[Westheim]

Raccoons (56-56) vs. Canadiens (60-53) – August, 6-8, 2029

I would like to claim that the damn Elks could do nothing more to hurt us, but that would probably be constitute begging for it. The season series stood 8-4 in the damn Elks’ favor, and the damn Elks were second in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed, in both categories now handily outpacing the Critters.

Projected matchups:
Mark Roberts (10-8, 3.41 ERA) vs. Joe Martin (9-8, 3.34 ERA)
Kyle Anderson (3-4, 2.30 ERA) vs. Estevan Delgado (9-6, 4.79 ERA)
Jamie O’Leary (1-5, 4.05 ERA) vs. Rodolfo Cervantes (1-3, 2.14 ERA)

Right, left, then right again, any of two righties involved in a Saturday double header for the damn Elks. The other was Victor Govea (6-4, 3.19 ERA).

Game 1
VAN: RF Tessmann – 2B Al. Medina – CF Wojnarowski – 3B Anton – C F. Garcia – SS Byrd – 1B N. Day – LF L. Gross – P J. Martin
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Jamieson – 1B Harenberg – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – RF Gomez – C Ivey – P Roberts

Right in the first inning, the damn Elks took the lead with an absolutely stupid run. Roberts opened the game with a K to Danny Tessmann, Alarico Medina popped out, but Brian Wojnarowski worked a walk. Roberts gave up a bloop single to Matt Anton at 3-1, the runner went to third, and Rafael Gomez was eager to nail him, but only threw the ball away for a run-scoring error. The Coons would get their chance in the bottom 2nd with singles by Mora and Nunley to go to the corners, then a walk drawn by Gomez – three on, nobody out for Shane Ivey, and let us make this brief, the Coons would not get a base hit anymore in this inning; they did take the lead, but not with a clutch hit. Ivey tied the score, grounding up the middle; Medina intercepted the ball behind the bag, but his only play was to first base as a run scored. Roberts whiffed, Ramos walked, and Stalker got nailed with a 2-out, 1-2 pitch to push home Nunley before Jamieson grounded out to John Byrd. From there, things actually got worse for the damn Elks. Harenberg opened the bottom 3rd with a single before Abel Mora drove a ball all the way to the fence in centerfield. Wojnarowski made the catch, but could not stop anymore before smashing face first into the boards out there, which were padded, but pads here, pads there, Wojnarowski collapsed into a heap at once and had to be carted off the field. The word was soon enough a pretty bad concussion and that the .274 batter with 15 homers was done for the year; Tim Campbell replaced him.

Through the middle innings, the Coons had a few scoring opportunities against a crumbling Joe Martin, but got only one add-on run on a Nunley sac fly in the fifth, an inning that started with Stalker and Jamieson on the corners and saw Abel Mora walked intentionally in hopes of a double play from Nunley, but the veteran hit one over to Tessmann to get Stalker home. Roberts held off the Elks for the most part. Fernando Garcia doubled off him at some point, but that was largely it after the rocky first inning. He got through seven on exactly 100 pitches and only five knocks, then got some more cushion when Tim Stalker got on base to begin the bottom 7th, stole second – his 10th, making him the second player with double digits in stolen bases on this team – but would have scored from any position but the dugout on Matt Jamieson’s ninth homer, a real shot to leftfield that made it 5-1 off right-hander Andy Purdy, who went on to surrender a gap double to Harenberg, had to walk Mora intentionally, and by now Matt Nunley was really miffed and fired a double down the line to plate both runners in a 4-run seventh, and there was still nobody out. Roberts might have come back out to face at least the lefty Tessmann to begin the eighth inning, but after Gomez whiffed against Chris Vazquez, another righty, and Ivey singled to put runners on the corners, Magallanes batted for him, with the Colombian’s grounder to short forcing an error on John Byrd that plated the final run of the 5-piece frame. Brotman, Surginer, and Fleischer pieced together another two scoreless frames to end this game. 8-1 Coons. Stalker 2-3, BB, RBI; Jamieson 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Harenberg 3-5, 2B; Mora 1-2, 2 BB; Nunley 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Roberts 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (11-8);

Funnily, Matt Nunley eventually did hit into that double play the Elks wanted so badly from him, but that was only in the eighth and then not in an intentional situation.

