Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Here are a few top 5 leaderboard entries, plus the next-closest active player - only countables; f.e. the ERA board is entirely occupied by closers, which to a degree is understandable. Players with * are active as of August 7, 2005:

Hits
1st - Dale Wales - 3,630 *
2nd - Jeffery Brown - 3,582
3rd - Cristo Ramirez - 3,305 *
4th - Paul Connolly - 3,023
5th - Diego Rodriguez - 2,993
6th - Vonne Calzado - 2,958 *

Home Runs
1st - Raúl Vázquez - 413 *
2nd - Michael Root - 338
t-3rd - Gabriel Cruz - 318 (HOF)
t-3rd - Anibal Rodriguez - 318
5th - Mark Dawson - 304
6th - Dan Morris - 300 *

RBIs
1st - Jeffery Brown - 1,545
2nd - Dale Wales - 1,543 *
3rd - Raúl Vázquez - 1,517 *
4th - Horace Henry - 1,410
5th - Michael Root - 1,364
8th - Aaron Jenkins - 1,279 *

Steals
1st - Moromao Hino - 485
2nd - Diego Rodriguez - 460
3rd - Cristo Ramirez - 395 *
4th - Paul Connolly - 366
5th - Xiao-wei Li - 357
6th - Daniel Silva - 346 *

Wins
1st - Woody Roberts - 279
t-2nd - Juan Correa - 272 (HOF)
t-2nd - Craig Hansen - 272
4th - Bastyao Caixinha - 262
5th - Aaron Anderson - 247 *
13th - Dennis Fried - 232 *

Saves
1st - Andres Ramirez - 770
2nd - Lawson Steward - 593
3rd - Grant West - 522 (HOF)
4th - Jim Durden - 519
5th - William Henderson - 498 *
9th - Javier Navarro - 432 *

Strikeouts
1st - Woody Roberts - 3,313
2nd - Carlos Asquabal - 2,995
3rd - Martin Garcia - 2,941 *
4th - Carlos Castro - 2,923 *
5th - Arnold McCray - 2,900
8th - Aaron Anderson - 2,786 *

Here's that Hall of Fame that refuses to get added to: (by the way, I had nothing to do with the inductees in the old OOTP 12, those were all picked by the Secret Ninja Committee, which is totally invisible; I completely missed my turn voting in the first HOF vote after the 2003 season, where nobody was inducted, and I *did* vote, mostly for a number of excellent pitchers, last winter, but still nobody got inducted...)

[Trebro]

This evening my spouse and I startled a Raccoon in the bushes! Sorry, we didn't get a uniform number.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (46-67) @ Crusaders (56-56) – August 8-10, 2005

We just haven’t been good at all (4-8) against the Crusaders this season, and the Crusaders hadn’t done well overall. Well, actually they had. Their run differential was +85, and they ranked in the top 3 in both runs scored and runs allowed, and yet they still lingered around at .500 – but they were also due for a breakout, I guess.

Projected matchups:
Tim Webster (2-2, 3.54 ERA) vs. Frank Pierre (8-10, 3.33 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-6, 2.55 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (12-5, 2.92 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (4-10, 4.22 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (6-9, 4.76 ERA)

We will finally have an off day after this series to rest them old bones…

Game 1
POR: 1B Sharp – SS Yamada – LF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 3B Searcy – C Wood – 2B Sheehan – CF King – P Webster
NYC: SS Rice – 1B D. Carroll – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – C D. Anderson – 3B Watts – CF Pena – 2B Moultrie – P Pierre

Tim Webster’s potentially final start for the Raccoons EVER saw him combed with a crowbar, and wound up with a screwdriver. He was clobbered in a 3-run first in which he issued a walk and a wild pitch, then a 2-run homer to Stanton Martin, and it didn’t get any better from there. The Crusaders added single runs in the second and fourth innings, then put two men on in the fifth and it was go time for Webster at that point. Rockburn couldn’t clean up, and those runners scored as well, leaving the Raccoons down by five runs, 7-2. While the Raccoons did precious little apart from leaving a pair of runners in scoring position twice rather than actually getting a clutch hit, and back into the game, Stanton Martin also took Ed Bryan deep in the seventh, making it 8-2, and at that point there wasn’t much else to do other than exploiting Ricardo Huerta’s rubber arm a bit more. Frank Pierre pitched a complete game, not exactly breaking into a sweat at any point. 8-2 Crusaders. Sharp 2-4, 2B; King 2-4, 3B, RBI; Huerta 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

The real question is who should replace Webster. Not that he is irreplaceable. Well, he might be for our organization.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B A. Martin – C Wood – SS Yamada – 2B Nomura – P Brown
NYC: CF P. Javier – 1B D. Carroll – LF M. Ortíz – 3B Watts – SS J. Hernandez – RF Britton – C Williamson – 2B Moultrie – P Reeves

What figured to become a pitchers’ duel was spiced up early on with a leadoff homer by Daniel Sharp, and by Brown striking out the first two batters he faced before drilling Ortíz and hitting Watts, and clearly showing that he still was not 100% locked in again. The Crusaders would not get a hit until the fourth inning, but the Raccoons couldn’t scratch Whit Reeves for anything else, either, and so the game remained 1-0 for quite a while. If nothing else, however, three walks in the game and a few other long counts shot Brown’s pitch count skywards and he left after seven innings of 1-hit ball, expending 105 pitches to get there. The Coons offense was not threatening at all, but it’s alright, Nick, we’ve got Bruno and Casas ready, we’ve got you covered. Or maybe Bruno would allow a leadoff hit to pinch-hitter Luis Soto in the bottom 8th, suddenly we were encroached by left-handed bats and we had to change plans on the fly. Moreno came in to face left-handed pinch-hitter Roberto Pena, who then dropped down a bunt, moving Soto to second with one out. Dave Carroll, who saw a 13-game hitting streak drifting away, grounded out poorly to Martin, moving Soto to second. Since I didn’t fancy our chances for a 4-out save from Casas starting with the right-hander Watts any better than if we let Moreno pitch to Martin Ortíz (17 HR), a left-hander, we stuck with Moreno. Ortíz doubled, and the game was tied. Brownie bit into a towel in the dugout. The Raccoons couldn’t touch Charlie Deacon with a 15-foot pole in the top of the ninth, and in the bottom of the same inning Kaz Kichida was wild, and then got cashed in on by Ron Williamson with a walkoff double. 2-1 Crusaders. Sharp 3-4, HR, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K;

The only other Raccoon that reached base besides Sharp was Yoshi Nomura with a single. Everybody else went up, looked like a sad jester at what Reeves and Deacon (DEACON!!) flung at them, and sat down again.

Poor Brownie. You DO deserve a better team.

Game 3
POR: 1B Sharp – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – RF Greenman – C L. Ramirez – 3B Searcy – SS Yamada – 2B Sheehan – P F. Garcia
NYC: SS Rice – 1B D. Carroll – RF S. Martin – C D. Anderson – CF P. Javier – 3B Watts – LF Britton – 2B Moultrie – P A. Javier

There was rain and a rain delay lasting half an hour quite early in this game, and before and after that the Raccoons left two men on base in the second and third innings. In the bottom 3rd then Gary Rice hit a homer just over the wall, while Leon Ramirez’ shot in the top 4th fell just a few feet short and was caught by Paco Javier. What would the Critters have to do to get on the board? No clue, they just didn’t. Top of the sixth, they got three singles, loaded the bases, and it ended with a soft fly to center by Sheehan that was also nabbed by Javier, who seemed to be everywhere. Like Brown the day before, Garcia pitched quite a good game, also with some ill control, but not a fatal cause of such, but other than Brown he already left on the hook after seven innings of 4-hit, 1-run ball, and remained on the hook when despite an error that allowed Brady to reach base to start the eighth, the team couldn’t pull their heads out of their asses and didn’t score again. The Crusaders got a completely unnecessary run off Angel Casas in the bottom 8th when he drilled Rice to start the inning and they brought him around masterfully, you know, with a hit. And then Charlie Deacon drilled Sheehan to start the top 9th, but … oh, just go all away. 2-0 Crusaders. Garcia 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, L (4-11);

I vaguely remember seeing some offense last week, 45 runs in eight games, but somehow the lineup seems to have been re-pumpkined. Which makes me sad. What a fantastic sweep, and one that absolutely nobody could have ever seen coming at all.

Unless we manage a sweep in the final 3-set of the year, we will post our worst result against the Crusaders in 25 years…

Raccoons (46-70) @ Gold Sox (63-51) – August 12-14, 2005

With middling offensive and defensive efforts, the Gold Sox couldn’t really enjoy their second place in the FL West, since they were close to completely falling out of contention, 10 1/2 games behind the Stars. They needed a sweep and they needed it now.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (3-9, 4.37 ERA) vs. Victor Bernal (14-6, 4.06 ERA)
Ben Carlson (5-8, 3.93 ERA) vs. Jerry Lane (2-9, 5.58 ERA)
Tim Webster (2-3, 5.01 ERA) vs. Jaime Aguila (5-5, 3.87 ERA)

Last chance for the Webster, really, I mean it.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – CF Wheaton – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – 2B Nomura – SS Yamada – C Wood – P Ford
DEN: CF Gentil – 2B Correa – LF A. Jenkins – 3B J. Lopez – RF Pujols – SS J. Amador – C A. Ortíz – 1B Michel – P Bernal

While the visiting lineup continued to sparkle with ineptness, the Gold Sox jumped out for a run in the first inning before Jesus Amador struck out to leave two men stranded, an outcome that would repeat itself in the third inning. By the fourth however, Ford gave up more hard contact. Alfredo Ortíz doubled, and then former Raccoon Samy Michel – of course – came through with a 2-run home run that Brady didn’t even bother to run after. The Coons never even had more than one runner on base in an inning and looked outright terrible against Bernal, while Ford lumbered through six in a nominally quality start that was anything but. The Gold Sox didn’t bother to go to the pen in a 3-0 game in the ninth, even when Bernal walked Brady to start the frame. Greenman sent a drive to deep right, but the baseball gods said NO and moved Pedro Pujols in place to snag it and Brady barely scrambled back to first base. Martin hit a bloop single – still on sign of the closer. Nomura hit a proper single then, loading them up, and here came Scott Hood, 84 strikeouts in 57 innings, and he would face Yamada. Yoshi-Y, who had been on base ONCE the entire week so far, became #85 and then Edgardo Fernandez popped out to left. 3-0 Gold Sox.

In case you stumbled counting, we haven’t scored since Daniel Sharp’s leadoff jack in the first inning of Brownie’s start on Tuesday. That’s 26 scoreless innings.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – 2B Nomura – SS Sheehan – C Wood – P Carlson
DEN: CF Gentil – 2B Correa – 3B J. Lopez – RF Pujols – SS J. Amador – C A. Ortíz – LF Parker – 1B Michel – P Aguila

The Coons reached 27 scoreless innings when a terribly struggling Clyde Brady hit into a double play, before Christian Greenman ended the misery with a leadoff homer in the second inning that put the Raccoons up 1-0, a fragile lead that in Carlson’s hand evaporated quickly with a 2-out RBI double by Michel, who had fun torturing his old team. Then the unbelievable happened. The Coons scored another run! It was not until the fifth, but it gave them the lead when Fernandez doubled in Carlson with one out and appeared in scoring position trailing Daniel Sharp – Carlson and Aguila made it a sport of its own to put each other on base in this game. Then came Brady, lifted a ball to center for an out, Sharp tagged with awful timing, went too late, and was thrown out. Carlson went to hell in the sixth when Zak Davidson, who had replaced an injured Jesus Amador, singled to left to get started. That was followed by drilling Ortíz, and a walk to our past own Chris Parker. Still no outs. Moreno came in, got Michel to pop out and struck out Aguila, then yielded for Bruno with the right-hander Bryan Gentil up, and Bruno got a casual fly right to his man Fernandez. Still 2-1 Coons!

