History of the Salem Cowtippers
1999: Great Expectations, Bitter Ending

As the first franchise in the Big Daddy Baseball League, the Salem Cowtippers' management felt an obligation to make a strong debut in the league's inaugural season. Salem drew the number three pick in the Inaugural Draft, and the Salem war room sprang into action.

"Our number one priority," said Salem talent scout Mike Glander, "was getting an ace for the rotation. Our philosophy is that a team will only go as far as their number one starter can take them. Since there were only about half a dozen true aces in baseball, we felt that pitcher would not be available by the time the pick came back to us with the 46th pick. We could have chosen any pitcher in the game at that point. Our ideal pitcher was someone who: a) dominates, b) is consistent, c) is young enough to maintain that level of excellence for the next three or four years, and d) is not an injury risk. Only one pitcher in our mind fit all four of those criteria: Greg Maddux."

With the first two picks - Alex Rodriguez and Mark McGwire - out of the way, Salem chose Maddux to become the first-ever Cowtipper. Maddux not only lived up to expectations - he blew them away, taking home the Ozzie League Cy Young award with a 26-4 record and a 2.46 ERA.

"With our number two pick," said Glander, "we wanted to draft a #3 hitter for our lineup. Basically - the best hitter available. Unfortunately, most of the teams in the league concentrated on hitters for the first two rounds, so by the time it came back to us, our options were somewhat limited. We looked at all the numbers and it basically came down to three first basemen: John Olerud, Carlos Delgado and Edgar Martinez. Martinez had no defensive position and was getting up there in age, so he was out. We then debated for quite some time about Olerud and Delgado. Delgado was a few years younger and had more power than Olerud, but we liked Olerud's defense and on-base ability better. Also, we just plain liked the guy. Always have."

Olerud also exceeded expectations, leading the league in batting average (.359) and on-base percentage (.474) and taking home the league's MVP award at season's end. Olerud slugged 40 doubles, 5 triples and 22 home runs. He scored 111 runs, knocked in 131, walked 130 times and slugged .554 without missing a game. Not bad for a 46th draft pick.

"The third component we were looking for was a leadoff hitter," Glander continued. "At that point in the draft, we had our pick of every leadoff hitter in baseball with the exception of Craig Biggio. So it came down to guys like Jose Offerman, Omar Vizquel and Shannon Stewart. Because we were also looking for a younger player to build upon for the future, we chose Stewart, and it worked out pretty well."

Stewart scored 126 runs batting in the leadoff spot. He hit .293 for the year, with an on-base percentage of .389, and added 21 homers and 74 stolen bases for good measure. Stewart teamed with seventh round pick Quilvio Veras (.277/.390/.369 with 119 runs scored and 45 SB's) to form the best one-two punch at the top of any lineup in the BDBL.

After the first three picks, the strategy was simply to choose the best player available, focusing on players that would carry the 1999 Cowtippers to the BDBL championship while keeping an eye out for future talent. By the time the fourth round pick came back to Salem, nearly every good hitter in the pool was gone. So Salem was forced to use their next three picks on pitchers.

Salem chose Omar Daal with their fourth round pick, then opted for youth with the next two picks, selecting Darren Dreifort and Matt Morris. Daal's numbers for the Cowtippers (12-6, 3.91) weren't nearly as good as his major league numbers, though Dreifort (11-9, 3.80) did about as well as expected. Morris, who at just 24 years old was ticketed to be Salem's ace for the next several years, was chosen with the team's first $3 million pick. He compiled a respectable 7-3 record and a 4.24 ERA (nearly two runs higher than his big league ERA in 1998) in 123 innings for Salem, but had season-ending shoulder surgery in March of the 1999 major league season, bringing a premature ending to his bright future.

"That pick killed us," said Glander. "At that point in the draft, we could have chosen an innings-eater like Chuck Finley, Andy Pettitte or Sterling Hitchcock - or a big bat like Brian Giles or Carl Everett - instead of a guy we could only use for half a year. Obviously, we were sacrificing that pick for the future, and we got bit hard."

