It's unfortunate none of our regional Major League teams were involved in the Playoffs this year. The Tigers were eliminated from contention pretty early on, the Cubs kinda hung in there for a while, but ultimately met their postseason end in late August. And the White Sox.... well... they did play baseball games this year.

At least in Kalamazoo, we had our Northwoods League Champion Growlers to watch - a MAJOR high point in an otherwise "meh" Major League Season for us. But leave it to the Growlers to score ONE MORE WIN, by adding a World Series Champion to their bank of alumni over the weekend.

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The Growlers have a number of players in the Major Leagues, but specifically, congratulations to No. 17 David Hensley, who completed his Rookie Year, and happened to get a ring out of it with the Houston Astros.


Straight from the Growlers own Twitter, yes, David Hensley now has one of the most coveted pieces of hardware in all of baseball, and his journey to get there took him through a season in Kalamazoo.

While attending San Diego State, Hensley spent a summer season with the Growlers in 2016. That was after his sophomore year at San Diego State.

He would graduate in 2018, move into Single-A ball for a few years, before landing with the Sugarland Space Cowboys (Second-Best Baseball team name ever), and was called up to the Houston main roster this season.

He proved to be very versatile around the field, filling in across the infield, at left field and as a designated hitter, which is when he smashed his first Major League home run, on September 27 against the Diamondbacks.

Then, obviously, the ultimate achievement in Baseball, the World Series.

What a rookie year for the guy. Congratulations David Hensley.

Brock's Major League Baseball Hat Collection