[Westheim]

Originally Posted by xepicx2729

My boy Daniel Sharp seems to be doing well, though Concie isn't hitting at an amazing clip (even with that streak). Sucks to hear about no playoffs (again) but I have a feeling you'll change that by at least 2010! (i'm giving you the benefit of the doubt with that date, considering this game screws the life outta you.) I do think that Ingall still has a tiny spark in him, but I'm not sure how long it'll last. Alright you can stop reading my rambling, as it's probably all useless (LIKE "ICON" ALLEN WHO WAS A REAL ICON FOR DOING JACK WHEN HE WAS EXPECTED TO!(take it back to the 90s with THAT guy.)) How is Julio Mata doing at this point in time? Man I wanna say more but I just can't or else I'll blow a gasket at the guys who think a 4+ ERA is impressive, or about those backup infielders who bat .212 for a living. Alright, alright, I'll stop now.

Julio Mata got all of 107 AB for the Scorpions between 2002 and 2003, batting .251 before being guttered. He is currently with their AAA team, the Newark Whitewings.

Also thanks for the throwback to “Icon” Allen, I was just about to forget that disaster.

Although, as disasters go, I still remember Ralph Nixon vividly.

Raccoons (61-69) @ Knights (63-65) – August 30-September 1, 2004

The Knights have won their last nine games, which bodes oh so well for the Raccoons in this midweek series, but overall they are still only ninth in runs scored and seventh in runs conceded. Their rotation is much better than their bullpen, the former having the second-best ERA in the CL, and the latter being flat-out worst. The Raccoons have won the season series already, 5-1 ahead coming in.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (0-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. John Woodard (6-14, 5.51 ERA)
Nick Brown (16-6, 3.04 ERA) vs. Tynan Howard (12-9, 2.97 ERA)
Randy Farley (7-11, 4.82 ERA) vs. Larry Cutts (14-8, 2.78 ERA)

Rosters will expand on Wednesday for the third game of the series. Regardless of whom we will reluctantly call up, Randy will pitch on Wednesday. At best, Felipe Garcia can slide in at the bottom of the flock. If I want him up at all. We will certainly try out a few younger bullpen arms.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – CF King – SS Guerin – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – LF Reece – C Rosa – P Watanabe
ATL: RF R. Lopez – SS Luján – LF J. Morales – 3B J. Garcia – 1B J. Gutierrez – 2B J. Miller – C Valadez – CF F. Rivera – P Woodard

The Raccoons sparked early for three runs in the first inning, one doubled in by Martin, one scoring on a wild pitch, and one coming home on a Brady groundout. Too bad only that Watanabe gave two thirds of the damage right back in the bottom of the same frame, then bunted into a double play in the top 2nd. A total of seven runs were piled on Woodard in three and two thirds before the Knights took him out to secretly dispose of him. Up 7-2, would Watanabe be able to pitch long enough to – no. Bottom 5th, the Knights just kept hitting and with a 4-run lead they had the bases loaded and one out, with the left-handed Jose Morales and Jesus Garcia coming up. And Watanabe was yanked. Williams came in, Morales hit a sac fly, and then Ingall threw away Garcia’s grounder to give the Knights a total of four runs in the inning and bring the score to 7-6. The next few innings were tense with neither team getting a leg up, although the Raccoons got runners onto the corners in the eighth before Sharp popped out to end the threat. Moreno and Casas pitched the bottom 8th, before the Coons suddenly erupted in the top 9th and dug that Knights pen a shallow grave. Martin hit a 2-piece, Rosa drove in a pair with a huge double, and with two outs Casas then even drove in Rosa with a single in his first major league at-bat, which was a grander scheme to have him pitch for a save. The Knights never saw the light of day in the bottom 9th. 12-6 Raccoons. Guerin 2-5; Martin 3-5, HR, 4 RBI; Brady 2-5, 3B, RBI; Reece 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Rosa 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Rodriguez (PH) 1-1; Nordahl 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Casas 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (1) and 1-1, RBI;

Whoah, hits! Runs! Extra-base hits! Extra-base runs!

