Baseball America - 2003 Southern League All-Star Game

Diaz powers East to victory

By Mark McCarter
July 9, 2003

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--On an evening where puffed-up prospects and glitzy draft choices filled the rosters, the hero was a hometown star and a 37th-round draft choice with a beer keg body.

Jacksonville’s Victor Diaz cracked a two-run homer to ignite a five-run inning that provided the East a 7-5 win over the West in the Southern League all-star game in front of 7,552 fans at the sparkling new Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.

Diaz came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic and played high school ball in Chicago. The Dodgers drafted him in 2000, so far down the list you’d need a miner’s light to find his name. He went on to Grayson County (Texas) Community College and signed the following May as a draft-and-follow. Then Diaz followed that year of juco ball with some phenomenal pro stats.

He led his first two leagues in batting. He was hitting .286 for the Suns coming into the all-star break. The scouting report reads “shows flashes of power,’’ and that flash was a thunderbolt in the third inning. He ripped a two-run homer, then followed that with a single in the eighth to cinch the Most Valuable Player award.

“That was a good moment for the home crowd. It helped a lot. And we won the game,’’ Diaz said. “This is something special.’’

As his East teammates razzed him in the clubhouse with long, deep sounds of “whooooo!’’ and an “M-V-P! M-V-P!’’ chant, Diaz was asked to recall the home run.

“Every at-bat I look for my pitch," he said. "I just want to make good contact because I know I’ve got some pop. I drove it out of the park. All-star game, my home, it was a good hit.’’

Diaz did have one silly moment. In his second at-bat, he let go after a horrendous swing and his bat flew a dozen rows deep into the third-base stands, well above the dugout. No problem. No embarrassment.

“It’s part of the game,’’ he said. “You still get three pitches, don’t you?

It was a bizarre game, actually dominated by great pitching--despite the combined 12 runs and 21 hits. Seventeen pitchers were employed, and only three of them yielded more than one hit; five of them had perfect innings. The two staffs had 16 strikeouts.

Most of the runs came early, and came in bunches.

As West manager Frank Kremblas of Huntsville confided before the game, the strategy was to “get a whole bunch of runs early.’’ Apparently that was so simple that East manager Tracy Woodson of Carolina stole the idea.

West Tenn’s Jason Dubois put the West up 1-0 in the second--“The best swing I’ve taken lately,’’ he said--but the East tied it up in the bottom half when Tennessee’s Bucky Jacobsen and Carolina’s Matt Padgett smacked consecutive doubles off Huntsville’s Luis Martinez.

The East mauled Mobile’s Cory Stewart for six hits and five runs in the third, a rally ignited by the Diaz homer.

The West closed the gap to 6-5 in the fourth against Jose Veras of Orlando, who gave up five hit and four runs and managed only one out. The rally included consecutive doubles by Chattanooga’s Dernell Stenson, Dubois and Birmingham’s Gabe Alvarez.

Southern Pride

Bucky Jacobsen of Tennessee won the Southern League all-star game’s home run derby, matching a title he had won in 2000 while with Huntsville. Appropriately, he out-dueled Mobile’s Jon Knott, who led Jacobsen 20-19 in the league’s homer standings going into the break. The secret: “You have to get rid of the nerves and get the first one out of the way,’’ said Jacobsen, who swatted nine homers in 32 swings. “When I was 0-for-4, I was so nervous my back leg was shaking. I said, ‘C’mon, I got to get a homer.' ’’
The Southern League discussed a likely all-star series against a team from the Texas League, beginning in 2005. The game would alternate between Southern League and Texas League cities. It would actually be more feasible financially, transporting only half the number of players to a site. However, there is some caution involved because of the failure of the annual Double-A all-star Game, in which players from Southern, Texas and Eastern leagues played.
Years ago, champs from each league played in the “Dixie Series.’’
There is growing talk that the Jacksonville organization is interested in moving up to Triple-A. The earliest any move could be made is in 2005, but league officials discussed Tuesday the need to be able to react to that potential move and find a suitable replacement. According to league president Don Mincher, “I’ve get a lot of inquiries from cities interested in Double-A baseball.’’
As expected, the sale of the Orlando franchise to Tom Dickson and Sherrie Myers, heading the new ownership group at Montgomery, was approved unanimously.
The Jacksonville Suns organization pulled out all the stops for this all-star break, including a luncheon that featured Tommy Lasorda as a speaker and a golf outing at the famed TPC Sawgrass course.