Bruno pitched a quick seventh, with the Coons leaving runners on base both in the top of that and the next inning. Bottom 8th, Ed Bryan retired a pair of left-handers, then walked Parker. And Aaron Jenkins. With righty David Mendez also out to pinch-hit, Rockburn came in, got a grounder to Yamada, and Yamada bungled it. Bases loaded for Bryan Gentil, who was 0-4 on the day and fired the first pitch he saw to deep right, where Greenman made the catch right against the wall! Dave Wheaton then hit a leadoff single in the ninth, batting for Rockburn in the #7 slot, but then Wood and Yamada made outs. Sharp came up, sent a liner to left center and it vanished in the gap, scoring Wheaton on a 2-out double! That run came back big, since Casas continued to be not sharp at all and allowed two singles and a run in the bottom 9th, Zak Davidson hitting him for a 2-out RBI single. 3-2 Coons. Sharp 2-5, 2B, RBI; Fernandez 3-5, 2B, RBI; Martin 2-3, BB; Wheaton (PH) 1-1; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

If Yamada doesn’t get on base, he can’t steal anything. And if he makes stupid errors on top of that, he’ll be worth less than my worn, sweaty socks, and be treated appropriately.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – LF Wheaton – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – 2B Sheehan – C L. Ramirez – SS Yamada – P Webster
DEN: CF Gentil – 2B Correa – LF A. Jenkins – SS J. Lopez – RF Pujols – C A. Ortíz – 3B Davidson – 1B Michel – P Lane

Webster pitched like crap, and the defense held on with double plays turned in the second and third innings to keep him in the game. Defense finally ran out in the fourth when Webster got whacked tremendously, and was removed after a 2-out RBI single by Lane that ran the score to 3-0. Kichida came in, surrendered another two runs on a Gentil triple, and their 5-spot put the Gold Sox up by … five. There was no length to be gained from Kichida in this game, and ultimately most guys in the pen paraded through the innings in a hopeless loss. The Raccoons got as close to scoring as runners on the corners in the top 8th, but Searcy popped out foul, and that was history, and they then went down without a whimper against William Henderson in the ninth, in the 3,815th game in team history in which they could not hurt a pitcher with a 5+ ERA (out of 3,822 chances). 5-0 Gold Sox. Martin 2-4;

Bye Tim. Don’t get your fat, ugly ass stuck in the door on your way to St. Pete.

In other news

August 8 – SFW 1B/2B Dave Heffer (.289, 0 HR, 23 RBI) comes up with a second inning single off Jaime Aguila in the Warriors’ 5-4 win over the Gold Sox, reaching the 2,000 hits milestone. Heffer, 33, was drafted by the Warriors out of high school in 1990 and spent his entire career – except 2004, when he was with the Falcons – with the team.
August 9 – OCT SP Aaron Anderson (13-7, 2.61 ERA) has suffered an oblique strain and should miss the rest of the month of August.
August 12 – Milwaukee’s Bartolo Hernandez (.342, 4 HR, 47 RBI) becomes the second player all year to craft a 25-game hitting streak with one hit in a 3-2 Loggers loss to the Pacifics. It will be the last breath of the streak – the Pacifics would hold him 0-3 the following day.
August 12 – The Titans kill the Scorpions, 10-0, with Joe Mann (11-8, 4.56 ERA) tossing a 2-hit shutout.

Complaints and stuff

Remember how Lewis Donaldson entered the Coons game a few weeks ago with a 1.99 ERA? We got a few runs off him, and the sockings have continued and he has dropped behind Brownie now in the ERA race. However, Brownie still doesn’t lead the ERA race, since Martin Garcia stealthily moved past him, by a single point of ERA.

Tom Ingram came off the DL mid-week but was outrighted to AAA straight away.

Clyde Brady’s summer slumps are a great annoyance. Next year, we will either shoot him in the foot on July 1 before it usually gets ugly, or if that fails just designate him onto the 60-day holidays list.

Did you know: Dan George pitched a no-hitter against the Crusaders on April 3, 1996, walking six and whiffing seven.

Raccoons Revisited: In 1981, Logan Evans set the franchise record for shutouts in a season with three, a mark that was matched several times, but broken only once, by Jason Turner, who pitched four shutouts in 1989.

Service announcement: I am back to work tomorrow (NOOOOOOOOO!!!! I DON'T WANNA GO!!! NOOOOOOO-HO-HO-HOOO!!!!) and we will revert to the standard update rhythm then, so about two updates from Monday to Thursday, and two or three on the weekend. If, however, some of you could pool together to fund me with $1,000 a month, we could do something about that.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (47-72) vs. Capitals (57-62) – August 15-17, 2005

We have played more important games against the Capitals, that is for sure. Despite the best offense anywhere in the ABL (merely 604 to the Coons’ paltry 397), the Capitals couldn’t keep their heads above the .500 line. Although their pitching was struggling, they did score more runs than they conceded, but then you add some rotten luck and you get a team that is almost ten games out in the middle of August. The Capitals are one of only four Federal League teams that we still have a winning record overall against (18-15). Don’t you dare break it, boys!

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (10-6, 2.44 ERA) vs. Harry Wentz (6-12, 4.27 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (4-11, 4.08 ERA) vs. Seiichi Sugiyama (8-14, 5.79 ERA)
Ralph Ford (3-10, 4.37 ERA) vs. Roberto Baca (7-8, 4.71 ERA)

That’s three right-handers, and we will gladly accept that we don’t have to run up against Chris York (13-9, 2.99 ERA), who had merely 217 strikeouts on this season. We will also don’t get to see our former front man David Brewer, who’s injured, and ex-Elk Luis Arroyo, who’s too.

Game 1
WAS: SS Lulli – 2B Nichols – LF V. Sanchez – CF Alexander – C C. Ramos – 1B O’Morrissey – RF E. Wood – 3B Yamamoto – P Wentz
POR: 3B Sharp – LF Brady – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – C B. Wood – SS Yamada – 2B Nomura – P Brown

And the Capitals went out and killed Brownie. Not with any power, but with singles. And endless flood of singles. It started with an infield single by Carlos Ramos, Nomura being too slow, with nobody out in the second inning. O’Morrissey and Elvis Wood hit singles either side past Yamada, and then Aki Yamamoto hit another infield single in Nomura’s general direction. That made it 1-0, bases loaded, no outs, but it only really got actually terrible once Harry Wentz singled, plating two, and then Adriano Lulli managed an actual, living double. Brian Nichols singled, it was now 6-0 and nobody out, and moved to third when Bob Wood threw the ball to the outfield. Brown, visibly enraged, struck out Victorino Sanchez, and that was the first out we had seen in 15 minutes – and six runs. Nichols would score before the nightmare was completely over. Seven runs, six earned, waving goodbye to that league ERA title.

And any self-confidence. Looking at one self in the mirror in the morning is becoming harder with every point of win ratio under .400, and neither Brownie, nor the ****ing middle infielders were of any help on this particularly deploring Monday night. Everything we had was broken, shattered, and the remains soiled, and smeared with dog poo. We used Brown until he hit 90 pitches, which was in the fifth and on a 1-out single by Ramos. Ricardo Huerta took over from there, would face the entire lineup once, and strike out SEVEN, including the first six. That magnificent outing was wasted just as much as Yoshi Nomura’s first homer of the season. The Capitals bullpen crumbled a bit late, with a 3-run eighth inning for the Raccoons, but the game was long blown out. 8-5 Capitals. Yamada 2-2, 2B; Wheaton 1-2, 2B, 2 RBI; Nomura 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Huerta 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K;

Yaay, we’re at 400 runs on the year, after 120 games.

Good ****.

Well, is there a worse way to start a week?

Game 2
WAS: SS Lulli – RF J. Gomez – LF V. Sanchez – CF Alexander – C Case – 1B O’Morrissey – 2B Reed – 3B Yamamoto – P Sugiyama
POR: 3B Sharp – LF Brady – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – SS Yamada – 2B Nomura – C L. Ramirez – P F. Garcia

The Coons didn’t get a hit the first time through the order, while the Capitals just didn’t get the key hit. In the third then, Lulli was on base, stole a base, and scored on a single. Next inning, John Alexander hit his 20th bomb of the year, and in the fifth inning then Garcia was torn apart completely and scavenged for usable parts (there were none), as the Capitals put up a 3-spot and moved out to a 5-0 lead. The only noticeable reaction from the home team was when Clyde Brady and Leon Ramirez were munching ice cream in the dugout in the bottom 5th. Garcia got purged in the top 6th, walking Lulli and Gomez with one out, with one run scoring on an overused Domingo Moreno. The Coons actually got a second hit in the bottom 6th from Nomura, but Ramirez killed any effort with a double play grounder hit to Jeffrey Reed. The Raccoons would have a sorry rally late in the game against the bullpen again, but scored only one run from bases loaded, one out in the seventh, and another run after a Leon Ramirez leadoff triple in the eighth. It was not even enough to get Sugiyama from the game – the Japanese pitched all nine innings for his team in a complete game win. 6-2 Capitals. Searcy (PH) 1-2; Kichida 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Game 3
WAS: SS Lulli – 2B Nichols – LF V. Sanchez – CF Alexander – RF J. Gomez – C C. Ramos – 1B O’Morrissey – 3B Yamamoto – P Baca
POR: LF Brady – SS Yamada – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – 3B Searcy – 2B Nomura – C B. Wood – P Ford

Bottom 1st, three on, no outs, Greenman had a full count going and swung at a ball that almost went through Ramos’ wickets. Al Martin managed to get a single into center, and with Yamada at second base that was good enough for two runs, and another run scored on Nomura’s single, Wood walked, and Ford also singled and plated two. Ford hadn’t won a game in ages, but now he was up 5-0 and there would not be any excuses. Yamada and Greenman even made it 6-0 in the second, after which Baca left the game in a hurry with the trainer. In Greenman’s next at-bat, the score jumped to 7-0, with the impostor wearing the Ford jersey having actually managed to pitch five scoreless innings, but you also had to acknowledge Alan Hinton in long relief for the Caps, who only gave up one other hit besides Greenman’s 18th homer in four innings of relief. While Ford ticked off scoreless innings, you also had to give a nod to the defense, especially the outfielders. All three of them made awesome plays in the game, Brady even a couple, robbing basically all the doubles the Capitals were unleashing. Ford hit for himself in the bottom 8th, whiffed, then returned to the mound up by seven and on 97 pitches. PH Elvis Wood, the guy the Caps just didn’t want to give us, started the inning with a single, before O’Morrissey, the old bone, popped out foul. Yamamoto grounded to Nomura, but the Yoshis only got the lead runner, but Ford finished the game with a strikeout to John Davis anyway! 7-0 Coons! Yamada 2-5; Greenman 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Nomura 2-3, BB, RBI; Ford 9.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (4-10) and 2-4, 2 RBI;

Ralph Ford tossed his third career shutout (in 180 starts) and the first since 2002!

