With spring sports seasons taken away from so many athletes across the country, the Northwoods League has been an unexpected blessing for John Rhodes and many other college baseball players this summer.
Rhodes had shown All-American potential in his first season at the University of Kentucky before the COVID-19 pandemic halted the Wildcats’ season the second week of March and ultimately canceled it. A month later, the famed Cape Cod Baseball League, widely considered the premier organization for summer collegiate baseball, called off its 2020 season that was set to start in mid-June.
“Nobody expected to play in summer ball,” Rhodes said. “Our coach basically told us get used to training on your own. But the Northwoods just rode it out. We started July 1 and are playing 48 games in 49 days. It’s like I get a college season in when I didn’t think I was going to.”
The Chattanooga Christian School graduate’s hot bat has picked up right where it left off on March 10, when he was hitting .426 (26-of-61) through 17 games for the Wildcats.
Rhodes has settled in extremely well at his summer home in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin – or more specifically, he has settled in on the baseball field there with the Dock Spiders. Heading into Sunday, he ranked second in the 22-team Northwoods League with a .426 batting average (20-of-47) and hit his first home run on Thursday. His .518 on-base percentage ranked third.