What happened!?

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – CF King – SS Guerin – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – LF Reece – C Rosa – P Brown
ATL: 2B J. Miller – C J. Lopez – CF J. Morales – LF R. Lopez – RF J. Garcia – SS Luján – 1B J. Gutierrez – 3B Verdon – P Howard

Nick Brown drove in the team’s first run with a 2-out single in the top 2nd, then commenced the bottom 2nd with a leadoff walk to Rodrigo Lopez before being taken well deep by Jorge Garcia. Another run scored for the Knights in the same dumb manner in the bottom 5th. Brown walked Tynan Howard, the pitcher by the way, who then scored on James Miller’s double that gigglingly bounced away from poor old Neil Reece in deep left. Neither pitcher received a decision in the end, for Al Martin’s 19th homer of the season tying the score at three in the top 6th. The Knights appeared to win it with Garcia’s second home run of the day, coming with two out in the bottom 8th off Dave Williams, but the Coons re-tied the score off closer Manuel Reyes with pinch-hits in the ninth. Rodriguez doubled, Sheehan hit an RBI single, and no outs with the go-ahead run on first. Sharp walked, got forced on Guerin’s 1-out grounder, but Martin came through with a single up the middle to score Sheehan. We even got Concie to score on an Ingall Single, before Marcos Bruno got the ball, walked Juan Gutierrez on four straight, and allowed a Nick Verdon single that put the tying runs on the corners with no outs. The Knights would not manage more than a sac fly though, and a hard grounder to first by Alejandro Rodriguez was converted into the final out by Ingall, moved their when Sheehan remained in the game for defense. 6-5 Coons. Guerin 2-5; Martin 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Ingall 3-5, 2B, RBI; Rodriguez (PH) 1-1, 2B; Sheehan (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Brownie would have needed nine whiffs in this game to reach 200 K while we’re still in August, but he only managed to fan seven over as many innings and remained stuck at 198 strikeouts for the season. Still more than Kisho Saito, whom we still all love dearly, but who never showed much emotion of any kind towards us, managed in a full season – ever. *

The roster expansion came upon us before game 3. The Raccoons added a number of players, with Chris Beairsto, Darwin Tyler, and Gary Fifield lengthening the bench (no Fifield has not gone away, and probably never will). Ed Bryan and Kaz Kichida expand the bullpen. We might add more arms when the AAA season ends.

Bryan, 23, was our fourth round pick in the 1999 draft. There hasn’t been much music around him all those years. He sports a curve, but the fastball is not overly dominating, clocking in at 92mph.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – LF Reece – CF King – RF M. Ramirez – C Rosa – P Farley
ATL: RF R. Lopez – SS Luján – LF J. Morales – 3B J. Garcia – C J. Lopez – 2B J. Miller – 1B Younger – CF F. Rivera – P Cutts

After Sharp got drilled to start the game, Guerin hit a double to extend his hitting streak to 16 consecutive games. Both runners scored on an Ingall groundout and a Reece single, and the Coons were up 2-0 early. Mr. Singles required double plays in both Knights innings to stay clean before the Coons threw a 4-spot on the scoreboard in the top 3rd. However, without James Miller throwing away Matt King’s grounder, the inning would have ended 3-0. But since his throw went well past debutee Kenneth Younger at first base, Guerin and Ingall were able to score from third and second base, respectively, and King came home on a Ramirez double. After getting help with double plays early, Farley faced the minimum through four innings, and the Knights not only didn’t touch him, they also didn’t tire him. Through six, he had thrown *52* pitches! The Knights took until the eighth inning until a Younger double and a wild pitch got a runner to third base for them, and then they were limited to a foul pop and a lazy fly right to Reece. Bottom 9th, Farley entered on 83 pitches. He struck out Rodrigo Lopez before Antonio Luján and Ricco Ghiberti singled and went onto the corners. Jorge Garcia broke up the shutout with a single up the middle, and things got rapidly out of hand. Martinez appeared, but offered no relief with a Jorge Lopez double and James Miller single plating three runs. Bruno came in, walked the bases full, struck out Jesus Maldonado, before Rodrigo Lopez came up again. Bruno walked him on four straight, and got yanked. We sent for Angel Casas to face Antonio Luján with the tying run at third base, the winning run at second base, and some extra dressing at first. Luján put a full count pitch into play, past Sharp, rolling merrily over the leftfield turf. 7-6 Knights. Sharp 2-4; Guerin 3-5, 2B; Reece 2-4, 2B, RBI; Ramirez 3-4, 2 2B, RBI; Farley 8.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

