The 2008 Northern League Rookie of the Year and the RailCats all-time leading hitter, infielder Mike Rohde will return for his third season at U. S. Steel Yard in 2010.

Rohde, 26, has spent his entire professional career in the Northern League and has shot up the RailCats all-time leader boards since being signed by manager Greg Tagert prior to the start of the 2008 season.  A fan favorite at U. S. Steel Yard, Rohde’s combined .297 batting average as a RailCat is the highest ever – tied with former outfielder Mike Reese – and his .319 average in 2008 was good enough for 10th in the league and is the third-highest in franchise history.  Rohde was selected as the league’s top rookie in 2008, becoming the first ‘Cats player to ever win the award, and made his first All-Star team that summer.

A mainstay in the RailCats lineup the last two years – he’s played in 179 of a possible 192 regular season games – Rohde cracked 25 doubles and drove in 55 runs in his Rookie of the Year season of 2008, then followed it up with a career-best six triples and two home runs last season while stealing a career-high 14 bases.  The Wisconsin native ranks in the top 10 in nearly every career offensive category and – combined with a partial 2007 season in Schaumburg – boasts a .303 career average with lifetime totals of 52 doubles, 119 RBI and 33 stolen bases.

Rohde has also been a major factor in the RailCats run to the Northern League Championship Series the last two years.  In the 2008 playoffs, Rohde went 9-for-24 (.375) to post the fifth-best postseason average in the league, and followed that up with six hits in seven playoff games last year.

Rohde joined Schaumburg in 2007 just after completing his college career at the University of Illinois, where he was a Second Team All-Big Ten selection as a sophomore and finished his three years with the Fighting Illini as a .327 hitter.  Before transferring to Illinois, Rohde spent two seasons at the University of New Orleans.

Originally from Brookfield, Wisconsin, Rohde was a star in the college wood bat Northwoods League during his college years, playing four seasons for the Madison Mallards and helping his team to a league championship.  After his final Mallards season in 2006, Rohde was inducted into the team’s Wall of Fame.