[Westheim]

Raccoons (70-85) @ Crusaders (65-90) – September 23-26, 2002

Welcome to Garbage Week! We appreciate your presence and your willingness to waste your precious time. As a special treat we will start the final rounds of madness for this year – as far as the Willamette area is concerned – with a 4-game set in New York, featuring two abysmal teams, with the road team having a very good chance of getting completely clowned and ending up in last place by year’s end.

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (1-5, 5.44 ERA) vs. Kelly Fairchild (8-13, 3.56 ERA)
Randy Farley (8-15, 4.68 ERA) vs. Edgar Rey (7-13, 4.92 ERA)
Ralph Ford (13-9, 2.66 ERA) vs. Anibal Sandoval (18-10, 2.47 ERA)
Carl Bean (14-13, 3.79 ERA) vs. Greg Connor (12-13, 3.58 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – LF Parker – 1B Martin – C Fifield – RF Brady – SS Guerin – CF Beairsto – P F. Garcia
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF Britton – RF A. Johnson – 1B Berry – SS Rice – 3B L. Ramirez – C Olson – 2B J. Martinez – P Fairchild

Martin Ortíz got an early jump with a leadoff homer against Garcia, who struggled with pretty much everything, from the opponents to the ball and the mound and his own ugly nose. The Coons had nothing against Fairchild – as usual – for the first four innings. In the fifth Fairchild made a capital error by walking Beairsto to get going, and the Raccoons would get three 2-out singles, with Palacios tying the game, and Martin singling in the go-ahead run, 2-1. Beairsto then homered in the sixth, before Garcia, who walked five, got stuck for good in the bottom 6th, leaving with one out and Rice on first. Bruno came in. At 2-2 against Luis Ramirez, Bruno threw low, Rice was going, Fifield fired a shot, nowhere near any friendly fielder. Bruno walked Ramirez before surrendering two singles and nobody knew quite how we got out of there still leading 3-2. Moreno got four outs against the lefty-loaded top of the lineup in the seventh and eighth, and the score was still 3-2 for the brown-clad team into the bottom 9th with Nordahl trying to save his 30th of the year. Three batters, three grounders to left, three outs made. 3-2 Coons! Sharp 2-5; Parker 3-4, 2B; Moreno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

Chris Roberson was finally diagnosed with a bruised hand, and no fractures. He was told to take it easy for a few more days, but he will play again this year! He is DTD for the New York series for the moment.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – LF Parker – 1B Martin – C Fifield – CF Lyon – RF Flores – SS McLaughlin – P Farley
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – 3B L. Ramirez – RF A. Johnson – 1B Berry – SS Rice – C D. Anderson – CF Latham – 2B J. Martinez – P Rey

Game 2 was one of those that made you want to run away and never come back. This was despite the Raccoons holding a lead for most of the game. It was still horrendous. We plated two runs in the first on a few singles, but Farley was shoddy from the start, showing bad control and not having one strikeout until the fourth inning. Then, the game was tied, 2-2, which was part Farley’s fault with issuing walks and finally two singles, but part McLaughlin’s as well, mishandling the potential inning-ending double play ball for an error that got the Crusaders going in the first place. Back-to-back bombs by Martin (for two) and Fifield would see the Coons jump out to 5-2 in the fifth, in the bottom of which, with one out and one on, Parker dropped an easy soft fly for the second unnecessary error of the day. Daryl anderson’s RBI single in the bottom 6th got Farley knocked from the game, and Huerta, who replaced him, right away gave up an RBI double to Brian Latham. He walked the bags full but somehow the Crusaders failed to tie the game, leaving the Coons up 5-4. The seventh and eighth were a constant walk on the edge, with the tying run being starved in scoring position in the seventh, and in the eighth Miller was surrendering one deep fly to Jose Martinez that Parker somehow intercepted. The Coons had men on in the eighth and ninth, but always hit one of those killing grounders. The game remained a 1-run affair, bringing Nordahl back into the action in the ninth. Struck out Ortíz, struck out Ramirez, str- … Johnson hit one of those bloop singles. That brought up Berry, who was unretired on the day, and hit a fly to right, up along the foul line. Brady coming, Brady coming, Brady catching!! 5-4 Raccoons! Sharp 3-5; Palacios 2-5, 2B; Parker 2-4; Martin 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Fifield 2-5, HR, RBI;

The win means that we have clinched fifth place in the division.

(overly pronounced) Yaaayy!!

