[Westheim]

DOUBLE WHAMMY!!

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Raccoons (22-21) @ Condors (19-23) – May 23-25, 2022

This was the tail end of our current string of games, with an off day waiting for us on Thursday. The Condors were a bit of the 1980s Indians, not scoring, but also not allowing any scoring. They were allowing the fewest runs, but were also scoring the fewest. Their batting was however more putrid than their pitching was strong – they had a -16 run differential. The terribly average Raccoons’ was -13. The 2021 season series had gone to the Condors, 5-4.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (3-3, 3.69 ERA) vs. Jose Menendez (3-3, 3.34 ERA)
Frank Kelly (2-2, 3.49 ERA) vs. Rafael Cuenca (2-1, 4.02 ERA)
Ricky Martinez (0-5, 7.22 ERA) vs. Jim Bryant (4-3, 2.57 ERA)

After facing three southpaws last week, the Coons would not get one in this series. The Condors had no left-handed starters at all, while the Raccoons would probably be better off by turning Ricky Martinez into a right-handed pitcher with a professional surgical cut by means of a chainsaw. Even lacking means in AAA, Martinez was probably forced to do good this time or get deleted from the roster.

Game 1
POR: SS Bullock – 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – LF Mendoza – 1B Rockwell – C Rice – RF Graves – CF Romero – P Toner
TIJ: 3B B. Rojas – 1B McNeal – C Sanford – CF Jamieson – LF Boggs – SS Read – RF Abraham – 2B B. Torres – P Menendez

The Raccoons scored two in the second inning, and had a third run thrown out at the plate by Matt Jamieson. Rockwell homered, and the runners kept coming. Rice walked, Graves singled, and Romero lined a double into the rightfield corner, Rice scored. Toner lifted a ball to center, Jamieson had it, Graves was sent, but thrown out. Jonny Toner struggled with control in the game, reaching three walks before he struck out three, which was major news under any circumstances. This included a 2-out walk to Menendez in the second inning, and then he drilled Andy McNeal to start the third inning. This was followed by Pat Sanford driving a ball high and hard to left. Mendoza raced back, reached the fence, leapt, and picked the ball off the top of the fence. That ball aside, the Condors didn’t have much to show for at the plate at all, amounting to a sole hit through five innings.

Top of the sixth, Spencer led off with a hard single to left. Nunley looped a ball up the rigthfield line. Craig Abraham had to go back to play it, but Spencer shied around third base and returned to the bag, bringing up Mendoza with runners on second and third and no outs. Mendoza was 0-for-2 with 2 K, and for all the sucking he could do with runners in scoring position, whiffing thrice in a game was not his style. The Condors knew that, too, and they also knew that they could ill afford damage. They walked him intentionally, even though that meant bringing up Rockwell with the bags packed. Too bad Menendez fell 3-1 behind Sluggin’ Gil, then threw him a lazy pitch that Rockwell ticked to left center for an RBI single. Rice also singled into center, scoring another run, and Zach Graves extinguished Menendez with a 2-run double, 6-0. Romero was walked intentionally, and Toner faced right-hander Eduardo Valdez with the bases loaded, cracking a hard grounder to right that eluded the sliding McNeal for a 2-run single. Only Bullock made the first out, but the Coons would also only get one more run on a Nunley groundout, giving Toner a 9-0 spot. Well, he ain’t Garrett – that should be plenty. On the other hand, he was also on 81 pitches, and probably would not get past seven, if that far. He didn’t make it that far, being replaced after six and two thirds and 104 pitches. Craig Abraham laced a triple with one out in the bottom 7th. Bobby Torres grounded to third base, where Nunley made a good play while keeping the runner pinned, but after that Omar Larios batted in the pitcher’s spot, meaning the next three batters were now all left-handed. Quinn MacCarthy and Ruben Pelles entered in a double switch (with Graves out of the game) and one got Larios to ground to the other to end the inning. The Condors would remain denied, but the Coons would put two more runs on William Hinkley in the eighth inning to turn the game into a double digit rout. 11-0 Raccoons! Bullock 2-5, 2B; Spencer 2-5, RBI; Nunley 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Rockwell 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Rice 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Graves 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Toner 6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K, W (4-3) and 1-3, 2 RBI;

There was a roster move after the game, with Isaiah Jones demoted back to AAA. Dwayne Metts was called up for the week or so until Cookie would come off the DL.

