[Westheim]

On Monday the Druid removed the cast that had rendered me immobile for the last month and change. I asked him whether I should walk with crutches now or be extra cautious when doling out butt kickings, but he said no, then immediately stared into the distance. When I asked him whether I could see the X-rays he said that he hadn’t kept them, which was also weird, since we had an entire folder of Daniel Hall’s X-rays from the 1980s still lying around. Then the Druid stood up, shook my hand and ran out of the room.

Oh well, all is normal again. Being in a wheelchair was no joy at all.

What is it, Cristiano?

Raccoons (56-68) vs. Loggers (55-67) – August 20-22, 2030

This 3-game set would radiate hopelessness in more ways than one. The Loggers were universally crummy, second from the bottom in runs scored, but also with the second-fewest runs allowed, and the Raccoons… well, the Raccoons were still entrapped in the most dire stretch in recent franchise history, having won but four games in the last three weeks combined, and having allowed two runs for every one run they had scored during the stretch. Maybe facing the Loggers was the right medicine to keep the team from going completely off the rails – 100 losses were still possible, and at the current rate could not entirely be ruled out… Also, the Raccoons held a 9-3 edge in the season series against Milwaukee, which was more or less normal business for the last two decades…

Projected matchups:
Dave Martinez (11-9, 4.05 ERA) vs. Mike Hodge (3-9, 4.67 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (5-9, 5.09 ERA) vs. Alfredo Casique (6-7, 3.94 ERA)
Tom Shumway (6-13, 4.22 ERA) vs. Francisco Colmenarez (14-4, 2.15 ERA)

Colmenarez, a surprise contender for Pitcher of the Year, would be the only left-hander in their rotation.

Regular season victory #4,500 could be achieved this week if this rotten franchise could win out. Eh, well… maybe next month…

Game 1
MIL: 3B Lockert – 2B Sessoms – SS W. Morris – 1B Cambra – LF Creech – RF V. Diaz – C F. Chavez – CF Koch – P Hodge
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – 3B Nunley – 1B Harenberg – RF Allan – LF Jamieson – CF Catella – C Tovias – P Martinez

This game began like any other – with a deficit. Matt Lockert ripped a single to left, gained a base on a wild pitch, Martinez walked Aaron Sessoms anyway, and despite the double play that Nunley started on Wayne Morris, Firmino Cambra still ripped a double past Ryan Allan to make it 1-0 Loggers with two outs, and Gabe Creech’s fly was also only caught on the warning track by Matt Jamieson. Allan could not reach a Sessoms fly that fell for a 1-out triple in the third inning, but he did get paws on Morris’ fly near the rightfield line, and when Sessoms tagged and went for it, threw out the second baseman at the plate. The Loggers went on to strand a full set in the fourth that stemmed from hits by Cambra and Francis Chavez, then an intentional walk issued to Chris Koch to get Hodge up with two down. Hodge obliged, hitting a weak comebacker for the third out. The Coons had yet to show up, but also loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning on clean singles by Allan and Jamieson, then an infield single that Lockert could not get to in time, spiked by Sean Catella. That pulled up Tovias, the .199 menace, with one out. To anybody’s surprise, he managed to turn a quick 0-2 into a sac fly to tie the score, and then Martinez slapped a single past Sessoms to give himself a 2-1 lead. Ramos bounced out to Cambra, though, stranding runners on the corners.

