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2025 La Crosse Loggers Baseball There’ s No Place Like Copeland
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straight games in June, to snap the mark of 14 set by the 1998 St. Cloud River Bats. Amazingly, that record didn’ t even hold for a season, as the Madison Mallards strung together 16 straight wins late in the year in their failed pursuit of the Eau Claire Express who won their first division championship. Both Eau Claire and the North Division’ s Duluth Huskies were steamrolled in consecutive playoff games by an emotional St. Cloud River Bats team who swept their way to a third League Championship. St. Cloud’ s triumph came nine days after the death of 19 year old pitcher Richie Gargel( Temple) who suffered fatal injuries in a swimming accident. St. Cloud’ s season began with a stadium change, the first such instance in League history. The River Bats moved across the parking lot from their ten-year home of Dick Putz Field to their new home, the upgraded Joe Faber Field. This park, and the other 13 League-wide, combined to set another League record with more than 854,000 fans watching NWL action in 2007. The League was again paced by Madison, which topped 200,000 fans for the second straight season and the one-million mark overall in their seventh year. Eight teams set their own single-game attendance record on a given night during the‘ 07 season. The Mankato Moon Dogs were one of those teams, who in addition had an ever larger crowd of 2,319 when they hosted the annual Northwoods League All-Star Game on July 11th. The record crowd saw local favorite and Moon Dog third baseman Nate Hanson get the game-winning hit and earned the“ Star of Stars” game MVP honor. Hanson wen to on to earn even more hardware by winning the batting title with a. 363 average, the Rawlings Defensive Player of the Year at third base, and a new Northwoods League award, the Rawlings Offensive Player of the Year that was issued to the top hitter at each position. The League MVP award was shared for the first time as Eau Claire outfielder / closer Kole Calhoun and Green Bay outfielder Daniel Robertson received Co-MVP honors. Robertson and Duluth second baseman Joe Bonadonna share a new League record having both stolen 45 bases in the 2007 season. The entire NWL was showcased to a nationally televised audience for the first time with coverage provided by ESPNU. In the meantime, NWL Alumni were advancing their careers with nine more players making their Major League debut to bring the League total to 44, and a record 120 players getting their named called during the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.
2008 In 2008, the Northwoods League celebrated its 15th anniversary season and accomplished some milestones along the way. Many of the milestones were because of great accomplishments by League alumni. In June, 141 current and former NWL players were selected in Major League Baseball’ s First-Year Player Draft. This number dramatically eclipsed the previous record of 120 set a year earlier. In all, six players that once donned Northwoods League uniforms debuted at the Major League level in 2008. Max Scherzer( La Crosse, 2004) first appeared for the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 29th. His debut was one of the best debuts in Major League history with the righthanded pitcher entering the game in relief and throwing 4.1 perfect innings while striking out seven. In September when Casey McGehee( St. Cloud, 2001) joined the Chicago Cubs he became the 50th NWL alumnus to appear on a big league roster. Baltimore Orioles closer George Sherrill( Kenosha, 1997-98) became the first NWL alum to appear in a Major League all-star game when he pitched 2.1 scoreless innings in July’ s 15-inning classic. The present day NWL players were seen in a new way in 2008. The League launched a new website in May, northwoodsleague. tv, which allowed fans from around the world for the first time to watch any game on the NWL schedule live or archived via a video webcast. For the second consecutive year fans from across the country viewed the NWL All-Star Game on ESPNU. The South All-Stars defeated the North 8-4 at Warner Park in Madison, WI on July 11th in front of an all-star game record crowd of 5,357. Madison set a summer collegiate baseball record totaling 207,949 fans through their gates during the 2008 regular season. Madison’ s 6,116 and La Crosse’ s average of 3,319 fans per game represented the two highest averages in all of Summer Collegiate Basesll. Madison and five other NWL franchise’ s set a team attendance record for per game average. The success stories of some teams in attendance weren’ t felt by the Northwoods League as a whole. The League took a step back in overall attendance for the first time since 1996. This happened in part due to arguably the worst year for weather in NWL history. Twenty-four games were rained out and a number more were suspended shortly after starting. The Waterloo Bucks were displaced from Riverfront Stadium for 33 days due to the ballpark flooding in June. They were to play 16 games at Riverfront during that stretch. Instead, two were cancelled and the other 14 were played either on the road or a high school field in Waterloo drawing far fewer fans than they would have under normal circumstances. For the second time in