Memories of Minden

JARRED BALL

We got some really GREAT news today....12-13-07
Jarred is now officially with the Houston Astros !!!!

Jarred Ball Acquired:
Signed as Arizona’s 9th round selection in the 2001 draft.

Bio:
Career Notes: 2005- Jarred ranked second in Southern League and the organization with 39 stolen bases while playing for Tennessee, his first year on the AA level…he had 7 multi-steal games including a career-best 4 thefts on August 2 vs. Jacksonville…he swiped a 13 bases during August…Ball equaled his career single-game high with 4 hits against West Tennessee on June 1, then again at Mississippi on July 31…he hit safely in a season-high 7 straight games from June 25 - July 3…Jarred shined during June, hitting .359 (33-for-92)…he batted .321 in 25 games for the Arizona Fall League champion Phoenix Desert Dogs. 2004—While at Lancaster (A), Ball scored a club-best 82 runs, tied for team lead with 15 home runs and was second on the squad with 26 doubles and 66 RBI…he connected for a pair of solo homers on May 7 vs. High Desert, his first career multi-homer contest…he assembled a career-best 16-game hitting streak from July 9-26, during which he hit .333 (23-for-69). 2003—His second straight season at South Bend (A), he led the team with 32 stolen bases, which ranked second among all Arizona farmhands and tied for seventh in the Midwest League…he was rated by Baseball America as one of the top 30 prospects in the organization. 2002—Jarred tied for second on the squad with 12 steals…he hit his first professional home run on May 17 at Lansing…his other homer was a ninth-inning grand slam on July 5 vs. Kane County…he was on the disabled list from July 12-24 with a left ankle sprain. Personal: Jarred Alan Ball…he resides in Tomball, TX where he graduated in 2001 from Tomball High School.

He has been picked as a Minor League All-Star 3 times
(South Bend in the Midwest League-2003.Lancaster in the California League - 2004.
Phoenix Desert Dogs in the Arizona Fall League-2005.

Arizona Fall League is a league that the Major league teams send their top
prospects to play in against each other. It's quite an honor just to be
picked to play in this league.

Texans In Joplin By Jason Becker
06/25/2001

Man what a summer our young Texans are having! The 17 and 18-year olds competing in tournaments all over Texas and around the nation are ripping up their competition and racking up the honors in the process. Leading the way are six Texans who have been selected to represent the nation on the Junior Olympic team.

Man what a summer our young Texans are having! The 17 and 18-year olds competing in tournaments all over Texas and around the nation are ripping up their competition and racking up the honors in the process. Leading the way are six Texans, have been selected to represent the nation on the Junior Olympic team.

Those six standouts - RHP/2B/OF Huston Street, LHP/1B/OF Scott Kazmir, RHP/OF Wardell Starling, RHP Mark McCormick, RHP Zach Segovia and SS Phillip Stringer - are among 24 players who were chosen by USA Baseball as members for the junior national team. The club will be cut down to 20 before it heads off to Cuba for international competition.

Street just graduated from Westlake High School in Austin and has signed to play with Texas in 2002. Kazmir will be a senior at Cy-Falls, Starling will be a senior at Elkins, McCormick will be a senior at Clear Creek, Segovia will be a senior at Forney and Stringer will be a junior at Klein Oak.

Another group that played the state proud recently was a group of 2001 graduates who competed for Team Texas at the Sunbelt Classic in Oklahoma. That bunch of talent, gutsy ballplayers brought home the tournament championship trophy for the first time since the event was originated.

The standouts for Team Texas were Tournament MVP Jarred Ball of Tomball and Tournament Most Valuable Pitcher Matt Albers of Fort Bend Clements.

Ball hit .390 with two homeruns, a triple and a double and drove in nine runs while scoring five. He also made a leaping catch above the wall to rob Team Florida of a three-run homer in that game. Jarred drove in the winning run in the semifinal game against Team Oklahoma with a two-out single in the bottom of the seventh. Then he drove home the winning run in the title game as well with a double off the wall in the bottom of the eighth. He has signed to play with the University of Houston and was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the ninth round in June.

Albers had a win and three saves in his outings at the tournament. Matt has signed to play with San Jacinto College in the fall and was also drafted by the hometown Houston Astros.

