Mud of Victory
Backs to the wall, the Toledo Mud Hens dig in to surprise the Rochester Red Wings in the 2006 International League Governors' Cup Finals

Jim MANDELARO
MinorLeagueNews.com

The International League Governors’ Cup was a down-and-dirty affair between two longstanding clubs that have shared laughingstock status in the IL: The Rochester Red Wings and the Toledo Mud Hens.

Success has largely eluded the Hens, whose last Governors’ Cup title was in 2005. Their closest shot was the first round of the 1980 playoffs, where they beat Rochester, but lost to the Columbus Clippers in the Cup finals.  Prior to that, you had to go back to 1967 to find the Hens' name engraved on a Cup plaque.

Toledo’s national rep comes from being the hometown team of Corporal Max Klinger.  Actor and Toledo native Jamie Farr, who played the character on the hit TV show M*A*S*H, has worked the Hens into the living rooms of America for the last twenty-five years. Only the Durham Bulls, via the Kevin Costner movie “Bull Durham,” have a higher national recognition.

The Wings had won a record 10 Governors' Cup championships, the last in 1997, its first season at Frontier Field.  Over the following eight years, they would finish last twice and fifth twice, missing the playoffs every season.  They would endure 197 errors in one season, and a franchise-tying 12-game losing streak the next. 

It was a drought that left Wings general manager Dan Mason sleeping in a tent in the bullpen for six days in a determined effort to snap the jinx.

Tired of losing, and losing sleep, the Red Wings dumped the Baltimore Orioles as their parent club after 42 seasons in 2002.  The Minnesota Twins brought respectability, but no playoffs, to Rochester over the next three years.

This season, that all changed. The Red Wings, under manager Stan Cliburn (See:"The Twins Twins," SZ, 07.13.01), overcame an avalanche of call-ups to the Twins, and still clinched the IL’s lone wildcard berth.

 

Road to the Governors Cup
In the first round, Rochester knocked off IL North champions, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons 3 games to 1. The clincher was a combined one-hitter by Francisco Liriano (MLN FAB50 Baseball 2005 No.29) , pitching on a rehab stint from the Twins, and former No. 1 draft pick Glen Perkins (MLN FAB50 Baseball 2005 No. 44).

The Mud Hens lost game one to Charlotte, then won three straight. They hit just .184 in the four-game series but slammed 10 home runs.  No surprise there: Toledo belted 152 homers to lead the IL, while Rochester managed 84.

“They're so physically strong," Cliburn said. “It looks like you're playing the Green Bay Packers.’’

Little did he know.

The Red Wings and Mud Hens collided in a best-of-five Governors’ Cup final beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 12 at Rochester’s Frontier Field that was one of the best contests in recent history.  Here’s how the drama unfolded:

 

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