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River Bats get coach on rise
By Adam Masloski
Published:
Thursday, January 23, 2003
Media Credit: Adam Masloski
St. Cloud River Bats owner Joel Sutherland (left) presents newly appointed field manager Tom Fleenor with a jersey Tuesday at a press conference held at the Southside Boys and Girls Club.
The St. Cloud River Bats announced a new head coach Tuesday at a press conference held at the Southside Boys and Girls Club.
St. Cloud River Bats owner Joel Sutherland introduced former Rochester Honker head coach Tom Fleenor as the man who will lead the team into this coming season.
"It's like going from the Braves to the Yankees," Fleenor said.
"After taking the year off, I can't tell you how excited I am to be back in the Northwoods League. Out of all the teams in the league there is only one team I would consider managing besides Rochester, and that is St. Cloud. I am really looking forward to carrying on a winning tradition and bringing a championship back to St. Cloud."
Last season the River Bats ended the season with a mediocre record of 34-30.
Although this record is just four games above .500 it still managed to be the second best in the league. However, once the post season began, they couldn't put it together and bowed out of the playoffs without winning a game.
This season they have the luxury of eight returning starters including 2002 Most Valuable Bat and Northwoods League homerun leader Joe Gaetti. Also returning is fellow outfielder Joel Pietro who hit .314 last season.
Sutherland is confident that, along with these returning starters and his new skipper, this season will bring nothing but success.
"Our players, our fans, and our organization deserve a manager who understands the league and has a lot of passion for the league. Tom is a proven winner and a real personality. It's going to be fun having him around. We look forward to having Tom and his family in St. Cloud."
Fleenor currently holds the Rochester Honkers record for wins as a field manager with over 150. He spent four years as the coach for the Honkers from 1998 through the 2001 season. Fleenor won the South Division title in 1998 and eventually fell to St. Cloud when he faced them in the championship. He followed this success up the next season by winning the Northwoods League title for Rochester. In 2000 the Honkers posted the best regular season record in the South Division before losing in the divisional playoffs.
Fleenor is currently an assistant coach at the University of South Carolina-Spartanburg.
Fleenor comes into this season with high hopes and a lot of confidence in his team.
"We have a lot of get down and dirty kind of guys," he said. "If we go out and play hard every night then I think that will always give us the chance to win in the end. There is a lot of parody in this league. Hopefully we'll end up winning more then we lose."
The championship is the obvious goal for all the teams in the Northwoods League and the quest for this goal begins this summer as the River Bats enter the first year of what could become the beginning of a lot of wins for many years to come in the Fleenor era.
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