Moniker Madness!

I'n not sure why or how I stumble on these strange little tidbits about our Valley League alumni, but it's happened again.

Minorleaguebaseball.com has been running a "moniker madness" bracket during the NCAA men's basketball tournament... with "different" names from professional baseball. Folks voted for the strangest, or most interesting name, and the winners advanced.

Five former Valley Leaguers were in the orginal brackets, with one remaining in the "elite eight." They are Rebel Ridling (Covington 06), Rowdy Hardy (Staunton 04), Ray Liotta (Waynesboro 02), John Madden (Luray 02-03), and Rocky Cherry (Harrisonburg 01).

Ridling was a #6 seed in the "Icicle Reeder" bracket. He defeated #11 Lovesquis Santana in the first round, but lost to #3 Given Kutz in the second. (Seriously? Rebel Ridling is so much cooler than Given Kutz!)

Hardy is the lone remaining Valley Leaguer, as the #1 seed in the Farmer Works bracket defeated #16 Rubby De La Rosa, #9 Flint Wipke, and #4 Smelin Perez. In the regional final, with voting going on now, he is currently up against #6 German Sacks.

Ray Liotta (this one, not this one), a #3 seed in the Farmer Works bracket, was upset by #14 Stephen King in the first round.

John Madden (this one, not this one, doofus), a #15 seed in the same bracket as Liotta and Hardy, lost to #2 seed Burt Reynolds in the first round.

Last but not least, Cherry, a #2 seed, beat Ben Dollar in the first round, but lost to #7 seed Maverick Lasker in the second.

Click the above link to register and vote for Rowdy!

Comments

[Lizzy Kipps]

Ben Dollar's name appears in this post, but not as one of the former valley leaguers! He played for us in New Market in '07.

[JohnLL]

Good grief. Believe it or not, I actually looked over my list of current pro players because Dollar sounded so familiar, but I couldn't find him.

Looks like he signed with Arizona after some time in an independent league last year.

Thanks for the update, Anna! JLL

[Anna Kipps]

Haha.. that was Lizzy, not me. Weirdly enough I just talked to Ben Dollar for the first time in a year last night. He's excited to be playing in the midwest league (low A) this year for South Bend!

I love these name brackets every year. So funny.

[Austin]

Great stuff!