Raccoons (48-74) @ Loggers (61-59) – August 19-21, 2005

Fourth in the north, the Loggers had a winning record. In fact, everybody in the CL North had, except one measly, forgettable team that should better be contracted sooner rather than later. We are 4-8 against them this season, while they were ninth in both runs scored and runs allowed, and still had halfway decent chances at the playoffs despite having to work with replacement level starting pitching after injuries to Dani Alvarado (whom we knew as nothing but replacement level before this year) and Ramiro Gonzalez.

Projected matchups:
Edgar Amador (3-10, 5.21 ERA) vs. William Lloyd (6-10, 5.80 ERA)
Ben Carlson (6-8, 3.85 ERA) vs. George Norris (3-8, 6.64 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-7, 2.71 ERA) vs. Junior Diaz (4-0, 1.95 ERA)

Lloyd will be the only left-hander we see this week, unless they evaporate one of the scums and squeeze Martin Garcia, the CL ERA leader, into the Sunday game against the cuddly furball that wasn’t allowed to lead that category.

And yes, the Fat Cat is back, and no, it won’t be pretty.

Game 1
POR: 1B Sharp – SS Sheehan – LF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 3B Searcy – C Wood – 2B Nomura – CF King – P Amador
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – CF Fletcher – SS T. Johnson – RF Hiwalani – LF Bayle – 1B Nava – 3B Tolwith – C J. Reyes – P Lloyd

Replacement level pitching yielded a run to sub-replacement level batting in the first inning, and our own guy did quite well for himself the first time through the order, but once he hit Fernandez again with two outs in the third on Tolwith on second base, he threw eight straight balls before finally getting a relieving grounder to short from Tom Johnson to escape the inning. The Loggers tied the score anyway in the next inning, with Hiwalani hitting his second single through Searcy on the day, stealing a base on Wood/Cat, and then coming home on Jose Nava’s single. The Coons hadn’t done anything since the first, but then had a single and two straight walks to load them up with one out in the sixth. Matt King was batting and hit a fly to rather deep left. Jimmy Bayle caught it, but Searcy scored, making it 2-1, and then Amador hit a double into the leftfield corner to bring home another run, before Sharp despicably grounded out to short. The Fat Cat made it through seven and was then hit for (but Bruno was warm anyway) in the top 8th with Wood and Nomura in scoring position, two outs, and King just having fouled out. We sent Brady, who flew out to left. Marcos Bruno retired the Loggers in order in the eighth, whiffing Johnson and Hiwalani, before Sheehan reached on an infield single with one out in the ninth, the perfect spot to pinch-run with Yamada for extra insurance. Yoshi-Y went on the first pitch and Jesus Reyes’ throw was perfect – and still late. It was #41 for Yoshi, one off Matt Higgins’ franchise record, yet ultimately unnecessary since Fernandez tripled into the gap in left center and he would have casually scored anyway. Fernandez however was stranded, and it was Angel with a 4-1 lead in the bottom 9th, and Angel made a mess of it. Bayle led off with a single, and he hit Tolwith with one out. The count ran full on pinch-hitter Clint Phillip, who took a might rip on the next pitch – but missed! And the runners were in motion – and Wood rocketed out Tolwith at second to end the game! 4-1 Furballs! Sheehan 2-4, BB; Searcy 2-5; Amador 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 4 K, W (4-10) and 1-3, 2B, RBI;

Gotta say, when we can nurse our guy through seven, Bruno and Casas make for a nasty choke duo at the tail end of the game. Problem is, it hasn’t happened often.

Game 2
POR: LF Brady – SS Yamada – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – 3B Searcy – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Carlson
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – CF Fletcher – SS T. Johnson – RF Hiwalani – LF Bayle – 1B Nava – 3B Tolwith – C J. Reyes – P Norris

For the second time this week, the Coons batted through the order in the first inning, plating four runs on hits by Greenman (RBI single), Nomura (2-run double), and a wild pitch with Carlson at the plate and two outs. And Carlson would probably need every little run because he hit Bartolo Hernandez to get started, walked Jerry Fletcher, and then got a break when Bakile Hiwalani fouled out on a 3-0 pitch and Greenman intercepted Bayle’s fly to right center to strand runners on the corners. Bob Wood homered in the fourth, making it 5-0, while the Loggers finally broke a piece off old Carlson with two doubles for a run in the bottom 4th. Replacement level pitching loaded the bags in the top 5th with no outs. Norris struck out Searcy and popped up Nomura, but then, when he was almost out of it, walked Wood, his sixth walk of the game, and got yanked even with the pitcher up. Alex Gláviz got Carlson, but it was now 6-1. Carlson survived, even though his final batter in the game (Reyes) hit an RBI double to knock him out with two down in the seventh. The real trouble ironically started with Carlson out of the game. Bottom 8th, still 6-2, Raw Lockburn walked the leadoff man Hernandez. We would still have cruised out of that if Yamada then hadn’t dropped Fletcher’s pop. And even THEN Rockburn struck out Johnson and Hiwalani before Bayle doubled to left center and both runs scored. We skipped right to Angel Casas, who walked Jose Nava, allowed an RBI double to Clint Phillip, and then walked Reyes! Next pitcher, please, as we now tried to get the 4-out save, rather desperately with the tying run at third, and two more trailing, from Marcos Bruno. Bruno came, saw Van Kaberman, and rung him up to exit the eighth, with the lead greatly diminished to 6-5. Ninth: struck out Hernandez, struck out Fletcher, and Johnson rolled out to short. 6-5 Coons! Greenman 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Wood 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Carlson 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (7-8) and 1-3; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, SV (8);

Well, that one had heart attack written all over it.

That, or filling everybody’s boxers with rusty nails. Or my toenail clippings.

Or both.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – LF Brady – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – C Wood – 2B Nomura – SS Sheehan – P Brown
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – CF Fletcher – RF Hiwalani – SS T. Johnson – LF Bayle – 3B Tolwith – 1B Nava – C J. Reyes – P J. Diaz

Diaz came in with a reasonably good ERA, but in his 37 innings had issued 17 walks, and all those secondary numbers screamed out “lucky”.

The Coons scored a run in the first after Clyde Brady initially reached on an infield single, while the Loggers got a leadoff double from Hernandez, but left him on third base. Luck then ran out for Diaz in the top 2nd as his control went haywire and he loaded the bases with a 1-out walk to Sharp, then walked Brady as well to push in the second run for the Coons. Here came Fernandez, sent a drive to deep right, Hiwalani missed it by inches, and it fell in for a bases-clearing triple! Fernandez scored on Greenman’s sac fly, and now Brownie was the one far ahead, 6-0 after one and a half. Diaz would load them up once more in the top 3rd, issuing a bases-loaded walk to Fernandez before Greenman popped out to end the frame, 7-0, but then made a mighty catch to rob Hiwalani of an RBI double, also ending the bottom 3rd. The Coons continued to get single runs in three of the four innings that reliever Alan Crowley pitched, gradually extending an already big lead, but a bit lost in translation was that Brownie didn’t have a good game at all. He struggled with control in the middle innings, walked four in total, and while he only allowed one run, he also only lasted six and a third before hitting 110 pitches and coming out. Huerta finished the seventh, and Kaz pitched the eighth. We used Ed Bryan in the ninth despite no left-handers anywhere close, but Bryan hadn’t pitched all week. Edgardo Fernandez ended up lacking the double for the cycle in a series-sweeping romp. 10-1 Brownies!! Fernandez 3-5, BB, HR, 3B, 5 RBI; Martin 3-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Wood 2-5; Nomura 3-4, BB, 2 2B; Sheehan 3-4, BB, 2 RBI;

In other news

August 17 – Tijuana’s Kelvin Yates (8-11, 3.43 ERA) brings the heat, striking out 16 Scorpions in a 6-3 Condors win. Yates sets a new Continental League record with the 16 K’s after matching Tony Hamlyn’s 2002 mark of 15 strikeouts in a game just two weeks earlier!
August 19 – The Pacifics have to put 1B Stanley Murphy (.282, 14 HR, 51 RBI) on the DL. They are rather quiet about it but only say that he hurt himself picking up his young child and that he will be back in September. Must be quite the fat child…
August 20 – The Crusaders are dealt a blow with 24-year old SS/3B Gary Rice (.293, 19 HR, 72 RBI) fracturing his leg in a frantic head-on collision with teammate Martin Ortíz, and lingering on the field and screaming in agony for minutes before being carried off. Needless to say he’s out for the rest of the season and there’s lots of traumatized children coming away from this Camp Day game in New York.
August 20 – Also out for the year: BOS SP Joe Mann (11-9, 4.65 ERA), who has to get bone spurs removed from his elbow.
August 21 – ATL SP Johnny Collins (7-8, 4.30 ERA) 3-hits the Bayhawks in a 3-0 shutout.

Complaints and stuff

Ben O’Morrissey was in town and I didn’t run onto the field and kick dirt onto his shoes. I’m growing up, I guess?

It’s two months, how are our top draft picks doing? Well, Brandon Teasdale has a hard time with control issues and a horrendous BABIP against him for a 2-5, 5.38 ERA start in AA. In A, Pat Composto missed some time, but suffers from an even worse .341 BABIP and is 2-4 with a 5.33 ERA, but a good K/BB around 3. Beyond that it’s getting dramatic, but a look at 11th rounder Ron Melchin shows almost the same numbers as for Composto, and the BABIP is even worse for some other hurlers we have down there. Are there no glove kids anymore??

Also, Melchin. Anyone knowing another 11th rounder that might have ever cut it?

We mentioned how Yoshi Yamada, who just doesn’t reach base right now, is chasing after the franchise mark for stolen bases in a season (trailing Matt Higgins by one), but how does he rank all time in the ABL?

1st – Moromao Hino (DAL, 1998) – 58
2nd – Andrés Serna (DAL, 1986) – 55
3rd – Andrés Serna (DAL, 1990) – 54
4th – Moromao Hino (DAL, 1996) – 53
t-5th – Andrés Gutierrez (DAL, 1982) – 52
t-5th – Tony Barr (NAS, 1982) – 52
7th – Andrés Serna (DAL, 1985) – 50
t-8th – Raúl Solís (VAN, 1989) – 49
t-8th – Dave Heffer (SFW, 1995) – 49
t-8th – Raúl Herrera (VAN, 1985) – 49

He’s not even in the top 20 yet, but he’d be with two more steals. Also, the time of base stealers seems to be long gone. Only seven seasons from the 2000’s rank in the top 50! And look at all those Stars on the top of the board! Well, they’re in the other league. The only memory I have of the Stars is Kiyohira Sasaki throwing magma bolts past Critters in ’83.

It is not a good one, but it has Ed Parrell and Glenn Johnston in ’89 beat by miles.

[Westheim]

I used our off day to develop a few new business strategies. In case you’re new here, the Raccoons have no money, because they have some prick for an owner, who doesn’t give a lick.

