As champions of baseball’s inaugural Bricktown Challenge in 2006, members of the Tucson Sidewinders got to split $30,000, get measured for a championship ring and drink all of the champagne in the winner’s clubhouse in Oklahoma City.
That came out to about $1,000 per player and coach. The memories were far more valuable.
“It’s something I’m never going to forget,” said Sidewinders star outfielder Scott Hairston, a Canyon del Oro High School grad. “I’m very proud to be part of this year.”
A few moments after the Pacific Coast League champion Sidewinders beat International League champion Toledo Mud Hens, 5-2, Hairston was informed he had been recalled to finish the season with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Quite a day, huh?
The Sidewinders won 98 games in 2006, shattering the record 87 for Tucson’s Pacific Coast League franchise set in 1980 and 1995. For one season, the Sidewinders were the best minor-league team on the planet, beating the Salt Lake Bees, Nashville Sounds and Round Rock Express in the expanded PCL playoffs, which put the Sidewinders in a winner-take-all Triple-A championship game against the Mud Hens.
“When you win 90-some games in the minor leagues, it’s incredible,” said Tucson manager Chip Hale, a former UA All-American infielder and now his alma mater’s baseball coach. “It was a storybook-type season.”
And then some.
The Sidewinders began the year minus Hale, who was summoned to the parent Arizona Diamondbacks to coach third base, filling in for the injured Carlos Tosca. When Hale returned to Tucson on May 2, the Sidewinders were 13-12.
Under Hale, the Sidewinders soon went on a 17-3 streak, gained control of the division and clinched the PCL Western Division championship on Aug. 27.
It’s doubtful a Tucson minor-league team was ever gifted with more talent.
Pitchers Mike Bacsik and Micah Owings were both undefeated; Bacsik went 11-0 before joining Team USA at the 2006 Olympic qualifying tournament. Owings also went 11-0 and was the winning pitcher in the Bricktown Challenge game against Toledo.
“When you have two of your leading pitchers go undefeated, you’ve got something special,” said Hale. “But our hitting was just as good, if not better.”
Micah Owings pitches for Tucson during the Bricktown Showdown Triple-A baseball championship game between the Sidewinders and the Toledo Mud Hens.
Hairston hit .323 with 26 home runs. All-Star second baseman Alberto Callaspo hit .337 with 42 extra-base hits. First baseman Chris Carter hit 19 homers with 97 RBIs. Outfielder Chris Young hit 21 homers with 96 RBIs.
Utilityman Robby Hammock hit 20 homers with 65 RBIs and third baseman Brian Barden hit .298 with 16 homers and 98 RBIs.
All six of those hitters would be in the big leagues a year later. They filled the gaps left when the Diamondbacks recalled their two leading prospects, shortstop Stephen Drew and outfielder Carlos Quentin, in late July. Both became D-backs regulars.
Typical of most Triple-A seasons, the Sidewinders had 101 player transactions during the 2006 season. Three who started the Triple-A championship game against Toledo — outfielder Jon Weber, catcher Juan Brito and center fielder Donnie Sadler — did not join the Sidewinders until midseason.
Cameron Roy, 14, and his classmates from Desert Springs Academy try to get players to throw spare baseballs during a field trip to Tucson Electric Park to see the Sidewinders play a game against the Fresno Grizzlies in 2006.
Hale made it work, mixing and matching his lineup across six months to produce the most successful professional sports season in Tucson history. Hale was named PCL Manager of the Year and was summoned to the Diamondbacks coaching staff a year later.
The 2006 Sidewinders drew 271,698 fans to Tucson Electric Park, including a season-high 12,935 on July 4. There was abundant excitement. The Sidewinders won 13 home games with walk-off hits.
“This is the most successful and happiest clubhouse I’ve ever been in,” infielder Matt Erickson said after the Sidewinders swept their playoff series against Round Rock in Texas.
From there, the Sidewinders took a 400-mile bus trip to Oklahoma City for the title game against Toledo, aired live on ESPN2.
Sidewinders base runner Chris Carter scores against Sacramento in the ninth inning following a walk-off hit by Miguel Montero.
After each Sidewinders victory in 2006, the Diamondbacks played Gnarls Barkley’s hit song “Crazy.” The lyrics include this line:
“And I hope that you are having the time of your life.”
The 2006 Sidewinders indeed had the time of their baseball lives.