Aside from the first three picks of the draft, the only other picks the Salem war room scripted before the draft were the 11th, 16th and 21st picks - the first picks of the $2 million, $1 million and $500,000 rounds. The plan was to use the first $2 million pick on one of the many young third base superprospects in baseball (Eric Chavez, Troy Glaus, Adrian Beltre or Michael Barrett.) Incredibly, by the time the 11th round pick finally came Salem's way, all the best prospects - including all four third basemen as well as J.D. Drew, Scott Elarton and Bruce Chen - were gone. As planned, Salem grabbed aging vet Gary Gaetti as a temporary fix, but were left without a third baseman for the future.

"When we plotted out the type of team we wanted to build," said Glander, "one of things we thought was important was having a good arm behind the plate. At that time, Ben Davis was drawing raves for his throwing arm. So with that eleventh pick, we chose Davis. In retrospect, we probably could have waited another ten rounds and he still would've been there. But I have to admit, emotions got the best of us, and after we got shut out on all those third base prospects, we wanted to make sure we got our man."

Salem abandoned their original blueprint by the 16th round, choosing Kevin Stocker (as the second half of a shortstop platoon) instead of a hot prospect. But when Day Two of the live draft began in Round 18, Salem nabbed their first top prospect, Carlos Febles, to the displeasure of many in the room. With the 21st pick, Salem chose Ryan Bradley, a young flame-thrower in the Yankees organization who has since flamed out.

When all the smoke cleared, Salem management settled back and examined their new team. The Cowtippers had a good balance between pitching (Maddux, Daal, Dreifort and Morris) and hitting (Olerud, Stewart, Veras, Ellis Burks and Gaetti.) There was good balance between youth (Stewart, Febles, Dreifort, Morris, Bradley, Davis) and experience (Maddux, Olerud, Gaetti, Burks.) And a good balance between starting pitching and bullpen (Doug Brocail, Derek Lowe, Tim Crabtree and Felix Heredia.) All in all, the Salem team was not dominant in any particular area, but was a well-balanced ballclub with few weaknesses.

In the farm draft, Salem used their first three picks on players who had yet to play professional ball (Sean Burroughs, Alfonso Soriano and Jeff Austin) and their last two picks on players who had yet to reach the high-A level (Mike Restovich and Eric Valent.) Three of those players (Burroughs, Soriano and Restovich) eventually became top-50 prospects, and the other two aren't far behind.

The 1999 season began promisingly, with a two-game sweep of the New Milford Blazers, who would go on to set a BDBL record for losses that season. Salem's home opener was just as successful, as ace Maddux shut out the division rival Marlboro Hammerheads by throwing just 78 pitches over 8 1/3 innings.

On February 12th of that year, the Cowtippers and Akron Ryche battled for 19 innings in a game started by Maddux and Akron ace Pedro Martinez. In a game that took two hours and 21 minutes to play, there were a total of 14 runs scored, 33 hits, 28 men left on base and appearances by 45 players. Akron eventually won the game on a two-run homer by Devon White on a 3-0 pitch from Donovan Osbourne.

Later in that series, Glander became the first BDBL manager ever to be ejected from a game. After Salem jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first, Akron gained the lead in the fourth with Morris on the mound. Glander snapped, and began attacking Diamond Mind founder Tom Tippet, who was sitting in the front row behind the Akron dugout.

That incident led to a devastating free-fall by the Salem ballclub. Salem would end Chapter One with a nine game losing streak, dropping twelve of their last thirteen games. At one point during the streak, Salem's offense failed to score a run for 34 straight innings.

During that low point of the season (at least until the playoffs), beloved Salem hitting coach Don Mattingly resigned. As the first BDBL trading deadline approached, Salem's GM worked right up until midnight attempting to secure another starting pitcher for the rotation. With Morris available for so few innings, Salem needed a solid innings-eater at the end of the rotation. Not only would it help the rotation, but it would also allow Salem to move Derek Lowe to the bullpen where he belonged.

