Feature on Sulphur Dell Website

Minor League Committee member Skip Nipper and his website on Nashville's historic Sulphur Dell ballpark are featured in a recent article written by fellow SABR member and Nashville sports historian Bill Traughber. It relates how the memories of Skip's father, Virgil Nipper, inspired Skip to create the website and collect the memories of other Nashville fans as well, and post photos and memorabilia of the Nashville Vols.

The article may be found on the Nashville Sounds official site here.

Olean Oilers and Bradner Stadium Articles

The Olean (NY) Times Herald is publishing a three-part series of articles on Bradner Stadium and professional baseball in Olean. Parts 1 and 2 are below:

Part 1:
http://www.oleantimesherald.com/articles/2008/08/04/news/doc48951d14137df709546024.txt

Part 2:
http://www.oleantimesherald.com/articles/2008/08/04/news/doc489787739b6f9431848524.txt

Minor League Bookshelf: Cradle of the Game: Baseball and Ballparks in North Carolina

This looks like an interesting book about one of the historical hotbeds of minor league baseball, North Carolina. From the publisher:

Baseball in North Carolina today and its glorious history are richly detailed in Cradle of the Game: Baseball and Ballparks in North Carolina, by Mark Cryan. The comprehensive 400-page volume exploring minor-league and leading college ballparks – large and small – will entertain readers interested in Tar Heel state baseball history, and serve as a guide to visitors of today’s ballparks.

Book author Mark Cryan has many years of North Carolina baseball experience, starting out in the business by working for legendary minor league executive Miles Wolff. Highlights of the book include interviews with Wolff who talks about his involvement in making the ultimate baseball movie - Bull Durham, and with legendary manager Jack McKeon reflecting on life in the game.

Wolff wrote the forward for Cradle of the Game where he commented, “Mark Cryan’s book will give the reader a great picture of baseball in the Tar Heel state.”

“I’m thrilled to be able to share my love for baseball in this great state with the readers of this book,” said author Mark Cryan. “There’s no place in the entire country that has such a depth of history, significance to the game, and such great stories and people. That’s what makes baseball in North Carolina so special.”

Cryan was instrumental in setting up the summer collegiate Coastal Plain League and is a former General Manager of the Burlington (NC) Indians. He currently works as Athletic Director for the Burlington Recreation & Parks Department, and serves as an adjunct professor at Elon University.

As Wolff noted in his forward, baseball has been woven into the fabric of North Carolina for well over a century. This smartly illustrated book offered by August Publications can serve as a travel guide, but offers far more by bringing to life the unique qualities of baseball in North Carolina.

Cradle of the Game is a 6 x 9 paperback, 400 pages, and costs $18.95. It is available through August Publications' website or call 877-343-5207. It is also available through Amazon.com.

Arkansas Travelers Baseball Museum

Phil Elson, play-by-play announcer for the Arkansas Travelers, has written a nice piece on the Travelers Baseball Museum at their new ballpark, Dickey-Stephens Park, in Little Rock, AR. I remember visiting Ray Winder Field in 1999 and walking into the business office and meeting longtime GM Bill Valentine. As Mr. Elson describes, it and a small display on the concourse served as the Travs' museum for many years. The wood-paneled office was adorned with lots of historic photos of past teams hung rather haphazardly on the walls. More teams should have their own museums for fans to visit.

Volunteers Needed for Minor League Ballpark Data

Ted Turocy, technical coordinator for the SABR Minor League Encyclopedia, is seeking volunteers to work on minor league ballpark data for the Encyclopedia. He writes:

"Gord Brown has generously donated his extensive research (joint with Ted Lukacs and others) on minor league ballparks to the project. I'd like to get going on integrating this into the database. To this end, I could use a couple volunteers to take his original Word documents and produce a spreadsheet version of them.

It's pretty straightforward work, not terribly exciting, but requires a little bit of comfort with using a spreadsheet (since using the "fill handle" is very helpful for this task).

If you're interested in helping out, please contact me here."