When Madison Mallards first baseman Harold Riggins steps in for batting practice before a game, activity at the ballpark ceases.

“It’s pretty impressive,” Mallards manager C.J. Thieleke said. “Teammates stop. Opponents stop. You can be blindfolded and tell when Harold is hitting.”

That’s because of the booming sound the baseball makes coming off the bat of Riggins, who is 6-foot-3 and 255 pounds.
“I’ve been around guys that hit home runs,” teammate Adam McClain said. “It’s hard to explain (Riggins’ appeal). He hits balls so hard — balls will get out and they will stay head high the whole way. That’s what’s so cool about it.”

These are not your older sibling’s Mallards, which the statistics prove.

The Mallards are knocking balls out of the park at a pace never seen before in their nine-year history. This team hit 28 home runs in the first half of the season, which eclipses the previous team record of 24 set in 2003.

This year’s total matches the number of home runs hit in the previous two full seasons combined.

“I think we can keep it up,” Riggins said. “Hopefully, we get to 50 or 60 or something like that. That would be tight.”

That also would rival the league record of 59 set by St. Cloud in 1997.

It started in the home opener when Riggins hit a two-run, walk-off home run to center field to beat Rochester 7-6. It continued four days later when McClain hit a walk-off grand slam to beat St. Cloud 9-5.

Riggins and infielder Mark Ginther share the team lead with five home runs each, but Thieleke can write out a lineup that features eight or nine players with power. The team is slugging .493 following Thursday’s 8-3 loss to the Green Bay Bullfrogs, after being above .500 a couple of games ago. Last year’s team had a .322 slugging percentage.

“In our school season, we’re three, four, five hitters,” McClain said of the hitters up and down the lineup. “We’re not like bottom-of-the-order guys. We know how to hit. So, it’s hard to get a bunt sign. You’re like, ‘Are you serious?’ ’’

Big hitters, shorter fences

Two things have conspired to lead to the homer barrage: The success of the Mallards over the years has allowed them to attract better all-around players; and the fences at Warner Park were moved in at key spots.

Thieleke, in his fifth season as manager, considers this to be the most talent ever at his disposal.

“That’s what’s out there when you get in the upper tiers of any sport,” Thieleke said. “You start getting into the kids that really have a future and could be in the Cape Cod (League) or could possibly even be playing for Team USA. That’s good talent.”

Ginther, who plays second and third base, is a prime example of the kind of athlete the Mallards can now attract. He was a top-100 quarterback in the nation after leading Jenks High School in Tulsa, Okla., to back-to-back state football championships.

As a freshman at Oklahoma State, he hit .303 and started 33 games for a team that advanced to the championship round of the NCAA Clemson Regional.

“He may be as talented a kid as we’ve had here,” Thieleke said. “He’s got that quarterback presence to him, stays even-keeled.”

The shorter fences have also made it easier to hit home runs, although Thieleke said opposing teams’ home-run totals have remained fairly constant at home. The Mallards have allowed 14 home runs overall on the season.

The fences were moved in 20 feet in left-center and right-center to accommodate new bullpens. The fence down the right-field line was also moved in to 295 feet with the expanded Duck Blind. It’s 308 feet down the left-field line.

Thieleke estimates a half-dozen of the team’s home runs were the result of the shorter power alleys. A few others were hit down the lines, mostly by hitters going the opposite way.

Too much long ball?

When Thieleke assembled teams in the past, he never gave much thought to power hitters, other than maybe one to offer some presence in the middle of the lineup. That’s because pitching and defense usually dominate in the Northwoods League with the wood bats.

“It’s so hard to score runs in this league,” McClain said. “We’ll have two outs, a guy will get walked and the next pitch will be a home run. That’s how we’ll score a lot. We can bunt, we can move runners. But it seems like we’ve been living and dying by the long ball.”

Unfortunately for the Mallards, the offense has sputtered lately. After an 11-3 start, they were 19-14 heading into Thursday night’s game at Green Bay.

At times, Thieleke said, the offense has relied too much on home runs. He talked to the players recently about thinking too much about long balls.

“We’ll have fly outs to the wall three or four times a night,” he said. “You’re that close from having six or seven runs. They don’t always go. You’ve got to be able to do some things other ways, too.”

Still, it has been an entertaining brand of baseball. Mallards general manager Vern Stenman compares Riggins to former Chicago White Sox first baseman Frank Thomas.

“I’ve never seen a ball hit by a Mallard go over dead center,” Stenman said of Riggins’ walk-off homer. “He hit it with one arm.”

One of the most impressive batting practice moments came in La Crosse, where Riggins hit a ball near the top of a huge scoreboard in left center.

“I just try and hit the ball hard,” Riggins said of his batting practice displays. “Most of the time it ends up going out of the park. I guess it’s pretty entertaining.”

But more than his moon shots, Riggins relishes the line drives where he knows he made a good swing.

“When I square balls up, hit line drives off the wall, that feels a lot better to me,” he said. “At least, I know my swing is right.

“I’m more worried about my swing than how far the ball goes. If I don’t have a good swing, there’s no chance of me hitting the baseball.”