All-Star Roster Missing Arkansans, Not Arkansas Connections

by Todd Traub  on Monday, Jul. 9, 2012 12:07 pm  

Mike Trout was a Texas Leaguer last year and is a Major League All-Star with the Los Angeles Angels this year. (Photo by Mark Wagner)

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

A quick glance at the Major League Baseball All-Star rosters for Tuesday night’s game in Kansas City reveals that none of the Arkansas contingent (Philadelphia’s Cliff Lee, Pittsburgh’s A.J. Burnett, The Los Angeles Angels’ Torii Hunter, et al) passed muster with the voters.

It took Lee (1-5), of Benton, until July 4 to notch his first victory of the year, capping a career-worst, 13-start winless streak. However his ERA is a respectable 3.98.

North Little Rock’s Burnett, it could be argued, is getting snubbed after starting the year (which began with an injury don’t forget) at 10-2 with a 3.68 ERA. Pine Bluff’s Hunter, the only other Arkansan who would be expected at this time to have an all-star shot, is hitting .270 with 10 home runs and 35 RBI.

Not bad, but Hunter has been overshadowed by teammates Mark Trumbo and Mike Trout, named to the AL squad as reserves.

Still the all-star roster is not bereft of those with Arkansas ties.

Starting American League catcher Mike Napoli (Texas) led the Texas League in home runs (31) and RBI (99) while batting just .237 with the Arkansas Travelers in 2005. Angels pitcher Jered Weaver was 3-3 with a 3.98 ERA at Arkansas in 2005, teaming with Napoli to help lead a loaded team to the Texas League Championship Series that year.

Trout, one of the year’s most explosive breakthrough players so far, batted .326 with 11 homers and 33 steals for the Travelers last year as he bounced between Arkansas and the majors. Trumbo hit .291 with 15 home runs and 88 RBI in the second of his two stints with Arkansas in 2009, shattering a Dickey-Stephens Park press box window along the way.

Then there is NL all-star and San Diego reliever Huston Street. Yes he once pitched in the Texas League and no, it wasn’t with the Travelers. But for many Razorbacks fans, Street’s ties to Arkansas are more personal, and painful.

His father, James Street, was the quarterback who led Texas to a 15-14 victory over Arkansas in the 1969 "Big Shootout" in Fayetteville.

Now, no booing if Huston gets in the game at Kansas City on Tuesday. That was a long time ago.

 

 

 

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