Portland Raccoons (ABL)
 

I apologize for the bad shape of this thread throughout the first pages. It gets better from about the fourth or fifth page onwards, although I didn't settle into a tidy format until the early 90s... Once again, sorry. I now also wish I had maintained a clean style from the start for the marginally more time it takes.

Overview:

1977 season - starts here
1978 season - page 1, post #20
1979 season - page 2, post #38
1980 season - page 3, post #58
1981 season - page 5, post #84
1982 season - page 6, post #112
1983 season - page 8, post #143
1984 season - page 10, post #189
1985 season - page 12, post #228
1986 season - page 14, post #277
1987 season - page 17, post #324
1988 season - page 19, post #364
1989 season - page 22, post #426
1990 season - page 25, post #487
1991 season - page 27, post #539
1992 season - page 31, post #610
1993 season - page 34, post #677
1994 season - page 38, post #742
1995 season - page 40, post #786
1996 season - page 42, post #837
1997 season - page 47, post #921
1998 season - page 50, post #987
1999 season - page 52, post #1,036
2000 season - page 55, post #1,088
2001 season - page 57, post #1,138
2002 season - page 61, post #1,203
2003 season - page 64, post #1,268
2004 season - page 67, post #1,328
2005 season - page 70, post #1,393
2006 season - page 73, post #1,451
2007 season - page 76, post #1,510
2008 season - page 81, post #1,604
2009 season - page 84, post #1,675
2010 season - page 87, post #1,732
2011 season - page 91, post #1,804
2012 season - page 93, post #1,850
2013 season - page 96, post #1,904
2014 season - page 99, post #1,969
2015 season - page 102, post #2,040
2016 season - page 105, post #2,098
2017 season - page 108, post #2,145
2018 season - page 111, post #2,205
2019 season - page 114, post #2,271
2020 season - page 116, post #2,319
2021 season - page 119, post #2,376
2022 season - page 121, post #2,414
2023 season - page 124, post #2,461
2024 season - page 126, post #2,508
2025 season - page 129, post #2,561
2026 season - page 131, post #2,604
2027 season - page 134, post #2,661
2028 season - page 136, post #2,701
2029 season - page 138, post #2,748
2030 season - page 142, post #2,822
2031 season - page 145, post #2,890
2032 season - page 148, post #2,945
2033 season - page 150, post #2,997
2034 season - page 153, post #3,048
2035 season - page 156, post #3,106
2036 season - page 159, post #3,174
2037 season - page 162, post #3,236
2038 season - page 167, post #3,325
2039 season - page 170, post #3,383
2040 season - page 172, post #3,437
2041 season - page 175, post #3,499
2042 season - page 179, post #3,568
2043 season - page 182, post #3,623
2044 season - page 184, post #3,673
2045 season - page 187, post #3,725
2046 season - page 189, post #3,771
2047 season - page 192, post #3,831
2048 season - page 195, post #3,881
2049 season - page 197, post #3,935
2050 season - page 199, post #3,977
2051 season - page 201, post #4,016
2052 season - page 204, post #4,069
2053 season - page 206, post #4,113
2054 season - page 208, post #4,157
2055 season - page 211, post #4,210
2056 season - page 213, post #4,253
2057 season - page 215, post #4,297
2058 season - page 217, post #4,338
2059 season - page 219, post #4,374
2060 season - page 221, post #4,416
2061 season - page 223, post #4,456
2062 season - page 225, post #4,495
2063 season - page 227, post #4,533
2064 season - page 229, post #4,569
2065 season - page 231, post #4,611

Attention (May 15, 2019): while I have usually attached my images in this thread, there were times a few years back when uploads to the board were routinely wonky and/or just not working (for me?). In this case I linked them in via Photobucket. With Photobucket limiting free accounts to almost nothing by June 2019, I am likely going to delete that account, since I'm not gonna pay five bucks a month for it. Once that happens, there will be a handful of images missing in the thread. Wherever they may be. If you run into that wherever you are currently reading, post or PM - I have ALL pictures still on hard drive and can reupload them.

Whatever it is that you read and are objecting to, feel free to comment with a kind "You moron, you do it all wrong!!", if you'd like.

And now comes the original, horrible first post:

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Foreword: after the dismal failure of leading the 1962 Mets anywhere other than last place (I will still continue there at some time, but I need to win a game here or there from time to time in order to be happy … or at least not totally depressed), I have created this league. This was planned anyway at some point to have the two careers running, so we’re just moving up the timetable a bit. It is a fictional setup. Now let me try and breath life into it.

This is 1977. This is the American Baseball League (ABL).

Setup: two leagues, each with two divisions of six teams. There will be NO spring training, since I really really hate going in with 40 guys and coming out with 35 guys and five more tied to wheelchairs for the next eight months.

There will be interleague play. I grabbed a custom schedule, let’s see how this works out. The leagues are the Federal League and the Continental League. While the Federal League’s two divisions are aligned roughly west and east of the Mississippi, the Continental League’s two divisions stretch all across the continent between the coasts, one in the north and one in the south. The CL also holds the only two franchises outside the U.S. in the league, one in Vancouver and one in Tijuana. Don’t look at me, real estate in Mexico was cheaper than in San Diego.

I have chosen to randomly populate the franchises with players, I will see what I got later. For now let’s talk a bit about the team in general that I have taken over. You’re talking about the intimidating Portland Raccoons here. We’re so intimidating! Our logo has a totally intimitading fluffy lovely cute raccoon hugging a baseball. (blinks) Okay, who designed this?

Portland, Oregon, seems to have a difficult start initially. The team is owned by a Mexican businessman, Xavier Bravo, who seems intent to operate an ABL team on a shoestring budget. Out $5.2M budget is ranked 24th out of 24 teams. Yay!

Shedding light onto our division (the Continental League’s northern division) only for the moment, we will face the Vancouver Canadiens across the border here in the Northwest. Then there are two Midwest teams in the division, the Milwaukee Loggers and the Indianapolis Indians. I seem to fail constantly at typing Indianapolis, so this could be constant source of trouble. And then there are the big buck teams of the division, the Boston Titans and the New York Crusaders. They have twice our payroll. Scared. A lot.

Occassionally, the Raccoons will face the Salem Wolves in interleague play, who are just two flyballs away from us and play in the Federal League’s western division. The first such matchup would be this year in August in Salem. Looking forward to - … wait, do wolves feed on raccoons? Scared. A lot.

Now let’s look at the bunch that was assembled to throw the bats and swing the balls. By the way, did you realize that I understand a lot about this game already?

Boy, this will be trouble. Starting pitching will be mess number one. I seem to be lacking guys that can go deep into games with low stamina almost all across the board, and control could become an issue. Bullpen ought to be okay. Maybe. But goal number one would be to find two more decent long guys.

Batting could work out just okay, but I don’t have a power hitter. Goal number two: find a power bat. I quickly realized that my AAA roster would not be helpful in the quest to fulfill those two goals.

The pitching problem had to be solved first. How dramatic was it? Very. I had only one pitcher with stamina greater than 9 (of 20) on my majors roster. Thus about the first thing I did was to go to the free agent pool to get at least two starters immediately.

I found two candidates that at least wouldn’t get raped each time they took the mound with solid stamina and made them offers. Luckily the team had been very cheap so far so I had some budget room. Next: find a guy with power, preferrably with defensive abilities and either in RF or at SS (I know there are plenty of power SSs out there). There were no free agents matching this.

At least I was able to sign my new makeshift starters Juan Berrios and Matt Huber by January 14 (by the way, complete roster will come once it is finalized). I had also contacted the Washington Capitals to make a trade for their shortstop Ben Simon. Simon was rated a stellar infielder (at all positions) and a solid hitter with power. I offered one of my shortstops and two relievers to shore up their terrible bullpen. I ultimately also had to add my projected backup catcher to the deal which was completed on January 17. Fans were ecstatic about the five player trade that brought one of the best shortstops in the league to Portland. And even better: he had a really small contact for his abilities. :-)

The most glaring deficiencies had been patched up now, although my number 4 starter with the current roster, Armando Padilla, still only had 9 stamina. Ed Sullivan, scheduled to start at 2B, was weak defensively, and I had to get another catcher now, but would not waste much money on it. Both AAA catchers looked good enough to get up to play backup. I also had to drop one reliever to AAA (I didn’t need eight of them, I thought at least), and get another utility player, preferrably in the infield.

The Richmond Rebels came out victorious in the hunt for sought after shortstop Tony Bruce on January 29. More than half a dozen teams had been after Bruce, but not the Raccoons. We were settled at SS. February was quiet. I signed a catcher to a minor league contract and moved AAA catcher R.J. Sanderson up to the majors to be the #2 there.

March 5 – my Raccoons signed outfielder Tim Anderson to a 3-year deal worth almost $700k. I was cringing at the money, but he was a defensive beast and not totally inept at the plate, shoring up that area of the roster. Anderson was 28 yr old leftie, which put my favored lineup at five left handed batters (excl. pitchers) now. If nothing else, this should keep right handed pitchers scared. I demoted one of the relievers, a 19 yr old prospect, to AAA (please note I don’t remember names at all), to make room for Anderson. This gave me 11 pitchers on the roster now – the desired number. One of the starters and two relievers are lefties – the desired number. I still had the desire to get another leftie starter to replace Padilla in the rotation.

March 20 – the Raccoons signed Ned Ray, a 26 yr old left handed starter, to a 2-year contract worth $154k. Ray was not what I really wanted, but I didn’t get anything better. Another reliever was moved to AAA to make room for him on the roster, which was by now completed. Bring in the clowns!

Portland Raccoons roster for opening day 1977:

SP Alex Miranda – still young, but already maxed out according to my scout, he was the #1 starter. He would not complain after throwing 150 pitches.
SP Matt Huber – putting up decent numbers across the board
SP Juan Berrios – another Huber, but with less movement and talent
SP Ned Ray – the leftie among the bunch, control issues possible, but we’ll see.

MR Armando Padilla – if he’d be able to go longer than four or five innings, he’d been the #3 starter at least, but he couldn’t, so he was scheduled for spot starts and mop up duties and eat innings there.
MR Wally Gaston – good stuff and movement, but unfortunately control is troubled
MR Kevin Hatfield – decent guy
MR Brett Justice – rated 2nd in movement on the team, hopefully his control can match pace
MR Ben Jenkins – no outstanding strengths
MR Stanton Coleman – for the quick punchout if you need one
CL Ben Green – best among the bullpen with very good numbers across the board

C Darryl Maloney – one of the best catchers in the field, but his bat is lacking
C R.J. Sanderson – his main trait is that he’s cheap, purely backup

1B/3B Wyatt Johnston – a 1B ace with the potential to hit .300 and launch 30 dingers
1B Hoyt Cook – backup infielder without much sparkle
3B Freddy Lopez – strong defense, fair offensive
1B/2B/3B/SS/LF Ed Sullivan – can play almost everywhere, solid hitter, would fit best on an infield corner, but I need him at 2B, which doesn’t thrill me
SS Greg Swift – I wish I had somebody else…
1B/2B/3B/SS Ben Simon – the diamond on the team, top star potential, thrilling defensive ratings with solid offense, I’m in love already

LF/RF Robby Davis – good defense, hitting could be so much better
LF/RF José Flores – good defense, hitting could be so very much better
LF/CF/RF Tim Anderson – very good defense, another 30 homers candidate with potential for very good average as well
1B/LF/CF/RF Johan Dolder – he is from Luxembourg (of all places), has stellar defense, but his hitting makes me cry. Late inning replacement, although the stock defense is not bad at all. Trade bait.
RF/LF Pedro Sánz – good hitter with average defense, potential error sink
RF Jorge López – mediocre across the board, backup

Overall, it had been a good three months so far. The salaries had shot up to $2.8M, 15th in the league, but we don’t want to be in last place, and good players don’t come cheap. With Anderson we should have put our outfield in line, and the addition of all those pitchers was absolutely necessary. Xavier Bravo is also encouraged. He expects the team to play .500 ball. I also consider this a realistic aim for the first season. Don’t get too roughed up, and then start to build the team.

First pitch coming up.

Opening day. The Raccoons were able to open the season (and the whole history of the league) at home, although their opponent was already one of the top contenders for the pennant, the New York Crusaders. They had strong pitching and big bats, and it would take a bit of luck to beat them.

Alex Miranda threw the first pitch in Raccoons history, allowing a single to Crusaders’ 3B Pedro Hermundo. Hermundo was erased on a play later in the inning, but the Crusaders scored their first run in the first inning. The Raccoons had to wait until the fourth inning before they scored Tim Anderson on a Wyatt Johnston sac fly. The weather was also not the best and it rained on and off throughout the game with a 40-minute delay in the sixth inning that forced Miranda out of the game after he had already walked five. Five relievers chained together the last few innings, and all was sugar for the moment – a 3-run home run by Pedro Sánz eventually won the game for the Raccoons 5-4. The only stain was Ben Green, who was unable to close the game and allowed two runs in the top 9th. Kevin Hatfield was the first game winner in Raccoons history. Yay!

The second game went just the other way round, as the Raccoons scored first, but eventually lost 5-4. To close the series, roles switched once more. New York scored three runs early off Juan Berrios, but the Raccoons came back and tied the game in the middle innings. Still tied at 3-3 the game went to the bottom of the ninth, where the Crusaders committed two errors that allowed the Raccoons to score the winning run, 4-3.

Yay, success! The Crusaders were considered one of the best teams in the game, and the Raccoons had gone 2-1 against them in a very tight series. Pedro Sánz had been stellar with two home runs and eight RBIs.

One more series on the home stint remained against the 1-3 Tijuana Condors. Ned Ray started his first game to open the series. While his pitching was mediocre at best, he produced a base clearing double in the bottom 4th to get the Raccoons ahead 3-1. Talking about bad pitching: that was not the Raccoon’s pitching staff’s day. The Condors won 10-4 partly thanks to nine walks given up by my pitchers. The Condor’s Jorge Romero shut down my guys big time in the middle game of the series, allowing two hits in seven innings. On the other side, Miranda struggled with his command again and walked four as the Raccoons lost 3-0 with only four total hits. Poor control continued into the last game of the series, with the Raccoons walking six. The Condors completed the sweep, winning 4-2.

Tijuana had mainly swept us on pitching. Their starters were sharp, mine were just waving batters to first base. That was an issue, but contrary to the New York series, this time the offense didn’t put up. Actually, the five runs from the first game against the Crusaders were still the most for the Raccoons in a game. Now they hit the road, meeting with the 4-2 San Francisco Bayhawks and 2-3 Vancouver Canadiens (the latter series over four games).

The Bayhawks so far had not homered at all, but otherwise the team looked pretty good. The first game was hitting poor on both sides, as the Bayhawks squeezed through 3-1. Freddy Lopez was thrown out at home to end the ballgame in a very close decision. By now, my offensive was last in the CL. Four of my starters were slumping out of the gates, including Ben Simon. Defensively he was fantastic, but he was still trying to get over .200 at the plate. 3-4-5 hitters Sullivan, Johnston, and Sánz were producing well, with Tim Anderson also okay. It was still early but this was something to watch closely.

Simon must have heard me contemplating. Game 2 at the bay, and the Raccoons plated four in the first inning, including three on Simon’s first home run. This was right were things stopped to work out. The Raccoon’s middle infielders then piled up three errors in two innings, and Ned Ray was torched badly by the Bayhawks. Four innings down, the score was 10-4 – for the Bayhawks. There was no comeback from this, and the Raccoons scored only one more to make it a 10-5 loss. Then they looked at Juan Correa in game 3. Correa was one of the best pitchers in the league. In his first two starts he had posted zero walks and zero earned runs, but 16 K’s. The Raccoons struggled, although Miranda made a good start. Down 2-0, the Raccoons loaded the bases with one out in the top 9th, but struck out twice to end the game and take the second consecutive sweep. That was six losses chained together and they were safely tugged away in last place in the CL North.

The Canadiens were at 4-4, 2nd in the CL North (trailing the Boston Titans, who had shot out of the gate, winning eight of their first nine), but had struggled defensively. If the Raccoons wouldn’t score against their pitchers, then there was deep trouble ahead. The first game looked like the Raccoons would recover nicely. Matt Huber pitched eight plus innings and entered the bottom 9th 7-1 ahead. He surrendered a walk off home run and was pulled, but the bullpen collapsed spectacularly. The Canadiens scored five more to go to extra innings, where Wally Gaston walked three in the bottom 10th, including walking in the winning run on four pitches and the Raccoons lost seven straight, 8-7. This one stung, badly.

Fortunes finally turned around in game 2 in Vancouver. Sánz belted a grand slam that started a strong offensive outing that led to a 9-3 win, stopping the bleeding, finally. Juan Berrios was the winning pitcher – it was the first win for a Raccoons starter in the 11th game! Ned Ray surrendered four runs in six innings in his third start, but the Raccoons produced enough to win 8-4 against a struggling Canadiens pen. The series was evened out in the final game with a 4-3 Canadiens win. Juan Miranda pitched well, but suffered a leg injury in the seventh inning, diagnosis pending. That’s very, very bad.

This capped off the first two weeks of the season. The Raccoons had gone 4-9 with a fair share of struggles. There were two good news after all on April 18, an off day. First, Pedro Sánz was the CL player of the week, going 13-28 with three homers and eight RBI. Overall he is .451 with 5 HR and 16 RBI and on triple crown pace. Second, the Miranda injury was not that bad. He had suffered only a mild calf strain and would most likely not miss a start. Phew.

Home stint over the next two weeks up for the Raccoons against the Indians, Thunder, Knights, and (again) Crusaders, enough to close out the month of April.

May I say I’m insanely in love with that raccoon?

One thing I didn’t mention earlier, that already happened on April 8, 1977: Samuel Serra of the Dallas Stars has become the first player in ABL history to hit for the cycle in a 20-10 blowout of the Pittsburgh Miners.

Now, back to our Raccoons, who were facing a 12-game home stint. I had experimented with our leadoff hitter a bit and had for the moment decided on our Luxembourgian Johan Dolder, who was put in LF. If production from Wyatt Johnston (.188) and Ben Simon (.220) would kick in now, we could be just fine.

Dolder also homered to left to start the first inning in the first game against the Indianapolis Indians. From there, the Raccoons never trailed thanks to fine pitching by Matt Huber, Kevin Hatfield, and Ben Green, who finally got his first save in a 2-1 win. Another low-scoring game followed, this time with the Indians up 2-0, after their starter Jorge Vallejo limited the Raccoons to three hits in eight innings. The Raccoons lost the rubber game, when Brett Justice walked in the winning run for the Indians in the top 10th in a 3-2 loss.

The Raccoons continued with shockingly weak offense. They scored two to start against Oklahoma City in the second inning after a nicely executed double steal, but Alex Miranda was burned for four runs on four hits in the seventh inning and we lost 4-2. No offense. After hitting .450 in the first two weeks of the season, Sánz was now barely hitting anything, and the rest of the lineup followed suit. The middle game in the series was another depressing loss, 3-2 after 12 innings. The sweep was completed with another 4-2 loss to Thunder.

Slowly but surely this started to look like a boat load of trouble. Now at 5-14 the Raccoons had long lost contact with the rest of the division. They were leading the majors in K’s and were close to the bottom in batting average with very few walks in there as well. Mediocre pitching didn’t help. They would next face the Atlanta Knights, who were 9-9, but had lost their last four. Would they be able to jump on the bandwagon?

No. Ned Ray was wrecked for six runs in three plus innings and the Raccoons only got their usual two runs in the 8-2 wipeout, followed by a 100% increase in output by the Raccoons lineup. This was still far from enough against the big bats the Knights had brought and the team went down 9-4. I was clueless. On paper, this should really be a .500 team. Now they were not even a .250 team anymore. I demoted Robby Davis to AAA and brought up David Correa, a 32 yr old veteran. Correa was put into LF, Dolder moved to CF, and Anderson benched. Anderson led the team in steals with six, but was outright horrible at the plate. Turned out, Correa was as well, going 0-3 in his first game. Knights won, 3-2.

In other news:
April 20 – The Las Vegas Aces’ outfielder Fabio Tigre is out for the season with a broken elbow. He looks like a solid player and started hitting at .308 before being injured.

Raccoons dead last. Pyth. Record is 8-14, by the way, while neither the Titans nor the Indians would have a winning record this way. Loggers would lead 12-9, Raccoons 4.5 GB. We have actually scored nine more runs than the Indians.

I don’t know, maybe it’s me, maybe I’m just too much of a useless dumb moron for this game. I’ll be crying behind the bat rack. Once I’m done being a pussy, the home stint will conclude against the Crusaders, followed by a weeklong road trip for Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, the latter marking the first interleague series, followed by one at home against Los Angeles.

LOL... sorry for laughing but that last comment was really funny. :)

I like the idea of seeding the teams at the start and just playing with what you got. You took the smallest market too, so that is a bit of a handicap. I think your luck will improve based on the facts in the first paragraph quoted above. Hang in there.

Except that it really shouldn't be the smallest market in the face of Sioux Falls and Topeka and the like. Maybe, the penny-pincher mentality of my owner makes things even harder.

Or the game has set me to Portland, Maine. Yuck.

Laughing about me is not an issue. I ususally deserve it. :crying::p

An 8-game losing streak sat on top of the low-scoring Raccoons as they welcomed the New York Crusaders for the second series between the teams. The Raccoons led the season series 2-1. The Crusaders tied that score by winning the first game 4-2. The Raccoons had actually more hits (8-7), but never chained them together very well and most came with already two outs. Juan Berrios had been the starter, and had pitched well, allowing only one run over seven innings. I made an experiment by letting Armando Padilla start game 2. Padilla went six frames of 4-hit, 1-run ball with 2 BB and 1 K, pleasing me. I was less pleased with Ben Jenkins, who blew the game with four runs in the seventh. It was the 10th consecutive loss for the Raccoons, 5-1. LF David Correa was benched again after going 0-8 with 4 K and the lineup was revamped with Sullivan and Johnston moving down to 5-6 and Sánz and Simon up to 3-4 in a vain attempt to generate offense.

One more against the Crusaders remaining. Alex Miranda (0-4; 4.08) faced Bernard Lepore (3-1; 4.33). That alone tells you volumes about the offensive quality of the Raccoons, who averaged less than three runs per game. It was another game to cry your heart out, as the Raccoons were skinned alive in a 13-2 rout.

Frustration.

The two last place CL North team were up next, with the 12-12 Loggers hosting the 5-20 Raccoons. Loggers had lost their last three. Raccoons had lost their last eleven and their GM had been seen in a DIY store buying a 9 ft long piece of good rope and an unstable ladder for unknown purposes.

The Loggers shut out the Raccoons for 3-0 in game 1 of the 4-game contest (with the Raccoons making pathetic outs with runners on third and two outs three times in the contest). This put the Coons’ losing streak at 12. Berrios took the mound the next day. I will let the picture speak for itself:

http://i310.photobucket.com/albums/k..._raccoons5.jpg

Juan Berrios pitched the first no-hitter in ABL history, while at the same time the Raccoons rubbed the Loggers the ugly way! Wow! (stunned)

I almost would have taken Berrios out of the game earlier for a pinch hitter with two outs and runners on first and second, but decided to keep him in – he hit the ball fair to keep the inning going. I didn’t even realize he was on a no-hitter until the seventh inning, when I began sweating. He looked a bit pale before the last inning, mainly because he was already over his pitch count, but I refused to talk or even look at him and just pointed out to the mound (nothing could happen with a 12-run lead, right?), and the stellar defense bailed him out of there to complete the first no-hitter in the ABL! Now let’s hope this will be inspiration for the team to continue on that road. Pleeease.

The Raccoons prepared another bashing for the Loggers the next day, although the game was close for a time. With a 4-3 lead for my team in the bottom 7th, Ben Jenkins got himself the bases full with one out. Padilla got him out by whiffing two. Next inning, the Raccoons plated five, including a slam by Ben Simon, one of his three home runs that day, a new league record, as he batted in seven that day. Raccoons won 9-4. It rained on the Raccoons’ parade the next day – literally. A rain delay of more than one hour forced both starters out after three innings, with Miranda and the Raccoons leading 2-1. We continued on our tear and won 4-3, although Ben Green was again unable to save the game. Up 4-1, he was rattled for two runs, left runners on first and third, and with no outs. Hatfield fanned two and induced a groundball out for the win (and a save).

And into interleague play. We traveled to Pittsburgh to face the 14-14 Miners, who were good offensively, but ranked second-to-last in runs allowed in the Federal League. 3B Rich Johnson had to be watched especially hard. Game 1 was a close contest, as the Miners scored single runs in each frame from the second to the fourth. The Raccoons slowly made the sneak back into the game and tied it 4-4 through nine, before eating the backend of the Miners’ pen in the tenth for three runs. The Miners scored in the bottom 10th, but not enough, and the Raccoons won 7-5. Next up was Berrios, Mr. No-No, but this time he was rapped early for four runs in two innings. He went five without further damage, and the Raccoons tied it by the seventh. Brett Justice pitched the next two. With two outs in the top 8th, Tim Anderson (who had PH’ed for Berrios earlier) walked, bringing up Justice. What the heck – I signaled a hit and run for Justice’s first career at bat. He zinged the wall through the gap into centerfield and the speedy Anderson dashed home for the 5-4 run. Next, Lopez, Sánz, Swift (who had replaced Ed Sullivan, who was injured in a collission at 2B) each produced RBI XBH, capped off by a 2-run homer by Johnston for a 10-4 lead! Justice went four innings, surrendering a solo homer with two out in the ninth, but the 10-5 win was ALL his!

The bad news were that Ed Sullivan would miss two to three weeks with a knee sprain. He was the first Raccoon to end up on the 15-day DL. Greg Swift moved into the lineup in SS, Simon shifted to 2B, and an infielder was called up from AAA in Hector Mendez, a solid fielder, but a poor hitter.

The last game in Pittsburgh became a streak snapper, when Ray went seven with a 4-2 lead, but Padilla and Hatfield failed to get him out of a two on situation in the eighth and allowed three runs across, allowing the Miners to win 5-4.

Still, the Raccoons had shown life, maybe not all was lost. They would return home for a 3-game interleague series against the Pacifics, then hit the road for two weeks, visiting the Indians, Titans (4), Aces, and Falcons.

Standings and roster below. Missing is of course Ed Sullivan, who was hitting .278 with 5 HR and 10 RBI when injured.

In other news:
May 1 – The Salem Wolves’ Rafael Quinones pitches a 1-hitter against the Sacramento Scorpions.

The Raccoons faced David Burke in game 1 of the interleague series against the Pacifics. He was the team’s ace and had a 6-1 record under his belt just one month into the season. Alex Miranda? 0-5. Miranda had to be removed in the fifth inning with an undiagnosed injury. The Raccoons held the Pacifics to a 2-2 tie until the 12th inning, when Ben Green, my pathetic excuse for a closer, was shelled for three runs, which the Raccoons’ offense only countered with two in the bottom of the inning and lost 5-4. Next night saw an 11th-inning loss to a grand slam by Carlos Sandoval, 7-3, when the bullpen collapsed once again. At least Miranda’s injury was just a mild abdominal strain that would not kick him out of the rotation. Berrios and the Raccoons came back in the last game against L.A. and won 6-0.

The Raccoons went onto the road for two weeks with a start against the Indians, who led the CL North. The Indians were a strange team. They were 19-13, but had a pythagorean difference of +4, actually allowing more runs than they scored at 112-122. The 11-24 Raccoons had a difference of -4, and were at 134-159 runs scored/allowed. Mentally I was already getting ready for three 1-0 16-inning games. Although there was hope: since Berrios’ no-hitter ten days ago, the Raccoons had always scored three runs or more, and four runs or more in all but one game.

Before the road trip began, I did something else. I tried to shop Ben Green, my miserable closer. I got one offer, from the Salem Wolves, who offered a bullpen prospect in Bob Haines. He was prospected at five stars. But the problem was, that I needed a top reliever NOW. I was tempted, but it was not a trade that would help even the least little bit now.

Jose Flores was tossed for arguing with the home plate umpire in the second inning of the first Indians game. He was not suspended, luckily, since the alternative to LF Flores at the moment would be moving Dolder over and playing Anderson in CF, and Anderson had dropped to .190 at the plate. The Mets went up against Jorge Vallejo in the first game, and were fanned nine times, but they broke through in just one inning, the fifth, scoring three, which was enough to win the first game, 3-1. Following was a walkfest with 12 BB’s distributed, and most of them by the starters. Miranda (still 0-5) left after five, leading 2-1, but Jenkins blew it and the game was tied 2-2 through seven, before the Raccoons broke through the Indians’ bullpen and scored six in the last two innings in an 8-2 win. This win also meant they were not the worst team anymore, as they were now .5 games better than Tijuana, at least for now. Also, Ben Simon became the first ABL player to launch 10 home runs in his career. The last game of the series was never in question – Matt Huber was ravaged by the Indians, who scored all of their eight runs in two innings and won 8-0.

Pedro Sánz was named player of the week after a 13-28 performance with two homers and 8 RBI. His production would be needed against the Boston Titans, whom the Raccoons would face for four games in Boston, and who led the CL in runs, but also were second-to-last in runs allowed.

During the series in Boston I got a trade proposal from the Crusaders, who offered infielder Julio Luján and a prospect for two of my prospects. Well, one of the youngsters on each side had very little potential, it was really a deal for my AAA corner infielder Craig Payne, who was average throughout. As was Luján. I was not inclined to make the trade at all and ultimately declined.

Hitting was poor throughout the Boston series for both teams, as was pitching. Both teams racked up 15 K’s each over the four games, while the Boston pitchers walked 20, and the Raccoons hurlers even gave 23 free passes, and 10 alone in game 3. Adding to that five hit batsmen and four wild pitches one had to wonder how the Raccoons had managed to not get blown away completely. They lost the first three 4-3, 5-2, 3-2, before returning to save some dignity with a 5-3 getaway win.

The draft pool and order were announced on May 15. The Raccoons would pick second after just barely nipping the Condors a few days earlier. My thoughts about it below.

The Aces were quite strong in every aspect (they were atop the CL South for a reason), and this looked much like another low-scoring game. The Raccoons scored first in game 1, but a 3-run bottom 7th turned the fortune in favor of the Aces, who won 3-1. Game 2 was a microcosm of the Raccoons’ first season. Dolder homered to start off the game, but Ned Ray blew it all apart in the bottom 3rd, allowing four runs on a couple of walks (including walking one in), and a wild pitch. The game seemed lost as the Raccoons couldn’t get the offense going until the eighth, when they exploded for five runs, leading 6-4. The Aces came back and tied it, before the Raccoons scored two more in the top 9th. I didn’t trust Ben Green with this. Justice finished the game. Game 3 saw Guillermo Heredia on the mound for the Aces – he truly was on the right team with superb movement and control and an ERA of 1.33 going into the game. He shut down the Raccoons for five innings with a 1-0 lead for his team, but then ran out of steam in the sixth. Greg Swift and Jorge Lopez produced big at bats, as the Raccoons scored five runs in the sixth, forcing Heredia out. The team jumped to 9-1 against the Aces bullpen (who played more than a pair of black 4s and the King of Diamonds), before our own bullpen melted away. Still, we won the game 9-5, taking the series 2-1. This was also the first win for Alex Miranda. Had been about time for a #1 starter.

After an off day, we went to Charlotte to play the Falcons. They had started just as badly as the Raccoons, but had gone on a romp since and were at 21-23. They were scouted as mostly average, with a weak bullpen. Well, sounds like my Raccoons. Yet it was Matt Huber who lost the first game. With a fragile 3-1 lead he walked the first two Falcons in the sixth inning, and all went awful from there. Raccoons lost 6-3. Ed Sullivan was activated from the DL for game 2, going to be tested at 3B, platooning with Freddy Lopez, while outfielder David Correa was sent down to AAA. Sullivan splashed right back in, going 3-4 and scoring once in a 6-1 win over the Falcons in game 2. After the Raccoons had soundly out-hit the Falcons in the first two games, they were shut down heavily by Kent Doyle in the rubber game and managed only three hits, losing 1-0.

In other news:
May 13 – Jorge Munoz of the Las Vegas Aces tossed a 1-hitter against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
May 14 – Sacramento’s CF Jorge Chavez suffered a strained lat that would sideline him for about a month. Chavez was batting .403 with two homers over 62 AB’s.
May 15 – CF Bruce Farrell of the Crusaders hit for 20 straight games
May 16 – CF Ryan Childress of the Nashville Blue Sox hit for a natural cycle in a 6-6 day as his team dumped the Pittsburgh Miners on the road 13-2.
May 19 – Farrell’s hot streak ends at 22 games in a 5-1 loss of his Crusaders against the Canadiens.
May 25 – The Salem Wolves lost SS Beau Horn to a shoulder injury for at least four weeks. Horn was batting .356 with 6 HR and 29 RBI, so this was a pretty big blow to our neighbours.

