PHOTOS COURTESY © GARY JARVIS www.minorleague ballparks.com Dwyer Stadium I Batavia New York Home of the Batavia Clippers and Batavia Trojans NY-Penn League (Short Season Single-A) |
By 1982, the Trojans would rebound all the way to a 33-40 record and they felt good
about it! Randy Washington returned and hit 10 HRs and batted .289. David Cawthon
hit 14 HRs and batted .280. They remained 11 games under .500 in 1983 despite
Joseph Kramer hitting 17 HRs and batting .274 and Victor Madden batting .266
with 16 HRs and Ray Martinez batting .281 with 13 HRs. Of course none of the
trio would see the Majors. It wasn’t until 1984 that they finally turned things
around. Future Minnesota Twins’ Bernardo Brito in his 4th year in Batavia finally
had his big year, hitting 19 2Bs and 19 HRs while batting .300. Butch Garcia
gave him plenty of protection by batting .347 with 13 HRs and Pedro Ramon hit
16 bombs while batting .254. The Trojans finished above .500 for the first time
in 7 years, when they almost won the title. By 1985 however, they were back
to being 12 games under water (.500) and by 1986 they were 15 games under despite
featuring a Short Season team record 9 future Major Leaguers on the roster including
Jim Bruske (.243), Tommy Hinzo (.333), 13 year veteran Tom Lampkin (.258),
Troy Neel (.000), Bruce Egloff (1-2, 3.00), 1st round draft pick and 2 time
future MLB All-Star closer for the Reds and Dodgers’ Jeff Shaw (8-4, 2.44), Joe
Skalski (7-6, 1.98) and Kevin Wickander (3-4, 2.72). It was a sad way to say
goodbye to the Cleveland Indians for the last time. After a dozen years, they
would be moving on. |