How Baseball Returned to Montgomery | Big League Biscuits | All-Time Biscuits Roster
2006 Southern League Championship | 2007 Southern League Championship
In the summer of 2006, a group of talented players came together at Riverwalk Stadium... and brought a title home to Montgomery.
by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler
In early April of 2006, any thought of the Southern League Championship coming to Montgomery existed only in the dreams of the Biscuits’ most faithful fans. It surely could not have been in the expectations of manager Charlie Montoyo as he gazed upon the initial roster, more closely resembling the mediocre teams of 2004 and 2005 than a championship-caliber powerhouse.
In early April of 2006... Jeff Niemann was rehabbing from shoulder surgery in Florida. Evan Longoria was still attending college courses at Long Beach State. Reid Brignac was playing a level lower in the Tampa Bay system, not ready yet for Double-A. Mitch Talbot and Justin Ruggiano were in different systems entirely, playing in the Astros and Dodgers’ minor league organizations respectively.
Five months later, sluggers Longoria, Brignac and Ruggiano were in the lineup, Niemann and Talbot were in the rotation, and the Biscuits found themselves sporting the best team Montgomery had seen in decades, poised to make the franchise’s first postseason appearance.
Jeff Niemann was the first of the newcomers to arrive, joining the Biscuits on the first day of the second half, June 19. A six-foot-nine-inch behemoth from Rice University , Niemann had been selected fourth overall in the 2004 amateur draft but did not sign for seven months and suffered through an injury-filled 2005. Now back to full strength and full menacing velocity, Niemann combined with the crafty Andy Sonnanstine to give the Biscuits a brilliant 1-2 punch. His fastball was blinding and bat-shattering. His hard-breaking slider was unhittable.
A month later, the Biscuits added a third ace. The Houston Astros were gearing up for a late-season pennant run and needed more pop in their lineup; the Rays’ Aubrey Huff fit their needs. In exchange for Huff, Houston gave up two minor league prospects, a shortstop named Ben Zobrist and a pitcher named Mitch Talbot. Zobrist was assigned to Class AAA Durham and would eventually be called up to the Major Leagues. Talbot was sent to Montgomery.
A lanky unassuming right-hander with a picture-perfect delivery, Mitch Talbot was thought to be merely a pitcher with a fine change-up. He soon established to Southern League batters that his fastball, curve and slider were pretty effective, too, stifling opposing lineups inning after inning. In ten starts with the Biscuits, he failed to last six innings but once–an August 18 affair against the Chattanooga Lookouts and blue-chip prospect Homer Bailey. In that game, Talbot left with two outs in the sixth, having notched 11 strikeouts and allowing just one earned run. To the eyes of the Biscuits’ faithful, the young man from Utah was the perfect complement to Jeff Niemann and Andy Sonnanstine. Little did anyone know that he would out-pitch both aces when it counted the most.
With Mitch Talbot newly-slotted behind Niemann and Sonnanstine, the rotation was playoff-ready. Unfortunately, the offense had been a sore spot all season long, failing to come through with runners in scoring position and striking out far too often. (They ended the season tops in the Southern League in strikeouts.) Veterans Michael Coleman, Ryan Christianson, Jeremy Owens and Chairon Isenia fell into months-long slumps. The lineup desperately needed a boost.
Enter a player to be named later and two talented 20-year-olds.
Earlier in the season, Tampa Bay completed an unusual catcher/pitcher trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Devil Rays catcher Toby Hall and pitcher Mark Hendrickson flew west; Dodgers catcher Dioner Navarro and pitcher Jae Seo traveled to Florida . There was a final component in the deal, a “player to be named later” from the Dodgers organization that would be added in. The Los Angeles management found their player in Jacksonville .
Justin Ruggiano was one of many standout talents in the vaunted Jacksonville Suns offense. In the field, his throwing arm was accurate and strong. At the plate, he hit for power and average and drew walks with ease. His attitude was a different story; there were concerns about his temperament and his concentration. The Dodgers did not think twice, tossing him into the deal to Tampa Bay . Ruggiano erupted upon his late-July insertion into the Biscuits’ lineup. Batting in the middle of the order, he reached base in his first 26 games wearing butter and blue, and in 30 of 31 games overall. His rare combination of power and speed played havoc with the opposition.
A week after Justin Ruggiano’s arrival, the phenoms came to Montgomery .
Shortstop Reid Brignac had been included among Tampa Bay ’s top five prospects ever since he was first drafted out of high school in 2004. He debuted with a sensational .361 batting average with the Princeton Devil Rays, then tore up Charleston after a late-season promotion. In 2005, Brignac’s power emerged, as he led his Southwest Michigan Devil Rays in both home runs and doubles and was named a Midwest League All-Star. In 2006, the Louisiana native continued to impress as a member of the Visalia Oaks. By August 2, he was near the tops of the California League leader-board in nearly every offensive statistic. At season’s end, he would be honored as the league’s Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player. But August 2, 2006 , was the last day Reid Brignac would spend in the California League. Visalia manager Joe Szekley passed on the message: Brignac was to report to Montgomery alongside an equally promising teammate.