Hodge viciously came apart in the fifth inning; Stalker hit a leadoff jack, 3-1, and after Harenberg and Jamieson reached base, Catella ripped a 2-out, 2-run triple up the rightfield line. The Loggers walked Tovias intentionally, but Martinez landed another RBI knock to extend the lead to 6-1 before Ramos stranded another pair with a grounder to Morris. Martinez lasted only one more inning, conceding a run on a Chavez double in the sixth, but the Critters pulled that one back with Stalker singling, stealing, and scoring on a Harenberg single in the bottom 6th, 7-2. Now, five runs might sound plenty, but there were still ways to crap on a game like this. Jonathan Fleischer was no stranger to trouble in recent months, put Morris on base in the seventh, and with two outs Ramos threw away Creech’s grounder to put a pair in scoring position. Fleischer failed to buckle down, allowed a 2-run double to Vinny Diaz, and it was a much closer 7-4 again. Billy Brotman retired Chavez to end the inning, hung around to bat with two outs and nobody on in the bottom 7th, and was walked by a clueless Julio Palomo. Brotman, a 1-for-7 batter in his 9-year career, drew his first career base on balls, and initially didn’t quite know what to do with himself until the home plate umpire gave him pointers to first, and the first base umpire helpfully waved at him to get his attention. Ramos grounded out to short again; normally everything started with Ramos, but in this game, everything stopped with him, as he had now stranded five runners.

Top 8th, more misery. Brotman allowed a leadoff single to Koch, then a deep fly to right to PH Ricardo Ferrales. Allan raced back, made the catch at the fence, but failed to break momentum until, well, the fence helped hm. Allan rammed into the wall shoulder first, collapsed in a heap, and had to be dragged off the field on a stretcher. Rafael Gomez replaced him. The collision was so violent and vicious that Chris Koch was stunned and forgot to make a run for an extra base or two. Brotman was also gone, replaced by Chris Wise, who smashed Lockert in the foot with a 2-2 pitch. Lockert could not plant the foot afterwards, and Robbie Rios replaced *him*. Rios was a 21-year-old rookie speed demon who got into his 12th ABL game. Wise ended up retiring absolutely no one. Sessoms ripped an RBI single, 7-5, and Morris walked on four pitches. Garavito inherited the bases loaded with one out and got a Cambra grounder to short that the Coons turned 6-4-3, denying the Loggers an extra run. Matt Nunley hit a jack of left-hander Travis Feider in the bottom 8th to restore the 3-run lead, and Ricky Ohl insisted on putting Chavez and Koch on base with two outs in the ninth to bring up the tying run. Pinch-hitter Taylor Canody ran a full count, then struck out. 8-5 Coons. Stalker 2-5, HR, RBI; Harenberg 2-4, RBI; Jamieson 3-4; Catella 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Tovias 1-2, BB, RBI; Martinez 6.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, W (12-9) and 2-2, 2B, 2 RBI;

Roster move, obviously – Ryan Allan was shipped to the DL with a fractured shoulder blade (sigh!) which would rob him of about a month; we expected him back at the tail end of the season, though. Hopefully. Why are we so sad for losing a 28-year-old sophomore? Must have been the .302 bat he was carrying.

Abel Mora had just started a rehab assignment in AAA and was not yet called up again. How about a glimpse of Jimmy Wallace? The loot of the Jose Menendez trade last month was murdering baseballs in St. Pete, hitting .345/.426/.546 with six homers in 33 games. The plan was to have him play a few games until Mora would come back, and then give him a callup come September. The left-handed batting Wallace would turn 24 on April 1 and given the rate things were going at so far had little competition for a spot in the Opening Day lineup in ’31! He was strictly a corner outfielder, though, so center was between Baldwin and Magallanes for the rest of the week.

Come Wednesday morning, the Druid also smilingly presented me with my X-rays that he had now found. I expressed my concerns about the horse, whose broken leg was pictured on the foil. – Mena, I grew up on a farm. I know what a horse’s leg looks like!

The real concern here would be the single shotgun blast I heard a minute after the Druid left the office.

And as if I needed no other grief, our dearly beloved owner Nick Valdes stopped over in Portland on Wednesday night after just having made a small fortune in Asia, cornering the Bangladeshi market on rice. – What’s with all the losing, you ask? How much time do you have?