Also, we’re now 11-5 against the Crusaders this season. The last time we won 12 from them was 1993.

It always comes down to 1993 or 1996, huh?

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – LF Parker – 1B Martin – RF Beairsto – SS Guerin – CF Lyon – C Fernandez – P Ford
NYC: RF Gonzales – SS Rice – CF M. Ortíz – 1B T. Mullins – C D. Anderson – LF A. Johnson – CF V. Gonzalez – 2B Burne – P Sandoval

The third game of the set was certainly well-pitched, which was no surprise given the personnel involved. Through five, both teams combined for five hits, and the score was 1-1. Avery Johnson and Pablo Fernandez had brought in runs with productive outs to get there. Ford starved two runners in the bottom 6th when he whiffed Johnson, and then Martin led off the top 7th with a double. The Crusaders walked the fear-striking .133 batter Chris Beairsto intentionally to get to Concie, who then took an 0-2 pitch for the team to load the bases with nobody out. Lyon hit a sac fly before Fernandez sure enough hit into a double play. Bottom 8th, things began to unravel for Ford with a 1-out walk by Rice and a subsequent single by Ortíz that moved Rice to third. In a full count, Ford struck out Mullins, but that left the righty Anderson up. It was too dicey. We called on Bruno, who got a grounder that Palacios barely managed to make the inning-ending play on. We loaded the bases with two out in the top 9th with two hits and Ingall drawing a pinch-walk off Dane Sanders. Brady hit for Fernandez in the key spot, and struck out. It was still 2-1, but Nordahl would not come out today. We’d try to patch it together with what was available, starting with Domingo Moreno facing the lefty Avery Johnson, who singled. Miller came out for a right-hander, but the Crusaders pinch-hit with left-handed batter Mark Berry, who flew out to Flores in center. With Britton hitting now, Perez was called on, but gave up a grounder that Palacios couldn’t get an out on. In need for a right-hander, we got desperate and chose Kaz Kichida over Bob Joly, which was also a mistake, as Stanton Martin hit an RBI single before Kichida walked the bags full. Bob Joly came out NOW, struck out Rice, then walked Ortíz. 3-2 Crusaders. Guerin 2-3; Ford 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K;

I wouldn’t be surprised by Ford demanding to be traded. Heck, *I* want to be traded!! We used six relievers, of which three didn’t register an out.

Game 4
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – RF Brady – LF Parker – CF Beairsto – C Fernandez – P Bean
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF Britton – RF A. Johnson – 1B Berry – SS Rice – C D. Anderson – 3B L. Ramirez – 2B Burne – P Connor

Beairsto, who saw himself among the all-time great batters without a doubt by now, was the first dumb thing to fall off the wagon in the series closer, striking out, as usual, in the second inning, then snuffing at the umpire, who had none of that from a hacker still green behind the ears. Beairsto was tossed, and I angrily choked one of the few surviving stuffed toy raccoons we carried around. The Coons made one run out of three on, one out in the third inning, while Bean struck out four in a row in the early going before he ever gave up a hit. He gave up two in the fourth inning, but the Crusaders didn’t score when he K’ed his sixth man of the day, Gary Rice, who would strike out three times total against Bean in this game. Both teams were thoroughly inept at the plate. In the sixth the Coons got two hits, both singles, ruined by three pop outs. Fernandez then hit a homer in the seventh to make it 2-0. Bean kept trucking, opening the bottom 8th with a strikeout to Derek Burne, which made it 10 K on the day for him. The inning saw two Crusaders get on, but they still couldn’t score, but they had Bean over 110 pitches. He probably wouldn’t come back, and then the Crusaders made the curious choice to pick Mike Collins from a bullpen full of capable hurlers to start the top 9th for them. Brady walked, Parker tripled, 3-0. Fernandez brought home Parker, 4-0, and Bean now DID return for the bottom 9th, although Nordahl was warming up. We didn’t need Danny, though. Berry grounded out to Palacios, Rice grounded out to Sharp (now at first base), and Anderson was punched out royally! 4-0 Beans – errr, Coons! Sharp 2-4; Fernandez 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Farley 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 11 K, W (15-13);

Raccoons (73-86) vs. Titans (103-56) – September 27-29, 2002

Can - … can we just be friends? Please?

