X-Nico

unusual facts about minor leagues



Jason Isringhausen

In the mid-1990s, Isringhausen, along with pitchers Bill Pulsipher and Paul Wilson were all widely hyped as the next generation of New York Mets' superstars, despite all being in the minor leagues.

Red Sox Rule

Following his professional playing career, Francona went on to manage in the minor leagues where he gained national attention as the manager of the Birmingham Barons whose roster included NBA Hall of Fame player Michael Jordan.

Teddy Higuera

After one year in the minor leagues, Higuera earned a spot in the team's 1985 rotation after winning a competition with Japanese pitcher Yutaka Enatsu.


see also

B. J. Young

Young spent the majority of his career in the minor leagues playing for the Adirondack Red Wings and Cincinnati Mighty Ducks of the American Hockey League, the Manitoba Moose of the International Hockey League, and the Anchorage/Alaska Aces in both the West Coast Hockey League and ECHL.

Bryan Price

After pitching in the minor leagues, Price has served as the pitching coach for the Seattle Mariners, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Cincinnati Reds before being named manager of the Reds.

Butch Henline

After his playing career ended in the minor leagues in 1934, he became a motel operator in Florida, but took up umpiring soon afterward after recalling that Bill Klem had encouraged him to pursue the profession.

Carlos Alberto Restrepo Isaza

After some time spent managing in minor leagues and regional teams in his home country, he took over several U-17 and U-20 Colombia national football teams.

Crash Davis

Davis would play in the minor leagues, with teams including the Reidsville Luckies and the Raleigh Capitals, until 1952.

Del Bissonette

By 1947, Bissonette was back in the minor leagues as a manager with the Portland Pilots.

Dick Lamby

Richard A. "Dick" Lamby (born May 3, 1955 in Auburn, Massachusetts) is a retired professional ice hockey defenseman who played 22 National Hockey League regular season games with the St. Louis Blues in 1978-80 but spent most of his career in the minor leagues.

Don Cutts

He had a seven-year professional career, largely in the minor leagues, which was highlighted by six NHL games in the 1979–80 season with the Edmonton Oilers.

Donell Nixon

He spent the entire 1989 season with the Giants, the only season in which he did not play in the minor leagues.

Ed Doheny

Graduating to the minor leagues, Doheny crossed the Canadian border in 1894 and pitched for Farnham, Quebec.

Georgia-Florida League

In 1963, the minor leagues reorganized and the Georgia-Florida League was designated Class A. But there were only four teams in the '63 GFL, and its champion, the Thomasville Tigers, a Detroit affiliate, attracted only 7,234 fans over the entire course of a home schedule of over 60 games — an average of about 120 fans per game.

Glen Carbon, Pennsylvania

Jack Mealey (born 1899) -- minor league baseball catcher, who also managed in the minor leagues and served as president of the Sooner State League

Hiroyuki Nakajima

As of March 25, 2013, Nakajima was batting only .150 with 1 double and 1 RBI in spring training, and John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that he may start the 2013 season in the minor leagues.

Interstate League

The longest tenured of these was the last incarnation, which played in the Middle Atlantic States from 1939 through 1952, and was one of the few mid-level minor leagues to operate continuously during the World War II period.

Jade Galbraith

The 2006 season saw Jade embark on a European venture as he joined SC Riessersee in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the German minor leagues.

James Mouton

After spending 2002 in the minor leagues, Mouton played part of the 2003 season in the Mexican League with the Broncos de Reynosa before retiring.

Jay Baller

He spent the next two seasons as a starter in Cleveland's minor leagues before being traded again to the Chicago Cubs for Dan Rohn in April 1985.

Jay Payton

Selected by the Mets in the first round (29th pick) of the 1994 amateur draft, Payton hadn't fulfilled the great expectations he projected Georgia Tech when he was drafted in the first round with fellow All Americans and Teammates Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek, due in large part to four surgeries while in the minor leagues.