The team was playing about .500 ball at the moment (in fact the last eight games had seen alternating W’s and L’s for the team), which was not too bad. A few areas needed work, through. One was the #4 starter. Ned Ray was just out of place there. Another was the backup catcher. Sanderson was hitting sub-.100, which was unaccetapble even for a backup catcher.

Next up for the Raccoons was one home series against the Bayhawks, followed by a short trip to Oklahoma City and New York going into June.

Up against the Bayhawks, the Raccoons found a tough trash can to open. Game 1 went back and forth with some good hits here and there. Our guests were leading 4-3 going into the bottom 9th, where Sánz forced extra innings with a solo blast to the stands in right field. Ben Green continued to actively sabotage me by giving out two walks and a wild pitch in the top 11th to lose it 5-4. That Green guy had to go somewhere else, AND QUICK SO!! He was a free agent after this season, but it would go for another four months…

One free agent I wanted to resign was Pedro Sánz. He was hitting around .370 and was 3rd in the CL in home runs, so he could be one corner stone of a winning team along with Simon and maybe Johnston. He wanted a 5-year contract worth over $1.9M, but I had something smaller in mind given my tiny budget. I offered him four years just under $1.2M in total with the first two years rather cheap. (He was by the way making some $150k on his current contract) The new deal was signed on June 4, locking Sánz up for the Raccoons through 1981.

The Raccoons lost the second Bayhawks game 6-0 on a 7-hit shutout by Jose Gonzalez, also losing Matt Huber for two weeks to shoulder tendinitis, then were locked in the clubhouse by Juan Correa, the Bayhawk’s pitching phenom, who was 10-1 with a 0.55 ERA. We lost 7-1 and had only two hits… swept.

Huber was placed on the 15-day DL, while Ken Miller was brought up from AAA to sub for him. Miller was a mediocre lefty, just waiting to be booted by somebody who actually had talent. Maybe Padilla would make another the start the first time through the rotation, I’d have to see.

We went to Oklahoma City next. Thunder was currently ranking either 1st or 2nd in the CL in every major category from runs scored to ERAs, so this was more than likely going to extend the current losing streak to at least seven (going back to the last Falcons game). The Racoons jumped on Oklahoma’s starter Kinji Kan to start game 1. Kan only made one inning plus change, allowing seven hits and six runs. But so much for the Raccoons: leading 9-0 in the bottom 3rd, Ned Ray got himself pulled by allowing five runs in the inning and the bases still packed. Justice got us out of there and then Hatfield pitched four scoreless out of the bullpen. Raccoons won 11-5 and Justice was credited with the win. Ray was demoted to mop-up duties and Padilla became the fourth starter effective immediately.

Game 2 was a close affair with the score tied after each of the first six innings, 2-2 after two, 3-3 after the fourth, and still 3-3 to start the top 7th. There my team really started to rock with a 7-hit, 5-run performance en route to a splashing 10-3 win. R.J. Sanderson contributed a 2-run home run in the top 8th, and Ben Green actually managed to deliver a 1-2-3 bottom 9th for once. Game 3 was started by Ken Miller in his debut. He allowed all runs in the Raccoons’ 6-1 loss to the Thunder over five innings, four alone in the first on two homers. It was probably too early to judge him, but I had known beforehand that he would not be the next best superstar.

Pedro Sánz was the Continental League Batter of the Month with a .365, 4 HR, 20 RBI performance. He’s .357 with 9 HR and 42 RBI overall as of May 31 (after two games against Thunder).

The Raccoons had just left last place in the CL North and now they were already up against the division leaders New York Crusaders. They overcame both Kyle Owens, a very good starter, and their closer Robinson Borquez, scoring twice in the top 9th for a close 4-3 win, and Green earned a save, his fourth of the season. Way to go, Benny-Boy. It was the only win in the series for the team, as the other two games went away 4-2 and 5-2, respectively. The last loss was almost entirely on Stanton Coleman who either gave hits or walks to all four batters he faced in the bottom 7th. The Crusaders’ Bruce Farrell broke his hand tumbling into first base in the last game and would be out for two months.

Ten days to go until the amateur draft. The Raccoons would play at home against the Canadiens and then play another pair of interleague games, first at home against the Cincinnati Cyclones, then on the road with the Dallas Stars. Both of those were fighting hard for the top of their divisions, so no free pass ahead. But first the Canadiens – they currently had the worst bullpen in the Continental League in terms of ERA, which made me wonder how my guys could possibly have NOT the worst bullpen ERA with all the misery living in there.

Brett Justice suffered a torn labrum in the first Canadiens game, a 4-3 Raccoons loss. He would be out for up to a year, dealing another blow to my already depressed mood. Along with Hatfield and Gaston he was the only somewhat reliable arm in that pathetic bullpen of mine, and now he was gone for long, long, very, very long. We’d play one man short until Matt Huber could be reactivated in a few days.

Game 2 was a massive pitching disaster on both sides. Raccoons pitching allowed 13 hits, seven walks, plus an error, but we still won the game against the Canadiens’ 16 hits, 11 walks, and three errors, by the whopping score of 16-11! The rubber game was much the same, but this time the Raccoons were downed (and possibly drowned) 13-5 in an all around horrible performance, which made me cringe in pain more than once.

In other news:
May 28 – The Aces lose Guillermo Heredia, their 35 yr old ace pitcher with an 1.60 ERA, for the season with a torn rotator cuff.
June 2 – The Milwaukee Loggers fire GM Fletcher Kimball and manager Ramón Guiterrez after dropping to last place in the CL North with a 17-36 record.
June 9 – The Capitals lost leftie starter Armando Chavez (7-5; 3.28) for the season with a ruptured disc.

Interleague against Cincinnati and at Dallas up next, followed by the draft. The Cyclones’ strong suit seemed to be defense, while we all know by now that the Raccoons’ strong suit is their omnivorous nature which makes them survive on human trash and discards. I’m looking at you, Ben Green.

After the draft: home series against the Titans, then short road trip to Indianapolis and Tijuana.

I also went over the draft pool, looking for the guys who’d win the World Series with the Raccoons in ’80 or ’81 or so. I picked about 20% of the draft class together for shortlisting. Below are my Top 10 or so. This is not a ranking yet. I really can’t decide between Ramirez and Hall at the moment.

P Andrés Ramirez (13/15/3 – 20/20/18 – 18) – 2.5/5 ; top star alarm!!
LF/RF Daniel Hall (11/8/12 – 19/18/20) – 4/5 ; can’t silence this bat, top star potential!
P Forrest Reid (17/12/8 – 20/15/15 – 12) – 5/5 ; another possible top star
2B Marc Shaw (11/5/9 – 18/10/20) – 3/5 ; bats L and could be a star, maybe
LF/RF Tsuyoshi Ishikawa (12/14/14 – 17/20/20) – 4/5 ; very weak defense, power monster
P Jose García (9/7/6 – 18/8/19 – 11) .5/5
1B/2B/3B/SS Tracy Winters (8/3/6 – 12/7/11) – 1/4.5 ; infield joker
C Miguel Fuentes (9/5/7 – 11/8/12) – 2.5/5
P Nate Goodman (11/11/5 – 14/14/12 – 17) 3/5 ; also plays the outfield
LF/CF/RF Ben Cox (9/5/7 – 14/12/14) – 1/5 ; very good defense, strong across the board
1B Matt Workman (11/6/6 – 15/11/11) – 1/4.5
LF/CF/RF Armando Sanchez (11/6/8 – 15/9/12) – 3.5/5

Game 1 against the Cyclones saw Alex Miranda on the mound for the Raccoons. He was a terrible #1 starter. He had a K/BB ratio of about .7 – that is right, he was getting 30% less K’s than BB’s. Here he walked five in the first four innings. Fortunately the Cyclones were groundballing a lot and the Raccoons turned a few double plays. While Miranda was not a bad pitcher overall, he ran up his pitch count like a rocket, often putting additional strain on my awful bullpen. Here, the Raccoons led 2-1 in the top 7th. The Cyclones had put runners on second and third with two outs. Up was Claudio Rojas, a .300 batter. Walking him would have brought up 2B Jeremiah Carrell, who led the majors in batting average at .395 – not good. Both were righties, as was Miranda. Miranda ensured me he had everything under control. Then he hurled a pitch three feet away from poor Maloney and a run scored from third to tie the game. The rest of the game was only explained to me afterwards, since right there my head exploded and I fainted. Kevin Hatfield came in as reliever in the eighth and scrambled his way through four frames with mostly good pitching. He was the only rested reliever available after the recent bashings, but his team did not score for him through the 11th inning. Ned Ray came in for the exhausted Hatfield in the 12th. Ray somehow made it through two, but the Cyclones scored in the top 14th and won 3-2. No offense from the Raccoons. My pitchers offered 10 BB’s and 3 K’s. Cyclones staff: 3 BB’s and 13 K’s.

The next day, Ken Miller no-hit the Cyclones for six innings, before Steve Mann broke the bid up with a leadoff homer in the top 7th. Miller went 7.1 innings of 2-hit, 1-run ball, before he was relieved by Coleman. Him and Ben Green actively tried to lose a 6-1 game, but weak grounders in between a few big Cyclone hits could only score three in the top 9th, denying Coleman and Green in their evil plot, Raccoons won 6-4, and Green even got one of those saves he so much despised. The last game was a disaster from the start. Berrios pitched ineffective and was relieved after six. Huber returned from the DL and got the managable assignment to pitch the seventh and eighth innings to ease him back in. He went .2 innings with three hits, two walks, and three runs. Gaston had to bail him out, before the Raccoons scored three in the bottom 7th to shorten the Cyclones’ lead to one run. Runners were on second and third, one out, and Gaston to bat. And I would have removed him for Hoyt Cook or a different pinch hitter. But I didn’t have that many pitchers left. A suicide squeeze was called. Gaston bunted the ball to third, Swift dashed in and clobbered into the catcher at home and – SAFE! Game tied, one out, runners on the corners. Another run scored on a Flores grounder, before Sullivan bolted a 2-run homer to cap off a 7-run inning. Raccoons led 8-6 after eight, where a tired Hatfield got the save after Green was once more unable to.

A very intense series there. We took two of three, but for a price, and that price was Pedro Sánz, who suffered an oblique strain and would be out for at least a week. I did not disable him.

The Dallas Stars had us for three. The Stars were good offensively and had the best bullpen in the Federal League, but their starters had some issues, so if we wanted to score against them, we had to so early. The offense did as told in the first game and we led 4-0 going into the bottom 9th. Coleman and Green failed miserably and Gaston was sent in at 4-1, bases loaded and two outs, inducing a flyout to Flores. Alex Miranda then went the distance in a loss in game 2. The Raccoons were the ones trailing 4-0 to enter the ninth and scored three in a rally, but then Ben Simon was doubled up with one out. Game 3 was the first start for Huber back in the rotation. He left after two innings, having surrendered three runs, with an oblique strain. There, the Raccoons led 4-3, but lost after 12 innings, 5-4. I had run out of good arms and bats very early in this game.

Also, the ABL’s first amateur draft! My two top choices Andres Ramirez and Daniel Hall were ranked #4 and #5 on the list of “most experts”, but I actually saw no star players in the three guys ahead of them. #1 rated was Bill Warren, a 20 yr old starter, who had evil movement, but was a walk machine with little control over his pitches. I was already fed up with those I had on my team. But I still was not sure which guy to pick between Ramirez and Hall. Since the Raccoons only had the #2 pick after the Milwaukee Loggers, I could still see whether the Loggers would choose one of them and then take the other myself. And be unhappy with him for the rest of my life.

Bill Warren became the first player in ABL history to be drafted, as the Loggers took him on with their #1 pick. This still left me between Ramirez and Hall. Oh come on, I can’t decide that! (sobs)

The Portland Raccoons eventually, after a great many tears, drafted the following players:

Round 1: Daniel Hall, 21, outfielder, projected to be one of the top hitters for years to come, with contact, power, and eye all there, plus above average defense; his bonus demand of $737,400 was the biggest in the draft [advanced signing is off, by the way]
Round 2: Jose Garcia, 19, pitcher, top stuff and control projection by my scouting department, although OSA is lower. I chose him over 2B Marc Shaw, who was later taken by the Canadiens.
Round 3: Matt Workman, 22, first baseman, above average throughout the board with few weaknesses
Round 4: Miguel Bojórquez, 22, pitcher (reliever) from Venezuela, top stuff projection
Round 5: Jorge Rodriguez, 22, pitcher, very good numbers throughout, but could be troubled by control weaknesses
Round 6: Ben Boyce, 23, catcher, decent hitter
Round 7: Jason White, 18, pitcher (reliever), good stuff
Round 8: Roman Nunez, 20, pitcher from Venezuela (he was the last guy on my shortlist to remain undrafted)
Round 9: Josh Case, 21, catcher, above average in defense
Round 10: David Callahan, 21, pitcher, good stuff, but little else

Ramirez was drafted by the Sioux Falls Warriors as the #14 pick (he remained in there for quite a bit so I was already getting all worked up he might still lie around unpicked when I came back to – but no). Five of my top players detailed in an earlier post remained in there after round 1 (which actually makes me worry about my judgement), and only Matt Workman remained in there for my third pick. OSA actually rated Workman quite bad, but my scouts were so glowing about him, I took him. Scouts can be fired.

Hall started at AA, but all others were sent to the A class team (which suddenly ballooned to 34 players). I axed three A class relievers with terrible numbers and terrible future. I didn’t mind, but they would not have that future on my team.

While the team was playing a series against the Boston Titans, I opened contract negotiations with Ed Sullivan. The versatile and well-hitting infielder had the biggest contract on the team ($440k), which was up after 1977. Sullivan, 32, wanted a 7-year contract worth over three million bucks. Well, no, thanks. I offered two years for what he already got (which was much too much in my opinion anyway), but we could not agree here. I was not going to lock up a guy til he’d be 40, eating up 20% of my budget. He was not THAT good.

The Raccoons lost the series to Boston, as the Titans scored first in each game, and every time with 3-run innings. We came back to take the middle game 6-3, but lost the other two by scores of 6-2 and 3-1, respectively.

Next up is a short road trip against the Indians and Condors, then a home stand facing the Aces and Canadiens. We will be on the road during the last week before the All Star game, traveling east for Milwaukee and New York.

The first Indians game would have been Huber’s to start, but he was still laboring that oblique strain. Ned Ray came in and got a no-decision. Wally Gaston balked in the winning run for the Indians in the eighth, as we lost 2-1. The Indians were still scoring very little, but the Raccoons were nice people and helped them wherever they could. Pedro Sánz came back in the middle game and launched a solo homer to signal he was healthy, but it was the Raccoons’ only run in a 3-1 loss. They salvaged the series with a 4-2 win in the last game. Indianapolis was a team that was awful to play – they had the potential to lock you down completely. Only 13 runs combined were scored in these three games.

We were now tied again with the Loggers at 26-46 in last place in the CL North – the only teams below 30 wins. Of course, our pythagorean difference was -6, so the Raccoons were really a 32-40 team, which certainly sounds much more friendly than 26-46.

The series in Tijuana. Miranda walked three in the first inning, and Sullivan committed two errors at 3B, and more misery added up to a 5-4 loss in the first game. Stanton Coleman suffered a strained elbow and was put on the 15-day DL. Bruce Wright was called up from AAA. Game 2, with Matt Huber on the mound, saw a Tijuana grand slam with two outs in the bottom 1st, then Huber loaded the bases again with one out in the second, walked in a run, and was then sent on a bus to Anchorage by me. After Hatfield pitched 1.2 innings to contain the fire and struck out two in the third (2 K’s in one inning is phenomenal for this pitching staff), Wright was sent in in the fourth. He hit the first batter he faced. The rest of the game is so far away from me, I can only see it through a thick nebula. Must have been the tears in my eyes and everything. Raccoons lost 6-5, I was told, but out-hit the Condors 14-7. Yay. As yay as losing the last game also by one run, 2-1. We were now seven under our pythagorean record of 33-42.

The team had lost six of seven, and nine of eleven now. They had lost six of those by one run, and two by two runs. This was really nagging on me. There were no clutch performers on the team, not one. The Condors series had put up the Raccoons with two opportunities where they loaded the bases with no outs. How many runs did they score in those two innings? Zero. The Aces were in town first on a 7-game home stint, playing three against them and four against the Canadiens later in the week. We had won the first series against the Aces 2-1, and were 3-4 against the Canadiens.

The series against the Aces was another horrible one. After losses of 6-5 and 3-1 scores in the first two games, Matt Huber took the mound in the last game. He walked two, plunked one, threw a wild one, and allowed five runs in .2 innings. Obviously, Anchorage had not been far enough for that bucket full of - … now the Raccoons came back to jump on Aces starter Munoz for five runs in the bottom 4th, and after eight they led 8-7. Lefty Ken Miller had pitched the eighth. I had just promoted Kevin Hatfield to closer, but he was a righty, and Tony Clark, Harlan Quick, and Rob Dawson the first three batters up in the top 9th were left handed batters. Miller had been perfect in the eighth. He remained in there. He walked Quick, and with two outs and righties to come, Hatfield got in to get the final out from Alfredo Gomez.

Raccoons had lost their last five series since going a good 2-1 against Cincinnati. Next were the Canadiens, which had beaten us 2-1 in the last series before beating the Cyclones. You know what’s most depressing? We’ve not swept a series all year so far. We were still tied with the Loggers, now at 27-51, who were also in another terrible stretch.

The team won the first of four against the Canadiens on a 7-6 squeeze, where Hatfield gave up two runs in the top 9th, the first runs scored on him in three weeks and 14 innings, and the first earned runs in almost seven weeks and 26.2 innings. Would the Raccoons at least get in a streak of three wins? Of course not. Horrid pitching and an outright pathetic performance by catcher Darryl Maloney, who passed a ball, had an error and botched two throws on stolen bases (three in total), was waving the Canadiens around and we lost 10-7. Game 3 was just the same. Miranda walked Andrew Bell in the top 1st, who then set out to steal second, and R.J. Sanderson threw the ball way past the base into centerfield. Bell then promptly scored on a flyout. Next, Pedro Sánz was struck in the head by an errant pitch by Alejandro Mora and had to be replaced by Jorge Lopez. Miranda was signaled to smack Mora when he came to bat in the top 2nd. The mission was accomplished. The Raccoons also lost 10-3, with eight runs on Miranda, who got his tenth loss, which put him in a tie for fourth in the majors. Then came Matt Huber, whose last two outings had been shameful. He pitched eight scoreless, but was credited with the two runs that crossed in the ninth for the Canadiens (walk and a plunked batter, what else), while the Raccoons offense produced some oomph for three homers in a 7-2 win. Sánz had played this game, but he was not really himself and would possibly have to be sidelined with symptoms of a mild concussion. To add insult to injury, CF Johan Dolder was injured when he made wall contact on catching a fly ball and would miss at least a week.

The injuries to Dolder and Sánz were extra unfortunate since this left me with no spare outfielders. Neither one needed to be disabled either, but the next week or so would be tough. I needed an outfielder in any case. The seventh infielder on the team, Hector Mendez, was sent back to AAA, he had hit .167 anway, and brought up was LF/RF Luis Hernandez. I could have used David Correa again, which would have saved me $45,000 but if I would have wanted a majors .000 hitter, I would have sent out my grandma. She’s running the bases pretty well with the new hip joints.

Next up was an important one, four games in Milwaukee against the troubled Loggers for the troubled Raccoons – let’s see who’s troubled the most! 1.0 game ahead of them meant that we could easily move 5.0 ahead of last place in the 4-game series. Or go bust.

Outfielder Jorge Lopez subbed pretty well for Sánz, grand slamming in the top 2nd of the first game in Milwaukee. Pitcher Juan Berrios bobbled a ball while covering first, which ultimately cost two runs, and pitched erratically in this game and while the Raccoons led 9-3 after four innings, Berrios got himself yanked and replaced by Ned Ray, who promptly gave up a grand slam and got the game tied in the bottom 5th. I was told that I was screaming at that point and my head was glowing red. The Raccoons lost 10-9 after another pitcher error (by Ken Miller) in the bottom 8th. Scream. Scream. Must scream. So much.

Armando Padilla won game 2 with seven scoreless frames of 4-hit, 2-walk ball, enabling the Raccoons to beat 0-12 Mike Anderson comfortably with moderate offense, 5-0. The next day the Raccoons wrecked Loggers pitching for TEN runs in the first three innings. Alex Miranda gave up six over three innings and was removed for somebody less incompetent. Raccoons won 13-9. Sánz returned to the lineup in the last Loggers game, while Simon got a day of rest. With unpredictable Matt Huber on the mound, everything could happen in game 4. The Loggers scored eight runs off Huber and short-lived reliever Wright. That was it. Huber had to go, one way or the other. A 6-run fifth inning brought the Raccoons back into the game, as Darryl Maloney grand slammed with two outs. Trailing the Loggers 8-7, the Raccoons tied it 9-9 in the seventh, only for Ben Jenkins to allow another run. Sánz homered to tie it again at 10-10, which sent the game to extra innings. Ken Miller came in in the bottom 10th and never got an out. Raccoons lost 11-10.

I signed a contract extension with Brett Justice during this week. He was out until the next spring, but he was a strong pitcher. He wanted an increased salary (of course). We struck a deal for five years worth just over $800k. Getting rid of Huber was impossible. Nobody wanted to take him on. I rebuilt the rotation with Berrios moving to #2 and Ray getting back in at #3. Huber was demoted to mop-up duties, as the Crusaders waited for us.

In New York, hitting suddenly was an issue again. Game 1 was a 4-1 loss. Who plated the Raccoons’ only run? Pitcher Juan Berrios, with a solo homer to center. Tells you a lot about the team. We also lost SS Greg Swift to a back injury for about a week, throwing another one onto the injury pile. With another 8-5 loss in the next game (including another grand slam by Maloney, maybe he should bat cleanup after all…) and another 6-3 loss behind the annoyance that was Alex Miranda, the Raccoons were tied up again with the Loggers for last in time for the All Star break.

The Raccoons had three All Stars: SS Ben Simon, LF Jose Flores, and RF Pedro Sánz. But they had not a single pitcher that could be trusted. Goal number 1 for the off season would be to acquire at the very least two solid starters. Maybe I could trade for one through Wyatt Johnston, who wanted to be traded away anyway. I have a terrible job ...

In other news:
June 23 – Salem’s Julio Bray tosses a 1-hit shutout against the Gold Sox
June 25 – Oklahomas’s Cristo Perez shuts out the Canadiens, allowing only two hits and walking two.
June 29 – Canadian hurler Salah Brunet of the Indianapolis Indians no-hit the Tijuana Condors, a walk to Rich Savage and an error by Indians 1B Cristo Perez being everything that kept him from perfection!
June 29 – John Dorsey, a starting pitcher for the Topeka Buffaloes, suffers shoulder inflammation and is out for the season. He was 9-4 with an 4.06 ERA.
July 2 – Juan Medine, who led the majors in home runs with 17 AND in batting average at .395, suffers a broken kneecap, ending his season and robbing the Richmond Rebels of their run producer.
July 9 – The Salem Wolves send 41 yr old outfielder Alejandro Rivas to Charlotte for SS Dave Martel, 27, and a prospect. Rivas was hitting over .300 in limited playtime, while Martel was hitting at a .290 clip
July 10 – A strained ACL would sideline the Pittsburgh Miners’ power hitting catcher Sam Murphy for about six weeks. He’s batting .275 with 11 homers.

Next up: home stint against Loggers and Indians, then road trip for the Knights and Falcons.

The Federal League wiped the Continental League 15-5 in the first All Star game. Ben Simon homered in a pinch-hitting appearance. Sánz also pinch hit (for a K), while Flores was 0-2 after pinch-hitting and playing in rightfield.

For the home series against the Loggers Johan Dolder came back into the lineup in CF. Swift was still out. The Raccoons had exactly eight hits in the first game, one by each position player that started the game. Berrios did not hit anything but air, but at least limited the damage he did to five runs (three earned) in 6.2 innings. The defense committed three errors, two of them two-base throwing errors. We still managed to win 6-5. Ned Ray pitched to start game 2 and got himself wrecked once more. Why can’t you idiots just ONCE pitch a solid series??? Raccoons were downed for five runs in the first inning, and 9-2 overall.

But it was the third game in the series that really killed my mood. The Raccoons lost 4-0, shut out by Mike Anderson, who came into the game 0-14 and with an ERA over 7 … and that lifeless bunch of suckers was shut out by that guy. THAT guy. I $&%#ing can’t believe it!!

With a 6-2 consolation win in the fourth game of the series (I could feel, my laptop was absolutely intent to please me, after I had already opened the window and had placed him conveniently close to it), this series ended up tied again, just like the one ten days before, and we and the Loggers remained in a tie for last place.

The trade deadline was approaching fast. I tried to make something work to get a starting pitcher to shore up my horrible rotation. Offensively, we were 6th in the Continental League, which was okay (for playing .500 at least), but in defense, we were 10th, and the pitchers were to blame.

One candidate was Michael Ball from the Gold Sox, who was a tad above average, but was 35 and was earning a lot of money. The Knights actually would give him up, but had their demands. I was willing to readily pair two of the following: Ben Green, Matt Huber, Ed Sullivan (whose contract was up and who refused to resign), and Wayne Johnston (who wanted to be traded), except for packaging the last two together, but no combo worked for the Knights, understandably. I had a possibility to trade Sullivan for Jorge Velazquez from the Cyclones, but that was an infielder and was not entirely helpful. Oh dear, why can’t anything work in here …!?

The Ball deal was not going to work out. I then turned my attention to their #3 starter, 28 yr old Christopher Powell, who was 7-6 with a 3.99 ERA. His stuff left some things to be desired, but he had strong movement and control. The Gold Sox, last in the FL West, were ready to swallow Matt Huber, if I bundled a starter prospect in the deal we had no high opinion of anyway. They even offered another prospect back for him. It even saved $50k for this year and some $100k in the next. DEAL!!

Powell was moved into the #2 slot, Berrios down to #3, Ray to #4, and Padilla took over mop up duties. Powell would not start until the next series in Atlanta, having just pitched the day before the deal was completed on July 18.

But first came the Indians, whom I so hated to play. Salah Brunet and Juan Berrios went against each other, the only two pitchers to no-hit a team so far. Both fanned seven in seven in this game (this sentence is correct as it is), and allowed only three (Brunet) and four (Berrios) hits – Berrios was the losing pitcher. The Indians pushed two across in the first inning and that was it, a 2-0 loss. A question next: how many runs will you give up on 19 hits, seven walks and four errors. Answer: FOURTEEN. Game 2 was a stinging 14-1 loss to the Indians, who hardly ever scored, but an abyssmal performance by the Raccoons makes things possible. Ray, Jenkins, Green, and Miller were all hit for multiple runs, only Wally Gaston pitched two scoreless to end the game. I hate those guys. I hate those guys!!

The Raccoons won the last game in the series by the score of 10-0. No errors, seven hits, one walk, but seven strikeouts for my pitchers. Let’s just say, they had been pretty motivated after I seemed to have publicly declared after the last game that the next guy to botch a game would be personally strangulated by me. I didn’t even remember saying that. I read it in the paper this morning.

The next four series were all against the CL South, against the Knights, Falcons, Thunder, and finally Condors. We had a grand record of 3-15 against these teams so far, with no wins at all against the Knights (0-3) and Condors (0-6). The only other team the Raccoons had not won against so far, but had already played, were the Bayhawks: 0-6 there. The lineup needed rebuilding, since we had suffered two injuries in the last game against Indianapolis. Jose Flores had a sore shoulder and would better be relegated to pinch hitting duties, while Darryl Maloney was unavailable after a collision sliding into base, diagnosis pending. Anderson took LF for Flores, while Sanderson was catching. Swift batted leadoff. No callup for another catcher yet. (Maloney eventually was diagnosed with a strained PCL and would miss about a month, sending him to the DL. 23 yr old Sam Moran was called up from AAA three days later.)

Christopher Powell made his first start for the Raccoons to lead off the Knights series in Atlanta. He went eight frames of 7-hit, 1-run ball. The run was unearned. The game was 1-1 through seven, before the Raccoons loaded the bags with two out in the top 8th. Tim Anderson came up and became the hero of the day, being plunked for a run. Hatfield failed to close the game, loading the bases with two outs, instead getting a hold, when Ben Green (of all people) got the final out to save the 2-1 victory. Of course, more than two wins in a row would be awful, so the team K’ed fourteen times the next day to lose 3-2. We also lost Ken Miller to a sprained ankle, of course. Bruce Wright was called up again. Ned Ray pitched reasonably well in the rubber game. The Raccoons led 5-1 through the middle innings before the bullpen glitched again, but still held on to a 5-4 win, barely. It was the first series win for the Raccoons in six weeks.

Alex Miranda pitched a good game and batted in three in a complete game 5-2 win over the Falcons in Charlotte to start that season. C Sam Moran got his first majors hit and also scored one on a sac fly. Of course they lost the next, since we were not allowed to win more than two in a row, 4-2 after a 2-run homer off our new pitcher Christopher Powell in the eighth, before Berrios pitched a complete game as well to finish the series for a 4-2 win.

Trade deadline coming in, and teams started to encroach me to get Juan Berrios. Never ever. The Rebels also offered infielder Bernardo Berrera for my reliever Ben Jenkins. Berrera was certainly not bad, with some power, but he would not be able to beat out my established infield with Johnston, Simon, Swift, and Sullivan. Hmmm. Nooo.

We went home for only one series against Oklahoma City. To make a very sad story very short, the Raccoons were swept 6-0, 2-1 (10 innings there), and 5-3, while they struck out about a thousand times over the course of the series.

This ended the month of July, only two more months to go in this nightmare. We would play the Condors away to start August, followed by a home stint against the Titans and Loggers, before we would get the last interleague matchups of the season against the Wolves and the Buffaloes. Yeah, Wolves, we’ll see who rules Oregon then!

In other news:
July 17 – Billy Robinson of the Indians shuts out the Canadiens, allowing only one hit.
July 22 – Juan Correa and the Bayhawks shut out the Loggers 2-0, marking already the 20th win for Correa this season. His ERA is 0.82! His nickname is “Mauler” for a reason.
July 24 – The Bayhawks’ Rafael Lopez (.318, 5 HR, 51 RBI) suffered a strained hip muscle, putting him on the 15-day DL.
July 27 – The Loggers trade outfielder Dan Nelson to the Capitals in exchange for reliever Henry Peters. Peters had a reputation for eating batters, with a 0.91 ERA in just below 30 IP.
July 27 – The Denver Gold Sox acquired 1B Samuel Serra (.337, 7 HR, 70 RBI) in a deal for 3B Rich Ploughman, who didn’t have very impressive stats, but maybe the Dalls Stars saw something in him the Gold Sox didn’t.

To start a new month against a team we had an 0-6 record against was not too promising. We started off well, though, facing the Condors away on August 1. Sullivan hit a rare triple in the top 1st and was scored by Sánz. Juan Berrios rode that 1-0 lead for a while. The Condors jammed the Raccoons in the bottom 8th, scoring a run to cut their deficit in half. With the bases loaded, Kevin Hatfield came in to record a 4-out save in the 2-1 win for the Raccoons, fanning two. Sánz had gone 3-4 in a bid to get back into the batting title race, where he had recently slumped to below .330, almost 20 points behind the leaders in the category. The Raccoons were then walked seven times and hit five times against Condors starter Gerardo Dias. And still lost, 3-2. Nothing chained together, ever, during the whole game. Ned Ray was good for his standards, but that was less than enough. The last game was a messy affair, with three errors in the first two innings combined and six in total (four for the Condors). Neither side got up significantly for seven. The Raccoons led 3-2 then, but added two in the eighth, and then another three against Joseph Meyer in the ninth to win 8-2, taking two of three against the Condors.

We went home to face the Titans for four and then the Loggers for three. We had played the Titans only seven times so far in the first four months of the season, so they would be frequent opponents down the road. Of course, the Raccoons had been beaten so far, having lost five of seven.

