The mashing 1998 Jacksonville Suns
In retelling the story of Jacksonville baseball, the 1976 Jacksonville Suns stand out in a unique way for setting all sorts of (good) pitching records and (bad) hitting records en route to a thoroughly mediocre season. However, in Jacksonville’s record books to this day, there is one team that holds a heavy majority of offensive marks, and they were quite a special club: the 1998 Jacksonville Suns.
For many reasons, offense across all levels of baseball skyrocketed during the 1990s. Still, what the 1998 Suns accomplished was impressive. As a team, the club batted .290/.366/.457 (.823 OPS). To put that in perspective, the New York Yankees’ .825 team OPS led all of Major League Baseball in 1998. The 1998 Suns, meanwhile, still hold the Southern League records for batting average, hits (1,416), total bases (2,230), doubles (323) and extra-base hits (502).
The 1998 Suns finished fourth in the 10-team Southern League in runs allowed per game (5.2) and fifth in ERA (4.57), yet were still able to blast their way to an 86–54 (.614) record — at the time, the most wins in club history (the 2006 team also wound up finishing 86–54).
After winning the East Division by 15.0 games, Jacksonville swept Knoxville in three games. However, the Suns ran out of gas in the Southern League Championship, losing the series 3–1 to the Mobile BayBears, who had also finished the regular season 86–54.
A Detroit Tigers affiliate at the time, the 1998 Suns are interesting in the fact that they used just 16 position players and 18 pitchers for the entire season (the 1983 Suns hold the club record by using only 32 players for the length of the season). Perhaps even more remarkable is that 16 of the 34 players for the ’98 Suns, i.e. nearly half the team, wound up playing in the major leagues.
Gabe Kapler batted an astounding .322/.393/.583 with 47 doubles, six triples, 28 home runs and 146 RBIs to roll to Southern League MVP honors. The current San Francisco Giants manager’s name is still the club record-holder in RBIs (no one else has finished with more than 114 in Jacksonville history), hits (176) and doubles (tied with Robert Fick, who also notched 47 two-baggers in 1998). Kapler’s .322 average is also fourth in club history.
Meanwhile, right-hander Dave Borkowski led the league with a team-record 16 wins despite finishing 52nd in the Southern League in ERA at 4.63. Hey — it can really help a pitcher to have a great offense!
Of those 16 eventual major leaguers, only Fick and Francisco Cordero became All-Stars in The Show, combining to for four such honors. Thus, perhaps the most successful alumnus of the 1998 Jacksonville Suns might be Dave Roberts. He batted .266/.342/.366 over 10 big league seasons, came up with one of the most critical stolen bases in baseball history in the 2004 ALCS for the eventual World Series champion Boston Red Sox and has steered the Los Angeles Dodgers to two 100-win seasons, a pair of National League pennants and a 393–256 (.606) record in four seasons as a manager in Chavez Ravine.
After spending the entirety of the 1998 season in Jacksonville, Roberts made his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians the next year. In a lot of ways, it’s ironic; the 1998 Suns are maybe the most prolific offensive team in Southern League history. It’s just that their most successful alumnus topped out at eight home runs in a big-league season and posted an above-average OPS+ just twice. The milliseconds’ Dave Roberts picked up as an advantage to swipe a base or get a quick jump on a ball defensively in the outfield helped him carve out a decade of playing in the majors. Perhaps it’s those subtleties of success that are why he has made such a good big league manager.