The night of the deadline, Salem GM Glander ran into Virginia Cavaliers GM Jack Buchanan on line. Glander made a pitch for Virginia starter Todd Stottlemyre, but time expired and the deadline passed without a deal. During that conversation, though, Glander learned that Buchanan was shopping Ray Lankford. Lankford would fit very nicely into the Salem lineup, providing another left-handed power bat to complement Olerud. So the idea was put on the back burner for another chapter. Salem followed their nine game losing streak with five straight wins.

The Cowtippers finally ended their losing streak shortly after Chapter Two began. Oddly enough, their streak ended against the hard-hitting Madison Fighting Mimes. In Game Two of that series, Salem fell behind 7-1 in the fourth. Salem fought back for four runs to make it a 7-5 game heading into the ninth. Lee Stevens then put Salem ahead with a grand slam home run, giving his team a boost that would last the rest of the season.

Later that month, the Cowtippers set another BDBL record. Less than a month after Salem's offense was shut out for 34 straight innings, the Cowtippers (under new hitting coach Julio Franco) scored 21 runs off the hapless North Mankato Mudhens pitching staff. Salem held a slim 3-2 lead heading into the fourth, but managed to string together seven runs in the fourth. Despite replacing their entire lineup with scrubs, the Salem offense would continue to score eleven more runs before it was all over.

On April 22nd, Glander and Buchanan finally consumated a deal they had been discussing for several weeks. The trade - the first ever in BDBL history - sent both Stottlemyre and Lankford to the Cowtippers in exchange for Chad Curtis and five of Salem's 2000 draft picks.

"I really didn't understand why Jack wanted to make that deal," Glander confessed, "but he's the one who came up with the offer. I'd have been a fool to reject it, really. At that point in the year, the last thing on my mind was the next draft. To get two quality players for a backup outfielder and a bunch of picks was a no-brainer."

Immediately after this deal was announced, the Commissioner's Office was flooded with complaints from rival owners who thought the trade should have fallen under Rule 9.6 which prohibits trades that are damaging to the integrity of the league.

Rather than argue the case in court, Salem management agreed to a plea bargain, throwing Bradley and Butch Henry into the deal as well. At the time, Bradley was the number two prospect in the New York Yankees farm system and Henry - a minimum wage bargain - was off to a promising start in the big league season.

Two weeks later, Henry developed a season-ending (and, as it turned out, career-ending) injury. Salem offered to send Lankford back to Virginia in exchange for Curtis, and Virginia accepted. Salem then asked for the return of at least two draft picks, but Buchanan refused. In the end, Salem ended up trading five draft picks and Bradley for Stottlemyre. Stottlemyre won eight games for the Cowtippers and lost six. Bradley turned out to be a major dud as a prospect. And of those five Salem draft picks, only one was used by the Cavaliers franchise (now called the Phoenix Predators): a seventh-round pick used to select pinch-hitter Brian Simmons. In the end, the trade that caused so much controversy turned out to be a whole lot of fuss over nothing.

The next chapter, Glander stepped up to the trade table once again. In an attempt to get younger, faster and cheaper all with one trade, Glander sent his top lefty setup man, Donovan Osbourne, to the California Storm in exchange for Roger Cedeno. At the time, Osbourne was a highly-valued pitcher who held lefties to an OPS of less than .400. Cedeno was quietly enjoying a breakout season at the ripe age of 23, getting on base at a .400 clip and stealing a fair amount of bases. Shortly after this trade, Chicago Black Sox GM John Gill advertised on the BDBL message board that several players were being shopped around. Among them was slugging outfielder Tim Salmon. Still seeking a middle of the lineup power threat, Glander offered Cedeno for Salmon and Gill accepted.