Game 1 vs. the Titans was scoreless through eight innings. Then Stanton Coleman came in and served up a 2-run homer that lost the Raccoons the game in the 2-0 Titans win. I had seen enough of Coleman and his 6.92 ERA – he was sent off to AAA, and another reliever in Jose Vazquez was called up (he had been one of the pitchers I had sent down when I set this game up after I had signed new pitchers). The struggles against the Titans continued. Key to their lineup was leadoff batter LF Fernando Dominguez, who led the majors in steals, and the Raccoons were unable to contain him. He scored thrice in the second game, plus Berrios was rapped for five runs in the second inning, as the Raccoons lost 8-5. But if there was one thing weak about the Titans team it was the bullpen and the Raccoons got to that successfully in the third game, turning starter Jorge Martinez upside down early, then continued to score against the troubled Titans pen, going away with an 11-1 win. Ed Sullivan was 3-4 with two homers, and Sam Moran hit an unlikely grand slam, which was a prelude to a game 4 win in equally strange circumstances. Alex Miranda had given up two runs early and we were 2-1 behind in the bottom 6th. Moran made the first out and Miranda, who was batting soundly below .100, came up to bat. He bombed the ball out of the yard to tie the game and spark a 4-run inning that placed enough distance between the Raccoons and the Titans to win the game, 5-3. Vazquez got his first time on the mound, retiring the Titans 1-2-3 in the eighth, including two strikeouts.

The Raccoons opened the series against the Loggers with a 2-0 win. Powell struck out eight in 7.2 innings, but the Raccoons lost both Ed Sullivan and Pedro Sánz to injuries in collisions on base – both in a play where they had just batted in a runner. Sullivan’s injury was a very mild groin strain, and he was available again the next day, but Sánz had hurt his ankle and was at best available for pinch hitting here and there. Game 2, and we lost Jorge Lopez, who had just replaced Sánz in rightfield. He was hit by a pitch in the foot, breaking it. While the Raccoons rallied from a 2-run deficit in the seventh to scored eight runs in the bottom 8th and won 11-4, we slowly became ever thinner populated in the outfield, with Lopez going to the DL now. The not-hitting David Correa was recalled from AAA.

We had a chance for something new here: finally sweep a series. The Raccoons led 5-1 after six innings, but we needed four pitchers to go through the seventh, and it was not pretty. Tied 5-5, Wyatt Johnston became the match winner, scoring a run on a sac fly. Johnston homered twice and batted in all six runs in the 6-5 Raccoons victory – the first sweep in Raccoons history (well, the first successful at least) was complete, done August 8-10, 1977!

The sweep of the Loggers also assured us of a winning season matchup against at least one opponent that was not an interleague rival, since we were now 10-5 against them. We also had won five in a row now, a tie with our season high, and were looking at something special now: our interleague series in Salem, just up the road. Unfortunately we had a pile of injured players to replace. MR Justice, MR Miller, C Maloney, RF J. Lopez, and RF Sánz were all either disabled or in the case of Sánz day to day.

Game 1 against the Wolves was won mainly on a base-clearing double by Ben Simon in the top 4th. From there, both teams only scored an odd run here and there and the Raccoons held their neighbours off in a 6-3 win, getting our streak to six wins. The streak ended there: the Raccoons lost 3-2 the next day. Two first inning runs agains the otherwise solid Christopher Powell was already almost all the Wolves needed to tie the series. The last game became a pitchers duel. Juan Berrios held the Wolves down into the eighth inning with only a single run as support. Hatfield blew the save in the bottom of the ninth, as the Wolves tied the game with two outs and sent it to extra innings. Four scoreless innings were delivered by Vazquez, before the lefty Padilla came in. The first four batters he would face were all lefties. All of them reached base, bringing in the winning run for the Wolves for the 2-1 after 14 innings.

Wyatt Johnston had gone 9-19 with three homers and nine RBI the last week and became Player of the Week in the Continental League.

It was the middle of August and I went into extension talks with a few more players: Darryl Maloney, Ben Simon, and Freddy Lopez. Simon was without a doubt the most important of them. All of them were arbitration eligible, but I wanted to lock down Simon for long, very long, and for very cheap. Lopez was only backup in the infield, but he was reliable and although a younger player might come in cheaper, I preferred him, at least for another year. I had no promising prospects in AAA anyway to replace him. Maloney was the least terrible of my catchers anyway. Let’s see how these go, then I will hit on Powell, my new starter, who seems to be quite reliable. He was only 2-3 since joining the team, but with an ERA of 2.55, and I didn’t dare to ask for more with my sub-.400 team.

We started a 2-week home stint now with the last interleague series against the Topeka Buffaloes to lead off there. The Canadiens, Indians, and Aces would all come to town after that. We would end the month with a series in Atlanta, the last one against the Knights in ’77. Miller and Maloney would both be able to come back during the first week at home. The question was whether Miller should go back on the majors roster at all. Maloney of course was welcome, since both Sanderson and Moran were hitting very weakly – even for catchers.

In other news:
August 1 – William Williams of the Atlanta Knights shuts out the Loggers on two hits in a 15-0 blowout.
August 5 – The Crusaders’ SS Ralph Nixon suffers a thumb injury, benching him for two weeks. Nixon was a hot candidate for the batting title and had 79 RBIs.
August 6 – Boston Titans staff confirmed that 3B Riley Simon was out for the season with a broken finger. Simon had hit .340 thus far and had been a constant threat with the bat.
August 6 – Jorge Alaniz and the Richmond Rebels shut out the Capitals 2-0, as Alaniz goes the distance and allows only two hits.
August 12 – Sioux Falls’ Chris Smith hits 5-5 against Vancouver in a 16-2 wipeout. He only lacks a triple to hit for the cycle.

Look at the FL West – that thing is wide open.

The Buffaloes series started off with a never-ending struggle that went for 16 innings, five and a half hours. Back 3-0 early, the Raccoons only tied the game down to their final out in the bottom ninth, then walked off seven grueling innings later when Anderson and Sullivan doubled back-to-back with no outs in the bottom 16th. The Raccoons lost Johan Dolder, who was hit by a pitch from Lowell “Wacky” Booth and broke a finger, disabling him for up to six weeks, possibly also ending his season. With the pens thoroughly wrecked, Alex Miranda was tasked with going deep and well in the second game. He failed and allowed all runs in the 6-3 loss. The Raccoons then left a bunch of runners in scoring position in the last game, plus Tim Anderson thrown out at home in the third, in a 2-0 complete game loss to Powell, concluding interleague play for this year. Overall we had gone 8-10 against the Federal League. None of the six series had been a sweep.

Another injury to compensate somehow. There were also five injured players on my AAA and AA teams, further reducing my options. I would open the Canadiens series one guy short, then activate Maloney for game 2 and go with three catchers for two days, then get things in order again the following off day.

Weak offense continued into the weekend series with the Canadiens, which started with another 2-0 loss due to no offense from the team. It took the returning catcher Darryl Maloney to break up the dry spell for the Raccoons as he batted in Anderson in the second inning. The Raccoons still lost 7-3, and they also lost Pedro Sánz AGAIN, after three days in the lineup. This time he banged into the wall catching a flyball, and hurt his shoulder. He went to the 15-day DL. This posed a lot of problems, as I was left with only four outfielders. Worse, this included .000 Correa and in AAA I also had only four healthy outfielders. Ed Sullivan was an emergency leftfield option. I wanted to bring somebody up anyway, and I went with Hector Mendez, the infielder. We ended up swept by the Canadiens, losing 8-4 in the last game.

Simon, Maloney and Lopez signed their new contracts. This left Flores and Powell to resign. And to decide on Green, who had lowered his ERA considerably since getting out of the closer role and more into a seventh / eighth inning role.

And here we were in another losing streak of already five games and the Indians came up, and even worse, we started the series against Salah Brunet (of no-hit fame). The Canadian started with three perfect innings, while the Indians piled on Powell for four runs, but then Brunet glitched and allowed four in the fourth to tie the game. And there came eight innings of dreadful deadlock. The Indians loaded the bases in the eighth, but Gaston got out of it. The decision came in the 13th inning. Sullivan singled to start it off, Wyatt Johnston flew out, Ben Simon walked. Martin Hansen then threw a wild pitch that advanced Sullivan and Simon into scoring position. The Indians went on to walk Greg Swift intentionally (he was 4-5 that night). Bases loaded, one out, Tim Anderson grounds into short and Sullivan is thrown out at home. Bases loaded, two outs, Maloney up. And in an anticlimactic ending, Hansen walks him on five pitches, forcing in the winning run, and ending our losing skid. Phew!

Juan Berrios didn’t feel well before game 2, he had been plagued by migraine for a few days now, but he wanted to start anyway. He was mostly okay on the mound, but struggled with control. Five early Raccoons runs gave a little cushion, but things derailed in the fifth. Luis Hernandez was injured on a play and had to be removed from the game – that was ANOTHER rightfielder out of action. We came out tied 5-5 from the fifth and Berrios was removed for Bruce Wright, who surrendered a home run in the sixth that ended up being the winning run as the Raccoons lost 6-5. We got to the Indians 7-1 in the last game, winning that series.

The Aces were next for the final series against them and the final series on this home stint. Injuries kept piling up as reliever Bruce Wright threw only three pitches in the first game, a 5-3 loss, then left with a painful stiff neck. Aww, little girl has a boo-boo. Arf. The Raccoons were swept with further scores of 5-1 (3 hits of our own) and 1-0 (2 hits of our own). Seems like the Aces are the Indians of the CL South.

We’d finish the month on the road in Atlanta, with a 4-game series in Boston starting on September 1. Outfielders Lopez and Sánz are to come back sometimes during or after the Titans series. I need them. Really.

In other news:
August 19 – William Williams of the Knights 1-hits the Aces in a 4-0 win.
August 21 – Crusader Bruce Farrell has 20 consecutive games with a hit.
August 23 – The Titans lose their power bat Shawn Gilmore (16 HR) to a broken finger until around the end of the season.
August 24 – Farrell’s streak ends at 22, while Brian Adams of the Titans now has 20 games with a hit.
August 27 – Adams’ hitting streak also ends at 22 against the Bayhawks.

Last series against the Knights, who were on a 5-game winning streak. The Raccoons scored first on a passed ball, but then lost Ned Ray to a dead arm early in the game. The injuries kept piling. The passed ball run by Greg Swift was all the runs scored in the game, and the Raccoons won 1-0 on strong relief performances by Jenkins, Gaston, and Hatfield, who combined for 4.2 innings with two hits, no walks and four strikeouts. The Raccoons went through another stretch of poor hitting now with very few hits and close to no home runs. They lost the next game 4-3, with the tying run not proceeding past first in either of the last three innings. Miranda went the distance in that game to conserve the pen to accommodate for Ned Ray, who’d miss a start and would have to be replaced by Padilla. Game 3, and an early heavy rain chased both starters out in the first innings. The Raccoons loaded the bases in four of the first six innings, once with two, twice with one, and once with no outs. How many runs did they get in from there? Two. Pathetic. No clutch hitting to find here. The Raccoons still won 5-1 thanks to sheer volume of hits and walks.

We went to Boston for four games. The series and September began here, and we could have called up some AAA players or so – if there only had been one worth taking. My AAA and AA teams were already bled thin, too. We didn’t call up anybody yet.

Game 1 at the Titans was a 7-3 win. The Raccoons plated six in one inning, but mostly by a costly error of the Titans, which made five runs unearned. The Titans got their own 6-run inning in the next game in smashing Armando Padilla, who was just misplaced as a starter, this became more and more clear. Raccoons went down 9-4. The Titans lost 1B Ken Adams to a quad strain sustained in crashing into second base, his season was over.

Game 3 was a 2-1 loss in which the Raccoons dropped so many chances to score a run or two, it was a shame. We could have easily won 4-2 or 5-2 with a clutch hit here or there. Swift suffered a minor injury to miss the last game of the series. Mendez subbed for him at 2B, moving Simon to SS. Simon struck out in his first at bat, but later was walked intentionally twice with runners on second and third. Powell gave up eight hits but only one run, as the Raccoons tied the series with a 4-1 win. Sánz was 1-3 with a walk in his return.

We went home for just one series against the division-leading Crusaders. By now, we were fairly certain of finishing fifth in the inaugural season, 7.0 games behind the Canadiens, and 10.5 ahead of the Loggers. Now the goal was to save some dignity and avoid 100 losses (we were scratching right along that line at the moment) and in the best of worlds rally to finish above .400.

Another thing I was monitoring closely now was my budget. I had eaten up my $5.2M budget to the point - $9,200 were projected to remain by season’s end. I’m that good. However, with a bunch of home games remaining, we’d make almost $7M in revenue, generating a huge profit. I was hoping a bunch that this would be reflected in next year’s budget. Right now it was actually projected to decrease by $100k...

The Crusaders opened the series with a 4-2 win, outhitting us mightily, and it was a small wonder that we weren’t tagged for ten or more runs. Ed Sullivan was injured crashing into second and would miss a few games with a sore ankle. Ned Ray was sharp in game 2, allowing only four hits and one run, and led the team in total bases (3), going 2-2 at the plate as well! The Raccoons won 6-1. Game 3 was a nail-biter. The Crusaders scored first against Miranda, but the Raccoons tied the game 1-1 in the third. Three scoreless followed, before the top 7th. Johnston bobbled a ball that put a runner on first with no outs and while Miranda pitched well, he loaded the bases with two outs. Ben Green came in against lefty Hector Atilano to match up with him – and walked him on four straight to get the Crusaders ahead again. The next batter grounded out, and Darryl Maloney turned the game around with a 2-run homer in the bottom 7th. Green was next and I let him ground out, to face the next two lefty batters in the top 8th. He struck out the side. Up 3-2, Hatfield came in to close it. Groundout, walk, groundout: runner on second with two outs, but up was Bruce Farrell (.375). He was waved through intentionally to rather face Atilano – whom Hatfield walked to load the bases. He had to go through Ralph Nixon, who on a 2-2 count bashed a ball out to deep right. Sánz made an incredible leap to catch it and the Raccoons actually WON the series against the Crusaders! Whoooo!! While Sánz made the most memorable catch in the game, Flores in LF had actually done more defensive work in the game with at least four close calls – all reeled in. Flores was the real defensive cornerstone, and I had to get him to resign with the team for next season – and beyond.

We were now to face the Loggers in Milwaukee for the final series against them, then would return home for our final home stint of the season. Christopher Powell tossed a 2-hit shutout (with five walks) against the Loggers, but his performance was vastly overshadowed by the Raccoons offense: they tore apart the Loggers, 17-0! Freddy Lopez was 6-6, a new Continental League record, with two RBI, and Swift and Anderson had four hits each.

The more depressing was the next game. The Raccoons out-hit the Loggers 12-6, but didn’t get the runs across and lost 2-1. Ben Simon had one of his famous bases loaded-two outs-swinging strikeouts in the top 9th. Everybody rallied to down the Loggers 11-5 in the final game. They really got more runs than they deserved, involving two scratch hits and a throwing error in the bottom 9th alone.

The final home stint of the season was upon the Raccoons, going against the Titans and the last two interdivision matchups, the Condors and the Bayhawks (against whom we were a dreading 0-6).

In other news:
September 3 – Topeka’s Ramon Borjon, leading the majors with 23 homers, suffers a broken leg and is out for the season.
September 9 – 2B Alfredo Soriano of the Vancouver Canadiens extends his hit streak to 20 games.

Scoreless through six, the first Titans game began to wage back and forth from the seventh. The Titans scored first, but Johnston and Simon homered back-to-back to turn it 2-1 in the bottom 7th. Jenkins and Wright instantly blew it getting tagged for four runs in the eighth. Raccoons scored two in the bottom 8th, and tied it to go to extra innings. Vazquez held the Titans at bay, before Maloney singled in Simon in the bottom 10th to help the Raccoons walk off 6-5. This made the Raccoons peek above .400 for the first time since April 9, when they had been 2-3!

Game 2 was 5-0 win on home runs only: Sullivan launched a 3-run shot in the third inning and a solo homer in his next plate appearance, and Sánz also solo homered late in the game. Sullivan hit another solo home run in the last game of the series, as the Raccoons swept the Titans to my complete surprise with a 6-3 win!

Here we were, sparkling with enthusiasm. Little did we know about the cold shower awaiting us by the Falcons. The first game was a close 2-1 loss, while the Raccoons led 3-2 in the top 9th. Hatfield blew the save when he surrendered a 2-run home run to Jeff Campbell. The Raccoons loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom 9th – no run came across as Flores struck out and Cook, pinch hitting for Hatfield, grounded to doom two. Oh, the agony. Powell allowed one unearned run in two innings before leaving with a hurt ankle and took the loss as the Raccoons were swept with another loss, 3-0, with pathetic offense throughout the series.

And now the Bayhawks. Winless against them so far, the Raccoons were beaten 7-1 to start the series. Game 2 was a close one. The Raccoons scored one early, but had the game tied in the fourth. Ben Simon homered to make it 2-1 in the seventh, his 20th long ball of the season, before Hatfield had the second save in a row blow up in his face, when everything went against him in the top 9th, including a bunt base hit right there where nobody could get it. Hatfield stayed in until the 13th inning with no rested relievers available anymore (I had burned through three in the seventh to match up the Bayhawks batters…) and took the loss in the 3-2 defeat by San Francisco. In the bottom 12th Hatfield had represented the winning run on second, then third base, but nobody had batted him in. Again, no clutch performers on the team.

The Raccoons scored three runs in the bottom 1st to assist Miranda in the last game. Up 3-1, Miranda was chased after four by rain and would not qualify for the win. The Bayhawks scored one against Vazquez, before Wally Gaston got in the game in the eighth. He was solid in the eighth and with the score still 3-2 entered the ninth. The Bayhawks tied the game and won after 11 innings, 4-3, and thus completed the total annihilation of the Raccoons in 1977, nine games, nine wins for San Francisco.

The Raccoons in turn had lost six in a row since sweeping the Titans. They had a road trip remaining for Indianapolis, Vancover, and New York. Remember the minimalistic goal in there: avoid 100 losses, so that meant to win 3 of 10.

In other news:
September 14 – Alfonso Soriano of the Canadiens goes to 25 games of hitting.
September 17 – The Aces chill Soriano to end his hit streak at 26.
September 19 – 1B Pedro Diaz of the Scorpions has hit in 20 straight games.
September 20 – Diaz’ streak ends by the hand of the Richmond Rebels at 20 games.

The Raccoons started just perfectly into the Indians series, as Christopher Powell struck out six and walked one in a 3-hit shutout. We had 14 hits in the 5-0 win. The next day we won 7-4 (4 RBI by Pedro Sánz), which helped the Crusaders to clinch the division and advance as the first team to the post season. To cap off the series, Ned Ray went on the mound. He was perfect the first time through the Indians lineup, but walked Ramon Lafrosia in the fourth. He still carried a no-hitter into the sixth, before he was rapped for four hits in succession. The Raccoons scored four in the seventh to get ahead again and won it 5-2. Indians swept, and thus 100 losses were avoided!

Going to Vancouver was another chilly experience. We were held to two hits in the first eight innings and didn’t score until Johnston bashed a 2-run homer in the ninth. Too little, too late, 5-2 loss. Powell’s penultimate game of the season was up next. He had a hard fight and allowed two homers for five runs in five innings. The Raccoons were down 5-1 after six, but chained together in the seventh to tie it. Then in the eighth, they loaded the bases again with one out. Hoyt Cook stepped in to pinch hit and grand slammed the Raccoons to a 9-5 lead – it was his first home run in the majors. The Canadiens hit two solo homers off Wright in the eighth, but he held on to get the 9-7 win in.

For the last five games of the season, Johan Dolder came back from the DL to take back the centerfield job. Anderson was a good defensive player, but his production was dreading. Well, Dolder’s was as well, but he locked down centerfield hard and the 25 points he was below Anderson in batting he – I felt – got back in with stellar defense on the grass.

Ed Sullivan was the hero in game 3 in Vancouver, launching a 3-run homer that won the game, 4-2. Ben Green actually got to save this one, facing a solid lefty opposition in the ninth. Ned Ray made his final start in the fourth game, picking up the loss, as the Raccoons went down 5-1, again failing to capitalize from two bases loaded situations with less than two outs, including in the top 9th, where they filled the bags with no outs and then Johnston, Simon, and Lopez failed to move anything, racking up two K’s and a pop up.

Still, the goal of putting up at least a .400 season was accomplished. One meaningless series against the Crusaders was left, where both teams could not gain or lose anything. In the CL South, the Bayhawks and Thunder would go directly against each other for the top spot. The Bayhawks needed a sweep to reach the postseason over Oklahoma City. In the FL West, Cincinnati was through already, but in the East, the Scorpions were one game ahead of the Wolves – also facing them! Even more crazy, the Dallas Stars were only two games back and faced the Gold Sox. At best they could reach a three-way tie. What would happen then? Would the universe explode?

The Raccoons still had very few things they could achieve, though. Pedro Sánz was only three points behind Boston’s Shawn Gilmore to become the best slugger of the season. Ben Simon had already won a title, albeit a bad one. With 137 K’s so far, he was leading in that category by a sound margin. Most pitching categories had been won by Juan Correa of the Bayhawks, who had shredded through opponents’ lineups all year long. He had won *33* games already.

What could go wrong? For the Crusaders, much went wrong. They lost their starter Mark Lee to a back injury after two innings – postseason in jeopardy. And they were rapped by the Raccoons, as Sánz was 3-4 with a pair of doubles in the 8-4 win. This continued the next day with a 2-0 win, where Ben Simon plated both runs, one in the first, and one with a solo homer in the sixth.

What about the postseason duels? The Bayhawks had taken the first two from Oklahoma and the two were tied. The last game was truly a decider here, while in the FL East the Wolves and Scorpions had split the first two, Scorpions still up by one, and Dallas had beaten Denver twice and also was only one game back. The three-way tie was still possible!

Maloney had contracted a mild abdominal strain in the 2-0 win over New York and missed the last game. The Raccoons did not sweep the Crusaders, but lost 2-1. Johan Dolder struck out with a runner on to end the season.

The Bayhawks and Thunder went at it, hard: the Bayhawks swept the Thunder with a 13-10 win and advanced to the LCS. In the Federal League? The Stars did what they had to, winning 4-1 against the Gold Sox, but the Scorpions beat the Wolves 7-5 on a 6-run bottom 2nd, qualifying to go against the Cyclones.

We had gone 67-95, but more importantly, 45-45 against our division. The CL South had really hit us hard with a 14-40 (!!) record. Our pythagorean record? 79-83. There is your .500 team, almost.

In other news:
September 26 – Sergio Martiel of the Capitals gets to 20 games with a hit in a row after going 4-4 against the Buffaloes. Martiel is hitting .315 with 101 RBI and five homers. Still, the Capitals lose the game, 6-5, and the fight for the playoffs, bringing the Cyclones’ magic number to zero. The Cincinnati Cyclones didn’t even play on this day to make it to the postseason.
September 28 – The Buffaloes chill Martiel’s streak at 21 games.

Postseason

Scorpions @ Cyclones … 6-7 (Cyclones lead 1-0)
Crusaders @ Bayhawks … 1-3 (Bayhawks lead 1-0) SFB’s SP Savoldelli allowed 7 H, 5 BB, Crusaders still couldn’t hurt him

Scorpions @ Cyclones … 4-9 (Cyclones lead 2-0) Jorge Chavez got Sacramento ahead with a base-clearing double in the third, but the Scorpions were just overpowered. Chavez 3-4, 3 RBI
Crusaders @ Bayhawks … 3-5 (Bayhawks lead 2-0) SFB Thomas Martin 3-4, HR, 3 RBI

Cyclones @ Scorpions … 0-10 (Cyclones lead 2-1)
Bayhawks @ Crusaders … 1-2 (Bayhawks lead 2-1)

Cyclones @ Scorpions … 4-3 (Cyclones lead 3-1) Cyclones trailed by two after eight innings, but turned it in the top 9th
Bayhawks @ Crusaders … 2-8 (series tied 2-2)

Cyclones @ Scorpions … 5-1 (Cyclones win 4-1) CIN SP Juan Luis Maldonado goes distance without allowing an earned run
Bayhawks @ Crusaders … 4-1 (Bayhawks lead 3-2) SFB SP Juan Correa locked down Crusaders over seven innings

Crusaders @ Bayhawks … 1-3 (Bayhawks win 4-2)

1977 World Series matchup is thus between the Cincinnati Cyclones and the San Francisco Bayhawks!

Bayhawks @ Cyclones … 8-10 (Cyclones lead 1-0) Bayhawks led 8-2 after six, but their pen collapsed in epic fashion to surrender four each in the seventh and eighth innings

Bayhawks @ Cyclones … 1-3 (Cyclones lead 2-0) Jesse Thompson outlasted Walt McCorkindale in a pitcher’s duel

Cyclones @ Bayhawks … 9-7 (Cyclones lead 3-0) Cincinnati comes from behind in the seventh again to position themselves for the sweep, but will face Correa in game 4

Cyclones @ Bayhawks … 5-2 (Cyclones are WORLD CHAMPIONS, win 4-0) Cincinnati hits “Mauler” Correa for three in the top 2nd, which already proved enough.

The CINCINNATI CYCLONES are the inaugural WORLD SERIES WINNERS, going a near perfect 8-1 in the post season after entering with the best record of 97-65!

Off season starting now. We will go on a hunt for players, foremost at least one quality starting pitcher, and shore up our bullpen, then look for improvements at catcher, outfield, and maybe shortstop or second base. All without any money to spend.

How to better start the off season but with the notice that two players had become arbitration eligible via the Super 2 rule. However, these were outfielders Luis Hernandez and David Correa. Hernandez was an average bench player, while Correa had gone 0-17 in the majors at the plate. Ben Green had not been resigned by the team. The lefty had gone 2-2 with 9 SV and 3.96 ERA during the season and was too expensive for what he had delivered.

(And the game … welcomed me on October 19 with the messages that the schedule would be shortened to 156 games and the DH rule had been implemented. What the?? No!? These were instantly reversed by me… I’m some godlike creature after all.)

We had also finished the 1977 season with a $1.8M profit. The Raccoons’ owner was happy and took the money to by some new jet … or jetski … or whatever. New budget was set to $5.8M, still smallest in the league. Penny-pinching bas…….eball.

October 25 – The Buffaloes harress me with the first trade proposal for the off season. They offer LF Michinaga Yamada, who had 20 HR and 90 RBI last season, for Ben Simon (who had the same numbers) PLUS three minor leaguers. The weather in Kansas must make these people insane. Rejected.
October 29 – Samuel Serra is traded back to the Stars by the Gold Sox, who had acquired him only during the 1977 season from the Stars. The Gold Sox get a pair of minor leaguers in the deal.
October 29 – The Titans acquire corner infielder Lino Zagallo from Los Angeles for two minor leaguers. Zagallo could be a big hitter in the next years.
October 29 – Wyatt Johnston is the only Raccoon among the Gold Glove winners for his 1B work.
November 1 – The Crusaders ship Zak Bodenham to the Aces for starting pitcher Tom Moulds (8-6, 3.82).
November 1 – Jack Pennington (Cyclones) and Juan Correa (Bayhawks) are pitchers of the year. Correa put up a 34-4 season with an 1.27 ERA.
November 2 – Christian Hampton (Buffaloes) and Hector Atilano (Crusaders) are presented with their batting title trophies. Hampton had a .375 season!
November 4 – The Gold Sox continue to be active and deal Manny Negrón to the Condors for two prospects. Negrón had a 16 HR-season.
November 4 – The Miners acquire pitching prospect Roberto Carillo from the Indians in a deal for a reliever Mario Valentín (2-1, 4.20).
November 7 – The Raccoons claim reliever Jerome Weeks off waivers from the Indianapolis Indians. Weeks spent only limited time on the majors roster in 1977 with an ERA over five, but our scouting departments thinks we found money in him. Weeks is 22 and has already good stuff that needs some seasoning in AAA, also to iron out some control struggles. He could be a key to the pen by 1979.
November 9 – In the arbitration hearings both the cases of Hernandez and Correa were decided in favor of the Raccoons and both were awarded new 1-year contracts.
November 10 – And he’s gone: the Raccoons trade outfielder David Correa (famously 0-17 in the majors in ’77) to the Vancouver Canadiens for pitching prospect John Hyde. Hyde had a fair season in AA in ’77 and should improve this season and maybe even get to AAA already.
Novmeber 12 – Players with expiring contracts file for free agency, including our Ben Green. Four teams have already jumped on him. I will pursue elsewhere.
November 13 – The Canadiens put former Raccoon David Correa on waivers.

There are a couple of free agents on the market I would like to hire, especially in the starting pitcher department. Juan Correa is also among them. How much come 34 wins per season? Apparently roughly $600k a year, for many years.

There was something to consider though, although I had budget room to sign one big guy. The Raccoons would pick either second or third in the 1978 draft. Signing any top starter now would lose them their pick. Of course we could gain one if Ben Green was signed, since he was a type A free agent, but that one would most likely come further down in the order.

November 25 – The Aces send Rob Dawson to the Wolves, primarily to grab pitching prospect Pedro Durán.
November 26 – We acquire C Kieran Lawson from the Pacifics in return for C Sam Moran and minor league reliever Carlos Marrero. Lawson is a solid .200+ hitter and will play backup behind Darryl Maloney. This fixes one of the most glaring issues with the team last year. Starting pitching is still not done, but we’re cooking something there…
November 27 – Bang! The Raccoons trade their #1 starter from last season, Alex Miranda, to the Tijuana Condors for two minor leaguers and starter Jorge Romero. The latter was 15-13 in 1977 with an ERA just under three, while Miranda led the league in walks.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft; three players are picked, but the Raccoons are not effected.
December 3 – The Rebels re-sign free agent closer Stanley Holman, who racked up 28 saves for the team in ’77.

Now, the winter meetings went by uneventful for the Raccoons, but in mid-December we were leading in off season WAR improvement with 3.7 – mostly responsible for that was the Romero trade. Now there were still two or three things I wanted to get right. I wanted a centerfielder with better batting. Dolder and Anderson were fine defensively, but their offense was troubled. I could easily trade one of them away to achieve that goal, I just had to find a team willing to pick one up. If that would work, it would most likely be Dolder because of his much smaller contract. Dropping Anderson on someone would be hard.

One thing was the bullpen. I wanted seven guys again. Hatfield was the designated closer, with Gaston as setup. The remaining guys were lefties Padilla and Wright, plus righties Jenkins and Vazquez. One spot was currently open, but we had to keep in mind that Brett Justice was still on the DL. Calculating a full minors rehab assignment for him, he would not join the team before June, most likely at the end of the month.

What I had in mind was the following: trade Padilla away (he was struggling more often than not at the end of the season), move Ray as lefty to the pen, and get a new lefty starter. I was also on the heels of a Cuban defector, a 28 yr old right handed reliever.

I had an AAA starter with promising development, Logan Evans. He was actually a left handed pitcher, but he was not ready for the majors, he’d be most likely the next walk machine, and we had just shipped Miranda away. Evans could make the move to the majors, but not this year.

December 13 – The Falcons sign 1B Bill Peterson, who was .293 with 21 HR and 93 RBI for Topeka in 1977.
December 13 – The Raccoons ink Cuban international free agent reliever Tony Lopez and Mexican outfield prospect Juan Martinez. Perez is moved to the majors roster, and Martinez assigned to the A level.
December 14 – The Titans sign 21-game winner Sean Critch to a 3-year contract worth almost $1.3M.
December 31 – Free agent closer Bernardo Reyes signs with the Indians. He was 3-8 with 24 SV in 1977, with a 3.27 ERA. The Raccoons made an offer, but didn’t want to dig that deep in their pockets.
January 1 – The Raccoons trade minors outfielder Guy Mawson to Atlanta for pitching prospect David Castillo.
January 8 – Armando Padilla is sent to the Rebels for fellow lefty reliever Bill Baker, who had an 3.86 ERA in 1977.

Baker was not the starter I was looking for, but no top notch left handed starter was to be had. And also none from the second row. Still, Baker is much more consistent and walks much less batters than Padilla. The roster is more or less set now, with the exception of the centerfield problem.

No matter what I do, I always run into roadblocks...

The schedule I had downloaded for use in this league has not been randomly reseeded by the game, nor has it picked a different schedule. So I am presented with the exact same schedule as last season. And I don't want that at all.

Is there a way to get the teams randomly reassigned within the schedule? I have not the least little idea about editing and the online manual has already proven to be no help at all (and seems to be blatantly wrong with the randomization of the schedule anyway)...

Help, please ...! :crying:

I went ahead and manipulated the xml file so as to switch the schedules for the Raccoons and the Indians. This is a very pathetic fix which took me hours, since I messed up about a kazillion times. That’s the epic fail I am. Any suggestions for actual and less painful solutions for future seasons I would be more than just grateful. I would even send you a cookie or so. Or two.