Game 2
POR: SS Bullock – 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – LF Mendoza – 1B Rockwell – C Rice – RF Graves – CF Stevenson – P Kelly
TIJ: 3B B. Rojas – 1B McNeal – C Sanford – RF Larios – CF Jamieson – LF Boggs – SS Read – 2B B. Torres – P Cuenca

Through five, there was no score in the middle game, with Kelly spilling three base hits and Cuenca allowing four. Those came in pairs, but the Raccoons would do badly with runners on the corners; Rockwell struck out in the first, ending their attempt then, and Mendoza unhelpfully struck out with men on the corners and one out in the third inning before Rockwell again ended the inning with a grounder to third base. The Furballs would have men on the corners again in the sixth, although in a slightly complicated way. Nunley hit a leadoff single, then advanced on a wild pitch. In an unfavorable count and with a guy in scoring position, the Condors would not pitch to Mendoza and preferred to face Rockwell with two on. Rockwell promptly grounded to short, but Howard Read’s feed to Bobby Torres was sub par and it cost the Condors the double play. Rice knocked the first pitch he saw past a diving Torres into right, RBI single, first run in the game. Rockwell went to third, scoring from there on Zach Graves’ single that dropped right in front of Robby Boggs. Kelly didn’t cope well with a 2-0 lead; after striking out to end the top 6th, the Condors ticked two hard base hits off him with two outs in the bottom 6th; Sanford singled, Larios doubled, Jamieson had the tying runs in scoring position, but popped out over the infield. While Bullock’s leadoff single and stolen base in the seventh would not lead to a run, Rockwell’s leadoff double in the eighth did. Stevenson got a grounder through between Torres and McNeal to plate him with two outs, upping the score to 3-0. There was an unearned chance to score more runs in the ninth against Jayden Reed, who allowed a bloop single to Nunley with two down before Torres mishandled Mendoza’s grounder for an error. Rockwell would strike out, stranding runners once again. Kelly was on 99 pitches through eight, but maybe had a bit left while Lillis had thrown 56 pitches between Saturday and Sunday and wouldn’t hurt getting another day off. Omar Larios opened the bottom 9th by flying out to (fairly deep) centerfield before Kelly lost Jamieson in a full count. Boggs grounded to Nunley, but not hard enough to turn two; Nunley only got the lead runner. Howard Read’s fly to center would not challenge Stevenson – Kelly nailed down the shutout. 3-0 Raccoons. Spencer 2-5, 2B; Nunley 3-5; Rice 2-3, BB, RBI; Kelly 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (3-2);

This was Frank Kelly’s 18th career complete game and fifth shutout, and it was the first in either category as a Raccoon. All other accolades had come with the Gold Sox.

The Raccoons did have something else, however: three consecutive shutouts! We most recently had conceded a run in the ninth inning on Sunday, giving the team 27 consecutive shutout innings.

Game 3
POR: SS Bullock – 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – LF Mendoza – 1B Rockwell – RF Graves – C Olivares – CF Metts – P Martinez
TIJ: SS B. Rojas – LF Larios – CF Jamieson – C Sanford – 1B McNeal – RF Boggs – 2B Read – 3B B. Torres – P Bryant

In his 39th game and 103rd at-bat of the season, Daniel Bullock would get his first RBI in 2022, singling home Dwayne Metts with two outs in the third inning for the first run in the game. And it was only two innings, but two scoreless innings was already a huge success for Martinez given how desperately bad he had been for the entire season to this point; for the last four games, he had conceded a run per inning on average, which was not quite a sustainable rate. He got around a leadoff walk to Read in the third inning, but the Coons’ shutout streak would end at 30 innings. Omar Larios romped a leadoff triple in the fourth inning, and it would be hard for Jonny Toner to wiggle out of such a spot, but for Martinez it was just impossible. Matt Jamieson hit a clean single to right center to score the run without much fuss, tying the game at one.

The Raccoons’ offensive attempts usually ended in double plays in the middle innings. Rockwell and Nunley hit into those two-for-one beasts in the fourth and sixth innings, respectively, while Martinez somehow held on to the tie despite a Larios double in the bottom of the sixth inning. Jamieson grounded out, and Sanford’s fly to left could not challenge Mendoza seriously. The Condors got McNeal on with a leadoff single in the seventh, but then hit into three groundball outs, the first two of those being force plays at second base. So three different Condors were on base in the inning – but they were all on the same base and never advanced. There was no significant offense in the next two innings, with Martinez being hit for in the top of the eighth and thus removed for a no-decision, and the game went into overtime. There, Quinn MacCarthy logged one third of an inning in the 10th before leaving with an injury, so that was that; and the Raccoons still couldn’t find their asses in the dark. Sloan, MacCarthy, Bricker all managed scoreless outings, but Cory Dew wouldn’t, issuing a 1-out walk to Read in the 12th inning, throwing a wild pitch to advance the winning run to scoring position, and then incurring the loss on Kurt Evans’ doubled laced past Graves into the rightfield corner. 2-1 Condors. Bullock 2-5, RBI; Martinez 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K;

Maybe it’s better if Daniel Bullock does NOT drive in any runs? Bad luck charm, is there such a thing?

