ChiefsVoice

UK- Thanks for coming up and introducing yourself last night. It was a pleasure to meet you. Sorry I didn't have more time but that was my only chance to get the Billek interview done. Sorry we couldnt score you some runs!

Ryan's last was opening day....hes been in the outfield 88 times since then

UK is here. he came up and introduced himself before the game and we had a nice chat!

i dont know what his situation is. He started his last 4 appearances. 58 2/3 innings on the season. My guess is they are gonna take him to instructs and want him to be able to throw there, but again that is just a guess.

I'd say it was two things both equally as important: lack of clutch, timely hits and blow saves. The team has 21 blown saves on the year...11 were in the first half and two of those were against Clinton who did make the playoffs.

Well we should have made it in the first half to be honest with you. We now have 7 players who have been here since day 1. I should make it a trivia question :) but here goes: OF Sam Fuld, OF Bo Flowers, OF Ryan Harvey, C Alan Rick, IF Aaron Smith, RP Jerry Blevins and SP Jesse Estrada. Heading into tonight 55 different players have played for the Chiefs (counting Hill, Nomar and Wood) This doesn't count Francisco as a 3B and a P but just once, nor does it count Norwood who has been DL'd on our roster all year. We will have at least 3 more with Guzman, Berg and now Blackford.. in 2004 the Chiefs had 54 total players for comparison while the 2003 team had 51

yeah it is tough. Id say of the guys on the team this season I am pretty close with a lot of guys. Patterson and Weber were at the top of the list. Fuld, Gallagher, Rick and Smith are some of the other guys I talk to a lot along with Larsen and now Billek. I like to try to talk to all of them at some point and get to know them and the toughest part is that the guys that just go here barely know anyone and are trying to get to know 25 guys at once and you dont want to step on that experience. When we get 5 new guys with a week to play it is tough to really get to know them other than idle chit-chat. I do talk to guys after they leave. For those who listen to the broadcasts, they know that I had a player from last year Sal Frisella who is now out of baseball on the air with me for 3 innings Friday night as he was back in town from his home in STL to visit. I talk to a few guys from 2003 and 2004 as well and two live in Peoria now in the offseason after getting engaged to local girls. I have talked to Lee Gwaltney about once every 10 days since he has left and I have talk to Shaver a few times as well. I'm sure I will talk to Patterson, Weber and Gallagher soon and most of the guys a couple of times in the off-season. You can't not talk to them during the year and get to know them. You have to get to know them to be able to do your job and beacuse otherwise you just wouldnt have anybody to talk to ever! When the time comes you just shake their hand, wish them best of luck and then become a fan like everyone else. I can tell you from experience it is MUCH MUCH MUCH harder when a guys get sent down, or even worse released. A promotion is the goal for everyone involved in minor league baseball so you can't help but be happy for the deserving player...

still 60. no one specific to follow him now. 75 for Berg on Wednesday. Bullpen may get a lot of work the next two days

apparently they need extra arms. Same as when they took Nolen last week. My best educated guess is that they are going to lose some pitchers to Chicago on Thursday with expanded rosters and need some arms in the bullpen for the rest of the regular season games...

They announced 998 paid. they should have found 2 more people to give tickets too!

Well here goes. Beloit is 32-31, so is Kane County. Cedar Rapids is 31-32, We are 30-33 and Burlington is 29-34. Assuming Quad Cities (35-28, 3 games up) wins the division, that leaves 5 teams for one spot. 7 Games left: Beloit: 3 vs Peo, 4 vs. Wis KC: 3 @ SWM, 4 vs CR CR: 3 vs. QC, 4 @ KC Bur: 3 vs CLI, 4 @ CLI The Chiefs own the tiebreakers against Beloit (7-2) and Cedar Rapids (10-5) but don't against Kane County (5-11) or Burlington (5-6). A 3-way tie breaker is win pct vs the other 2 teams so anything that involves KC and we are screwed. Best case for us is to win at least 3 against Beloit and have Kane County lose 4 of 7. Very tough position for us since we play South Bend at home to end the year and now we dont have Patterson, Weber ot Gallagher but the guys we do have are gonna battle their arses off I can promise that!

Burt was off and running on the pitch, went past 2nd base, retreated to 1st base and NEVER RETOUCHED 2nd base on his way back. Therefore when Larsen threw to Simo at 2nd, Burt was out. I was shocked the base ump actually noticed that he didnt retouch the base. With a 2-man crew they usually miss those things. And please feel free to say hi any time pre or post-game. Its never a bother!

Berg will not pitch Tuesday. With Gallagher's promotion we are now a starter short so the game plan is as follows (as of now anyway) Tues: Guzman 60-70 pitches Wed: Berg 75 pitches Thurs: Johnson (pushed back 1 day) Fri: Estrada (ditto) Sat: Billek (normal day) Who follows on Tues & Wed is anyones guess at this point.

