NEWS FOR THE MINNEAPOLIS MILLERS
MILLERS WIN AAA CHAMPIONSHIP AT 2018 ROY HOBBS WORLD SERIES!
More news to come but we had a great tournamaent. Stay tuned!
Millers Take 3rd Place In First Year Playing In M50BL
There has been some big news for the Millers since I last updated this page. In 2016 the Millers won the AA division at the Roy Hobbs World Series in Fort Myers, FL. It was at least the third time we had made it to a championship game but our first time winning. As always, I was very proud of all of the guys. They always work so hard and it was really satisfying to finally break through with a win. That win came without a number of our regular players, though. We had moved from the 35+ bracket to the 45+ bracket exclusively in 2016 so players like Mike Carrell, Dan Powell, Kevin Mueller, and Ryan Stephens were all too young to play on the team. Many of them have since played with the Burnsville Bulldogs in the 35+ tournament. Also missing in 2016 were Mike McCallion (also played with Burnsville), Jim Manning, (53+ only), and Dan Paulson. We did add some great new players in 2016, though. Guys like Tim Noyes, Shaun Miley, Dave Marchio, Jim Wolf, and Tom Vander Aarde. I guess when one door closes, another opens.
The 2017 Roy Hobbs World Series wasn't quite as good to us. We had an overall record of 5-2 in the AAA division and lost both of those games to the Dallas Orioles. Dallas, a new team in 2017, an older version of which oddly enough, had beaten the Minnesota Bandits, a 53+ team that several of the Millers also play with, twice in 2016 handing the Bandits their only two losses in a 6-2 campaign. That was the first time that each version of those Dallas teams had played at the RHWS and they had wanted to play in AAAA but were told they had to play in the main pool for the first year. In 2016 they did indeed win the AAA bracket going 8-0 and they lost in the semi-finals in 2017 to Glory Days - the eventual AAA champions. We also played the 2017 tournament without more of our regular players. Missing were John VandenHeuvel, Vern Radewald, Dave Marchio, and Joe Perzel. We did pick up some great new players like, Greg Bemboom, Brian Graupmann, AJ Simon, and Jeff Stoneking though. 2017 also saw the return of two great guys that hadn't played with the Millers for several years, Tom Fisher and Todd Warren. It was great to have those two guys back. Overall the 2017 RHWS was a great time. The games were a little challenging to manage but in the end I think everyone had a good time and we came together as a team.
2017 also brought great sadness to the Millers and the Minnesota baseball community as a whole. Long time Minneapolis Miller and a close personal friend, Jay "Donkey" Wright died a little over a month before we left for the RHWS tournament. Jay had been battling cancer for a few years and lost his fight in September, after moving to Myrtle Beach, SC with his wife. A memorial will be held at a game between the Minnetonka Saints and the Lakeville Lobos, two of the teams Jay played with, on June 24th 2018. The game will be played in Lakeville.
On a more upbeat note, the Millers have put together a team to play in the Minnesota 50+ Baseball League beginning this summer. We're all pretty excited about this. Those of us that have played in that league in the past were never very happy with our respective teams, so this gives us a chance to put together a group of our friends and pretty darn good ballplayers for that age bracket. We think we should be very competitive and, of course, we'll have a lot of fun. Look for more information and probably a schedule on this site and I might try to put up a Facebook page as well.
To view one of the Millers Slideshows click the link to play the file in your browser or right-click the link and save the file to your system. 2012 Slideshow 2017 Slideshow
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