Quinn MacCarthy was diagnosed with a back strain and disabled by Thursday. He would most likely not miss more than two weeks’ time. The Raccoons called up a debutee by Friday, adding 23-year old southpaw David Kipple from the Alley Cats. Kipple had 10 K in 9.1 innings in St. Petersburg and had walked only three batters. He had a 1.93 ERA. He had been a third-round pick by the Canadiens in 2016, but had been released a few years later. The Raccoons had signed him in March of 2020, indicating that he didn’t have much value at that point.

Raccoons (24-22) @ Aces (21-26) – May 27-29, 2022

The Aces were in a rut, having dropped their last five games. Offense was normally not an issue for them, as they were in the top 3 in runs scored in the Continental League, but their pitchng was pretty dismal. They had the worst rotation in the CL (yes, it gets worse than the Coons’), and their decent bullpen couldn’t do much beyond damage control. In all but one of the games of their losing streak they had allowed at least seven runs, and the damage had been as bad as 14 in a rout at the hands of the Crusaders on Wednesday. The season series stood in favor of the Aces, 2-1.

Projected matchups:
Travis Garrett (3-2, 5.23 ERA) vs. Colin Peay (0-1, 5.33 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (4-4, 4.13 ERA) vs. Chris Wickham (4-2, 2.87 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (4-3, 3.33 ERA) vs. Sergio Aredondo (4-3, 5.81 ERA)

The southpaw Wickham was more or less their only candle left alight in the darkest night, and as the saying goes, something in the night is dangerous. Peay was swinging between the pen and rotation, wasn’t helpful in either role, and then they had a few former starters in their bullpen that could barely lift a ball these days, let alone throw it, in Juan Valdevez and Nem Jones. Both were 36, Jones was the chief reason that the Raccoons had not been in the World Series in 12 years, and neither had anything left in his right arm.

Game 1
POR: SS Bullock – 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – LF Mendoza – RF Graves – C Rice – 1B Pelles – CF Stevenson – P Garrett
LVA: CF Serrano – 3B Navarro – RF D. Brown – SS A. Medina – C Spears – LF Curro – 2B Hebberd – 1B Gartner – P Peay

Travis Garrett ****ed up right in the first inning. The Aces got Jose Navarro on with a 1-out single, which was all dandy. With two outs, however, Garrett completely lost what little skill he had to begin with, walked three straight batters, allowed a 2-run single to Bill Hebberd, and then walked John Gartner. Stevenson threw himself into the way of Colin Peay’s liner to center to end the inning, three runs across, three stranded on two singles and four walks. The Critters had precious little going in terms of offense in the first three innings, but got Danny Rice to the plate with Graves aboard in the fourth inning. Rice CRUSHED a pitch by Colin Peay that disappeared behind the batter’s eye and was hard to measure, but was estimated at a whopping 440 feet. This closed the gap to 3-2, because Tragic Travis had – totally out of character – stopped bleeding runs from his lady zone in the meantime. But let’s not be too harsh to the kid. At least he was a semi-decent batter with two outs, and certainly a better one than Dumbo Mendoza. The Raccoons would get Pelles on Stevenson on base with two outs; Pelles raced for third on Stevenson’s single, drew a throw, but was well safe. Stevenson advanced in his slipstream. Garrett thus batted with runners on second and third and two outs, and cracked a Peay pitch up the middle and into centerfield for a score-flipping 2-run single, 4-3. That wasn’t all to the inning! Bullock walked, and then Spencer shoved a ball into the leftfield corner for a 2-run triple, but at that point it was sure all for Peay, who was replaced by the not well-aged Valdevez, who got ticketed for an RBI single by Matt Nunley, and only that was the final note in the Coons’ 7-run fourth inning.

