[Westheim]

Raccoons (17-13) vs. Cyclones (14-16) – May 11-13, 2021

The Raccoons hadn’t lost a series to the Cyclones in ten years, but actually only had played them twice in that space of time, and not once in the last four years. They were scoring quite well, ranking fourth in the Federal League in runs tallied, with an impressive .281 batting average, but their pitching was … a problem. They were ranked last in runs allowed with 165 – which was an impressive 5.5 runs per game – with the main issue being a completely eroded bullpen that had piled up a 6.28 ERA ruining everything their mediocre starting pitching tried to keep together in terms of wins.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (3-1, 3.34 ERA) vs. Chris Munroe (2-1, 4.19 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (1-1, 4.03 ERA) vs. Jay Schimek (2-2, 5.23 ERA)
Michael Foreman (3-2, 1.52 ERA) vs. Fred Dugo (3-0, 2.88 ERA)

Three right-handers coming up; there were a number of familiar names to the Cyclones, like Tuesday’s starter Chris Munroe, a former Coon. Another ex-Coon (though briefly) was on the DL in SP A.J. Bartels, and they also had former Loggers terror Victor Hodgers on the DL. He had batted .326 in the first 13 games of the season.

The Raccoons had activated Tadasu Abe from the DL on Monday, waiving and DFA’ing Will West. Abe had ended up missing two starts, and the Raccoons had only been forced to cover for one of those with Ricky Martinez thanks to the off days in between. We are still without Stevenson and Nunley for the entire week as we start a 13-game homestand and 16-day stretch without an off day.

Game 1
CIN: CF Maiello – C A. Gonzales – 1B Moreira – SS Showalter – 3B E. Moreno – LF Kuramoto – RF Webb – 2B St. George – P Munroe
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – RF Mendoza – 1B Hamilton – SS McKnight – C Margolis – CF Metts – 3B Zuhlke – P Santos

Any week that started with a leadoff jack by Nando Maiello (.430 OBP) off Hector Santos was bound to be a long and sad one. The good news was that while Santos was allowing a lot of fat contact, the Raccoons were quick to punch holes into Chris Munroe. Cookie singled, Yoshi walked, and Hamilton singled to plate Cookie to tie the game in the first, and the second inning started with Dwayne Metts working a leadoff walk and an RBI double by Adam Zuhlke and then devolved into an endless procession of singles that piled a total of four runs on Munroe and gave the Coons a 5-1 lead. While the Cyclones were hitting the ball well, they actually didn’t get another hit off Santos until the fourth, an Alfonso Gonzales single to center. The Raccoons turned them away there, and Matt Hamilton was up for the third time in the bottom 4th and had an RBI for the third time, plating Mendoza with a 2-out RBI double that extended the lead to 6-1. While Munroe wasn’t seen after the inning, the Raccoons put a run on reliever Dave Hogan (who already came in with an ERA over eight) in the fifth, which was opened oddly enough by a Margolis triple. Metts grounded out to score him. Maiello meanwhile continued to be a pest and hit a leadoff single in the sixth. He tried to get his 18th (!!) stolen base of the season, but was thrown out by Margolis. The Cyclones only got back to Santos when they finally hit one outta here, Eddie Moreno nailing his sixth home run of the season with a 2-out solo shot off Santos in the top of the seventh inning. Santos was gone after a leadoff walk to PH Jose Flores in the eighth inning, and when Jeff Boynton came in, things rapidly got worse. Maiello singled, and Luis Moreira hit a 3-piece that axed the Coons’ lead to 7-5.