I mean, we REALLY have no money. We have no money really hard. We have so no money, I go into the team’s locker room during the fourth inning of every home game and empty two semi-random players’ wallets for spare change to buy new balls with. (semi-random because whenever Danny Sharp costs a game with a stupid error, he gets robbed the entire following homestand)

So we have to get creative. Like batting practice. Most teams use somebody who has actually played baseball in his life. We use Ed. Ed is a good guy. He’s 82, and when he was a young man, there was no baseball. At Yoshi Nomura’s age, Ed was fighting his way across Guadalcanal. Ed got shot in the foot and never played sports in his life anymore. But he’s a diehard Raccoons enthusiast (one of only three alive), and he has volunteered to throw batting practice for free.

Granted, that second stroke has left his arm a bit “weak”, but hey, you don’t see any negative results of improper batting practice in the box score, do you?

However, the times are tough, with the team tumbling to a 100-loss season there’s nobody at the park, and thank god that week where they scored six runs over six games took place on the other side of the mountains and nobody noticed, since the Agitator’s raging derisions of this team are mostly consumed for the bold punchlines and then the paper’s thrown away.

I have a new idea how to get customers to the park AND save money in staff costs!

You know how kids love baseball, right? They are totally crazy about baseball, at least until they get Internets or some Xbox thing, or whatever that is. Bet the kids would love to be at the park for every home game!

So I will have Maud prepare a promo that kids can apply for a kind of internship with the team. They have to get their parents to buy a special (read: more expensive) ticket, but then get to dress as Raccoons staff with a silly hat and then we will send them sell ice cream and hot dogs and fire all our vendors. Also, since all the kids are selling ice cream, we will get to scrap the usual kids amusement things where we have some college dropouts that put balls on sticks for them to fumble a plastic bat at, completely without grace of course, since they’re like five years old, and probably we can even spare Chad and his services, perhaps even the grounds crew!!

So we SAVE the vendors’ and entertainers’ wages, the stupid kiddos are happy as they’re now important people for their baseball team, AND of course for legal reasons they have to be accompanied by an adult, so we can sell TWO extra tickets! If that is not the marketing idea of the century, then I don’t know!

I pitched this to my staff on Friday. Chad was high and had no clue I was about to get him fired. Slappy had come with a half-empty bottle of Capt’n Coma and was all but enthusiastic for the idea, suggesting to have the kids clean the floors as well. Vince shared a story about he had to clean shoes when he was seven years old. Honeypaws, as usual, said precious little. Only Maud shook her head in disbelief. What’s wrong, Maud? Anything I didn’t account for? – Maud?

[Westheim]

Raccoons (51-74) @ Titans (68-55) – August 23-25, 2005

We start our last long string of games, 16 straight, in Boston, before we’ll have an off day in every week in September. The Titans still don’t quite know what’s going on in the division, and what bus hit them, but they figure that they won’t soon get a chance to beat a team they’ve already beaten eight out of twelve games on the year. Their most runs scored seems rather dominant against our least runs scored, and the pitching staffs are comparable as a whole, but our rotation will definitely show its soft underbelly.

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (4-12, 4.29 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (12-7, 4.45 ERA)
Ralph Ford (4-10, 4.13 ERA) vs. Mauro Castro (0-0)
Edgar Amador (4-10, 4.89 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (12-10, 3.79 ERA)

What a sorry collection of starters we have.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – SS Yamada – LF Brady – C Wood – P F. Garcia
BOS: CF Garrison – SS M. Austin – RF G. Munoz – C L. Lopez – 2B Metting – 3B Matsumoto – LF W. Taylor – 1B Frazier – P Hildred

Danny Sharp slapped a single to start the game, which was about where luck ran out for the Coons. Sharp was let on in the first, and in the bottom of the inning, Garcia got knocked for two runs on four hits and a wild pitch, and then another run in the second inning. He didn’t even go five, and the bottom 5th was led off by Bryce Hildred, who hit his second career home run off him. The Raccoons would actually move close once more when Clyde Brady cracked an impressive 2-run shot to get the team to just one behind, 4-3, but in the bottom of the inning Lady Luck raped Ricardo Huerta with a St. Louis Clubber when the Titans got three singles to start the bottom 6th against him, one up the middle between the encroaching Yoshis, one right to Martin that was just a pain to look at, and one just past the reach of Yamada then. Moreno came in, made an utter mess, and three runs scored in the inning. The Silly Singles theme continued to play with Rockburn pitching in the final two defensive innings, and the Titans could have done more damage to him than one run if not for their greed, with one runner (Matsumoto) cut down trying to steal third base, and another run cut down at home plate by Brady. 8-4 Titans. Sharp 2-5; Nomura 2-5; Martin 2-3, BB, HR, RBI;

Yoshi Nomura didn’t reach base on his own merit, but got Al Martin forced out on a grounder in the fourth inning and was safe at first. He then stole second base, tying Matt Higgins for the franchise mark, and scored on a groundout by Bob Wood eventually.

The only other fool to give up a homer to Hildred and his toothpick? Joe Hollow.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – CF Fernandez – 1B Martin – LF Brady – RF Wheaton – C Wood – SS Yamada – P Ford
BOS: 3B Matsumoto – SS M. Austin – LF Brulhart – RF G. Munoz – 2B Metting – CF Garrison – 1B Frazier – C R. Rivera – P M. Castro

Mauro Castro, a 25-year old right-hander, made his major league debut in this game, replacing an injured Joe Mann in the rotation. The kid probably thought “Gee, that’s easy, the AAA guys hit me a lot harder”. The Coons didn’t have any hit until the fourth – when they were already trailing 3-0 thanks to their own replacement level pitcher – but then scored already. Nomura had drawn a leadoff walk, and Fernandez doubled him in. But the Coons left him on second base, and in the next inning they loaded the bases with two outs, but Fernandez popped out to left to end the inning. Ford was even worse than Garcia the previous day, falling behind 5-1 on an impressive shot by Jim Brulhart, his 20th of the year, in the fifth inning. But why should the other guys have to work harder when Ford ****s up and we have lost anyway? So Ford wasn’t removed until he walked Munoz to start the eighth, and Marcos Bruno was the only guy that got bothered, although a slap single by Rudy Garrison and a Bob Wood error created a tight situation, which he got dissolved all by himself (the best way to pitch on this team) and struck out Metting, Rivera, and PH Will Taylor. 5-1 Titans.

And that hands us a loss in the season series (4-10 right now) for the seventh straight year (and moves us to -43 overall against the Titans).

Game 3
POR: 1B Sharp – 2B Nomura – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – LF Brady – 3B Searcy – SS Sheehan – C L. Ramirez – P Amador
BOS: CF Garrison – SS M. Austin – RF G. Munoz – LF Brulhart – C L. Lopez – 2B Metting – 3B Matsumoto – 1B H. Ramirez – P Chapa

Yoshi Nomura, who appeared to step out of the freezer just as September was comin’ round the corner, hit a triple in the first inning, only to get doubled off when Fernandez lined out to short for a stupid base running mistake of the kind normally reserved for Sharp. Those two bright light bulbs were in scoring position with two out after a Yoshi double in the third, but Fernandez’ fly to deep left center was caught by Rudy Garrison and nobody scored, but the Titans would leave two men on as well in the bottom of the inning. They had five base runners through three, with an infield single and four walks issued by the Fat Cat in that. Yet although Amador pitched like he had been hit by a garbage truck, the Coons got the first run, unearned after a Matsumoto error on Amador’s grounder, in the fifth inning, and the Titans couldn’t even get to the Cat when Jorge Chapa lobbed a leadoff single to right in the bottom of the fifth. In the sixth, Brady got to Chapa for a solo shot, and then Amador actually got someone struck out in the bottom of the inning, whiffing Luis Lopez. The Coons got another run in the eighth, when one Yoshi walked, another Yoshi ran for him, nipped one, and scored on a Greenman single. Ironically, ex-Titan Greenman hurt ex-Coon Manuel Martinez for the 3-0 run.

Amador had pitched like crap for seven innings, yet somehow wonderously had not allowed a run, and the pen got a 3-0 lead handed to tend to for six outs. With the Titans fielding three left-handed bats atop the order in the eighth, Moreno got the job, but he walked Garrison and Munoz before leaving with only one out collected. Marcos Bruno was tasked with pulling the cart out of the muck once again, struck out Brulhart, but got tagged by Lopez for a 2-run double before Metting made the third out. Still 3-2 though, and in the ninth we called on our Angel, who fed three grounders to the middle infielders to get this one over with. 3-2 Coons. Nomura 2-3, BB, 3B, 2B; Greenman 2-4, RBI; Martin (PH) 1-1; Amador 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 1 K, W (5-10);

That must be as ridiculous as pitching lines get. Two hits, five walks, no runs. Well, the beauty of a walk is that it is only one base and you need four to score. Still, the Cat has to pick it up a bit, or it’s back to playing with the yarn in St. Pete.

When Yoshi-Y was inserted for Yoshi-N in the eighth inning and stole second base, he set a new franchise record for steals in a single season with 43, which is also t-19th for most in a season in the ABL. If he could just get on base more often! Especially this series would have been a good spot with the Titans running out Luis Lopez as often as possible. Lopez is an offense-first catcher with a weak arm, Yamada could run on him all day and Lopez would never get him!

Raccoons (52-76) vs. Aces (49-78) – August 26-28, 2005

The two worst teams in the ABL squared up, and the Aces came in having thrown up the white flag after eight straight losses, and their -130 run differential (Coons: -67) was also wholly attributable to their outrageously inept pitching staff, which had managed to surrender 630 runs (5.0 R/G!) with little to no bright spots. The season series is split brotherly so far.

Projected matchups:
Ben Carlson (7-8, 3.79 ERA) vs. Jose Marquez (7-14, 5.26 ERA)
Nick Brown (11-7, 2.66 ERA) vs. Jim Pennington (9-8, 4.02 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (4-13, 4.40 ERA) vs. Bob Bowden (6-14, 6.04 ERA)

And that’s not even the worst guy in their rotation. David Estrada (6-18, 6.65 ERA) will be missed by the Coons, and we didn’t face him all year.

