Greg Hansen's top 10 seasons by minor-league baseball players in Tucson history
- Updated
1953 pitcher LeRoy "Corky" Reddell, who went on an almost incomprehensible 29-5 for the Tucson Cowboys, tops the list.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Editor’s note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today’s list: the top 10 seasons by minor-league baseball players in Tucson.
Tucson’s three incarnations of minor-league baseball teams — from the Class C Tucson Cowboys in the 1930s to the Triple-A Tucson Padres in 2013 — put more than 2,000 players on display at Hi Corbett Field and Tucson Electric Park.
The best 10? It’s a logjam at the top.
The biggest names among the Cowboys, Toros, Padres and Sidewinders — Curt Schilling, Max Scherzer, Craig Biggio and on and on — weren’t necessarily the top Tucson minor-leaguers because their advancement to the big leagues abbreviated their time here.
But few, perhaps none, had the impact and sizzle of 1953 pitcher LeRoy “Corky” Reddell, the son of a rancher from Scottsdale who went an almost incomprehensible 29-5 for the Tucson Cowboys.
The newspapers referred to him as the “Scourge of Scottsdale” and in 1953 Reddell was named the state’s athlete of the year.
Reddell’s 29-win season got the attention of the Cleveland Indians, who signed the right-hander and brought him to their spring training camp in Tucson in March of 1954. After two starts against that year’s American League champion Indians, Cleveland sent Reddell to their minor-league camp in Daytona Beach, Florida, and then reassigned him to the Cowboys for the ’54 season.
The magic was gone. Reddell hurt his pitching arm, went 11-9 and was never the same pitcher. Like scores of minor-league pitchers every year, Reddell’s career was detoured through such stops as Waterloo, Iowa, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. He retired from baseball after the ’55 season and returned to his family ranch in Scottsdale.
Tragically, Reddell died in 1968. He was only 37. The legacy he left is a big one: Over seven decades of minor-league baseball in Tucson, Reddell had the best individual season of any Cowboy, Toro, Padre or Sidewinder.
Here’s our list:
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
After his arm trouble, Reddell signed to be the player-manager of the Class C Globe-Miami franchise in the Arizona-Mexico league.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Now the manager of the San Diego Padres, Green was the ’05 Pacific Coast League player of the year. He was superb, hitting .343 with 19 homers, 83 RBIs, 42 doubles, 13 triples and a minor-league-high 125 runs scored.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Lofton was a part of an epic conclusion to the ’91 PCL season as the Toros won their first-ever championship in their last at-bat. The former UA basketball point guard, who played just five baseball games as an Arizona senior, hit .308 with 40 stolen bases, 93 runs scored, 19 doubles and a minor-league high 17 triples.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Few minor-leaguers ever surpassed the numbers posted by the Toros outfielder: .352 batting average, 141 runs scored, 109 walks, 20 steals and 99 RBIs.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
The big wheel of the Toros’ second PCL title, Mouton hit .315 with 92 RBIs and 40 steals. He hit to all fields, with 16 triples and 42 doubles.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
In the Sidewinders’ impressive run to the overall minor-league championship, winning 99 games under manager Chip Hale, Bacsik and Owings combined to go 21-0. Bacsik was 11-0 and Owings 10-0.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
The first of Tucson’s all-PCL pitchers, Abbott went 18-8 with 11 complete games during a period (that still exists) when Triple-A pitchers were rarely on one team long enough to win more than 10 games.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Then a 21-year-old first baseman in the Padres organization, the Cubs current World Series first baseman sizzled by hitting .331 with 26 homers and 101 RBIs in just 93 games in Tucson.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
The future Houston Astros infielder hit .349 with 50 doubles and 83 RBIs.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Sold to the Cowboys by Phoenix’s Class A franchise for just $250, Joshua became Tucson’s first long-ball star, hitting .359 with 29 home runs and a year later hitting 32 more home runs for the Cowboys.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Future MLB standout Lyle Overbay drove in 109 runs and hit .343 for the 2002 Sidewinders. Former Canyon del Oro slugger Scott Hairston, an outfielder on Tucson’s 2006 championship team, hit .323 with 26 homers and 81 RBIs in what amounted to 75 percent of a PCL season.
More like this...
- Greg Hansen
Editor’s note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today’s list: the top 10 seasons by minor-league baseball players in Tucson.
Tucson’s three incarnations of minor-league baseball teams — from the Class C Tucson Cowboys in the 1930s to the Triple-A Tucson Padres in 2013 — put more than 2,000 players on display at Hi Corbett Field and Tucson Electric Park.
The best 10? It’s a logjam at the top.
The biggest names among the Cowboys, Toros, Padres and Sidewinders — Curt Schilling, Max Scherzer, Craig Biggio and on and on — weren’t necessarily the top Tucson minor-leaguers because their advancement to the big leagues abbreviated their time here.
But few, perhaps none, had the impact and sizzle of 1953 pitcher LeRoy “Corky” Reddell, the son of a rancher from Scottsdale who went an almost incomprehensible 29-5 for the Tucson Cowboys.
The newspapers referred to him as the “Scourge of Scottsdale” and in 1953 Reddell was named the state’s athlete of the year.
Reddell’s 29-win season got the attention of the Cleveland Indians, who signed the right-hander and brought him to their spring training camp in Tucson in March of 1954. After two starts against that year’s American League champion Indians, Cleveland sent Reddell to their minor-league camp in Daytona Beach, Florida, and then reassigned him to the Cowboys for the ’54 season.
The magic was gone. Reddell hurt his pitching arm, went 11-9 and was never the same pitcher. Like scores of minor-league pitchers every year, Reddell’s career was detoured through such stops as Waterloo, Iowa, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. He retired from baseball after the ’55 season and returned to his family ranch in Scottsdale.
Tragically, Reddell died in 1968. He was only 37. The legacy he left is a big one: Over seven decades of minor-league baseball in Tucson, Reddell had the best individual season of any Cowboy, Toro, Padre or Sidewinder.
Here’s our list:
- Greg Hansen
Lofton was a part of an epic conclusion to the ’91 PCL season as the Toros won their first-ever championship in their last at-bat. The former UA basketball point guard, who played just five baseball games as an Arizona senior, hit .308 with 40 stolen bases, 93 runs scored, 19 doubles and a minor-league high 17 triples.
- Greg Hansen
Future MLB standout Lyle Overbay drove in 109 runs and hit .343 for the 2002 Sidewinders. Former Canyon del Oro slugger Scott Hairston, an outfielder on Tucson’s 2006 championship team, hit .323 with 26 homers and 81 RBIs in what amounted to 75 percent of a PCL season.
More like this...
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