A fan brought in some old programs to add to our collection the other day. The first one I picked up was the 1982 Burlington Rangers program. I’ve always been drawn to the look of the 70’s and 80’s Rangers logo. The 1982 Burlington Rangers went on to finish 63-75 in Midwest League play and featured eight future big leaguers. A 21 year old Curt Wilkerson played 56 games for the Rangers in 1982, batting .253 with 13 runs batted in.

Tony Fossas pitched in 25 games with an 8-9 record and a 3.10 ERA and threw 10 complete games…10! Of course Tony went on to pitch in 12 major league seasons and has since been back in the Midwest League on a few occasions as a pitching coach in the Reds organization.

There is a lot happening on the first page of the 1982 Burlington Rangers program. A quick message from Rangers GM Lawrence Avery and his family as well as President Rolland Richardson and his wife Donna. First year manager Marty Scott has quite the life in baseball since his managerial debut in Burlington in 1982. Scott now is the VP of Player Development for the Miami Marlins.

I always scored games when I went to them so I loved seeing the scorecard filled out in this program. The Rangers hit back-to-back homers in the first inning and look who is on the mound, it’s Tony Fossas!

The Rangers played the Quad City Cubs and as you can see there was a lot of offense with the Cubs coming out on top 13-8.

The 1982 schedule, yummmm Pabst! Back when the Midwest League had three divisions.

A look back at the 1981 all-stars, look at some of those names! Harold Reynolds, Henry Cotto, Jim Eisenrich, Darnell Coles, and Randy Ready! The two Burlington Players were from the last year as a Milwaukee Brewers affiliate who shifted their affiliation to Beloit in 1982.

Lots of programs to sift through and lots of time to do so, we are still 86 days away from opening day. Stay tuned more to come!