Join the Kane County Cougars and celebrate America’s game

Brett Phillips boasts a World Series game-winning hit to his credit, yet in the eyes of the American Association of Professional Baseball, he’s merely a 31-year-old rookie.

The former Major League outfielder is converting to pitcher for the Kane County Cougars this season and serves as the club’s hitting coach, too.

What’s more, Phillips also personified the randomized leadoff song during batting practice at Northwestern Medicine Field in Geneva on a recent afternoon. What else but “Dream On” by Aerosmith could capture his odyssey and that of a team filled with players still itching to reach the heights Phillips once knew?

“It feeds the passion, you know,” Phillips said. “Regardless of what level you’re at.”

Kane County uses “Family Fun Since ‘91” as the cover slogan on game-day programs, a phrase that’s equally fitting. The Cougars in May started their 35th season of bringing affordable, family-friendly professional baseball to Chicagoland.

Although 2025 marks the fifth year in which the organization has been outside Major League Baseball’s affiliated minor league system, fans keep the turnstiles twisting just the same.

“They love baseball here,” Cougars first baseman Todd Lott said. “If it’s not the Cubs or White Sox, it doesn’t matter who it is. They always want to support and come out to the games.”

For decades, the youngest among them have stayed equally diligent about rolling down the grass hill seating in left and right field within moments of entering the ballpark.

“Whether you’re a little kid or whether you’re a grandpa bringing your grandkids, there’s always something for everybody,” said Claire Jacobi, Cougars director of public relations and promotions. “It’s just a great group of people that work here and everything, and everybody really is like a family.”

Players absorb and appreciate that bond as aspirations to find another one like it at a higher level of baseball begin to wane. As of May 29, the Cougars’ roster counted 11 players age 28 or older, including six thirty-somethings.

While the Cougars may not be part of an organizational pipeline, it’s possible for any of the 30 Major League franchises to sign them should their play warrant.

MLB designated the American Association as one of four Partner Leagues upon electing to streamline its minor league system after the 2020 season.

In the meantime, Lott said, “it’s all a collective effort to learn from each other.”

All the better should your teammates bring institutional knowledge from “The Show.” Phillips batted .187 in 393 games over parts of seven Major League seasons but hit .333 in the 2020 playoffs, including a two-out single that won Game 4 of the World Series for the Tampa Bay Rays against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Cougars right-hander Chris Mazza was Phillips’ Rays teammate in 2021 and 2022.

“In affiliated world, you have all these coordinators and different people you lean on and talk to, and here, you kind of just have each other,” said shortstop Galli Cribbs Jr., who first played for the Cougars as an Arizona Diamondbacks prospect in 2015. “So having guys like that is huge, because … they’ve been to the highest level and been around some other people and been able to pick those brains.”

Phillips admittedly “saw the writing on the wall that hitting was starting to pass me by.” A passion for competition and a connection to Mazza brought him to Kane County, where he’ll coach his hitters one minute and try to retire those of the opposition the next.

“I’ve just always had a really good arm, but at some point, it’s going to end, and at least I got to do what I loved at the end of my career and enjoyed it and had fun,” Phillips said.

As with his teammates, he’s dreaming on.