Game 2
MIL: RF Wheeler – 2B Sessoms – CF Creech – 1B Cambra – LF Ferrales – C Canody – SS Lockert – 3B V. Diaz – P Casique
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – 3B Nunley – 1B Harenberg – LF Hereford – RF Wallace – CF Catella – C Pizzo – P Gutierrez

The first time Jimmy Wallace touched the baseball in the major leagues, he committed a throwing error that gave Ferrales an extra base in the second inning. Ferrales was on second with nobody out after singling in Firmino Cambra, who himself had hit a double, and yes, Rico Gutierrez looked disturbingly hittable. The signs were subtle, like outfielders running away from home plate on every play, and the contact was so loud that the airport called and complained that it was disrupting air traffic control in the tower. Jimmy Wallace went on to lead off the bottom 2nd, looping a ball over the foot-sore Lockert’s head for a single on the first pitch he saw in the Bigs. Catella walked, Pizzo whiffed, and Casique got greedy on Rico’s bunt and tried to snatch the rookie at third base, but failed – all paws were safe, and Ramos batted with three on and one out. After spending all of Tuesday as the Death of Offense, Alberto worked his eye rather than his paws and squeezed a walk in a full count, pushing in Wallace with the tying run. Portland took the lead on Stalker’s sac fly, and with two outs Matt Nunley – stepping in with 999 RBI – hit a fly into the gap, Ferrales missed it, and this was in and would get Nunley to four digits for runs clubbed home for his storied career! Gutierrez was such a slow runner that Ramos picked him up and carried him halfway between third base and home plate, and when they scored it was 4-1. Casique threw a wild pitch and walked Harenberg before the second inning ended like the first, with Rich Hereford striking out to strand a pair – but in between the Nunley double and Harenberg stepping in, the Raccoons flashed up Nunley’s career achievements on the scoreboard and everybody went out there to cuddle him and had him a piece of cake. Nunley didn’t dig the cuddles, but dug into the cake right away.

None of the cuddles could change Rico Gutierrez being long-term-contracted dog ****, though. The Loggers hit three straight singles to begin the third, scored twice in the inning, and it was 4-3 at that point. He began the fourth with a 3-1 count to Diaz, who flew out to deep center, then fell to 3-0 on Casique – who popped out when poking!! Incredible! Can anybody here play this game?? The answer would probably be NO. The very next pitch struck Mike Wheeler in the knee. Wheeler crawled to the dugout right away, replaced by Robbie Rios, who, remember, was a speed demon that might give Ramos headaches soon enough. Rios, who so far had only one stolen base, went right away, but Sessoms poked and flew out to Catella. Four innings in, Gutierrez had thrown 80 pitches, all of them utter ****. Speaking of ****, Casique walked Rico to begin the bottom 4th… and then Ramos hit into a 4-3-6 double play. WHAT THE –

Rico somehow lasted six without blowing the lead, owing to two neat defensive plays by Catella and Wallace in the fifth, and a double play turned on Lockert, who was still feeling that foot treatment from the previous night, in the sixth. The night at the comedy club, however, was yet to see its final bit. Bottom 6th, Casique got an out from Pizzo before allowing a pinch-hit single to Jamieson. Ramos hit into a fielder’s choice (oh boy!), and Stalker grounded to the ailing Lockert, who had to navigate both the ball and his sore limb and then misfired a throw to first that Cambra couldn’t coral and that escaped for a 2-base error into the dugout. Nunley hit a 2-2 pitch to shallow left, Ferrales couldn’t reach it, then overran the single that fell six inches in front of his glove. That was the second error of the inning and it allowed the Coons to tack on a pair rather than just one run, 6-3. It became 7-3 in the seventh when Rafael Gomez drew a pinch-walk with the bags full and one out against John Nelson. Ramos was next and spanked into a double play. Oh boy! That was the final headscratcher in the game, though. The rest of the way there was spotless relief and defense, with Surginer and Derks chipping in for the Critters. 7-3 Raccoons. Nunley 3-5, 2B, 4 RBI; Wallace 3-4, 2B; Jamieson (PH) 1-1;

Here is a tidbit… we have now won back-to-back games for the first time since July 25-26 against the Baybirds and Falcons. It is the first time that we won back-to-back games from the same opponent in more than a month. The last such occurrence? Why, July 16-17, against the Loggers.

We want to play the Loggers 162 times a year now.

