Remembering Kevin Millar- LU Baseball Great

[eagle eye]

Baseball season is nearly upon us and I’m pretty excited. I’ve got my Astros about to start spring training to begin their 2018 quest to repeat as World Series Champs and Lamar will kick off their 2018 campaign next month on the 16th as they host their Cardinal Classic tournament. I think we all are expecting good things, or at very least, better things from in the Cards in Will Davis’ 2nd year as manager of the team.

At this point I thought I would go retro on y’all this morning and take a look back at one of the best players in Lamar history, Kevin Millar. Now, for all you born after 1992 you might not know that Millar is an alumnus of Big Red and he benefitted from the return of Jim Gilligan to the LU program after managing in the Minor Leagues for several years. In Gilligan and Millar’s first year together the Cards went 32-21 logging the biggest turnaround in wins, 14, from the previous season in NCAA history. Millar won All-Sun Belt Conference honors as well. That was in 1992, in 1993 the Cards went 41-18 winning the Sun Belt season championship as well as the conference championship earning them a berth in the NCAA Central 1 Region tournament in College Station.

Millar began his pro career later that same summer with the American Association of Independent Baseball Northern League Saint Paul Saints. Millar played as a replacement player during the 1994-95 MLB Players strike in early 2015. By doing this Millar has never been allowed to become a member of the MLB Players Association. Millar did make it to the bigs when Florida purchased his contract in late 1997 and he made his MLB debut in 1998. Millar played for the Marlins through the 2002 season when things got weird for him again. The Marlins sold his contract to the Japanese Central League Chunichi Dragons and the only thing that stood in the way of the deal becoming final was the fact Millar had to clear waivers. It was, and is, an unwritten rule in baseball circles that teams don’t make waiver claims in these circumstances but the Boston Red Sox, under saber metrics guru Theo Epstein, claimed Millar and he became a Red Sock. Ultimately, the Marlins had to repay the money they got from the Chunichi Dragons and the Red Sox had to pay back the Marlins to settle the ruffled feathers in the deal to get Millar.

Millar played for Boston from 2003 to 2005 during a time when Boston finally broke the Curse of the Bambino by winning the 2004 World Series since the 1918 when Boston traded Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. In 2003 the Sox made it to the ALCS losing to the Yankees and in 2004, on the brink of elimination by the Yanks, the Sox made a miraculous comeback to take the ALDS and they went on to beat the Yankees in 7 games. What was so miraculous was no team had ever been down 0-3 in the WS and come back to win but that is exactly what happened. Kevin Millar began the rally for Boston in Game 4 when he worked a walk off Yankees closer Mariano Rivera to lead off the 9th inning down 4-3. Millar was replaced by pinch runner Dave Roberts who immediately stole 2nd base. Many people consider this the turning point in the series as Bill Mueller singled to score Roberts to tie the game. The Bosox won the game on a walk-off two-run home run in the 12th inning by David Ortiz and it was all Red Sox the rest of the way.

Millar played for two more teams in his MLB career, the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays before retiring in April of 2010. He briefly came back to play for the team where he began his pro career, the Saint Paul Saints, in May of 2010 and his contract allowed him to be absent so he could work his new job as a baseball analyst for the MLB radio network working with Jim Duquette and Kevin Kennedy. Millar’s playing days were over except for a one-off return to the St Paul Saints who allowed him one at-bat in a game as part of a promotion for the 25th anniversary of the St Paul franchise. This was on June 24th, 2017 against the Winnipeg Goldeyes and in his first at-bat against live pitching in 7 years Millar hit a 2-run home run to help the Saints beat Winnipeg 8-6.

During his career, besides winning a World Series ring with Boston Millar won the 2001 Charlie Hough Good Guy Award voted on by the Florida BBWAA while with the Marlins and in 2003 while with Boston he won the Jackie Jensen Award voted on by the Boston BBWAA and named in honor of Jensen who was an outfielder for the Red Sox back in the 1950’s.

Millar is a regular on the MLB Network and host a talk show called Intentional Talk with Chris Rose but he’s worked for the New England Sports Network (NESN), Fox Sports as a studio analyst and color man on Fox Saturday broadcasts. Certainly, a man who does Lamar proud as he has been one of the good guys on and off the field.

One more bit of weirdness, On Wikipedia they list his current residence in Austin Texas but on IMDb they list his home in Beaumont. Some of you who may be familiar with Kevin might be able to clear this one up.

Kevin Millar was one of the best ball players in Lamar history and if there isn’t an LU baseball award with his name on it, there should be.

[spoonbill]

Baseball season is nearly upon us and I’m pretty excited. I’ve got my Astros about to start spring training to begin their 2018 quest to repeat as World Series Champs and Lamar will kick off their 2018 campaign next month on the 16th as they host their Cardinal Classic tournament. I think we all are expecting good things, or at very least, better things from in the Cards in Will Davis’ 2nd year as manager of the team.

At this point I thought I would go retro on y’all this morning and take a look back at one of the best players in Lamar history, Kevin Millar. Now, for all you born after 1992 you might not know that Millar is an alumnus of Big Red and he benefitted from the return of Jim Gilligan to the LU program after managing in the Minor Leagues for several years. In Gilligan and Millar’s first year together the Cards went 32-21 logging the biggest turnaround in wins, 14, from the previous season in NCAA history. Millar won All-Sun Belt Conference honors as well. That was in 1992, in 1993 the Cards went 41-18 winning the Sun Belt season championship as well as the conference championship earning them a berth in the NCAA Central 1 Region tournament in College Station.

