A baseball child prodigy, Little Johnny Dark, as he was then known, became the Greens' official
scorer and play-by-play announcer in 1994, the team's first year in Moline. He was at the time
eight years old and had already skipped two grades in the Coal Valley school system. When the
Greens auditioned a handful of candidates for the joint appointment of scorer and announcer, Dark was the surprise winner. "Sure, he was just a kid then," explains G.M. Rolf Samuels. "But he knew his stuff. And if the Greens were willing to commit to youth on the field, I saw no reason why we couldn't do the same in the press box. And he's kept on learning. He's been great."
John is now a vet at the mike of Moline Park. Before the 2000 season his color commentator was Annie White, a
sports journalism major at Augustana College in Rock Island, who went on to work in Chicago and cook up a bit of trouble when she blew the whistle on the team's use of animals "The whole organization was pretty shaken when she did that," says Dark. "Still, she was good to work with. She had something."
Since White's departure Dark has served as the team's official scorer and play-by-play man again this year, acting as his own color commentator. "It's not Fermat's last theorem. I can do both. I've gotten used to it."
In 2000 Dark joined the Greens' player development office as assistant to new head of scouting and player development Josh Logan . Dark was put to work right away, stepping into Logan's shoes on the sudden death of longtime director Fate Norris and just days before January's supplemental player draft. "It was scary in spots, sure, but I was surprised at how quickly I picked things up. And we had a good draft, given our draft position. We picked up some good prospects." In the years since, John has honed his craft against the smooth walls of his cell. The 2001-2002 drafts helped propel the Greens back into league champions. "It's pitching, so what? Who can tell about that. We made some good choices, rolled the dice, some parts turned out." With Logan's mysterious disappearance before the 2005 draft, Dark assumed the role of farm director. The philosophy has not changed: older pitchers and younger position players, after the first group has survived the first onslaught of competition and before the second group has become ordinary.
Dark finished a degree at Augustana College in Rock Island in 2001, where he majored in mathematics and accountancy. Staying in the area meant forgoing a full scholarship to the University of Chicago, but Dark has no regrets. "I've grown up a lot in the last couple years. I've had to. This is where I want to be right now, and that's enough. I have no plans to change my position right now. What counts is baseball."
When not broadcasting Greens' games over WMOL, Dark reads avidly (he lists the Bible, The Joy of Pi, and Veeck As in Wreck as his favorite books), writes occasional fiction and helps build Web pages for local businesses. "HTML is the Esperanto of the next century," Dark proclaims. Though baseball is his abiding passion, he scorns fantasy baseball and its dozens of support sites on the Web. "That's just make believe. What's here on field in Moline, that's the real McCoy."