Sailing the Ship

Welcome back to the new season of AAA Baseball here in Columbus. Starting early next week, I will resume the regular updates (notes, recaps, and features) as well as update everything on the sidebar. Please join me in saying best of luck to our Clippers, both new and old.

As many of my readers quickly pointed out to me (god, I love e-mail), the system i was using for mobilizing my site was not working too well. I have now switched to a different system that works perfectly and I really like it. Please let me know if you encounter any issues.

Though I normally like to get this sort of news up quickly, studying for exams kept me from releasing it right away. On Monday, I got an e-mail from Joe (Media and Historian for the Clippers) about their new manager, and wanted to fill you all in.

On Monday, the Cleveland Indians announced that Mike Sarbaugh is taking over for Torey Lovullo as the next manager of the Clippers.  Sarbaugh was manager of the year for the Eastern League and he led the AA Akron Aeros to the championship game. In six season as a minor-league manager for the Indians, he has finished in the top two spots and been to the playoffs five times.

Lovullo has moved on to manage the Pawtucket Red Sox.

To give you a sense of the new manager, here is his career record (as provided by the Clippers):

Year Team (Classification; League)           Record Notes

2009    Akron (Double-A; Eastern)                    89-53   1^st * won league championship

2008    Akron (Double-A; Eastern)                    80-62   2^nd * playoff appearance

2007    Kinston (Advanced-A; Carolina)           87-52   1^st * playoff appearance

2006    Kinston (Advanced-A; Carolina)           85-54   1^st * won league championship

2005    Lake County (Low-A; South Atlantic)   72-66  2^nd

2004    Mahoning Valley (Short-A; NY/Penn)  42-34 1^st * won league championship

455-321 (.586)

Tomorrow morning, 10/21, Clippers single game tickets will go on sale for the entire season. Tickets will not go on sale until 10 AM. We will have limited Box seats available, along with Reserved, Bleacher, and Lawn. Tickets will be available by phone (614) 462-2757, ticketmaster.com, and in the Center Field Ticket Booth. Prices remain the same as last year.

Even though the Clippers as an unit could not hit the ball anywhere, Jordan Brown was still able to win the International League Batting Title. Though Brown was just short of the Franchise record, he finished with an amazing .336. I expect him to be moved up to the Bigs either this season or next.

Even with the team in the pits and having the worst season ever, Clippers’ faithful came to every gameand represented the city well. With the last game drawing 10,600+ fans, the total attendance for 2009 was 657,800. This means that the Clippers, even with a tiny stadium, led the Minor League Teams in attendance this year.