With the third pick of the 2006 June Amateur Draft, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays had selected Evan Longoria, an infielder from Long Beach State considered the most polished hitter in the country. Longoria was sent initially to the New York-Penn League, but it took only eight games (and a blistering .424 batting average) to see that the competition was too easy for the Californian slugger. A promotion to Visalia did not slow Longoria’s momentum: In 28 games, he drove in 28 runs. It was evident a new challenge was in order. Evan Longoria was promoted to Double-A.
Neither Reid Brignac nor Evan Longoria stepped into the top of the Biscuits lineup upon their arrival at Riverwalk Stadium. Quite the contrary; for their first few weeks in butter and blue, they batted at the very bottom. They did not stay there for long. Shortstop Brignac hit safely in his first seven games and was raised to the second spot in the lineup. Third baseman Longoria performed even better, crushing four home runs and earning himself a promotion to the middle of the order.
With the three new additions, the Biscuits’ hitting became considerably more potent, matching the quality of the pitching. The club went on a tear, beginning with a five-game sweep at Jacksonville that catapulted them into a commanding three-game lead at the top of the South Division. Montgomery did not let up, finishing the season with 13 wins in its last 16 games to clinch the first postseason berth in franchise history. The Southern League championship was no longer a dream. Now it was an attainable goal, there for the taking, just six wins away.
It wouldn’t be easy.
In the best-of-five South Divisional Championship Series, the defending league champion Jacksonville Suns stood in the way. Skippered by Manager of the Year John Shoemaker, the Suns had no intentions of relinquishing their title without a fight.
But it was the Biscuits who played like defending champions. In Game 1 in Jacksonville, a stunning four-run seventh inning rally, started by a home run from Michael Coleman and capped off by a two-run double from ex-Sun Justin Ruggiano, gave the Biscuits a come-from-behind 4-3 victory. In Game 2, Andy Sonnanstine gutted out seven shutout innings, lifting the Biscuits to a nail-biting 4-2 win.
For Game 3, the setting shifted to Montgomery. 4,013 cheering Biscuits fans flocked to the first-ever playoff game at Riverwalk Stadium. They witnessed a classic. For eight innings, Suns All-Star T.J. Nall and Mitch Talbot matched zeroes. With two outs in the top of the ninth and the game still scoreless, the Suns’ Jimmy Rohan decided to test the arm of former team-mate Ruggiano, racing for home on a Tydus Meadows single. The throw from right field was perfect and Ryan Christianson ap-plied a sure tag to the roaring delight of the crowd. In the bottom of the ninth, Jacksonville sent relief ace Mark Alexander to the mound. With two outs and a man on, one of Alexander’s sliders didn’t quite slide enough and Evan Longoria crushed it with all of his might. The dramatic two-run homer sent Riverwalk Stadium into a frenzy and sent the Biscuits into the Southern League Championship Series.
Their opponent in the Championship Series would be the red-hot Huntsville Stars, who had surprisingly swept the talented Chattanooga Lookouts to win the North Division. Including the postseason, the Stars had won 15 of their last 16 games.
In Game 1 at Huntsville , both teams came out nervous. The Biscuits were worse. Montgomery committed five errors, two each by Brignac and Longoria, handing the Stars a 6-4 win.
Game 2 was more toward the Biscuits’ liking. Backed by the smooth stylings of Sonnanstine, a free-swinging Montgomery lineup broke open a scoreless game with a six-run fifth inning and cruised to an 11-4 rout.
With the best-of-five series tied at a game apiece, the competitors traveled to Montgomery for Game 3. The match-up pitted Mitch Talbot against Huntsville ’s Yovany Gallardo, perhaps the top prospect in the Milwaukee Brewers’ system. On paper, it might have favored the Stars, but not once Talbot took the mound. Five days after his complete game shutout against Jacksonville , the right-hander put on an encore performance, striking out 10 Stars over nine scoreless innings. Offensively, Montgomery had no trouble with the vaunted Gallardo. Ryan Christianson, Michael Coleman and Jeremy Owens each homered to make life easy for their starter. Owens supplied the crowning touch, lacing a three-run inside-the-park homer in the eighth to finish off the 7-0 triumph. The Biscuits were one victory away from the championship. Said the hero of the hour, Mitch Talbot, to The Montgomery Advertiser, “I wish I could pitch tomorrow.”