Noah Bricker game in and struck out Andrew Showalter before we went to Lillis. Moreno was retired on a long fly to Kevin DeWald in center, who had entered along with Lillis in a double switch. Bottom 8th, new pitcher Justin Stewart put two on with an error on Zuhlke’s grounder and by hitting DeWald. Cookie hit into a fielder’s choice, then was caught stealing for the sixth time in a row. Yoshi walked, and Mendoza put things right with a 3-run homer to right center. With a new 5-run lead, Lillis was taken out of the game for the ninth. Adam Cowen replaced him in a bold move that was surely going to backfire instantly. Yasuhiro Kuramoto hit a leadoff single to left, Jim Webb singled to right, but the Cyclones made the cardinal error of making the first out at third base. Kuramoto tried to get the extra base, Mendoza was not a fan of that and threw him out. Stephen St. George hit into a game-ending grounder to short. 10-5 Raccoons. Mendoza 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Hamilton 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI;

Now, what’s wrong with Jeff Boynton? He has a 6.52 ERA by now. That million bucks looks like a really bad investment by now, although it is hard to judge someone with a .379 BABIP against them.

Mendoza is first to 20 RBI on the team. That took a while…

Game 2
CIN: CF Maiello – RF W. Jones – 1B Moreira – SS Showalter – 3B E. Moreno – LF Kuramoto – C J. Flores – 2B St. George – P Schimek
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – RF Mendoza – 1B Hamilton – SS McKnight – C Margolis – CF Metts – 3B Zuhlke – P Abe

The Coons were up for a disappointment after Cookie singled and Yoshi doubled to start the bottom of the first inning. Neither Mendoza nor Hamilton got the ball past the pitcher for easy, pin-down-the-runners outs, and McKnight’s fly to left was easy pickings for Kuramoto, who would reach on Zuhlke’s 2-out error in the top of the second and score on a double into the left-center gap by Jose Flores, and that was only the beginning. The Cyclones turned Abe inside out in the third inning with a pair of 2-out, 2-run home runs, first by Showalter (#10 on the year) and after Moreno singled, Kuramoto hit another one. That put the Cyclones 5-0 ahead, sent Abe’s ERA over five, and left me a bit concerned with the Coons trying to cobble a 5-game winning streak together.

Bottom 3rd, Cookie and Yoshi again opened with a pair of base hits. Mendoza hit into a double play, and at that point you could pretty much lean back and accept the defeat that was coming your way. Abe allowed a leadoff single to St. George in the fourth, which put him one sad expression away from getting removed, but St. George was left on base partly due to Jay Schimek striking out trying to bunt, and Abe got out of the inning. The Coons sprung onto the board in the bottom 4th with a 3-run homer hit by Adam Zuhlke, who had found Margolis and Metts on the corners. Abe made it through the middle innings, but the Coons couldn’t get anything from the top of their order on this Wednesday. Margolis though hit another double, the second in as many at-bats coming leading off the bottom of the sixth. Metts and Zuhlke failed to get him in, prompting Eddie Jackson to bat for Abe. Jackson came through with an RBI double to left, but Cookie flew out to center, leaving the tying run on base. But just when there was actual hope for a real comeback, the Coons’ pen dashed it. Chun couldn’t get anybody out in the seventh, starting with a double by the somehow-still-alive Schimek up the rightfield line, Kaiser was no relief, and with the bases loaded Bricker allowed a 2-run single to Showalter to extend the Cyclones’ lead to 7-4 again.

Bottom 7th, Yoshi led off with a triple into the gap in left center, which was noteworthy for any old man. Mendoza hit a sac fly, 7-5, and then Hamilton hit one outta here, 7-6. Why was Schimek still in the game? Did the Cyclones have more faith in a mediocre starter than their rancid pen? Maybe they had too much faith. After a soft McKnight out, Margolis hit yet another double, pulling up Metts with the tying run in scoring position. Still no relief in sight for Schimek, who threw an 0-1 fastball right down the middle and Dwayne Metts got ALL of it, hitting it 360 feet into the tenth row of the rightfield stands near the foul pole. That actually and really flipped the score in the Coons’ favor for the first time in the game, 8-7.

