McKinney Blue Thunder

This page is dedicated to the McKinney Blue Thunder independent professional baseball team. It lasted one year, during the 2008 CBL season. The team was owned by Larry Faulkner, field manager was former MLB veteran Curtis Wilkerson, and general manager Alan Burt.

Online Radio Archives

A big thank you to 2008 McKinney Blue Thunder online radio broadcaster, Dave Michaels (North Texas Sports Network), for his finding and sending to us the only archived game broadcast we have of the CBL at this time (Feb 1, 2021). Despite online radio broadcasts happening for the league throughout its four-year history (2007 to 2010), for some reason the archives of the broadcasts are lost to history at this point. Dave was able to get a MP3 audio file of a game he jointly broadcast with David Crane (Bay Area Toros) during the 2008 season. The game took place in McKinney Texas and was the Toros’ official “game of the week” broadcast with its local radio agreement partner.

Should there be any copyright or other legal concerns where this needs to be taken down, then please contact us and we will remove it. Otherwise, if you have (or had) legal rights to this game’s broadcast then please consider letting us keep it posted live as it is the only game broadcast archive which proves that the CBL did, indeed, play during its four year history.

The link below is a Dropbox link, so click the link and you should be able to listen to the two-hour, fifty-minute broadcast without having to log into Dropbox:

Click Here –> 2008 Bay Area Toros vs McKinney Blue Thunder radio broadcast (Gabe Nesbitt Field, McKinney TX)

2008 McKinney Blue Thunder Continental Baseball League Team Photo

Statistics And Roster

Here is the link to the roster and statistics for the 2008 McKinney Blue Thunder: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?id=a27cfb6f

Another page featuring the same stats for the 2008 McKinney Blue Thunder, just presented differently: http://www.thebaseballcube.com/minors/indy/teams/stats.asp?Y=2008&T=12054View=Roster

Articles

Archived web page from the old Bluethunderprobaseball.com website about the final game in McKinney Blue Thunder history, a 5-4 win on the road over the Texarkana Gunslingers: Click Here For The Archive

Flyer (in PDF format) promoting the July 2008 series and benefits for fans who wanted to attend: McKinney Blue Thunder Flyer

Article recapping game between the Blue Thunder and Texarkana Gunslingers: http://starlocalmedia.com/mckinneycouriergazette/sports/gunslingers-shoot-down-blue-thunder-s-winning-streak/article_fa435ae6-3bec-565c-af09-07dc4f46855d.html

Review of Gabe Nesbitt Field (Ballfields of Craig Ranch) from Ballparkreviews.com during the 2008 season.

Mention of a pre-season exhibition game between the Blue Thunder and Texarkana Gunslingers in Greenville Texas: http://www.heraldbanner.com/sports/article_0f7ee100-3058-5421-9c8e-aa2f48ae89c7.html

Article about Tony Rogowski getting hired as a strength and conditioning coach for the Washington Nationals organization: http://blog.pennlive.com/patriotnewssports/2010/07/when_baseball_hits_home_longti.html

Recent article about Andrew Kelne now serving as a baseball instructor in Missouri: https://www.ekccross.com/baseballcoaches

Drue Carney worked for the McKinney Blue Thunder prior to the team’s first game in May 2008. He now sells a product for youth/select baseball and softball teams called The BenchCoach, which is a dugout equipment organizer. Here is one of his videos:

Images

Some images from the first part of “media day” in May 2008 before the season started:

Curtis Wilkerson Thunder Dog 2008 McKinney Blue Thunder Media Day

Here are many photos of the players taken during the season:

alan betourne mckinney blue thunder 2008 continental baseball league

Here are several more photos of Thunder Dog, the mascot for the team:

Thunder Dog with Flip at Ballfields At Craig Ranch McKinney

Thunder Dog with Sparky mascot — DV IMAGE

Thunder Dog with mascot at McKinney Ballfields — DV IMAGE

Thunder Dog with mascot at Ballfields at Craig Ranch — DV IMAGE

Thunder Dog with Blue Thunder player — DV IMAGE

Thunder Dog with another mascot — DV IMAGE

These images are from Dave Michaels, where he and Tom Gulley were broadcasters for the Blue Thunder during the 2008 season. The photos were from the press box at the Ballfields at Craig Ranch (Gabe Nesbitt Field).

Here is the image of the McKinney Blue Thunder’s front cover of the pocket schedule:

Videos

This piece was produced for what would have been the 2009 Dallas Aviators team. While that team did not materialize, the footage was from the 2008 McKinney Blue Thunder including catcher Glenn Wilson.

Here is a short video featuring then-Congressman Ralph Hall throwing the ceremonial first pitch prior to the Blue Thunder’s first regular season game in May 2008:

Video of Thunder Dog the Blue Thunder’s mascot:

Here are more videos from the McKinney Blue Thunder from 2008:

Starlocalmedia.com 2008 Articles On The Blue Thunder

Here are lots of local newspaper article links from the McKinney Courier Gazette (part of the Starlocalmedia.com organization) about the McKinney Blue Thunder during the 2008 season (in no particular order). Thanks to Jim Donovan, Travis Summers and the others who took time from their schedules to cover the Blue Thunder and all CBL teams during the 2008 season:

The McKinney Blue Thunder will take on the Texarkana Gunslingers in the first professional baseball game in the history of McKinney today at 7 p.m. at Gabe Nesbitt Field at The Ballfields at Craig Ranch.