Flashback Friday: Vickers & Arias (1996)

Looking back at the 1996 Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, it is easy to see that the breakout offensive star of that team is David Ortiz (or Arias as he was known at the time).  However, the story by Chuck Carlson from the April 25, 1996 edition of The Post Crescent mainly talks about Randy Vickers.

Rattlers' duo has some clout

• After getting off to a fast start, Vickers and Arias are the top two RBI men in the Midwest League

Randy Vickers and David Arias currently reside comfortable in that nebulous world known as "the zone".

It is the place where baseballs look like watermelons.  Where most pitches are exactly where you want them to be.  Where the bat feels so good you almost think it's a natural extension of your arms.

And it's a place where the two surging Wisconsin Timber Rattlers hope to spend most of the season.

Arias, a 6-foot-4, 200 pound first baseman from the Dominican Republic, is hitting .338 with five home runs and 16 runs batted in, second best in the Midwest League.  He's fourth in the league with a .646 slugging percentage.

Vickers, a 6-3, 200-pounder from West Covina, Calif., is hitting .292 with five home runs and a league leading 18 RBI.

"They've gotten off to a great start," said manager Mike Goff.

Not coincidentally, so have the Rattlers.

Wisconsin, an offensive wasteland last season as it won just 63 games, has erupted this season, hitting .277 as a team and posting the best record in the league.

"I'd hate to see this team when everyone's hitting," Vickers said.

Actually, almost everyone is, but Vickers and Arias have provided much of the power surge.

Vickers, 20, is in his second full pro season after spending last year with Everett, Wash., of the short-season Class A Northwest League.

While there, he finished second in the league with 12 home runs and was fourth in extra-base hits with 27.

"Going into that season, I really hadn't played much pro baseball," Vickers said.  "I learned a lot maturity-wise.  You always come into things thinking you know a lot, but can learn even more."

Ironically, Vickers never considered himself a power hitter until he reached his senior year in high school when he discovered the weight room and changed from a 32- to a 34-ounce bat.

Suddenly, the ball was jumping off his bat, and he caught the attention of the Seattle Mariners, who made him their 31^st-round draft pick out of Glendale Junior College in the June 1994 draft.

After just 20 games that year in rookie ball in Peoria, Ariz., and 68 last season in Everett, Vickers knows he still has a long way to go.

"I'm always working on my swing," he said. "Because if it's not one thing with it, it's something else."

But Goff has no complaints.

"He's been a pleasant surprise," he said. "I didn't think he'd come in this soon and make an impact as quick as he has."

Vickers' power surge began April 9 in Fort Wayne, Ind.  Two nights later, he blasted two more.  After hitting a shot April 20 in Burlington, Iowa, Vickers hit his first home run at Fox Cities Stadium, an estimated 430-foot missile over the left-field wall Tuesday against Beloit.

A utility player who can play outfield, third base and first base, Vickers has spent most of his time as a designated hitter with an occasional turn at first base.

As for Arias, there are no questions.  He's a power-hitting first baseman - first and last.

"He's a big, strong boy," Goff said.  "At times, you watch him hit and you think, 'God, you can't get him out.'  But other times, he gets off his plan.  He overswings.  He loses his concentration.  So we have to stay on him all the time.  I know he gets tired of that, too."

Not really, said Arias.

"I need it," he said.

Arias, 21, came to the Rattlers as something of an unpolished gem, signed by the Mariners as a free agent in 1992.

He played one season int eh Dominican League before spending the last two seasons in Peoria.

With this being his first full season, Goff wanted to take some pressure off him early, so he had Arias hit eighth in the lineup.

"He came here straight from rookie ball," Goff said.  That's a big jump.  We wanted to take some pressure off him and help him get off to a fast start.  And he has."

For Arias, it was the perfect move and he responded by hitting all five of his home runs in a nine-day span.

"It worked out well for me," said Arias, now hitting third against right-handers and sixth against lefties.  "I was able to take my time at the plate and get my timing.  Now I'm a better hitter for it."

NOTES:
David Ortiz finished the 1996 season with a batting average of .322, 18 home runs, and 93 RBI.  Randy Vickers played a total of 51 games for the Rattlers in 1996.  He would hit .249, with 7 home runs and 31 RBI in those games.

Vickers was traded to the New York Mets on June 9, 1996 for pitcher Blas Minor.  He ended the season with stints in the South Atlantic League and the New York-Penn League.

Ortiz made it through the end of the Timber Rattlers season, but he too was traded in 1996.  Ortiz was the player to be named later in a trade with the Minnesota Twins that brought Dave Hollins to Seattle.

Ortiz went on to become 'Big Papi' with the Red Sox.

Vickers journey in baseball ended after the 1997 season with Capital City in the South Atlantic League.  This story from The Augusta Chronicle  explains that Vickers had other things on his mind during that season:

Each day is a struggle for Capital City Bombers outfielder Randy Vickers, and it has nothing to do with hitting a baseball.

The horrible memory of the automobile accident last month that killed his good friend and teammate, Tim Bishop, haunts him. He tosses and turns in bed, often until 3:30 or 4 a.m.

"Because when I lie down and close my eyes, the first thing I see is him lying there," Vickers said Thursday, the first time he has discussed the accident publicly. "The first couple of days after it happened, I struggled really bad just to make it through the day without breaking down.

"Now, I won't say it's getting easier because it's not any easier than it was then. But I'm learning to deal with it. I'm learning to accept that nothing I do can change what happened, and all I can do is try to get through it."

Click through for all of the details of the accident.  It is very understandable why Vickers only played 72 games during the 1997 season.  According to his baseball-reference page, Vickers did not play again after that season.

Past Flashbacks:

October 8: In fair territory (1994)

October 15: Fans flock to see Foxes (1987)

October 22: New Park (1995)

October 29: Logo Decision (1994)

November 5: Ed Sedar, Pitcher (1985)

November 12: Abarbanel no-hitter (1966)

November 19: McCauley no-hitter (1972)

November 26: Monroe no-hitter (1975)

December 3: Conner, Smith no-hitter (1990)

December 10: Pomp & Circumstance (1940)

December 17: Opening Day (1940)

January 7: Matt Erickson: Year One (1997)

January 14: Two Hits, Two Wins (1982)

January 21: Gil Meche (1998, 1999)

January 28: 18 K's for Ryan Anderson (1998)

February 4: Goodland Field Finale (1994)

February 11: Goodbye, Goodland (1994)

February 18: 7,118 at Goodland Field (1964)

February 25: Foxes halt record loss streak (1973)