Maybe the reason the Cyclones wouldn’t go to the pen until now was really the pen itself. Jack Sander, a 25-year old right-hander with a 10.00 ERA appeared, allowed pinch-hit singles to Petracek and Olivares, then walked Cookie to load them up for Yoshi, who sadly bounced out to St. George. Unfortunately the Raccoons had already picked their pen thin in the seventh and Bricker had been hit for. Boynton was back out, allowed a triple to Jim Webb and Maiello’s RBI single promptly blew the lead. Margolis caught Maiello stealing again, but Boynton allowed a third hit, a single to Winston Jones. Sugano came out to face the lefty, but would encounter a right-handed pinch-hitter in Gonzales, who grounded out to short to end the inning. After the Coons left two in the bottom 8th, Sugano had to pitch the ninth. He faced only one left-hander, who ironically was the only one to reach base as Eddie Moreno singled past Petracek at third base. The Cyclones sent southpaw Nestor Munoz into the bottom of the ninth, their closer, despite them not holding a lead. Munoz held the Coons at bay in the ninth, sending the game to extra innings, where Brett Lillis despaired me by walking a pair and surrendering the go-ahead run on a bloop single by Luis Reya, a 41-year old backup that had just announced his retirement. The Coons scratched on Munoz’ legs for sure in the bottom 10th. Mendoza led off with an infield single and after Hamilton struck out, McKnight hit a hard single to right. Mendoza reached third, putting runners on the corners for a 5-for-5 Danny Margolis. ALL OR NOTHING!! SHOW US, DANNY!! Nothing it was, with Margolis lifting a ball out to Winston Jones. Mendoza tagged and went for home, and found the ball arriving a good bit sooner than himself, being tagged out by Flores. 9-8 Cyclones. Carmona 2-5, BB; Nomura 3-6, 2B; McKnight 2-6; Margolis 5-6, 3 2B; Metts 2-5, 2 RBI; Petracek (PH) 1-2; Jackson (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Olivares (PH) 1-1; Aponte (PH) 1-1;

There were three base hits in the #9 hole in this game, and only two in the 3-4 slots. Those two suckers lost the game, not Margolis.

This was Reya’s first hit of the season…

Game 3
CIN: CF Maiello – C A. Gonzales – 1B Moreira – SS Showalter – 3B E. Moreno – LF Kuramoto – RF W. Jones – 2B St. George – P Dugo
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – RF Mendoza – 1B Hamilton – SS McKnight – C Margolis – 3B Petracek – CF DeWald – P Foreman

In a noticeable change of developments, neither team got a base hit the first time through the order, as each team sent their best starter by ERA into the rubber game. Both walked a batter in the first three innings, neither team got theirs around to score. Gonzales would hit a leadoff single in the fourth, Foreman walked Luis Moreira, and I expected nothing but pain from there, but somehow the Cyclones couldn’t get another ball to fall in. Kuramoto hit a hard fly to center with two outs, but DeWald made a running catch in the far outfield regions, keeping runners on the corners. For the first time in the series the Critters would score first, lifting a pair of solo home runs out of right center in the bottom of the fourth. Mendoza hit the first one, and McKnight followed that up with a 2-out shot.

Foreman didn’t actually strike anybody out until he got Maiello swinging to end the fifth with St. George in scoring positon. In the bottom of the inning, Foreman came to bat with Petracek on second base after singling and stealing second base and hit a bouncer up the middle for an RBI single to center. Cookie swiftly hit into a double play as this started become a black week for him. Foreman was finally tagged in the sixth when the Cyclones put three consecutive batters on base with two outs, Foreman issuing a single, a walk, and then an RBI single to Kuramoto. McKnight found his way into a double play in the bottom of the sixth after the Cyclones had walked Hamilton intentionally after Mendoza’s groundout had moved Yoshi Nomura to second base. Foreman was knocked out in the seventh, St. George and Gonzales hitting singles to appear on the corners with two outs. Sugano came out for Moreira, but only got to see Flores as right-handed pinch-hitter. Flores was batting a paltry .170, fell to 0-2, but Sugano couldn’t remove him. Flores eventually hit a sharp grounder to the left side, but Petracek got paws on it and went the short way to force out Gonzales at second, ending the inning. Bricker was unavailable, so the Raccoons had to make do with Seung-mo Chun (5.23 ERA…) in the eighth inning. That one went wrong quicker than anticipated, with Showalter and Kuramoto hitting doubles that brought the score to 3-2 with the tying run at second base with one out. Still, there was no Bricker to send in. Adam Cowen was available. Okay, we’ll lose. For starters, Jones grounded out, but St. George flared a single to right that tied the score with Kuramoto coming around to score. Dugo struck out, but in exchange retired the top of the Raccoons’ order in the bottom 8th. Cowen was back in the ninth, walked Maiello to start that inning, and Maiello got back at Margolis by stealing two bases to score on Luis Reya’s sac fly to left. Bottom 9th, Munoz retired Hamilton, but both McKnight and Margolis hit singles. The winning run was on, but Eddie Jackson had already been used. Zuhlke hit for Petracek, struck out, Olivares hit for DeWald, and grounded out to second. 4-3 Cyclones. McKnight 2-4, HR, RBI; Foreman 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K and 1-3, RBI;