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (9-10, 2.67 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (17-7, 2.55 ERA)
Ramón Meza (4-4, 5.40 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (13-9, 4.15 ERA)
Randy Farley (9-15, 4.64 ERA) vs. Ray Conner (3-2, 4.61 ERA)

Game 1
BOS: 2B D. Mendez – 3B V. Flores – RF G. Munoz – 1B Matsumoto – SS D. Silva – LF Bryant – CF Austin – C F. Diéguez – P Chapa
POR: 1B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – LF Roberson – C Fifield – RF Brady – 3B M. Ramirez – CF Lyon – P Brown

Brownie was trying to win his 10th of the year and went through 13 batters without either a walk OR a strikeout, which was something we certainly hadn’t seen before this year. The game was still scoreless when he struck out Daniel Silva for the last out in the fourth. Both Brown and Chapa pitched marvelously, and neither team even reached third base until the seventh inning, when Gary Fifield touched it exactly once as he circled the bases after a 2-out solo homer. Now up 1-0 we were counting on Brownie to get us through and outta here, but that would have been nice, and as Raccoons fan you had chosen eternal suffering. He walked Mark Austin up front in the eighth, his first walk on the day, and was INSTANTLY bitten, with Diéguez doubling, and while he got two outs without the runners moving, Victor Flores hit a 2-out, 2-run double that deflated the home team’s ambitions. 3-1 Titans. Fifield 2-3, HR, RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, L (9-11);

****ing arse team.

Game 2
BOS: LF Elizondo – 3B V. Flores – CF Garrison – 1B Matsumoto – 2B D. Mendez – SS Austin – RF Bryant – C F. Diéguez – P Hildred
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – LF Roberson – RF Brady – CF Beairsto – C Fernandez – P Meza

Ex-Coon on the mound, everybody knew what would happen here. They didn’t get a hit until with two out in the bottom 5th, and then it was Fernandez, so Meza readily made the final out of the inning, flying out to Garrison. Then, the game was still scoreless. That soon changed. Meza hit Garrison to get the sixth inning underway, and from there a cavalcade of errors and inaccuracies including a high throw by Fernandez on a stolen base attempt, a wild pitch by Meza, and his general non-level of ability rapidly got the Titans onto the board, as they scored two runs and knocked out Meza. Miller finished the inning, but, also freed of all ability, surrendered a run in the seventh. Bruno surrendered another run, as the bullpen made it overly easy on the good team to down the **** team. When all was already lost, Bob Joly still found it necessary to surrender a last-out homer to David Mendez. 5-2 Titans. Parker (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
BOS: LF Elizondo – 1B H. Ramirez – CF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – 3B Austin – SS D. Silva – 2B V. Flores – C F. Diéguez – P Conner
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – LF Roberson – 1B Martin – RF Brady – C Thomas – CF Beairsto – 2B M. Ramirez – P Farley

We just should have kept Farley in the Chest of Forgotten Toys. He sucked outright and was brutally bludgeoned on the way to six runs surrendered in not even two innings. That was the whole ballgame – Farley getting hit by not one, not two, but five busses in the second inning. The bullpen managed to hold the Titans to one more run in seven innings. The Raccoons, who had led 2-1 after a 2-run triple by Brady in the bottom 1st, where shut down the rest of the game, not … well, rising would be said too much … not breathing again until the ninth inning, when Fifield delayed the saddest end to a baseball season for another minute by hitting a 2-out RBI double off Ramiro Román. Ingall then struck out, and that was it, five hits on closing day. 7-3 Titans. Guerin 2-4; Fifield (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Vega 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K; Kichida 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Thank god it is over. Can’t stand the sorry sight of those…… “§%&”$(.

In other news

September 23 – The Titans suffer a terrible blow by losing their catcher Luis Lopez (.277, 15 HR, 69 RBI) with a quad strain. He might be out for all of the playoffs.
September 24 – The season might be dying, but MIL 1B Jose Nava (.315, 8 HR, 32 RBI) doesn’t want it to end right now. With a single in the Loggers’ 6-5 win over the Titans, Nava has chained up a 20-game hitting streak.
September 28 – The Blue Sox lose 7-1 in Washington, but since the Buffaloes lose to the Rebels, 6-2, the Blue Sox still manage to clinch the FL East and set the playoff field. It will be the Sox’ record ninth playoff appearance, the first since 2000 and the third in five years.

Complaints and stuff

Carl Bean became our first 15-game winner since 1996, when Master Kisho was still the master and won 19 games. It always comes down to 1993 or 1996 with “last” things around here…

We have turned in our best record in four years.

We still sucked.