I have to once again tip my cap to Will MacNeil (@RFWill149) for this pickup. During the Oakland Athletics Fan Fest he and I had talked at length about scooping up this cap as it is the only cap inspired by someone outside of the baseball realm. Within about a week after I had gotten back to Eugene, Oregon to wrap up my studies at the University of Oregon Will had messaged me on Facebook, letting me know he ha scooped it up for me. Very rarely in my life has someone ever done so much for me with something as seemingly insignificant as giving me a hat.
The Intimidators franchise moved to Kannapolis in 1995 from Spartanburg, South
Carolina, where they had been a Class A-affiliate of
the Philadelphia Phillies in the South Atlantic League. With all new teams, debate
raged in Kannapolis over what to name the
team, with team officials finally decided to call the team the Piedmont
Phillies for the 1995 season until they could figure out a suitable
replacement.
A name-the-team contest in the fall of 1995 drew thousands
of entries, and team officials settled on the boll weevil as the team's new
mascot, indicative of Kannapolis' history as a textile mill town (Kannapolis natives are even called
"lintheads"). The Piedmont Boll Weevils would keep that mascot
until after the 2000 season, when NASCAR racing legend Dale Earnhardt purchased
a share in the team's ownership. It was then that the name was changed to the
Kannapolis Intimidators, in honor of Earnhardt's legendary nickname. It
was also during that offseason that the team's parent club changed from the
Phillies to the Chicago White Sox, making the Intimidators the third White Sox
farm team to be located in the Carolinas, following the Charlotte Knights (who
actually play their home games in suburban Fort Mill, South Carolina)
and the Winston-Salem Warthogs, now called the Winston-Salem Dash.
Earnhardt, who drove the #3 car in NASCAR, was killed in an
accident at the Daytona 500 in February 2001. Following Earnhardt's death, the
Intimidators avoided assigning the number 3 for team members. Team manager
Razor Shines, originally slated to wear #3, and subsequently changed his
uniform number to #43. The team officially retired #3 on May 15, 2002, in
memory of their former co-owner, similar to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
retiring the number 26 (the 26th man) in honor of former owner Gene Autry. I
wrote about this tribute on April 8th.
The team's logo was designed by Sam Bass, who has designed
paint schemes and uniforms on many NASCAR, Champ Car, and IRL race cars, another
rarity within the realm of baseball.
The team plays in CMC-Northeast Stadium (formerly Fieldcrest
Cannon Stadium) in Kannapolis. "The
Cannon" was still under construction when the Piedmont Phillies began play
in 1995. Upon completion in the winter of 1995, the stadium seated 4,700 fans.
The stadium officially changed names on April 3, 2012 under a new naming rights
agreement for the 2012 season.
In their 18-year history in Kannapolis
the Intimidators/Boll Weevils/Phillies have only won one South Atlantic League
title, which came in 2005. However, the team has yet to win a division crown.
That year the team went 74-59 under then-manager Nick Capra who played for five
seasons in Major League Baseball with the Texas Rangers (1982-1983, 1985 and
1991) and the Kansas City Royals (1988).
When trying to come up with marks for this cap I did quite a
bit of digging. As most of you who read these posts have come to learn I don’t
usually take things at face value. I always like to find little patterns within
the names, dates and numbers to tell a story that I find particularly
interesting that also has to do with something going on in my life. With this
hat I scored big time.
#1- This tall, lanky right-handed pitcher was taken in the
17th round by the White Sox in the 2002 amateur draft out of Lamar Community College
in Lamar, Colorado.
In 2002 and 2003 he battled through the Rookie Leagues with the AZL White Sox
and the Great Fall White Sox respectively, posting solid numbers as a starter.
In 2004 he made got bumped up to Kannapolis where he made 15 starts, going 8-5
with a 3.64 ERA and 113 strikeouts before moving on to advanced-A Winston-Salem
and AA Birmingham to play with the Barons. In 2005 he made his Major League
debut on May 22nd, only pitching in 12 games, 10 as a starter going
3-2 with a 4.03 ERA and 48 strikeouts. That season he split time between the
big club and in AAA with the Charlotte Knights. But despite his split time he
still won a World Series ring as the White defeated the Houston Astros in four
games.
In the offseason after the end of the 2006 season he was
traded to the Rangers where he stuck it out until the end of the 2010 season,
going 13-15 with a 4.68 ERA and 134 strikeouts. On December 14, 2010 he signed
as a free agent with the Athletics where he became the ace in 2012 and helped
the team win their first American League Western Division title since 2006
despite missing the month of the regular season and postseason after taking a
liner off of his dome due to a pitch hit by Angels shortstop Erick Aybar.
