One Season in Rocket City: How the 1985 Huntsville Stars Brought Minor League Baseball Fever to Alabama by Dale Tafoya

Author:Dale Tafoya [Tafoya, Dale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SPO003030 SPORTS & RECREATION / Baseball / History
Publisher: Nebraska

“I’d like to beat their pants off and create a rivalry that way,” Mincher said of the other Alabama club. The Stars immediately showcased their power on opening night. But so did Birmingham, the Double-A club of the Detroit Tigers who finished in fourth place the previous season. Huntsville, after leading the Barons 7–6 through four innings, couldn’t contain them. Birmingham erupted. Catcher Scotti Madison slammed a grand slam in the fifth to put the Barons on top 10–7 before Canseco drilled a run-scoring double and Nelson blasted a two-run homer in the top of the sixth to tie the game 10–10. But Birmingham stormed back and scored another five runs on five hits in the bottom half of the inning to retake the lead and never looked back. In a slugfest, the Barons overpowered the Stars 15–12 on seventeen hits, handing Huntsville the first loss of the season. While the club’s pitching faltered badly in the first game, Nelson shined for the Stars with two home runs and three runs batted in.

Third baseman Ray Thoma remembered the strange first game of the season. “We had put so much hard work in during spring training, then we got teased in Huntsville with a new stadium and the warm people there, and then we had to open the season on the road,” Thoma said. “We had one of the best Minor League stadiums in the country and had to open up in the oldest one. We knew we couldn’t go undefeated the whole season and couldn’t wait to play on our own field.” The Stars craved some home cooking. Beginning in spring training, the players had been living out of suitcases for almost two months.

Huntsville bounced back from the opening night loss and dominated. While the Barons terrorized the Stars’ pitching in the first game, the next day was a different story. Cadaret, the starter, tossed five shutout innings in game one of a doubleheader, and Plunk fired five hitless innings in the nightcap as Huntsville swept a pair 7–1 and 4–2. The Stars left Birmingham with three straight wins. Polonia and Javier ignited the top of the lineup to set the table for the thunder of Nelson and Canseco. Javier was 4 for 10 and Polonia was 6 for 16 in the opening series. “Luis was a little mosquito,” said Cadaret. “He’d slap the ball and run like hell.” Infielder Chip Conklin also spanked two homers for the Stars. Despite the 3-1 record to open the season, Huntsville’s pitching was a surprising concern. Besides reliever Larry Smith earning two saves in the opening series, the relievers were shaky, and the pitching staff left Birmingham with an earned run average of 5.23. Stars pitchers allowed twenty-one walks in thirty-one innings. “I’m not satisfied at all,” Gary Lance, the pitching coach, told Bob Mayes, a beat writer. “We’re walking too many people and getting behind the hitters too often. Plus, our pitch selection hasn’t been very good.”

Lance hoped his staff would turn

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