PEORIA, IL— The Peoria Chiefs, in conjunction with the Chicago Cubs have announced that All-Star right-hander Sean Gallagher has been promoted to Daytona and reliever Adalberto Mendez has been promoted to AAA Iowa. Both pitchers will leave Beloit Tuesday morning and report to their new teams. The Chiefs are expected to add relief pitcher Todd Blackford who was acquired by the Cubs in a Monday night trade with Atlanta that involved Todd Hollandsworth. Gallagher defeated West Michigan with a career high 7 1/3 shutout innings on Sunday to improve to a league best 14-5. Sean led the MWL in ERA throughout most of the season and leaves the league in second place at 2.71. He is also in the top five in the league and top 20 in Chiefs single season records in strikeouts with 139. Gallagher made national news by starting the season with 40 1/3 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run. The streak was long enough for a Chiefs franchise record and he was within five outs of a Midwest League record. Sean started the All-Star Game at O’Brien Field June 21st and recorded a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout. He was also the only RH Pitcher selected to the MWL Post-Season All-Star team by a vote of league managers. Gallagher started the Chiefs no-hitter in Cedar Rapids on April 20th and the team’s one-hitter at home against Kane County on May 1st. He was scheduled to start the series opener against South Bend on Friday at home and is now expected to make his final 2005 start for Daytona against Brevard County on Saturday. Sean will join former Chiefs starters Chris Shaver and Matt Weber in Daytona for the last week of play. Mendez will join the Iowa Cubs on their current road trip in Omaha, NE as a reliever. The right-hander was 2-1 with a 3.10 ERA in 22 appearances for the Chiefs. He recorded six saves in nine opportunities and struck out 24 while walking 10 in 29 innings. Mendez started the 2005 season in Daytona and recorded 20 saves in 2004 for Lansing. Blackford, 20, was acquired by the Cubs Tuesday night along with another pitcher from the Atlanta Braves organization. The right-hander was selected by the Braves in the 13th round of the 2004 draft. This season, Blackford has gone 5-3 with a 3.17 ERA in 12 games for the Danville Braves (A). He has held opponents to a .219 average and issued just two homers in 59 2/3 innings of work. The Warsaw, IN native was 1-2 in 2004 with a 7.86 ERA in the Gulf Coast League. The Chiefs roster is now at 24 players heading into Tuesday’s game with the Beloit Snappers in Wisconsin. The Chiefs are two games out of the Wild Card race with seven games to play.

Should be an interesting one here tonight in Beloit. Our 3rd rounder Billek against the Twins 2nd rounder Kevin Slowey who is 3-0 with a 2.36 ERA, 53 K and 5 BB in 50 IP here and was 11-1 with a 2.16 ERA and 10 walks in 103 innings in college this year and held opponents to a .171 AVG and finished his college career with 317 K. Beloit is 2 games up on the wild card. If Chiefs lose 3 they are elminated if they win 1 they clinch the season series against Beloit (tiebreaker) and if they were to sweep they pass BEL in the standings. Newcomer Steve Harris is in the 2 slot between Fuld and Harvey. Harvey has 97 RBI, two more than Beloit 3rd baseman Dave Winfree in the race for the RBI title. Thats all from me tonight, I wont have internet access in -game since this is one of 15 broadcasts the Beloit "radio guys" do on the season. I will have the extra phone line the next 3 nights though.

well i wouldnt really say gunned down for Sunday's OF assist. McIntyre tripled off the wall and should have stayed at 3rd but they got greedy. Ryan one-hopped it to the plate from straight away center and bernard was ready for about 3-5 seconds with the ball. The triple hit the brick wall above the Cat sign and flew over Fulds head back to CF where Harvey got to it first backing up the play. The official league stats have Harvey with 10 outfield assists and 1 error (bobble), i have 11 so i must have credited him with one on a carry over play (9-2-6 for example) that an official scorer didnt credit to him. as for the league it is a stat kept on the milb private portal for teams. Eight players have more than 10 OA and the leader is Kenard Springer in LF for Burlington with 21. CF Yordany Ramirez of Ft. Wayne has 19. Fuld has 7 with 4 E Montanez 7 with 0 E Flowers 5, 9E Schmidt 2, 0E Larsen 3, 2 E

i talked to Lee last night and he said he had been there for 3-4 days...first I had heard of it!

you're in for a treat. Great talent and an even better individual.

