The Nuthouse

We’re a little ways into the Wingnuts season already but better late than never, right? As I write this, Wichita leads St. Paul 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium on a lovely Friday night.

Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Jeff Lutz (distant relative of Eagle columnist Bob Lutz) and I’ve been around baseball for my entire life. So this blog will be about 80-percent Wingnuts and 20-percent anything else I want to write about within the game. I love major league baseball and spent last summer as an intern with MLB.com covering the Atlanta Braves. So I’ll tell a lot of stories about my days there just to make myself feel and seem more important.

I very much enjoy covering the Wingnuts so far. The players are very accessible and easy to deal with and manager Kash Beauchamp is one of those “baseball guys” that you’d just know when you see. I’m going to write a lengthy feature story about him later this summer because his story is an interesting one — No. 1 overall draft pick in 1982 and never made it to The Show. But a guy who seems made to manage at this level; he definitely seems to have independent baseball figured out.

And then there’s Kevin Hooper. I’m not going to ever use the word “scrappy” or “gritty” to describe him because I hate cliches like that about players who perform above their natural ability. But this guy is really fun to watch. Here is a cliche, though — he plays the game “the right way.” I feel so dirty writing that. But he knows exactly what to do in every single situation.

As a small example, Hooper was on first when Chris Colton hit a groundball to second earlier in this game. Hooper stopped in the baseline, making the second baseman throw to the bag to force Hooper out, and Colton beat the throw back to first by a step. If Hooper runs into the tag, it’s a sure double play. It’s easy to wish Hooper would have been born with more natural ability, but then we couldn’t watch him get by on mostly effort and it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

Anyway, check back every day because I will write frequently. It’s now 4-4 and I’m losing track of pitch count. I hate that. Talk to you soon.