Glander, however, wasn't done. The Achilles heel of the Salem Cowtippers was their bullpen. The addition of Lowe - who finished second on the Salem staff with 14 wins - helped the bullpen tremendously, and provided ample setup for all-star closer Doug Brocail (8-3, 2.06 ERA, 24 saves.) But the rest of the pen (Tim Crabtree: 4.95 ERA and Felix Heredia: 4.82) were too shaky for comfort. So, Glander dialed his longtime trading partner Billy Romaniello of the last-place New Milford Blazers. The Blazers owned a pair of ace relievers - Billy Wagner and Robb Nen. Wagner was on his way to the Bourbannais Bad Boys in exchange for phenom Corey Patterson, so Glander concentrated his efforts on obtaining Nen.

Several names were tossed around, including Todd Greene, Bradley and Henry (before they were shipped off to Virginia), Ben Davis, Robert Person and Eric Valent. Romaniello insisted on four of these players in exchange for Nen. Glander offered three. Romaniello then offered to trade both Nen AND ace pitcher Randy Johnson for all six players. Glander declined.

"I would have made that trade in a heartbeat if I had no conscience," Glander confessed. "But Billy and I go way back, and I told him that was a bad trade for him. In retrospect, if I knew he'd turn around and trade Johnson to the Zoots for Jose Rosado and a bag of peanuts, I probably would have taken him up on that deal just to save the BDBL from the Zoots dynasty."

Eventually, Glander and Romaniello agreed on a swap of Nen for Davis, Person and Valent. Again, a chorus of whining filled the halls of BDBL Headquarters. And once again, all the whining seems to have been for nothing. Nen posted solid (2-2, 2.92 ERA, 20 SV in 45 games) but unspectacular stats for Salem, and was gone at year's end - nothing more than a throw-in. Davis has taken a step back as a prospect, but is still considered to be one of the top catching prospects in the game. Valent is progressing slowly but surely, and projects to be a solid major league outfielder. Person, meanwhile, has turned out to be the crown jewel of this deal. At a salary of just $1.1 million in 2001, Person has the stats to be a solid #2 or #3 pitcher for nearly any team in the BDBL.

"I never heard the end of the whining about that trade," said Glander. "We got half a year of Robby Nen - and a pretty mediocre half a year at that - and the Blazers will end up with several years of solid and inexpensive production. Meanwhile, the trade everyone should have been whining about - the Johnson trade - got no attention whatsoever."

With Nen, Salmon and Stottlemyre on board, Salem continued to rack up the wins in the second half. At the end of June, Salem swept four games from their main division rival, Plattsburgh, putting even greater distance between them. Salem then took three of four from Akron (one of which was a win by Maddux over Martinez) to win eight in a row.

On August 18th, Salem won the first-ever Eric Davis Trophy series against the Litchfield Lightning. As as since become tradition, the series was filled with wackiness, as typified in Game Two of that series, when Armando Reynoso out-pitched Omar Daal just one game after throwing 69 pitches in relief.

On October 10th, the Cowtippers clinched the Benes Division championship. Appropriately enough, it came against the Stamford Zoots, in a game in which Salem won by the whopping score of 18-3.

Once the division title was wrapped up, the main goal for the Salem team was to win 100 games. Salem went into their final four game series of the season needing just two wins. Again, the opponents were the despicable Zoots of Stamford. Maddux took the hill for Game One of the series and completely dominated the Zoots offense, allowing just one hit and one walk through seven innings. That 10-0 win was Salem's 99th of the season and win number 26 for Maddux.

In Game Two of that series, Nen blew a three run lead in the ninth inning, handing a crucial win to the Zoots in a game that was so stressful to Zoots manager Marazita that he walked out on his team in the early innings. Kevin Brown dominated Game Three to notch his 23rd win of the season, which meant that win number 100 rested in the hands of Darren Dreifort. A solo homer by Rafael Palmeiro broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning, ruining Salem's chances of a 100-win season. It wouldn't be the last time Palmeiro would break the hearts of Salem fans in 1999.

Salem entered the playoffs tied with the Los Altos Undertakers for the best record in the Ozzie League. Based on their regular season head-to-head record, Salem drew the number two seed in the playoffs, which meant that manager Glander would have to face his longtime nemesis Paul "El Diablo" Marazita in the OL Division Series.

