Chillicothe Paints

Chillicothe Paints
Information
League	Prospect League (East Division)
Location	Chillicothe, Ohio
Ballpark	V.A. Memorial Stadium
Year founded	1993
League championships	1 (2010)
Division championships	12 (1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015) Includes regular season and postseason titles
Former name(s)	Chillicothe Paints (1993-present)
Former league(s)	Frontier League (1993-2008)
Colors	Navy Blue, Red, White
Ownership	Paints Sports & Entertainment
Management	Bryan Wickline (Managing Partner)
Manager	Brian Bigam
Media	Chillicothe Gazette
Website	chillicothepaints.com

The Chillicothe Paints are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Chillicothe, Ohio, in the United States. The team is a member of the summer collegiate Prospect League.

Team history

The Paints played in the independent Frontier League from the 1993 season until the end of the 2008 season. They were one of the original teams in the league. The Paints play their home games at V.A. Memorial Stadium.

The Paints were the longest tenured franchise in the Frontier League to date. They reached the Frontier League Championship Series on six occasions (1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2006). However, they never were able to claim a Frontier League championship win.

In 2005, the Paints set a team record by drawing over 8,500 fans.

V.A. Memorial Stadium had grass from 1993-2005. The ballpark installed FieldTurf in 2006, the first baseball field in the United States to have a 100% FieldTurf playing surface, including base, mound and home plate areas.

Following the 2008 season, the ownership announced that they would leave the Frontier League, becoming an amateur collegiate summer baseball team. Since 2009, they have competed in the Prospect League, an amateur collegiate summer league.

In 2010, the Paints won their first Prospect League championship against the Danville Dans on an 11th inning walk off home run by Ian Nelson.

Two years later they made another playoff appearance, and lost in the first round to the West Virginia Miners, 6-2.

The Paints celebrated their 25th season in 2017. As part of the festivities, the Paints retired longtime coach Marty Dunn's number 25 in a pregame ceremony that included former players and staff throughout the first 24 seasons of Paints baseball. That season, the Paints averaged 1,959 fans per game, setting a franchise record in both average attendance and total attendance. The 58,755 total attendance marked a new Prospect League record. The Paints ranked in the top 10 of all summer collegiate teams nationwide in per-game attendance in 2017.

After missing the playoffs in 2016 and 2017, Chillicothe made a return to the playoffs in 2018, losing to the Kokomo Jackrabbits two games to one in the East Division Championship Series. It was the first playoff appearance for manager Brian Bigam since he took over the reins in 2016.

Retired numbers

• 20 - OF Gator McBride (All-Star and hit leader)
• 22 - P Brian Tollberg (first Frontier League player to make it to the MLB with the San Diego Padres)
• 25 - Bench Coach Martin Dunn (Paints' Bench Coach from 1993-2015)
• 27 - 3B Mitch House (3-time All-Star)
• 29 - OF Steve Martin (retired in 2006, lost his life following a game in an automobile accident July 6, 2006)
• 30 - DH/1B Scott Pinoni (1999 Most Valuable Player; 3-time All-Star)
• 50 - Manager Roger Hanners (1993 FL Manager of the Year, managed Paints 1993-2000)
• 24 - SS Travis O. Garcia (2007 FL Most Valuable Player)

Major leaguers

• P Brian Tollberg (Pitched for the San Diego Padres from 2000 to 2003)
• P A.J. Achter (Pitched for the Angels and Twins from 2014-2016; Pitched for the Paints in 2009)

Managers

Paints bench coach Marty Dunn served as Interim Manager in 2000 following Roger Hanners's heart attack late in the season. Dunn has served as an interim coach for a few games since Hanners's retirement. During the Wilson era, pitching coaches Jim Frisbee (2005) and Johnny Ruffin (2006) have filled in during an absence, although Dunn has been on staff. During a road trip to Traverse City, Michigan in 2006, former Cy Young award winner Doug Drabek served as manager while Wilson was tending to things at his Texas home.

In late 2006, Wilson saw his contract not renewed, due to many reasons. That same day, the Paints organization named longtime Washington Wild Things assistant Mark Mason their new manager. Mason also managed the Ohio Valley Redcoats, in 2005 winning the Roger Hanners Manager of the Year award.

After 2008, Mark Mason was named the fourth manager of the Washington Wildthings replacing Greg Jelks. Mason will not be returning to the Paints in the Prospect league.

The Paints began play in the college wood-bat Prospect League in 2009 with former player Brian Mannino as manager. He was at the helm for the Paints only league championship win in franchise history in 2010 and managed through the 2011 season. Mannino continues to serve as Director of Baseball Operations, finding players and signing them each season.

University of Missouri Hall of Famer and former longtime Ohio State assistant Greg Cypret took over managing duties in 2012 and collected the second-most wins of any manager in Paints' history, behind only Roger Hanners. A stroke following the 2015 season forced Cypret to step away from managing, though he returned to the staff as an assistant coach in 2017.

Circleville native Brian Bigam took over managing duties in 2016 after guiding some of the best pitching staffs in the Prospect League as Chillicothe's Pitching Coach throughout several seasons. Bigam is currently the Paints' manager and helped the Paints to their 7th playoff appearance in 10 years of Prospect League play in 2018. Once again, the Paints led the Prospect League with the lowest ERA, fewest walks, and in several other categories in 2018.

• 1993 - Mark Jones (14-15 record) replaced midway through the season with Roger Hanners (11-12)
• 1994-2000 - Roger Hanners (278-267) .510 winning percentage
• 2001-2004 - Jamie Keefe (142-161) .468 winning percentage
• 2005-2006 - Glenn Wilson (111-79) .584 winning percentage
• 2007-2008 - Mark Mason (86-106) .448 winning percentage
• 2009-2011 - Brian Mannino (98-72) .576 winning percentage
• 2012-2015 - Greg Cypret (152-98) .608 winning percentage
• 2016-Pres. - Brian Bigam (87-96) .475 winning percentage

Season-by-season records

External links

• Official Chillicothe Paints website
• Paints page at OurSports Central