Game 2
VAN: CF Tessmann – RF N. Day – 1B D. Fisher – 3B Anton – 2B Al. Medina – C F. Garcia – SS Byrd – LF Campbell – P E. Delgado
POR: CF Magallanes – 2B Stalker – LF Jamieson – 1B Harenberg – C Tovias – RF Gomez – 3B Baldwin – SS Gerster – P Anderson

In a surprising development, the Raccoons sent eleven batters to the plate in the opening frame. Juan Magallanes reached twice on a single and a walk, while Tim Stalker made two outs, the only Coon to make out(s) on something other than a bunt (Anderson). They scored six, starting with a Jamieson RBI triple, continuing with an RBI single by Tovias, and a 3-run homer by Gomez. The sixth run scored on a passed ball charged to Garcia. It was the only inning for Estevan Delgado, who was hit for with Curtis Hargraves with two on and two outs in the top 2nd, but Hargraves flew out easily to centerfield to strand the runners. Alarico Medina would bring in a run for the Elks in a long third in which the damn Elks loaded them up against Anderson, but only got the groundout from Medina for a rally before Garcia flew out to left. In turn, the bottom 3rd saw a 1-out walk drawn by Baldwin, who was caught stealing, then another walk issued by Jonathan Shook to Gerster. Anderson singled, Magallanes hit an RBI single, and Tim Stalker whopped one for another 3-piece to left, exploding the tally to 10-1.

Anderson would concede one more run while not going six innings due to a combo of just too many messy pitches out of the zone that the damn Elks didn’t cash in on, and also that Butch Gerster throwing error in that sixth inning that conspired against him. Mauricio Garavito ended up surrendering the run on a 2-out single by Tessmann, and as the game wore on the Coons had to use their best relievers in a blowout, because the meager relievers were simply overworked. Stonecipher pitched one inning in he seventh, and then *Boles* got into the eighth with the left-handed bats drawing up, and Ohl got the ninth. In between, Juan Magallanes remained unretired by drawing a leadoff walk in the bottom 8th, then left the game with a bum knee after running to third on the following Stalker single. Abel Mora had to cover for him and scored one of the Coons’ two runs in the inning. None were scored off Ohl. 12-2 Furballs. Magallanes 3-3, 2 BB, RBI; Stalker 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Harenberg 3-4, BB; Tovias 2-5, RBI; Gerster 2-3, BB;

Magallanes was day-to-day with knee soreness, probably three days with only light duty guarding the ice cream buckets in the dugout. Well, that would be the series finale, which Mora would start against a righty, then an off day after that… and we also still had rule 5 pick Chris Baldwin to cover.

Game 3
VAN: CF Tessmann – RF N. Day – 3B Anton – 1B D. Fisher – SS Byrd – C F. Garcia – 2B Al. Medina – LF Campbell – P Govea
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Jamieson – 1B Harenberg – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – C Tovias – RF Rodriguez – P O’Leary

The weather was iffy, and O’Leary was, too. The Elks hit him for a steady stream of singles, plating two runs in the first inning (which were unearned thanks to a Nunley error before three 2-out singles lit up the board), and another run in the second. The Coons had a Ramos Special in the bottom 1st, a single, stolen base, and a score on Jamieson’s single, then plate two with a 2-out homer by Wilson Rodriguez in the bottom 2nd, making it three-for-all after only two frames… and all that in a drizzle.