(lies motionless and face-down on the couch)

(silence)

Raccoons (18-15) vs. Indians (14-21) – May 14-16, 2021

The Indians were 2-1 against the Raccoons this season, which immediately filled be with foreboding. They were thoroughly average to mediocre, ranking seventh in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed, but that only meant that they had a few overdue wins in them. We were surely doomed to be swept.

Projected matchups:
Travis Garrett (3-1, 3.75 ERA) vs. Tom Shumway (0-5, 3.71 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (4-1, 3.68 ERA) vs. Jared D’Attilo (2-2, 3.68 ERA)
Hector Santos (4-1, 3.43 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (4-2, 3.13 ERA)

When I mean ‘overdue wins’ I mean Shumway. He is also a left-hander which means god-knows-what. I don’t feel like anything I’m doing has any predictable outcome anymore…

The other two starters are right-handed (and Toner and D’Attilo matching ERA’s is disconcerting to say the least), with the Indians’ other southpaw Tristan Broun (1-3, 3.65 ERA) not appearing in this series.

Game 1
IND: CF D. Morales – 2B B. Reyes – 1B M. Rucker – RF C. Martinez – LF Genge – SS Matias – 3B Ruggeri – C T. Delgado – P Shumway
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – RF Jackson – 1B Hamilton – C Margolis – SS McKnight – 3B Zuhlke – CF Metts – P Garrett

Danny Morales hit a leadoff jack – like Maiello had done three days earlier – and that was that. The Indians would soon enough bury “Tragic” Garrett under a pile of runs, scoring three more in the third inning in which Garrett walked Bob Reyes, hit Cesar Martinez, and then succumbed to a 2-out, 2-run triple by Lowell Genge and the subsequent RBI single to center by Raul Matias. Shumway retired the first 11 batters before Jackson dipped a single into center. Hamilton flew out gingerly, and the Indians tacked on a run in the fifth after Garrett issued a leadoff walk. Genge hit an RBI single eventually. Down 5-0, the Coons loaded the bases in the bottom 5th with walks drawn by McKnight and Zuhlke and then a single snuck into leftfield by Dwayne Metts. Mendoza batted for Garrett right there, because what else could we be waiting for, but couldn’t do more than hit an RBI single to left. Cookie flew out to center, runners held, and the last run of the inning was pushed in when Yoshi walked. Jackson grounded out to D.J. Ruggeri, keeping the Coons 5-2 behind. Two scoreless innings allowed troubled Jeff Boynton to drop his ERA from 6.97 to a much more pleasant (…) 5.84 mark. Cowen and Kaiser would also find scoreless innings at the bottom of their lunch boxes, but the Raccoons never could get the offense going in the entire game. There was one spot with Hamilton on base and Margolis hitting a fly deep to right, but that one also dropped into Cesar Martinez’ glove and there just wasn’t a comeback from the “Tragic” early deficit. 5-2 Indians. Mendoza (PH) 1-1, RBI; Aponte (PH) 1-2; Boynton 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Tragic indeed. Wake me up when they win. – No, Maud, Jonny has been horrible, I don’t care whether it’s game time. I go to bed now. – No, you can’t make me!