Jigger Statz

He is one of only seven players (along with Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Julio Franco, Hank Aaron, Ichiro Suzuki, and Stan Musial) known to have amassed at least 4,000 combined hits in the major leagues and minor leagues.

Joe Aitcheson, Jr.

Aitcheson’s father, Joe Sr., who also pitched for the Baltimore Orioles in the minor leagues and the Brooklyn Dodgers in the majors, helped his brother Whitney found the Iron Bridge Hounds, serving as its Master of Foxhounds for many years.

John Eubank

Eubank continued to play in the minor leagues for several years, concluding his career with the Grays from Goshen, Indiana.

Kevin Bass

Garrett (Jacksonville State University) was selected by the Washington Nationals in the 42nd round played a couple of seasons in their organization, followed by time in the independent minor leagues.

Mike Figga

Out if options, (the number of times a team is allowed to demote a player to the minor leagues without exposing him to waivers) owner George Steinbrenner ordered acting manager Dallas Green to promote Figga to the major league roster despite offering limited opportunities to play.

Minor League Baseball

Many baseball writers of that time regarded the greatest players of the minor leagues, such as Buzz Arlett, Jigger Statz, Ike Boone, Buddy Ryan, Earl Rapp and Frank Shellenback, as comparable to major league players.

Newburgh Hummingbirds

The Hummingbirds were charter members of the North Atlantic League, a Class D circuit which was one of many minor leagues to pop up after the end of World War II.

Orlando Miller

Miller continued to play in the minor leagues for eleven more seasons, including stints with the Mexican League's Guerreros de Oaxaca in 2000 and Olmecas de Tabasco in 2002.

Oscar Zubía

Currently works as a Scout and Coaching the minor leagues in LDU Quito

Pat Mullin

He started the 1941 season in the minor leagues at Buffalo, but was brought back up midseason and made a big impression, batting .345 with a .400 on-base percentage and a .509 slugging percentage.

Pedro Grifol

Grifol was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the sixth round of the 1991 Major League Baseball Draft and played in the minor leagues for the Twins and New York Mets from 1991 to 1999.

Ron Kittle

Kittle also hit 50 homers in the minor leagues with the Edmonton Trappers and has his jersey retired in Edmonton at Telus Field.

Sebastián Soria

In 2001, a cyclist, who had watched Soria playing in the minor leagues and was impressed by his talents, brought him to the attention of a football agent he knew, and Soria was sent to Montevideo to play in Liverpool de Montevideo and trained under Julio Ribas.

Shayne Bennett

He was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 1993 Major League Baseball Draft in the 25th round, and after three years playing in the minor leagues, he was traded to the Montreal Expos in January 1996.

Short season

Teams in Short-Season A leagues are generally in small-to-medium-sized cities (Aberdeen, Maryland; Eugene, Oregon; Burlington, Vermont; State College, Pennsylvania; Lowell, Massachusetts; Spokane, Washington), although exceptions exist—one team is in Vancouver (the only Canadian team currently in the affiliated minor leagues), another is in the Seattle suburb of Everett, Washington, and two are in New York City, each affiliated with one of that city's MLB teams.

Syl Apps, Jr.

Syl Apps, Jr.'s son, Syl Apps III, was a hockey player in his own right, starring at Princeton University before spending four years in the minor leagues, retiring in 2003.

The Big Show

Major League Baseball, in the context of players being promoted from or demoted to the minor leagues

Todd Strueby

Todd Kenneth Strueby (born June 15, 1963 in Lanigan, Saskatchewan and raised in Humboldt, Saskatchewan) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey centre who played most of his career in the minor leagues.

Tuomas Tarkki

After college hockey he spent a year in the minor leagues before returning to Finland to replace the injured Andy Chiodo as the Kärpät starting goaltender.

Walt Hriniak

After Mauch's firing, Hriniak was reassigned to the minor leagues by Montreal in 1976, then was hired as bullpen coach by the Boston Red Sox for the 1977 season.

William Marmaduke Kavanaugh

He was the president of the Southern Association, one of professional baseball's principal minor leagues, from 1903 until his death.