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La Crosse, Wis. \u2013 <\/strong>The La Crosse Loggers announced today that former Major League Baseball executive and current COO of the Field of Dreams, Dan Evans, will headline their 19th<\/sup> Winter Baseball BBQ.\u00a0 The annual hot stove event will be held on Thursday, February 16 in the Riverside Ballroom at the La Crosse Center in downtown La Crosse and this year\u2019s event will once again feature an induction ceremony of the 2023 class by the La Crosse Area Baseball Hall of Fame group.<\/p>\n A former General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers (2001-2004), Evans has been in professional baseball for four decades and has had decision-making roles with five different Major League franchises including the Chicago White Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago Cubs and Seattle Mariners.<\/p>\n Evans was recently named the Chief Operating Office of Go The Distance Baseball, LLC that oversees The Field of Dreams movie site in terms of strategy, events, operations and personnel and he works hand-in-hand with the CEO, Hall of Famer Frank Thomas.\u00a0 Among his highlights with The Field of Dreams movie site are the hugely successful regular-season games played there over the past two seasons.\u00a0 The 2021 matchup between the White Sox and Yankees was the largest television audience of a regular-season baseball game in 16 years.\u00a0 Evans also orchestrated the 2020 addition of Baseballism\u2019s Field of Dreams store on the movie site and has attracted over 100 days of baseball tournaments with Baseball Factory to the Field of Dreams movie site that is currently undergoing significant renovations.\u00a0 Construction began last fall to install nine new baseball diamonds, a youth player dormitory and a new hotel.\u00a0 Additionally, a new permanent 3,000-seat stadium will be built by 2025 to house college and international tournaments, high school games and such events as concerts, festivals and be a potential future home of big-league games.<\/p>\n The Chicago native began his baseball journey as an intern for the Chicago White Sox while studying at DePaul University and was eventually promoted to Assistant General Manager\/Director of Baseball Operations.\u00a0 After nearly 20 years, Evans resigned from the White Sox after their 2000 Central Division Championship season.\u00a0 During his tenure in Chicago, he was responsible for drafting or acquiring the likes of Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, Tom Seaver, Robin Ventura, Paul Konerko and Bo Jackson, among others.\u00a0 In addition, Evans was the Assistant General Manager during Michael Jordan\u2019s baseball career.<\/p>\n Evans then became the Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2001 to 2004 and was the primary architect of the Dodgers\u2019 2004 West Division champions, their first playoff club in eight years at the time.\u00a0 Evans\u2019 winning percentage (.546) as the General Manager is the second-best in Los Angeles Dodgers history to-date.\u00a0 Among his draftees were All-Star outfielder Matt Kemp and catcher Russell Martin and he also acquired Dave Roberts, Hideo Nomo, Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson and Brian Jordan during his time in LA.<\/p>\n Along with his knack for finding high-end talent on the field, Evans also hired Kim Ng (baseball\u2019s first female General Manager) twice in his career, once when Ng secured an internship role for the White Sox in 1991 and again when she became the Dodgers\u2019 VP\/Assistant General Manager prior to the 2002 season.<\/p>\n The long-time baseball executive is also a consultant for numerous sports and worldwide baseball-related matters as he mentors the highly-acclaimed Sports Management Worldwide \u201cBaseball GM and Scouting\u201d course and was recently appointed to the Board of Directors and named President of Baseball Operations for Athelytix Inc and is a SABR National Board of Director.<\/p>\n Evans, who resides in Denver, Colo., was also a founding board member of the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation.<\/p>\n Tickets for the Loggers 19th<\/sup>\u00a0Winter Baseball BBQ will go on sale Friday morning, January 6, at 8 a.m.\u00a0 Tickets can be purchased\u00a0online<\/a>\u00a0or by calling the Loggers ticket office at 608-796-9553.\u00a0 Fans can also visit the Loggers office at 1225 Caledonia Street, La Crosse between 8:30-5, Monday thru Friday.\u00a0 Individual tickets can be purchased to the event for just $25.\u00a0 Corporate reserved tables of eight are also available by contacting the Loggers ticket office.\u00a0 All tickets include a catered meal and the Winter Baseball BBQ program. Doors will open to the public at 5:00 p.m. for a social hour, followed by the program at 6:35 p.m.<\/p>\n ####<\/em><\/p>\n The La Crosse Loggers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Now in its\u2019 29th<\/sup>\u00a0season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires, and front office staff, 300 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and World Series Champion Max Scherzer (NYM), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and World Series Champion Chris Sale (BOS). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and 2019\/2021 Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and 2021 All-Star, MLB Gold Glove winner and 2019 Second Team All-MLB shortstop Marcus Semien (TEX). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. League games are viewable live at\u00a0watchnwl.com<\/a>\u00a0and on ESPN+. For more information, visit\u00a0www.lacrosseloggers.com<\/a>\u00a0or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Loggers as your favorite team.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" La Crosse, Wis. \u2013 The La Crosse Loggers announced today that former Major League Baseball executive and current COO of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,47,46,29,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-categories","category-archives","category-permanentslider","category-team-news","category-update-ticker"],"yoast_head":"\n