Tanner Tully Latest Battle Creek Bomber To Make ‘The Show’

This is the week for me to go down rabbit holes. The one today is, former Battle Creek Bombers (now BattleJacks) to have made it to the major leagues. The Northwoods League is a collegiate summer league, and both Battle Creek and Kalamazoo have teams in the league. But one category where Battle Creek leads Kalamazoo is former players to have made it to "The Show", the Major League.

The latest former Bomber to make his MLB debut was about a month ago, Tanner Tully made his debut in April for the Cleveland Guardians against the powerhouse New York Yankees. He joins former Bombers Rafael Lopez, Tony Sanchez, Jacob Waguespack and Ryan Dorow. You have to realize that some of the players in these summer leagues play in major college programs. Waguespack, for example, played at Mississippi. Tully played at Ohio State and was in Battle Creek in 2014, so it's been a long slow climb before making it to the big time.

The Northwoods League has a somewhat incomplete list of alumni on their website, but several names stand out. For Detroit Tiger fans, the biggest name on the list is Max Scherzer who was a Tiger ace before hitting free agency. Another big name pitcher is Chris Sale, who started out with the White Sox and became a World Series champion with the Boston Red Sox. Drew Smyly of the Tigers pitched in the NWL and Andy Dirks and Ben Zobrist also made it to the majors.