Billy Hamilton’s Races on the Bases
When I first met Billy Hamilton in the Dragons dugout prior to the start of the 2011 season, I already knew he had a reputation for possessing blazing speed. I asked him if he had a goal for stolen base numbers for the upcoming season. He told me he did, saying that since the Dragons played twice as many games as he played the previous year when he stole 48 bases, his goal for his season with the Dragons was 96.
My unspoken thought was, “Good luck with that, Billy. Our club record is 37.”
Well, as it turned out, Billy actually shortchanged his own base stealing ability. He broke the club record before the end of May. And if you were listening to my broadcast on September 3, 2011, you heard me say the words, “One hundred for Billy Hamilton!” He finished the season with 103, most at the time in the history of the Cincinnati Reds organization, major league or minor league.
Dragons Streak into History
On July 9, 2011, the Dragons broke the all-time record for most consecutive sold-out dates when they completed their 815th straight sell-out. The previous record of 814 was held by the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA. Two weeks later, we conducted a big celebration of the record. Sports icons Magic Johnson and Archie Griffin, two part-owners of the team at the time, were there to celebrate with us, along with many others including Reds legend George Foster and three former Dragons players, Drew Stubbs, Chris Heisey, and Logan Ondrusek, who had played in a Reds game in Cincinnati earlier that day and arrived on our plaza in a helicopter. I like to say that every person who has worked for the Dragons, as well as every player and coach, and every fan who has attended a game, should take pride in being part of that record.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Donald Lutz’s Reverse Cycle
In 2011, Dragons first baseman Donald Lutz, who would later become the first player raised in Germany to reach the Major Leagues, hit for the cycle. To this day, he is the only Dayton player to collect a single, double, triple, and home run in one game. Lutz did it in reverse order, with the homer coming first, and all four hits came within the first five innings of the Dragons game. It was an individual performance that may never be repeated.
Jose Siri’s Hitting Streak
On June 22, 2017, Dragons star center fielder Jose Siri collected four hits in one game, and then went on a roll, producing at least one hit each night, game-after-game. The Dragons club record at the time for longest hitting streak was 20 straight games, and Siri broke that record on July 14. The Midwest League record was 35, set 40 years earlier by Tony Toups of the Waterloo Indians, a team that played its last game in 1993.
Siri just kept going. On some nights, he would get a hit in his very first plate appearance. On other nights, it came down to his last chance at the plate, but one way or another, he kept the streak alive. As the hitting streak reached 30, it became super dramatic. The Reds radio network started requesting my calls every night as Siri kept extending the streak. The drama peaked every time Siri came to bat. Could he keep it going for another day?
On July 30, Siri tied the record. The next day, I was able to track down Tony Toups (the MWL record-holder who was now living in Florida) through social media and interview him for my radio pre-game show. Siri struck out in his first three at-bats that night, but in his final chance late in the game, Siri drove a hard grounder through the left side of the infield and broke the record that had stood since 1977. The streak eventually reached 39.
Elly De La Cruz’s Switch-Hit Home Runs
The 2022 Dragons season featured star switch-hitting shortstop Elly De La Cruz, and it was very obvious that he was something special. On July 7, Elly hit a home run batting left handed and a homer batting right handed in the same game, something no Dayton player had done for 12 years. I wondered how long it would take for someone to do it again. The wait was short, two days later, on July 9, De La Cruz repeated his performance with home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game.