Here is another cocky thought – how about our first winning week since BEFORE the All Star Game?

Unrelated, why is the head of a dead horse sticking out of the dumpster behind the ballpark?

Game 3
MIL: RF Wheeler – 2B Sessoms – SS W. Morris – CF Creech – 1B Cambra – C Canody – LF Lockert – 3B Parten – P Colmenarez
POR: CF Magallanes – SS Stalker – LF Jamieson – 1B Harenberg – 3B Hereford – RF Gomez – 2B Baldwin – C Tovias – P Shumway

Maybe the sweep was possible against Colmenarez, who looked like he would both deserve to be on, and wish to be on a better team than he was. Jason Parten fumbled a Magallanes grounder in the third inning and Tim Stalker went yard to left, which gave the Coons a 2-0 edge and maybe Tim Stalker was now finally awaking for a million dollar slumber, too. Tom Scumbag scattered three singles in the first five innings and never let the Loggers get too close for comfort, too, so this could be the Coons’ first sweep since… oh… uhm… when was that series where Vern Kinnear hit three homers against the Elks?

But Shumway also threw a lot of wasteful pitches. In the sixth he faced four batters, issuing a walk to Wayne Morris, and no plate appearance lasted fewer than five pitches. He was over 100 already when Canody ripped a 1-out double in the seventh, and with right-handed batters approaching as the tying run, including Lockert still seeking revenge, the Coons went to the pen to get some righty relief. Chris Wise struck out Lockert, then walked Parten and went on to surrender three straight 2-out RBI singles to Colmenarez (…), Wheeler, and Sessoms before Morris popped out over the infield. The Raccoons would get the tying run on when Ramos hit a leadoff single in the #9 hole in the bottom 8th. Magallanes ran a 3-1 count, then hit a bouncer back to Colmenarez, who turned a 1-6-3 double play. Fleischer held the Loggers close in the ninth, but Max Nelson removed Jamieson and Harenberg in short order to begin the bottom 9th. Nunley batted for the chronic strikeout that didn’t win the Player of the Year award in ’28, doubled to left-center, and now the winning run would come up. Asking for dice, the Coons sent the rookie Wallace to bat for Gomez to counter the right-handed Nelson. One strike. Two strikes. Thr-poked to right, in for a single, and Nunley had gone on contact and came around to score. Tied game, first career RBI for Jimmy Wallace!!

That gave us extra innings; Fleischer was still in and got around a leadoff double by Sessoms in the 10th, whiffing the next two and getting Cambra to roll out to Baldwin, who had ended the bottom 9th with a grounder to Morris. The Coons also got a double in Nelson’s second inning, that one of the pinch-hit variety and with one out off Mike Pizzo’s bat. This got us back to the top of the order, where Magallanes had reached base twice on accounts of that error and of being nailed once, but was 0-for-3. The last man on the bench was Catella, so it was a gamble… the Coons didn’t take it; they’d still get up Stalker afterwards. Magallanes flew out to center on the first pitch, and Stalker walked against Nelson, bringing up Jamieson, who was 1-for-4 and theoretically also a valid option to be hit for by Catella, but then we also could have done it two spots earlier. Jamieson ran a full count, poked a 3-2 pitch to right, Sessoms couldn’t reach it, and even Pizzo scored from second base by the time the deep-playing Koch got to the ball. 4-3 Furballs! Jamieson 2-5, RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-1, 2B; Wallace (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ramos (PH) 1-1; Pizzo (PH) 1-1, 2B; Shumway 6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K; Fleischer 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (3-3);

Now, before we get too carried away with this sweep, uhm… there’s another team coming in now…

Raccoons (59-68) vs. Condors (86-41) – August 23-25, 2030

First in runs scored, first in runs allowed, first in the South, first up and down almost every category. Their run differential was +224 in August! There were few things that were not to love about these Condors, except, well, they were the Condors… They were only a mild 4-2 against us this year.