Game 2
IND: CF D. Morales – 2B B. Reyes – 1B M. Rucker – RF C. Martinez – LF Genge – SS Matias – C T. Delgado – 3B Ruggeri – P D’Attilo
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – RF Mendoza – 1B Hamilton – SS McKnight – C Margolis – CF Metts – 3B Aponte – P Toner

Cookie finally stole a base again, although this was mostly due to Tony Delgado’s throwing error on his attempt in the first inning. The Critters loaded the bases with no outs and without a hit, drawing two walks before D’Attilo hit Mendoza in the arm, but without dire consequences. And D’Attilo would not make an out for a long, long time. Hamilton rammed a hard single past a diving Mike Rucker to score Carmona, and McKnight singled to center to bring home Yoshi. The first pitch to Margolis was right in the middle of the zone and was tattooed with a bang to centerfield by Margolis, high, deep, higher, deeper, and out of the deepest part of the park – GRAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAMMM!!!

The first out would actually be Aponte, who flew out to left after Metts had singled. Toner bunted, but Cookie’s liner to right was caught by Martinez to end the 6-run first. Margolis came to the plate with the bases loaded and one out in the second inning, Mendoza and Hamilton having walked against the hapless D’Attilo before McKnight singled to left, and he hit another ball pretty dang hard, but this one stayed in the park and was caught by Lowell Genge in leftfield, holding Margolis to a sac fly. Jonny Toner meanwhile retired the first seven with two strikeouts before D.J. Ruggeri hit a double to right. Nothing came of that, as reliever Rafael Urbano surrendered himself and Morales struck out. While Hamilton batted with three on and two out in the bottom 3rd against Urbano, but grounded out, the Indians had only two more runners against Toner inside the first five innings. Bob Reyes hit a leadoff single in the fourth, but was stranded, and Delgado walked with one out in the fifth, but was doubled off when Cookie made a near-impossible catch on Ruggeri’s dying blooper in shallow left. Delgado was caught near second base and retired on your household 7-3 double play. McKnight’s RBI single stretched the lead to 8-0 in the bottom 5th, and after six the Coons hauled in a few regulars, with Cookie, McKnight, and Mendoza getting the rest of the day off.

Declaring a game over after six innings was always tempting fate. But Toner looked rock-solid in this game. While the pitch count (80 through six innings) was a bit too high for my taste, he had allowed only three runners and the Indians were still dry. In the seventh, Rucker led off and missed a jack to center not my all that much. Metts had played deep and that was the only reason he got all the way back to make a catch on the track. Toner retired the side in order after all, and the Coons reached double digits in the bottom of the inning against Manny Ortega, who waved Yoshi and Petracek onto the bases before allowing Hamilton to double into the left-center gap for two runs, 10-0. Hamilton never got off second base, and Toner didn’t make it through eight, allowing a 1-out single to Delgado. He struck out Ruggeri, but the Indians sent left-hander Leo Otero to pinch-hit, and his pitch count was at 109 and that was a good time to call it a day. Kaiser ended the inning despite a walk to Otero; Morales grounded out. There was still time in the game for Yoshi Nomura’s first homer of the season, a 2-out, 2-run shot off Miguel Morales that collected Eddie Jackson. Chun retired the side in order in the ninth, and the Furballs romped the Arrowheads by a dozen. 12-0 Raccoons! Jackson 1-1; Nomura 2-4, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Mendoza 0-1, 3 BB; Hamilton 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, 3 RBI; McKnight 3-4, 2 RBI; Margolis 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 5 RBI; Aponte 2-5; Toner 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 10 K, W (5-1);

That’s the Jonny Toner we all know and love!

The Raccoons would probably only see another left-hander on Thursday, so it wouldn’t hurt to give out an off day or two to everyday left-handed batters before that. Cookie had been more or less invisible the last few days and got Sunday off. Yoshi might sit out Monday, but we’ll have to see to that.