The history between these two managers stretches all the way back to 1988, when Marazita defeated Glander in the now-infamous "Double Steal ala Butler" series. These two managers met once more in the World Series the following year, and the Zoots easily swept the Glander-led "DT's" thanks to the pitching of Teddy Higuera, Frank Viola and Danny Jackson.

Ten years later, Glander and Marazita faced off once again in the post-season. Those looking for post-season excitement weren't disappointed.

Salem's Cy Young Award winner, Maddux, faced Stamford's Cy Young runner-up, Kevin Brown, in Game One of the OLDS. What was supposed to be the finest pitcher's duel of the season turned out to be a laugher, as Salem cruised to a convincing 11-1 victory. Brown lasted just 4 1/3 innings, surrendering a dozen hits and half a dozen earned runs before he was forced from the mound with his head hung low. Maddux, meanwhile, tossed an effortless eight innings, yielding just one run on three hits.

Game Two saw Randy Johnson, the ace pitcher stolen by Marazita earlier that year in exchange for Jose Rosado and a pair of Marazita's dirty socks, match up against Darren Dreifort. Johnson struck out 11 batters in just 5 2/3 innings, but allowed two runs to score against him. Stamford jumped out to a 3-0 lead early in the game, and Salem wasted opportunity after opportunity to score some runs off Zoot pitching. In total, Salem left eight runners stranded in scoring position that game. They would go on to lose by a slim margin of 4-2.

Game Three was a 10-2 blowout. This time, it was Stamford's turn to beat up on a Salem ace. Omar Daal and Matt Morris - two of the few pitchers who sported ERA's below 3.00 in MLB '98 - gave up nine runs combined in 5 2/3 innings while Rolando Arrojo held Salem's offense at bay with 6 1/3 innings of two-run ball.

With a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series, Salem had no choice but to use their ace, Maddux, in Game Four on just three days' rest. Once again, Maddux faced Brown in a game that had "classic pitcher's duel" written all over it. But for the second time in the series, Salem's offense showed no respect for the Cy Young runner-up. Through just four innings of worked, Brown surrendered five runs (four earned.) Meanwhile, Maddux didn't factor at all in the decision, as a 54-minute rain delay ended his day after just 24 pitches. Salem's bullpen managed to hold onto the win, forcing a Game Five.

With a day off between Games Four and Five, Maddux was fully rested and ready to go in the deciding game of the series. An error by Salem's third baseman Gary Gaetti (who led all BDBL third basemen in fielding percentage that season) led to the Zoots' first run of the game in the third inning. A two-run blast by Ellis Burks gave Salem the lead in the bottom half of that inning. In the fifth, Omar Vizquel led off with a base hit, then was picked off of first by Maddux. Despite being picked off, however, Vizquel managed to scoot into second. He eventually scored on a two-out hit by Rafael Palmeiro.

The score remained tied through seven innings as Maddux and Johnson battled it out. Then, with one out in the eighth, Palmeiro sent a Maddux offering to right field, just over the outstretched glove of Burks, giving Stamford the lead. Eric Davis and Troy O'Leary followed with back-to-back doubles, giving Stamford an insurance run. Dan Miceli, C.J. Nitkowski and John Wetteland then blew through the top of the Salem lineup in the eighth and ninth innings to seal the victory. Just like that, Salem's extraordinary season was over.

"I look back at that series and it just amazes me," said Glander, still visibly shaken to this day. "To have come so close, to have overcome so many devastating and unlikely events, and then to lose it on an error and a botched pickoff. It just doesn't seem right. If we drive in just three of those eight runners we stranded in scoring position in Game Two, we would have won. If two of our best pitchers keep us in the game in Game Three, we would have won. And if Gary Gaetti comes up with that ball, if Omar Vizquel pays for his baserunning error, or if Mad Dog could just get through one more inning pitching the way he had all season long...well, it would have been pretty sweet. I guess it just wasn't meant to be."