[Westheim]

Raccoons (96-46) vs. Crusaders (59-83) – September 9-12, 1996

The Crusaders were playing out the string here, just like the Raccoons. The difference was, we were planning for games in October.

Projected matchups:
Jason Turner (11-8, 3.16 ERA) vs. Anibal Sandoval (17-11, 3.67 ERA)
Scott Wade (14-6, 3.38 ERA) vs. David Ramirez (9-14, 4.50 ERA)
Antonio Donis (12-5, 3.64 ERA) vs. Francisco Garza (5-10, 4.90 ERA)
Jose Rivera (13-1, 2.28 ERA) vs. Dan Barnes (6-11, 4.68 ERA)

Game 1
NYC: 2B Wilson – CF Latham – RF A. Johnson – LF P. Jenkins – 3B Rigg – SS R. Rodriguez – C F. Gonzalez – 1B Delgado – P Sandoval
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Salazar – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Strong – LF Kinnear – C Vinson – P Turner

Brewer hit a double in the first and was scored on productive outs for a 1-0 lead for Turner, who surrendered a few singles here and there. But the Raccoons did not get another hit off Sandoval at all, while Pat Jenkins would eventually park a Turner pitch behind the wall in right center for a 2-run home run. Avery Johnson drove in a run in the eighth off Turner, too, and the 3-1 deficit looked insurmountable. The Raccoons were still looking for a base runner, and Kinnear finally hit a leadoff single in the bottom 8th, but Joe Lacombe double played the Crusaders to the ninth. Jared Chaney tried to close this one. Brewer started the inning with a single, and Salazar – double play. 3-1 Crusaders. Brewer 2-3, BB, 2B;

Miserable. Outright miserable. What a stinker of a game. The only highlight was David Vinson throwing out three Crusaders who tried to steal second base.

Game 2
NYC: 2B Wilson – CF Latham – RF A. Johnson – LF P. Jenkins – C Melendez – 3B Rigg – SS Lammond – 1B J. Vega – P D. Ramirez
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Ingall – CF Reece – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Buell – 1B Higgins – RF Newton – C Vinson – P Wade

Time to shake things up here. Not that it helped any. Scott Wade was singled to death in the first inning, five singles for three runs. The best news were that David Ramirez was wrapped up alike in the bottom 1st, with O-Mo’s 2-run triple a key factor in our own 3-run inning. Ed Rigg’s 2-run home run in the third got the Crusaders ahead once more, and Wade surrendered another 2-piece to Jenkins before heading for the showers in the fourth. The game was not over, though. Higgins drove in a pair with two out in the fifth, and the Coons got another run in the sixth, then trailing 7-6. Miller conceded a run in the seventh, which we got back after a Newton double in the eighth. Still, we trailed 8-7 in the ninth, and here came Jared Chaney. Kinnear hit for Ingall, but made the first out, and Reece made the second. O-Mo singled his way on, bringing up Buell. Buell shot a liner to the right side, past a stunned Jorge Vega, and into deep right. Johnson couldn’t dig it out, and Buell had tied the game with a 2-out RBI double! We went to extra innings once Higgins grounded out. Chaney was still in the game for the 10th. Vinson walked with one out, but Wedemeyer, hitting for Tzu-jao Ban, got him first out. Wedemeyer made up by stealing second base, but we still needed a knock from Brewer, but we didn’t get it. A Newton error then cost a run with a ball popping out of his glove in right field in the 11th. John Hatt was all the Crusaders could field in the bottom 11th. Salazar walked. Reece singled. Come on, boys, turn it around. O-Mo ripped away at Hatt’s first pitch, and shot a liner into deep center! Armando Diéguez scrambled after it, and Salazar turned third and wet home, and Reece turned third, pumping, made for home, the throw back home – is – late! WALKOFF TRIPLE BEN O’MORRISSEY!!!! 10-9 Raccoons!!! O’Morrissey 4-5, BB, 2 3B, 4 RBI; Buell 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Higgins 2-5, 2 RBI; Martinez 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Ban 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

We had not added more arms and legs so far, but now I sent for two more pitchers from AAA, plus shortstop Conceicao Guerin. The pitchers were reliever Cesar Salcido (I know, we have nobody else), and starter Ivan Costa. Costa was 12-9 with a 3.22 ERA in AAA this year. We had acquired the 23-year old last winter from the Crusaders for Ben Nash. He would not pitch in this series, though, as he had been out two days ago. Costa had been the third overall pick in the 1991 draft. He had three starts under his belt in the Bigs, all in 1995, for a 1-1 record and 6.91 ERA.