--------

Finding a centerfielder suiting my wishes was not hard, but trading for him was not really easy. Eduardo Guerrero was too expensive, a few others were also a bit too highly paid, and then there was Phil Ayers of the Canadiens. He was suited for every outfield position and had some good contact ability, but without power. Still, he had a minimum contract, and I was very much interested. However the Canadiens demanded too much for a trade.

February 9 – The Scorpions dig in deep, signing Juan “Mauler” Correa (34-4 in ’77) to a 4-year, $2.23M contract. SS Beau Horn also signs with the Scorpions for $2.8M over five years. Horn is a strong shortstop hitting for average and power. He was with Salem in ’77.
February 9 – SP Guillermo Heredia, who was 6-3 with a 1.60 ERA before getting injured with the Aces, signs with the Blue Sox.
February 15 – Former Raccoon Ben Green signs with the Los Angeles Pacific for two years, making $273k per year.
February 18 – The Rebels sign Riley Simon, who had been hitting .345 for the Titans before fracturing a finger in early August that ended his season.
March 4 – The Capitals sign Japanese free agent 2B Seitaro Ine, who could be a pain to Federal League pitchers.

As March goes on I’m contemplating making an offer to Jesse Jeffries. The 36 yr old played a bit for Salem in ’77. His hitting is not too fancy, but he is a very versatile defensive sub for late innings. He would probably be an improvement compared to Hoyt Cook, whose place he would take on the roster. There are two more players of that type on the market, Cole Callender and Alberto Ruiz, but none of them is as strong defensively as Jeffries. I eventually made an offer for $75,800 for one year to him (he wanted $117,000 at first).

Brett Justice, my reliever laboring on a torn labrum, suffered a setback in his healing process, delaying his return for about another month. So he won’t join the majors again until late July (factoring in a rehab assignment).

Jeffries signed the contract offer I made him on the eve of the season, March 31. This set our roster. Three would have to go down, and these were R.J. Sanderson, Hector Mendez, and Luis Hernandez. This gave me three backup infielders and two backup outfielders, very well.

A few reports before the season starts: the Raccoons have three of the Top 10 prospects in the ABL, with SP Logan Evans (AAA) at #5, LF Daniel Hall (AA), our first pick in the ’77 draft at #7, and CF Juan Martinez (A), whom we had just kidnapped out of Mexico, at #10. Good times ahead?

Who had made the biggest jump in the off season? Sabermetricians were all in unison: the Scorpions had signed (among others) Juan Correa and Beau Horn, gaining 17.5 WAR. The Titans were +12.9, the Stars +5.6, and the Raccoons and Falcons shared fourth place at +4.0 – the Buffaloes (-7.3), Bayhawks (-8.6), and Wolves (10.8) were on the bottom of the barrel.

This leaves me with our roster for opening day (although the Raccoons would actually play on opening day):

SP Jorge Romero (15-13, 2.96, was with Tijuana in 1977)
SP Christopher Powell (14-12, 3.15, was 7-6 with both Denver and Portland, but with the Raccoons he actually had a 2.20 ERA!)
SP Juan Berrios (11-18, 3.53, the first ABL pitcher to toss a no-hitter)
SP Ned Ray (10-14, 3.93, only lefty in the rotation)

MR Bill Baker (4-3, 3.86, lefty with Richmond in 1977)
MR Wally Gaston (6-8, 2.75, has walk issues)
MR Ben Jenkins (6-3, 4.73)
MR Tony Lopez (signed as international free agent, could be a setup guy if he kicks in)
MR Jose Vazquez (2-1, 2.22, played only the last two months in the majors)
MR Bruce Wright (1-1, 1.54, like Vazquez came up late in the season, is a lefty who really surprised me)
CL Kevin Hatfield (1-2, 2.69, became the closer some way through the season, recorded 19 SV)

C Kieran Lawson (.201, 2 HR, 17 RBI with the Pacifics)
C Darryl Maloney (.239, 7 HR, 59 RBI)
1B Wyatt Johnston (.287, 15 HR, 92 RBI, last year of his contract, most likely won’t re-sign)
1B Hoyt Cook (.231, 1 HR, 11 RBI)
1B/2B/LF Jesse Jeffries (.283, 0 HR, 11 RBI in limited play with Salem)
1B/2B/3B/SS Ben Simon (.251, 21 HR, 91 RBI)
1B/2B/3B/SS/LF Ed Sullivan (.284, 20 HR, 61 RBI)
3B Freddy Lopez (.223, 0 HR, 20 RBI)
SS Greg Swift (.267, 2 HR, 57 RBI)

LF/RF Jose Flores (.277, 6 HR, 38 RBI, led team in steals with 24)
LF/CF/RF Tim Anderson (.229, 4 HR, 29 RBI)
1B/LF/CF/RF Johan Dolder (.209, 4 HR, 31 RBI, injured for much of the second half of the year)
RF Jorge Lopez (.284, 3 HR, 17 RBI)
LF/RF Pedro Sánz (.308, 17 HR, 70 RBI, injured four times in 1977)

One note: the ABL is very poor in two aspects, stealing and power hitting. Nobody had more than 26(!!) homers in 1977, and only one player had more than 30 steals. So those home run numbers are pretty good compared to the rest of the pack.

Opening day lineup:
LF Flores – 3B Sullivan – RF Sánz – 1B Johnston – 2B Simon – SS Swift – CF Dolder – C Maloney – P Romero

Titans, Aces, Falcons come to town to start the 1978 season. Let’s go!!

Game 1 pitted our new acquisition Jorge Romero against the Titan’s new ace Sean Critch. It became the expected pitcher’s duel, as both gave up only one run in seven innings plus change. It took 13 innings to find a winner, and that winner were the Raccoons, when Ed Sullivan sent a sharp liner to center that CF Will Wilson misplayed, allowing Darryl Maloney to score from 2nd base and the Raccoons won 2-1. Ben Jenkins went three innings on just 24 pitches. We were above .500 for the first time since being 2-1 after winning the first series against the Crusaders in ’77. Who led the CL North on this April 4, 1978? The Raccoons and Loggers, tied at 1-0, the two worst CL teams in 1977.

Game 2 sent Powell in, but he didn’t have to try too hard to get a W. The Raccoons raped Augustinho Tibo for seven runs in the first, storming to a 12-2 win. Bill Baker and Tony Lopez made their first appearances, both scoreless. Raccoons shot out of the gate again in the last game and led 8-2 after six, before the pen started to crumble awfully. Hatfield had already been used in the eighth to get Vazquez out of a jam, Baker couldn’t close it at 8-5 and Wally Gaston saved it finally to win 8-7.

Thus, we swept the Titans to start the season. Could it start any better? We’d go up against the Aces next, who were also good out of the gate, 3-1.

For the third game in a row, the Raccoons scored multiple runs in the first inning, and for the second time during that stretch through a homer by Wyatt Johnston. We made it 3-0 on a suicide squeeze in the second, before Brandon Patterson actually stole home in the top 3rd – it certainly was a game of special plays. Ned Ray was shelled for four more in quick succession and pulled. Ben Jenkins held the Aces down and the Raccoons turned it around to 6-5 again by the sixth. Jenkins again went three innings, this time on 25 pitches, and again scoreless. Wright and Hatfield kept the Aces down to hold and save the 6-5 win, putting the Raccoons at a fascinating 4-0 record! And Jenkins, who was in there as mop-up / long man, now was actually at 2-0 and leading the CL in wins.

The Raccoons kept rolling. Homers by Johnston and Maloney in the second inning got game 2 righted early and the Raccoons won 5-2. Jorge Romero and Tony Lopez struck out the side in consecutive innings. Christopher Powell went the distance in the series-ending 3-1 win that followed.

And the Raccoons were a stunning 6-0 with the best record in baseball, the only team undefeated. Wyatt Johnston led the league in home runs, and trailed only the Knights’ Armando Delgado in RBI. Was this still my team? The team that had lost a billion games in 1977?

Falcons starter Kent Doyle started off by walking four in the first inning in game 1 against the Raccoons, pushing in two runs. That cost the Falcons. They launched two shots off Berrios, who led 3-2 when leaving after seven, but Tony Lopez blew the lead. The game went to extra innings, where Vazquez (so far with a 40.50 ERA) held down the Falcons until Johan Dolder tripled with two outs in the bottom 11th. Kieran Lawson singled through the hole on the right side to score Dolder and the Raccoons walked off, 4-3, going to a 7-0 record.

It ended right there, as the Raccoons lost the next game 4-2 to the Falcons. The team was out-hit and Ray struggled with control again in his second start. Jose Flores was 4-5, batting in both Raccoons runs. Freddy Lopez was the match winner in the rubber game, bolting a 2-run homer in the bottom 8th, pinch hitting for Wally Gaston, to get the Raccoons ahead again to win 4-3.

First home stint over, and we had an 8-1 record. I don’t know what to say but KEEP IT ROLLING!! We shared the best record in baseball with the Cyclones, and led the Continental League in defense (3.1 RA per game) and were second in scoring with 5.1 runs per game. We went on our first road trip now for New York and Indianapolis.

Starting the series against the Crusaders, the Raccoons position players did not bat in a single run in game 1 – yet we still won 3-2. Christopher Powell had an RBI single and the other runs scored on two wild pitches by Tom Cox. Game 2 was a 4-2 loss. This time the Crusaders scored a run on a wild pitch by Berrios. Tony Lopez lost the game in the bottom 7th with two hits and a hit batter. Game 3 was a wild ride, as the Raccoons allowed five unearned runs over six innings. Pedro Sánz tied the game with a 3-run bomb in the top 7th. Hatfield came in in the bottom 9th to save a 6-5 lead and got two outs, but then served a 2-run homer to Hector Atilano, which lost the game 7-6 and broke a streak of seven converted save opportunities for Hatfield, dating back to last September.

This brought us into Indianapolis. We still led the division at 9-3, while the Indians were 8-5, and with little offense again. They were 11th in runs scored after the first two weeks, but that was nothing I hadn’t seen so far. You had to keep them from scoring to win.

Unfortunately, Jorge Romero allowed four runs to score in the second inning. A solo homer by Greg Swift had gotten the Raccoons ahead at first. In the bottom 5th, Romero struggled again. Jose Zavala tried to score on a flyball to short center. Dolder caught in and fired it in, as Zavala crashed violently into Maloney at the home plate. Maloney held on to the ball, Zavala was out, and to add insult to injury, he had hurt his elbow in the collision and had to be taken out of the game. The Indians won 4-1, as the Raccoons were unable to mount more offense. This was followed by a 5-3 loss in game 2. Powell took the loss and was removed in the fifth inning with a sore thumb. Raccoons were fanned nine times.

In came Juan Berrios in game 3. He had a shutout going, but ran into trouble in the ninth and could make it through. Hatfield got the final two outs with bases loaded with two K’s on full counts.

Something is strange about the standings at the moment. Oh, yeah. The Raccoons led the CL North. (faints) Next week: home games against the Knights and Thunder, then a road trip to Boston to end April. The road trip will continue into May against the Canadiens before interleague play will come upon us for the first time against the Warriors and Capitals.

In other news:
April 5 – Johnny Bates of the Condors has hit in 20 straight games, dating back to 1977.
April 6 – The Aces chill Bates at 20 games, as they defeat the Condors 6-4.
April 11 – Hunter “Lucky” Frazier lucks out: the starter of the Tijuana Condors suffers from radial nerve compression, ending his season. He had been 19-13 in 1977.
April 18 – RF Juan Medine of the Rebels is out for two weeks with a sore elbow. He’s hitting .381 so far and had 16 homers in 1977.

Ned Ray was sent in first against the Knights, but did not get out of a 4-run fifth inning. Luckily, the Raccoons mounted a 5-run sixth inning themselves and won 7-4. Ben Simon was 3-5 and still left four on base. Clutch has been his problem since the league started play. Ned Ray’s performance was a concern. Four starts in, he was 0-1 with a 4.05 ERA but this did not account for six unearned runs he also had let score. This was no surprise, but the #4 starter was the area that needed to be addressed next in improving the roster.

Jorge Romero took the loss in game 2 against Atlanta after surrendering a grand slam in the second inning. Raccoons lost 6-1, and then took a 5-0 loss in the rubber game as they were two-hit by the Knights. The game was 2-0 after eight, but Vazquez was slapped around for the second time this season and allowed three more.

We still led the CL North with an 11-7 record, but the Indians, Crusaders, and even the Loggers were all within two games. Next up were the 9-10 Oklahoma City Thunder, against whom we had struggled so hard in 1977 with a 2-7 record. They were not putting up big numbers offensively, so the series really could go either way.

But first it went one away, Oklahoma’s. The Raccoons again were shut out on three hits this time and went under in an 8-0 bashing. The Raccoons stuttered past the Thunder the next day, winning 1-0, and it took a solo shot by the catcher Darryl Maloney to score that one. The team had six hits this time, which made a 3-game average of .33 runs and 3.66 hits. Miserable! Jorge Romero blew a 4-1 lead in the rubber game, allowing the Thunder to tie it in the seventh. Still 4-4 into the bottom seventh, Raffaele Antuofermo walked the bases loaded with Raccoons with no outs. Hoyt Cook came in for Wally Gaston and struck out. Jose Flores grounded into a play to throw out Greg Swift at home. Two outs, before Ed Sullivan rolled a ball up the middle that just so happened to get through between the middle infielders, scoring Dolder from third and winning the game 5-4.

We had an off day before hitting the road and were at 13-8, on equal footing for first place with the Crusaders. And surprise, surprise, while I was enjoying the radio broadcast of the Crusaders game in Las Vegas (3-0 New York eventually), I was handed a note that Wyatt Johnston had left for me. He didn’t want to be traded away anymore. He wanted to stay. Look who wants to play for a winner. Well, we’ll try to get something done. I had thought that Jesse Jeffries could mayyyyybe replace him eventually for a year or two, but he was batting way below .200 at the moment.

But first we had business with the 9-13 Titans. Just as the Raccoons had dropped from their 7-0 start, the Titans had rallied from their 0-6 opening. We opened with a 2-1 win. Christopher Powell held the Titans to two hits in 7.1 innings, but they made a run of it in the eighth that tied the game. Sánz batted in the winning run in the top 9th and Hatfield got his eighth save, leading the majors. Berrios was up next, but had a hard time getting anybody out, and left after 3.2 innings after giving up eight hits, two walks, and five runs. The Raccoons’ offensive slump continued, and a 2-run homer by Sánz was all the offense they put up in the 5-2 loss. To finish the series, Ned Ray dropped three early, but the Raccoons won on a 4-run fifth inning and a 9-pitch 1-2-3 bottom 9th by Hatfield.

The Raccoons entered May with a 15-9 record, half a game ahead of the Indians in the CL North. The strangest thing? We were 86-87 in runs – we were the new Indians! (shocked and in horror!) Well, the Indians were 85-86, so we were in fact very much alike. The problem with the Raccoons was that most players had a lower batting average than last year, and by as many as 40 points. Sullivan and Johnston had started especially slow and Sullivan and Simon had not yet homered at all in 1978.

May opened in Vancouver and the first game was another blow. The Raccoons lost 6-5 in ten innings and also lost Ed Sullivan to an ankle injury for a few days to a week. Following that horrible day, Christopher Powell (3-2; ERA just about three) went against Marcos Ramos (0-4; ERA of almost six). One of them went seven frames of 2-hit ball, the other was chased in the fifth and saddled with seven runs. The other was Powell, of course. Raccoons were beaten 8-0. The Canadiens completed the sweep with a 5-4 walk off win in the last game.

Horrible offense, and starting pitching with ERAs shooting upwards sharply – this had the potential to become a disaster. Still, the defense is carrying the team. Offense is down to 96 runs in 27 games (just over 3.5 R/G, 11th in the CL and 23rd overall, just over half of what the leading Dallas Stars had set up: 166 runs so far for the Texans.

I really don’t know what to do about it at the moment. Just about everybody has fallen into a hole compared to last season, we score even less, and STILL lead the division!? What!?

If somebody has a rational explanation for this, I’d be happy to hear it.

In other news:
April 22 – Capitals CF Jesse Whiteaway has a 20-game hit streak going.
April 23 – Whiteaway is cooled by the Wolves, halting his streak at 20.
April 26 – The Titans lose their big bat Shawn Gilmore for the season with a ruptured medial collateral ligament.
April 29 – Milwaukee’s Francois Dédé combines for a grand slam and six hits in a 12-2 win over Vancouver.
April 30 – David McCann, owner of the Topeka Buffaloes, passes away. His son Walt becomes caretaker of all club operations.

Next: interleague at Warriors’, then home series against Capitals, Indians, Loggers, and Condors.

The Raccoons took another hit to start the Sioux Falls series. We did win the first game 4-2, but lost Greg Swift (who twisted his ankle dashing into first base) and Johan Dolder (who had his hand fractured by Ramon Vasquez with a pitch). Dolder was put on the DL, with at least six weeks of recovery ahead of him. Luis Hernandez was called up from AAA. Swift’s injury would bench him for just a coule of days to a week, so he stayed on the roster. In turn, Sullivan was back in the lineup and was moved to #4, with Johnston (.210) up to #2. I had a hard time generating a lineup with at least six batters over .220 – the Raccoons were batting that bad. They lost the middle game 3-2, then relied heavily on Pedro Sánz, who batted in all runs in a 3-2 win in the rubber game, which Hatfield hardly was able to close.

More misery with the first game against Washington, a 7-2 loss with only four hits for the Raccoons. Tim Anderson got the team ahead with a 3-run shot the next day. In the bottom 5th, Wyatt Johnston hit into a triple play with Ray and Flores on second and first. 2B Sergio Martiel caught a lined ball over his head with a mighty jump and they caught the runners far advanced and both were put out quickly. The Raccoons still won, 4-2, but again only had five hits. Freddy Lopez contributed a home run as well. The last game got Greg Swift back, who slid into the shortstop position again. Swift went 2-4, which was already half the team’s hits in the 4-1 loss.

Offense was a *serious* concern by now. We had 111 runs over 33 games and only 253 hits – both by far worst in the league. How we still were at a 18-15 record, was a mystery. The rotation was mostly solid to good, that much was true, and the bullpen had come around well compared to last year, so the defense was carrying us with only the Crusaders and Falcons allowing less runs in the CL. We seriously needed more hitting.

After a pathetic 4-0 loss in the first game against the now division leading Indians, the Raccoons came back thanks to a terrible throwing error in the second game of the series. Up 4-1, I then made a mistake and sent in Hatfield to save it – in the eighth inning. I can’t count. Hatfield still went through the Indians, but yielded a run in the ninth as the Raccoons won 4-2. Two runs were unearned. The series’ rubber game was almost unbeatable in patheticness. The Indians committed three errors early, but the Raccoons still couldn’t score more than two runs. The Indians tied in the eighth and the game went to extra innings, where no team mounted any meaningful offense until the bottom 13th, when the Indians walked three, including issuing a 2-out walk to Ben Simon that brought in the winning run for the Raccoons, 3-2.

Still terrible offensively, we had gotten the Indians back on equal footing with us. Both our teams were now half a game behind the Crusaders. Next up were the 18-19 Loggers for the first four games against them this year.

In more bad news, Tim Anderson was injured in the first inning of the series. He hurt his shoulder badly on a play as he fired a ball back in and tore the labrum in his shoulder. His season was effectively over with about four months of recovery projected. That made two crippled centerfielders, and I only had those two. Gah! The Raccoons won 5-2 in this game, with two homers by Simon (his first two in ’78!) and the save by lefty Bruce Wright, as we faced the left-handed heavy artillery of the Loggers in the ninth and Hatfield was a righty and slightly tired as well.

Now where to turn to replace Anderson? Johan Dolder’s return was still a month away. I would have turned to last year’s top draft pick, Daniel Hall, who was beating up AA pitchers, but he was also out with a quad strain. There were also no promising players in the minors, they were all either hitting terribly or were fielding terribly, or were injured. For the time being, I slotted Flores over to CF, Sullivan out to LF, and Freddy Lopez would play 3B. That was a very bad move fieldingwise, but I had no other option, but to put Jeffries in LF. We’d try the first one first, then the other over the next week or so. Either way, Flores in center was a waste. He was great in left, and I would want him there, but he was the only guy fitting into center remotely.

Ah, I hate it. Three more against the Loggers. The Raccoons had gone 12-6 against them last year, had won the first now, and the last three games pretty well described the team in 1978. The middle games were 3-2 and 2-1 wins for us. In the first of these, the winning run scored on a wild pitch. Freddy Lopez homered the winning run in the other as I was already pulling my hair out. In both those games, the Raccoons also had considerable help from the Loggers and were walked a total of 11 times in those two games. Then came Greg O’Brien and did not walk anybody in the last game and crushed the Raccoons 7-0.

Four games, won three, and still scored less runs (10-12) than the Loggers!? Why does it have to be this way!? The Condors were our next opponent. Alex Miranda had just pitched a shutout for them (see below), but we’d miss him on this series. Overall the Condors were 15-26 to our (somewhat stunning, I admit) 23-17 record. But we already revived the Canadiens earlier in the month by letting them sweep us, why shouldn’t this happen again?

The series started with a 14-inning grind after the Raccoons had scored three early against Alfonso Meija. Former Condor Jorge Romero was once more ineffective and got behind. The game was 6-6 into extra innings, where the Raccoons only once touched second base in five innings before surrendering the winning run in the top 14th, when Jose Flores just so barely caught a ball bound to go out, but crashed into the wall and dropped it. The Raccoons struck out SIXTEEN times in the game, and Hatfield blew a 2-run lead in the top 9th. Sometimes I hate these guys. The middle game was a painful 6-1 loss, before we went to game 3. The Raccoons bashed Condors starter Pascal Robin for six runs in the first inning, including a 3-run homer by Kieran Lawson, the backup catcher, who normally could even kick the ball past the infield. Good news: not even the Raccoons could blow that lead and they won 8-2. Bad news: Joseph Meyer was moron enough to think that Jose Flores’ foot was in the strike zone. He smaked it pretty well and Flores was now out for a couple of weeks with a fracture in his foot.

That was my emergency centerfielder out. And what now!?

In other news:
May 13 – Richmond’s Riley Simon has a 20-game hitting streak going.
May 14 – Simon has his streak clipped by the Pittsburgh Miners.
May 15 – The Cyclones’ Jorge Velazquez will be out for up to six weeks with a strained medial collateral ligament. He had 124 RBIs in 1977, but had started slower into the current season.
May 15 – The Indians explode offensively to trump the Titans 17-0, as Jorge Vallejo throws a 3-hit shutout.
May 18 – Former Raccoon Alex Miranda tosses a 2-hit shutout as the Condors beat the Thunder 2-0. Miranda was 6-2 with a 3.51 ERA (bit worse than with the Raccoons there), he was still the King of Walk, but his new team scored a wealth of runs and he didn’t bother, apparently.
May 20 – Both Ray Kirk and Keith Carter go 5-5 for the Buffaloes in a 16-3 rout of the Pacifics. Kirk falls a triple short of the cycle, but homers twice, including a grand slam.

It’s May 22, and we will go on a 2-week road trip for San Francisco, Charlotte, and Atlanta from the CL South, then Boston in our CL North. I will also have a look at the draft pool that was published while we were aching through the Loggers.

Robby Davis was called up from AAA to play centerfield for the next three weeks. It was a bad move, but I only had terrible moves for other options. Playing Sánz in CF would have been one. It didn’t help to cry over spilled milk, but the rotten luck I had with injured centerfielders was far from funny.

And with this we went into San Francisco. The Bayhawks had blanked us pretty good in 1977, when they beat us 9-0 for the season. This was the first matchup in ’78 and the spell was broken right in the first game, but again for a price. Everything seemed to have a price. In the 5-2 win, where Robby Davis hit his first majors homer in the ninth to score two, the Raccoons lost Jesse Jeffries. Another emergency outfielder down. Now Sullivan was back in LF, and Freddy Lopez got to start 3B again.

But of course, it couldn’t stop there. Game 2, and Greg Swift left early with a hamstring strain and would miss some weeks on the DL. I was running out of players. Raccoons won 5-4 with some early punch, then almost blew it in the bottom 9th, after Bill Baker allowed a few runners and the Bayhawks scored three in that inning. Hatfield got his 16th save with a punchout. He actually had the worst ERA on the team (4.24 now, allowing an earned run here), but he still got his job done – his 16 saves led the majors by a good margin! Next was Roberto Vega of the Stars with 13.

Swift out – that forced me to play Hector Mendez as a starter. Just recalled from AAA after he had been batting .132 in 1977. This could not go well for much longer. We played the last game at the bay with only 22 men available, and what happened then? We lost Pedro Sánz in the first inning to a knee injury and he would be out for about a month. No! No…!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!

The Raccoons won 4-3 in the tenth after just barely tying it in the ninth, then winning on a stray Robby Davis homer. But what did it matter? Now that all four main outfielders (Dolder and Anderson more or less sharing centerfield) were out with injuries, it couldn’t take long for complete collapse to happen. Sweeping the Bayhawks was nice, but I didn’t know whom to play down the road.

During the off day we also finally received the injury diagnosis on Jeffries. Sprained UCL, out for a few weeks. Next guy to the DL. Wait, who was on there? It was a little crowded by now. Tim Anderson, Johan Dolder, Jose Flores, and Pedro Sánz (outfielders), Jesse Jeffries and Greg Swift (infielders), and Brett Justice (reliever, since ’77 on there). That’s almost a full set of position players. And four of them would start for the team.

Next up were the Falcons, who led the CL South. They were 29-18, but had slowed down a little in the last two weeks. Opening with a 4-3 loss in which Jenkins walked in the winning run for the Falcons in the 11th after Tony Lopez had shuffled the bases full,

That night, the Raccoons signed free agent outfielder Rob Pickett to a minimum contract. He had made 63 games for the Canadiens and 38 for the Rebels in 1977 and had batted .273, but his main capability was versatility in the outfield. He was slotted into CF, with Robby Davis moved to left. Sullivan went to 2B, moving Mendez back to the bench. The lineup was a mess as well: 3B F. Lopez – LF Davis – 2B Sullivan – SS Simon – 1B Johnston – C Maloney – CF Pickett – RF Hernandez. We were still only playing with 23 players on the majors roster – with eight minor league position players injured, there was nobody to move up! I had to keep looking for other cheap free agents.

With all the injuries and what else the Raccoons were unable to mount offense against the Falcons and lost game 2 closely by a 2-1 score. We didn’t score until the ninth inning and then it was too late. What little offense the Raccoons in the next game, was still enough. Ed Sullivan scored two runners but got only one RBI for the first run got in on a double play, while Jorge Romero delivered a 5-hit shutout of the Falcons in the 2-0 win. It was an ugly game with rain on and off the whole afternoon, but no delay was ever called and Powell, soaked wet, fought his way through to get the shutout. He needed only 95 pitches to go the distance, walking one and striking out six.

Knights left to complete the month of May. Powell was the victim of poor offense *and* defense in the first, where he went seven plus and was saddled with five runs, two of those unearned, in the 5-1 loss. Berrios was responsible for the disaster the next day as he was chased in the fourth inning in a 7-0 rout of helpless Raccoons. Ned Ray was in to finish the series and was hardly throwing any strikes. He lasted 3.2 innings with four runs (two unearned through an error he made himself), walking four and plunking one before my nerves ran out and I sent him to the uranium mines. Raccoons lost 5-3, and had I tared and feathered Ray earlier, this could have been much closer. Now it was a depressing sweep to end a depressing month. We had gone 13-15 in May and half the team was in the hospital. This had become a futile grind.

Yet, we were still only three games behind the Crusaders, which was even more fascinating than the incredible streak of injuries befalling the Raccoons outfielders. We’d play the Crusaders eight times from now until July 2.

Only the Titans left on the road trip. They had the most runs allowed in the Continental League, and their starters sported a whopping 5.47 ERA. If the Raccoons wouldn’t score big here, they wouldn’t do anywhere. What horrible things did they do to Boston’s starter Jerry Morris (who was 0-4 with an ERA over 4)? They ran into a 3-hit shutout and went down 4-0. To add insult to injury, all but one run were unearned. This was driving me crazy! Not the two errors and two wild pitches by Romero, who was supposed to lead the rotation in W’s, but the fact that this team couldn’t get hits for their lives this year.

At least they got to Elvin Woods (1-6, 5.90) on the second day, although they did not get a hit through three frames and got behind 3-0 early. Wyatt Johnston’s 3-run shot in the sixth righted the ship and they scored a couple more against the Titans pen in a 6-3 win. Titans still out-hit us 8-7. We then faced their ace Sean Critch in the rubber game – and Critch did not get out of either the first nor the second inning without major damage, as the Raccoons chained a few fluke hits together, aided by an error and a 3-run shot by Simon to the moon and back. Critch went 1.1 innings with seven hits and seven runs (four earned) against him. Berrios was also weak and barely made it five innings and he allowed all runs in the 7-3 win. Ben Jenkins pitched in the eighth and was injured (notice a common theme there) – no diagnosis given yet.

Next: short home stint with four against the Crusaders (who are leading the CL in runs scored, batting average, and starters ERA, so we could bleed a bit there), then interleague play against the Scorpions, followed by a series in Richmond. That short road trip would also lead into Milwaukee. Right in there is the first year player draft.

We still have seven players on the DL. Flores and Dolder should come back somewhere in the next seven to ten days. Flores could join us as early as the Crusaders series, and boy do we need him. Jenkins could go on the DL as well, we’ll have to see. He’s not the best link in the bullpen, but he’s really gotten his stuff together this year.

In other news:
May 22 – Alex Miranda pitches back-to-back shutouts, this time blanking the Loggers for three hits in a 2-0 win of the Condors. Glad I missed him. Not so glad I traded him.
May 29 – Beau Horn, star shortstop of the Scorpions, is out for the year with torn ankle ligaments. He had been .330 with 8 HR and 32 RBI.
June 3 – Joe Nelson of the Stars falls a triple short of the cycle in a 5-5 appearance for 10 total bases in a 7-2 win over the Gold Sox.
June 3 – Hector Atilano of the Crusaders was also 5-5 in a 12-0 win over the Indians, but the big story was …:
June 3 – Ethan Gittens of the Los Angeles Pacifics went down 9-5 with his team to the warriors, but along the way Gittens hit for a natural cycle, capped by a 3-run shot in the bottom 9th! It was the third cycle in ABL history, the second natural cycle, and the first cycle for the Pacifics and also the first that did not have the Miners on the receiving end.

And still, for a team that's filled a hospital and doesn't score runs, we're faring very well. I'm puzzled.

I didn’t expect to get much against the Crusaders but a bloody nose. The first won torched was Ned Ray, who was saddled with five in the fourth inning and was pulled. The Raccoons got some good hits late and rallied, but fell short in a 7-6 loss. This was followed up by a Jorge Romero performance that was razor sharp after two months of mild to considerable struggles. He allowed four hits and an unearned run in seven innings, laying the ground for a 2-1 win over the Crusaders. Both teams only had six hits, and the Raccoons won on a Johnston homer in the sixth. Johnston’s season was slowly coming around, it seemed. He was now .220 with 7 HR and 19 RBI after a very slow start.

We got an update on Ben Jenkins shoulder strain – it would keep him off the mound for at least another week. With that, he went to the DL, and we called up Robbie McNeill from AAA, a righty like Jenkins, but with poor movement. He had gotten his 1977 AAA ERA of 6.06 down to 2.89, so maybe he had matured some. It was about time for a guy aged 27.

Teams were offering me centerfielders now, but demanded either Christopher Powell or Juan Berrios for them and that was not a trade I’d do, especially now with my outfielders to slowly come back to join the team in the next weeks.

Two more against the Crusaders. Game 3 was lost entirely on errors committed as three runs in the 4-2 loss were unearned. Sullivan and Freddy Lopez were the culprits and Lopez had botched enough plays now and seated again. Sullivan shifted to third and Mendez came in at second. The series ended with another 4-2 loss, this time with three runs walked in by Berrios, Baker, and Vazquez. Better lock yourself in the clubhouse before I find my good belt, you bunch of suckers!

Jose Flores was back with the team and pinch-hit in the last game against New York already. He was back in the lineup starting against Sacramento. Robby Davis moved into center and Pickett, who was batting .171, was sat down.