Projected matchups:
Mark Roberts (11-8, 4.18 ERA) vs. Jorge Villalobos (12-8, 2.73 ERA)
Sean Rigg (2-3, 5.51 ERA) vs. George Griffin (8-4, 2.41 ERA)
Dave Martinez (12-9, 4.01 ERA) vs. Jeff Little (9-4, 2.86 ERA)

Another southpaw on Sunday, probably. They had had an off day, and they could also hit us with another southpaw, Joe Perry (12-6, 2.86 ERA), if they so chose. The Condors were without OF Chris Murphy (.260, 9 HR, 52 RBI), who was out with a strained anterior cruciate ligament, but other than that were not missing any significant pieces right now.

Oh. Well. Boys? Don’t get hurt, ya hear me? Don’t get hurt.

Game 1
TIJ: C Zarate – RF Camps – 3B Sanks – 1B McGrath – SS C. Miller – LF Braun – CF Palbes – 2B R. Herrera – P Villalobos
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – 3B Nunley – 1B Harenberg – LF Hereford – RF Wallace – CF Catella – C Pizzo – P Roberts

Lacking the stuff of years gone by, Mark Roberts had a hard time dealing with constant traffic on the bases. The Condors had three singles the first ime through, but didn’t score, then had a walk drawn by Juan Camps and two more singles hit by the disgusting skunk weasel Shane Sanks, .320 with 15 homers, and Kevin McGrath right after that in the top 3rd. McGrath’s single plated Camps for the first run in the game. The Coons had yet to find a way on base against Villalobos, who would go on to retire 11 straight to begin the game before walking Matt Nunley. And then he hung a ball to Harenberg that was absolutely destroyed for a score-flipping 2-out, 2-run blast to right. Annoyingly, Hereford and Wallace also had 2-out hits to keep the line moving, but Catella struck out to strand them. Roberts couldn’t hold on to the lead, either; Danny Zarate hit a double off the wall to begin the fifth, advanced on Camps’ grounder, then scored when the skunk weasel dropped a single into leftfield. Sanks would reach third base with a stolen base and Pizzo’s throwing error during the same, but Ramos handled McGrath’s grounder to end the inning in a 2-2 tie.

Ties were made for breaking. Top 7th, Zarate singled, was caught stealing, and with two outs Camps singled, and stole second. Roberts now faced the skunk weasel again, the count ran full, it was going to be his last batter, and ****ing Shane Sanks doubled up the leftfield line to cause huge deflation in everybody present or watching at home or on the road, on their portable foldout widescreens. Surginer got out of the inning, and the Coons went on get a leadoff single by Magallanes, batting in the #9 hole after a double switch, in the bottom 8th. Ramos grounded out, moving the tying run to second base, and Stalker popped out. Villalobos was done when he lost Nunley on balls, with righty George Barnett to face Harenberg with two on and two outs. Harenberg hit a gapper to right-center, Camps cut it off at the edge of the warning track, Magallanes scored casually, and Nunley was waved around from first base, and tumbled over home plate just ahead of Andy Hughes’ relay throw! It was Harenberg’s second score-flipper of the night! Barnett was torn apart for another two runs on Hereford’s RBI double, then Wallace’s RBI single that made it 6-3. Ricky Ohl blasted the side with three strikeouts in the ninth. Victory! 6-3 Critters! Harenberg 2-4, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Hereford 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Wallace 2-4, 2B, RBI; Jamieson (PH) 1-1; Magallanes 1-1;

Billy Brotman got the W for collecting the final out in the eighth inning.

