Cape Catfish announce new manager

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KFVS) - The Cape Catfish announced a new manager on Wednesday morning, March 8.

Catfish president and minority owner Glenn Campbell announced Scott Little will take over for Stephen Larkin, who managed the team since its inaugural season in 2019, during a news conference.

“I’ve known Scott since high school when he was a senior at Scott City and I was a freshman at Notre Dame,” Campbell said. “They [Scott City High School] had an incredible baseball program back then and so did we, but with him on the team they were very hard to beat. To think that our paths would cross again now with the Catfish is just crazy.”

According to the Catfish, Little, who now lives in Jackson, Mo., played college ball at the University of Missouri-Columbia and was drafted as an outfielder by the New York Mets in 1984. He was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates organization in 1987 and briefly made it to the big leagues with the Pirates in 1989. However, most of his professional baseball career was spent in the minor leagues where he played, coached, managed and was involved in various aspects of player development.

In addition to the Mets and Pirates, Little has also worked for several minor league teams affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Washington Nationals, Texas Rangers and, most recently, the Colorado Rockies.

“We were certainly blessed our first three seasons with him [Larkin] along with assistant coaches Dave Lawson and Josh Meyer,” said Catfish GM Mark Hogan, “but personal circumstances changed for these guys and we went in a different direction. It’s baseball and it happens.”

The new manager has had several conversations in recent weeks with Campbell and the rest of the Catfish front office staff about the team’s direction for the 2023 season.

“We’ve already discussed things like creating a Catfish summer camp for kids and some of the crazy promotional stuff I want to do and he’s all in on making it fun for the fans,” Campbell said.

The Catfish have compiled a record of 113-75, making it to the league finals in 2019, winning the league championship in 2021 and coming within one win of a playoff berth last summer.

The Catfish will open their season on the road May 31 against the O’Fallon, Mo. Hoots.

Their home opener at Capaha Field in Cape Girardeau will be Saturday, June 3, when they take on the Rockabillys from Jackson, Tennessee.

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