PEORIA, IL— The Peoria Chiefs, in conjunction with the Chicago Cubs have announced that All-Star second baseman Eric Patterson has been promoted to AA West Tenn and All-Star pitcher Matt Weber has been promoted to High-A Daytona. The Chiefs will add rehabbing pitcher Angel Guzman, starter Justin Berg who was acquired from the New York Yankees on Saturday and outfielder Steve Harris. Patterson was the DH Saturday night for the Chiefs and went 0-for-2 with a walk and a sacrifice fly and leaves the team leading the Midwest League in hitting at .333. The second baseman has 13 homers, 26 doubles and 11 triples to go along with 71 RBI. Patterson was a Post-Season Midwest League All-Star and leads the league with 90 runs scored and is also in the top five in the league in slugging, on-base percentage, stolen bases, triples and hits. Weber was scheduled to start for the Chiefs on Tuesday in Beloit, just outside his hometown of Roscoe, Illinois. He won his last start against West Michigan on Thursday to improve to 7-9 on the season in 25 appearances. Weber leaves the Chiefs with 1 3.91 ERA in 142 2/3 innings. Earlier this season, Matt set a Chiefs franchise record after tossing 38 1/3 consecutive innings without issuing a walk. He is expected to join the Daytona Cubs starting rotation Guzman will start for the Chiefs Tuesday night in Peoria after making four starts in Mesa with the Arizona Cubs this season. Guzman has been as high as AA West Tenn and is currently on the Cubs 40-man roster. He went on the disabled list at AA last season on July 30th with right shoulder tendonitis and is still working his way back. In his first eight innings this season in Mesa he struck out 12 and didn’t allow an earned run. Guzman entered 2005 with a career record of 27-13 and a 2.62 ERA in 72 appearances. He spent part of the 2002 season in Lansing playing for current Chiefs manager Julio Garcia. In nine Midwest League starts, the right-hander went 5-2 with a 1.89 ERA. If all goes well Tuesday in Beloit, Guzman is expected to get the start at O’Brien Field on Sunday, September 4th against South Bend. Justin Berg was acquired by the Cubs on Saturday from the New York Yankees in a trade involving outfielder Matt Lawton. Berg was drafted in the 43rd round in 2003 out of Indian Hills Community College in Centerville, Iowa. The 21-year old right hander spent all of 2005 in Short-Season A ball with the Staten Island Yankees in the New York-Penn League. In 15 games, nine starts, Berg was 6-2 with a 3.53 ERA. He threw 58 2/3 innings and struck out 52 while walking just 20. The Wisconsin native won his last two decisions and started his last four appearances. He is expected to follow Guzman on Tuesday and Sunday. Steve Harris appeared in the outfield in 21 games for the Arizona Cubs through Friday. The 20 year old right-handed hitter batted .341 in 88 at-bats with 14 RBI and four doubles. The three additions put the Chiefs back to a 25-man roster for the first time in almost a month. The Chiefs face the Whitecaps on Sunday at 2:00 PM to finish off a four game homestand. Peoria then heads to Beloit for a four game series starting on Monday before finishing the regular season with a four game series against South Bend at home over Labor Day Weekend.

April: .172 11-64, 5 runs, 4 rbi, 1 steal May .279 19-68, 13 runs, 7 rbi, 8 steals June: .321 27-84, 17 runs, 5 rbi, 9 doubles, 2 steals July .340 34-100, 25 runs, 9 rbi, 9 doubles, 3 steals Aug: .337 30-89, 16 runs, 10 rbi, 6 doubles, 4 steals .285 on road with 33 runs, 12 doubles, 1 triple, 22 rbi, 4 hr, 3 steals .312 at home, 43 runs, 18 doubles, 3 triples, 0 hr, 13 rbi, 15 steals since the All-Star break he is 75-216 which is a .347 average the other interesting split is that same is batting .328 in the leadoff spot in 61 games with 24 rbi, 18 doubles, 46 runs... and he is hitting .344 when leading off an inning, 323 with runners on, .302 with RISP and 2 outs...

Nice! West Michigan takes a 6-0 lead on a 2-R HR by Luis Sabino. Grant Johnson out after 4.2IPs. 9H, 6R/5ER, 6/2, 1HR, 4SB/1CS Dave Keller and Dave Bialas are both in Peoria. Jeff Huson is here as well. i will try to get Dave on the pre-game tomorrow...

:shock: That's something you don't see very often. he was almost out, he thought the throw was going home and it didnt. and the RBI record is 104...8 away from Harvey with 11 games left...and maybe an at-bat tonight...due up 5th in 8th

Well my internship was a lot different than the way it is set up now. it had nothing to do with radio. In 2002 when I interned, the Chiefs didnt control the radio broadcasts so I really didnt get to do anything there. I put together media stats, game notes, rosters, wrote press releases, handled media requests/interviews and then did all the intern crap: move tables, put up inflatible games, all the work everyone hates. I always knew i wanted to do baseball, but I love basketball too, just not as much though I may be better at basketball. i did high school basketball in HS and football. At Marquette i had a call-in radio show, wrote for the paper was a TV anchor and did MU basketball to see what i liked the best and it was play by play. I had internships in college with TV stations, 1 in Milwaukee at a CBS and a summer one in Connecticut at ABC 8 and i learned quickly i did not want to weekend anchor, one man band or do nightly sports casts. Therefore i went back to school (grad school at Florida which I did finish in Dec 2003) and got the internship at the Chiefs and when they brought radio in-house in 2003, I was their guy! I do some high school basketball in the off-season and hope to do more this year than the fill-in handful of games i did last year.

Yes, he already agreed to it. You coming to any games this weekend? Or next?

I swear i "almost" said that on air tonight, a Kelly Leak play...but i didnt!