cannon's giant posterous

For a few weeks, during the summer of 2001, I ran around the halls of the office of the Fresno Grizzlies. I didn’t do anything very important. I helped write game notes, compose PA scripts, and drive around copies of Fresno Stadium Scene, a monthly newspaper I used to beg local liquor storeowners to keep on hand so that they could be passed out to fans. Of course it sounds monotonous, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

(Well, except the time I said during the top of the eighth inning of a 1-0 game how glad I was that it was quickly coming to an end. I don’t know if a person has simultaneously received as many profanity-laced tirades hurled in their direction as I did this side of Camp Pendleton. The game went into extra innings by the way. Lesson learned.)

In those days the uniforms were purple and the outfielders had to dodge potholes in the Beiden Field grass. The Giants were not known for their development of minor league players. Instead, they had the philosophy of using key prospects as large chips in trades with other ballclubs for their veteran players.

That year the Grizzlies, the Pacific Coast League affiliate of the Giants, boasted the top prospect in the organization, starting pitcher Kurt Ainsworth. He was a stud guy from LSU and a first round pick. He was a nice guy too, and I remember him telling me that season he was learning to deal with failure for one of the first times in his professional career. But his upside was tremendous. Of course, you will remember the standing ovation he received after dominating the Dodgers for eight innings. 

(Eventually, Ainsworth was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for everyone’s favorite fat kid, Sidney Ponson.)

However, the best starter on that Grizzlies team was Ryan Vogelsong, a right hander, whose 0.91 WHIP and 2.79 ERA were turning some heads. Those numbers in the PCL are difficult for starting pitchers to achieve, and he was having quite a season. And then, true to the philosophy, Vogelsong was shipped to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a package for Jason Schmidt and John Vander Wal.

It wound up being one of Brian Sabean’s best trades as the General Manager of the Giants. There isn’t much dispute about that. But here was Vogelsong shipped to a new team and sent to its Triple A affiliate, the Nashville Sounds. The great irony was seeing Vogelsong the next day at the ballpark as he got ready to face his former team. The Sounds (Sound?) were in Fresno to play the Grizzlies.

I remember being torn at that moment about the trade. I felt kind of bad for the guy. I didn’t know him or anything, but it seemed like he was shipped of to Siberia (true). Yet, who knew, he would get a lot closer to Siberia as his career continued (truer still).

This season he is back in Giants camp competing for a spot in the bullpen. He has been effective this spring playing for the organization that traded him almost 10 full seasons ago.

I, for one, hope he makes it. I think Vogelsong is a great story. If he can’t crack the roster and go north with the club it might come down to once again spending time in Fresno.  All I can say about that is he won't be wearing purple, and he won’t have to get his ankles wrapped before shagging BP in the outfield.