By Jeffrey Lutz, The Wichita Eagle-
Several questions about the future of baseball in Wichita were answered on Friday afternoon, but none more important than the long-awaited announcement of the team's name.
At a news conference at the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, the team's ownership group, including former Wichita State and current Detroit Tigers pitcher Nate Robertson, pulled the cover from a poster that revealed Wichita's newest sports team:
The Wingnuts.
The Wingnuts will begin play next spring in the independent American Association, a 10-team league that is not affiliated with Major League Baseball. The opening game will be May 7, likely in Wichita.
The logo is a mechanical nut with baseball bats for wings and baseball stitches for eyebrows. The team's colors are red, black and silver.
Wichitan Hank Haneberg won a contest to name the team and will receive season tickets to the Wingnuts and the Thunder hockey team.
"It was one of the original names submitted, and... it didn't make the final 10 list," general manager Josh Robertson said. "But as we were going through that month after the contest, Wingnuts re-emerged through phone calls and e-mails."
The field manager, also introduced Friday, is Kash Beauchamp. He was drafted No. 1 overall by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1982 but never reached the Majors.
"I'm the only guy in history to get a whole scouting staff fired, when Toronto selected me over Kirby Puckett," Beauchamp joked Friday.
He has managed at five stops in two independent leagues, covering eight seasons, and served as the Montreal Expos' hitting coach after his retirement as a player in 1995. He played at the Triple-A level with five organizations.
Beauchamp couldn't resist the opportunity to build a team from scratch and said he has already acquired three players. The team's pitching coach is Luke Robertson, brother of Nate and Josh.
"Not every player can play for me," Beauchamp said. "I demand more out of my players; I'm probably more of a Bill Parcells guy than a guy who's going to coddle his player. I'm a fiery manager."
Nate Robertson said he became excited about the opportunity to become involved in independent baseball when he saw a St. Paul Saints game during a Tigers road series against the Twins earlier this year.
It was easy for him to become involved in the ownership group, which includes Wichita-area attorneys and businessmen, because of his family ties.
"There's plenty of players out there that I know that I can point in this direction," Nate Robertson said. "We're looking for talent right now, and that will be a big part of it.
"Now, (promotional) ideas? I've got a minor in marketing, and we can always bounce around ideas."
The roster will be filled during Major League spring training in February and March, when independent league teams will be able to sign players released by big league organizations.
The American Association has an annual tryout camp in Fort Worth and the Wingnuts will set up similar camps in Wichita during the late winter months.
Beauchamp said the team will likely try to sign former Major Leaguers coming off serious injuries, along with young players looking to reach the highest level.
"With the Wranglers, we never had a say in what happened with the roster," said Josh Robertson, who was assistant GM with the Double-A team that left town at the end of the 2007 season.
"Getting to build a team from the ground up -- and our sole motivation is to win a championship -- that's probably the biggest part of it for me."
