Recent win streak ties record for Hoppers
By Bill on Baseball
April 29, 2011
In case anyone was wondering, the recent nine-game winning streak by the Grasshoppers tied a record.
It was the most wins in a row since 2007, equaling the mark for the franchise since the team moved from Memorial Stadium into its new digs and changed its nickname from the Bats to the Grasshoppers. All that happened in 2005.
It is still short of the all-time record for a Greensboro team, which research has yet to determine. I do know that in 1999 the Bats ripped off 13 straight wins at the end of the first half of the season. After the break for the all-star game, they opened the second half on the road at Kannapolis, where the streak was snapped.
Stan Hough was the manager of that team and the best player was Scott Seabol, a third baseman who set South Atlantic League records for doubles and hitting streaks and was voted the league MVP.
Beyond that, who knows what streaks were put up by the 1981 team, which went an astonishing 98–43 under manager Bob Shaefer, and the 1982 club, which went 96–45 under Doug Holmquist. Or by teams in the 1960s, 50s, 40s and 30s.
Get MLB.com/blogs’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
But back to the 2007 team.
That one was managed by Edwin Rodriguez, currently the skipper of the parent Florida Marlins. Top players on the team included current Marlins Chris Coghlan, Logan
Morrison and Scott Cousins. The winning streak ran from July 19–27 and consisted of two wins over Lake County (now in the Midwest League), four over Lakewood and three over Delmarva. I’m not sure if Coghlan was still with the team then because at some point he was promoted to Jupiter, where he played in 34 games.
Other names you might remember are John Raynor, who was voted the league’s MVP that season, Greg Burns and pitchers Graham Taylor, Cristhian Martinez and Kyle Winters.
Yes, that’s the same Kyle Winters on the current roster. He won two games in the 2007 streak and one game in the 2011 streak, a unique feat. Winters is getting an opportunity to pitch in the rotation here after missing the 2010 season following shoulder surgery.
Nine-game streaks don’t happen that often in the South Atlantic League. Someone may match or surpass it this season, but not necessarily. It takes all kinds of things falling into place — hitting, pitching, defense and a dose of good luck — to rattle off that many wins.
For instance, last season the best streak the Hoppers could put up was four in a row, which they did four times. Teams in 2009, 2008, 2006 and 2005 all managed five straight wins but no more. The 2007 team, incidentally, also had three five-game streaks to go with its eight-game stretch. That club finished with a 74–66 record, the best during Greensboro’s affiliation with the Marlins.
So if you got to see some of the 2011 streak under manager Andy Haines (and the first seven were in NewBridge Bank Park) you got to see something pretty special.