Millar began his pro career later that same summer with the American Association of Independent Baseball Northern League Saint Paul Saints. Millar played as a replacement player during the 1994-95 MLB Players strike in early 2015. By doing this Millar has never been allowed to become a member of the MLB Players Association. Millar did make it to the bigs when Florida purchased his contract in late 1997 and he made his MLB debut in 1998. Millar played for the Marlins through the 2002 season when things got weird for him again. The Marlins sold his contract to the Japanese Central League Chunichi Dragons and the only thing that stood in the way of the deal becoming final was the fact Millar had to clear waivers. It was, and is, an unwritten rule in baseball circles that teams don’t make waiver claims in these circumstances but the Boston Red Sox, under saber metrics guru Theo Epstein, claimed Millar and he became a Red Sock. Ultimately, the Marlins had to repay the money they got from the Chunichi Dragons and the Red Sox had to pay back the Marlins to settle the ruffled feathers in the deal to get Millar.

Millar played for Boston from 2003 to 2005 during a time when Boston finally broke the Curse of the Bambino by winning the 2004 World Series since the 1918 when Boston traded Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. In 2003 the Sox made it to the ALCS losing to the Yankees and in 2004, on the brink of elimination by the Yanks, the Sox made a miraculous comeback to take the ALDS and they went on to beat the Yankees in 7 games. What was so miraculous was no team had ever been down 0-3 in the WS and come back to win but that is exactly what happened. Kevin Millar began the rally for Boston in Game 4 when he worked a walk off Yankees closer Mariano Rivera to lead off the 9th inning down 4-3. Millar was replaced by pinch runner Dave Roberts who immediately stole 2nd base. Many people consider this the turning point in the series as Bill Mueller singled to score Roberts to tie the game. The Bosox won the game on a walk-off two-run home run in the 12th inning by David Ortiz and it was all Red Sox the rest of the way.

Millar played for two more teams in his MLB career, the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays before retiring in April of 2010. He briefly came back to play for the team where he began his pro career, the Saint Paul Saints, in May of 2010 and his contract allowed him to be absent so he could work his new job as a baseball analyst for the MLB radio network working with Jim Duquette and Kevin Kennedy. Millar’s playing days were over except for a one-off return to the St Paul Saints who allowed him one at-bat in a game as part of a promotion for the 25th anniversary of the St Paul franchise. This was on June 24th, 2017 against the Winnipeg Goldeyes and in his first at-bat against live pitching in 7 years Millar hit a 2-run home run to help the Saints beat Winnipeg 8-6.

During his career, besides winning a World Series ring with Boston Millar won the 2001 Charlie Hough Good Guy Award voted on by the Florida BBWAA while with the Marlins and in 2003 while with Boston he won the Jackie Jensen Award voted on by the Boston BBWAA and named in honor of Jensen who was an outfielder for the Red Sox back in the 1950’s.

Millar is a regular on the MLB Network and host a talk show called Intentional Talk with Chris Rose but he’s worked for the New England Sports Network (NESN), Fox Sports as a studio analyst and color man on Fox Saturday broadcasts. Certainly, a man who does Lamar proud as he has been one of the good guys on and off the field.

One more bit of weirdness, On Wikipedia they list his current residence in Austin Texas but on IMDb they list his home in Beaumont. Some of you who may be familiar with Kevin might be able to clear this one up.

Kevin Millar was one of the best ball players in Lamar history and if there isn’t an LU baseball award with his name on it, there should be.

I went to an Astros game against the Marlins at what is Minute Maid now. (not sure if it was Enron then) During BP we went down in the Crawford Boxes to try and grab some BP home run balls. Millar was shagging balls in left. We kept yelling LU LU LU to try and get his attention since we were LU alums and knew he had played for the Cards. He finally turned around like wth then gave us a quick LU with his hand and got back to shagging balls. I remember thinking he seemed like a cool guy at the time. I always followed his career after that. On a side note, there was another Lamar kid I thought was a sure fire MLB player Collin Delome that ended up in the Astros farm system. He was really a player but never quite panned out. I know at the time he was drafted he held the all time Lamar record for career triples. I'm not sure if he still has that record or not. He was a Buna kid I think.

[WildCard]

I went to an Astros game against the Marlins at what is Minute Maid now. (not sure if it was Enron then) During BP we went down in the Crawford Boxes to try and grab some BP home run balls. Millar was shagging balls in left. We kept yelling LU LU LU to try and get his attention since we were LU alums and knew he had played for the Cards. He finally turned around like wth then gave us a quick LU with his hand and got back to shagging balls. I remember thinking he seemed like a cool guy at the time. I always followed his career after that. On a side note, there was another Lamar kid I thought was a sure fire MLB player Collin Delome that ended up in the Astros farm system. He was really a player but never quite panned out. I know at the time he was drafted he held the all time Lamar record for career triples. I'm not sure if he still has that record or not. He was a Buna kid I think.

 

Delome got as far as Triple-A. Millar is one of 11 Cardinals who played in the big leagues--several only had a cup of coffee but that's better than never getting there. Kevin's career was the best one--second best was probably Jerald Clark. Others were Tony Mack, David Smith, Bruce Aven, Beau Allred, Eric Cammack, Clay Hensley, Randy Williams, Brian Sanches, and Micah Hoffpauir. Two former Cardinal players are currently coaching in the big leagues. Mike Sarbaugh is the third base coach for the Indians and Anthony Iapoce is the hitting coach for the Rangers.