He’s hands down on of the funniest cats on Twitter, along
with his wife Amanda. Brandon McCarthy.
#16- This outfielder grew up in Houston,
Texas and was drafted in the 16th
round of the 2001 amateur draft by the White Sox out of Bellaire High School.
Like McCarthy, the two went through the same system together, starting out in
the Rookie Leagues with the AZL White Sox, Great Falls White Sox, but also the
Bristol White Sox from 2002-2003. In 2004 he spent the entire season in Kannapolis and hit .261 with 24 home runs, 56 RBI and 31
stolen bases. In 2005 he moved on to Birmingham where he won praise by making Baseball America’s first-team Minor
League All-Star outfielder as well as the White Sox Minor League Player of the
Year award after going .277/26/77 with 32 stolen bases. Despite this prestige
he was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks at season’s end with Luis Viscaino
and Orlando Hernandez for Javier Vasquez and cash considerations.
Despite rolling to a new team, this cat continued his
ball-hitting barrage with the Tucson Sidewinders before getting called up in
August of 2006 where he made his MLB debut on the 18th. From then
until the end of the 2012 season he hit .239 with 132 home runs and 408 RBI. He
finished fourth for National League Rookie of the Year in 2007 and made his
only All-Star Game appearance thus far in 2010. At the end of the 2012 season
he was traded to the Athletics for infielder Cliff Pennington and Yordy
Cabrera. This cat, Chris Young.
#18- I actually all ready wrote about this guy on March 13th,
but he’s still a crowd favorite. He was selected 38th overall in the
first round of the 2004 amateur draft by the White Sox out of Monsignor Edward
Pace High School in Opa Locka, Florida. That year he split hit time in Bristol as well as a few games in Kannapolis.
In 2005 he made 10 starts for the Intimidators, going 5-3 with a 1.87 ERA and
84 strikeouts before moving on to Winston-Salem
for another 13 starts, going 9-3 with a 3.56 ERA and 79 strikeouts in the
process.
Between 2005 and 2008 he was traded three times. First to
the Phillies along with Aaron Rowand and Daniel Haigwood for Jim Thome. The he
was traded back to the White Sox at the end of the 2006 season along with Gavin
Floyd for Freddy Garcia. In 2007 this guy led the Minor Leagues in strikeouts
with 185 while playing for the Barons. In 2008 he was traded to the Athletics
along with Ryan Sweeney and Fautino de los Santos for Nick Swisher. Showing some solid
promise in AAA with the Sacramento River Cats he was called up and made his MLB
debut on August 6, 2008.
Despite a few rough outing in 2008 and 2009 he moved up and
down between The Show and AAA before finally getting a solid spot in the
rotation in 2010 where he went 15-9 with a 3.23 ERA and 171 strikeouts. In 2011
he made his first All-Star Game appearance behind a 16-12 record, a 3.12 ERA
and 197 strikeouts. In the offseason he was traded to the Washington Nationals
along with Robert Gilliam for catcher Derek Norris and pitchers Brad Peacock,
A.J. Cole and Tommy Milone. Gio Gonzalez, we still miss you brother!
#33- This guy was selected by the White Sox in the 15th
round of the 2005 amateur draft out of Sierra Vista High School in Las Vegas,
Nevada. In 2005 and most of 2006 he played with Bristol
and Great Falls before finishing out 2006 in Kannapolis for 16 games. In 2007 he had a monster year
with the Intimidators, batting .291 with 25 home runs and 93 RBI. As soon as
the season wrapped up he was traded to the Diamondbacks for Carlos Quentin. Two
weeks after that he was dealt to the Athletics as part of a package for Dan
Haren.
Between 2008 and 2012 he became a professional ball hitter
throughout the Minor Leagues, mostly sticking it out in Sacramento. On August 9, 2010 he made his MLB
debut. He would only play a total of 106 games for the Athletics in three years
before getting traded to the Houston Astros at the end of the 2012 season.
During his time in Oakland; however, his most memorable moments (for me) came
on July 6th when he hit a walk-off three-run blast against the
Seattle Mariners in the 11th inning and the other coming on August
28th when he went 3-5 with a home run against the Cleveland Indians
at The Jake. The moment I’ll never forget about this is how I yelled,
“X-Files!” after his home run and first base coach Tye Waller didn’t stop
laughing until the end of the inning. Chris Carter, you are clutch kid.
While there were a slew of other players I could have paid
tribute to I couldn’t help but find all the guys whose tenures in Oakland were all paved through the pathway of Kannapolis. The only person I forgot to mention was
Brandon Allen who played alongside Carter in 2006.
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