This is our first streak of more than TWO consecutive games since June 6-10 (!) when the Coons won games from the Elks, Capitals, and Pacifics with productive offense (28 runs in those five games) and decent pitching (15 runs allowed in those five games). That June stretch was the Raccoons’ only winning streak better than four games on the season…

Game 2
TIJ: C Zarate – RF Camps – 3B Sanks – 1B McGrath – SS C. Miller – LF Braun – CF Palbes – 2B Hughes – P Griffin
POR: POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – 3B Nunley – 1B Harenberg – LF Hereford – RF Wallace – CF Catella – C Pizzo – P Rigg

Going to five games in a row would be hard, though, given that we were stuck with Sean Rigg for the middle game, and the Condors could peel the protective foil off an actual pitcher. The Coons’ plan to get through a handful of innings amounted to a leadoff walk issued to Danny Zarate at the top of the game. Zarate scored on McGrath’s 2-out single, Chris Miller also singled, and then Adam Braun took it over the fence for a 4-0 score. By the second, it was 8-0 on pretty much the same story. Leadoff walk to Andy Hughes, a bit of ****ing around with some second-tier players, and then Rigg got taken over the fence by the ****ing skunk weasel for another 3-run shot. That was it – 1.1 innings, 8 runs, and a sure end to the winning streak.

The Coons got some consolation runs early this time. Sean Catella drove in a run in the second, and after a leadoff walk Griffin issued to Harenberg in the fourth, Rich Hereford smacked his first homer since ****ing July 12. The Coons got three innings of long relief from Nick Derks, who put six Condors on base, but allowed none to score, somehow, and the Condors only got another run in the seventh inning. Chris Miller hit a leadoff triple off Fleischer, Braun hit a sac fly to left, and Hereford hurt himself on the catch or the throw – it was hard to tell, because he was screaming so loud while rolled up into a perfect sphere but for the striped tail flicking back and forth as he rolled over the warning track. Jamieson replaced him, batting ninth (and leading off the bottom 7th) with Garavito replacing Fleischer. Garavito allowed two singles in the seventh, somehow wasn’t crashed for runs, but then walked Camps and Sanks to begin the eighth. Surginer was the next guy in on this very unpleasant day, got a double play from McGrath and Miller to fly out before taking a turn at-bat in the bottom of the inning, because it didn’t really matter… Mike Simcoe got peeled for a run in the bottom 9th, Ramos double, Stalker RBI single, but that was already with two outs. Nunley popped out to end the charade. 9-4 Condors. Ramos 3-5, 2B; Hereford 2-3, HR, 2 RBI; Catella 2-3, 2B, RBI; Derks 3.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K; Surginer 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Immediately we had another gassed bullpen… in an attempt at coping, the root of all evil, Sean Rigg (2-4, 6.84 ERA) was sent back to St. Pete and we brought up a long man in… sigh… Juan Barzaga.

Game 3
TIJ: C Zarate – CF Palbes – 3B Sanks – 1B McGrath – SS C. Miller – LF Braun – RF Ojeda – 2B Hughes – P Little
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Jamieson – 3B Nunley – 1B Gomez – RF Wallace – CF Baldwin – C Tovias – P Martinez

Ramos singled, stole TWO bases, and scored on a Nunley groundout for the first run of the game in the bottom 1st. The pair of stolen bases gave Ramos three for the week and tied for his own and Yoshi Yamada’s franchise mark for stolen bases in a single season at 54. Ramos was plunked the next time around, with nobody out in the third, but then his path was blocked by Dave Martinez, who had lobbed a leadoff single over Chris Miller. Stalker flew out, Jamieson hit a comebacker to Little for two, and nobody scored. The Condors tied it up the following half-inning on a skunk weasel double and Miller’s 2-out RBI single. Miller was then caught stealing, but I was still frustrated, and still was even when Rafael Gomez circled the bases pumping both fists after taking Little deep to left, 2-1. Yeah, Rafael, celebrate it – every one might be the last one now…

Martinez nibbled away at the Condors in the fifth and sixth, but lost Sanks on a leadoff walk in the seventh, which was trouble. Not that Sanks was inherently a base stealer, he had four this year, but … y’know… the baseball gods want to have fun, too! But for now, a K retired McGrath, and Miller and Braun made soft outs, and we actually had gotten a starter through seven innings for once…! How about an insurance run? The Coons got the whirling Wallace (.563 average!) on base to begin the bottom 7th, but Baldwin failed to bunt, finally was allowed to swing away, and then hit straight into a double play. Top 8th, Willie Ojeda hit a leadoff single against Martinez and after productive outs by Andy Hughes and Ken Kramer stood at third base with two down for Zarate, who had 58 RBI and was a tough costumer. He would be Martinez’ final batter of the game. He walked him…. AFTER he plated the tying run with a wild pitch. Deflation! Deflation everywhere. Brotman replaced him to face Juan Palbes, who was replaced with right-handed pinch-hitter Matt Dehne, who singled in a full count, putting them on the corners for Sanks, which was about ballgame. The Critters scurried for Ricky Ohl to save their sorry bacon, and he got Sanks to ground out to Nunley. Ha-hah! ****ing skunk weasel!!