Let me just say that I needed a good, long walk in the cold, dark night after this one.

Raccoons (63-70) @ Titans (97-36) – September 2-5, 2004

I think we can keep the introduction short and just say that the Raccoons, who even if they send their closer and their assumed future closer, can’t keep a 6-run lead safe with two outs to collect, and as such the Titans will have a piece of cake kind of a weekend and easily reach 100 wins on the season.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (7-15, 4.20 ERA) vs. Francisco Garza (15-3, 3.71 ERA)
Fernando Piquero (0-0, 5.25 ERA) vs. Joe Mann (12-4, 3.20 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (0-1, 5.65 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (17-4, 3.15 ERA)
Nick Brown (16-6, 3.07 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (19-5, 1.70 ERA)

Swell.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 1B Martin – CF Beairsto – 2B Ingall – LF J. Rodriguez – C Fifield – P Ford
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B M. Austin – RF G. Munoz – CF Greenman – C L. Lopez – 2B Matsumoto – LF Garrison – 3B V. Flores – P F. Garza

Ralph Ford was beaten as early as the second inning. After Greenman doubled to start the inning, Luis Lopez’ grounder was thrown into the seats by Danny Sharp and the Titans had their first run. They would add two more with a Matsumoto double and Garrison single, then a Vic Flores sac fly. It would be a short and wholly unpleasant outing for Ford, who got harrowed for six runs on nine hits in 3.2 innings, striking out nobody at all, and was handed his 16th loss of the season in pretty definite fashion. Ed Bryan made his major league debut later in the demolition, facing Daniel Silva as his first opponent and got him to ground out to second base to end the sixth inning. In the seventh he walked Mark Austin, allowed a single to Gonzalo Munoz, was removed, then saw Lawrence Rockburn balk and allow a run to score to hand him a nifty 27.00 ERA. Kaz Kichida also made his season debut late in the game, and also was charged a run. The Raccoons had one single by Brady through seven frames, got a bit more off the tiring Garza late, but never mounted the slightest threat. 8-0 Titans. Brady 2-3, BB; Reece (PH) 1-1; Huerta 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

… and we got off easy.

The Titans clinched the division with this cruise control win, the Crusaders being eliminated as the final CL North team on their off day. It is their seventh playoff appearance, all in the last eight years, and their fourth consecutive. They were champions in 1998, 2001, and 2002.

Shoddy weather then preempted Friday’s contest, with a double header scheduled for Saturday.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – LF Reece – CF King – RF M. Ramirez – C Thomas – P Piquero
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B M. Austin – RF G. Munoz – CF Greenman – C L. Lopez – LF Garrison – 3B Matsumoto – 2B V. Flores – P O’Halloran

The Coons got Guerin and Ingall on base in the first against the stud lefty O’Halloran, but didn’t score, and Piquero was handed his first two runs of damage in the bottom 1st rather quickly, to get 18 innings of pain on this Saturday under way. Somehow, Piquero managed to not get eaten while allowing ten hits and three walks over 5.2 innings. Like Ford on Thursday, he didn’t get a single strikeout. He left with two runners on base and Munoz batting. Dave Williams came out and struck out the left-hander to keep them stranded. At that point, the Raccoons were nominally still in the game with a 3-1 score. After hitting into double plays in the third and fourth innings, Neil Reece hit an RBI double in the top 6th before Matt King left him and Ingall stranded in scoring position. Another run was chipped off in the seventh with a 2-out RBI double by Sharp, as O’Halloran did not have his very best day. Nordahl in the seventh and Huerta, who struck out the side, in the eighth kept the Titans pinned, but it wasn’t enough. Ramiro Román nailed the Coons down in the ninth, and they were handed their third straight loss and the first of assumed two on this Saturday. 3-2 Titans. Guerin 2-4; Ingall 2-4; Reece 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Beairsto (PH) 1-1;