Game 1
LVA: SS F. Soto – RF Speed – 2B O. Torres – C T. Turner – 3B Warrain – 1B F. Rivera – LF Hill – CF G. Wills – P J. Marquez
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – SS Sheehan – LF King – C L. Ramirez – P Carlson

Bottom 1st, a bloop, a walk, and a huge shot by Fernandez: 3-0 Coons, no outs wasted. It didn’t take long however for the Aces to strike back rabidly. Sheehan had made an error in the first inning, and he made another one in the third inning to put leadoff man Baden Speed on base. The Aces went from there, adding hit after hit after hit and romped Carlson, who also drilled a batter, for five runs. Carlson continued the recent trend of starters not pitching very long, and was hooked in the fifth with runners on the corners and one out, and the score still 5-3, and we went to Ed Bryan to get the left-handed batters Gary Wills and Jose Marquez, but both singled and closed Carlson’s line at seven runs, six earned. The Aces also gave Kaz Kichida and Domingo Moreno the kiss of death before this one was gotten over with, including a 2-run homer by Gary Wills, who was a joke of a hitter, batting .180 on the year, against Moreno, who had clearly gone to ****s again. 10-4 Aces. Sharp 2-3, 2 BB; Martin 2-4, 3B;

Game 2
LVA: SS F. Soto – RF Speed – 2B O. Torres – C T. Turner – LF R. Garcia – 3B Warrain – 1B F. Rivera – CF G. Wills – P Pennington
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – LF Brady – C Wood – SS Yamada – P Brown

Brownie struck out the first two batters in the game, but found trouble soon enough in the second inning, in which he issued two walks. Bases loaded with one out, the ****ty Gary Wills doubled through Al Martin and two runs scored before Brown blasted Pennington and got a soft out from Soto to end the inning, down 2-0. Brown drew a walk at the plate then himself in the bottom 3rd, only to get picked off to end the inning in a 3-0 count to Yoshi Nomura. Top 4th, Inaki-Luki Warrain reached on catcher’s interference, there was another single on the right side – whenever the Aces needed a hit, they’d get it at Martin’s corner – before the Aces botched themselves out of it, with a runner caught stealing and two sorry foul pops. The Coons got the tying runs in scoring position with no outs in the bottom 4th when Nomura singled and Fernandez doubled. It wasn’t pretty, but the runs came in, with Greenman grounding out on the first pitch, but scoring Yoshi-N, and Martin hitting a single that glanced off the glove of a jumping Oliver Torres. Then came Clyde Brady and longed to make it clear that Clyde was still not quite Bonnie at the plate, and drilled a huge 2-run homer to right! That one actually got the park going, and engagement turned to delight when Brady came up the next time, Martin on first again, and hit ANOTHER 2-piece! The Coons actually extended this to their second 4-spot in the game, when Wood singled, Yamada for once made sound contact and doubled, plating Wood on a close play, and then Brown hit a solid liner to shallow right center to score the rapidly racing Yamada, 8-2. While Clyde Brady came really close to a third dinger in the bottom 7th, but fell about 15 feet short and made the third out with two on, Brownie went seven and two thirds, left with Baden Speed on first and Tom Turner up, Ricardo Huerta offered one pitch to Turner, and it went well out. Those two runs were re-clawed in the bottom 8th, however, and this time the Coons put up double digits, matching the result from the Friday game. 10-4 Brownies!! Nomura 3-5, 2B, RBI; Fernandez 3-5, 2B; Martin 2-3, BB, RBI; Brady 2-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Yamada 3-4, 2B, RBI; Brown 7.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 10 K, W (12-7) and 1-2, BB, RBI;

Nick Brown put up double digit strikeouts for the first time since whiffing ten Canadiens in his last start before the All Star Game. He had averaged just 5.3 K/G in between. His K/9 however is the highest this year of any full season in his career, 9.9;

Game 3
LVA: SS F. Soto – RF Speed – 2B O. Torres – C T. Turner – LF R. Garcia – 3B Warrain – 1B F. Rivera – CF Cameron – P Bowden
POR: CF Fernandez – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – C Wood – 3B Searcy – SS Yamada – P F. Garcia

Both teams got a run in the first inning and we were reminded of Nick Brown not going again until Thursday with Garcia delivering one bad at-bat after another. In the third inning, he walked Bob Bowden to get the inning started, which directly and inevitably led to a 2-out, 3-run homer by Tom Turner that put the Aces ahead, 4-1. Rookie Don Cameron clomped Garcia for another rocket, of the 2-run variety, in the fourth – his first career homer. Garcia didn’t see the light in the sixth inning, being hit for in the bottom 5th after allowing six runs, while the other Furballs just couldn’t see enough of Bowden’s feisty visage and were easy with him to not get him accidentally removed from the game. When the Raccoons did score a pair in the bottom 5th, the Raw Lockburn went out and got his wig set on fire, Ricardo Garcia firing a leadoff jack and every batter he faced becoming an Ace of Base, and they plated another run off Bryan to make it an 8-3 game. The Coons started to scratch and claw in the late innings. It was actually the bottom of the order that produced two runs in the seventh, and another one in the eighth, moving back to 8-6. Marcos Bruno struck out the side in the top 9th to give his team a chance in the bottom of the inning, facing closer Don Davis, but after the inspiring small ball rallies in the seventh and eighth, the Coons had Sheehan, Fernandez, and Nomura make three exceptionally poor outs in that final inning. 8-6 Aces. Fernandez 2-4, 3 RBI; Nomura 2-5; Searcy 3-4, 2B, RBI; Kichida 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K and 1-1;

Kaz had his first major league hit – not that it meant much.

In other news

August 22 – The Aces lose OF Forest Messinger (.260, 8 HR, 53 RBI) for the rest of the season. The 26-year old has torn some ligaments in his ankle.
August 26 – With the finish line slowly approaching, the playoff-hopeful Buffaloes are dealt a blow with 1B/2B Georg Spinu (.290, 5 HR, 37 RBI) going down with a sore shoulder. He might come back in late September.

Complaints and stuff

Clyde Brady smacked four homers and drove in eight this week, but was not even in the picture for Player of the Week. Essentially, besides the four homers, he only had two other hits, both singles. But we’re not 12th/12th/12th in the team slash line batting anymore – we’re now second-to-last in slugging! Yaaay!!

Honestly, do we even have a hitting coach?

As we’re on Clyde already, you may have guessed it or known it or maybe not, but he is the longest-tenured Raccoon on the roster since the demise of Neil Reece, debuting in 1998, and beating Ralph Ford and Al Martin to the show by a year. You might also remember (or not…) how he came over. After the Raccoons self-combusted into a 68-94 wildfire in 1997, we sold off (or let walk) parts, like Vern Kinnear, whose image of the fist raised and the yellow #16 on the blue uniform I won’t ever be able to forget, and by far the most expensive of those parts was David Brewer, who had signed the biggest deal in ABL history (6-yr, $9M) with the Coons before the 1995 season. Brewer was traded off to the Condors in return for three players, two of whom we have flipped over by now: Chris Parker, Randy Farley, and Clyde Brady.

What have those four done in the Bigs since the trade (numbers are for all teams)?
David Brewer: .298, 23 HR, 308 RBI, 19.2 WAR
Clyde Brady: .252, 97 HR, 421 RBI, 17.2 WAR
Chris Parker: .277, 40 HR, 301 RBI, 2.9 WAR
Randy Farley: 90-88, 3.86 ERA, 24.2 WAR

Yup, good trade. Just never worked out for us. Which sounds strange, but the last nine years, nothing has ever worked out for us. By the way, Parker was traded for Benton Wilson, who offered so-so relief in 2003 before walking as free agent, but Farley was packed with Dan Nordahl for Adrian Quebell, who is hurting AAA pitching and you know that September 1 is approaching, right? (Our AAA team is actually putting up a winning record for a change – the only one in the system – but they’re 6 1/2 out with 19 to play, so we can pillage that roster)

The Brewer deal in other numbers: he produced 31 WAR over that 6-year contract, and we paid just under half of it, but enjoyed 19.9 of those WAR (64%). He has 78 career WAR, but since that contract ended, it’s been a pain for him. In his age 33-37 seasons, he reached 500 AB only once, and accumulated only 8.1 WAR in total. Yeah, now guess what the Canadiens got for his cost-controlled years!

Would you believe the Titans are the team we have the by far worst all time record against in the CL North? They were irrelevant for all of the 80s and most of the 90s, yet it’s not even remotely close! But their long strong period has coincided with our long banana period, and we haven’t even managed to win five games on average for the last five years…

Raccoons overall vs. CL North:
IND .513
VAN .506
NYC .493
MIL .487
BOS .460
(all teams .492)

Unless we get swept by the Condors, this crummy August was our best month this year…

[Westheim]

Vince scouted a new talent in some orphanage. Looks like he has high desire to win, but is also a bit greedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IxRqpCZt8E

More Coon City madness tomorrow.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (53-78) vs. Condors (56-74) – August 29-31, 2005

The Condors came in with a 5-game winning streak active, and would show us strikeout master Kelvin Yates in the opener, so the sky was the limit for them. They were second-to-last in runs scored, still, but now only outpaced the Raccoons by 39 counters, which used to be 62 the last time we met up. Their pitching is woefully below average – bright spots like Yates not excluded. The season series is split evenly after six games.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (4-11, 4.23 ERA) vs. Kelvin Yates (8-11, 3.36 ERA)
Edgar Amador (5-10, 4.52 ERA) vs. Jeremiah Bowman (6-8, 4.49 ERA)
Ben Carlson (7-9, 4.07 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (6-9, 4.05 ERA)

Right-right-left to finish the month.

Game 1
TIJ: SS McGreary – 1B Cambria – CF R. Perez – LF Luxton – 2B Heathershaw – 3B N. Chavez – RF B. Miller – C L. Fernandez – P Yates
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – CF E. Fernandez – C Wood – SS Yamada – P Ford

The Coons did precious little to keep Nick Brown in the CL strikeout race, going down flailing early and often. Ralph Ford dealt as well, sitting down the first ten Condors including five strikeouts, but when Hugues Cambria reached on a 1-out single in the fourth, the inevitable RBI double followed soon off Robbie Luxton’s bat. The Coons had left Yoshi-Y on third base (Yoshi-N making the third out) in the bottom 3rd, but Greenman then tied the score with a solo home run in the bottom 4th, and in the next inning we’d get Sharp and Nomura hitting 2-out doubles up either line to give Ford a 2-1 lead just before Clyde Brady could hack out. Cambria doubled in the sixth but this time Luxton didn’t get him in, grounding out to Nomura to end the inning. Ford, who had struck out seven through four innings, lost his drive rapidly then, and in the seventh issued a leadoff walk to Bradley Heathershaw, leading up to a triumphant and never doubted colossal home run by Bill Miller that flipped the score to 3-2 for the road team. Ford wound up without a decision when the Condors made a mockery out of the bottom 7th, including a wild pitch and a balk by Yates, to aid Bob Wood across the street and into home plate, tying the score. Yates kept hurling with Ford being hit for in the inning, but probably shouldn’t have. Bottom 8th, Brady singled, and then Greenman hit his second bomb of the night, giving the Coons their biggest edge yet, 5-3, leading us into the ninth where Angel had both Heathershaw and Nelson Chavez ground out to Sharp on 1-0 pitches, then struck out Miller. 5-3 Coons! Brady 2-4; Greenman 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Searcy (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ford 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K;

Greenman’s pair of dingers give him 20 on the season, and move him past Clyde Brady and back into the team lead. If jealousy gets these guys to enter a race for the pretty meaningless team crown (since when is any team crown on a cellar dweller meaningful?) now, it can only be good for us.

Game 2
TIJ: SS McGreary – 3B N. Chavez – CF R. Perez – LF Luxton – RF J. Thomas – 2B Heathershaw – 1B B. Román – C Benitez – P Bowman
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – CF E. Fernandez – SS Yamada – C L. Ramirez – P Amador

Greenman remained a-swingin’, and had the hard parts of the cycle knocked off by the third inning, drilling a 2-run triple in the first, also scoring on Martin’s groundout, and a 2-run homer in the third for a 5-0 early tally. The Fat Cat had gotten off to a hot start, striking out five in the first three frames, then suffered a definite setback with Ramón Perez’ leadoff jack in the fourth, and walked the next two batters on top of that before the defense dug him out. When Greenman was up again in the bottom 5th, there were runners on the corners and one out, but he struck out, and Martin didn’t cash in, either. The Cat hit a sac fly the next inning to get to 6-1, walked Heathershaw with one out, but reached back and struck out Román and Benitez to end the inning under his own power. The Condors tried to rise again in the eighth, facing Kichida and Moreno, but ultimately Luxton struck out with two on to end the inning. 6-1 Coons! Nomura 2-4; Greenman 2-4, HR, 3B, 4 RBI; Yamada 2-4; Amador 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, W (6-10);

We’re seeing more of the 2004 Amador now. Early in the year, he was a mess. Bad control with many walks, and plenty of hits on top of that. His last two starts he still walked people, but hardly allowed any hits, which combined with a Gold Glove caliber shortstop in Yoshi Yamada opens up possibilities for relieving double plays, and he got one of that in the fourth inning today.

