RIP Dwight Smith

[Regan MacNeil]

 

[bumpy mcgee]

Walton and Smith, man they had speed.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

1989 was a fun summer.

 

[UNCGrad]

1989 was a fun summer.

And close enough to 1984 to make Kid UNCGrad believe that being a Cubs fan was still a decent enough idea.

Thank God for rain, Jason Heyward's speech, Ben Zobrist's seeing-eye hit and Mike Montgomery's noodle.

 

[X-Hack]

Really sorry to hear that. The Cubs' AA affiliate used to be in Pittsfield, Mass., (in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts) for a few years in the 80s. I'd go to a lot of games as a teenager when we visited my grandmother in the summer. And the '87 team was just loaded with future major leaguers: Mark Grace, Hector Villanueva, Doug Dascenzo, Rolando Roomes, Mike Harkey ... Grace is obviously the one who went onto the biggest things but Dwight Smith was really the stud on that team that year. He was a monster. .337 BA, .957 OPS, Nice guy too. RIP.

Those were a great few years when Pittsfield had AA ball. Eventually the Cubs packed up and the Mets moved in their short-season A NY-Penn League affiliate for a few years. But the park -- Wahconah Park, which was a true gem but was ancient and the city wouldn't upgrade -- at some point was no longer fit for pro ball (its most interesting quirk was the sun delay during night games because the sun set behind the CF scoreboard, directly in the batter's eyes). Now they just have a low-level summer college wood bat league team there full of non-prospects from mostly New England colleges. It's not the same.

 

[UNCGrad]

I remember Jim Bouton's book about Wahconah Park.

 

[playthrough]

Really sorry to hear that. The Cubs' AA affiliate used to be in Pittsfield, Mass., (in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts) for a few years in the 80s. I'd go to a lot of games as a teenager when we visited my grandmother in the summer. And the '87 team was just loaded with future major leaguers: Mark Grace, Hector Villanueva, Doug Dascenzo, Rolando Roomes, Mike Harkey ... Grace is obviously the one who went onto the biggest things but Dwight Smith was really the stud on that team that year. He was a monster. .337 BA, .957 OPS, Nice guy too. RIP.

Those were a great few years when Pittsfield had AA ball. Eventually the Cubs packed up and the Mets moved in their short-season A NY-Penn League affiliate for a few years. But the park -- Wahconah Park, which was a true gem but was ancient and the city wouldn't upgrade -- at some point was no longer fit for pro ball (its most interesting quirk was the sun delay during night games because the sun set behind the CF scoreboard, directly in the batter's eyes). Now they just have a low-level summer college wood bat league team there full of non-prospects from mostly New England colleges. It's not the same.

Rolando Roomes was one of those guys that looked great for a hot minute in the bigs ... then gone.