The Scorpions were a team mirroring the Raccoons pretty good. They had solid pitching, but had a hard time scoring runs, ranking 11th in the FL in runs scored. The Raccoons ran right into “Mauler” Correa in the first game. His ERA was at 2.66 this year (after 1.27 in 1977) but he led the FL in K’s. Ned Ray was rapped hard again with four runs in the first two innings and the Raccoons hadn’t anything going. Darryl Maloney was mowed down in a home plate collision in the top 5th by Jorge Chavez. Now, Maloney got the out and ended the inning scoreless, but didn’t get to appreciate the home plate umpire bringing out the fist, instead he rolled around in the dirt holding his knee and screamed from the top of his lungs. That was the next injury, right there. The Raccoons lost 5-3. Hector Mendez provided a big RBI double in the bottom 8th, bringing runners to second and third with two outs, but Hernandez could not convert that big chance.

The Raccoons exploded for a 9-1 win the next day, courtesy to a few big shots. Ben Simon was 2-4 with two homers and five RBI, including a grand slam. Ed Sullivan also hit a 3-run shot, while the only Scorpions run was unearned. Of course, every good game was followed by at least one terrible game, as the Raccoons were rolled over in the rubber game for a 8-4 loss. Powell was removed in the fourth and the bullpen added to the mess as good as it could.

Ed Sullivan was the CL Player of the Week with a .414, 3 HR, 8 RBI stat line. This didn’t help going to Richmond against a strong team that led the FL East. Game 1 was a 4-3 loss with another poor start by Berrios and another key error that lost the game for two unearned runs. Johan Dolder was back to ready the next day, but was assigned to AAA to complete rehab for a few more days, while I brought Pickett back into the lineup in RF for Hernandez, who was batting a frightening .125. The team still lost the next game, 4-1, with only five hits, three of them in the last inning. This brought us to 32-32, the first time this season we were not over .500 and the way the team was playing, we wouldn’t get over again. The final Rebels game brought us below .500 instead. The Rebels out-hit us only 11-10, but out-scored us a whopping, stinging 9-1. Raccoons reached scoring position in six innings. No clutch hitting again. Sullivan and Johnston kept hitting streaks going this far, with Sullivan having hit in 13, Johnston in 14 straight.

Next up is the draft and a few physical punishments for the staff.

In other news:
June 7 – the Cyclones send Clarence Houston, a leftfielder batting .250, to the Capitals for two prospects, including minor league starter Dave Paul, who joined the Cincinnati pen right away. In an effort to shore up their bullpen the Cyclones also send two minor leaguers to Milwaukee for reliever Henry Peters.
June 10 – The Richmond Rebels lose 2-1 to the Charlotte Falcons in a grueling 6-hour, 22-inning struggle. The Rebels’ Riley Simon goes 6-9 on the day.
June 11 – Luis Nunez holds the Miners to a single hit in a 2-0 shutout with his Knights.
June 12 – The Cyclones lose Terence Nolan to shoulder inflammation, robbing them of a key piece to their bullpen with his 1.96 ERA.
June 12 – Salem’s Adam Quinn has now hit in 20 straight games.
June 13 – In what has become a pattern this season, Quinn can not extend his hit streak past 20, as his Wolves beat the Aces 7-4

Some choppy scheduling after the draft as we’ll be in Milwaukee, then host the Indians, go to Las Vegas, and then return home already again to host the Condors and Crusaders. We have lost seven of eight and are 4-9 in June.

The 1978 draft pool does not contain *any* 5-star potential rated starting pitchers (yet some who might be able to be converted). This makes passing on Andres Ramirez last year all the more painful. All our top pick Daniel Hall has done in AA is batting .300 with little power and getting hurt.

There were certainly some interesting players in the pool, with a trio of relievers (two potential starters), a few infielders and there were certainly options for strong defensive *and* good offensive catchers, but none that combined both features.

Our first pick was #2, and we’d see what would remain after that. I once again was not sure whom to take as a top pick, but in contrast to last year this was not because of two WOW MUST HAVE guys, but rather because there was nobody in there without some flaws. Here are the (about) Top 10 players compiled through scouting reports:

SP John Douglas (8/14/3 – 12/19/11 – 17) – top rated starter in there
MR Richard Cunningham (11/10/5 – 20/15/17 – 16) – could be everything from starter to closer
MR Carlos Martinez (10/16/10 – 20/18/17 – 6) – screams closer, 22 yo Dominican future star, little work to be done
1B Yong-chan Cong (7/2/5 – 17/10/18) – defensively weak
MR Gary Simmons (12/8/7 – 19/9/13 – 15) – could be a top closer, but could be converted to a #1 starter
1B/2B/SS/3B Mike Grimes (9/1/6 – 17/1/17) – no power at all, best at 1B
1B/2B/SS Bobby Brewster (6/2/6 – 11/9/15)
LF/CF/RF Jeff Young (6/2/4 – 10/9/12) – big range
RF Carlos Leon (10/5/8 – 13/9/13)
1B Johnny Snow (7/2/3 – 15/13/10) – defensively a burden, but with a power bat

Even if you pick #2, it means somebody picks before you. The evil Loggers picked John “Barbwire” Douglas, my #1 ranked player. Damn youuuuu!! (shakes fist) Two of my Top 10 survived the first round and supplemental round. I took Simmons in the second round and Snow in the third, surprised he was still there. His inability to catch a ball must have contributed to that. By round 4, only relievers, catchers and some infielders with small bats from my shortlist remained. The last shortlisted player went in round 6 to the Canadiens, from there I drafted scrap outfielders, since my organization was thin with them anyway, but they ran out quickly as well.

All in all, the Raccoons drafted the following players:

Round 1: #2 MR Richard Cunningham, 18, from Moreno Valley, CA. Has some serious stuff. Listed as reliever but I plan to convert him to a starter.
Round 2: #5 MR Gary Simmons, 20, rural Oregon. Big time stuff, with movement to be developed. Listed as reliever, but another guy that could also be a starter – or even a successful closer.
Round 3: #10 1B Johnny Snow, 17, Waco, TX. Big bat, small glove, serious work to be done.
Round 4: MR Marvin Large, 21, Providence, RI. Should be a good bullpen piece somewhere down that road.
Round 5: C Eric Gregory, 22, New York City boy.
Round 6: MR Jeff Nelson, 21, from Tennessee, described as serviceable majors pen member.
Round 7: LF/RF Fernando Perez, 20, from Mexico.
Round 8: LF/RF Jose Lopez, 18, from Mexico.
Round 9: MR Andre Dupond, 22, from Canada.
Round 10: SP Gonzalo Torres, 17, from Dominica.

Simmons, Large, and Nelson go straight to AA, the rest is sent to the A level. This was not a very good draft class in my opinion.

By the way, I should have received an additional pick for Ben Green, who was a type A free agent, but didn’t. Something seemed to have gone awfully wrong here. Any hint at what I could have done wrong with him? :-(

In the aftermath I made some more moves in the minors to reduce the A roster a bit. Outfield prospect Andy Simms was moved to AA. Reliever Bill Craig went to AAA, and reliever Miguel Bojorquez moved to AA along with catcher Victor Walter.

Daniel Hall had just come back to the AA team, but had gone 0-13 at the plate since then. Worries there.

Our organziation had bloated up to over 120 players; after the season, there would have some serious cutting to be done. Brett Justice had come back from a torn labrum and was sent to AAA for a rehab assignment.

Back to daily business now. We met the Loggers for three in Milwaukee. Struggles continued. Besides weak hitting, all starters seemed to have dropped into a hole on top of it. Erratic pitching led to losses in both of the first two games, 3-2 in ten innings in the first, followed by a 4-3 loss. The last game broke both Johnston’s and Sullivan’s hitting streaks, but at least the Raccoons somehow squeezed out a 2-1 win on just four hits. Hatfield got his first save opportunity in over a week and the rust showed as he loaded the bases (aided by a Johnston error though), before he was able to coax out a double play grounder to end the game.

Hatfield thus saved the 100th win in franchise history. Compare that to 130 losses *and* the recent slide from six over .500 to just under .500 in June. Ben Jenkins came off the DL and joined the Raccoons again. Robbie McNeill was waived and designated for assignment. I was sure that someone would pick him, but he was not good enough to stay on the roster. Greg Swift, Johan Dolder, and Brett Justice were all with the AAA team rehabbing after their injuries.

June 19 was a terrible day. The Indians killed the Raccoons 13-0, and there was not a single ray of hope. The team didn’t get anything done. In the eighth, with everything long lost, they loaded the bases and still didn’t get in a run. Just whack that ball somewhere. No. Pathetic outs. Romero went 2.2 with 5 ER, Vazquez 2.0 with 6 ER. Talk about a mopped up mop up guy. The Raccoons now head the worst pythagorean record in the Continental League (28-41, which was five under real), and the third worst in the majors. No offense. At times horrendous pitching. Our 220 runs through 69 games ranked last in baseball, and 39 behind the next closest teams, the Canadiens and Falcons.

Indians won the next one 7-4. Wally Gaston gave up a 3-run homer to Rodrigo Hernandez to blow an eighth inning lead. Gaston had come in with a 0.90 ERA and surrendered as many earned runs in this game in .2 innings as in 30.1 innings up until this game this season. Following this, Pedro Sánz was activated from the DL, and Greg Swift was called up to the majors again after a few days of healing out in AAA. Hector Mendez and Luis Hernandez were sent down. Sánz slotted back to #3 in the lineup (Pickett had a sore quad anyway) after Robby Davis and Ed Sullivan. Swift was in #6 (R) and #7 (L). Darryl Maloney was also healthy again. Sanderson remained on the roster for another day until Jesse Jeffries would be activated from the DL. All of this didn’t help at all, the Indians completed the sweep 6-2, the Raccoons scored only through solo home runs by Johnston and Flores.

Frustration. Massive frustration. The Warriors claimed McNeill off waivers. More massive frustration.

How could I make this team score some fricking runs!? Well, Sánz bolted a 2-run shot to go ahead in the first game against the Aces, but the Raccoons lost 9-5 as Ned Ray allowed SEVEN runs in 2.2 innings and I had enough of him. His 1.61 WHIP and inability to get K’s was annoying me a ton.

Ray was demoted to AAA immediately and I did something my scouts had urged me to do for some time now: I brought up Logan “Crazylegs” Evans, who would start the next game right away since this would have been his turn in AAA now. Evans went 6.1 innings in his first outing, giving up a homer, three runs, four walks, six hits, and fanned four. Hatfield almost blew a 3-run save in the bottom 9th, K’ing the first two, then gave up a single, followed by three walks and a pathetic groundball, that somehow made an out at second. Raccoons won 6-4. Pickett replaced Robby Davis in the lineup for game 3, Flores was batting leadoff again and Pickett was moved to #7. They lost the rubber game 6-2. Romero and Wright combined to surrender three homers. The Raccoons had gone out to lead 2-0 after the top 1st in every of the three games, yet came back with little to show. Evans’ half way solid outing was what should be remembered, at best.

BNN’s stat of the week: ABL leaders in career losses. Topeka’s Jonathan Knapp tops the list with 28, followed by Juan Berrios tied for 2nd with 26. Honestly, if he hadn’t pitched that no-hitter last year, I would have shot him a long time ago.

Next: Condors at home. Powell stepped in first and allowed four runs in the first inning, and five in total in the 5-3 loss. Berrios went up again Alex Miranda the next day. I almost snapped. Not only did Miranda pitch eight scoreless, he also batted in the winning run himself and scored a run on a wild pitch by Berrios. And the Raccoons? Down 2-0, they loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom 9th – and lost 2-1. MAD!! I am so MAD!! Go the [feep] out and score some [feep] runs!! X-((

I recalled Johan Dolder from his rehab assignment and shoved Jorge Lopez (batting .095) to AAA before game 3. Dolder didn’t get to start in CF yet. Game 3. Craig Hoyt started for the Condors and had no fun. He was bombed for eight runs by the low-offense Raccoons. So, Logan Evans got an 8-0 lead going into the third inning. That should be enough, right? No, it wasn’t. Evans surrendered four in the third, and walked the bases full in the fifth, and all runs got across eventually, and the Condors tied it in the sixth. I don’t [feep] believe it. The Raccoons scratched together two more runs late in the game and won 10-8, but not before Gaston walked the bases full as well (he got out of it, though), and Hatfield also got the tieing run to second base before closing it.

What a miserable team. That bunch of losers would next face the Crusaders, who were scoring 80% more runs than them. This could only end badly, and four times so. After that: road trip to Vancouver and Boston before the All Star break.

In other news:
June 20 – Craig Hoyt of the Condors shuts out the Knights on three hits in a 6-0 win.
June 21 – Jack Pennington (9-5, 3.55) will miss three weeks with shoulder inflammation, hurting the Cyclones in their playoff race with the Rebels.
June 23 – Alex Miranda tosses another shutout allowing only three hits as the Condors beat the Indians.
June 26 – The Warriors send outfielder Chris Smith (.317 last year, just .262 this year) to Atlanta for reliever Juan Carlos Gomez (0-1, 2.57).

Still weak offensively, the Raccoons shut out the Crusaders 4-0 in the first of four games in the series. Our luck was that their starter Juan Torres walked four, while Jorge Romero went 7.1 innings and struck out five. He still allowed nine hits, but we got a few lucky double plays. So, this was a shutout of the highest-scoring team in the league, but for once luck had been on our side. Note that luck has been mentioned thrice in this paragraph.

The luck ended right that evening. We got news that in an A level game our prospect Juan Martinez had torn his posterior cruciate ligament. He was out for at least nine months. We had signed him right out of Mexico this winter.

We played game 2 without Ben Simon, who was a little worn out. Jeffries was in, but Simon pinch hit later in the game, grounding out. He has so far played in every Raccoons game in franchise history. The Raccoons lost 4-2 on poor offense and another shoddy performance by Christopher Powell, who gave up ten hits and all the runs in 4.2 innings. Next guy up with an inability to throw strikes as a recognized disability? Berrios. He walked four, but left a 2-2 tied game, that the Raccoons only lost through a combo of Wally Gaston walking three in the top 9th, combined with an Ed Sullivan error that cost three unearned runs. 5-2 loss. Sullivan deserved a day off along with Maloney, and both saw the Raccoons lose in ten innings, 2-1, with once again four hits. Logan Evans got a no-decision again with one run allowed in seven frames.

Now, allowing only 11 runs to the Crusaders over four games, that was certainly not that shabby. Of course, it was almost all bullpen. Berrios and Powell were in a slump, and Evans was walking them in scores. And then the team scored only nine runs themselves, losing three of four. I realize I continue to sing the same song here. But at 36-45 now, the first half of the season was over, and we were 262-329 in runs. That’s actually just over three runs scored per game. We were relying heavily on the long ball, leading the CL in home runs. Almost every other offensive category (including steals with Flores losing his timing): 11th or 12th.

Canadiens in Vancouver for four games next. Jorge Romero went six good innings allowing one run and Hoyt Cook later bashed the go ahead home run in the top 9th. Hatfield got his 23rd save in the 2-1 game with an amazing catch by Pedro Sánz to end the game, but then was in pain afterwards. He had a sore shoulder and was out for for one to two weeks. Which was terrible. One week, keep him and play Gaston as closer. Two weeks, disable him. One to two weeks? Gnarf. I thought about disabling him and calling up Brett Justice, but Justice was still struggling after a year on the DL, so I got Ned Ray to replace him in the pen. Gaston would close the next 15 days.

There was no save opportunity the next day, when the Raccoons beat the Canadiens 6-2. They only had five hits, but were walked eight times and Ben Simon got the ship righted early with a 2-run slam in the first inning. This was followed by a 7-3 win the next night. Berrios one-hit the Canadiens in five innings, then crumbled in the sixth and couldn’t get out of there. Tony Lopez actually got his first career save, pitching the last two, entering at 5-3, before Flores homered in the top 9th. Flores, Sullivan, and Simon all had three hits. Maybe things were just slightly coming around. The Raccoons finished the four games in Vancouver with a sweep, rapping Canadiens starter Vic Underwood hard for seven runs in four innings, winning it 9-2. Logan Evans: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 5 K. The kid was sometimes erratic, but this was a stellar outing for him.

A warm wind was blowing through the clubhouse. Rapping the Canadiens by 24-8 runs and sweeping them in four had helped a lot to rebuild lost confidence. Sure, we had temporarily lost our closer, but the good thing was that the All Star break was up – three off days either way. Of course, it was bad for Hatfield, who, leading the ABL in saves, might have had a shot at a selection. Only the Titans left for three in Boston before the Federal League and Continental League would match up.

A few guys got a day off to start the series, with Pickett and Jeffries in for Flores and Swift. Jorge Romero went the distance in game 1 as the troubled Titans pitchers were rolled up by the Raccoons, 8-1. Everything went right out of whack again from there. Boston’s Sean Critch shut down the Raccoons, while Christopher Powell continued to throw like a girl. Six runs in two plus innings, that guy was about to get shafted. Raccoons lost 9-0. Game 3 was more of the same with a 6-1 loss. Raccoons were fanned nine times and Berrios pitched five scoreless before melting down epically in the sixth.

Ben Simon was the only Raccoon nominated for the All Star game. The Continental League won 3-0. Simon played the whole game at shortstop, but went 1-4 with 2 K’s.

Break over, back to business. At 41-47 and very erratic play this meant to try to optimize the lineup. Dolder was out, batting below .200 and not getting plays in several times against Boston. Pickett was in CF against the Canadiens, in another four game series, this time at home.

Logan Evans started the series at home and allowed two runs in the first inning. He then settled in, but the Raccoons didn’t score for him and only got moving in the bottom 8th with three runs scored by the bottom of the lineup. Gaston got his first save in place of Hatfield (second overall this season) in the 4-2 win, but walked two again – this was why he was not the normal closer for the team. Lack of control. Next game, lack of everything in a 4-1 loss. Once again only four hits, a common theme this summer.

Game 3. Powell was given a 1-0 lead, but blew it. The Raccoons trailed 3-1 in the bottom 8th, with the bottom of the lineup loading the bases, and nobody out. Flores flew out, Sullivan flew out, Sánz singled in one, Simon flew out. It was both pathetic and embarassing. They loaded the bases AGAIN in the bottom 9th with one out and didn’t score at all, Johnston was thrown out at home while trying. For crying out loud!! They put up at least one strong inning in the last game for a 4-1 win and a tied series.

In other news:
July 2 – Harry Beauman (.314, 6 HR, 34 RBI) of the Pacifics is out for six weeks with a fractured rib.
July 4 – The Indians trade Jorge Vallejo (9-8, 2.99 ERA) to Los Angeles for slugging CF Danny Latham and a prospect in outfielder Jim French.
July 4 – David Burke tosses a two-hitter as his Pacifics blank the Wolves 3-0.
July 4 – The Loggers’ Ethan Michael goes 6-6 in a 17-9 thumping of his team over the Indians. Mike Cummings also was 5-5 in the game.
July 6 – Esteban Hernandez is a triple shy of the cycle as his Indians beat Milwaukee 6-5.

By now I’m pretty confident that this will not get better this year anymore. It’s hard to make out the one critical malfunction in this lineup. Simon strikes out a lot, but he’s also leading the team in home runs. Nobody is hitting over .300, which is certainly contributing. Injuries have added their share. We also won’t get back to .500, and all this after that mega start … sigh.

While we’re at injuries, Brett Justice is back on the roster, replacing Ned Ray, and Luis Hernandez was struck from the 40-man roster to accommodate Justice. Hernandez, 35, batting .125 in the majors, was claimed by the Gold Sox and Rebels the next day.

It’s July 16, and we’re boarding a plane for Indianapolis. Oklahoma City after that. The Bayhawks and Knights will come to Portland after that, and the next road trip will start on July 31 in Las Vegas.

The Indians were locked in a tight battle with the Crusaders for the division lead. And they played like it. Miguel Sanchez fanned nine Raccoons in game 1 and hit a home run off Logan Evans as the Indians won 4-1, then went on to win the next 4-3 in the tenth inning, after Romero had struggled heavily with control, walking five and didn’t get any outs on the plate. This ate up my bullpen and cost in extra innings, when no fresh arms remained. The Indians had no problem to win the last game against Powell, who again was horrible in the 5-2 loss.

Horrible play by the team. If I just could trade them all away to never see them again. How well that worked with Miranda. Elsewhere, I moved Daniel Hall to AAA after he had gotten back to his mojo after his injury.

Another poor performance all around came in game 1 in Oklahoma City with a 3-2 loss, but at least the Raccoons touched the sometimes troubled Thunder pen in a naughty spot in the second game, scoring seven late in a 10-3 win. The Raccoons scored three early in the rubber game and scored again four in a big ninth inning to win 8-1. Sánz had two RBI after four the day before. Romero went seven and won the game to get back even at 9-9.

The Bayhawks were in town, a heck of a team, although their pitching had suffered a ton with the loss of Juan Correa. Christopher Powell went out and pitched four perfect innings. Then was slaughtered in a 4-run fifth inning. The Raccoons came back to tie it in the seventh, when Powell was long gone and showering. The game was still 5-5 in the bottom 9th. Two guys on and two outs, Ben Simon singled through the gap to the right. Jose Flores made a mad dash from second back home against Alfonso Marte, who had about the best arm among rightfielders in the league. Flores just barely made it past the throw and catcher Cam Cormack and the Raccoons walked off 6-5. Simon was 2-5 with three RBI in the game.

I made a lineup change after the game. Pickett was batting .288 after a recent surge and was moved up to #2 behind Flores. Sullivan slotted past Sánz and Simon to #5, and Johnston, Swift, and the catcher’s spot each moved down one. That might improve the offense, but the starting pitching continued to make me pull all my hair out. Berrios started game 2 and allowed five runs in 3.1 innings. Hadn’t he been sucking so hard again, the Raccoons would have won it quite comfortably, but the game went to extra innings at 7-7, where the big collapse came in the top 14th. Bayhawks won 12-7. Ed Sullivan was 3-7 with five RBI. Jesse Jeffries entered as pinch hitter, went 0-4 with 3 K and left three on base. The Raccoons lost the rubber game 5-4. Pickett homered for three in the bottom 9th, but it was too late already.

The following off day was great to rest the pen that had pitched again more than it’s share of innings. Berrios and Powell both were horrible and something had to be done. Wyatt Johnston was still good at 1B, but he demanded too much for an extension of his contract that would expire after this season. Could we get a decent starter for Johnston before July was over? Turned out such a trade was impossible.

The Knights were in town next for the last series against them in ’78. The Raccoons won the first contest 4-1. Ed Sullivan was 3-4 to go to .301 – the only Raccoon over .300 in a long time. Sullivan also made a key play in the top 8th at second base (where he had moved after Greg Swift had been tossed for loudly arguing to the home plate ump over a strikeout) that ended the inning after two Knights had reached on Kieran Lawson, first on a passed ball, then on a dropped and lost third strike. Romero went eight frames, whiffing six and the only run he allowed was unearned. Hatfield got his first save in 25 days.

This left the weak part of the rotation to go. Powell surrendered 11 hits and six runs in 7.1 innings, taking the loss, 6-2. The Raccoons were no-hit over six frames in this game. Powell has not struck out a batter in his last two starts, which combined for 13 innings. In his last 12 starts he was 1-8. Berrios also lost the rubber game, 3-2, allowing two runs in 7.1 innings. Gaston surrendered a home run in the ninth, which made the last Raccoons run in the bottom 9th pointless.

In other news:
July 19 – Jeremiah Carroll of the Cyclones (.348) is out for at least a month with a shoulder injury, dealing a big blow to his team in the playoff race.
July 19 – David Burke’s 9-10 season with a 2.93 ERA is over as the Pacifics starter tore a flexor tendon in his elbow.
July 20 – Leonardo Costa of the Scorpions has hit in 20 straight games.
July 21 – Warrior George Lynch goes down with an oblique strain for a few weeks. He was .376 with 3 HR and 37 RBI this season.
July 26 – Leonard Costa’s hitting streak reaches 25 games, as he goes 1-4 in a 5-2 loss of his Scorpions to the Cyclones.
July 28 – The Buffaloes chill Costa’s streak at 26 games in a 4-1 win over the Scorpions.
July 28 – The Cyclones acquire starter Victor Jimenez (4-2, 3.25) from Oklahoma City for outfielder Dylan Milley (.311, 5 HR, 38 RBI) and a minor league pitcher.
July 30 – As the Warriors trumped the Rebels 14-6, Warriors 1B Corey Byrd hit for a natural cycle, including a grand slam, against the FL East leaders. With another base clearing triple in there, he had seven RBIs in the game. Overall he is .317 with 3 HR and 65 RBI this season. This was the fourth cycle in ABL history, and the third natural cycle!

Next: Aces on the road, then Loggers and Canadiens each for four at home to start August.

The Raccoons ended July with a 5-3 loss to the Aces. My pitchers walked six, the Aces’ one. My pitchers K’ed four, the Aces’ eight. Couple that with a double play in the top 8th that killed a Raccoons rally and it was another depressing loss. More depressing was the 3-2 loss the next day. Jorge Romero had gone 7.1 scoreless innings and Hatfield got a 2-0 lead in the bottom 9th and failed epically. He left at 2-2 with two outs and runners on second and third. Bruce Wright came in and through a wild pitch that scored a runner to end the game. The sweep was completed with another 4-3 loss in the last game. Powell allowed three runs in right in the first inning after being given a 2-0 lead. His next start will be in four days to finish the Loggers series. Right now this could be very well his last start for the Raccoons.

I don’t know how to replace Powell. But I feel like a pitcher carved out of a dead rotten tree stump would make a better pitcher than him. He’s 7-15 and his ERA is continually rising towards 5.

The Loggers were up next. The Raccoons had the best total record against the Loggers, at 16-9 (.640), if excluding three interleague matchups where we stood at 2-1 (.667). To be honest, the only other CL team we had a winning record against were the Titans (17-13), followed by the Canadiens (13-16). The Loggers and Canadiens each were in Portland for four games – the prime opportunity to get this team into last place in the division (and league).

The Loggers series opened with a 1-0 win for the Raccoons. Simon doubled in Sánz in the first inning and that was it. Berrios went eight frames with one ball and four strikeouts issued. Both teams only had five hits. Bruce Wright closed the game – not because I didn’t trust Hatfield (I didn’t trust anybody on this team), but because the core of the Loggers artillery was up in the ninth and they were all lefties. Wright got through them 1-2-3. Logan Evans came up next and pitched well with one run allowed in six innings. Top 9th. Raccoons led 4-1 and Hatfield got in. Walk, single, home run – bust. Hatfield was thrown out by me and Gaston allowed the winning run in the 5-4 loss after a throwing error. In total the Raccoons made four errors in the game. Hatfield was removed of the closer’s job. This team would not have a fixed closer for now. They didn’t need one anyway, they didn’t win games anyway.

The last two games in the series. The Loggers led 2-0 going into the bottom 7th in game 3. Flores singled, Pickett walked, Sánz had an RBI double. 2-1 down, Simon walked to load the bases with nobody out. Get those [expletive] RUNS IN!!! Sullivan was scored a GIDP and Johnston rolled out to second to end the inning without another run and the suckers lost 3-1. Powell was up in the last game. This time his control was better and he allowed two runs in 7.1 innings, but got a no decision. The game 2-2 into extra innings after the Raccoons had failed to convert bases loaded situations with less than two outs twice early in the game. They again loaded the bases with one out in the bottom 11th. Rob Pickett snipped the ball through on the right side to score the winning run, 3-2. Hatfield ended up the winning pitcher with a 3-inning relief effort, K’ing two, and the only baserunner reached on an error.

Contracts were also signed with backup infielder Freddy Lopez for two years just under the arbitration estimate ($118,000; eligibility would have been two years as well) as well as with Jose Flores (two years for $166,600 a year) and Darryl Maloney (one year for $131,000). The only players without a contract for 1979 remain Wyatt Johnston, Kieran Lawson, Rob Pickett, Jesse Jeffries, and minor leaguer Luis Marin. I have no big interest in Marin, a struggling AAA pitcher with little potential for improvement, and Jeffries, who hadn’t lived up to expectations. I would go after Pickett next, who had surprised by hitting about .280 and fielding well and had won the starter’s spot in CF over Dolder (sub .200). Pickett signed a 3-year extension (last year with a vesting option for 250 PA, so it should only trigger if he still is the CF starter in ’80) the next week.

The Canadiens were on a roll recently, having done away with a sizeable deficit on the Loggers in the last two weeks. The Raccoons got to feel that immediately as they were almost no-hit in the first game, a 4-0 loss. Ed Sullivan broke the bid up in the sixth with a pinch-hit single (Freddy Lopez was making a few starts at 3B recently), and in all they were held to two hits. A 3-1 loss later the Raccoons then were down to 5th in the division, half a game ahead of Milwaukee. Couldn’t take long to get there, too. Romero was tagged for five runs in the first two innings in the 5-2 loss in game 3. Since the Loggers chewed 9-6 through the Indians, the Raccoons now hit rock bottom in the CL North for the first time this season, that they had begun so strongly. Game 4 went to the Canadiens, 2-1, with ten hits and both runs on Powell over seven plus innings. Sweep completed, woodland creatures destroyed.

Summary over the 8-game home stint: 2-6 record, dropped to last, 24 runs allowed (3.0 per game), choking 13 runs scored (1.6 per game). No wonder those suckers dropped to last. In the 11 most significant offensive categories they were 12th in the CL eight times, and 10th two times. They were 2nd in home runs, but even those had been scarce lately.

Interleague play was rapped up next with a lot of sox in the laundry. First the Gold Sox in Denver, then at home a series against the Blue Sox, the last two teams the Raccoons would face for the very first time.

Just three or four weeks ago, the Gold Sox had been the worst team in the ABL. Since then they had gone on a roll and carried a 5-game winning streak into the series against the Raccoons, who were blowing every little chance they got. They never got one in the first game of the series, where Berrios was blazed for seven runs in 3.2 innings. Sánz hit a base clearing double later, as the Raccoons were downed 7-4. Game 2 saw them take a quick 3-0 lead (although two runs were walked in), but Logan Evans gave it away again. Tied at 4-4 the game went to extra innings, where Hoyt Cook, who started for Johnston (who still came in at 3B in the sixth in a double switch), bolted a grand slam to win the game 8-5. Brett Justice got his first career save in the rubber game, as the Raccoons came back from a first inning deficit to win 2-1.

Two wins against a hot last place team – could the Raccoons be that next hot last place team? Well, they actually tied Milwaukee for 5th after this series. The Blue Sox came to Portland, and they were not yet eliminated from contention in the FL East, seven games back there. They mostly did get their W’s on pitching, being 10th in scoring in the FL, but that still meant they had almost 100 runs more than the Raccoons. The FL as a whole was a bit more hitter friendly. We had almost the same amount of runs allowed, but while this was only good for 6th in the CL for us, the Blue Sox led their league in least runs allowed.

Game 1 had Christopher Powell, who seemed to be back to half solid and allowed one run in seven innings, but got a no decision. The Raccoons only scored on a Pedro Sánz 2-run single in the bottom 8th, enough to win 2-1 with a save from Wally Gaston. Unfortunately Sánz left with an intracostal strain later in the eighth inning and went to the 15-day DL. Robby Davis moved in to start in RF, batting leadoff for his speed, and Jorge Lopez was called up from AAA despite having batted 4-42 earlier in the season in the majors.

The Raccoons won game 2 by a score of 3-1 on just five hits. Swift got in two, one with a sac fly. Wyatt Johnston also scored one runner on a sac fly. Berrios went six innings and Tony Lopez pitched a 3-inning save on just 30 pitches. But the offense was, what it was, and the Raccoons lost the final game of interleague play in 1978 by 4-1 on a leadoff walk in the top 6th that scored on Logan Evans and got him the loss, and a Dermott Watkins 2-run homer in the seventh.

Raccoons last at 53-68 in the CL North, yet there are five teams with worse records currently. Still, I don’t like this. Obviously, we need to get relief for the offense during the off season. I have an eye on Don Sullivan of the Gold Sox. He leads the FL in homers with 23 and is a free agent first baseman. With the Raccoons likely losing Wyatt Johnston, we could use Sullivan a bunch.

In other news:
August 2 – The Indians lose starter Du Tong (5-3, 2.93) for the season to shoulder inflammation.
August 6 – Slugger Frank Whitfield from the Boston Titans is hurt just one week after the Titans acquired him from San Francisco. He’ll be out for the rest of the month with a knee sprain.
August 12 – Titan Brian Adams lacks a triple for the cycle in an 11-3 win of Boston over Dallas.
August 17 – Condors reliever Josh Hill breaks his hand punching a locker in the clubhouse after a 6-2 loss of the Condors to the Warriors.

