[Westheim]

It’s draft week. Not that I am overly excited. Drafting truly only matters when you have a top 5 pick. :-/

Raccoons (31-33) @ Blue Sox (21-42) – June 14-16, 1994

We were visiting the worst team in baseball. The Blue Sox weren’t scoring at all (12th in FL), and their pitching staff was abysmal, with the rotation averaging a 4.79 ERA.

Oh, if Jason Turner actually *had* a 4.79 ERA. He was lingering over five, and it was bad enough with him to contemplate what to do with him at all. When the Coons took a lead in the top 1st due to a bases-loaded HBP to Vinson, Turner instantly gave up two runs in the bottom of the inning. Neither team was able to overwhelm the other’s pitcher, though, and Turner went seven innings, after which the score was 2-2. Kinnear led off the eighth, hit a double, then went to third base when O-Mo singled. No outs. While Vinson balked at the chance, Chih-tui Jin drove the runners in with one out, and the Coons got another unearned run in the inning. The Blue Sox had nothing against Martinez and Lagarde, who ended the game without allowing another base runner. 5-2 Coons. Baldivía 2-5, 2B; Kinnear 3-5, 2B; O’Morrissey 2-3, 2 BB; Vinson 2-4, RBI; Turner 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, W (5-6);

We faced ex-Coon Dennis Fried (4-8, 4.90 ERA) in the middle game. The Blue Sox struck first again, but the Raccoons scored two unearned runs in the second inning for a 2-1 lead, which “Pooky” Beato blew in time before a short rain delay in the fourth inning. Beato lasted six, somehow coming away with the 2-2 score despite surrendering ten hits and a walk. Kinnear helped him a big deal, ending the bottom 6th by throwing out 3B Izumo Sasaki at the plate. The Raccoons again went ahead in the eighth when O-Mo singled with two out and the bags full, before Vinson left them loaded up. Up 3-2, West quickly retired the Blue Sox in the bottom 8th, before Lagarde came in the ninth – and loaded them up. Two down, lefty slugger Steve Cobb was at the plate. In an 0-2 count, Cobb made contact, but popped out to Salazar. 3-2 Coons. Hall (PH) 1-1;

We were vastly out-hit (11-6) in this contest, so winning the game (which was on draft day) was pure luck, and we lucked ourselves back to a .500 record, 2 1/2 back of the Loggers.

Scott Wade made his first start back from the DL. O-Mo singled in a run in the first, and it looked like that was all Wade would get on the day. Kinnear and O’Morrissey left a pair in scoring position in the third, and another pair was left on base in the fifth. Wade was not giving up a lot through five, only two singles, but how far would he be able to go? Royce Green did some lifting in the sixth, hitting a 2-out, 2-run home run to make it a 3-0 game. Wade instantly set out to blow it. With two out in the bottom 6th, the Blue Sox hit three consecutive hard blows against him, making it 3-2 with the tying run on, and Wade was yanked. While the Coons led 4-2 through seven, the eighth inning saw one of those collapses you just don’t want to witness. As four relievers paraded in and out of the game, the Blue Sox scored six runs, smothering the Raccoons in no time. The tying run came to the plate with two out in the top 9th, but Hall grounded out. 8-4 Blue Sox. Higgins 3-4, BB, 2B; O’Morrissey 3-5, RBI; Burnett 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Raccoons (33-34) @ Titans (32-34) – June 17-19, 1994

The Titans’ strength was their offense, as they ranked 4th in the CL in runs scored. They also had a bullpen with a 2.98 ERA, which would hardly give up six runs in an inning.

Jose Rivera made his final start for the Raccoons, being outright awful in game 1. He walked four, allowed four hits, and four runs, in three innings. He was removed for Alejandro Lopez to pinch-hit in the top 4th with the bases loaded and no outs. Lopez struck out, useless as he was, and the Raccoons scored only one run on a Salazar sac fly, and two more runners were left in scoring position in the fifth, and they continued that way right until the end. 7-3 Titans. Green 2-4, BB; Kinnear 2-4, BB; O’Morrissey 2-5; Baldivía (PH) 1-1, 2B; Allen 1-2, 3 BB; De La Rosa 4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K;

The Raccoons left 14 on base (30 individually) in this game.

Jose Rivera – who had walked two for every strikeout in the Bigs – was demoted to St. Petersburg afterwards. Albert Matthews was recalled, and De La Rosa would make a start or two before we will get things straightened out.

The Titan’s Jason O’Halloran (0-0, 8.10 ERA) made a spot start in the middle game, only his third appearance in the majors this season. He was everything but a pushover, though. Through five innings, he fanned nine Raccoons. Kisho Saito pitched well, surrendering a run in the fifth, and it was the feeling “oh no, he’s toast”. Matt Higgins was thrown out for the second time in the game in the top 6th, before two Coons singled his way on in front of Royce Green. Green made himself useful with a 3-run homer to left. Saito went eight innings of 1-run ball again, then left the 3-1 lead to Lagarde – who blew it. Matt Smith hit a pinch-hit 2-run inside-the-park home run (to much ecstasy in the stands) to tie the game off Lagarde in the bottom 9th, and the Titans walked off against him in the tenth. 4-3 Titans. Higgins 2-5; Baldivía 3-5, 2B; Green 3-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Saito 8.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K;

Jason Turner in game 3 was crowded by the Titans from the get-go, yet somehow they failed to score by making poor outs constantly. The Raccoons scored two in the third inning for a modest, yet fragile lead. In a way it was fitting for this flying circus of assorted anomalies that Jason Turner wackied into seventh, then was sent home with pitcher Doug Morrow with a 1-out home run. The Inepticoons did zero, and Grant West blew the game with two out in the bottom 9th, which meant extra innings again and was as good as a loss. These failures had nothing going. Tony Vela lost in the 10th, with a double, a wild pitch, and a sac fly. 3-2 Titans. Turner 6.1 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K and 2-3;

In other news

June 17 – SAL SP Sergio Gonzalez (4-5, 4.33 ERA) tosses a 1-hitter in a 5-0 win over the Scorpions. The no-hitter is not broken up until a leadoff single by Jose Renteria in the ninth inning.
June 17 – WAS CL Domingo Rivera (2-2, 0.84 ERA, 21 SV) will miss one week with an elbow sprain.
June 18 – WAS OF/1B Jeffery Brown (.388, 4 HR, 35 RBI) records his 2,500th career hit in a 4-2 win of the Capitals over the Cyclones. The milestone is recorded on an RBI single in the third inning against Vicente Perez.
June 18 – VAN SP John Collins (2-0, 3.80 ERA) 2-hits the Loggers in a 4-0 Canadiens win in his third start of the season.

Complaints and stuff

Two of my draft picks were coming with high bonus demands. I have shot way over budget with the draft, and my owner will skin and impale me once he comes back from Acapulco.

Salazar and Higgins are not getting on base. Kinnear and O’Morrissey and the assortment of other batters not belonging anywhere close to the middle of the lineup aren’t driving anybody in.

I thus declare the season lost. We will see to what dead tissue we can cut off in July and again in October and beyond.

Although I don’t necessarily feel like burdening me with this grief too much … it sucks too badly to even “just get over it quickly” and breeze through the season.