Is Terry Kennedy the Next Big Name in Atantic League Baseball?
MAJOR BLOGS - www.majorblogs.net - The Opryland hotel has been a mix of blue-haired and red-sweatered old ladies from the holiday craft show and baseball's power brokers, with a smattering of onlookers and Grand Ol'Opry faithful.
Last night, Cal Ripken walked through the halls of the red-sweatered, who were swooning like a wave.
"That was Cal Ripken, the baseball player, and I touched him!" one ecstatic septuagenarian announced proudly to her friends with the gushing smile of a teenager who had just touched Lennon or McCartney.
Everywhere you turn, there are the greats and the hard-working people who make baseball hum year-round. From the ubiquitous Tommy Lasorda to the great Tom Saffell, president of the Gulf Coast League, look up and you'll see someone amazing, interesting, famous, almost infamous if you include the agents plying their trade in the halls.
The Hickory Steakhouse, probably the nicest restaurant in the Opryland Hotel complex, has served as the backdrop for many power broker meetings this week. The Yankees were holding court in the bar on Sunday night, mulling over the future of the organization. Last night, ESPN's Kevin Kennedy was trying to get a steak out of the guy at the bar, who apparently didn't know, or care, that he was another one of the famous.
In walk a pair of gentlemen who place themselves between myself and Mr. Kennedy. I find out, as one does from time to time when partaking of a beverage at the bar, who the person in the chair next to you is... The gentlemen were from an organization in the Atlantic League, not affiliated with Minor League Baseball. Their organization owns five clubs in the league, which is known for signing big name skippers with a few miles on them, or in search of a new start in the big leagues. Sparky Lyle helms the Somerset Patriots, Joe Ferguson is top Rivershark in Camden, and Tommy John is top of the School in Bridgeport for the Bluefish, to name a few.
The owners were angling to bring Terry into the fold of managers. Kennedy, who came up in the Cardinals system in 1977 played for St. Louis, San Diego, Baltimore, and San Francisco over his career which went full time major league in 1979 and ran until 1991 has also coached in the Los Angeles Dodgers system before landing the job with ESPN.
As more ownership groups take on both independent and affiliated ballclubs, the faces of the Atalantic, Can-Am and Northern League are more regular visitors to the Winter Meetings.
One of these owners told me that Mike Moore, who has always put on a very solid front opposing the indies in his role as the president of the National Association, has many good friends there and is quite cordial with them, at least on a personal level.
Kennedy will probably hold on to that lucrative ESPN gig rather than jump into the Atlantic League, but the air of possibility is what these meetings are all about.
Brian Ross
in Slice of the Meetings
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