Game 3
IND: CF D. Morales – 2B B. Reyes – 1B M. Rucker – RF C. Martinez – LF Genge – SS Matias – C T. Delgado – 3B Ruggeri – P Lambert
POR: 2B Nomura – SS McKnight – LF Mendoza – 1B Hamilton – RF Jackson – CF Metts – C Olivares – 3B Zuhlke – P Santos

Morales opened the game with a full-count walk, only to be caught stealing by Olivares. Santos retired the next six, including striking out the side in the second inning, before Ruggeri tagged him with a solo homer. Morales would hit a 2-out double in that third inning and scored when Bob Reyes singled up the middle to give the Arrowheads a 2-0 lead. Santos struck out nine in the first five innings, but still couldn’t prevent a few more high fly balls, which all were caught for now. The Raccoons however had been flummoxed by Lambert in the early innings, amounting only to a single and two walks in the first five frames.

Reyes and Rucker opened the sixth with singles and went to the corners, prompting the pitching coach to jog out to Santos and check on whether he had seen any good movies lately. One run would score on a flare single by Lowell Genge into shallow left, but Santos got out of the inning, his last, striking out ten overall. He was on a 3-0 hook, however, and the Raccoons so far hadn’t seemed inclined to change that. But Yoshi opened the bottom 6th with a double to center, and then Mendoza was there and knocked a 2-run homer to left center, cutting the gap to 3-2, and they would clamber into an opportunity to turn the game around in the seventh. Olivares, fighting for his job with several interesting options developing in St. Pete, opened the frame with a single to left. Cookie hit for Zuhlke, but hit into a fielder’s choice. Margolis hit for Boynton, hit a poor grounder, but Delgado’s throw to second base sailed and Cookie was safe on the error as Matias had to retrieve the ball in shallow center. But here came Yoshi, hit a ball sharply to short, and Matias had no problems turning that one for a double play… McKnight hit a leadoff single in the eighth, but Lambert’s last act in the game was collecting a 1-6-3 double play from Mendoza. When the Coons got the tying run on base again in the bottom 9th it was mainly because Olivares hung his fat, furry bum over home plate where Tony Lino hit it. Since Margolis had been used up already, there was no running for Olivares, and Guillermo Aponte pin-pointed the location of the shortstop precisely for a game-ending double play. 3-2 Indians. Nomura 2-4, 2B;

Welp.

In other news

May 13 – Buffaloes and Titans play for 19 innings and 5 1/2 hours before the Buffaloes scratch out a run in the top of the 19th inning to win 2-1. TOP 2B Chris Owen (.246, 3 HR, 13 RBI) drives in both of his team’s runs, 18 innings apart.
May 13 – The Loggers acquire SP Victor Arevalo (3-2, 3.04 ERA) from the Falcons for two prospects.
May 14 – SFW LF Zach Price (.265, 1 HR, 16 RBI) connects for all four legs of the cycle in a 4-hit, 4-RBI effort in the Warriors’ 9-3 win over the Gold Sox. The 67th ABL cycle is the fifth in Warriors history and the second Warriors cycle in under two years. Mike Rucker had done the honors to the Scorpions in 2019. The other Warriors cycler have been Corey Bird in 1978, Rafael Lopez in 1986, and Gil Gross in 2012.
May 14 – More pitching to the CL North as the Titans trade for the Condors’ SP John Schneider (4-0, 4.12 ERA), sending #78 prospect SS Jason Benedetto to Tijuana.
May 14 – NAS SP Brian Leser (2-1, 2.68 ERA) 3-hits the Buffaloes in a 5-0 shutout.
May 15 – The Knights scrape past getting no-hit by a Devin Hibbard (.193, 3 HR, 12 RBI) single while losing a 1-0 game to the Condors, with the winning run driven in by LF/RF/2B/3B Alfonso Rojas (.160, 0 HR, 1 RBI), who entered the game as injury replacement for LF Jimmy Eichelkraut (.269, 4 HR, 20 RBI).

Complaints and stuff

Many things went wrong this week. For starters, the Raccoons outscored the opposition, 37-26, but managed to lose four of six games, including three by a single run. That’s plenty of ‘wrong’ right there…

We are also third in runs scored, fourth in runs allowed, our run differential is +39, but we’re barely making the cut for a top-half record in the Continental League, currently virtually tied with the Thunder, who war 20-18 and FIFTH in the South. I have no explanations, you have to make up your own ****.

