Pope: Macon Braves of 1994 were interesting
As Yogi Berra would have said, “It’s like deja vu all over again.” Another spring and another year without minor league baseball in Macon.
The city has been without a major league affiliated team since the Atlanta Braves relocated their South Atlantic League team from Luther Williams Field to a brand new stadium in Rome at the start of the 2003 season.
Mayor Robert Reichert has floated the idea of building a 5,500-seat stadium at the former Bibb Mill site on Coliseum Drive in hopes of attracting an affiliated minor league team to Macon. Personally, I would rather see a complete refurbishing of Luther Williams, what I call the Wrigley Field of minor league baseball parks.
It would be great to have professional baseball in Macon again, not that you would see a lot of future big leaguers in action. I recently saw the 1994 Macon Braves opening day roster, and just four players of the 25 on that squad ever made it full-time in the majors. That quartet included pitchers Kevin Millwood, and Esteban Yan, outfielder Jermaine Dye and infielder Randall Simon.
To give you an idea of my judgment of talent, I didn’t give Millwood any chance of advancing to the majors and thought he would be back in North Carolina working in a factory. How wrong I was.
Millwood spent 15 years in the big leagues, playing for seven different clubs and compiling a 169-152 record with a 4.11 ERA and 2,083 career strikeouts. He pitched a no-hitter for Philadelphia in 2003 and was the AL’s ERA leader in 2005.
I saw the Macon Braves play approximately 30 games in 1994 and never wanted to see Millwood pitch. There was an expression for him: “ABM: Anybody But Millwood.” But he wound up signing a five-year, $50 million deal with the Cleveland Indians in 2005.
Yan was a journeyman pitcher playing for Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Texas, Detroit and the Los Angeles Angels. He compiled a 33-39 record during his 11-year major league career. He played last season in the Mexican League for Saraperos de Saltillo.
Yan had a perfect 1,000 batting average during his big league days. In his first at-bat for Tampa Bay, he hit a home run on the first pitch and in his next plate appearance he singled. Those were the only two official bats he had during his career.
When I first saw Dye at Luther Williams, I thought he was a can’t miss. He played with Atlanta just one season before being traded to Kansas City for Michael Tucker and Keith Lockhart. Dye played 14 seasons with Atlanta, Kansas City, Oakland and the Chicago White Sox. He hit .274 with 325 home runs and 1,072 RBI. He was a two-time all-star and the MVP of the 2005 World Series after hitting .438 with a home run and 3 RBI.
Simon played seven seasons, with his first three years in Atlanta. He also spent time with Detroit, Pittsburgh, the Chicago Cubs, San Diego at Tampa Bay. He played in more than 100 games during a season only once, and that came in 2002 when he appeared in 130 with the Tigers. He had a career batting average of .283.
Simon gained infamy in 2003 while playing for the Pirates against the Brewers at Miller Park in Milwaukee. In between the sixth and seventh innings of each game, the Brewers conduct a sausage race, consisting of five costumed individuals dressed as a hot dog, bratwurst, Italian sausage, Polish sausage and chorizo. When the race reached the third base dugout, Simon tapped the Italian sausage on the oversized chief’s hat it was wearing, causing him to fall to the ground with the hot dog also tripping over him.
Simon was charged with misdemeanor battery, which was later reduced to disorderly conduct. He was fined $432 by Milwaukee police and later $2,000 by Major League Baseball and suspended for three games.
The 1994 Macon Braves also featured one of the best sports names ever, Wonderful Terrific Monds. Great name, but not enough talent to get to the big show.
Contact Bobby Pope at bobbypope428@gmail.com
This story was originally published April 27, 2015 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Pope: Macon Braves of 1994 were interesting ."