The Goldpanners 50th Anniversary Yearbook, in review

Throughout the season, I've picked up most of the ABL teams' programs, media guides, or yearbooks at the parks. Some are better than others, all are worth the meager price, but the one I received in the mail from the Panners has been my favorite thus far. With that being the case, I believe that I owe it to the team to give a review of the fine piece of literature that appeared in my mailbox a couple weeks ago, the Goldpanners of Fairbanks 50th Anniversary Yearbook. 

The first thing I look for when I open up a program/media guide/yearbook is the content to ad ratio. I understand that teams need to sell advertisements to put a team on the field, especially in this league, and that the number of ads is probably inversely proportional to the cash reserves of the team in question. So I don't mean to take a cut against a team that may need to sell two pages of ads just to cover the cost of one page of information and still keep the book affordable enough to sell for a buck or two. But I will confess that I prefer a publication that is more content than advertisements. Call me spoiled if you will, but the Goldpanners guide scores big points in this regard. In 22 pages of content + two covers, there are approximately six full pages of ads (if you add up the stray advertisements to equal a full page). As far as these things go, that's a pretty awesome ratio.

So there's a lot of content in here, but what is it? In addition to the standard fare -- current roster, season schedule, photos and biographies of some of the players -- there is a wealth of interesting info in there. Tons of historical information. Some of my favorites include an All-Time Top 50 Goldpanners list (you have to buy the program to see who's on it!), a complete listing of all 1,200 Goldpanners taken in the MLB draft and roughly 200 who've made it to the big leagues, and the starting lineups for every team in the club history.

Who's that strapping lad? Oh, yeah...
it's me!

The yearbook also includes a ton of articles and tidbits on the history of the team and its players & coaches, not the least of which is an article by -- you guessed it -- yours truly. In a small way, I have been honored with a place in Goldpanners history for my article on Panner (and former Pilot) skipper Jim Dietz. For the small price of this fine publication, you can own a glossy photograph and article written by the one and only jjack. I'll even autograph it for you if you can track me down.

But seriously, folks, this is probably the finest piece of ballpark literature I've come across this season, so way to go to the Goldpanners grew for putting this together. You can pick your copy up at Growden Park, which I highly recommend. But for those of you who are too impatient to track down a glossy real-life copy, the digital version is available on Goldpanners.com. So you have no excuse not to check out this high-quality publication.