The Difference? Kc Cares The Royals Attempted To Keep Their Spokane Club Competitive

The San Diego Padres’ 12th and final team in Spokane won 30 games.

The first Spokane team representing the Kansas City Royals won 36 games.

So what was the difference - besides six wins - between affiliating with San Diego and Kansas City?

Spokane general manager Andy Billig, who saw Padres teams in 1993 and ‘94 and this year’s Royals group, singles out one important factor.

“I feel like the Royals really cared about the team and were concerned with us being able to win,” said the Indians’ three-year GM.

“The result of that was, with maybe one exception, we didn’t have any players taken away from us.”

That player was pitcher Mike Robbins, a ninth-round selection who went 1-3 with Spokane before his promotion.

The last two seasons with the Padres, Spokane’s best players - pitcher Glenn Dishman (‘93) and shortstop Greg LaRocca (‘94) - left before mid-August.Injuries, not roster moves, kept Spokane from being a .500 team, Billig said.

The Indians didn’t compete for the pennant, but large late-season crowds gave them a per-game season attendance record of 4,272. One of the robust crowds, on Aug. 31, witnessed Spokane’s nationally televised game on ESPN2.

”(ESPN2) told us it was the best game they’d done all year, in terms of the stadium crowd and the game on the field,” Billig said.

Bound for bigs?

Unlike left-handed starter Dishman of two years ago, no ‘95 Indians player appears destined for the majors.A few may make it to the top, but can’t-miss prospects were missing.

The most likely candidates are power hitter Mark Quinn, speedy center fielder Tony Miranda and left-handed starter Jeremy Williamson.

Quinn, an 11th-round selection from Rice, broke his left index finger after the Indians’ fifth game. He missed a month, then returned with a vengeance. His offense, including a pair of grand slams, carried Spokane in August.

“I don’t think we realized how big the injury was until we saw what he could do at the end of the season,” Billig said.

Miranda, who played for College World Series champion Cal State Fullerton, led Spokane with 15 stolen bases and hit .271. He led the league with 53 runs scored and was second with 17 doubles.

Williamson, a 16th-rounder from Southern Mississippi, missed a big chunk of the season with a sore shoulder. He returned to notch seven starts, with a 3-1 record and a 1.43 earned-run average.

Baseball America asked NWL managers to select the league’s top prospects. No Spokane player received a vote.

On the bubble

Two other Indians position players had notable seasons.

James Vida nearly claimed the league batting title, but he’s a 24-year-old first baseman in an organization loaded with talented, younger first basemen. Vida, whose .323 average trailed the .329 of Boise’s Danny Buxbaum, led the league with 94 hits.

Quinn’s teammate at Rice, catcher Patrick Hallmark, steadily improved all season and lifted his average to .304, seventh in the league. Yet Hallmark is just 6-feet and 170 pounds.

Here today …

Injuries cost Spokane the services of infielder Emiliano Escandon, outfielders Scott Kortmeyer and Adam Finnieston, and starting pitcher Brian Winders.

The Royals tried to help, sending slugger Scott Pinoni from the California League and four players from Lethbridge (Alberta) of the rookie Pioneer League.

Pinoni hurt his wrist and required season-ending surgery.

If injuries weren’t enough, outfielder Leon Weathersby and relief pitcher Jonathan Albrecht quit the team.

Improved, and yet …

Although the Indians won 36 games - their most since 1990’s championship team - they kept alive a distressing pattern of lower-division finishes.

In the four-team Northern Division, Spokane has finished fourth, fourth, third, fourth and third since its glory days of four consecutive NWL titles.

, DataTimes