Van Rossum’s new home
March 21, 2008 by Jason Guarente
OF Chris Van Rossum has signed with the Edmonton Cracker Cats of the Golden League. Van Rossum spent parts of three seasons with the Barnstormers. He batted .254 with 13 homers and 57 RBIs last season.
Van Rossum, 34, is a native of Northern California. The Golden League will present him with a chance to play some games closer to home.
As the person known as “Anonymous” pointed out in the comments section, the Cracker Cats have also signed former Newark OF Marcus Nettles.
Good Luck Chris, going to miss ya!
It was pretty cool when his parents came to watch him play last year and, if I recall correctly, he hit a grand slam to win that game. The downside is that while he did ok last year, he did it all in a relatively short time frame. He didn’t do much before that time frame and he didn’t do much after that time frame. At least that’s what I recall from memory. But he was a fixture since 2005 and I’ll miss Van Awesome. All the best!
Cracker Cats? Can you imagine how quickly you’d be sued out of existance if you named anything that in this country?
eh…..
Don’t mean to sound like a Party pooper…But Both the Van’s were NOT vital cogs in this team (yes, small t) last year. Good Luck to them Glad they found a home somewhere else.
Van Rossum was a below average offensive player and a better-than-average defender for his position. It was time for the Barnstormers to try to upgrade in RF. He’ll be 34 this season. At some point you have to make changes.
Jason
Didn’t realize Burky was 33yo. HIM I’m glad is back. If everyone played like Burky, we wouldn’t have to stress over the Teams performance. I just want to see a Team that will give it’s all every game and not mail any in. Right now some of the “mailers in” are back and I’m leery about that.
Lancaster is just like Philly. Bust your butt. If ya lose…ya lose. Make the effort and we’ll give ya the key to the town. Dog it and please go away.
I realize I’m in the Minority on this Blog. I’m not part of the Lovefest that seems to permeate this Blog about these Players from the past. I’m sure most of them are really nice guys but I’m paying hardearned money to watch these guys entertain me. For the most part, this is my yearly entertainment. When I don’t feel like I get my money’s worth, I get upset and I say what I think. Nice guys or not…do your job. If you don’t, I’ll speak my mind.
I just hope we don’t have a replay of last year. That was a waste of money watching the team go through the motions for most of the year. I’m just a trifle pessimistic with so many players coming back from last year.
I’m of the opinion that management had more to do with last year’s debacle than anything else, so I’m still not terribly bothered by the number of returning players. Management has been changed from “the returning favorite” to someone with some actual credibility and the more obnoxious attitudes from last year are gone and I’m still cautiously optimistic. Jason (and others) like to harp on the number of guys returning from last year’s doom team, but how many were also on the championship team the year before? I wouldn’t say last year was a waste of money, but it was a year that should have totally marginalized those who still want to see the whole baseball thing fail. Instead, it did the opposite by causing attendance to sag. Remember the newspaper headline trumpetting the percentage difference between last year and 2006?
Speaking of opinions…I see these guys as professionals who go out on the field and do their jobs. I have lots of friends and I didn’t become a season ticket holder to make more. If someone screws up on the field or the team as a whole performs poorly, you bet I’m going to vent my opinion. And if this year is like last year, someone or another will take it personally, like it’s their kid you just shot or something. But that doesn’t mean he or they didn’t suck. And if some player’s feelings are hurt because he blew a crucial play and I say he sucked, he should be playing sandlot baseball in the evenings, after his real job, not professional baseball. So the short of it is that yeah, if you’re critical of how they play, someone will undoubtedly let you know that you have no place on this site, these are the greatest guys that ever lived, blah blah blah. Hopefully it’s obvious how much I care.
Several of these players were on the championship team. That team also had Jeremy Todd (with a 1.045 OPS), Reggie Taylor (.948 OPS) and Jose Ortiz (.853 OPS). It also had one of the best starting pitchers in league history in Denny Harriger and three elite relief pitchers in Matt Knox, Charlie Weatherby and Scott Patterson.
This team has no one comparable to any of the above. They haven’t even replaced Todd and Derrick DePriest from the 57-69 club yet. As I’ve said repeatedly, there’s time to add those pieces. But a lot of them need to be added.
I know, and I’m just busting your chops. But I don’t think it’s all as bad as some would make it out to be. Yet. It took about a week to figure out something was very wrong last year so if something’s that wrong this year, hopefully someone sees it quickly and, unlike last year, ACTS. I do agree that there’s still time to find some players, but that time is very rapidly running out.
I heartedly agree that there is STILL time to add key Players to the Team. I also agree that time is running out. I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt but that too will run out. 2 weeks to FanFest, so someone better get humping. I see an awful lot of Very good Players being signed Leaguewide. What’s the hold up? If it’s waiting for some very excellent players to get cut…kudos for waiting. If it’s a bunch of schmucks that were cheap….well……..