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Monday, May 30, 2022

Kingsport Mets Bat Boys, 3 in 1990, another gets ring

Kingsport Mets 1990 batboys card

When it came time to hand out the Kingsport Mets 1988 championship rings, the team batboys were right there, too.

As the team handed them out to start 1989, to the returnees, The Kingsport Times-News photographed team members James Harris and Alberto Castillo inspecting their hardware.

Also there with his own ring: batboy Tyler Hobbs.

Hobbs earned another pro baseball luxury that year - he appeared on his own baseball card, along with three other batboys, Josh Brickey, Ben Smith and Travis Nelson.

Two of those batboys would return for 1990 and again get on a card, Brickey and Smith.

Brickey and Smith would be noted on the back of the 1990 Kingsport Mets Star batboy card, along with another batboy, Jason Adams.

The only information about the three offered on that 1990 card other than that they served as batboys was that all three resided in Kingsport.

Further definitive information on the three could not be found. Also, only two batboys appear on the card front. The card doesn't specify which two of the three mentioned are pictured.

But Brinkley appears to have come from a batboy family, or, at least, maybe had a brother who also served as a Kingsport Mets batboy. 

Nine years before that 1990 card, a Kevin Brickey served as batboy for the Kingsport Mets. The Times-News photographed that batboy Brickey congratulating Kingsport Met Luis Martinez during a 1981 game.

Kingsport Mets 1990 batboys card


1990 Minor League Tally 
Players/Coaches Featured:3,929
Made the Majors:1,308-33.3%
Never Made Majors:2,621-66.7%
5+ Seasons in the Majors:531
10+ Seasons in the Minors:328    

More 1990 Minor Leaguers:

 - Kingsport Mets Bat Boys, 3 in 1990, another gets ring, 5/30/22
 - Bill Bates played single season as pro with Braves, 21 games, 11/21/16

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