I came across a History of the International League (AAA) book.
Dunno if anybody really cares, but as it turns out, RBI had a big influence on the league in the years before RBI came out:
1971 Player of the Year: Bobby Grich
1972 Player of the Year: Dwight Evans
1974 Player of the Year: Jim Rice
1974 Rookie of the Year: Jim Rice
1977 Rookie of the Year: Dale Murphy
1978 Pitcher of the Year: Senior Smoke Berenguer
1979 Rookie of the Year: Mookie Wilson
1981 Pitcher of the Year: Bobby Ojeda
1981 Rookie of the Year: Cal Ripken
1983 Player of the Year: Tim Teufel
1985 Pitcher of the Year: Tom Henke
I got to see Cal Ripken Jr. play for the Rochester (my hometown) RedWings when I was two. It was my first ever baseball game. What a game. ;)
I'm surprised Donnie Baseball i'n't on the list...he was money for the Clippers in 81/82.
Very interesting... Are you saying the International League and AAA minors are the same thing
I think the International League teams make up some fraction of all AAA teams maybe 1/2 or 1/3?
If I'm not mistaken, there are two main leagues that make up AAA: the International League and the Pacific Coast League - damn, I miss the Phoenix Firebirds games (SF Giants affiliate.)
Do these two leagues play against each other?
I know they have an All-Star game every year, each league's best against the other league's best. I don't think they play one another, since travel is somewhat expensive. Owners can't afford to fly their players cross country, so the leagues only play within each other.
Right now AAA is made up of the International League and the Pacific Coast League, but up until 5 or 6 years ago there was also the American Association. Sometime in the late 90s the American Association was done away with and the teams disbursed among the PCL and the International League.
I wonder how many RBIr's garnered awards from the PCL, a lot of big names went through that league (Canseco, McGwire, Will Clark off the top of my head.) And I can't believe Strawberry and Gooden aren't on the IL list of award winners, especially Straw.
Forget Straw, actually . . . he only played 16 games with Tidewater in the IL before being called up to New York in '83 when he won rookie of the year. And Doc too, he never played triple-A. Man, am I bad.
When many of the RBIers were at the AAA level, there were approx ten teams in the International League:
Columbus Clippers (NYY)
Tidewater Tides (NYM)
Rochester Red Wings (Balt)
Toledo Mudhens (Det)
Richmond Braves (Atl)
Scranton Wilkes-Barre Red Barrons (Philly)
Pawtucket Red Sox (Bos)
Syracuse Chiefs (Tor)
Ottawa Lynx (Mil)
...that's all I can remember.
Ottawa was affiliated with Montreal before they switched to Baltimore last year, I'm not sure who Rochester is affiliated with now. I'm from Ottawa, so I'm used to being part of the 1000 fans that attend games in this town. Abysmal.
I swear, when Toronto won back-to-back World Series titles, baseball was bigger than hockey in this country. It's been a totally different story ever since the fucking strike. It tears me up, baseball is the best game known to mankind as far as I'm concerned.
That's my half-drunken rant for the night.
Rochester's now affiliated with the Twins. I live in Rochester, MN, 70 miles from the Twin Cities, so seeing references to the Red Wings always makes me do a double-take.