The roster for the champion Texans is as follows:
Matt Albers, Fort Bend Clements
Jarred Ball, Tomball
Ryan Barker, Humble
Brian Boerjan, Falfurrias
Matt Bose, Midland
Zach Duke, Midway
Madison Edwards, Midland
Keith Eichas, Round Rock
Matthew Goodson, Galveston Ball
Leonard Guerrero, Amarillo Tascosa
Logan Kensing, Boerne
Seth Lastrapes, Kingwood
Tanner McFadden, Round Rock
Cary Nelson, Channelview
Archie Panfilli, Galveston Ball
Aaron Ruchti, Klein Forest
Ryan Wagner, Yoakum
Abe Woody, Round Rock
Michael Pennington, Sanger

Coaches
Barry Russell, Midland
Fred Oliver, Lubbock Monterey
Joe Ray Halsey, Andrews
John Carpenter, El Paso Coronado
Rick Lynch, Tomball
Herb Espinosa, Fort Bend Clements

Getting back to the Team USA selections, the player who has really improved his status this summer among that group, incredibly, is Scott Kazmir. The incredibly part is the fact that Scott has actually improved his status. He was already considered one of the top 15 overall prospects in the nation for the 2002 Major League Baseball draft, and now he is considered by some services as No. 1. Scott blew the competition away in his performance at the Perfect Game showcase in Florida a few weeks ago, and he did the same in Joplin, MO, at the Team USA trials this past week. He is an incredible talent who is likely to be one of the top players taken next June.

Stringer is a special story as well. He was one of the top outfielders in super tough District 15-5A as a freshman at Oak, and then he moved in to play shortstop for the first time in his life as a sophomore. The first month or so was tough on him as he learned the position, but as the year pressed on, he really started turning heads. He is an extremely smooth fielder with awesome range and a good arm, and now he is a 16-year old member of Team USA. Look out for this young man the next two years. He is something special.

Then there is Street, who has personally been my favorite player to watch over the last two years. I had the pleasure of seeing Huston pitch for the Texas Wings last summer, and man what a competitor! His raw stuff is not as good as Kazmir1s, but he plays with more passion than anyone I have seen. He loves to compete, and he loves the game. That, combined with his natural ability, should help Huston find a way into the pitching rotation somewhere for the Longhorns next season.

Jarred Ball AFL Tennessee Smokies #22

On April 17, 2006 Jarred Ball was leading the Tennessee Smokies as the Favorite

Returning player by 13% of the votes at 5:528pm

OF Jarred Ball 44%

OF Jon Zeringue 31%

P Doug Slaten 4%

P Mike Schultz 14%

1B Jesus Cota 8%

To all of you who took the time to go to the web-site and place a vote for
my son - A BIG "Thank You". My son, Jarred Ball plays for the Arizona
Diamondbacks and is currently on the AA Level in Knoxville Tennessee.
Jarred's grandmother is Nettie Lumpkin and her father was the original
founder of the Sanitary Dairy there in Minden. Although I never lived in
Minden I remember growing up and every year going to the old location of
their home and picking up pecans till I was blue in the face - never thought
I would miss all that but boy was I wrong. I also remember the many family
get togethers we would have over at Herman and Rae Ratcliff's house on
Sibley Road and Billy Lumpkin making sure I was staying in line - somewhat!!!!

I grew up in Bossier City and had many friends
from Minden and remember coming over there to play a lot of really good
baseball against that always tough Minden High.
Again, I just wanted to pass on my gratitude for your support.
If you would like to follow any of his games - They play 140 - from April
thru Sept. you can always go to the website where you voted to check on how
he is doing and the team. All the games are broadcast over the internet.

www.smokiesbaseball.com

God Bless
Randy Ball

Randy, Jennifer and Jarred Ball

This is one of my favorite pictures - I was holding Jarred in my old catching
mitt when he was 5 days old

Jarred - the early years - 1 year

Jarred - 2 year

Jarred - age 3 with glove

Jarred - 6 years

Jarred Ball

Spring Training 2004

Spring Training 2005

Spring Training June, 2005

Spring Training 6-25

Spring Training 06-37 (26)

Spring Training 06-37 (32)

SB Hit Spring Training

SB Hit 1

Spring Training 2005

Tennessee Smokies 2005

These are all pictures of Jarred when he was invited to work out with
the 2001 World Champion Arizona Diamondback's - After the workout with the
team, Jarred signed his pro contract