Know Your Foe: The RedPocket Mobiles
By Joe Horton
Welcome to Know Your Foe, your friendly fast facts to get to know the Ballers’ opponents at Raimondi Park this season. Next up: the RedPocket Mobiles!
Their Season So Far:
- The Mobiles are 1-8, having started the season in Modesto before heading to Yuba-Sutter, earning their first victory of the season 5-3 last night. Though it’s been a tough road so far, three of those losses have been one-run affairs. DH Gianni Horvat swings a hot bat (11th in the league in hits), and OF/2B Marquis Jackson and RF Jordan Harrison-Dudley are both top-ten in the league in stolen bases.
Hometown: None!
- The Mobiles, true to their name, are a barnstorming team without a permanent home. They’ll play all 96 games on the road this year.
Mascot: A…Phone Baseball!
- Or a baseball with a cell signal inside of it? Trying out some mascot names here: Celly? Siggy the Signal? Wiffy the Wifi? (RedPocket @us for some more incredible ideas.)
Team History:
- When the Pioneer League lost the Rocky Mountain Vibes, Northern Colorado Owlz, and Grand Junction Jackalopes last season and added the Long Beach Coast and Modesto Roadsters, the math didn’t quite math. The Mobiles even out the league at 12 clubs.
- Barnstorming teams were once common in baseball. Famous organizations included the Negro League champion Kansas City Monarchs (featuring titans like Satchel Paige and, briefly, Jackie Robinson) or the House of David, formed from a religious commune in Michigan.
- According to the league’s press release, “The last American professional baseball team to operate under a corporate sponsorship was the Brooklyn Tip-Tops of the Federal League in 1915, a team named for its sponsor's bread company.” (Try explaining a smartphone to a WWI-era bread company…)
Best Promos:
- RedPocket is chronicling the journey of the players on their YouTube page with their “On the Road Again” series.
- Dispatches writer Chris Rodriguez of 9inningnomad is also covering the Mobiles throughout their season, so stay tuned to his coverage on his Instagram.
What to Watch For:
- Longtime San Francisco Giants reporter and producer Amy G—Amy Gutierrez—is a general manager.
- Their manager is Dmitri Young, a 13-year MLB veteran, 2-time All-Star, and 2008’s National League Comeback Player of the Year. Ray King, a 10-year bigs veteran, is their pitching coach, and as reported by our Nick Clementi, a little of Ballers trivia: King was traded in 2005 to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for Larry Bigbie and the B’s Aaron Miles.
- The Mobiles return to Raimondi for another series starting July 31.
Images courtesy of the RedPocket Mobiles, flysvisuals, and 9inningnomad.
Joe Horton is the editor of Dispatches from Raimondi.