Game 3
TIJ: SS McGreary – 1B Cambria – CF R. Perez – LF Luxton – RF J. Thomas – 2B Heathershaw – 3B N. Chavez – C L. Fernandez – P Escobedo
POR: 1B Sharp – 2B Sheehan – CF E. Fernandez – RF Greenman – LF Wheaton – 3B Searcy – SS Yamada – C Wood – P Carlson

Somebody stop Greenman! He hit a 2-run homer in the first inning, giving Carlson a lead that went bust instantly in Carlson’s unqualified hands in the top 2nd, walking two batters, then surrendering a pair of 2-out RBI singles to Escobedo(!) and Toby McGreary. Sharp singled home Yamada in the bottom 2nd to put the Coons on top yet again, 3-2, and this time Carlson didn’t set fire to their efforts immediately, although he certainly tried. On the more wicked side of daily madness in Coon City, Carlson, who required double plays started by Yamada to not get hit by a truck in both the fifth and sixth innings, started a rally in the bottom 5th with a leadoff double, scored, and with runners on the corners it was Greenman to hit into a inning-ending double play, and the same would happen to him in the eighth. That left our Angel to protect a 4-2 lead, and his first man Heathershaw hit a ball to the third base side of short, on which Yamada made a launching play, recollected himself AND managed to throw out Heathershaw at first! The Condors would eventually get a 2-out single from Luis Fernandez, but Casas got the last two outs with the big K and secured the series sweep! 4-2 Coons! Sharp 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Sheehan 2-4, RBI;

After the only sweeps we witnessed all year long involved the Coons on the bushy end of the broom, we have now swept two of our last four opponents, including the 3-game cleanup we did with the Loggers two weekends ago.

Also, as the two leading base stealers in the CL met up, the result was a draw, with both of them nipping one bag. Yamada was thrown out once as well, while Ramón Perez was perfect, 1/1.

Also, suddenly Christian Greenman appears on the home run leaderboard in third place, but his 22 dingers pale a bit compared to Indy’s Ron Alston’s 30. Who’s in next? Oh, the Indians.

Roster expansion

We made a few, but not many moves as we hit September 1, for a few reasons. We added two arms to the pen to extend us there and to ease the load on Huerta and Kichida, who were over 60 innings pitched already, added a third catcher in the mildly useless Curt Cooks (remember him?), and brought up another middle infielder in Tom Ingram.

The relievers are 26-year old Rémy Lucas, a Canadian lefty, and 22-year old righty Matt Cash. The former was pitching in A ball as late as May of 2003, when he was already 24 years old, but since then has got the slider working and worked his way up the minors as late bloomer. He was one of three players (along Bill Corkum and another now-AAA reliever in Pedro Delgado) to come over from the Rebels before the 2004 season, got taken in the rule 5 draft that December, and was handed back by the team that took him, the Crusaders. Now he’s here.

Cash was drafted by us as a high schooler in 2000 in the second round. He’s more a conventional cutter/curve guy that won’t rack up strikeouts like candy and who doesn’t have the stamina for long relief, so the possibilities for him are ultimately limited, because there are only so many 7th inning jobs for right-handers available. Cash also has a history with shoulder inflammation, which cost him almost all of his first full professional season and had him drop from the #24 prospect before those struggles to nothing to years later.

More players will follow when the minor league season ends (probably Watanabe, possibly Webster, another reliever, Adrian Quebell, another bat), and Bob Mays will be added a week from now to not have him exceed rookie limits ahead of a full campaign in 2006.

Raccoons (56-78) vs. Indians (73-60) – September 1-4, 2005

The Indians were in a position to make the playoffs for the first time since the times of Jesus Christ, now sitting one and a half games out of the Titans in the division. They desperately needed to drum the Raccoons on this 4-game weekend set, but so far this season had played underwhelmingly against them, losing six out of eleven games played. While they continued to rely on their three big bats in the middle of the lineup (and those always loved to hit up Raccoons Ballpark and make the scoreboard flash in sorrow colors), their rotation had been torn to shreds to injuries by now, with Alonso Alonso, Ricardo Sanchez, and Anthony Mosher all out, but Sanchez was still possible to appear in the series. He was listed as “Out”, but not DL’ed, as the Indians came in, with his condition listed as gout. As a result of all of this, AND rosters expanding, their rotation was in a state of flux.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (12-7, 2.70 ERA) vs. Patrick Moreau (5-3, 3.27 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (4-14, 4.59 ERA) vs. Bob King (15-12, 4.81 ERA)
Ralph Ford (4-11, 4.21 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (15-7, 3.81 ERA)
Edgar Amador (6-10, 4.29 ERA) vs. TBD

Game 1
IND: 1B Stevens – RF Wales – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – CF J. Alvarez – 2B J. Zamora – SS W. George – P Moreau
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – CF Fernandez – SS Yamada – C Wood – P Brown

By the time Nick Brown, who came in with 198 strikeouts, reached 200, the Indians were up by five runs. They got one run off Brown in a laborious second inning that ended with a K to Moreau with runners on the corners, then lead off the third inning with four straight hits, including three singles and a booming 3-run homer by David Lopez. Our stud got through the third, but never registered an out in the fourth, with Moreau hitting a hard single to right, Simon Stevens a soft single to left, and old, wise Dale Wales drawing a walk – and there was nobody out. Ed Bryan replaced Brown, but before he ever threw a pitch to Ron Alston he balked. Then walked Alston. Huerta got out of the mess with a run-scoring double play and another grounder to Nomura, but by then the Indians were up 7-1, all runs on Brownie, and the Raccoons looked a bit helpless. That was facing a pitcher who had NO command over his stuff whatsoever in this game, and walked in the Coons’ lone run in the bottom 3rd. The fourth started with a walk to Bob Wood, and slowly the Coons loaded them up. It was 7-2 with three on and one out when Greenman came up, but flew out to Wales, Sharp scoring, 7-3, but Martin bounced out and there would not be anybody capable of saving Brown from a mix of bad stuff and rotten luck in this game. And it would get worse, with the bottom falling out of the bullpen late, and both Rockburn and Bruno getting soiled for three runs, with Bruno getting battered by old Dale Wales with a 3-run shot. 13-5 Indians. Sharp 2-5; Nomura 4-5, RBI; Martin 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Ramirez (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI;

That’s the most runs we got clobbered for since a 14-8 drubbing on the hands of the Knights in the second week of the year.

Both Cash and Lucas made their debuts in this game, and both pitched a scoreless inning.

For the second game, Ricardo Sanchez (10-7, 3.98 ERA) rose from the dead, and gout, while Steve Searcy went down with sinusitis and would be unavailable for the rest of this series at least.

Game 2
IND: 2B Sepúlveda – RF Wales – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – CF J. Alvarez – C Bowen – 1B M. Berry – SS Montray – P R. Sanchez
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – C L. Ramirez – SS Sheehan – CF M. King – P F. Garcia

Slugger Jose Paraz was not playing, so Garcia thought “well, I just have to give up a homer to Craig Bowen then, right?” Thinking was best left to sentient beings however, and the Indians took a 1-0 lead on the bomb in the second. In the fourth, Ron Alston hit #31 well above and beyond the cheap seats in left, and the Indians got another run after leadoff singles by Wales (merely #3,652 for him) and Alston in the sixth. The Coons had nothing at all against gout-crippled Sanchez all the way into the seventh, when Brady hit a 1-out single, followed by a Greenman double. That brought up Martin as the tying run, Martin struck out, and when Wheaton hit for Ramirez, he lobbed a fly to center that got Alvarez scrambling, but he made the catch and the Coons remained shut out. Bottom 8th, again the Coons had runners in scoring position. Sheehan reached on an error to start the frame, and was run for by Yamada, who instantly stole second base. Matt King walked, chasing Sanchez for Tommy Wooldridge, with Curt Cooks coming to the plate after entering in a double switch with Rémy Lucas. The 0-2 pitch was put in play by Cooks, a grounder up the middle and Montray missed it by inches as it rolled into centerfield, plating both runs, and when Sharp doubled off Wooldridge, we yet again had two in scoring position with no outs, but now those were the go-ahead runs. The Indians’ battery melted down now, with a passed ball plating Cooks, Nomura walking, and then Brady singled to right for the Coons to take the lead!! And still nobody out! Unfortunately the following three outs were collected rather rapidly and there was no cushion for Angel who came unexpectedly into the game in the ninth. The Indians put two men on base in the inning, but Phil Montray was plainly victimized by Casas to close out this one. 4-3 Coons. Brady 3-4, RBI; Cooks 1-1, 2 RBI;

Rémy Lucas had pitched the eighth and picked up his first major league win!

Blunder of the week: in my general state of mental numbness I batted Lucas with two out and two on in the bottom 8th. Oops.

Game 3
IND: 2B Sepúlveda – RF Wales – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – CF J. Alvarez – 1B Stevens – SS Montray – P B. King
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Yamada – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – CF Fernandez – 3B Sheehan – C Wood – P Ford

The Indians’ inability to score despite a fantastic parade of silly errors by the Raccoons automatically disqualified them from the playoffs in this Saturday afternoon game. In the third inning, Ford had two outs and nobody on for Bob King, had him at 1-2, then got a grounder from King, and bobbled it. King appeared in scoring position after a passed ball, but the Indians couldn’t get anything from Sepúlveda. Fourth inning, Wales on base (as always, it seemed), Al Martin dropped a foul pop from Ron Alston that allowed the slugger to reach base, but somehow the Indians botched themselves out of that one, too. In the fifth then, they got a cheap single, a wild pitch, an infield single, and a walk to Wales to load the bases, only for Alston to strike out and leave everybody stranded. Paraz doubled in the sixth and was left on third base, in the seventh Ford issued a leadoff walk to Larry Booker, who moved to second on Wood’s second passed ball in the game, only for Bob King to blow a bunt that got Booker’s book closed at third base, and Matt MacKey grounded into a double play. And thus, after seven innings of failing to kick anyone across home plate, the Indians saw the Coons after six innings of futility get Greenman into scoring position and then plated on a Sheehan double. Marcos Bruno protected the flimsy lead in the eighth and when the Coons’ turn to strand a pair in the bottom 8th passed, it was Angel’s fourth call of the week, facing the soft bottom of the order, although that included Craig Bowen as leadoff man, who had already homered in the series. Here he grounded out to Nomura, and then Mark Berry and Jose Lugo got courtesies to the dugout with a K. 1-0 Furballs! Nomura 2-4, 2B; Yamada 2-4; Sheehan 1-3, 2B, RBI; Ford 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, W (5-11);

Game 4
IND: 2B Sepúlveda – 1B Stevens – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – RF MacKey – CF J. Lugo – SS Montray – C Tobitt
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Yamada – 2B Nomura – RF Brady – 1B Martin – CF Fernandez – LF Wheaton – C L. Ramirez – P Amador

The Coons had three singles to start the bottom 1st, until Brady hit one to Sepúlveda and Nomura got entangled with Montray at second base and was banged up and had to be replaced by Tom Ingram. Sharp was the only runner to score in the inning once Martin and Fernandez struck out. The Coons would still move out to 3-0 on Leon Ramirez’ home run in the bottom 2nd, but Amador got struck pretty square the second time through the order, with Ron Alston homering in the third, and then a parade of hits – at least some with tardy defense supporting them – in the fourth for three runs to flip the score in favor of the Indians, 4-3. Lugo hit a leadoff single in the sixth to chase Amador, and when Ed Bryan took over, he threw a wild pitch right away, and that would eventually enable Lugo to score and make it 5-3. The Raccoons, who had put five hits on Tobitt in the first two innings, slowed down tremendously after that, then remained in place, and finally regressed to helpless flailing in the last innings. Iemitsu Rin, whom we have been able to avoid in the series so far, struck out the side in the ninth. 5-3 Indians. Yamada 2-4; Ramirez 2-3, HR, 2 RBI;

In other news

August 29 – The Falcons lose SS Conceicao Guerin (.264, 1 HR, 43 RBI) for three weeks due to acute elbow soreness.

