Ban Johnson League celebrates award winners from 90th season

The Ban Johnson League celebrated its 90th summer baseball season with an awards dinner Tuesday night at Deer Creek Golf Club in Overland Park.

UMB Bank manager Cary Lundy was presented with the championship trophy, his seventh. His team beat the Milgram Mustangs three games to one in the Ban Johnson championship series last July.

Lundy, who has managed UMB Bank for 30 seasons and manages the Park University baseball team, was also inducted as the 41st member of the Ban Johnson Hall of Fame. His seven league titles trail only Alex Nigro and Lew Denny, who each managed eight championship teams.

Jack Pauley, an outfielder for Natural Baseball Academy, won the league’s Lester Milgram Most Valuable Player award and the Bob Allison Offensive Player of the Year award. Pauley, a St. Thomas Aquinas graduate who now attends Northern Colorado, led the league in home runs, RBIs and slugging percentage.

Milgram’s Dakota Graham, an Odessa graduate who attends Graceland, won the Rick Sutcliffe Pitcher of the Year award after leading the league in wins and finishing second in ERA and strikeouts. His teammate Zac Shaw won the Frank White Award for Fielding Excellence. Shaw also graduated from Odessa and now attends Emporia State.

BJ Raiders catcher Nico Codemo, a Warrensburg graduate who attends Central Missouri, won the Hustle Award.

Founded in 1927, the Ban Johnson League is comprised of 10 teams of college players from the Kansas City area who are under age 23.

This story was originally published December 27, 2016 at 9:08 PM with the headline "Ban Johnson League celebrates award winners from 90th season."