Former home-run king Henry Aaron began his professional baseball career in Eau Claire,Wis., in 1952, so the Northwoods League championship won Sunday by the Eau Claire Express hardly ranks as the most memorable event in the city’s long and often rich baseball history.
But the conquest was significant nonetheless as it propelled the Express to its first Northwoods League title and a No. 1 ranking in PG CrossChecker’s final 2010 ranking of the nation’s top summer-league clubs.
Eau Claire finished with a 52-24 record overall this summer, winning both the Northwoods League’s first- and second-half titles, and sealing the deal by capturing both rounds of the league’s best-of-3 playoffs. The Express clinched the title and top ranking by beating the Rochester Honkers 9-1 Sunday in Eau Claire. The team’s 52 wins were the most by any summer team.
Outfielder Steve McGuiggan (Illinois-Chicago) powered Eau Claire to the title by drilling a pair of two-run homers and throwing out a runner at the plate from center field. In all, he went 3-for-4 with four RBIs. Lefthander Felix Cardenas (Texas-Permian Basin) stymied a predominantly lefthanded-hitting Rochester lineup through seven innings, allowing just five hits.
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