Tough road trip ahead to finish August, as we’ll play the Crusaders (3-8 this year; 10-19 overall), Indians (3-9; 13-17), Condors (2-4; 4-11), and Thunder (4-2; 6-9) in the next two weeks.

One and a half months to go, and no 1977 playoff team is currently in first place, yet all remain in contention.

Ben Simon was 2-3 with a homer and four RBI to start the Crusaders series. Too bad their monster Ralph Nixon went 2-5 with a homer and five RBI and the Crusaders trumped the Raccoons 9-5. Four unearned runs came off a throwing error by Darryl Maloney in the sixth, so one had to wonder what could have been. I was growing a bit tired of Maloney’s act, too. He was batting sub .200 and was less than 20% in getting stealers out this year. Lawson would get a shot at being the #1 catcher.

Game 2. Wyatt Johnston bashed two homers for four runs in the game (plus a single and two walks), but both times the lead got blown up again by the Crusaders. The game went to extra innings at 5-5. The Raccoons didn’t score, and Bill Baker took the loss, although the Raccoons threw out Jeremy Churchill at third to get the second out, Baker walked the next batter to get a runner in scoring position. Tony Lopez came on there, with Paul Kavanagh to bat. Kavanagh already was 4-4 on the night and snipped one right through Ben Simon at short to score Ralph Nixon from second and walk the Crusaders off, 6-5. Game 3 was a clean cut 6-1 loss. The Raccoons had only one chance in the seventh, but Johnston was thrown out at home trying to score from second on a Rob Pickett single with the bases loaded and the Raccoons only got that one run from Ben Simon.

After that, the Indians were up, the division leaders. They had dropped two against the Canadiens and threw Salah Brunet against Logan Evans. Brunet had a no-hitter (in 1977) and the lowest ERA in the league. Evans had no control over his pitches. Evans won it on 7.2 innings of 1-run ball, while the Raccoons shoved three down Brunet’s throat in the 3-1 win. Hatfield got a save after being slotted back to the closer roll after some strong relief efforts.

Miguel Sanchez was up for the Indians in game 2, and he was 2nd in wins, 2nd in ERA, 4th in K’s in the Continental League. He didn’t let the Raccoons as much as breathe, shutting them out over eight innings, while Romero allowed three in the second, where he gave away a couple of costly walks. Then came the ninth, Sanchez was trying to complete the shutout, but then had to leave the game with pain in his arm. The Indians imploded. Hoyt Cook and Freddy Lopez provided big two out hits for the Raccoons that tied the game. They could not get ahead, though. Wally Gaston held the Indians at bay to send the game to extra innings, where the Raccoons won 5-3 on a 2-run double by Rob Pickett. Gaston got one, Hatfield two outs in the bottom 10th. Sanchez was diagnosed with a strained triceps. His season was over at 19-7 with a 2.06 ERA.

Powell was again terrible in game 3. He allowed nine hits and two runs in 3.2 innings and was removed with the bases loaded, where Bill Baker wiggled out. Kieran Lawson tied the game with a 2-run shot in the top 5th. Sullivan homered to make it 3-2, while Baker pitched 4.2 stellar innings and all would have been well, but the Raccoons broke apart in the bottom 9th. Lopez and Wright loaded the bases with two outs. Gaston came in (both him and Hatfield were worn out) and the Indians sent in Luis Montano to match up against Gaston. They went to a full count before Montano banged one through the right side that scored two and walked off the Indians, 4-3.

The Crusaders were still sending a thank you card for shutting down the Indians. The two teams were tied again for the lead. The Raccoons in turn agreed to a waiver trade with the Pittsburgh Miners. The Miners wanted Jorge Lopez, who was hitting .091 now and was a misfit everywhere but rightfield, which was a healthy Pedro Sánz’ realm. They offered Ángel Costa, a decent 2B/3B guy with good contact hitting. I figured that if someone claimed a player here, it would be Costa, since Lopez was just so bad. In the worst case, they’d claim Lopez and a 40-man roster spot would be freed up in time for September 1 for Daniel Hall to move up. Hall was shredding through AAA pitching and I was eager to move him up earlier than intended. If I got Costa, I had the option to take him to the 40-man roster and release the struggling Jeffries.

Game 1 in the Condors series was Berrios vs. Miranda. The latter pitched like I remembered him from last year, walking three in the first inning, and the Raccoons got two runs across. Miranda ended up tagged with six runs in less than three innings. The Raccoons won 7-1, but the win could have been much higher with ten walks and nine hits for the team. Game 2 sucked. Logan Evans left injured in the first inning. Jenkins dealt four walks, Gaston dealt four walks, and the game was tied 5-5 after nine, 6-6 after ten with a run off Wright, that Hatfield inherited and couldn’t contain, and Hatfield lost it in the 11th with two straight hits, 7-6. All that after only Hoyt Cook’s 2-run double had sent the game to extra innings in the first place, come with two outs in the top 9th. With game 2 depleting the pen, Romero had to go deep in game 3, but struggled with command, as did Baker, who was the only other pitcher not still aching from the day before. Baker lost the game to a 2-run walk off homer by Mark MacCamie. So, the Condors may be the worst team in the CL South, but the Raccoons still can’t get through them, no matter how horribly they pitch.

Kevin Hatfield signed a 3-year extension, buying out his arbitration years at slightly above the current price. Should he further improve, the next two years will be – as the Ferengi in me would call it – profit. I’m also taking another shot at a contract extension for Wyatt Johnston. I made him an offer over three years (third year a vesting option) for $375,000 a year – a healthy 14% cut in pay. He will at least think about it.

Meanwhile the waiver trade for Ángel Costa was completed with the Miners. Costa remained designated for assignment yet, though, although we had only 24 guys on the majors roster. The reason was simple. Pedro Sánz had only one more day remaining on the DL and was healthy again. He would be back for game 2 against Thunder. But it was August 28, the rosters would expand soon anyway. No reason to release Jeffries now – he would not get a new contract anyway. Costa would stay DFA for four days.

Logan Evans meanwhile had torn his triceps in the Condors game and his season was over. He went to the 60-day DL on August 29. Ned Ray was recalled for lack of other options.

Thunder was another team the Raccoons were badly struggling against. The series opened with a 3-2 ten innings loss with Brett Justice on the receiving end. Another walk off loss followed in game 2. The Raccoons led 7-5 into the bottom 9th. Freddy Lopez had pinch hit in the top half of the inning and remained in there at 3B for Sullivan for better defense. He throw away an easy ball on the first play that also threw Hatfield’s game and the Thunder scored three runs to walk off 8-7. All three bottom 9th runs were unearned because of Lopez’ error. There was some shouting in the clubhouse afterwards. Ned Ray then made his first majors start in over two months against the Thunder. He sucked a ton, allowing five runs in the first three innings, but got a no-decision thanks to a 5-run inning by the Raccoons later in the sixth. They added three more in the seventh, but got behind 9-8 in the bottom 7th on a dismal outing by Tony Lopez. Gaston couldn’t pick up his trash. The Raccoons tied it once more in the top 8th when Swift sacrificed in Sánz. Gaston stayed in there and lost the game 10-9 in the bottom 9th. Three games in Oklahoma City, three times lost in walk off fashion.

In other news:
August 18 – Salem’s Victor Garcis silences the Warriors with a 3-hit 10-0 shutout.
August 18 – In a big game in regards to the playoffs, Jose Vazquez shuts out the Rebels on four hits, as the Blue Sox win 6-0.
August 24 – The Rebels lose their closer Stanley Holman for the season with a torn labrum. Holman had been 2-2 with 23 saves and a 2.75 ERA.

Raccoons stuck in last place. The first two weeks in September will feature games against the CL North, first the Loggers and Titans at home, then the Canadiens and Loggers on the road. The Raccoons add five players to the majors roster on September 1: relievers Stanton Coleman and Jose Vazquez, catcher R.J. Sanderson, infielder Ángel Costa (acquired from the Miners), and outfield prospect Daniel Hall. I really want to see Hall, our 1977 #1 draft pick (#2 overall), perform against the big guys. He’s torn up AA and AAA pitching already this year despite missing a few weeks to injury.

September 1 marked the start of Loggers series, and as well the major league debut of the Raccoons’ first ever draft pick, Daniel Hall. He came to bat in the bottom 6th, pinch hitting for an 0-3 Jose Flores, with two outs and runners on the corners and slapped a liner to right center for an RBI single. He also scored a run on a 2-run double by Pedro Sánz in the 4-run bottom 6th. Hall finished the game in leftfield, grounding into a fielder’s choice and getting a flyball. The Raccoons won 5-1. The start of a great career? Oh, we do hope so.

It was not a great series in either way. The Loggers were struggling just as much as the Raccoons to score runs, but we couldn’t chew them up. Game 2 was a 3-2 12th inning loss with no offense once again. I tried something new for game 3 and put Daniel Hall in the lineup for the struggling Flores. The latter had batted .275 early in the season, then got injured. Since then he had plummeted to .248. His defense was great, but Hall was not known for dropping pop ups either. We’ll see. For now, Hall would bat second behind Pickett. Juan Berrios pitched in the third game and left injured in the fifth. Raccoons won 5-2.

Berrios would miss the rest of the season with ulnar nerve irritation, which was another blow. No I had to find another terrible guy to start along with Ned Ray. That was a problem that could wait another few days to be solved, since the #3 spot wouldn’t come up again until after the Titans series and an off day. Maybe Tony Lopez could be an option here. There was nobody in AAA suited for this.

Next, Titans. Talking about Ned Ray, that straggler gave up back-to-back home runs to start game 1. Daniel Hall blasted his first long ball to tie it 2-2 in the bottom 3rd. In total, Ray gave up three homers, Gaston another one, and the Raccoons were downed 6-2. The Raccoons failed to mount any meaningful offense the next day and went down 2-0, followed by a 7-1 defeat for a sweep the next day. This was no surprise. Powell pitched and was his usual self.

This gave the Raccoons 81 losses at 58-81. What a nightmare after starting 7-0 into the season, and 15-9 in April. It’s been horrible. It will only get more horrible. With Berrios and Evans out for the last three weeks of the season, Tony Lopez moved to the rotation. This could not end well.

Lopez first took the mound to open a series against the Canadiens. He struggled with command going for more than two or three innings and walked four, but thanks to a few double plays only two runs got across. He got a no decision in the 6-3 Raccoons win as we scored four in the top 8th. We also lost Bill Baker to an abdominal muscle strain for one week. The Raccoons had 14 hits the next day, but were only able to score three runs of them, which was just barely enough to squeeze through the game to a 3-2 victory. There was no happy end to the season, though. The Canadiens hit three home runs (two off Romero) in a 7-0 shutout of the Raccoons. This gave us a 8-10 record for the season against Vancouver.

Wyatt Johnston signed his $1.125M contract. That money will better be converted to some runs, grandpa. He delivered instantly in the first Loggers game, shooting for two on a long ball. The Raccoons squeezed through to win 4-3. It was Powell’s first W since early July, more than two months ago!! Tony Lopez was making another start to fill up the rotation in game 2 and was rapped for a 7-2 loss.

Game 3 was one of those where you just want to kill yourself. At 1-1 the Raccoons faced elimination in the bottom 9th with runners on the corners and nobody out. Johnston and Lawson made a ground ball into an out at the plate and the Raccoons wiggled out of it. The Loggers loaded the bases in the 10th and couldn’t score with one out. Daniel Hall launched one to make it 3-1, then Hatfield blew the 2-run save. 3-3, on to the 12th. There, Alberto Madrid came up for his first majors at bat and singled in the winning run for the Loggers off Hatfield. I hate this team… Romero had a shutout going but made it explode big time in the last Loggers game of the year. The Raccoons won 8-3.

The last series on this road trip was against the Bayhawks, one of the Raccoons’ biggest nemesis. Back 13 games in the CL South, the pennant winners from last year weren’t eliminated mathematically, but realistically they were. The Raccoons were still trying to finish out of last place, currently 1 ½ games behind Milwaukee.

Game 1 saw Wally Gaston as the hero. Powell started, surrendered four runs in two innings, then wiggled through to the sixth. The Raccoons had tied it by then, but the game went to extra innings. Gaston pitched from the 10th inning on and had the Bayhawks in deadlock, but the Raccoons didn’t score. Then came the 13th innings and Gaston led off with a blooper to right, his first hit of the season (only Hatfield remained in the pen by then). A walk to Maloney and a single by Hall loaded the bags. Sánz struck out with one out. Then Costa was walked and a run forced in. Sullivan turned up and grand slammed the bases empty. Gaston pitched a fourth inning in the 9-4 win. They continued the next day with a 4-3 win, but the grief was more about Hatfield, who failed to close it. Coming in with a 2-run lead, he surrendered a lead off homer, then ended up with runners on first and second and two outs. With a lefty coming up, I didn’t trust him and sent in Bill Baker, who was just back from his injury. Baker struck out Michael Bolton to earn the save. Tony Lopez had gone eight innings to give the aching bullpen a bit of rest. The Raccoons failed to complete the sweep with a 4-3 loss in the last game. Sullivan was responsible for two unearned runs in the seventh, but he provided the only offense as well with a 3-run homer.

In other news:
September 7 – A shoulder injury will sideline Cincinnati’s Jeremiah Carrell for three weeks, possibly already spelling doom to the defending champions in regards to the playoff race in the FL East, where they trail the Rebels by six.
September 13 – Should the Falcons make the playoffs, they will go there without their ace Joe Ellis (23-9 in 1978), who hurt his shoulder and would take at least two months to heal.
September 16 – Warriors RF Mitsuharu Yamada lacks only a triple for the cycle in a 10-3 win over the Miners.

Two weeks remaining, Warriors almost through. The Raccoons have four series left against the Falcons and Indians at home, then a trip to New York, and then the finale at home against the Titans. That makes nine games against teams trying to make the playoffs. I can’t help but feel sure that we’ll be last on October 2.

The Falcons were clawing and hacking hard for a playoff spot, and they clawed and hacked through Jorge Romero in the first game for five runs in 4.2 innings. The Raccoons staged a late rally with a rare homer for three runs by Rob Pickett, but for nought, the game was lost 7-5.

Pete Hall issued two walks to the Raccoons, who paired them with two errors in the bottom 1st to take a 2-run lead in game 2. But Powell was pitching for us and gave it right back again. I removed Powell in the fourth for pinch hitter Hoyt Cook. The score was 2-2 and we had runners in scoring position with two outs. Cook worked a walk, but Pickett grounded out. Jose Flores provided a 2-run double in the bottom 7th to win the game for the Raccoons, 4-3. Hatfield saved this one after I toyed with the thought of keeping Gaston it, who had gotten the final out in the top 8th. The series ended with an 8-0 Falcons win, six runs off makeshift starter Tony Lopez and two more off Brett Justice. The Raccoons settled for three hits in that game.

Playoff races at September 21: Crusaders and Indians tied, Knights three ahead of the Falcons, Warriors nine ahead of the Scorpions (M# is 2 here), and in the FL East the Cyclones couldn’t rally and had even fallen to third behind the Blue Sox. Rebels led those two teams by six and six and a half, respectively. So, of the four playoff teams from 1977, only the Crusaders still have a realistic chance to make it. The Bayhawks were already eliminated. The Raccoons were last in their division, still 1 ½ games back of the Loggers.

With series against our playoff contenders Indians and Crusaders back-to-back now, I had few hope for an improvement in the standings.

Going against the Indians’ Salah Brunet was a futile undertaking. He held the Raccoons down and the Indians won game 1 with a score of 4-1. The next day in the third inning Jorge Romero threw two wild pitches and Sánz added an error for a 3-run inning out of thin air. We also lost Rob Pickett to a strained oblique in the first inning, his season was over. Hatfield was put into the game in the top 9th. Down 3-1, he wasn’t going to get any safe opportunities anyway the next few days against that opposition. He was shelled for three runs and I let him take the damage and succumb out there. He had been a terrible choice as closer in the first place. I didn’t have any closer at hand, that much was true. Raccoons lost 6-1. But they stole at least one from the Indians with a tight 3-2 win to close the series. Christopher Powell had actually left with a lead, but Jenkins blew it. Bill Baker earned the win with 1.2 innings of scoreless ball. Gaston successfully saved the game on one hit allowed.

With the Crusaders sweeping the Loggers, they were now 1.0 ahead of the Indians. The Cyclones had collapsed for good and the Rebels led the Blue Sox by six in the the FL East (M# 2), and the Knights had also added one on the Falcons, leading by four now.

Tony Lopez was roughed up once more. He was just a terrible miscast as a starter, giving up seven runs this time around. Crusaders won 8-5. Lopez’ spot would come up once more, then we’d play Bruce Wright. But first, there were still three more games against the Crusaders. Game 2, Ray held a 3-1 lead in the sixth, then plunked two Crusaders to create a bags full-no outs mess that Hatfield blew to allow two runs. Crusaders won 4-3, while outhit by the weak Raccoons. Game 3 was scoreless through ten. Hatfield lost it on two walks and a hit in the 11th. Wright came in to salvage it, but surrendered a hit to score the winning run in the 1-0 loss. This was Jose Gonzales’ maiden majors hit. A 5-0 loss later the pain was over, at least for this short road stint.

The Raccoons were 66-93 now. That’s still one win less than in 1977. I see it coming, we’ll be swept by the Titans and end up WORSE than last year after that stellar beginning. From May to September, the Raccoons have played at 51-84.

The Crusaders clinched the division with their 4-game sweep of my tiny fur balls, after the Indians dropped three of four to the Canadiens. The Blue Sox had swept the Rebels in four to get from six back to two back with one series remaining, and the Knights also led the Falcons by two. The latter two would get head to head now, and the Falcons needed a sweep to get through.

Bruce Wright made a scratch start and was hit for a few runs. The Raccoons were down 4-0 down after the top 6th, then twisted it around to lead 6-4 heading into the top 9th with Gaston on the mound. He blew it, Daniel hall dropped a ball that scored the winning run and the Raccoons lost 7-6, then followed this up with a 6-run bashing in the top 9th in game two to lose that one 8-2. Lopez, Justice, and Vazquez had been the culprits there.

Romero went 8.2 innings in the season finale, holding the Titans scoreless, but couldn’t make it through the ninth. Gaston got the final out as the Raccoons won 4-0, all scored in the sixth on homers by Flores (solo) and Johnston (for three). The Raccoons thus finished 67-95 – just like last year, but this time in last place (not fifth ahead of the terrible Loggers like in ’77).

In other news:
September 22 – Sergio Salazar pitches a 2-hit shutout as his Falcons beat the Bayhawks 1-0.
September 23 – 1B Irwin Webster, one of the Rebels’ key pieces, is injured in a base collision and will be out for two weeks.
September 23 – The Warriors beat the Stars 2-1 and clinch the FL West when the Pacifics turn around their game against the Scorpions to win it 3-2.
September 30 – The Rebels clinch the FL East with a 3-0 win over the Buffaloes in a game that was scoreless through nine.
October 1 – The Falcons bash through the Knights 8-0 to complete the sweep and break past the Knights to win the CL South.

Note to pictures: look at that kid Daniel Hall. If he is that good at 23, how good will he be at 24? Well, at least he was the best slugger on a terrible team – the Raccoons ranked last in almost every offensive category but homers and walks. Also note that the numbers on Angel Costa are inflated. He played most games for the Miners. His Raccoons sample size only encompasses 17 games, so his .426 average for us could be misleading just a tad.

Next: playoffs.

Playoffs

Rebels @ Warriors … 3-9 … (Warriors lead 1-0) … SFW Mitsuharu Yamada 4-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI; SFW George Lynch 3-3, 6 TB, 3 RBI
Falcons @ Crusaders … 5-4 … (Falcons lead 1-0) … Tom Cox loses on a single earned run

Rebels @ Warriors … 1-8 … (Warriors lead 2-0) … Warriors led 4-0 after the first and built from there
Falcons @ Crusaders … 3-4 … (series tied 1-1) … Crusaders led 4-0 after the first and almost blew it

Warriors @ Rebels … 2-8 … (Warriors lead 2-1) … RIC Victor Macias 8.0 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
Crusaders @ Falcons … 3-11 … (Falcons lead 2-1)

Warriors @ Rebels … 10-7 … (Warriors lead 3-1) … SFW George Lynch 5-6; SFW Jorge Figueroa 4-5
Crusaders @ Falcons … 6-2 … (series tied 2-2)

Warriors @ Rebels … 9-3 … (Warriors win 4-1)
Crusaders @ Falcons … 11-2 … (Crusaders lead 3-2) … NYC Pedro De Jesus 4 RBI; NYC Miguel Fuentes 6 RBI

Falcons @ Crusaders … 3-4 (13) … (Crusaders win 4-2) … NYC Ralph Nixon ends it with a lead off walk off homer in the bottom 13th

The Warriors were glowing red hot, while the Crusaders were also piling up runs, but they had lost 3B Pedro Hermundo and relief ace Chuck Hursted during the CLCS.

Crusaders @ Warriors … 11-12 … (Warriors lead 1-0) … Crusaders led 10-1 after five innings; Ralph Nixon was injured in this game and will not come back in this series

Crusaders @ Warriors … 9-3 … (series tied 1-1) … NYC Mark Lee 7.1 IP, 8 H, 2 ER

Warriors @ Crusaders … 7-5 … (Warriors lead 2-1) … NYC Robinson Borquez 1.0 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 2 ER – normally an automatic closer, Borquez blew this one big time

Warriors @ Crusaders … 12-3 … (Warriors lead 3-1)

Warriors @ Crusaders … 1-4 … (Warriors lead 3-2) … NYC Kyle Owens 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 1 K

Crusaders @ Warriors … 5-6 … (Warriors win 4-2) … Four down after six, the Crusaders rallied, but fell short. Julio Lujan flew out to end the season.

The World Series is thus won by one of the smallest market teams over big bucks New York. The Crusaders were the only team to repeat going to the post season, and while they did grab the pennant this year, they were outwitted by the Warriors in a mild upset. The series was a scorefest, with the Warriors beating the Crusaders 41-37.

Jesse Jeffries retired after the season. The Raccoons had not offered him a new contract, he had just not fulfilled expectations, at all. The only other certain player to leave was minor league pitcher Luis Marin, who was not made for AAA play, and I wasn’t willing to keep a 29 year old slacker around in AA. We would take Angel Costa to arbitration.

October 25 – The Canadiens deal starter Marcos Ramos (15-14, 3.92) to Topeka for two prospects, including 2B Melvin Greene.
October 31 – Gold Glove awards are dished out, and the Raccoons take home three! P Christopher Powell, 1B Wyatt Johnston, and 2B Ben Simon are the recipients. For Johnston it is the second award, and for Powell … well, a pitcher that can’t pitch but can at least field is not as terrible to have as a pitcher that can’t pitch AND can’t drive a riding lawn mower.
November 1 – The Titans trade 3B Lino Zagallo to Las Vegas for 2B Brandon Patterson. Both have good contact, but little power.
November 3 – Scorpion Juan Correa (20-11, 2.61) and Falcon Sergio Salazar (23-8, 2.20) are the outstanding pitchers of the year.
November 4 – Rebel Juan Medine (.366, 25 HR, 107 RBI) and Crusader Ralph Nixon (.340, 21 HR, 136 RBI) are MVPs for the leagues. Nixon missed the triple crown by a single home run.
November 10 – The Raccoons trade SS Greg Swift, who batted .245 and was beriddled with injuries in 1978, and a minor leaguer to the Pittsburgh Miners getting outfield wizard Gustavo Zuniga (.277, 4 HR, 30 RBI in 155 AB in 1978) and a minor league pitcher in return.

Swift was a solid shortstop despite a low rating, which always surprised me. The signing of Jesse Jeffries prior to last season did not move him out of the lineup due to Jeffries’ poor hitting. But with Angel Costa it is different. Costa played most of the games in September and while his .426 hitting there will certainly go down, he seems to be more usable and could start the season at 2B, moving Simon over to SS again.

November 11 saw the arbitration hearings, where the Raccoons got an 0-1 record. We had offered Angel Costa $70,000 but he was awarded $88,500.

November 12 – The Pacifics send Ethan Gittens, who batted .351 in 154 AB, to the Falcons for reliever Javier Martinez.
November 14 – Eligible players file for free agency.

Don Sullivan had become a free agent after hitting 31 homers for the Gold Sox in ’78. He was a corner infielder or could play in rightfield. We entered negotiations, but it was hard to make him smile. He demanded a contract worth over $5M over seven years. Some choking there. Our budget for ’79 is $6.4M, so it’s hard to squeeze him in there, although I may have found some retard to take on Tim Anderson.

I also made a move towards Félix Aguilar. He had caught for the Rebels the last two years and combined a great arm with remarkable power (for a catcher), but he also was demanding more than his fair share. We could not come to terms.

The deal I had lined up in regard to Anderson with the Indians for starter Jose Perez fell through – not because they didn’t want to take Anderson, but because the Indians couldn’t squeeze him into their budget. Back to the drawing board – I’m not gonna pay that guy’s contract, which will be in his last year anyway.

I also cleaned up the 40-man roster for the upcoming rule 5 draft.

November 30 – Don Sullivan joins the reigning champions Sioux Falls Warriors for $3.35M over five years. Talk about some seriously heavy artillery assembled there.
November 30 – The Titans land former Cyclones slugger 3B Jorge Velazquez, whose 33 career homers should get Boston’s offense ahead just a wee bit.
December 1 – Rule 5 draft: two players are drafted, the Raccoons not being involved. We had taken a long look at 1B Ed Peters from the Cyclones system, but he was another Hoyt Cook and one Hoyt Cook was enough. The Pacifics eventually picked him.
December 4 – The Cyclones sign LF slugger Juan Diaz, formerly with the Thunder, to shore up their outfield.
December 7 – The Raccoons send outfielder Tim Anderson, a lifetime .224 hitter, to Cincinnati for pitching prospect Orlando Gomez.
December 8 – And then the Raccoons make winter meetings end with a bang for themselves, acquiring Titans starter Jerry Morris (11-15, 3.47) and outfield power prospect Ben Cox for 21 year old reliever Bruce Wright.

The Titans deal seems to be bad for the Raccoons at first glance, although BNN gives it as a 2.3 WAR gain, however both OSA and my scouts give Wright not a very promising outlook for future development. Cox has a huge glove and an even bigger bat and could be ready for the majors by ’81. Morris finally gives me a fifth starter worthy of the designation. When Berrios and Evans will be back healthy I will have a choice to bench either Powell or Morris going into the season. Ray will go down to AAA again, if he wants to or not. The deal also trades away one of my three lefties from the pen, which were just a tad too much. Nobody wanted Justice after a year on the DL, although his comeback was quite good, and I see a lot in Bill Baker, although he’s botched his share of games last year.

At the moment I’m thinking Romero – Berrios – Evans – Morris for the rotation, but that could change. The bullpen currently holds Powell, Gaston, Hatfield, Baker, Justice, and Lopez for sure. The other spot is open to consideration with Vazquez and Jenkins going against each other. Coleman also pitched for us in September, but I’m not fond of him, and never have been. Ray also doesn’t have a spot on the roster.

December 18 – 2B Alfredo Soriano, a .308 hitter and regarded as “clubhouse cancer”, joins the Pacifics.

January 10 – The Buffaloes sign free agent Harry Beauman, who is slated to make $3.2M over four years. Beauman is .322 with 19 HR and 113 RBI over his career, but was handicapped with injuries here and there and only played in 235 games.
January 27 – The Falcons sign starter William Williams, formerly with the Knights, who is 29-24 with an 3.49 ERA for his career. Williams comes at $3.41M over five years for the Falcons.
February 4 – The Rebels ink starter Sergio Esparraguera for seven years at a $540k rate. That’s a ton of bucks for a guy who went 17-29 with an 3.64 ERA over his career with the Canadiens.
February 19 – Obviously the Rebels have surplus money to spend, signing 1B Craig Snow, age 41, to a $250k contract. Snow batted .323 in his career but he could become a defensive liability.

I was still looking for another starter, catcher, or infielder, but the few free agents that could really advance the team, were cost-prohibitive, and it was just not possible to work out a deal with another team.

With how things were, with some progress in building the team, but not the really big shot that was necessary I couldn’t help but look forward to another season around 90 losses. I was already giving in to that. Maybe the 80s would be more kind to the Raccoons? I was already over contracting the roster. Three position players had to go down, and Sanderson and Dolder were two of them. The third would have to be another outfielder, but I wasn’t sure whom to pick. It really came down to three: Robby Davis (seemingly an obvious choice), Daniel Hall, or Jose Flores? I was not sure whether Hall was fully matured, although he certainly had put up a claim to play LF this season, batting almost .286 with five dingers and 15 RBI in his September call up stint. That had come from batting #2 most of the time. In the #4 or #5 spot he would possibly do even more damage. On the other hand, the Raccoons scouting department had actually lowered his potential significantly (OSA hadn’t in their January 1 update). Davis was the fastest guy we had and the only reasonable choice for a pinch runner. He was solid in all other aspects. Flores had batted leadoff for most of the first two seasons, but his production was way down in ’78 compared to ’77. Aaaah, choices to make …!

February 22 – The Wolves come to terms with closer Stan Curtis, who has 68 career saves.

March was entirely uneventful. There were a few trade proposals, but nothing worth considering, really. This will be the first season, where I am sure the team will not play .500 ball. They will play between .410 and .440 – once again.

(I also made a mistake again with the schedule and did not remove the original file from the folder, now the game sees two that fit the league (the original and my manipulated one) and switches back to the first – so another few hours of back breaking manual number flipping for me. I’m an idiot …)

Roster and season opener to follow. At some point in the future.

We'll be waiting patiently. Good luck this year!

Thanks for the kind words. ;-)

Did some screaming during modifying and importing the schedule since yesterday evening. To get some variation I set out and switched four pairs of teams, one pair in each division. Imported with four errors initially but should be good to go now.

Next is the opening day roster for the Raccoons, who will again not play on actual opening day. We will open with two games in Milwaukee (which is strange since I though there weren't any 2-game series in the schedule, but I don't mind it), then go home immediately for a 13-game home stint against the Thunder, Condors, Indians, and Titans.

The Raccoons also have improved their team for 3.5 WAR in the off season, 6th overall in the ABL, behind the Wolves (7.3), Buffaloes (5.9), Falcons (4.6), Condors (4.5), and Rebels (4.3). The biggest losers are the Cyclones (-3.3), Capitals (-5.0), Knights (-5.1), Bayhawks (-6.1), and Canadiens (-8.0).

