A former Northwoods League Most Valuable Player will soon be making his Major League debut for the Los Angeles Angels. Left-handed hitting first baseman Efren Navarro, who led the Rochester Honkers to the Northwoods League Championship in his MVP season of 2006, will be in uniform tonight for the Angels when they open a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins in Anaheim.
After six seasons in the minor leagues Neil Wagner can now call himself a Major Leaguer. The 27-year-old made his Major League Debut Tuesday night for the Oakland A’s in their 6-2 loss at Progressive Field against Cleveland. The 6-foot, 195-pound right-handed pitcher tossed a scoreless eighth inning, which started with a strikeout of Indians’ catcher Carlos Santana. Wagner’s top fastball in the inning registered at 98 MPH. In consecutive at-bats he faced two other Northwoods League alums. Jerad Head grounded out against Wagner and Jack Hannahan singled.
After a month of preliminary voting, Thunder Bay’s Port Arthur Stadium continues to gain support for title of “Canada’s Favourite Ballpark”. The home of the Northwoods League’s Thunder Bay Border Cats is currently in the finals of the online competition being conducted by Baseball Canada. One week remains in the voting between Port Arthur Stadium and Labatt Park of London, Ontario.
Another former Northwoods League player is now in the big leagues. Jerad Head made his Major League Debut Sunday afternoon for the Cleveland Indians in their 2-1 loss to Kansas City at Progressive Field. The 6-foot, 210-pound outfielder got the start in left field for Cleveland and batted ninth. The right-handed hitter picked up an infield single in the first at-bat of his career, sending a slow roller past Royals’ starting pitcher Bruce Chen towards the second baseman in the second inning. Head finished 1-for-3 in the game.
Mankato MoonDogs’ outfielder Shaun Cooper (Utah) continues to collect hardware. The Northwoods League’s Most Valuable Player in 2011 was recently named the Summer Player of the Year by Perfect Game USA. The baseball scouting service website considered players from more the 20 summer leagues for their postseason honors.
Former Northwoods League player Steve Edlefsen made his Major League Debut Sunday afternoon for the San Francisco Giants in their extra-innings 6-4 victory at Houston. The 6-foot 2-inch, 195-pound right hander struck out Clint Barmes, another Northwoods League alumnus, when he entered the game with two outs in the 5th inning. The 26-year-old pitched a hitless 6th inning as well to finish his debut with 1 1/3 perfect innings of relief with two strike outs.
The fans that attended the 2011 Summer Collegiate World Series helped the Northwoods League top the 900,000 mark in attendance for the first time. In fact, no other Summer Collegiate Baseball League can make that claim. The 1,946 fans that were on hand for the championship series games in Mankato and Battle Creek capped off a Northwoods League season that saw 901,652 fans attend Northwoods League baseball games, a 1,692 per game average.
New York Yankees centerfielder Curtis Granderson was a big hit at Friday morning’s first Northwoods League Foundation free youth baseball clinic. The two-time American League All-Star and 2011 MVP candidate talked baseball with the more than 50 kids that took advantage of the great opportunity to learn from a Major Leaguer.
