Minor League Baseball

Baseball Hall of Famer Throws Out Ceremonial First Pitch For Seattle Mariners MiLB Affiliate

Ferguson Jenkins and Richard Allen Jr. each threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Arkansas Travelers, the Double-A Affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, on Friday.
Brady Farkas|
Texas Rangers former player Ferguson Jenkins before the hall of fame induction ceremony before the game against the Seattle Mariners at Globe Life Field in 2022.
Texas Rangers former player Ferguson Jenkins before the hall of fame induction ceremony before the game against the Seattle Mariners at Globe Life Field in 2022. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

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Seattle Mariners

Friday was a star-studded night at the Arkansas Travelers game, as National Baseball Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Joining him was Richard Allen Jr., the son of soon-to-be Hall of Famer Dick Allen.

The Travelers are the Double-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners and the reigning Texas League champions.

Jenkins was a 19-year veteran of the Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies. He played with the Travelers from 1963-1965 as part of the Phillies system, going 0-1 in 1963, 5-5 in 1964 and 8-6 in 1965.

In the majors, Jenkins was 284-226, pitching to a 3.34 ERA. He was a three-time All-Star who struck out 3,192 batters. He led the league in starts three times and complete games four times. He also threw 325.0 innings in 1971. He led the National League in strikeouts in 1969.

He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.

Allen spent 15 years in the big leagues with the Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Dodgers. He won the Rookie of the Year Award with the Phillies in 1964 before winning the American League MVP Award with the White Sox in 1972. He led the American League in home runs that season with 37, while also leading the league in RBI at 113. It was a banner year for Allen, who also led the American League in walks and slugging percentage (.603). He led all of baseball in on-base percentage at .420.

He's going into the Hall of Fame later this summer. He played for Arkansas in 1963, hitting .289 in 145 games.

He died in 2020.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is the senior writer for “Minor League Baseball on SI’’ and the host of “The Payoff Pitch’’ podcast, which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. Follow Brady on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.

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