Now, a 7-3 lead was sweet and all, but there was one caveat: Travis Garrett had not only driven in two and had scored a run, no, he had also found back to the dugout without being abducted, had not slipped on the stairs, and hadn’t choked on birdseed either, so he was back in the mound, and technically this was only the fourth inning, still. Now, to be fair to a guy, who did his best – the Aces would not get a base runner in the fourth or the fifth, but there was a certain kind of acrobatics going on with the defenders that I didn’t like to see on a grass field and much less so on turf. Actually, Garrett was the next guy to drop in a single, doing so with one out in the sixth inning. Bullock walked, and with two down Matt Nunley crushed a 3-piece that gave the Raccoons a 10-3 lead. Nevertheless, the train for a genuinely good outing for Garrett had long departed and was in the next state over, and Garrett was on 93 pitches through five innings thanks to an equal amount of walks issued early on. It’s just like when your six-year-old draws a ‘dog’. The ugly creature looks nothing like a dog, your actual dog is highly insulted by the disfigured creature on paper, and you still pin the beast on the fridge until quietly throwing it out two weeks later – keep the peace and keep going. Errol Spears hit a leadoff jack off Garrett in the bottom of the sixth. Garrett got his pat on the back from the pitching coach as David Kipple came from the pen to make his major league debut, and while I was hating Garrett intensely from my place near the most conveniently located place in the park that had booze. Kipple faced three batters, retired one, but Joel Davis changed his diapers with minimal disturbances, and the Aces remained behind by six, a gap that grew to eight in the top of the seventh against Michael Sieben’s inept stickballing. Four unearned runs fell out of Danny Lobato in the ninth inning. Lobato also drilled Sugano with two outs when we didn’t want to use another reliever and sent him to bat instead. Barely worse for wear, he retired the Aces in order in the bottom 9th, logging four outs total in the double-digit rout. 16-4 Furballs!! Bullock 2-5, BB, RBI; Spencer 2-6, 3B, 2 RBI; Nunley 3-6, HR, 5 RBI; Graves 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Rice 3-6, HR, 2 RBI; Pelles 2-3, 3 BB, RBI; Sloan 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Mendoza and Stevenson were our only players in the starting nine that didn’t collect two hits, but both collected one. We had 18 base knocks in total.

Suddenly, we also have a positive run differential, +12 after two routs in our favor this week.

Game 2
POR: SS Bullock – LF Spencer – RF Mendoza – 1B Rockwell – 3B Nunley – C Olivares – CF Stevenson – 2B Armetta – P Guerrero
LVA: CF Serrano – 3B Navarro – RF D. Brown – SS A. Medina – 2B Moroyoqui – LF Curro – C T. Perez – 1B Gartner – P Wickham

Trampled and with singe marks on their uniforms, the Aces nevertheless showed up for the Saturday game. Three singles off Guerrero gave them a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning, but after Wickham walked Sam Armetta to start the top of the third inning, Jesus Moroyoqui capitally threw away Guerrero’s bunt, putting the tying runs in scoring position with nobody out, but the Raccoons would not progress past Bullock’s sac fly this time. Danny Serrano’s leadoff double, two walks, no stuff at all, and then Corey Curro’s sharp bouncer clearly beating Bullock into centerfield for another two runs put Guerrero into a 4-1 hole in the bottom of the inning.

Top 5th, Guerrero bunted Stevenson (walk) and Armetta (single) into scoring position, bringing up Bullock with one out. Slowly, slowly, the kid appeared to turn into a slugger, his liner to left scoring two and giving him five RBI for the season after he had not had any just a scant few days earlier. He was also the tying run on base and due to some quick legwork scored easily on Jarod Spencer’s gapper that got away from both Dan Brown and Danny Serrano for long enough to give Spencer an RBI triple. Mendoza singled hard to right, giving Guerrero a 5-4 lead that he somehow nursed through six, only for Cory Dew to get paws on it in the seventh inning. Dew threw only five pitches, but that was enough for the Aces’ top of the order to hit a single and two doubles, taking a 6-5 lead. The further falling-apart was left to Joel Davis, who replaced a swiftly-yanked Dew only to walk the bases full, allowing the Aces to get another run home on Tony Perez’ sac fly. The Raccoons took a while to shake that out of their fur, but Stevenson would draw a leadoff walk off southpaw Alex Morin in the ninth inning, bringing up the tying run in Sam Armetta – except that Ruben Pelles hit for him … and right into a double play. Who claimed that ****er off waivers!? Who was it!!?? Graves flew out to center to end the game in defeat. 7-5 Aces. Stevenson 0-1, 3 BB;

I remember the good ol’ days when we had some meaningful pitching that wouldn’t collapse every single ****ing day.

