This year marks the 30th Anniversary here in my hometown. It was 31 years ago when the Class 'A' Midwest League team the Springfield Sultans packed up & made their way to Michigan. They landed in the state's capital city known as Lansing, there they became the Lansing Lugnuts. During the summer of 1996 its where this blogger was 3 years removed from High School graduation reading some scouting reports on the upcoming team to make their debut in the reports they listed the top 5 players that were stated to play for the Lugnuts who were at the time the Class 'A' affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. They were Gary Coffee,Mark Quinn,Carlos Febles,Jose Cepeda & Carlos Beltran.
Gary Coffee was stated to be the 1st Baseman/DH he was to hit like Cecil Fielder with more power though.
5 Stars that didn't result into not even a half a star with Coffee bad enough he never got a cup of coffee in the Majors. But Gary wasn't the first to be featured in a major set that had Lugnut collectors look for at shops at the time.
Mark Quinn was rated with 4 stars for a possible speed & arm to help the young outfield that Kansas City developed for the next millennium. Sadly Mark was a great prospect to watch that year & he even made the Midwest League All-Star game in 1996 however Kansas City gave up on him too quick cause he wasn't anything like another prospect Johnny Damon whom he was suppose to alternate with & Johnny was on the move by 2001 to Oakland.
Carlos Febles the man was rated 4 stars & had tools like that of former Royals All-Star 2nd Baseman Frank White. Sadly Carlos lost the glove work & injuries caught up with him after being in the Majors for 6 seasons. Currently Carlos is the 3rd base Coach for the Toronto Blue Jays. He made his MLB debut in 1998 the same day as a teammate of the 1996 Lugnuts made his debut we'll talk about that player a bit later.
Jose Cepeda he was rated 4 stars due to his blood line in the Majors he was the nephew of Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda. He was supposed to be the Royals replacement at 3rd base making Kevin Seitzer move to 1st base until Coffee was ready since legendary Hall of Famer George Brett was slowly heading to retirement in the next 3 seasons & was used as DH. Jose only made his debut in 1999 not with the Royals but made a short 10 game stint with the Atlanta Braves & not getting out of the shadow of his Uncle Orlando.
That leaves us with the man of the hour in 2026 the newest member of the Baseball Hall of Fame Carlos Beltran. Carlos was believe it or not had a 3 star rating according to this report. As others were watching the previous 4 I quietly watched this upcoming outfielder. He was the 8th ranked prospect he only played in Lansing for 42 games before moving on to Eugene,Oregon before making his MLB debut the same day as his former teammate Carlos Febles back in 1998. After making his debut as a late season call-up in 1998 it was in 1999 Carlos showed everyone that he belonged in the Majors despite having a 3 star ranking on this report he was rewarded in 1999 as The American League Rookie of the Year winner. Carlos would eventually play for 8 teams & finally retired from the game in 2017. On Tuesday this week Carlos received a call saying by garnering 84.2% votes on only his 4th ballot he will be enshrined in Cooperstown to join the legends of the game. He goes into the Hall with Andruw Jones & Jeff Kent later this year. Even though when I type this post up in January I hope that later this year that the Lansing Lugnuts will do something to honor the 30th Anniversary team as well its 1st inductee to the baseball's Hall of Fame so stay tuned this blogger with my insights will let you know if anything should develop so in conclusion I say congrats to Carlos as well to Andruw & of course Jeff Kent who practically played the same era as these 2 gentlemen did in making to Cooperstown. It amazes me that after 30 years watching a young kid like Carlos making it to baseball ultimate goal in being a Hall of Famer despite what allegations he had when he was with the Astros the second time around when he was accused of cheating I just have to wonder what he will say come time for his speech in July in up state New York near Ostego Lake. Maybe he will have a quote like our favorite Hall of Fame member Rogers Hornsby once saying "Any Ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American, He's a Communist."
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