O’Leary allowed a leadoff single to Fisher in the third, which would be the last hit off him. Byrd flew out to center before game went into a rain delay that took almost two hours to pass. O’Leary did not emerge on the other side of it. By necessity, the Critters went to Fleischer, who walked Garcia, but then grinded his way out of the inning. Shook was in for the damn Elks in the bottom 3rd, got around a Jamieson single to begin the inning when the runner was caught stealing, but served up a leadoff jack to Nunley in the fourth that put Portland 4-3 ahead. The Coons got 2.2 innings from Fleischer before Stonecipher took over in the sixth and walked a pair. Brotman replaced him and twice tried to surrender a gapper, once to PH Hargraves in the sixth and again to Norman Day in the seventh. Both times Jamieson warped into the gap and spoiled the attempt. But the Coons had their own struggles with the Elks’ pen and the Nunley dinger was their only gain after the starters were carried away by the floods. Ricky Ohl struck out Byrd and Garcia in the eighth before Medina singled in a full count. Ricky Ortiz pinch-hit and grounded out to end the inning. Yet with the Critters not getting past a 2-out single by Ivey in the bottom 8th, there remained to be no cushion for Boles in the ninth inning, with Sean Light pinch-hitting to get it going. He struck out. Tessmann grounded out to a lunging Nunley, who could still let that glove sparkle more often than he made errors, and Norman Day’s sharp grounder went right at Stalker to sweep the damn Elks outta the park. 4-3 Critters! Jamieson 2-4, RBI; Harenberg 2-3, BB; Tovias 1-2, 2 BB; Ivey (PH) 1-1; Fleischer 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (1-1);

Hah. **** the Elks!

Raccoons (59-56) @ Stars (52-60) – August 10-12, 2029

The Stars were in last place in the West, but not yet out of miracle range, 12 games behind the top. But, well, yeah, it had to be a pretty impressive miracle. On the other hand, the Coons’ pitching (including Roberts) in a hitter’s park was a not a pleasant thought… The Stars were not utilizing their own park well, a major problem in their decade of agony that was still continuing (ever since trading Hugo Mendoza, pointlessly, to Portland) and were in the bottom three in runs scored in the Federal League. They were allowing the fifth-most runs. The Raccoons had lost the last two series with the Stars, which coincided with their two recent title seasons – we had been swept in ’26, and had won only one game in ’28. The last Raccoons series win stemmed from 2024, two outta three.

Projected matchups:
Allen Reed (4-2, 4.70 ERA) vs. Jong-hoo Cho (9-7, 3.72 ERA)
Mark Roberts (11-8, 3.32 ERA) vs. Justin Osterloh (6-7, 4.99 ERA)
Kyle Anderson (4-4, 2.22 ERA) vs. Chris Brooks (2-6, 3.99 ERA)

Three righties to be expected here.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Jamieson – 1B Harenberg – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – RF Gomez – C Tovias – P Reed
DAL: LF Hensley – 2B Hendricks – CF Botzet – 3B S. Green – C Stickley – SS Clooken – RF Madrigal – 1B Odescalchi – P Cho

Ramos had the Coons’ first two hits, singles in the first and second that he twinned with a pair of steals, but he was only scored the second time around thanks to Jack Stickley’s throwing error on the stolen base attempt. Tim Stalker brought him in with a groundout. Immediately, the bottom of the Dallas order overturned Allen Reed: Danny Madrigal hit a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd, Raimondo Odescalchi tripled, then scored on Cho’s groundout to put the Stars up 2-1. Cho added another RBI to his tally of then eight, plating Madrigal with a sac fly in the bottom 5th. Madrigal had opened with a double to left, and then with two outs and nobody on Reed shuffled the bags full on a Tony Hensley single and then walks to Eric Hendricks and Aaron Botzet before Sam Green flew out to Mora anyway. The Coons at that point were yet waiting for another base hit, but also hadn’t had Ramos up yet again… Ramos grounded out to begin the sixth though, and Jamieson’s 2-out single led nowhere in particular with Harenberg whiffing against right-hander Omar Vega, who had relieved Cho after Jamieson reached.

The Coons got the tying runs aboard with Mora and Nunley singles off Vega to begin the seventh. Gomez popped out, and then the Critters actually hit for Tovias just to stay out of the double play. Butch Gerster hit for him and slipped a grounder past Silvio Clooken for an RBI single, and then Rodriguez whiffed in Reed’s spot. Ramos hit a soft pop to shallow left that Clooken caught hustling out, stranding the tying and go-ahead runs. Bottom 7th, Sean Rigg came in, threw three pitches, all of them being hit. John Jacobs and Eric Hendricks went to the corners with singles, and when Garavito replaced him against the .303 hitter Botzet, he got the batter to 1-2, and then still surrendered a sac fly. Sam Green grounded out, keeping it a 4-2 game. The Raccoons got Stalker on with a leadoff single in the eighth, but Jamieson got rung up by Tony Dominguez, and Harenberg smacked into a double play, and Rob Owensby allowed the Critters nothing in the ninth. 4-2 Stars. Ramos 2-4; Gerster (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Jamieson – 1B Harenberg – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – RF Gomez – C Tovias – P Roberts
DAL: LF Hensley – 2B Hendricks – CF Botzet – 3B S. Green – C Stickley – SS Clooken – RF Madrigal – 1B Odescalchi – P Osterloh

