July 5, 2004

Former Tigers keeping their Major League teams in the hunt

Junior Spivey and Travis Hafner, former teammates on the 1996 Cowley County Community College baseball team, continue to play well at the major league level as their teams battle to stay in contention in their respective divisions.

Spivey cracked his seventh home run of the season Wednesday night (June 30) in Colorado as he helped the surprising Milwaukee Brewers to their fourth straight win. The 5-4 win over the Rockies improves Milwaukee’s record to 40-34 on the season, and moves it to within four games of the National League Central Division-leading St. Louis Cardinals.

For the season, Spivey is batting .276 with seven home runs and 28 runs batted in.

Hafner’s solid play has helped the Indians become one of the surprise teams in the American League. Although the Indians lost to Detroit 12-5 on Wednesday (June 30), Cleveland (37-39) remains just five games behind the American League Central Division-leading Chicago White Sox.

Hafner went 1-4 in Wednesday’s defeat and is batting .309, with nine home runs, 24 doubles, and 49 runs batted in.