Our magic number dropped to 2, so any day it could be over formally as well.

Game 3
NYC: CF Diéguez – 2B Wilson – LF A. Johnson – C Melendez – 3B Delgado – RF Orosco – SS J. Vega – 1B M. Williams – P F. Garza
POR: 2B Brewer – RF Strong – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Kinnear – C Vinson – SS Guerin – P Donis

The Crusaders again put up a bunch of singles in the first inning, scoring two runs on Antonio Donis. The Crusaders were in swinging mood against Donis, and crowded him again and again, leaving runners in scoring position every inning from the third through the fifth. The Raccoons weren’t even close to scoring anything until Strong hit a leadoff triple in the sixth inning. Reece doubled him in with a double, and O-Mo would drive him in before some baboon (Vinson) managed to hit into an inning-ending double play. A Larry Wilson triple with one out in the seventh spelled new trouble. Johnson grounded out shyly, keeping Wilson pinned, which put Melendez to the plate. Would Donis be able to get him? No. Melendez singled, the Crusaders were ahead again. This time they had Chaney unavailable in the ninth and sent Jose Hernandez who was merely striking out more than nine per nine innings. He sat down Kinnear, Salazar, and Buell in order. 3-2 Crusaders. Strong 2-3, BB, 3B; Reece 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Oh come on! These are the CRUSADERS!!

Game 4
NYC: 2B Wilson – CF Latham – RF A. Johnson – C Melendez – 3B Rigg – SS R. Rodriguez – LF C. Clark – 1B Berry – P Barnes
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Buell – RF Newton – C Kondo – P J. Rivera

For the third game in a row, the Raccoons’ starter was roughed up in the first inning, with home runs from weak batter Brian Latham and Ruben Melendez, 2-0. A Neil Reece solo shot provided only brief relief, since Rivera gave up two more runs in the second. Luke Newton homered in the bottom 2nd, but we trailed 4-2. And everything continued to go wrong. The Raccoons didn’t get hits, the Crusaders got plenty, and Reece made an error, and a wild pitch, and we were down 5-2 after four. The Crusaders got two bloop hits in one inning in the sixth, and while they that didn’t score them a run, all that the Raccoons hold against that were double plays. In the bottom 6th we finally got a hit that was not a home run, an O-Mo RBI double. Down 5-3, Buell and Kondo were on with one out in the seventh, Kinnear hit for Alonso Santana and whiffed. Up came Brewer, got two strikes on himself, and then doubled past Avery Johnson to score one run. Ingall came up, single to right, Kondo came home, Brewer rounded third, Brewer came home – safe! We had the lead! But it looked like it would get away in a hurry. Otero came out for the eighth, hit Ed Rigg, and then collected a sac bunt, before yielding for Burnett, who walked Clement Clark. Octavio Orosco pinch-hit for Mark Berry and lined one – BREWER GOT IT!! Rigg scrambled back to second but too late, he was forced out. Double play turned by Brewer, and we moved on, as Weeds added an insurance run with a solo homer in the bottom 8th. Ban came in, and Ingall put the leadoff man on with an error. Wilson singled. Latham flew to deep left and Buell stole a home run from him. Runners on the corners, one out. Avery Johnson was up, second in the CL home run race, and he lined to left on a 2-2 pitch. Oh this one was trouble. Buell after it, CAUGHT IT!! It was a sac fly, and Ban now only had to get Melendez out. He whiffed him. 7-6 Raccoons. Wedemeyer 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Newton 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Santana 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (5-3);

That series … nerve-wrecking.

Nevertheless, we clinched the division with this one, as the Loggers were clubbed to death by the Canadiens in a 7-run eighth and lost 8-2.

COONS! COONS! COONS!

Raccoons (98-48) @ Bayhawks (66-80) – September 13-15, 1996

The Bayhawks were playing out a lost season, in which they ranked below the league average in about everything. They were 1-5 against the Coons so far this year, but had won their last three games.

Projected matchups:
Kisho Saito (17-7, 3.80 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (8-9, 4.61 ERA)
Iván Costa (0-0) vs. Min-tae Kim (12-16, 4.11 ERA)
Jason Turner (11-9, 3.19 ERA) vs. Miguel Diaz (1-9, 8.18 ERA)

C’mon boys, win this series. It will give us 100 wins for the first time in franchise history!