Ramos singled, reached second on a wild pitch, then scored on a Jamieson double, which was a bit of a variation to the usual drill. Jamieson however, once on base, experienced the usual drill, being stranded at third base through groundouts to Hendricks by the 4-5 duo in the lineup. Meanwhile we hoped dearly that Roberts had brought his stuff and would erase Stars right at the plate. It worked for a wee while, and before the Stars could rally, both pitchers ran the bases in the third. In the top half, Roberts hit a leadoff single, moved up on Ramos’ groundout to Odescalchi, then got picked off in a 5-4 double play when Stalker lined out to Sam Green. In turn, Madrigal hit a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd, was caught stealing, and then Justin Osterloh hit a 2-out double to right, but got stranded when Tony Hensley flew out to Gomez.

Harenberg’s solo bomb to right made it 2-0 in the fourth, and with two outs the Coons slapped out a string of singles, Nunley to right, Gomez to left, Tovias up the middle, to load the bases… for Roberts. But before Roberts whiffed to end the inning, Osterloh had a major meltdown. He threw a wild pitch to plate Nunley, then balked to score Gomez to run the score to 4-0. A major gift that Roberts better not refuse! Straight singles off Roberts to begin the bottom 4th by Hendricks, Botzet, and Green plated a run and brought up the tying run in a ****ing bandbox with nobody out… and that was still “Launchpad” Roberts on the mound…! Amazingly, the Stars failed to score more. Jack Stickley and Silvio Clooken were both retired on shallow pops, and Madrigal swung over the 3-2 pitch to end the inning. Roberts didn’t get blasted until the sixth, a leadoff jack by Botzet and no doubt about it, then cutting the lead to 4-2. Roberts was on 104 pitches, many of them wasted for no greater good, at that point, and was batted for in the top 7th for a Wilson Rodriguez single, but also no greater good. Brotman held up in the bottom of the inning, and the top 8th saw singles by Jamieson and Harenberg to get going. Mora popped out against Tony Dominguez, who then saw Stickley, normally a strong defensive catcher, complete another leg of the “stupid **** for runs” category, having a breaking ball escape through his legs for a passed ball that plated Jamieson. That made for a 5-2 lead, and all but one or MAYBE two of the Coons’ runs were scored less than honorably… Their record improved slightly with a Nunley RBI double to the fence in left, there was ANOTHER passed ball charged to Stickley, and then Dominguez walked Tovias with two outs as him and his catcher had clearly lived themselves apart and were heading for divorce. Ivey batted for Brotman, but struck out to keep it 6-2 in the middle of the eighth. Surginer held up in the bottom of the inning, a Ramos Special tacked on a run in the ninth, but Stonecipher was out of tune in the bottom 9th, hit a guy, walked a guy, threw a wild pitch, and allowed an RBI single to Odescalchi while getting only one run. Up by four with two on, Josh Boles came in once Gil Cornejo pinch-hit in the #9 hole. Boles nailed Cornejo to bring up the tying run, David Morales, who struck out, and then Hendricks sent a liner to center that Mora steamed after … and hauled in to end the game. 7-3 Coons. Harenberg 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-4, 2B, RBI; Rodriguez (PH) 1-1;

There were two changes in the Dallas pitching assignment for Sunday, with reliever Josh D’Agostino (2-2, 1.45 ERA) getting the nod. He was also a righty.

The second change was when a system of thunderstorms moved in – the game was postponed.

