"When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing... I told him I wanted to be a real major league baseball player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he'd like to be President of the United States. Neither of us got our wish."
Dwight D. Eisenhower 34th U.S. President.
We've got a good chance. I can't think of any other way around it. I look at our roster and our libeup day after day and I see a team that does a lot of the little things right, like turning the double play or taking out the opposing second baseman on a double play and you think, "We've got a chance ." This team knows how to win. Of the 24 players on the Nashville Sounds roster, 16 of those players have been part of AAA championship teams in the last three years. If the Sounds were to show up at the airport with all of their championship hardware, you'd think Lil' John and his entourage had arrived with all the bling. The latest and maybe the most obvious example that the Brewers do value winning at the minor league level was the signing of Graham Koonce, a first baseman of prodigious power who routinely does to baseballs what Tyson did to Michael Spinks. Koonce was a major cog in the back to back championships that Sacramento won in 2003 (beating the Sounds three straight) and 2004 and was even the PCL league MVP in 2003. You probably never saw his name in lights with the Oakland A's because they had another slugger named Jason Giambi playing first base and then Dan Johnson moved into the neighborhood. At the very least I still think Koonce could have been a 20 homer guy in Oakland.
Look around the Sounds clubhouse and you'll see players from last years championship such as Chris Barnwell and Mike Meyers who quiwetly go about their work and in the case of Meyers, come up with a big game when they most need it from the pen or, in the case of Barnwell, anchor a Sounds defense that make the impossible plays seem routine. Its odd that champion is originally a french word, since the French have never won a World Series and haven't really won anything since Charlemagne was the head coach. In fact, the French have won as many wars in the last 100 years as....I have.
Back to the Sounds. One thing that most clubhouses have are clubhouse leaders. These are the guys who lead by example in the way they prepare for a game, the way they conduct themselves on the field and off, and always make sure that the guys are playing the game the right way. Their the ones who organize Kangaroo Court, tell a young player to wash their shirt, etc. They are also the ones who will take a player aside who maybe didn't run out a ground ball as hard as they should have and remind them that there is most likely somebody in AA just as talented who WILL run out that grounder. The Sounds clubhouse is full of these type of leaders. Clark, Johnson, Abernathy and until he retired, Justin Thompson. I will admit, in the last two years I have yet to see a Sounds player dog it on a ground ball or pop up so being a clubhouse leader for this group may be a pretty cush job. When you have a group of guys who know what it takes to win, the little things get done with no questions asked.
The team is off for two days, Monday is the Nashville Sounds CMT annual Charity Golf Tournament is Monday the 19th with proceeds going to the Nashville Sounds Foundation which benefits youth baseball, education, and literacy in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. I will not be playing as I am to golf, what fish are to bicycling. Instead I will be building a picnic table so that I will be able to write these blogs in the 99 degree outdoor comfort of my backyard. Tuesday I will most likely be heading to Home Depot to BUY a picnic table that has four legs instead of three and does not list at a a 45 degree angle. Wednesday its off to Round Rock, TX to play the Round Rock Express in a five game series. Round Rock is a great place to play and visit, though I have yet to have a chance to travel to 6th Street in nearby Austin, TX, the place where Stevie Ray Vaughn cut his teeth and became the "Texas Tornado" on guitar and somehow channeled the spirit of Jimi Hendrix until his untimely death in 1990. Unfortunately by the time the game is over, I get back to the hotel and make the 30 minute drive to Austin, I have about as much time to grab a beer and listen to some great live music as a NASCAR pitstop. Luckily there is a nice little steakhouse nearby that does not turn their nose up if I wear jeans and eat at the bar because thats where the TV with the ballgame is on.
In case you were wondering, the Brevard County Manatees are second in the Florida State League in hitting. Their hitting coach? Former Sound Corey D. Hart.
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