Here is our roster (first set of numbers indicate 1978 performance, second set overall on the majors level):

SP Jorge Romero (14-16, 2.89 | 29-29, 2.93) – performed not as well last year as with the Condors, but he should be a 20-game winner with a potent offense (which we do have not)
SP Juan Berrios (10-15, 3.82 | 21-33, 3.66) – a year removed from his no-hitter, the sparkle has come off, although he should post better W-L numbers if the offense kicks in (notice the common theme here)
SP Logan Evans (4-4, 3.57 | 4-4, 3.57) – joined the majors mid-season and made some impressive starts before getting injured, only lefty in the rotation
SP Jerry Morris (11-15, 3.47 | 27-29, 4.00) – joins us from the Titans, where he wasn’t even exclusively used as starter in 1978, his season could go either way

MU Christopher Powell (8-18, 3.97 | 22-30, 3.56) – came close to being shot last season, has to prove himself again
MR Bill Baker (2-4, 2.75 | 6-7, 3.25) – one of the two lefties in the pen, mostly solid
MR Ben Jenkins (4-3, 4.31 | 10-6, 4.54) – one of the guys you have to be concerned about, he needs to get his ERA down
MR Tony Lopez (2-7, 4.00 | 2-7, 4.00) – was horrible as a starter replacing Berrios in September, but was good as a reliever, can eat innings as well, covered the most innings out of the pen
SU Brett Justice (0-2, 1.52 | 3-2, 2.37) – spent a year on the DL, returend strong, but with command issues, is the second lefty in there
SU Kevin Hatfield (3-6, 4.35, 29 SV | 4-8, 3.36, 48 SV) – closer for most of last year, he lost his touch after an injury and his ERA rocketed skywards
CL Wally Gaston (6-7, 2.25, 7 SV | 12-15, 2.54, 10 SV) – used only in high leverage situations, he strikes out almost nine over nine innings, but his number of walks are of concern

C Darryl Maloney (.188, 4 HR, 28 RBI | .215, 11 HR, 87 RBI) – was way worse than in ’77, both at the plate and with his arm, has to rebound
C Kieran Lawson (.203, 3 HR, 14 RBI | .202, 5 HR, 31 RBI) – was #1 catcher late in the season, but will be backup again

1B Hoyt Cook (.220, 2 HR, 13 RBI | .224, 3 HR, 24 RBI) – backup, can produce clutch hits, but inconsistent overall
1B Wyatt Johnston (.236, 18 HR, 64 RBI | .262, 33 HR, 156 RBI) – remains a force, but his average suffered, which was one contributor to the Raccoons’ lame offense last year
2B/3B Angel Costa (.320, 1 HR, 27 RBI | .320, 1 HR, 27 RBI) – started the season with the Miners and will take over in the infield for the traded Greg Swift
1B/3B/2B/SS/LF Ed Sullivan (.286, 9 HR, 57 RBI | .285, 29 HR, 118 RBI) – has one of the most reliable bats on the team, but was very error-prone last year
3B Freddy Lopez (.209, 3 HR, 13 RBI | .218, 3 HR, 33 RBI) – backup, could be replaced by one or two AAA talents this season
SS/2B/1B/3B Ben Simon (.244, 12 HR, 80 RBI | .248, 33 HR, 171 RBI) – fielding wizard, but K-prone and often shows nerves at the plate

LF/RF/CF Jose Flores (.251, 7 HR, 35 RBI | .265, 13 HR, 73 RBI) – started most of two seasons, but will only start against RHP to begin 1979
LF/RF Daniel Hall (.286, 5 HR, 15 RBI | .286, 5 HR, 15 RBI) – has all the talent one needs and if he can convert his strong September to a strong season, we should have a solid contributor here
LF/CF/RF Rob Pickett (.270, 2 HR, 39 RBI | .273, 3 HR, 71 RBI) – signed as free agent when our outfield was hospitalized in May and June and impressed enough to stay
LF/CF/RF Gustavo Zuniga (.277, 4 HR, 30 RBI | .277, 4 HR, 30 RBI) – came from the Miners in the off season and should shore up CF
LF/RF/CF/1B Johan Dolder (.189, 0 HR, 6 RBI | .205, 4 HR, 37 RBI) – you can’t ask for more defensively, but his offense was a desaster last year
RF/LF Pedro Sánz (.289, 12 HR, 59 RBI | .299, 29 HR, 129 RBI) – I love him dearly, but he is injured very often, keeping his numbers down

Opening day lineup (equals RHP): 2B Costa – 3B Sullivan – RF Sánz – LF Hall – 1B Johnston – SS Simon – CF Zuniga – C Maloney – P

Lineup vs. LHP: LF Flores – 2B Costa – RF Sánz – 3B Sullivan – SS Simon – 1B Cook – CF Zuniga – C Maloney – P

We also cleaned house and released nine minor leaguers who weren’t fitting anywhere and/or were taking play time away from our good prospects.

Prospect watch before the games begin: the Raccoons had three players in the Top 10 ranked prospects before last season. Logan Evans jumped to the majors and is no longer eligible, Hall also jumped, but is still ranked #3 with only 31 days of experience. Juan Martinez, a centerfielder was ranked #10, but is down to #19. He should still make a splash at some point – if doctors can put his knee back together.

Four more players in or around the Top 100: #34 AAA 3B Cameron Green, #97 AA CL Gary Simmons, #100 AAA 1B Matt Workman, and #103 A SP Richard Cunningham. Green was already with the team at it’s inception, Workman is a ’77 draftee, and the other two were drafted last year.

The season opened on April 3 for the Raccoons, facing the Loggers. We lost the game 3-2, and not a single run in the game was earned, as an error by Angel Costa scored led to three unearned runs in the bottom 2nd. Costa also generated the only offense in the top 8th. But it wasn’t enough and Jorge Romero once again got a loss that wasn’t his fault. Game 2 was an all around shameful showing by the Raccoons, going down 7-1 for an early sweep. And that against one of the two teams that we could possibly finish ahead of.

So, after this early blow, we went home, heads down already.

They had enough reason to keep them heads down against Oklahoma City, starting with a 3-1 10-inning loss. Hatfield blew a 1-0 lead, but had kind help from Hall, who committed an error to allow the tying run to score. Ben Jenkins lost it in the tenth, while the middle of my lineup was batting around .125 at the moment. With another 3-1 loss the next game, the Raccoons had scored impressive five runs in their first four games. Combined, of course. The heartache. You can’t imagine the heartache I’m having.

Game 3 got the Raccoons 4-0 ahead early, but defensive miscues erased the lead by the third. The game went to 5-5 and into extra innings, where no scoring was done into the 16th inning. The Thunder pressed one across, and the Raccoons loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning, but Kieran Lawson struck out to end the game for the 6-5 loss.

While this made the Thunder a perfect 6-0, the Raccoons were a dismal 0-5. And I was out of medication for my heartache. Romero was 0-1 with an 1.29 ERA – yet eight runs had gotten across against him, but only two had been earned. The Raccoons had yet to play a game without committing at least one error. Four of the runs in the latest loss had been unearned. They also had not homered yet.

Next up were the Condors, who had started 1-6. We would be well advised to win that series. At least we started with a 3-1 win. Juan Berrios’ pitching was erratic and walky, but somehow the Raccoons squeezed through, and even without an error. Game 2 was a 6-4 come from behind win, where a 4-run seventh was the key to the game. Worrisome still was Gaston’s top 9th, where he walked two and barely got through. Rain chased the starters early and the win went to Brett Justice.

Alex Miranda waited in game 3 against his old team, the Raccoons, who sent in Jerry Morris. Both ended up raped for seven runs, Miranda in 1.2 innings, Morris over 4+. The Raccoons led 7-3 after that second inning, but then gave it away again to a 7-7 score that carried into the eighth. There, another sudden outburst of offense plated four for the Raccoons and Tony Lopez pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to complete the sweep with an 11-7 win. Daniel Hall was only 1-5 and has a .167 average, but he cleared the bases with his only hit, a double, and stole the first base for the Raccoons this season. Yes, we are that bad.

We lost Gustavo Zuniga for a so far undisclose injury in the last Condors game, which was double bad, since I just wanted to try him in leadoff for the struggling Costa. Zuniga’s speed and .348 / .370 / .391 stat line would have made for interesting opportunities. Now, Johan Dolder was in the lineup, batting eighth, he was a whopping 0-6 this season.

Raccoons last, but the bottom is dense in the CL North so far. Indians shot out of the gate and are next on this home stint for four games, followed by the Titans, before we will travel to Las Vegas and Charlotte.

Three of four playoff teams from last year struggling out of the gate, only the champions Warriors going strong.

Zuniga had a groin injury and was out for the month, which made me work with either Dolder or Pickett in CF. That was a choice between weak offense or below average defense. Pickett was better on the sides of the outfield. Zuniga went to the DL and Robby Davis was recalled from AAA.

Jorge Romero and Miguel Sanchez engaged in a pitchers’ duel in the first game of the Indians series. Romero got a no decision, leaving after six after allowing only an unearned run. He is 0-1 now with a 0.90 ERA. Tells volumes about the Raccoons offense. Sullivan homered in the eighth for a 2-1 lead, but Gaston blew the lead, yet the Raccoons walked off against the Indians pen when four straight batters reached base in the bottom 9th. Hoyt Cook singled to score Ben Simon from third.

Berrios was slapped for six runs over 5.1 innings in game 2. The Raccoons lost 7-2, and never were even remotely close to a threat. The runs were solo shots by Sullivan and Simon, so at least the home run drought seemed to be over. This was proven again in game 3, where Simon grand slammed the Raccoons to a 5-1 win. Evans pitched eight plus frames and the Indians didn’t score until the ninth, when our young lefty ran out of steam. Brett Justice got the final outs. Game 4 was another beating, as Jerry Morris was thrown around by the Indians in a 6-2 defeat. Bill Baker was also uncharacteristically bad in his outing in game 4.

There were two issues with batting early on. One was Dolder at .167 – nothing I hadn’t seen coming. We’d try Pickett or Flores in CF in the next few games. The other was my only ray of hope from last season: Daniel Hall. He was batting a terrible .118! He had been slotted down to #6 in the batting order already. He was drawing a normal number of walks, but he couldn’t get a hit down. I would look at this for another week or so and if he couldn’t get around in the next two or three series, then I would have to send him down to AAA, with a seriously zig-zagged crack in my heart.

Against the Titans, Romero faced Bruce Wright, but rain chased them early and the duel never materialized. The Raccoons lost 5-2, failing to land hits against the troubled Boston pitching. But they had seen all they had needed to see and stomped over the Titans 11-2 the next day. Sánz was 4-5, Pickett 3-5, and Costa 3-6. Johnston plated four, and he, Sánz and Sullivan homered. Hall was only 1-5.

There was the rubber game left. Logan Evans pitched well and held a 1-0 lead in the fifth when he left with a not yet diagnosed injury. The pen bobbled the lead and the game went to extra innings at 2-2. There the Raccoons dropped several chances to walk off. The Titans scored a run off Powell in the top 14th. The Raccoons pen was emptied with Baker thrown in there, but he had to be removed for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the inning with runners on the corners and two down. Freddy Lopez squeezed a single to center that tied the game, but Johnston flew out and the martyr continued. The pen was empty now. Jenkins and Lopez were the only relievers left and they had already pitched in this series and weren’t rested. I turned to Lopez, who allowed a run across in the top 16th, but this was preceeded by a dropped ball from Flores in centerfield. In the bottom, Raccoons were again on the corners with two outs and the pitcher up. He was lifted for Darryl Maloney, who flew out to centerfield. I [garbled]ING HATE you guys …!!!

Off day. Mood low. Aggression high.

Next up were the Aces, who had pulled off a 4-11 start. They were batting .201 and scored a meager 47 runs. Jerry Morris was first tasked with getting through them, but he left 3-1 behind after six. Rain came in the seventh and in the eighth Daniel Hall hit a 2-run double to tie the game. The Raccoons scored the winning run in the same inning, as Bill Baker closed the game over two innings – Baker had been the pitcher used the least in the 16-inning loss to the Titans.

Bad news followed immediately. A back injury would sideline Logan Evans for four months. That was just about all of the season. That guy had opened the season with a 0.82 ERA! God, bloody hell, why can’t I get a break here??

Roman Ocasio was brought up from AAA to replace Evans, mainly because I was tired of Ned Ray. Ocasio was 24, Venezolan, and had command issues. We had to fear the worst here. Meanwhile the Raccoons lost 9-6 in game 2 and 11-3 in game 3. Pitching was unbelievably horrible, it was painful to watch. Baker, Romero, Berrios, Lopez, Justice were all awful, walking raw numbers of Aces.

We went against the Falcons and Roman Ocasio made his very first major league start. It was rather ugly as he allowed seven hits and walked six over six innings and allowed all runs in the 5-1 loss. The Falcons won 5-3 the next day against Morris, but mostly Baker, who was tasked with getting out two lefties in the bottom 8th and failed miserably. His ERA rocketed to 8.22 in this game with two runs in a third of an inning allowed. Another sad point was Daniel Hall. He walked three times in the game, but his average was mired at .121. With April almost over, decisions would soon be made on some guys.

Game 3 remained. More frustration, as Jorge Romero went up against Santiago Salazar in a pitchers duel, but got a no decision and was led off the field with an injury in the seventh. The Raccoons trailed 2-1 in the top 9th, but with the bases loaded and down to the last strike, Pedro Sánz was nicked by the pitch and the game continued. We lost Brett Justice to a stiff neck in the tenth after he had struck out the side in the bottom 9th. Powell lost it in the 12th as the Falcons completed the sweep with a 3-2 walkoff win.

Off day following, we were to face the easier part of our division at home the next week, the Loggers and Canadiens. Two starting pitchers were injured, and Romero was not yet diagnosed. Offense struggling as usual and if Romero’s injury was to be serious, we were toast.

In other news:
April 10 – The Indians’ Garry Evans goes 5-5 in a 9-3 win over the Aces, lacking only a home run for the cycle.
April 14 – Jeremiah Carrell of the Cyclones has a hit streak built to 20 games.
April 17 – Sergio Salazar shuts out the the Aces on three hits as the Falcons win 5-0.
April 17 – Carrell’s streak ends at 21 against the Capitals, and the Cyclones are shut out 3-0.
April 18 – The Warriors beat the Pacifics 4-3 in eleven frames and Chris Lynch goes 6-6 in the game.
April 19 – Dave Peterson copies Lynch’s feat in a 16-5 win of the Scorpions over the Stars, going 6-6, lacking a homer for a cycle.
April 20 – Former Raccoon Ben Green (now with the Pacifics) is out for the season with a torn rotator cuff.
April 22 – Blue Sox’ Guillermo Heredia is out for the season with a torn ulnar collateral ligament. Heredia, 37, was 25-18 for his career.

After the Loggers and Canadiens there will be interleague play at the Buffaloes and against the Warriors. If we were to lose Romero for long, Powell would be back in the rotation. That can only mean ugly things. He's got a 1.26 ERA now, but that came from pitching mopup or extra innings, and how well he was pitching the latter we had just seen.

Trouble ahead.

Jorge Romero was diagnosed once we were back in Portland. He had a torn labrum and was out for four months, give or take a week, with a rehab assignment that was September, so his season was about over.

As was the Raccoons season as a hole. At 7-14, they were already bad, and without the ace of the staff, and Evans, who had led the league in ERA(!), it was over. Berrios was slotted to #1 and Powell to #2 in the rotation. Ned Ray was called up to do mopup duties, that was the third lefty in the pen, but on April 26, I was already way past giving a crap.

The Raccoons started the Loggers series with a 5-2 loss, then scored four in the first inning in game 2. Of course, this was not enough for Powell, who made his first start of the season and was tagged for five over 4.2 innings by the least-scoring team in the CL. (The second-least scoring team? The Raccoons of course) The Raccoons lost that one 5-4 with scoring stopping there. Angel Costa was down to the last strike in the bottom 9th but singled to keep his 18-game hitting streak alive, but Sullivan grounded out to end it. Ocasio got five runs of support by the third inning, but his game was as shameful as it could be. In three plus innings he threw two wild ones and hit THREE batters. I tossed him outta there, but Baker found no way out of the inning either with the bases loaded, nobody out and one already across. Hatfield to the rescue it was 5-5 after 3 1/2 innings. He went four innings but took the 7-5 loss.

Eight losses in a row now. We had owned the Loggers to the tune of 22-14 the last two years, now we were 0-5 against them. April 30. Time to clean house. Roman Ocasio (0-1, 8.00), Bill Baker (0-1, 7.56 from the pen), Johan Dolder (.158 with nothing scoreable), and – with tears in my eye – Daniel Hall (.143, 0 HR, 13 RBI) were sent to AAA ball. Hall actually had the second-most RBI on the team, but he initially had batted behind Costa and then Sánz and Johnston, all batting around .300, so that might have kept his ribbies up. Anyway, I can not keep somebody whose batting is that far off. He had actually more walks than hits.

Two AAA relievers were called up and not the usual choices of Vazquez and Coleman. I turned to Frank O’Rearden, a lefty, and Bill Craig, a righty. O’Rearden had been projected to be a closer, but didn’t have the stuff, but he was able to keep his numbers in the green zone in AAA. Craig was average throughout, I didn’t expect a lot but to eat an inning or two here or there and stay below four with his ERA. Craig was a short term replacement before I could dig out another starter. Until then, guys like Ben Jenkins or Brett Justice would have to start games. Or (twitch) Ned Ray. I called up Ben Cox as well. He had been acquired in the off season and had been projected as a strong hitter. By now he had been rated down a bunch. The other callup was Alberto Salgado, a first baseman, solid at the plate. He would pinch hit only, since Johnston was too valuable to bench. Salgado was 28 and had no options. In case he refused a demotion back to AAA I would happily fire him – not much to lose there.

Robby Davis moved to leadoff in LF, Flores was benched as well for batting a mile below .200 … I’d give Cox a few starts over Pickett to check out his abilities in the field and at the plate. CF was his worst outfield position, but still solid.

The Canadiens came to town. We lost 6-1 in the first game on three homers of Jerry Morris, whose acquisition by now was officially considered a mistake. Cox debuted 2-3 but was caught stealing, Salgado flew out in a pinch hit appearance, and Craig pitched the ninth with an unearned run that scored on a ball thrown away by Maloney. Agony. 5-0 up after one inning in game 2, the Raccoons had their lead slowly chipped away by bad pitching. Gaston entered in a 2-run save situation, blew it in the ninth and lost it in the tenth, walking four. Downed 7-6, and Powell coming up. Neither team landed any big hits during the regular distance. Powell pitched eight scoreless, but the defense bailed him out here and there. The Raccoons walked off with a 1-0 win in the 11th inning. Cox and Flores singled and double stole, forcing an intentional walk to Costa to set up a big play. Sullivan bashed one to center and Cox tagged to score. Lopez was the winning pitcher after going three scoreless himself.

8-19 record, how sweet. With interleague play upon us, we first had to chew through the offensively challenged Buffaloes, and then go against the defending champions Warriors.

Ned Ray had somehow made his way back to the rotation after the injuries that had befallen the more deserving players. He started game 1 against the Buffaloes. Will it surprise anyone that the game was a loss? The Raccoons led twice, but Ray always found ways to get into trouble, he did not K anyone, and one run scored on a wild pitch. Raccoons lost 4-2 after getting nothing out of a bases loaded-nobody out top 7th, when the game was still tied.

More desperate moves. Robby Davis (batting 1-18) was benched for Rob Pickett (0-7 as PH, but .241 overall). Pickett led off instead of a cooled down Costa, who had stopped hitting altogether after his hitting streak had ended at 19 the week before. Pickett responded immediately with a 3-6 day as the Raccoons took off with a 4-run second to give Jerry Morris his first win as a Raccoon in the 6-3 victory. Gaston actually managed to save one successfully. Albert Salgado got his first ABL hit and Frank O’Rearden got his first pair of K’s in. Game 3 was a 5-3 loss on the bullpen, allowing four runs in the bottom 8th with Jenkins, Hatfield, and Justice involved. Rob Pickett was injured and would be out for about six weeks. Of course he would, he was remotely playing okay the last two games. Pickett went to the DL when diagnosed during the next series and Dolder was recalled for necessity of defense, although he had not deserved it at all.

Pedro Sánz was injured in the first Warriors game and was day to day with an aching neck. It was certainly no surprise the Raccoons were whipped cleanly by the defending champions, who led their division again, and lost 4-0, 7-5 (in 14 innings), and 6-1. The middle loss was especially nerve wrecking. The Raccoons offense gave Ned Ray a 4-0 lead after two innings that Ray managed to give up through a grand slam.

What a terrible team, and crippled through the losses of Romero, Evans, Pickett, and Zuniga. Next up road trip to the east coast for the Titans and Crusaders, then for the rest of the month games against the CL South Knights, Bayhawks, Condors, and Aces. The Condors are the only team of ten played against that the Raccoons posted a winning record against so far, 3-0. A 2-2 tie against the Indians, and then nothing but losses.

In other news:
May 3 – Rebels LF Conrad Hamilton goes 5-6 with 8 TB and 2 RBI against the Miners in a 15-10 win. He only misses a home run for the cycle.
May 5 – The Blue Sox’ David Hicks is hitting .391 and now has a streak of 20 consecutive games with a hit.
May 5 – The Bayhawks lose their starter Walt McCorkindale for the season with a torn labrum. McCorkindale had entered the season 24-24, but had gone 2-5 with an ERA over six so far.
May 8 – Michael Ball, a starter that the Raccoons were after repeatedly, is traded from the Gold Sox to the Capitals for infielder Alberto Beltre.
May 8 – The Thunder end the hit streak of Hicks at 21.

Raccoons have lost 15 of their last 17. Don’t look at the standings. It’s an ugly sight.

We entered the Titans series by posting a lineup with five players batting under .230, and four under .200 (and the pitcher Berrios was not included in the latter figure). Of course it didn’t work out. No key hits, no luck, nothing. Berrios gave up runs at a consistent pace for a 4-2 loss.

Ben Cox had started batting well, but had hit the .200 mark now coming from above. Well, then we can just play Dolder at #8 and we rather safe in defense. Cox had looked promising in the trade when we got him, but he was one of those 80% busts by now. I wish I could say something else against Daniel Hall. Dolder in turn immediately committed an error in the first game he was in the lineup. Sean Critch was sharp, the Titans were hitting, Christopher Powell sucked, as did the rest of the team, in a 7-1 loss. Sánz tripled in Sullivan already down to the final out in the top 9th. Two hits in total in the final game for the Raccoons went a 2-0 loss – and the next series sweep.

What to do with that miserable bunch of losers? There was no free agent on the market that could be even remotely useful. I could not trade for anybody since I had only suckers to offer. The AAA team was filled with the outcasts of the majors team. And we had a 9-27 record. (Pyth. Record was 12-24 by the way, so the team did actually suck and was not just unlucky. 12-24 was worst for the CL, and only the Pacifics were worse.)

The Crusaders were next, with the worst start they had put up so far, and 5th in the division. The Raccoons led twice in game 1 and Jerry Morris blew it both times. He was saddled with seven earned runs in four plus innings in the 7-4 loss. In both the third and fourth innings he loaded the bases with nobody out. His ERA was at 6.75 now. What a moron. And I had nobody to replace him in the rotation. Robby Davis in LF seemed to come around, going 2-4 with two RBI. Game 2 was a 7-1 loss on Berrios, who surrendered three homers and six earned runs. Total number of hits for the Raccoons: two. That was enough for Sánz to plate one, so there was at least one player on the team that was not completely worthless. Powell was one of those worthless slacks and lost another one, 5-2, to complete that sweep.

They have now lost ten in a row and 22 of 24 or something like that. I can’t count that far. Albert Salgado was waived and designated for assignment (but was claimed by the Gold Sox, I don’t care, he was batting .130-something, have fun with him, fits your last place team). Daniel Hall was batting .359 at AAA, and was hitting a home run every 8.0 at bats. Was he warmed up now? We’d see soon enough as he was called up again.

The Knights were next for us, and they were 20-20 and solid throughout. If I looked at the starters that were waiting for them, Ray, Morris, and Berrios, I was ready to admit defeat before the first pitch.

Yet it took them 12 innings to lose the opener of the series. Ray was fitted with a 4-1 lead which did not survive (of course). Gaston blew a new 5-4 lead in the top 9th, that guy is nowhere near his class from 1977/78. The Raccoons had runners in scoring position ready to walk off in both the 10th and 11th, but made embarassing outs, and the Knights slapped O’Rearden for three in the 12th to win 8-5. Hall had a hit, pinch hitting for the hapless .171 Robby Davis in the eighth and scored what was then the go-ahead run. 12 innings was also the distance the next day. We led 4-1 in the seventh with Morris in trouble. Justice was tasked with getting out two lefties. A hit and a homer later the game was tied. Jenkins lost it in the 12th, when we had Sullivan at SS and Cook at 2B because of some I-don’t-give-a-crap pinch hitting by me, however these two weren’t the problem. Cook even made a nice play in the 11th. Raccoons lost 6-5. Johnston was 4-5 with a walk. Hall was 1-6 without a walk.

Game 3 was one of those encounters of another kind. The Knights plated two early on a throwing error and led 2-0 in the fifth, where Berrios issued a leadoff walk. The next batter bunted and Lawson tried to get the out at second – fail. Next batter, next bunt, this time out to Berrios, who tried to make an out at third – fail. One run scored before Armando Delgado grouned into a double play that ended it for this turn. Top 6th. Two out, two on (first and second). A lame chopper down in front of Lawson who slings it to first – fail. I missed the rest of the game screaming into my cuddly pillow, but the Raccoons lost 5-3. I was also told that Daniel Hall hit a homer with two out in the ninth and that he was 2-5 with two RBI and about the least horrible of the bunch in this game.

The bunch had lost 13 in a row now and 25 of 27. And I am hurting.

The Bayhawks were next. Gustavo Zuniga was back and was immediately put in centerfield for Dolder. Ben Cox went back to AAA. The Bayhawks were 23-22 with the best offense and worst pitching in the CL .

At least the string of losses ended here. Game 1 starter Kinji Kan started sharp and K’ed seven Raccoons, but the Raccoons ultimately got the better of the Bayhawks and landed 20 hits in a 12-2 win. Every Raccoon with an at bat got at least one hit, Hall was 3-5, Simon 4-6, and Johnston also 3-5. On May 22, this was Powell’s first win of the season. He allowed both runs over six frames. He also was 2-3 at the plate.

Game 2. The Raccoons batted through the lineup before the Bayhawks ever recorded an out. They led 8-0 after the top 1st and eventually won 14-5. The Bayhawks had really *major* issues with their pitchers. As did the Raccoons, Ned Ray hardly got through five innings. Jerry Morris also had issues in game 3. He blew a 5-1 lead and the Bayhawks walked off 6-5 in the tenth.

Next were the Condors, the unfortunate victims of a sweep by the hands of the Raccoons in April. How they had managed to do that was still uncertain.

Berrios went against them first. He no-hit the Condors through four innings, then crumbled and blew a 3-0 and 4-1 lead to a tie in the seventh. The Raccoons squeezed in another run to win 5-4 with Gaston just barely saving it. He was still totally off this season, but got another save the next day in a 5-2 win. Bill Craig had entered the top 9th with a 4-run lead, but a triple and a grounder scored a run and enabled Gaston to earn a 2-out save. The Raccoons were getting some W’s lately. They completed the sweep over the Condors with a 3-1 win, Gaston got his third save in the series, Ed Sullivan homered for the go-ahead run in the third, and Zuniga hit a 2-run homer. The last win was over Alex Miranda, former Raccoon.

This left a series against the Aces to finish the month of May. The Aces were bottom of the CL South, but they weren’t particularly bad in any specific category. They also led the season series against the Raccoons 2-1. They also had luck on their side, and were fortunate to pitch against Morris, whom they mishandled for three runs in the top 1st. The Raccoons turned this into a 6-3 lead quickly, but Morris failed to bail out of the fifth. Lopez blew a 6-5 lead in the ninth and the Raccoons lost 8-6. That was it for Morris. I was sick of his 6.69 ERA. Gimme a prospect, an average one, and he’s yours. I would rather stitch together my fourth starter for the rest of the year than go with that moron.

Berrios was slapped next in a 7-0 loss where the Raccoons got just five hits in. The last game saw the Raccoons with an early 8-1 lead after a 6-run fourth inning. Christopher Powell pitched and allowed four more before being yanked after six. The pen somehow stitched it together allowing one more run on Craig for a 8-6 win to end May (a day early, we had May 31 off).



In other news:
May 12 – As the Thunder thump San Francisco 12-2, LF Jonah Frank hits for a cycle with a 4-6, 2 RBI night. This was the first cycle in 1979 and the fifth overall. It was also the first cycle for a Continental League batter.
May 13 – A torn labrum puts Miguel Sanchez, the ace of the Indians out of order for four months at least. Sanchez was 4-1 with a 2.75 ERA in ’79, and is 25-9 for his career.
May 16 – Warriors CF George Lynch busts his ankle and is out for the season. His .320 batting will surely be missed by the Warriors.
May 25 – Loggers 3B Alex Garcia has built up a streak of 20 consecutive games with a hit.
May 30 – Falcons 2B Cordell Atkins is a home run short of the cycle in a 7-6 loss to the Loggers. In the same game Alex Garcia goes 1-5 and extends his streak to 25 games.

Two months down, the team has been horrible. Romero and Evans out until September (at least), and Morris, Powell, Berrios, and Ray all do not perform. The bullpen is great – they compete for the lowest ERA of all ABL pens. The starters are awful. Notice Lopez slotted into the #4 spot. I don’t know whether I really want to do that. It was a nightmare last year.

Daniel Hall has moved his average to .223 with two homers and 20 RBI now. Sullivan, Simon, Sánz, Johnston were all more or less on the same level as before, but the power wasn’t there. Sullivan led the team with six homers. Five players have played every game so far, although Johnston has not started them all, but has pinch hit every time. We had frequent off days so far – should change later in the season.

At the moment we're playing a lineup with Hall - Sullivan - Sánz - Johnston - Simon - and then varying combos of Costa, Zuniga, and the catcher. Maybe I should try Zuniga in leadoff and bump Sullivan to #4 and Johnston to #6?

Loggers and Indians on the road to start June, then interleague: Blue Sox and Gold Sox. Of course, the season is long lost, only goal is to stay below 100 losses by now. Too bad we are 89 points below that mark at the moment.

Sad.

We opened the Loggers series and the month of June with a complete game performance by Ned Ray in a 6-3 win. Two scored against Ray on a long ball in the bottom 9th. Costa and Simon both went 3-5. We also killed Alex Garcia’s 25-game hitting streak in this game, but Darryl Maloney bruised his toe early and had to leave the game. He was back in the lineup the next day, though. Garcia took revenge the next day and homered off Tony Lopez in the first inning. Lopez made another start and just like last year it was a horrible sight. Bill Craig was rocked for more late and the Raccoons lost 7-3. Juan Berrios was pitted against Pablo Ruiz in the rubber game. Both sported ERAs over five and had a K/BB ratio below 1.00 – accordingly the game was scoreless through five. (blinks) While Berrios relied heavily on his defensive backups, Ruiz fanned six early, before he started to crumble. The Raccoons wrecked him in the sixth and seventh for five runs, while Berrios and Justice combined for the 5-0 shutout.

From now until the All Star break beginning July 9, the Raccoons would only have one more off day. That’s six weeks with 40 games in them. Yay.

First in that grind were the Indians, who were running away with the division. The Raccoons got up 2-0 in the top 1st, but Powell ended up losing it 5-3. Daniel Hall was injured, a strained hamstring ended his June early. He was DL’ed after the Indians series and Ben Cox recalled for further audition.

Game 2. Ned Ray was pitted against Du Tong. Both left after five being pinch hit for and 3-1 down against a pitching heavy team with my offense I threw in Jerry Morris, who hadn’t pitched in over a week for sucking. He managed to wind through 1.1 innings with a walk, a wild pitch, and a hit batsman. Between innings, Sánz had launched a 3-run shot to turn the game around 4-3 for the Raccoons. Morris went after putting two on with one out in the bottom 7th. Justice got a ground ball double play to end the inning, then pitched a 1-2-3 eighth. Still up 4-3, Gaston entered in the bottom 9th to save it. Walk, groundball out, then he plunked Kurt Taylor, who was faster than lightning and represented the winning run. Gaston was yanked for Hatfield, who couldn’t keep it tight and the game went to extra innings. My head was glowing red by then. Hatfield somehow wobbled through the 10th and 11th innings with the winning run on third each time. Craig pitched a scoreless 12th, then led off the 13th by bunting, but was thrown out. Zuniga whiffed, and Flores whopped a pathetic ball to left. He would have been out, but the Indians botched the play and Flores reached second on a throwing error. Sànz pierced one up the middle to score him and the Raccoons entered the bottom 13th with a 1-run lead. Craig failed, but O’Rearden came in and got two ground balls that Johnston and Sullivan made into outs for the 5-4 win. O’Rearden got his first majors save.

Tony Lopez made another start in the rubber game. The Raccoons scored four off Ray Lynch in the first two innings, but Lopez found no way out of the bottom 2nd and was removed after giving up four walks and four hits for four runs. Covering nine frames now with that depleted bullpen was an extra challenge. Simon scored Johnston in the fifth for a new 5-4 lead, while entering the bottom 6th I had only five relievers left: the exhausted Hatfield (bad choice), the struggling Gaston (bad choice), the terrible Morris (terrible choice) and Jenkins and Justice. Jenkins got the task to cover three scoreless innings. He surrendered four runs in the sixth. Raccoons lost 8-5.

The Blue Sox were next for the second week of interleague play. They were thoroughly average so far with a 31-28 record as they came to Portland. We entered with only two rested relievers, so Berrios had to go deep in game 1. He gave up four runs in the top 4th en route to a 7-3 loss. Six were on Berrios, who in turn slashed a solo home run himself. All effort in vain of course, this team can’t afford to give up four over nine innings, let alone seven. We then got a much needed long outing from Powell, who went eight frames with only one run against him, while also starring at the plate with a 2-4, 1 RBI outing. Simon went 2-4 with a homer, and Ben Cox went 3-5 with his first home run, which was also his first RBI in the majors, in his first complete game since replacing Hall again. Lopez pitched a scoreless ninth, indicating already that he would not have another start to be slapped around in. Slapped around was Ned Ray, who took the loss in the rubber game. A late rally fell short and the Raccoons lost 5-3.

The Gold Sox were up next and we had to beat them hard. They were 9th or worse in the FL in all of average, runs scored, runs against, ERA for starters and the pen, with two 12th places. The Raccoons were not quite as bad, 12th in average and runs scored, 6th in runs allowed, 11th in starters ERA, and 3rd in bullpen ERA.