In other news

August 6 – LAP SP Jim Bryant (6-6, 4.22 ERA) might miss up to a year with a torn labrum.
August 7 – CHA 1B Pat Fowlkes (.280, 6 HR, 49 RBI) collects his 2,000th base hit in a 14-3 thrashing the Falcons suffer at the hands of the Knights. The 33-year-old 3-time All Star and career .298 batter with 183 HR and 924 RBI was not up for celebrating after the game.
August 9 – After eight hits and no runs, and trailing 1-0, back-to-back homers by 3B Ryan Czachor (.252, 4 HR, 21 RBI) and 2B/SS Jim McKenzie (.287, 7 HR, 30 RBI) flip the score against the Cyclones and allow the Miners to celebrate a 2-1 walkoff.
August 12 – Indy’s Mario Pizano (.299, 11 HR, 53 RBI) is out for a month with a broken thumb.

Complaints and stuff

(melancholically looks out the window over a deserted ballpark) Days’ getting shorter. It’s gonna be fall soon! … I should call up Cousin Carl, and learn who hosts Thanksgiving this year… Maud, can you put me through to Cousin Carl?

Right up until Sunday, we only would have needed a fifth starter only twice more this month. There is another off day on Monday, then more on August 23, August 30, and September 3, and by then rosters will have expanded and Rico Gutierrez might be able to finish up a rehab assignment. That was before the postponement on Sunday, with the game rescheduled for the 23rd. The Coons will put this in front of a Midwest road trip to Oklahoma and Vegas, but it will created a string of 16 straight games and will us require to get a #5 guy three times. Which sucks.

Rico should be heading to St. Pete to work on that rehab early next week. Rich Hereford might have started the week after that… but he suffered setback this week and will probably not head to St. Pete before the end of the month now; and in any case, that will be it, because Delgadillo and Shumway are not expected back until next year.

And since our rotation consists of Mark Roberts and scrubs, we can not go without the extra long man, which is basically Sean Rigg at this point, who after his 7-walk fiasco last week is not going to be getting more than the bare minimum of exposure in the starting lineup. He was probably going to make the spot start on August 18 against the Titans. He was probably going to get ****ed up real good. But now we needed a guy THREE times. And I really didn’t know who I should even expect to do anything nice at this point…

Saturday, Ramos tied Pizano with 45 SB for the ABL lead; Sunday, the Indians put Pizano on the DL. I am not going to lean too far out of the window here by claiming that Ramos has free reign for the stolen base title now as long as he can stay on the field. Third place in the CL is *20* sacks behind those two. Of course, Ramos has his sights set on taking the franchise mark for a single season all for himself. He tied Yoshi Yamada’s 2005 mark (54 SB) last year, and he wants to shatter it this time around. He also is at 189 for his career and although he is not even 24 years old he has recently cracked his way into the career top 100. He is currently tied for 86th!

ABL CAREER STOLEN BASE LEADERS (excerpt)
83rd – Melvin Greene – 191
t-84th – Hubert Green – 190
t-84th – Raúl Vázquez – 190 (HOF)
t-86th – Eddy Bailey – 189
t-86th – Alberto Ramos – 189
t-88th – Manuel Gomez – 188
t-88th – Victorino Sanchez – 188 (HOF)
90th – Kunimatsu Sato – 187

Alberto also leads the batting race at this point with a .344 clip, challenged mainly by ATL Andrew Showalter (.343). Harenberg is third in batting average, also in RBI, but has barely half Tony Coca’s homers (25), which is a shame.

What is it, Maud? – Why can’t you put me through to Cousin Carl? – What do you mean, ‘he died seven years ago’??

(clenches Honeypaws, all alone in the dark office)

Fun Fact: Five years ago today, the Blue Sox’ Juan Espinosa hit for the cycle in a 13-9 loss to the Crusaders.

Just like Tim Stalker lost his cycle game to the Gold Sox, 9-8, earlier this season. Also, Espinosa is a Crusaders now. Before Stalker, Rich Hereford had the most recent cycle in ABL history, last year against Indy. Rich Hereford used to be a Gold Sock.

I read all of that on a wall with lots of Post-It notes and pins and red string in a room in the basement. I am pretty sure that Nick Valdes is chasing a conspiracy down there.