Complaints and stuff

After spending the first half of the year in some form or other of suspended animation, Yoshi Nomura broke out in August, batting .375 with 1 HR and 8 RBI to nab the CL’s Rookie of the Month award! Of course, nothing good can ever happen to us, and so he has reentered suspended animation now with an undisclosed injury sustained on Sunday. Christian Greenman was the CL Player of the Week despite batting only .320 (8-25), but he logged four homers (all against the Condors) and 10 RBI.

Concie getting hurt with less than six weeks left in the season – some things never change.

Yoshi Yamada went a sub-exhilarating 3/6 in stolen base attempts this week, but still got to 47 on the year,

And what a week that was! How about Brownie getting soiled and about everybody else pulling through? Who’d have seen that coming? The 1-0 win on Saturday, Ford’s, was the 2,300th regular season win for the franchise.

So, and now that we are fairly euphoric ‘round here, the killer news: the Coons’ first round pick from this year’s draft, SP Brandon Teasdale, had Tommy John surgery on Friday. Kleenex and Capt’n Coma are on the table, make yourself comfortable, and if you need me, I’ll be outside on the balcony, standing on the balustrade, glaring into the abyss.

Raccoons Revisited: In 1989, Tetsu Osanai slugged .600, with 229 hits, 387 total bases, 140 RBI, and a 1.004 OPS – all of which are still franchise records. He also set a franchise mark with 35 HR in that season, which was broken by Royce Green with 38 in 1994.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (58-80) @ Canadiens (72-64) – September 5-7, 2005

Having lost seven of a dozen against the Elks so far this year we had to undertake the trouble of travelling north into their igloos once again. Ninth in offense and fourth in defense, they didn’t run up high scores, which was something they shared with the hapless, offenseless Raccoons.

Projected matchups:
Ben Carlson (8-9, 4.02 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (14-8, 3.05 ERA)
Nick Brown (12-8, 2.99 ERA) vs. Daniel Dickerson (15-9, 2.58 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (4-14, 4.56 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (9-10, 3.56 ERA)

That would be three right-handers.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Yamada – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – CF Fernandez – C Wood – 2B Ingram – P Carlson
VAN: 3B Suzuki – RF Calzado – 2B Dobson – CF J. Gonzalez – 1B Rodgers – LF Trinidad – SS Nakayama – C F. Diéguez – P Fujita

Carlson’s outing was truly special. After a walk to Mitsuhide Suzuki, Vonne Calzado took him deep, and it was 2-0 Elks with nobody out. Then Jerry Dobson singled. Jose Gonzalez struck out, but Ken Rodgers singled and Ramón Trinidad drew the second 4-pitch walk of the game. And it yet got worse. Haruki Nakayama singled, 3-0, and so did Fernando Diéguez, 5-0. With the runners moving into scoring position, a run was going to score anyway on Juichi Fujita’s grounder to short, but when Al Martin dropped Yamada’s throw we didn’t even get an out. 6-0. When Suzuki singled, 7-0, that was it for Carlson. An eighth run scored on a groundout, enabled by Kaz Kichida unmotivatedly walking Calzado to load the bases, but after merely conceding eight runs, we already got out of the first inning. The Raccoons made it into the bottom 8th using only three relief pitchers, Kichida, Moreno, and Cash, but the latter got stuck there with a leadoff double by Juichi Fujita, for whom there had been no reason to be removed, an error by the ****** at second base, Ingram, and then a walk, and another walk to Jose Gonzalez, who at that point had already hit for the golden sombrero, but now pushed in a run, and when Ed Bryan came in to get the final two outs, he instead managed to bloom the inning into a 6-spot with hard line drives whacked every which way. The Inepticoons had scored a few runs along the way, but who honestly, after an 8-run first, still gave a ****? 14-3 Canadiens. Fernandez 2-3; Kichida 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K;

What’s that in my mouth? The taste of blood…?

At this point, the Alley Cats were 4 1/2 out with a magic number of 7, and so we made two moves and added Kenichi Watanabe and Adrian Quebell, the former 2000 supplemental round pick who was the prize for Randy Farley and Dan Nordahl and smacked 21 homers in AAA this year. Him and Martin will share first base duties from here on to the end of the season. Both are left-handers.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Yamada – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Quebell – 2B Sheehan – CF Wheaton – C Wood – P Brown
VAN: CF J. Gonzalez – LF Trinidad – 3B Suzuki – 2B Dobson – SS Nakayama – RF Denunez – 1B Dorsey – C Hurtado – P Dickerson

And it just didn’t get better for the Raccoons. Sharp made a stupid error in the first inning, which Brown somehow got around, but in the third the Canadiens chipped four singles against him, all to shallow left, and he also walked in a run to fall 3-0 behind. His biting stuff continued to be MIA, and the Raccoons’ offensive efforts were outright abortive, with nothing happening in the first three innings – except for Adrian Quebell hitting a single in his first major league at-bat – and in the fourth and fifth they got their leadoff men, Brady and Wheaton, respectively, on base, then hit immediately into double plays. Dickerson pitched eight shutout innings, scattering five hits, all singles, and two walks while whiffing seven, before Pedro Alvarado walked Quebell and allowed singles to Searcy and Wheaton to give up a run in the ninth, but Bob Wood struck out to leave the tying runs stranded. 3-1 Canadiens. Quebell 2-3, BB;

Arf.

Oh yeah, this particularly awful loss makes the ninth consecutive losing season official. We’re now 58-82.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Yamada – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Quebell – CF Fernandez – C L. Ramirez – 2B Sheehan – P F. Garcia
VAN: 3B Suzuki – RF Calzado – 2B Dobson – CF J. Gonzalez – 1B Rodgers – LF Trinidad – SS Nakayama – C F. Diéguez – P R. Taylor

Nobody quite expected Garcia to turn the tide here, but a single, two walks, and a wild pitch in the first four batters he faced was not exactly the definition of succeeding in any circumstances. When the pitching coach was done with a visit to the mound, Ken Rodgers dumped a blooper between Yamada and Brady to run the score to 2-0 already. Garcia would throw a wild pitch to move the runners into scoring position, surrendering a sac fly to Ramón Trinidad. Then, another wild pitch. Nakayama grounded out, though, 3-0 after one, and only 21 outs left to somehow butcher together. The Coons would load the bases, still in a 3-0 game, in the third inning without the benefit of a hit when Sheehan was drilled and Sharp and Yamada drew 1-out walks. Brady was up, whiffed, and Greenman grounded out to third base on the first pitch he saw. Bottom 3rd, Garcia walked Gonzalez, was taken well yard by Rodgers, 5-0, then drilled Trinidad, who should know better after having seen the mockery Garcia had made of pitching in general in the last hour, but charged the mound anyway as a brawl ensued. Both Garcia and Trinidad got tossed, but we would have brought in a long man anyway… That long man, Huerta, got stuck in his second inning, while Danny Sharp brought the Raccoons nominally back into the game with a 2-run homer in the top 5th, and there was something like a 2-out rally in the top 7th with Sharp walking, and Yamada and Brady hitting singles, the latter scoring Sharp to make it 5-3 and bring up Greenman with the tying runs on base, but Greenman’s fly to left was easily caught by Jim Jardine. The tying runs reappeared on base with a Quebell single and Fernandez reaching on an error in the top of the eighth. Then Ramirez, Martin, and Wheaton all utterly failed to move the runners forward just one inch. While Rod Taylor had struck out 11 in eight innings of work, Alvarado struck out the 1-2-3 batters in the ninth. 5-3 Canadiens. Sharp 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-4; Rockburn 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Yoshi Nomura has been diagnosed with a sore shoulder. No structural damage, but the season might be over anyway for him.

Felipe Garcia was suspended for six games. Come on, that’s too mild a punishment! Voiding his contract and deporting him to Santa Banana would be the bare minimum.

At least we have a snout length’s lead again in the race for the #1 draft pick.

Raccoons (58-83) vs. Crusaders (73-66) – September 9-11, 2005

In fourth place, but only five games out, the Crusaders were still having a sniff of the playoffs, came in with a 5-game winning streak, and had creamed the Raccoons to an 11-4 tune this season. They were second in offense and tied for second in runs allowed, and it seemed like that vast positive run differential would finally be put into use after all. One thing was certain. With three teams to jump over, the Crusaders could not waste any games in Portland…

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (5-11, 4.05 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (9-10, 3.95 ERA)
Edgar Amador (6-11, 4.51 ERA) vs. Greg Connor (10-14, 4.73 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (0-5, 4.02 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (15-6, 2.97 ERA)

Game 1
NYC: CF P. Javier – SS J. Hernandez – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – 1B L. Soto – C D. Anderson – 3B Watts – 2B Caraballo – P A. Javier
POR: 3B Sharp – LF Wheaton – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 1B A. Martin – SS Sheehan – C Wood – 2B Ingram – P Ford

The brown-clad lard stains continued to make dumb errors, with Ingram playing front and center throwing away a poor grounder by Julio Hernandez to put a runner on second in the first inning. Martin Ortíz’ drive to deep center was intercepted by Fernandez, otherwise the Crusaders would have taken the lead right away. Bottom 2nd, Al Martin led off with a double, but felt a pinch and after the trainer looked at him came out of the game. Quebell ran for him and replaced him at first base, and scored on a Caraballo error (another one of those lard stains), before the Coons left the bases loaded when Wheaton struck out. Wheaton also left another pair in scoring position after Ralph Ford drove home Brad Sheehan with an RBI single in the fourth, Sharp joined him with a single and Angel Javier threw a wild pitch, but again it ended with Wheaton. Ingram made another stupid error in the top 5th, but nothing came out of that when Ford struck out Paco Javier to end the inning. The Crusaders found it hard to impossible to solve Ford overall. Ingram’s pair of errors accounted for 40% of their runners through eight innings, with two hits and a walk to their credit. The Coons still only held a 2-0 lead however, and failed to reach base in the last few innings of Javier’s outing, as well as against Francois Picard in the eighth. Angel Casas entered the fray in the ninth, with Stanton Martin leading off the inning with a triple. While he scored on Martin Ortíz’ sac fly, that was as close as the Crusaders got, for no more of them made it onto base. 2-1 Coons. Sharp 2-4; Wood 2-4; Ford 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K, W (7-11) and 1-3, RBI;

Al Martin had a mild hamstring strain which would hamper him for a week, which was a welcome excuse to have Quebell start in that period.

