It is not every day when a baseball owner is the starting pitcher. But it happened for the Wichita (KS) Wingnuts this week, and probably is going to be the case every five days or so in the American Association.
The shareholder happens to be left-hander Nate Robertson, a onetime starter for Detroit, who faced off against St. Louis Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter in Game 3 of the 2006 World Series. Now 34 and two years removed from his last major league appearance, the 57-time big-league winner was released out of Triple-A by the Chicago Cubs recently and came “home” to Wichita, where he is involved with the Wingnuts along with his brother, President/General Manager Josh Robertson.
Nate Robertson stepped in for an injured starter, going two scoreless innings in a 7-1 triumph against Amarillo, TX for Central Division-leading Wichita this week. Making it even more of a family affair, pitching coach—as well as another brother—Luke Robertson was activated since reliever Matt Nevarez had just been sold to Boston and another pitcher, Edgar Martinez, had departed for Mexico. Luke had pitched in the Oakland farm system, but that was eight years ago.
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