Introducing the Cougars' new manager
As one professional sports season ends next weekend at Super Bowl 50, another season prepares to begin.
With the first pitch a few months away, the Kane County Cougars welcomed back fans and introduced their new manager for the 2016 season during a "Meet The Diamondbacks" party in the super suite banquet room Friday night at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark in Geneva.
In 2015, the first of a two-year player development contract the Cougars have with the Arizona Diamondbacks, first-year manager and former major-league player Mark Grudzielanek guided the team to the fourth-best winning percentage (.609, 84-54) among all full-season minor league baseball clubs.
Another former major-league infielder, Mike Benjamin, will direct the Cougars this season. The 50-year-old, who enjoyed a 13-year playing career with San Francisco (1989-1995), Philadelphia (1996), Boston (1997-1998) and Pittsburgh (1999-2000, 2002), served as manager of the AZL D-backs Rookie League team that was 25-20 last season.
Last year was Benjamin's first as a manager, and the atmosphere with the rookie league club was different from what he'll see with the Cougars.
Kane County, one of the most successful teams in the minor leagues, topped the 400,000 mark in attendance last season and surpassed the 11 million mark in the franchises' 25-year history.
"I'm looking forward to it," Benjamin said of the big crowds. "In the AZL, most of the people in the stands were either the players who had been playing or their parents. It wasn't a big atmosphere."
Nicknamed Benji, Benjamin cherished his time playing for managers such as Dusty Baker and Jimy Williams, as well as Doug Mansolino during his minor league days.
"Everybody runs across somebody in their career that they've really jelled with in a sense," Benjamin said. "I had a couple of those in the Giants minor league system."
According to Mike Bell, the Diamondbacks' director of player development, the hiring of Benjamin last winter was a no-brainer.
"The thing that jumped out at me was his passion and intensity," Bell said. "It'll come off as laid-back but I think he's pretty demanding in terms of what he expects from the players. At the same time, it's the way he gets through to them - he's very knowledgeable."
The development of players while fielding a winning product at the same time can be a daunting task.
"The first thing that we do is we try to do what's right for the player," said Bell, whose father (Buddy), grandfather (Gus), and brother (David) all played in the big leagues. "That's number one. Number 1-A is to try to win as many games as we can.
"Usually those two things go hand in hand."
In November, the Cougars announced a re-branding of the team and organizational identity, which includes a new logo and color scheme.
"After 25 years, you should refresh your logo," said Bob Froehlich, who along with his wife, Cheryl, took over majority ownership of the Cougars in the 2014 season.
"One thing Cheryl and I feel very strongly about is that we want to do something every year that is new and unique because we think that's exciting for the fans, we think it's exciting for the players, and we think it's exciting for the coaches," Froehlich said.
The Cougars will open their 26th season at home on April 7 against Clinton.