[jksander]

April 6, 1908: Michael Levine, age 38, is still going strong, and has expressed interest in staying in Louisville until his retirement. As our scouts still stand by his overall durability and his consistent threat from the plate, we’ve agreed to terms on a three year extension worth $1,400 next year, $1,240 in 1910 and with a player option in 1911 worth the same. He is extremely popular with the fans and as a leader in the clubhouse, so it’s worth keeping him around.

April 13, 1908: It took this long for us to first feel the sting of defeat -- nine consecutive wins, before East St. Louis (5-5) upended us this evening in a 12-inning epic, scoring two runs in the top of the 12th to end our streak with a 5-3. McClain went 11 innings with just six hits, a walk, a strikeout and three earned runs, but turned the ball over in the final frame to Ralph Ladd, who allowed three hits that led to the runs. Ladd is now 1-1 with a 9.00 ERA through two single-inning relief appearances, while McClain holds a 1-0 record and 1.93 ERA through three starts and 28.0 innings. No one can blame Bobby Johnson for the loss, as he hit five times out of six (all five of them for singles!) scoring one and driving in another. He’s hitting .462 through his first 26 plate appearances, with two doubles and three runs batted in! We’re not sure how he finally started making such good contact, but we’re glad he’s found the extra gear!

May 1, 1908: George Driscoll was named ORL Rookie of the Month for his solid start with our Rivermen! He went 5-1 with a 3.30 ERA and four strikeouts, with teams hitting just .284 against him in his seven starts. But he was overshadowed by Sean Impagliazzo, who is making it clear he expects to win another Pitcher of the Year award -- the 24-year-old hurler is 6-0 through seven starts and 62 innings of work, with a 1.16 ERA, 13 strikeouts and a 0.76 WHIP.

We had a spectacular start to the season, going 20-7 through the month of April, taking a five game lead in the division over a Lexington Roughriders team that is still scrapping for the right combination to get to the postseason for the first time. It’s a tight race below us with the Roughriders at 15-12 but with East St. Louis (14-12), Evansville (14-12) and Cincinnati (13-13) right there fighting for rungs on the ladder. In the Great Lakes League, Fort Wayne’s Flyers have flown to the top of the heap with an 18-9 record, a game and a half up on Chicago (16-10) and four games up on the Minneapolis Barons (13-12).

May 10, 1908: Backup first baseman Tony Juarez has announced today that, following the end of the season, he plans to retire from baseball. The 36-year-old spent half of his first season in Fort Wayne before being traded to Louisville in 1897. A career backup player, he has played in 351 games to date, hitting .285 across 478 plate appearances with 18 doubles, four triples and 51 RBIs. You won’t see him in the Hall of Fame in Indianapolis, but guys like him make baseball fun, showing that if you work your ass off you can make a living playing this game even if you aren’t a superstar. Juarez has played in just two games so far this year, but has not had a hit.

May 12, 1908: Tonight we lost 1-0 to the Lexington Roughriders, but the real story was Burgess snapping his five-game homering streak, as he went 0 for 4 with a strikeout. Burgess, who has gotten the nickname “Sure Shot” from the Louisville press, has hit .308 to start the season, with four doubles and 13 homers, batting in 25 runs through 37 games! No other player in the game can hit a long-ball like him -- not even David Cole of Chicago, who is hitting .307 but only has three doubles and a triple, not even a single homer. No one quite knows how to cover this whole “home run” thing, since the record used to be 24 and it stood for years, only to be broken by Cole with 41 last year. Burgess is on pace for 54, which seems insane, but is this baseball’s future or just a flash in the pan? Whatever it is, our Rivermen are 26-11 and the Ballpark at Louisville has been averaging more than 15,500 fans per game even with tickets priced at 27 cents!

June 1, 1908: Sure thing, y’all! Brad Burgess was named ORL Batter of the Month, hitting .355 with 17 home runs, 35 RBIs and 26 runs scored. He now has a .324 average for the season, which is a huge improvement on last year, and 21 long bombs. Many have wondered whether Cole might not be hitting as well because of an exceptionally cold season in Chicago, but as for now it looks like he’s converted himself into a more purely contact hitter though we’ll see what the summer holds.

At the end of the month we lost three games in a row, but we still held a 38-18 record as the weather heats up here on the river’s edge. Lexington still trails by six games at 32-24, while East St. Louis is 29-26 and 8.5 games back. Fort Wayne continues to impress in the Great Lakes League, with a 35-21 record that’s still a game and a half up on Chicago at 33-22. Fort Wayne hasn’t won a GLL Pennant since 1891, the final year of their three year pennant streak that resulted in their only two championships. Their demanding owner has been trying to rectify that, hiring David Jones as their GM back in 1905, and since then their win total has gone quietly upward. And the team is winning despite having only a $19,000 team payroll -- barely half of Chicago’s budget!