The Southern Illinois Miners have announced that they will retire the number of former Southern Illinois slugger Joey Metropoulos in a pregame ceremony on Saturday, July 5th before their contest against the Rockford Aviators at Rent One Park.
Metropoulos is the first player in Miners franchise history to have his jersey retired.
“I could not be happier for Joey,” Miners manager Mike Pinto said. “No one deserves this honor more. He had as good an offensive career as anyone in this organization or league in its history. Joey was a leader on and off the field and I am incredibly proud he wore our uniform. I am glad that no one else will ever wear the number 31.”
Metropoulos is first in the Southern Illinois record books in career home runs (70), runs batted in (208), hits (303), extra-base hits (138), and doubles (66) while ranking second in walks (129), runs scored (199) and at-bats (1,014). His career total of seventy home runs is double that of the player ranking second on the Miners’ home run list.
The San Diego, California native came to the Miners in 2007 after spending three-plus years in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, having been drafted after a standout three-year career at the University of Southern California.
He made an instant splash by hitting .326 with nine homers and 32 RBI in 39 games. Metropoulos followed that up with a stellar 2008 campaign in which he hit .315 with 20 home runs, 21 doubles and 66 RBI in 93 games while scoring 74 runs and getting on base at a .401 clip with a .553 slugging percentage.
His 2009 season, however, would top even that. The slugger earned Frontier League MVP honors that season after hitting .316 with 31 dingers and 82 RBI. His on-base percentage increased to .410, and his slugging percentage soared to .651 while playing in all 96 games for the Miners, scoring 76 runs and hitting 22 doubles for good measure.
His home run, slugging percentage and extra-base hit (53) totals from that legendary year still rank first for a single season in franchise history, while his 82 RBI are just one off the pace-setter of 83 (by Tim Dorn in 2008).
His final season with Southern Illinois was 2010, where Metropoulos fought through injuries, while still smacking 10 homers and driving in 28 runs in 51 games with 12 doubles.
“As an organization, we felt this honor was a long time coming,” Miners vice president Tim Arseneau said. “During Joey’s four-year stretch as a Southern Illinois Miner, his offensive numbers we second-to-none. But as great of a player Joey was on the field, he was an even better ambassador for the Miners off the field.”
“Joey will always be remembered as one of the greatest players to wear the Miners uniform,” Arseneau added. “He is more than deserving of this honor.”