Game 1
POR: LF Buell – 2B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Lacombe – SS Guerin – C Vinson – P Saito
SFB: 2B Berrios – SS Powys – 3B P. Hernandez – LF P. Perez – CF Marquez – RF Cobb – C Amaya – 1B Jan – P Chapa

Jorge Chapa threw only three pitches, surrendering a single to Stephen Buell, before he left with an injury. Call-up Juan Gil replaced him. O-Mo drove Buell in, 1-0, and in the third Marvin Ingall hit a home run, 2-0. In the fourth, young Kenny Frye came in to make his major league debut facing David Vinson. He would have to start off with an infinite ERA, since Vinson homered to right. The Bayhawks would get on the board against Saito in the fifth with a leadoff triple by Steve Cobb, who was then scored on a sac fly by Mike Powys. Frye had runners on the corners with two out in the top 6th and faced Saito – and hit him! Saito fell to the ground, and the couple of hundred of Raccoons fans in the park cried out collectively (and so did I). But Saito stood up again right away after being hit in the upper leg, dusted himself off and went to first unmoved while the trainer was chirping into his ear. Frye came to regret this plate appearance. Next he walked Buell to force a run in, and then was lucky enough that Ingall popped out. Ex-Coon Tim Mallandain came into the game in the eighth. He struck out Vinson, but then Saito singled up the middle against him. That one made me grin. We loaded the bags, and Mallandain, that piece of rat poo, hit Wedemeyer to force in a run. Okay, now war was on. But for the moment, Mallandain failed to get the third out (no surprise there) and the Raccoons went on to score six in the inning. Saito’s 18th was IN, but he was also going for a complete game, pitched around a Juan Gomez double and a passed ball on Vinson in the ninth, and struck out Pedro Perez to get this one IN! 12-1 Raccoons!! Buell 2-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Ingall 2-5, BB, HR, RBI; Reece 2-5, BB, HR, 2 RBI; O’Morrissey 2-5, 2B, RBI; Lacombe 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Vinson 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Saito 9.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (18-7) and 2-3;

KISHOOOOO!!! SAITOOOO!!! He now tied TIJ Harry Griggs and NYC Anibal Sandoval for most W’s in the Continental League this season.

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – RF Strong – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Kinnear – SS Salazar – 3B Higgins – C Kondo – P Costa
SFB: SS Powys – 3B P. Hernandez – RF P. Perez – LF J. Thompson – 1B Dean – 2B Chandler – CF Cobb – C J. Ortíz – P Kim

Yesterday, the Bayhawks’ starter had not surrendered anybody. And neither did Min-tae Kim, although he was not injured. He just did not retire anybody. Brewer got on, Strong homered. Reece got on, Weeds got on, Kinnear homered. Salazar got on, Higgins got on, Kondo drove them in, and then Kim was dragged out and beaten to death by the coaches in the tunnel to the clubhouse. In his first start for the Raccoons, Iván Costa batted before he ever pitched despite it being a road start. Kondo was brought in, and we were up 8-0 after the top 1st. The Bayhawks were plenty frustrated, and hit Wedemeyer and Strong with pitches. You want war? Costa was wild anyway, no one would notice if he plunked someone, and so Bill Dean was nicked in the third with first base open. The third was also where Costa’s start went to hill as the Bayhawks burned him for four runs. Santana got us through five, preserving a 9-4 lead, but then surrendered one run in the sixth. The Raccoons had not threatened offensively since the second inning at that point, but the Bayhawks were bound to run out of bullpen material. Then I made a mistake and put Salcido in with a 4-run lead. He loaded the bags in an instant, and the bullpen blew up spectacularly as the Bayhawks tied the game in the seventh, and took a lead against Ken Burnett in the eighth. Top 9th. Reece and Wedemeyer made quick outs against William Henderson. Kinnear walked. Buell pinch-hit for Daniel Miller and hurled a double to right, and Kinnear was waved home and scored. Tied game again. The Bayhawks still walked off. Otero issued a walk, a single, an INFIELD single, and with two out he would issue a bases-loaded walk. 11-10 Bayhawks. Kinnear 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Buell (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Higgins 2-5; Santana 2.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K;

Boy, are we gonna get raped by the Aces. Disgusting! YOU ARE DISGUSTING!!