I don’t need to check, because nothing like that has ever happened for sure, but if Kenichi Watanabe does not strike out a batter in the latter game, it will be THREE straight games without a K from the starting pitcher, and that is perhaps the pure definition of shame.

And then – a twist: the rains that had cancelled Friday’s game returned to cancel its makeup date as well. The skies opened an hour after Ramiro Román retired Danny Sharp to end the second game of the series, and another makeup date was created with a double header now on *Sunday*. Like we NEED this game to be played…

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – LF Reece – CF King – RF M. Ramirez – C Rosa – P Watanabe
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B M. Austin – RF G. Munoz – CF Greenman – C L. Lopez – LF Garrison – 3B Matsumoto – 2B H. Ramirez – P Chapa

The Coons stunned the assembled fan base by doing some major damage to Jorge Chapa’s ERA in the first inning when Concie singled, stole his 23rd base of the year, then scored on Martin’s single. Reece walked, and then King hit a triple into the dark corner in right field, to get the score to 3-0. Watanabe ended the evil curse by striking out Christian Greenman to end the first inning with a man stranded. The Coons loaded them up in the third inning on a true single by Ingall and two infield singles by Martin and King, but couldn’t get anybody to score when Ramirez popped out, but we did get a run in the fourth, Sharp plating Freddy Rosa with a sac fly. The same inning, Neil Reece’s bid for 2,000 hits came to a definitive conclusion, as he made hard contact with the ground to snag a Hector Ramirez line drive and suffered a separated shoulder. Darwin Tyler replaced him in the field, but he will never replace him in our hearts. Only mildly less crushing than Reece’s day was Chapa’s. The ace was romped for six runs through 4.2 innings before the Titans had him issue a bases-loading intentional walk with two out to Rosa. Nathan Harrison came in to retire Watanabe, balked, and hung a seventh run on Chapa’s ledger. So, half a game away, 7-0 Coons. Watanabe faced Harrison to start the bottom 5th, and the reliever singled to signal to all Coons fans (all four of them that were left) that this was not over, but the Titans didn’t score either in this or the next inning. Top 7th, Matt King came to the plate. With one long ball in 581 career AB, he lacked the homer for the cycle at this point, but hit into a force on Martin at second base, Watanabe was removed with one out in the bottom 7th after walking Ramirez and approaching 100 pitches. King came up once more in the ninth, still 7-0, no outs, runners on the corners against lefty Ramón Martinez, and while he singled to score Martin, it left him three bases short of the cycle. Moreno, Casas, and Kichida provided scoreless relief for the Coons en route to a surprise rout. 9-0 Coons. Martin 5-5, 2B, RBI; Tyler 2-3; King 4-5, 3B, 2B, 4 RBI;

So Martin had a 5-hit appearance, and didn’t get any more opportunities, but overall his power production is very disappointing. Although you could say that his whole season was disappointing. Any season for any Raccoon since 1997 has been disappointing, to stay polite.