Game 3
POR: SS Bullock – 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – LF Mendoza – C Rice – 1B Rockwell – RF Graves – CF Stevenson – P Toner
LVA: CF Serrano – 3B Navarro – RF D. Brown – SS A. Medina – 2B Moroyoqui – LF Curro – C T. Perez – 1B Gartner – P Aredondo

Toner got spotted two before he ever took the mound, with Bullock leading off the game with a double to right center, scoring on Nunley’s sac fly, and then Mendoza let his 11th homer of the season soar over the fence in leftfield. Rice and Rockwell both singled after that, but Graves grounded out to Jesus Momo- … Moyo- … Moto- … the second baseman. Moroyoqui opened the second inning with a single to right center, then tried to take off Bullock’s legs in a play on second base when Curro grounded to short. That broke up a double play, and also took Toner’s lead apart. He had no strikeouts at this point, and would get one until bringing up the pitcher with one out and the bases loaded following a walk to Tony Perez and a Gartner single. Aredondo’s K was only the second out in the inning, and Danny Serrano grounded a ball through the completely immobile Rockwell for a 2-run single. Fortunes would reverse once more in the third inning, with Graves finding Rice and Rockwell aboard and cranking a 3-run homer to right.

This just was not a series for pitchers, and Toner was no exception. The probable future Hall of Famer struggled just as badly as everybody else, found no stuff in his arsenal, and loaded the bases with the tying runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, and that with no outs. Curro, Perez, and Gartner singled in order, and Bill Hebberd pinch-hit for Aredondo, who had allowed a handful and the Aces had deemed that well enough. Toner acknowledged freely to the pitching coach that he had nothing going, but that was probably relatively speaking, hopefully, we thought, maybe. Toner having nothing was the best day Damani Knight could ever have hoped for! Hebberd fouled out. Serrano struck out. Navarro was down 0-2 when he stuck his ass across the plate and was hit by Toner. The Raccoons protested furiously, to no avail, and Matt Nunley raced off with the third base umpire’s lunch box and consumed the contents while loudly bickering from the top of the nearest dugout. The run counted anyway, and the inning only ended on Dan Brown’s fly to Graves, 5-3 after four. That became 5-4 in the next inning, Andres Medina singling, stealing, sleezing, scoring – the latter two on Rice’s throwing error on the stolen base attempt and Toner’s wild pitch. When Toner was one ****ty bloop removed from being yanked before five innings would be complete, the Aces AND the baseball gods suddenly complied and Toner removed the next nine batters in a row.

Those were also his last nine. Stevenson hit a leadoff single in the top of the eighth in what was still a 5-4 game, and Toner yielded for Pelles, who was retired on a foul pop (.125 as a Critter!). Bullock singled, but Spencer hit to short for a double play. Bricker and Sugano would steer through the eighth inning for the Coons, who gave the ball to Lillis, still with the 1-run lead after basically doing nothing productive for the last six innings, although I sure wondered where all of the 14 base hits shown on the board had landed… Lillis had nothing better to do than walking the leadoff man, Serrano, in a full count, then ran another full count against Navarro, who swung over ball four. Dan Brown had eight home runs, but was also batting only .195 and had already stranded four runners in the game. He would not strand another one – hitting into a double play started by Bullock so no runners was left to waste. 5-4 Blighters. Bullock 3-5, 2B; Mendoza 2-5, HR, RBI; Rice 3-4, BB, 2B; Rockwell 2-4; Stevenson 2-4;

In other news

May 25 – WAS INF Dave Menth (.221, 5 HR, 14 RBI) is going to miss a month with a strained hamstring.
May 26 – CHA SP Doug Moffatt (6-1, 2.81 ERA) unfurls a 3-hit shutout against the Loggers, whiffing 10 in a 5-0 win.
May 26 – VAN CL Jeff Boynton (3-4, 5.18 ERA, 6 SV) walks four in the bottom 11th against the Knights, taking a 5-4 loss.
May 29 – The Thunder got some early hints that INF 2B/SS/CF Jeff Becker (.268, 4 HR, 28 RBI) was gravely injured when he was rolling around in the dirt, screaming, with his right foot pointing backwards. The 24-year old switch-hitter has suffered multiple fractures in his fibula in an on-base collision and is likely out until September, if he can come back this year at all.
May 29 – The Titans, who on Sunday are also rightly mauled by the Knights in a 17-0 drubbing, acquire 33-year old veteran RF/LF Kurt Evans (.309, 1 HR, 6 RBI) from the Condors for a pretend prospect.
May 29 – The Falcons claim a 6-4 walkoff win over the Indians on RF/LF Rick Farmer’s (.225, 3 HR, 9 RBI) come-from-behind walkoff slam off IND CL Tony Lino (4-5, 7.71 ERA, 10 SV). Farmer, who enters the game in a double switch, drives in five runs, homering in both of his at-bats.
May 29 – In one of the crazier games, The Stars beat the Rebels, 13-11 in ten innings. There are four 3-spots and a 6-spot in the game, and RIC 2B/3B Justin Cramer (.375, 1 HR, 8 RBI) and DAL INF Raul Maldonado (.367, 0 HR, 10 RBI) both knock four base hits.