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – RF Strong – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – SS Salazar – LF Buell – C Vinson – P Turner
SFB: CF Marquez – 3B P. Hernandez – RF P. Perez – LF J. Thompson – 1B Dean – 2B Chandler – SS Powys – C J. Ortíz – P Diaz

Diaz was roughed up early with a 3-run homer by Wedemeyer (his 30th of the year) in the first, and a Vinson solo job in the second inning. The Bayhawks were hitting quite well against Turner, but also hit into double plays in the first two innings, and with two on and two out in the third, Jim Thompson hit at a 3-0 pitch from Turner and grounded out. Double plays were the theme of the day. The Coons turned three, the Bayhawks two, and the double plays helped Turner to shut out the Bayhawks into the eighth. Up 7-0, Jose Ortiz with a double and Leon Berrios with a single put runners on the corners with no outs. Turner struck out Marquez, then got Hernandez to ground to Weeds, who put him out. That brought up lefty Pedro Perez with two in scoring position and two outs. No pain, no gain, this was Turner’s man. Perez grounded to Salazar, Salazar lost it, the run scored, and I was throwing stuff around the visitors’ clubhouse. 7-1 Coons. Wedemeyer 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Vinson 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Turner 9.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (12-9) and 1-3;

Once I had wiped the white foam from my mouth and let the iron grip on Salazar’s neck go, we all celebrated our 100th win of the season. Hooray!

I was still mad for that error.

In other news

September 11 – CIN OF/1B Gonzalo Aguilar (.233, 2 HR, 36 RBI) is out for seven to eight months with a ruptured ulnar collateral ligament.
September 11 – TIJ SP Harry Griggs (18-9, 2.90 ERA) fans 11 as the Condors shut out the Thunder, 1-0, while he allows only three hits.
September 15 – The Gold Sox mop up the Buffaloes in their own ballpark, 10-4. The story of the day is the effort put out by DEN LF/RF Chih-tui Jin (.298, 8 HR, 69 RBI), who has four base hits, a single in the first, a homer in the fifth, and in the rout-like seventh, a triple and a double. THAT’S A CYCLE!! It is the 19th cycle in ABL history, the first for the Gold Sox, and the second time a cycle has been hit for on September 15 (MIL Emilio Román, 1989). It was also the first cycle in almost three years, as the feat was last achieved by the Knights’ Jai Utting on September 29, 1993.

Complaints and stuff

So Kisho won his 18th, and continues to have a chance for winning 20 this season. Where does he rank in career wins? (*HOF, #active)

1st Juan Correa* - 272
2nd Craig Hansen# - 246
3rd Leland Lewis# - 238
4th Carlos Asquabal# - 230
5th Billy Robinson - 222
6th Woody Roberts# - 220
7th Robbie Campbell# - 219
8th Kiyohira Sasaki# - 216
9th Bill Smith# - 214
10th Kisho Saito# - 213

Note how Juan Correa is the only other player that once was with us on this list, and he only pitched one season for us before retiring. Other Raccoons (current or former) on the list:

25th Jack Pennington - 168
27th Kinji Kan - 167
39th Raimundo Beato# - 151
43rd Carlos Reyes# - 149
43rd Scott Wade# - 149
45th Logan Evans - 147
48th Robert Vázquez# - 146
49th Alex Miranda - 145
67th Antonio “Woody” Lopez - 127
89th Christopher Powell - 111
96th Jason Turner# - 106

Jack Pennington was here only half a season, in 1980. What would have happened if we had actually tried to extend him without any money instead of trading him away to the Buffaloes. What did we get for him then? Oh, merely Mark Dawson, the power king of the 80s. The whole history of the franchise would have looked very very different.

Ben O’Morrissey and Jason Turner are the two biggest free agents we have on the team. The budget for 1997 is tight, to say the least. Whom did I want to extend in any case? It was a close race. In the end, I went with O-Mo first. He had that millions look in his eyes. I have not heard back from him in ten days now regarding my proposal.

Chih-tui Jin hitting for the cycle also stung this week.

Vern Kinnear is batting close to zero for more than a month now. See his average dropping to … zero. Reece also drops further and further. And with Green out, and Weeds whiffing uncontrollably, by now I am not confident for the CLCS against the Aces. We were 7-2 against them this season, but then Kinnear was hitting, and Reece was hitting, and Green was in, and Weeds did not whiff uncontrollably.

Newton making that error, where he had a ball pop out of his glove in right field in the second game against the Crusaders, I had an instant flashback to 1989. Oregon Brawl, Game 6. Extra innings. Glenn Johnston drops a fly ball. The Wolves score, we lose the game in the 14th or so, and lose the World Series.

The hurts.