Then of course, we sent out Jerry Morris to start it. He lost it with a 3-run fourth inning that crashed a tender 1-0 lead, and the Raccoons lost 5-3 with four runs on Morris, who didn’t make it through the fifth. I was sick of that guy.

Looking for opportunities to dump him and get a replacement and minimum sacrifices I came across Jeff Thompson of the Scorpions. They would give him up and swallow Morris if I packaged him with minors 3B Cameron Green, who was batting .281 with 13 homers at AAA. Tempting, I admit. I made an offer without Green, but I don’t think they’ll take it.

Then there was still the Gold Sox series left to complete. Berrios pitched game 2 and was horrible again, allowing all runs in the 5-4 loss, going six innings. Pedro Sánz was injured in the game making a tough catch landing awkwardly. With Sánz out for the moment, I tried Robby Davis in RF in game 3. The Raccoons tried to salvage at least one game against the FL’s worst team.

But … the Gold Sox put five runs on Powell into the fifth inning – and *then* topped that off with nice grand slam. Raccoons lost 10-5.

In other news:
June 2 – The Scorpions trade Bill Peterson to Oklahoma City for Glenn Williams and a catching prospect. Peterson has 38 career home runs and is with his fourth team now.
June 2 – As the Wolves shut out the Warriors 1-0, Victor Soto pitches a 2-hit shutout.
June 6 – Rebels 1B Craig Snow, who’s earning a quarter million bucks this year at age 41 and only had to come to bat seven times so far, has been traded to the Gold Sox for centerfielder Fernando Silva, who is actually producing. The Gold Sox management must be completely retarded.
June 8 – Indian Salah Brunet pitches a 3-hit shutout of the Cyclones in a 7-0 win.
June 9 – Big deal, as the Indians acquire shortstop Ken Adams from the Titans in exchange for starter Du Tong (5-5, 3.57) and a minor leaguer.
June 11 – The Bayhawks beat the Wolves 6-0, with Kinji Kan pitching a 3-hit shutout.
June 12 – The Loggers shut out the Rebels 7-0, as Greg O’Brien pitches a 3-hit shutout.

Next, a 4-game series against the Crusaders, then on the road the rest of the month. The draft will take place during the Crusaders series.

And for bad news: Pedro Sánz was diagnosed as having torn ligaments in his ankle. He was out for at least a month.

100% pain. 110% frustration. I’m about sick of it …

Short update here to accommodate for the draft and the Crusaders series around it before the team will hit the road from June 18 to July 1. Rob Pickett returned from the DL and I restructured the lineup a bit to go as follows: LF Cox – RF Pickett – SS Simon – 3B Sullivan – 1B Johnston – CF Zuniga – C Maloney – 2B Costa. Lawson caught against lefties or when Maloney otherwise needed rest and batted behind Costa. Simon to #3 was the biggest change in there. He was striking out in raw amounts and his unclutchness was well feared by those waiting on the bases. Sullivan and Johnston were much better in that regard. (Still, Simon had the most RBIs with 36 on the team)

Much like the Raccoons, the Crusaders wondered what had hit them. At 28-37 they were miles behind the Indians, who led the division by nine, as did the Cyclones in the FL East. The Crusaders were not scoring as much as the last two seasons and their pitching was also only average. Of course, the Raccoons would find ways do get swept over the 4-game series. At 19-44 we had already committed to last place and a 100-losses season, there was no question about either “feat”. With the tradeline still six weeks ahead there was no need for a firesale now, but I would be looking at options to grab promising youngsters. I really loved how Wyatt Johnston and Ed Sullivan were producing. But they were 37 and 34, respectively.

The Raccoons led 7-3 against the Crusaders in game 1. Ned Ray was shaky and had two wild pitches, hit a batter, scattered a few walks without a single K. That was nothing against what the bullpen did in the final 3.1 innings. There, the Crusaders scored eight and tore through the Raccoons relievers for an 11-7 win. Frank O’Rearden was sent back to AAA for blowing open the game in the top 8th, and we got back Bill Baker. Game 2. Morris and Jenkins combined for eight scoreless innings (how they did that must still be analyzed thoroughly – they were still both not sharp and the infield got a ton of good plays), before Hatfield failed to close the game. Justice came on to face lefty Bill Byrd with the bags loaded, the Raccoons up 2-1, and two outs. Byrd worked to a full count before Justice struck him out for the 2-1 win. This was the first June game (on June 15) in which the Raccoons didn’t score at least three runs.

Now it was time for the draft. The 1979 draft class is definitely pitcher-heavy. There are about ten players in there that scream “take me”, and seven or eight of them are pitchers. The Raccoons will pick #4, then #39 and every 24th pick from there. So we will get at least one high talent pitcher, but I’m torn between a top starter and a top closer. Maybe the starter would make more sense. They’re hard to come by on the trade market.

I ranked only the top eight prospects. The first six were pitchers, so we’d get one off that list. I intended to focus on pitching this time, since there wasn’t much promising talent in our system.

Our top 3 ranked talents were Grant West, Pepe Acevedo, and Jim Durden; Acevedo was a starter, the other two potential closers. The first overall pick was Wilson Martinez, who was drafted by the Denver Gold Sox. Martinez, a starter, had also been on my short list, number four among starters. Leland Lewis and Pedro Romero were taken next, also starting pitchers, and #6 and #5 on my list, respectively.

Our first pick was thus Grant West, who was 22, born in Portland (hometown boy!) and also had the additional pro of signing for slot. Strangely, Acevedo remained in the pool until we got our next pick at #39. Was he not as good as our scouts considered him? OSA rated him a bit lower than my scouts, but I still took him. No ranked prospectes remained past round 2. Our last shortlisted player was taken at #149 by the Scorpions, the last four picks were scrubs for sure.

All of the Portland draftees:

Round 1: #1 MR Grant West, 22, Portland, OR; superb ratings for stuff and movement, could be closer or setup guy.
Round 2: #2 SP Pepe Acevedo, 17, Calexico, CA; killer stuff and control with strong movement projected.
Round 3: MR Fletcher Kelley, 20, Edmonston, MD; very good numbers across the board with a deadly screwball, has also closer potential.
Round 4: LF/RF Gary Carter, 22, Grand Island, NE; good contact and fielding, but no power.
Round 5: C Dave Stewart, 18, New York, NY; average throughout, but his batting could actually get him forward with a bit of power in the mix.
Round 6: CL Gilberto Soto, 17, Brooklyn, NY; he is not well suited for a closer with numbers similar to those of our Wally Gaston, but he might due well in relief.
Round 7: LF/RF/CF Malcolm Whitaker, 21, Kansas City, MO; versatile outfielder, sub par at the plate.
Round 8: RF/LF/1B Javier Reyes, 22, Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep.; versatile outfielder, weak batting.
Round 9: LF/RF Andrew Clement, 22, Edinburg, TX; no features worth mentioning.
Round 10: MR Vance White, 17, Wyandotte, MI; good stuff, but that won’t be enough.

Assignments were as follows: West, Kelley, and Carter were assigned to AA, the rest landed at the A level. In addition, Kenny Powell and Allen Potts, two A relievers, were moved up to AA along with them, and AA closer Gary Simmons was promoted to AAA.

It was a good draft as far as pitching was concerned, but whether any of the five fielders would make a splash, remained to be seen.

What else were the Raccoons up to? We still tried to trade for Jeff Thompson without giving up on Cameron Green. It was more or less futile.

Game 3 against the Crusaders was started by Juan Berrios, but he left with an injury after giving up two runs in the first inning. Bill Baker was injured in his first game back with the Raccoons. The bullpen could not withstand that strain and broke apart, losing the game 8-6. The series ended with a 3-1 loss. Powell went 7.2 innings with his usual shaky style. The game ended an 18-game hitting streak for Ed Sullivan.

Bill Baker had a torn labrum, his season was over and he landed on the 60 day disabled list. He ended his season with an ERA of 8.31 … not something you want in your record books. His overall ERA was still a solid 3.58 though. Frank O’Rearden was recalled for the second Titans game.

We started our road trip in Boston against former Indian Du Tong. Ned Ray outlasted him in a tight duel and went seven innings with one run allowed. Hatfield and Gaston held the Titans down and the Raccoons won 3-1 on a 2-run Zuniga home run in the seventh. Game 2 had Morris in, who walked five, but also fanned seven, which was something new. He only allowed one run over six, which made for back-to-back solid starts, which was new for him with the Raccoons. O’Rearden blew a tender 2-1 lead in the eighth, but a 6-run ninth by the Raccoons made for an 8-2 win. This was the first time the Raccoons won consecutive games since May 31 and June 1 against the Aces and Loggers.

Game 3 posed a problem. Berrios was able to start, but was still laboring a hamstring that had forced him in the first inning against the Crusaders in his last start. I was toying with the thought to play a reliever again in a scratch start, but discarded that. After game 3 came the last off day before the All Star break – we would skip Berrios and play Powell on short rest. He would have to take that one and if he made it five innings without racking up four or five or nine runs, it was not too bad. Ben Cox blasted a leadoff homer, but Powell only managed four innings and then left, with the Raccoons up 3-2. O’Rearden blew that lead. Johnston scored Cox in the seventh for a 4-3 lead that Jenkins, Hatfield, and Gaston kept together for the sweep of the Titans who had now lost eight in a row. Ben Cox was 4-5 with the home run and nine total bases.

Next were two series against CL South opponents, the Thunder and Knights. The former led the division, so this was a tough task, but every team was a tough task for those Raccoons. Just look at what the Gold Sox did to us.

Ralph Hoyles mowed down ten Raccoons in an eight innings performance for his 14th win of the season, but it was close. Ray gave up four early, but Zuniga bashed a long shot for three runs in the fifth. To no avail, Hoyles kept it down from there and the Thunder won 4-3. Rob Pickett had gone cold subbing for Sánz in RF and I decided to try Flores in there, who was struggling to bat over .200 this year and was degraded to pinch hit.

Game 2 brought Morris. He again(!) only allowed one run and won the game as the Raccoons turned the 1-0 deficit around to win 4-1. Maloney was 3-4, while Sullivan got the key hit that plated two in the sixth. Now, with three sharp starts by Morris (apart from a few walks), I finally called up the talks with the Scorpions for Jeff Thompson. Maybe, just maybe, Morris had had an exceptionally long exceptionally horrible streak, and maybe it was over. His ERA was 5.49 now, already down a run in the last three or four starts. Maybe he could actually be a worthy member of the team.

The Oklahoma City series ended with a 3-hit shutout pitched by their Morton Jennings. Berrios was sharp through five, then was socked for two homers and three runs in the sixth, which was already all the damage done in the 3-0 loss. It was the first shutout of the Raccoons in 26 days (and they had played on most of those).

The Knights series started with Ben Simon shooting a home run in the top 1st, but Powell then managed to surrender a 2-run home run to pitcher Dave Larson. But it was the second game in a row where the Raccoons starter had that one horrible inning and Powell went eight frames. A 4-run burst by the Raccoons offense in the third inning was enough for the 5-3 win. Simon was 2-4 with two RBI, while Zuniga was dismissed at the plate four times in as many at bats. He still contributed with a few good catches in CF. Game 2 was one to forget, with Ned Ray battered around for seven runs in the second inning. Raccoons lost 10-3. This gave me three starters with an ERA over five. No wonder the team sucked so much. The offense was so much better this year, but the starting pitching was god damn awful. Of course much had to do with the injuries to Romero and Evans. Ironically, Powell, who had not been in the rotation to start the season, now had the best ERA at 4.44 – or should I say “least awful ERA”?

Morris was up in the rubber game. He was shaky again and relied on the guys behind him a lot. A 3-run bottom 7th put the Raccoons into a 4-2 hole, but they tied it with two down in the top 9th on a Ben Simon single. Felt like his first clutch hit in years. The Knights walked off in the 12th, 5-4, on two hits through the infield seams and a crash into home plate called safe. Hatfield was saddled with the loss after pitching two good innings before. The offense had hanged him to dry out there.


In other news:
June 19 – Joe Ellis pitches a 1-hitter as his Falcons down the Aces 5-0. It’s been almost two years since the last no-hitter in ABL baseball.
June 22 – Vincent Sauvage, catcher for the Bayhawks, has hit in 20 straight games, crowning the milestone with a 2-run homer in an 8-3 win over the Canadiens.
June 25 – New York SS Ralph Nixon is put out of action by a sprained ankle sustained in an on base collision. Nixon missed the triple crown last year by a single home run, and while his numbers are down a little this year with the Crusaders struggling as a whole, he will surely be missed a ton.
June 25 – 2B Mike White hits six singles in an 11-10 win of his Bayhawks at the Indians’. This is the second 6-hit performance against the Indians in a year. The Loggers’ Ethan Michael did it last July.
June 25 – Less than a week removed from his 1-hit shutout of the Aces, Joe Ellis leaves a game with back pain and will be out at least for a week. Ellis is 8-6 with a 2.14 ERA in 1979.
June 26 – The Indians stop Sauvage’s streak at 23.
June 28 – The Miners lose their slugging catcher Sam Murphy for the rest of the season to a ruptured achilles tendon. He was .315 with six homers so far this season.

Raccoons still below .333 – not that .333 would be a desirable percentage for wins. That’s about 110 losses for a season. Dreading. High note: since May 22, we are 16-18. At that pace we’d end up somewhere around a less horrible 65-97 record. Well, of course 65-97 is still horrible.

During July I will also look out for offers from other teams. I’m willing to sell one or two pieces for prospects and/or starting pitching.

11 games remain until the All Star break. The last bit of the road trip will be the Indians for four games, then at home four against the Canadiens and three against the Loggers. Four more at Vancouver after the break. If we want to make a move towards .400 or at least above .383 (100 losses), then we better get going in the first two weeks of July. We should also have Sánz have back by the break. I miss him a lot…

Four games against the Indians, who led by … much. Doesn’t sound like much fun. Juan Berrios opened the series against Jose Murillo and got a 1-0 lead in the first to work with. The Raccoons were held to one hit and one run through eight, while Berrios pitched a 2-hitter until the eighth, when the Indians singled and then slapped him with a Marvin Roy home run, pinch hitting for Murillo. Cook led off the top 9th with a pinch hit double but was left stranded. 2-1 loss. And it sucked a ton. Game 2. Powell pitched six scoreless with a 2-0 lead, then was burned for four hits on two home runs. Raccoons lost 4-2. Of course they did.

We looked at Salah Brunet in game 3, but rocked him for four runs in the first inning. Ray was back from his dismal outing four days ago and kept his stuff together this time, allowing only one run in seven innings. Raccoons won 5-1 and I would have been very happy to beat Brunet hadn’t it been for the two highly depressing losses before this. Johnston and Maloney both had two RBIs in that key first inning. Game 4 saw both Sullivan and Costa on the bench for being very tired. Simon had already skipped game 2. Freddy Lopez was at third and Hoyt Cook at second – not really his strong position. Cook made an error on a critical play in the eighth that loaded the bases with two down and a 4-3 lead for the Raccoons. Justice was in and struck out the next batter. Gaston got the save.

The Raccoons had scored first in all four games and they should have won all four to be honest. But where we were, we took those two wins and soldiered on. Already July, only three more months of suffering ahead. One tiny bright spot came through in the BNN stat of the week: Wally Gaston was ranked #4 among active pitchers with the most K/9 with 8.16 K/9. Bayhawks reliever Seung-ook Yi led the category with 8.69.

The Canadiens were next, at home, for four games. They were more or less average throughout after the first half of the season. LF Miguel Guzman led the CL in home runs with 16.

The Raccoons took another early lead, 2-1, in the first Canadiens game. Gaston came in the ninth with another insurance run behind him, and the Raccoons needed it. A passed ball by Maloney almost would have spelt desaster, scoring a run, but Gaston finished striking out the side eventually with the tying run on second, and we won 3-2. This was only the fourth win for Juan Berrios this year. He had 12 losses already.

The win streak continued, with a 5-2 win in game 2. Both runs were on Tony Lopez, who had not much oomph at the moment. Powell had pitched six scoreless. Simon and Johnston had hit home runs, Simon’s had plated three. That was already the last win here. Game 3 was lost on a massive blow up in the top 8th, where Lopez loaded the bases with a 5-2 lead. Justice walked in one run and by the time it was over Hatfield was also in the game and the Canadiens led (and then won) 6-5.

That was it for Lopez. He was botching too much this season and was demoted to AAA. Jose Vazquez came back to the Raccoons once more. He was in his last option year – he either made it stick this time or I would send him down the river happily. Gustavo Zuniga’s back was hurting and he was day to day until the All Star break. Dolder would start for him in CF.

And just like I wasn’t hurting enough, Pedro Sánz suffered a setback in his recovery that would cost him another two weeks. Why!? Why!? Why is it always me!! (plants face into doorframe in agony)

Oh, yeah. We ended the Canadiens series with a 6-1 win, scoring five in the bottom 6th. Morris had pitched six scoreless frames, only O’Rearden had been stained. He was on the borderline of going back to AAA by now, walking too many and not even getting lefties out with reliability. Vazquez pitched the seventh, 1-2-3. Dolder was the only hitless starting position player. Hoyt Cook scored at least two for the second consecutive time in a bases loaded pinch hit appearance and was batting .244 now after dipping below .200 in June.

Anyway, 5-3 in the last two series made for 21-21 since May 22. Keep pushing, boys, keep pushing!

Daniel Hall came off the DL in time for the Loggers series. He was taken back to the majors roster and Robby Davis was sent to AAA. Davis had tanked it back time batting around .150 – he was in his last option year (at age 21) and I had given up hope on him by now. Hall was back playing LF and Cox was shifted to RF. Cox was batting just over .300 in over 120 at bats now and was thus better than his downgraded ratings. I started to lose confidence in my scouts. They also had upgraded Hall a bit again. Hall was slotted to #6 against righties with Cox leading off followed by Maloney, who was batting a solid .250 this year and was now moved up to #2. Simon, Sullivan, Johnston followed. Hall batted #2 against lefties and when Maloney was rested for Lawson, who was sub .200 …

The boys from Milwaukee came to town before the break. Berrios pitched in game 1 and in the first inning already walked in two in a horrible outing. Raccoons lost 6-4, the only highlight being a 3-run long ball by Hall in the top 8th, then came back the next day with a 3-2 win, in which Simon was 3-4 with the game-winning home run. Powell and Justice combined for the win and save. Justice was given preference over Gaston since the tough lefty battery of the Loggers was up in the bottom 9th. But what good was it all for? The rubber game was lost with only a Wyatt Johnston home run to account for in the 3-1 loss on Ned Ray, who went eight only to crumble late.

All Star break. Only Ben Simon went for the Raccoons (and he didn’t deserve it either), Simon went 2-4 with a run batted in as the Continental League lost 9-3.

In other news:
July 2 – Clint Rhodes and the Canadiens might have lost the series opener against the Raccoons, but Rhodes landed a hit for the 20th straight game in the 3-2 loss.
July 3 – The Rebels’ biggest bat, Juan Medine (.383, 13 HR, 57 RBI) will be out of action for two weeks with an elbow sprain.
July 4 – Juan “Mauler” Correa pitches a 3-hitter as the Scorpions beat the Gold Sox 3-0.
July 8 – The Indians lose their biggest weapon in the playoff campaign, pitcher Salah Brunet, to a rotator cuff inflammation for the rest of the season.
July 8 – Rhodes’ hitting streak has reached 25 games.

Raccoons will play four in Vancouver, then have a 2-week home stint against the Titans, Falcons, Bayhawks, and Aces. Not that it would matter. Raccoons will lose against anybody.

We revamped our rotation after the break to order the guys accounting to who struggled the least. It was a tight race, but Powell now led off with Ray, Berrios, and Morris behind him. In reality, they all would have been the #8 starter…

Powell had a 2-hit shutout going to open the next series against the Canadiens. He ran out of steam in the ninth and Justice and Gaston closed out the 3-0 victory. Maloney was 3-4 with two RBI. Hall stole three bases. At the same time we put Clint Rhodes and his 25-game hitting streak away. Ned Ray in game 2 pitched well enough to win the game with some power support. Sullivan homered for three in the third and plated four in total. Maloney had three hits again. The Raccoons moved from 5-4 to 8-4 in the top 9th, and Bill Craig was tasked with getting the last three outs. He nicked the first batter, then walked another. A double play left a runner on third. Another walk. To hell with Craig, bring another one! With lefties up, O’Rearden came in. He nicked the first batter, and I saw this before. A single later, two were across and I finally resigned and turned to Wally Gaston, who whiffed the next guy to end it with the 8-6 win.

Gustavo Zuniga ended up once more on the casualty list with a sore shoulder, out for four weeks or so. Dolder replaced him in the lineup for the next few games, but only until Pedro Sánz would come back. Then we would try to slot either youngster, Cox or Hall, into center. Dolder’s .200 hitting was not that thrilling. (Well, Hall was batting .213 …) Until Sánz’ return we’d play a man short.

Game 3. The Raccoons out-hit the Canadiens 11-6, but two throwing errors by Maloney plated two unearned runs that derailed the game for Berrios and the Raccoons lost 3-2. Game 4 was perhaps the biggest thriller in the series. Down 2-0 early on Jerry Morris totally out of control, the Raccoons rallied bit by bit, tying it in the fifth on a homer by Kieran Lawson, and then took a fragile 3-2 lead when Hall bashed one out in the sixth. Pitching was certainly not boring for the Raccoons that day as Morris in the sixth and Hatfield in the seventh both ended up with threats and second and third, but somehow weasled through. In the top 8th the Raccoons slammed three home runs (Hall, Johnston, and Lawson, the latter two back-to-back) to put the game out of reach. We won 7-2.

Pedro Sánz is back! Hurray! Unfortunately he went 0-4 in his first game back against the Titans. Raccoons led 2-0 through six, but things got out of hand in the eighth, when Powell left with a 2-1 lead, two out and runners on the corners. Brett Justice came to face the lefty up next, but surrendered a triple. Raccoons then lost 3-2, which was followed by a 9-4 defeat the next day in the middle game. Ned Ray struck out six, and allowed six earned runs as well – we’ll call this a mixed outing. O’Rearden had another inefficient outing doing mopup. Sánz landed a pair of hits, and Hall homered in the bottom 9th when people were already going home. Hall is at .237 now with his batting, slowly crawling up after that terrible April.

The Raccoons led again in game 3, 2-0 after four, and lost 7-4. Justice, Hatfield, and Gaston were torched for five in the final two innings, after we had entered 2-2. So, the Raccoons led all three games early against the Titans, lost all three on bad pitching, and now had dropped from 3.5 games back to fifth place in the division to 6.5 again. Great, really. Those guys could not beat a team of blind, one-legged orphans …….

The game 3 loss was already the 250th defeat in Raccoons history. Compare that to 168 wins. That’s just a scratch over .400 overall. The Falcons were now the first of three CL South teams to come to Portland, with the Bayhawks and Aces after them. This should get the Raccoons to sub-.400 for all time again. And maybe they’d stay there forever.

Still not enough bad news? You may remember Juan Martinez, an outfield prospect, discovered in Mexico at age 17 with an enormous bat. He tore his posterior cruciate ligament last year – turned out he had frecked up his knee for good and we would have to put him on a bus back to Mexico. Career over at age 18.

The Falcons. The Raccoons were again shot down in the first game, 8-5, but Christopher Powell seemed to come around for good again. He delivered a 98-pitch complete game the next day in a 5-1 win, and only missed a shutout because Darryl Maloney allowed a passed ball that eventually got the run in for the Falcons in the first inning. Powell also executed a suicide squeeze perfectly in the fourth inning that scored Ben Simon. In his last seven starts, Powell has gone 5-2 with 11 ER, shaving his ERA by almost a full run down to 3.57 – imagine a rotation with Powell in his 1977 and mid-1979 form at #2, behind a sharp sub-3.00 Romero and an equally solid Logan Evans (because I believe he has the potential), and there is your .500 plus team. If they stay healthy. Two thirds of them haven’t.

So I went into game 3 in a good mood again. Yet the signs weren’t good, the intestines of the sacrificed animals spelling trouble as Ned Ray faced Joe Ellis, with the latter having less than half the former’s ERA. But it wasn’t all Ray that was the problem. Sometimes it just wouldn’t work out. An error by Angel Costa (rare enough) plated two in the first inning, although Ray walked two and nicked another to accelerate the unevitable. The Falcons scored in every inning but the seventh and ninth and wrapped up the Raccoons 14-3. Pitching allowed three wild pitches and 11 walks. In addition to a million hits, of course.

Bill Craig and Frank O’Rearden were banished to AAA after the series. Both had terrible control and were causing damage in great amounts. Roman Ocasio and Tony Lopez were recalled. Ocasio would start again with Ray moving to the pen. This hadn’t worked in the past, this won’t work in the future.

After an off day we faced the Bayhawks, starting with Berrios going against Kinji Kan. The latter had a no-hitter going that wasn’t broken up until the seventh, when Ed Sullivan doubled to right. The Raccoons managed to get two hits in total and lost 3-0. Game 2 was much the opposite. Jerry Morris surrendered seven runs in less than three innings and the Bayhawks got enough momentum from there to win 11-8.

Game 3 was Powell starting and maybe he could get a W here. It had come this far. I was relying on last season’s “Bozo of the Year Award” winner to get a win. Powell went 7.2 innings with a 4-3 lead. With a runner on first and lefty Michael Bolton up, I brought Justice. Bolton homered and that was not the first time this happened with Justice this year. Ironically, Justice wound up being credited the W, when Daniel Hall doubled in two in the bottom of the 8th for a 6-5 win. Hall was 3-5 with a homer and 3 RBI this game. His average was over .240 now.

Aces series. Roman Ocasio, who had gotten to an 8.00 ERA in his first short (for obvious reasons) stint with the team earlier this year, started. He allowed only one run over seven innings, but his performance was exceptionally twisted and he relied heavily on our defensively solid infield. Hall homered to make it 2-1 in the bottom 5th and with Hatfield coming on in the eighth I thought I was sure. Hatfield gave up three straight hits, the Raccoons lost 3-2.

We slotted Maloney back to #1 catcher. Lawson was just as glitchy with passed balls lately and Maloney was at least batting .250. Besides, what the hell, I will clean house in the off season and if everything goes to plan, those two will be gone. To a far away land, if I get a voice in there.

Game 2 against the Aces. Berrios got his 16th loss and hurt himself in a 2-1 loss. A 4-1 loss completed the sweep.

In other news:
July 15 – The runaway Cyclones lose their motor Jeremiah Carrell (batting .422) for two weeks to a foot contusion.
July 15 – The Loggers wash up the Indians 9-0, with Eduardo Jimenez throwing a one-hitter.
July 16 – Sergio Salazar, ace of the Falcons, is out until next year with a torn rotator cuff.
July 17 – Chris Lynch of the Warriors has himself a 20-game hitting streak.
July 20 – “Mauler” Correa shuts out the Cyclones on three hits in a 4-0 Scorpions win.
July 20 – The Warriors lose 3-2 to the Blue Sox, and Lynch goes 0-3 to end his hitting streak at 22 games.
July 21 – LF Chad White of the Capitals only lacks a triple for a cycle in a 6-0 win over the Gold Sox. He went 5-5 with 10 TB and two RBI.
July 23 – The Stars send their closer Roberto Vega (86 saves in his career) to Tijuana for pitching prospects.
July 24 – The Rebels lose their monster batter Juan Medine to a back injury for a few weeks.
July 27 – Starter Jesse Thompson, 43-23 with the Cyclones for his career, will miss many months with radial nerve compression.

News flash after the Aces series: Juan Berrios has a torn rotator cuff. Season over. That’s the third guy to go down from those four that started the season in the rotation. The fourth is Morris.

Won’t it ever stop to hurt?

With Berrios out, and we were talking about a 16-game loser before the end of July here, the last bit of order broke apart as far as the rotation was concerned. We now had Powell, Morris, and then Ray … and then Ocasio? That was at least 75% terrible.

To make this one clear: we were way past fun by now. This was a horrible grind.

At least the most recent slide was stopped in the first game at Oklahoma City, which opened a 2-week road trip. Powell was solid and went seven innings in a 4-1 win, allowing only a solo home run to stain his outing. The team then took a quick 4-0 lead, but Ocasio managed to blow it up and left in the seventh in a tied game. Vazquez lost the game as the Thunder walked off 5-4 in the ninth. That same Ocasio then got a virus infection to miss at least a few days. Next starter down. Goddamnit!!

August 1 brought the news that Christopher Powell was the Continenatal League’s pitcher of the month in July with a 5-1 record and 1.37 ERA. Daniel Hall was named the Continental League rookie of the month with a .274 clip in July, shooting six homers and plating 14 runners, while not coming off the DL until July 6.

August 1 unfortunately also was another horrible start for Ned Ray with six runs in the 7-2 loss. That was it for Ray, I had enough of him. Another guy to dump over the winter. We called up Gary Simmons, our 1978 round 2 draft pick from AAA, where he had ruled house – but mostly in relief.

We opened the Crusaders series (four games, as well as in Vancouver after that) with a 6-5 win that almost got out of hand in the eighth. Vazquez allowed two on base, Justice walked a lefty, and then the runs started scoring and slashed a 6-2 lead almost apart. Hatfield somehow got us out of that nasty bottom 8th. The Raccoons then only had four hits in game 2 (yet loaded the bases once) and lost 1-0. Powell was good in this outing, but took the loss. The favor was returned in the next game, where the Raccoons won 5-0 with only four hits for the Crusaders. Ocasio went 7.2 innings and only because he hit the heart of the Crusaders lineup hard there in the bottom 8th he couldn’t go and make the shutout in the end. Hatfield helped him out and Lopez pitched a scoreless ninth. The Raccoons got ahead in the second with a 2-run shot by Ben Simon. Ocasio didn’t get the shutout, but at least he got his first big league W. In game 4, Gary Simmons was up to pitch, and he struggled considerably. He had a few good innings early on, but eventually surrendered a 3-run homer to Yannick Roy in a scoreless game that broke it for the Raccoons, who lost 4-2.

The Canadiens somehow were over .500 (57-54), something the Raccoons couldn’t even dream of. Especially with the pitching we were sporting. Jerry Morris gave up eight runs in 4.1 innings and Vazquez added three more with one out in a 11-6 loss to open the series. Game 2 had Powell, who pitched eight strong innings and left with a 2-1 lead for Wally Gaston, who walked three and blew it all open in the bottom 9th to take the 3-2 loss. The Raccoons had out-hit the Canadiens 10-5 in the game, Ben Simon was 0-3 with 7 LOB. I knew where to direct my fury for some extra slappings here.

Frustration at new highs. Gaston was relieved of the closer role immediately, having blown enough. Hatfield would be allowed to blow some for the rest of the season.

Game 3 was Ocasio’s turn. His command was awful and he was exhausted by the sixth inning, but still picked up the win in the 8-2 victory over the Canadiens. He did allow only one unearned run after a throwing error by Ed Sullivan. Sullivan was struggling at the plate as well (a bit at least, dropping below .260), and I shuffled the middle of the lineup, 3 through 6, from Sánz – Sullivan – Johnston – Simon to Simon – Sánz – Sullivan – Johnston. Simon’s performance at bringing in runners was awful as usual. Batting behind the speedy youngsters Cox and Hall, the latter of which possessed some power (10 HR this season, 2nd behind Simon on the team) would maybe improve things, getting the boys another out to play with. Or so. I know crap about lineup building. The Raccoons lost the last game in Vancouver 4-3, after leading 3-1 into the bottom 8th, in 11 innings.

Next: interleague (Scorpions and Capitals), then a series in Indianapolis and a week-long home stint against the Titans and Knights.

In other news:
August 1 – The Aces are shut out by the Crusaders’ Tom Moulds, who gives up three hits in the 7-0 win of his team.

Almost 81 losses already and it isn’t even mid-August. The team sucks top to bottom. I’m so tired of trying to mess with this game, which refuses to be loved by me.

Don't give up! Just think how great it is going to feel when you turn this team around. :)

Well, this season is a grind for sure. It's barely any fun.

Take that last Canadiens series there f.e.: the Raccoons led all four games after 1 1/2 innings, then Morris (who is about to get banned to Siberia) blew up the first, and of the other three, two were spoiled by terrible outings by Gaston and then Jenkins. Ghnarff ...!!

I'll be on holiday next week (which just means one thing: gaming 24/7) and I'll get this season over with. If the next is more of the same, I may have to go back to Minesweeper for the rest of the week. :crying: