Bull Durham is perhaps the best written sports movie of all-time. Since Ron Shelton’s classic came out in 1988, numerous passages of dialogue have been cited and interwoven into the baseball news of the day. Well, get ready for yet another citation.
You might recall this exchange between Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) and Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon).
Annie: “You hit 20 more this year, you’re going to be the all-time minor-league champ. The record’s 246.”
Crash: “Well, 247 home runs in the minor-leagues would be kind of a dubious honor.”
Annie: “I think it would be great. The Sporting News should know about it.”
Crash: “No, just no. Please?”
Chicago Dogs first baseman Keon Barnum, whom the White Sox selected with the 48th overall pick in the 2012 Major League Baseball draft, has achieved a minor league home run record of his own.
Barnum hit his 31st home run of the season last night against the St. Paul Saints, breaking the American Association’s single-season home run record.
The previous home run belonged to C.J. Ziegler (a former San Francisco Giants draft pick, who also spent time in the Minnesota Twins organization), which he set as a member of the Wichita Wingnuts in 2013.
Also in 2013, Barnum was ranked as the #8 overall prospect in the Sox’ farm system.
In 2017, splitting time between the Birmingham Barons and Winston-Salem Dash, he hit .218 with a career high 18 home runs and 45 RBIs.
He was released in 2018, having never advanced to the AAA or Major League level.
As the season entered the final day, Barnum led all Dogs players in home runs, RBI (89), total hits (114), walks (51), extra-base hits (58), slugging percentage (.637) and OPS (1.034).
In addition to leading the American Association (a league of unaffiliated teams) with 31 homers, Barnum also led the league in slugging percentage, OPS and total bases.
With the Chicago Dogs’ second ever season now concluded (they finished 59-41, third best record in the league), and Keon Barnum having absolutely torn it up, perhaps he’ll get the chance to leave independent baseball and get a gig in a major league club’s farm system again?
Maybe another chance for Barnum to work his way up to the show? The path from Indy ball to the majors happens more often than one might think.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.