Complaints and stuff

In things we should probably mention, Daniel Bullock has a 12-game hitting streak, not bad for a kid from Brazil that we signed basically for dinner for two at Portland’s finest steak shack.

Correct pronunciation guide: Jesus Moroyoqui’s surname goes Mo-ro-O-kee. Or just call him the moustached Venezuelan middle infielder. Works both.

Max Erickson was released on Tuesday after not accepting the assignment to AAA and with nobody willing to pick up the bill.

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUT LEADERS
46th – Salvador Fierro – 2,242
47th – Harry Griggs – 2,234
48th – Ernest Green – 2,229 – active
49th – Ramón Ortíz – 2,188
50th – Antonio Donis – 2,164 – HOF
51st – Jonathan Toner – 2,145 – active
t-52nd – Manuel Paredes – 2,144
t-52nd – Jorge Gine – 2,144 – active, on DL
54th – Bob King – 2,137 – active, free agent

The Mexican left-hander Fierro never crossed the Raccoons’ path much. Except for his final outing in 1996, his only appearance with the Loggers, Fierro made all of his 502 starts for the Blue Sox from 1980 through 1995. He won a Pitcher of the Year title in 1988, leading the FL with 20 wins, although his 2.25 ERA was not the top mark, and he never led the league in any major category during his career, although he would three times strike out the most batters across nine innings in the early parts of his career; in 1981, 7.4 whiffs per nine were enough for this achievement.

Harry Griggs was a workhorse … for as long as his right arm would hold up, which was not all that long; he last appeared in the major leagues in 2000, his age 32 season. From 1990 through 1997, Griggs would throw at least 250 innings every season, first for the Rebels and later for the Condors. By 1998, wear showed, and by 1999 tear as well. He signed with the Knights in 2000, but only managed 99 innings before a torn rotator cuff ended his season and also his career. He finished 177-128 with a 3.61 ERA and was the FL Pitcher of the Year in ‘94. Leading the league in innings five times, in strikeouts three times and in wins twice, Griggs got some decent Hall of Fame consideration for such a short-lived pitcher with a non-spectactular ERA, but then again never garnered more than 10% of the vote either.

Down the road, 37-year old Ernest Green will most likely be associated with the strong Pacifics teams from five to ten years ago, with whom he won championships in 2011, 2012, and 2016. He led the Federal League in WHIP three times during those years, but never was a top pitcher by ERA due to a propensity for surrendering long balls, leading the FL in the category in 2012. He is currently the closer for the Cyclones, getting his first nine career saves in that capacity so far. His career record is a low 177-121 and his 3.63 ERA will probably keep him out of the Hall of Fame anyway.

Ortíz was the 1993 Federal League Pitcher of the Year, going 21-5 with a 3.16 ERA for the Capitals, but he only whiffed 173 that season, quite a bit off his best mark of 198. 11 of his 17 seasons were spent with the Capitals and their early-90s dynasty that saw them in four consecutive World Series, winning the title twice, then once more in 1997. Ortíz, who ended up with a 209-152 record and 3.49 ERA would also pitch for the Gold Sox, Condors, Rebels, and Cyclones in the last six years of his career, but by then had lost most of his efficiency; he never achieved a winning record for a team not the Capitals. An All Star seven times, Ortíz was also known for his ability to keep walks to a minimum, with a 2.5 career BB/9 mark.

Fun fact: 1993 was not only Ramón Ortíz’s Pitcher of the Year season, it was also the third consecutive year for the Raccoons and Capitals to oppose another in the World Series. Ortíz would start Games 1, 4, and 7 for the Capitals, taking a win in the first start, a no-decision in the second, and a loss in the last one. Daniel Hall drove in the winning runs right in the first inning for the Raccoons’ still-most-recent championship.

(silence)

(stares blankly into the distance, a single tear running down the cheek)