Bottom 8th, the #9 spot led off, but the Coons had already made a double switch when Brotman had been inserted. Ohl was batting seventh, and Catella led off the inning with no success against Barnett, but Ramos hit a single, and everybody knew what was going to happen next – and the Condors still couldn’t throw him out. Ramos swiped second on strike one to Stalker, the 55th and record-setting stolen base for him in 2030! No more Yoshi Yamada haunting the history books! Stalker grounded out, but Jamieson hit an RBI double to give the Critters their third lead of the game at 3-2. Nunley grounded out to Miller, leaving things to Ohl in the ninth. For the second time this week he imitated Josh Boles way too closely with getting two out, then putting two on. Braun singled, PH Omar Larios walked. That brought up Hughes, a ho-hum .248 batter, right-handed. He rung him up to help the Coons to a stunning series win. 3-2 Critters! Ramos 2-3; Jamieson 2-4, 2B, RBI; Wallace 2-3; Martinez 7.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K and 1-2;

In other news

August 22 – A torn triceps ends the season of LAP SP Eric Williams (9-6, 3.38 ERA).
August 22 – ATL SP Enrique Guzman (8-8, 3.71 ERA) will be out for a year with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.
August 25 – The Canadiens acquire CL Alfredo Morua (4-6, 3.19 ERA, 31 SV) from the Stars for an unranked catching prospect.
August 25 – RIC SP Joe Hicks (5-15, 5.25 ERA) shines with a 3-hit shutout of the Gold Sox, whiffing seven in a 5-0 win.

Complaints and stuff

The damn Elks had preference with their own waiver claim of Morua and worked out a deal with the Stars. What is worse? That or that the ****ing skunk weasel won Player of the Week in a week he played the Critters? I have … (shakes and finally snaps and topples the desk) RAAAAAHH!!

…

The Matt Nunley Era will continue for another season, as the Coons and their longest-tenured player agreed on a $1M extension for the 2031 season this week. That might be the last year for Nunley. We have said the same sentence for what, five years running? By the way, while he reached and surpassed 1,000 RBI this week, that does not make him a top 100 RBI machine in ABL history, but the top 100 might be as little as a decent week’s work away. B.J. Manfull of those destructive Crusaders teams from ten, fifteen years ago sits in #100 with 1,012 RBI. Nunley has 1,004. Matt is #8 in career double plays hit into, though, with 335 two-for-ones, and second among active players behind Pat Fowlkes, who has 347.

Ahead of Nunley on the career double plays hit into list are seven players; five are first basemen, and the other two are in the Hall of Fame: Antonio Esquivel (404) and Jimmy Roberts (366).

Meanwhile the Agitator is clamoring for the promotion of the young pitching prospects to the majors, but they are just not ready. Raffaello Sabre, the most advanced of the young crop I talked about a while ago, was 5-6 with a 4.61 ERA in AAA. He walked more than four batters per game and did not even strike out six. There was nothing to be gained by promoting him right now – although he would have to be placed on the 40-man roster by the time of this year’s rule 5 draft.

Here is another funny thing. Uhm… you know how Abel Mora started a rehab assignment in St. Pete early this week? Well, he’s not coming back. He has now come down with plantar fasciitis, and this thing should stretch well into September now…

Fun Fact: Jimmy Wallace likes vanilla ice cream.

Which is funny, because his scouting report says pretty much the same about him: “plain vanilla”. Where did all the excitement go?