                   West All-Stars at East All-Stars
          Jul 08, 2003 at Jacksonville, FL (Baseball Grounds)

West All-Stars 5 (0-1)               East All-Stars 7 (1-0)

                  AB  R  H RBI                         AB  R  H RBI

Krynzel, D cf      5  0  1  0        Langerhans,R cf    5  1  1  1 
Hardy, J ss        3  1  1  0        Diaz, V 2b/dh      5  1  2  2 
Beattie, A 2b      2  0  1  0        Niles, D dh/3b     5  2  2  0 
Hart, C 3b         5  1  1  0        Jacobsen, B 1b     4  2  2  0 
Knott, J rf        4  0  1  0        Padgett, M rf      3  0  2  1 
Stenson, D dh      4  1  1  1        McCarthy, B lf     3  0  0  1 
DuBois, J lf       4  2  3  3        Jurries, J 3b      2  0  0  1 
Alvarez, G 1b      4  0  1  1        Cosme, C 2b        1  0  0  0 
Maldonado, C c     2  0  0  0        Wilson, J ss       4  0  1  0 
Quintero, H c      1  0  0  0        Harper, B c        3  1  1  0 
Dzurilla, M 2b/ss  3  0  0  0        Wainwright,A p     0  0  0  0 
Cotts, N p         0  0  0  0        Magrane, J p       0  0  0  0 
Martinez, L p      0  0  0  0        Farmer, T p        0  0  0  0 
Stewart, C p       0  0  0  0        Veras, J p         0  0  0  0 
Webb, J p          0  0  0  0        Jackson, E p       0  0  0  0 
Bajenaru, J p      0  0  0  0        Switzer, J p       0  0  0  0 
Parker, M p        0  0  0  0        Flannery, M p      0  0  0  0 
Dunn, S p          0  0  0  0        Fesh, S p          0  0  0  0 
Tucker, R p        0  0  0  0        Lyons, M p         0  0  0  0 

Totals......      37  5 10  5        Totals......      35  7 11  6 

  Score by innings:                      R  H  E
  ----------------------------------------------
  West All-Stars        010 400 000   -  5 10  2
  East All-Stars        015 000 10X   -  7 11  0
  ----------------------------------------------

E - Hardy, J; Beattie, A. LOB - West 7; East 8. 2B - Knott, J; Stenson, D;
DuBois, J; Alvarez, G; Langerhans,R; Niles, D; Jacobsen, B; Padgett, M;
Harper, B. HR - DuBois, J; Diaz, V. SF - McCarthy, B; Jurries, J. 

                       IP  H  R ER BB SO  WP BK HP IBB  AB BF Fly Gnd

Cotts, N              1.0  0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0    3  3   0  3
Martinez, L           1.0  2  1  1  0  2   0  0  0  0    5  5   0  1
Stewart, C L          0.2  6  5  3  0  0   0  0  0  0    7  9   2  0
Webb, J               1.1  0  0  0  0  1   0  0  0  0    4  4   1  2
Bajenaru, J           1.0  1  0  0  0  1   0  0  0  0    4  4   1  1
Parker, M             1.0  0  0  0  0  1   0  0  0  0    3  3   1  1
Dunn, S               1.0  1  1  0  1  3   0  0  0  0    5  6   0  0
Tucker, R             1.0  1  0  0  1  0   0  0  0  0    4  5   1  2

Wainwright,A          1.0  0  0  0  0  2   0  0  0  0    3  3   0  1
Magrane, J            1.0  1  1  1  0  2   0  0  0  0    4  4   0  1
Farmer, T W           1.0  0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0    3  3   0  3
Veras, J              0.1  5  4  4  0  0   0  0  0  0    6  6   1  0
Jackson, E            0.2  0  0  0  1  1   0  0  0  0    2  3   0  1
Switzer, J            1.0  1  0  0  0  1   0  0  0  0    4  4   0  2
Flannery, M           2.0  1  0  0  0  2   1  0  0  0    7  7   2  2
Fesh, S               1.0  1  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0    4  4   0  3
Lyons, M S            1.0  1  0  0  1  0   0  0  0  0    4  5   1  2

WP - Flannery, M. 

Strikeouts - Krynzel, D 2; Hart, C; Knott, J; Stenson, D; DuBois, J;
Alvarez, G; Dzurilla, M; Langerhans,R; Diaz, V; Jacobsen, B; Padgett, M;
Jurries, J; Cosme, C; Wilson, J; Harper, B. Walks - Maldonado, C; Dzurilla,
M; Padgett, M; Harper, B. 

Umpires - Home:John Woods  1st:James Roebuck  3rd:Garrett Watson  
Start: 0   Time: 2:31   Attendance: 7552