Game 4
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 1B Martin – CF Beairsto – LF Tyler – 2B Sheehan – C Thomas – P Brown
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B M. Austin – RF G. Munoz – CF Greenman – 2B Matsumoto – LF Garrison – C Bader – 3B V. Flores – P Mann

Joe Mann had to wait two extra days to make this start and retired the first seven Raccoons that came up before Thomas doubled in the third, but he kept the zero up through three, holding a 1-0 lead, the run being scored by the obnoxious Daniel Silva in the first inning. Brown lacked his good stuff and didn’t notch his 200th strikeout until the bottom 4th when he whiffed Corey Bader – and he had come in with 198. But by then, the Coons were up 2-1! Guerin and Brady had hit singles in the top 4th, then had executed a double steal. Martin and Beairsto fed grounders to the middle infielders, allowing both runners to score. A cocky Brown then singled and stole a base in the top 5th, but was stranded by Sharp, and almost had the cockiness beaten out of him in the bottom 5th in the most Raccoonish way possible. Darwin Tyler dropped Mark Austin’s soft fly to left, and then Brown drilled Munoz. Greenman hit into a double play, though. He still got beaten up by unravelling in the bottom 6th. With a man on third base and two outs, Flores was walked intentionally to face Joe Mann, who tied the game with a single to left. Brown then walked Silva and Austin to give the Titans the go-ahead run before angrily striking out Munoz, but the damage was done. Another run was scored on Dave Williams, while the Raccoons just couldn’t beat Mann again, but managed a shabby rally attempt in the ninth on Ramiro Román. Rosa hit a single with two out, before Miguel Ramirez reached on an error by Matsumoto, who had earlier been the victim of Dan Nordahl’s 100th K this season. Matt King, penultimate bat off the bench, hit for Marcos Bruno, and singled to left to load them up for Sharp, who struck out. 4-2 Titans. Brady 2-4; Rosa (PH) 1-1, Thomas 2-3; King (PH) 1-1;

In other news

August 30 – IND C Jose Paraz (.288, 20 HR, 67 RBI) becomes the first Indians player to hit for the CYCLE, smacking four hits total in an 11-5 triumph of the Indians over the Thunder. He drives in six, including a grand slam off Aaron Anderson. Paraz is the 36th player to hit for a cycle in ABL history and the fourth this season after TOP Jerry Henry, BOS Christian Greenman, and DAL Artie Barnes.
September 5 – The Indians have been using outfielder Claudio Rey (.272, 7 HR, 41 RBI) at the bottom of their lineup for the whole season, when he played at all, but they might rethink that stance now. Rey jacks three dingers during Sunday’s 6-3 win over the Loggers, plating four runs. It is the 14th time in ABL history that a player smacks three home runs in one contest, and the third time for an Indian to do it after Victor Cornett in 1991, and Ron Alston last season. The Loggers are triple-thundered for the second time, after the Raccoons’ Ben Simon hit three off them in 1977. In the same game, Indy’s SP Doug Morrow (13-10, 3.68 ERA) claims his 200th career victory. The 1986 first-rounder is 200-185 with a 3.89 ERA for his career and has come back to form after losing *25* games for the 2002 Rebels.

Complaints and stuff

Yoshi Nomura was NOT called up. We want him to make a bid for ROTY next year at age 21. For this, he must at most accumulate two more weeks of service time. Unless I am a total idiot. He has a .408 OBP in AAA for what it is worth. If he could RUN, he would be the perfect leadoff man! But he can’t. Not a lick.

Neil Reece was disabled on Sunday night, and he might come back at the very end of the season, but I doubt he will hit the 24 knocks required to reach 2,000 in a week or so…

Like everything in Portland, that one fell off the table and broke.

Kinda like that Jeremiah Carrell bobblehead that has been re-glued over and over over the years. And since we have had Chad around, it’s been really hard to find any glue when necessary…

If nobody throws a no-hitter in the ABL until Thursday, it will be three full years since the last no-no, which was then Henry Selph’s second no-hitter, for the Bayhawks against the Aces. There was one longer drought in ABL history though. The record stands at three years, eight months, and 17 days, for the time between the no-hitters thrown by MIL Bill Warren and LAP Bob “Butcher” Haines in the early 80s. But there have been six cycles in the last two seasons, and overall cycles have happened 50% more often than no-hitters in the league.

*The season strikeout mark has been often cited as being held by Kisho with 193. That was actually not his best mark in his career. He struck out 196 in 1983 as a 22-year old sophomore with the Elks. Still not enough to beat out Brownie through August.