Columbia Fireflies Alumni Update By John Kocsis Jr.
The Fireflies have had a memorable year to say the least. We’ve seen River Town break the franchise record on-base streak set by Jeremy Vasquez during the 2018 season, we’ve seen the highest overall drafted player in the neon and navy to date and we’re in the midst of the most intense playoff hunt in franchise history. With 24 games remaining in the 2022 campaign, the Fireflies are three games back of the RiverDogs.
If that weren’t enough, the Fireflies play Charleston six more times this year. The Fireflies have never clinched a playoff berth. The team played their first season at Segra Park in 2016, snapping a 12-year drought where Columbia didn’t have baseball in its capital city. Prior to the drought, the Capital City Bombers played down the road at Capital City Stadium. Their final season (2004) the team tore up the competition, finishing 89-47 to clinch the playoffs before falling in the South Atlantic League Finals to the Hickory Crawdads, who were affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates at the time. The Fireflies have had a rich history of successful players in the short period of time they’ve played in Columbia, and this year has been a particularly successful year for Fireflies alumni to shine brightly. One once-in-a-lifetime moment that was recognized by a Fireflies player was when Juan Carlos Negret hit the first homer in this year’s MiLB Field of Dreams Game into the corn beyond the left field fence. If you build it, they will come, and the Fireflies single-season home run king will blast a home run at that ballpark. That was a cool feel-good moment for a Quad Cities team that has struggled to find success this season, but we’ve also seen a few former Fireflies get their first taste of the big leagues. First it was 2017 and 2019 RHP Colin Holderman, who broke through with the Mets May 15. The 6’7” 27-year-old was cruising through his first 15 Major League relief appearances in the Big Apple when he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates at the deadline for platoon designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach. Since becoming a Bucco, Holderman has been borderline unstoppable. In six games along the Allegheny, the former Fireflies pitcher has a 1-0 record to pair with a 1.08 ERA in 8.1 innings while holding opponents to a .185 average—just one point lower than his Major League average of .186 in 26 innings. In Pittsburgh, Holderman will have a chance to eat more innings and carve out a larger role in the bullpen in the coming seasons.
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