve been going over the Hall of Fame for the 2010 ballot, and it looks like this year will be a good one! Eligible players for this year include, among hitters, Craig Biggio, Jose Cruz, Jr., Juan Encarnacion, Shawn Green, Kenny Lofton, Mike Piazza, and Jose Valentin. Among pitchers we have Roger Clemens, Bartolo Colon, Kelvim Escobar, Roberto Hernandez, and John Smoltz.

Biggio, Lofton, Piazza, Clemens, and Smoltz all would appear to have shots to make the Hall of Fame. It will be interesting to see how Clemens’ real world issues affect his Illowa voting.

Tedd has been bugging me about Tim Raines’ not being in the Hall, and so I have an idea that I’d like to share – for an old-timer’s “second chance.” Each manager can nominate 1 player that played on their team to be reconsidered by the voters. If they get no votes, they fall off the ballot. What do you think?

Larry Walker and Dennis Eckersley Voted Into IAL HOF

Larry Walker played for 3 teams over his 16-year IAL career, hitting .291 with a .377 OBA and .554 SLG.   The only player who played longer and slugged higher was Barry Bonds, and only 4 players played longer and had a better on-base.  He hit 407 homer, drove in 1,343 runs, and scored 1,364 times.  He also stole 233 bases and played Gold Glove caliber defense in the outfield.  Walker’s most impressive year was 1998 with the Aurora Gamblers, when he hit .343 with 52 homer, 157 RBI, 156 runs, and 40 steals; this probably ranks as one of the best overall seasons in IAL history.  He topped 40 HR 3 times, 100 RBI 6 times, and 100 runs scored 6 times.  His struggles with injuries kept him to only 2,044 hits.

Dennis Eckersley pitched for 24 seasons, splitting time between starting and relieving; he won 168 games (versus 183 losses) and saved 208 games as a closer.  He played for 10 different teams (made all the more amazing for the fact that for most of his career in the IAL was an 8-team league) which couldn’t have hurt his voting drive!  Eck was a good but not great starter, winning 16 games twice, but it as a closer that he made his mark, mostly with the Dreamteam.  From 1989 through 1993 he saved 154 games, with ERA’s of 2.13, 2.35, 2.45, 2.49, and, in 1993, 1.12!  That year he saved 35 games in 52 appearances, throwing 80.2 innings with a 6-4 record and allowed only 40 hits and 10 earned runs all year