Montgomery didn’t need Mitch Talbot in Game 4, as the Biscuits dispensed with any dramatics early. They scored in each of the first five innings against five Stars pitchers, including home runs by Owens, Longoria, Coleman and Elliot Johnson. Michael Coleman’s three-run roundtripper in the fifth upped the Biscuits’ lead to 10-2 and kick-started the celebration.
In the seventh inning, Johnson added to the fun. In the Biscuits’ three-year history, no player had ever hit for the cycle. The switch-hitting second baseman stood on the cusp, having singled in the first, tripled in the second and homered in the fourth. Facing reliever Travis Phelps, Elliot Johnson came through, drilling a line drive to the gap in right-center and coasting into second base for a cycle-fulfilling double.
All that remained was for the game to become official. Left-hander Brian Henderson strode out of the bullpen for the ninth and set down the side in business-like fashion. The final out of the 2006 season came off the bat of Stars pinch-hitter Guilder Rodriguez, who rolled a routine grounder to Evan Longoria at third. Longoria flipped a throw across the infield, touching off jubilant pandemonium in the stands and next to the pitcher’s mound. “I was going bonkers,” Henderson said to The Montgomery Advertiser. “I threw my glove in the air. I threw my hat. I took off my jersey and threw it, too.”
Said centerfielder Jason Pridie about the joyous race to the infield, “That was the fastest run of my life.”
Michael Coleman was fittingly named the Championship Series’ Most Valuable Player, batting .500 in the four-game series with three homers and nine RBIs. “This ranked right up there with the birth of my kids and the big leagues,” Coleman, a former member of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, told The Advertiser. “This is what we play for.”
For Charlie Montoyo, the only manager the Biscuits had ever known, the championship was extra-special. It was a season that he had spent a lot of time worrying about his sister, Wandy, battling breast cancer during spring training. In her honor, Montoyo wore the same t-shirt under his jersey all year long. “I was so happy for Charlie,” said Biscuits’ coach and Montoyo’s mentor Mako Oliveras to The Montgomery Advertiser, “because I know he dedicated this championship to his sister.”
It was the sixth Southern League championship for the city of Montgomery , but the first since the dynastic run of the Montgomery Rebels from 1972 to 1977. In 1977, Michael Coleman was two years old. Jeff Niemann, Mitch Talbot, Justin Ruggiano, Reid Brignac and Evan Longoria had not been born yet.
It is unknown what the future holds for the men who helped lift Montgomery to championship glory in 2006, just as it is unknown who shall figure into the Biscuits’ fortunes this season. Will 2007 bring more glory to Montgomery?
It surely can’t hurt to dream.
What did winning the 2006 Southern League Championship
mean for the city of Montgomery?
"Winning a championship is an awesome feeling for Montgomery . You go to other towns like Birmingham or even Atlanta , and they know the Biscuits. They know something about our tradition and they know that Montgomery means championships. I hear Peter Gammons talking about the Devil Rays now. . . and you know that those guys are going to be going up against the Yankees and the Red Sox soon."
- David Glover, Biscuits Fan
"It means a viable baseball team is finally back in Montgomery. I think it adds another dimension to the type of entertainment available in this city... If you look at the attention the Biscuits have been getting, the city’s been starving for baseball."
- John Varnado, Biscuits Season Ticket Holder
"What it mean[s] to Montgomery is that we have a viable hometown team that has quality written all over it. I don’t know of any other team in Montgomery that has won their league’s championship since the Rebels. So I think what it means is that they’re here to stay and they have proven to be deserving of our support... It really meant a lot to me as a fan that has gotten to know some of the players and how hard they worked... to see the fruit of their work… blossom… They tasted their future and it was most gratifying to watch them see it all come together and it’s great to be there to see someone’s dreams finally come true."
- Barry Spink, Biscuits Booster Club Secretary
"I told everybody when they first came to town, I’d give them five years to win. Now they’ve won. People in this town want to support who’s gonna win."
- Jimmy Wallace, Biscuits Fan
"For me and many other Biscuits fans, the 2006 post season seemed to have a dream-like quality. Although the team didn’t clinch a play-off spot until late in the regular season, when the games counted the most, the Biscuits seemed unstoppable... The ease with which the Biscuits swept the Jacksonville Suns put everyone on notice that the Southern League Championship was a very real possibility... There was a sense of electricity in the stands every time the Biscuits came to bat. The fans were treated to an awesome display of offensive firepower as our hitters pummeled the Huntsville Stars... all of us fans realized we were witnessing something special. Although Montgomery has won numerous Southern League Championships in the past, the last one was nearly 30 years ago; so for a whole generation of baseball fans this was a unique experience. The championship was made even sweeter because it occurred after just three seasons of baseball’s return to Montgomery."
- Bobby Bright, Mayor