Price’s cycle this week was the ninth consecutive cycle hit by the road team. No player has cycled at home since TOP Jimmy Roberts in 2015. Also, eight of the last ten cycles and all of the last five have been hit for by a Federal League player. The Coons don’t quite know how a cycle looks like, not having been in one since 2009 when Adrian Quebell connected all the dots. We have always been more of a no-hitter team and have been in three of those since the Quebell cycle (2-1).

Tim Dunn threw another shutout this week, so maybe there’s your CL Pitcher of the Year with Toner regularly malfunctioning (although this WAS a nice comeback this week!) …

Margolis’ three doubles in the terrible loss on Wednesday does not tie a Raccoons record, which requires one to hit four doubles. This was achieved three times in team history, and not by players you normally put into a sentence with the word ‘greatness’. Glenn Johnston hit four doubles in a game in September of 1989, the month before he dropped Ed Parrell’s fly ball and lost a World Series that way. Daniel Richardson also did it in September, 11 years later, in his lone, rotten Raccoons season, and Chris Roberson was never a gain for anybody involved, but also once hit four doubles in a game in 2002. The most recent Raccoon to hit three doubles in a game had been Shane Walter in 2018.

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUT LEADERS
72nd – Greg Cain – 1,875
73rd – Mark Warburton – 1,861
74th – Jesus Bautista – 1,860
75th – Manny Ramos – 1,846
76th – Neil Stewart – 1,842 – HOF
77th – Jonathan Toner – 1,839 – active
78th – Xavier Mayes – 1,833
79th – Anibal Sandoval – 1,832
80th – Eduardo Jimenez – 1,830
[…]
89th – Pedro Alvarado – 1,738 – active, free agent
90th – Lou Corbett – 1,733
91st – Daniel Dickerson – 1,730
92nd – Henry Becker – 1,729
93rd – Billy Robinson – 1,728 – HOF
94th – Hector Santos – 1,717 – active
95th – Larry Cutts – 1,714
96th – Samuel McMullen – 1,702 – active
97th – Carlos Guillén – 1,699

The three new players appearing on Jonny’s to-pass list include one piece of the Titans’ dynasty around 2000 in Bautista, who was the 1997 CL Pitcher of the Year, but managed to lead the league in losses three times in a career that flamed out in his early 30s after a change to the Federal League. Despite being one of the best pitchers of the late 90s, he ended up with a losing record, 189-193, and a 3.90 ERA. The other two pitchers had long dropped out of my memory. Both pitched in the 80s and 90s; Cain exclusively with the Pacifics and Scorpions for a 153-160 record and 3.93 ERA without leading the league in anything but losses and balls (once each), and Warburton started his career with the Loggers, but was mostly a reliever before he got traded to Sacramento after the ’86 season. He also spent the rest of his career in FL West obscurity, and ended up with a 115-153 record and 4.63 ERA, leading the FL in walks twice in the late 80s, only to top the Federal League’s K/9 leaderboard in an otherwise traumatic age 34 season in 1996, going 12-8 with a 5.37 ERA with the Stars, who were indeed a prime offensive team then.

We always talk about strikeouts. Do we have any players on the career hits board?

ABL CAREER HITS LEADERS
t-30th – Bob Grant – 2,597
t-30th – Juan Ortíz – 2,597
32nd – Bob Hall – 2,589
33rd – Claudio Rojas – 2,584 – HOF
34th – Edgardo Garza – 2,575
35th – Ieyoshi Nomura – 2,550 – active
36th – Hector Garcia – 2,544 – active
37th – Juan Valentin – 2,543
38th – David Brewer – 2,529 – HOF

That is it. The entry qualification for the career top 100 currently is 2,060 base hits, and neither Mendoza nor Cookie are even within a year’s worth of hits from that. Mendoza has 1,682 for his career, Cookie has 1,602. Next-best on the Coons is Matt Nunley with exactly 500 less than Cookie.

And of course David Brewer is David Brewer, and we remember him well, but what is Claudio Rojas remembered for? He claims ownership to the two longest hitting streaks in ABL history, a 40-game streak with the Cyclones in 1980, and a 47-game streak with the Bayhawks in 1983.