Game 2
NYC: CF P. Javier – SS J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – C D. Anderson – 1B D. Carroll – 3B Caraballo – 2B Moultrie – P Connor
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Yamada – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Quebell – 2B Sheehan – C Wood – CF King – P Amador

While the Fat Cat gave up sound contact from the start, the Coons took a lead when Greenman, Quebell ,and Sheehan all hit singles to load them up with no outs in the second, and Bob Wood drew a run-scoring walk, only for King and Amador to pop out in the general vicinity of home plate, and Sharp to roll out to Caraballo. The Crusaders finally got a run off Amador with a double by Dave Carroll in the fifth. Carroll moved over on Caraballo’s infield single, and Moultrie scored the runner with a sacrifice fly. The Raccoons retook the lead in the bottom 5th, 2-1, before Sheehan left the bases loaded (…), but when it was time for the top 6th, Amador was no longer in the game, having left with an apparent injury. While the home fans were clueless as to what happened, Sheehan came through the next time he stepped to the plate, two out and runners on first and second. He doubled to left, plating both runners and running the score to 5-1. Daniel Sharp had homered earlier in the inning. That boost proved to be more than sufficient. The Coons mixed and matched a bit, and between five pitchers managed to cover four innings with just three runners, and no runs scored. 5-1 Furballs. Sharp 1-3, 2 BB, HR, RBI; Greenman 2-3, BB, RBI; Sheehan 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

No diagnosis on Amador. So, let’s see, what is in our rotation now? The struggling ace, the reanimated southpaw, the old fart that can’t get anybody out, the other guy who can’t get anybody out AND is suspended, and “Winless” Watanabe, not quite the second coming of Jes- … Kisho Saito.

Oh, my!

Game 3
NYC: CF P. Javier – SS J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B D. Carroll – 3B Watts – C Dunn – 2B Moultrie – P Reeves
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Yamada – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Quebell – CF Fernandez – C Wood – 2B Ingram – P Watanabe

“Winless” Watanabe casually retired the first 15 Crusaders that stepped up to the plate before Melvin Dunn led off the sixth with a single to left. Sure enough, Paco Javier hit a 2-out double that plated the run, and Watanabe – unsurprisingly – found himself trailing, since the Raccoons had yet to remove the tails that were covering their black eyes. They had managed one hit off Reeves in five innings, and it didn’t get much better beyond that, while Dunn would ruin Watanabe’s day for good in the eighth with a 2-run homer. Everything that stood between the Raccoons and the second no-hitter handed to them by the Crusaders in less than 12 months was a soft single by Danny Sharp. 3-0 Crusaders. Watanabe 7.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, L (0-6);

In other news

September 6 – In his third major league start, BOS SP Mauro Castro (2-1, 2.35 ERA) 2-hits the Loggers, while his team has no trouble providing sufficient run support, merely incinerating the Loggers in a 14-0 rout.
September 8 – DEN SP Victor Bernal (19-6, 3.44 ERA) spins a 1-hitter in shutting out the Warriors, 7-0. Dave Heffer is the only Warrior to hit safely, breaking up the no-hitter with one out in the eighth inning.

Complaints and stuff

Despite the 5-1 win we were eliminated on Saturday when the Titans behind Jason O’Halloran overcame Joe Hollow and an early deficit to beat the Canadiens 5-3. We also ended a streak of improving our record for four straight years with the suffocating performance by Whit Reeves on Sunday: from 2001 to 2004, the team had always won more games than the previous year. Granted, they only improved by 15 games and never reached .500, but we have matched last year’s 84 losses and so that is over.

The Alley Cats are not going to make the playoffs either, with a magic number of one against them. Which is good. We might need to pillage that roster further.

Yoshi-Y now has an all time top 10 season in stolen bases, tying for 7th with Andrés Serna. With three weeks to play and the single season record being 58, he has a shot – if he can reach base often enough…

[Westheim]

Raccoons (60-84) @ Indians (78-65) – September 13-15, 2005

It was all drifting away from the Indians, who were never expected to compete, had competed, but were now four games out, and scrambling after the Titans. They were 5th in runs scored and 7th in runs allowed, and there was a case to be made for that those numbers were not deserving of the playoffs in the first place. We were 7-8 against them this season.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (12-9, 3.03 ERA) vs. Patrick Moreau (6-4, 3.86 ERA)
Kazuhiko Kichida (1-2, 2.80 ERA) vs. Kevin Edwards (0-1, 4.50 ERA)
Ralph Ford (6-11, 3.88 ERA) vs. Bob King (16-13, 4.43 ERA)

Kichida makes a spot start here with Webster’s presence required in AAA with our supply on pseudo-starters severely depleted, and with Garcia still suspended for the middle game. Garcia moves to Amador’s slot, who is still in medical limbo.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Yamada – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Quebell – C Wood – CF Wheaton – 2B Sheehan – P Brown
IND: 1B Stevens – RF Wales – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – CF J. Alvarez – 2B J. Zamora – SS W. George – P Moreau

… and Brownie’s control remained well off. He walked a man in the first, and then Paraz to start the second. Alvarez singled to shallow left, out of Brady’s reach, and Zamora followed him right to the same spot. Paraz was sent around third, but Brady still had an arm and lasered him out at home. Next, Will George grounded to third, where Sharp had another not so sharp moment and sailed his throw to second into centerfield. Moreau managed to make contact, a fly to Brady, but that was enough to plate an unearned run. Brown walked a man in every inning until he finally found himself in the fifth, struck out Moreau and Stevens, and Dale Wales (3,657 hits and still counting) grounded out. Then he even got support, with Brady and Greenman bashing back-to-back bombs in the sixth, giving him a 2-1 lead. Brown was still around for the bottom 7th, fell 3-0 behind Alvarez, but the Indian then poked and grounded out. Will George hit a 2-out double in the inning, but Brown struck out Matt MacKey to finish on a high note. Sharp, who was high on the butcher list, led off the top 8th with a home run off Tommy Wooldridge, 3-1. Bruno and Moreno took care of the top of the lineup in the eighth, Iemitsu Rin culled some Cooons in the top 9th, before Angel Casas was assigned to the bottom 9th and got the Indians on two poor grounders and a strikeout to Paraz. 3-1 Brownies! Sharp 3-4, HR, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, W (13-9);

Ever since the Break, it has been a struggle for Brownie. While he has only gained .15 ERA, he has walked 29 batters against 61 strikeouts, which is not a *bad* ratio, but he’d been at 39/151 before the All Star game…

Edgar Amador was diagnosed with a strained oblique, but it is a mild strain and he will be able to pitch again this year, but not this week. So, nothing changes with our plans: Kaz on Wednesday, Garcia on Friday, and a lot of prayers all week long.

Next, Kaz’ first major league start. He has started as late as last season in AAA, so this is not totally out of the ordinary for him. We have enough relievers – if he goes five, maybe six, that’ll be fine.

Dave Wheaton gets another start. He’s 4-for-5 with 3 HR against Edwards. We need every little bit we can get.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Yamada – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Quebell – C Wood – CF Wheaton – 2B Sheehan – P Kichida
IND: 2B Sepúlveda – 1B Stevens – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – CF J. Alvarez – RF MacKey – SS Montray – P Edwards

Kaz sat down the first 11 Indians before Ron Alston dropped a single into shallow right and Greenman overran it right away for an extra base, but when Lopez popped out to end the frame, the Coons remained 1-0 ahead, courtesy of a Yamada single, his 51st stolen base, a Brady single, and a sac fly by Greenman in the top of the same inning. Clyde Brady clouted one in the top 6th for a solo home run, moving the score to 2-0, and Kichida’s command was running away in the bottom 6th. The Indians had two on with two out, but Ron Alston was coming to the plate, so we sent for a lefty in Ed Bryan. Alston singled, loading the bases, and we were now in the mood for some Raw Lockburn to face David Lopez. Rockburn got a poor grounder and played it himself to first to end the frame. An error got the Indians going in the seventh. No, it was not Sharp, for once, but Sheehan. Rockburn left with Paraz on first and one out, for Moreno to come in, but he gave up two hits and a run before Marcos Bruno appeared to surrender Sepúlveda and preserve a 2-1 advantage through seven. The mad scramble continued, however. After Yamada had killed a weak attempt at offense with a double play grounder to short in the top 8th, Bruno gave up two singles right up the middle in the bottom of the inning. Rémy Lucas came in to face the switch-hitter, but natural lefty Paraz, who singled to center. There Matt King was now playing after an earlier double switch, and he fired a rocket towards home to throw out the lead runner Simon Stevens. Then we went to Angel Casas, who gave up a drive to center off Craig Bowen’s bat, but King made another strong play on that. Casas had entered in another double switch, along with Steve Searcy, who took over at third base, so that Casas wouldn’t be the fifth Coon to bat in the top 9th. Sure enough, Searcy then came to the plate with two on and two out and rammed a double off the centerfield wall that plated a pair. Angel then fell behind every batter in the bottom 9th, but one walk was all the Indians could mount. 4-1 Coons. Brady 3-3, BB, HR, RBI; Martin (PH) 1-1; Searcy 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Kichida 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, W (2-2); Casas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, SV (23);

Wheaton went oh-fer, by the way, and was removed in the first double switch. Clyde Brady, however, hit his 100th career home run.

But well, the Raccoons ruined my summer, it’s only fair they ruin the Indians’ fall.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Sheehan – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – C L. Ramirez – SS Yamada – CF M. King – P Ford
IND: 2B Sepúlveda – RF Wales – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – C Paraz – CF J. Alvarez – 1B Stevens – SS Montray – P B. King

Offense was slow to being with yet again. Both pitchers had a single in the third inning, and still neither team amounted to anything. The Coons would be the first to squeeze out a run, with three soft singles, all consecutively, by King, Ford(!), and Sharp in the top 5th, scoring King on a very close play. Ralph Ford gave up only one hit (but three walks) through six, but that held the Indians well short. While he navigated the tough middle of the order, Jesus Alvarez then hurt him with a leadoff home run in the bottom 7th, tying the score. From there, Ford’s ship sank rapidly. Stevens hit a single, and eventually scored on a pinch-hit single by MacKey. Ford left with runners on first and second, two outs, for Ed Bryan to face Alston. At 0-2 he threw a wild pitch, then surrendered a 2-run single on a 2-2 pitch. While the Raccoons didn’t have an answer to that in the first place, Leon Ramirez donated them an unearned run in the eighth on his 10th error of the season – and he hasn’t played all that much. 5-1 Indians. Sharp 2-4, 2B, RBI; King 2-3;

Raccoons (62-85) @ Thunder (85-61) – September 16-18, 2005

While the Thunder only were average in runs scored, their league-best pitching kept them in the race, one game over the Falcons on the way in. The season series has been split evenly so far.

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (4-15, 4.77 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (15-10, 3.34 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (0-6, 3.92 ERA) vs. Vaughn Higgins (14-10, 4.27 ERA)
Nick Brown (13-9, 2.92 ERA) vs. Luis Martinez (14-8, 3.41 ERA)

And here’s the news: Bob Mays was called up for this series.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Sheehan – LF Brady – CF Greenman – 1B Martin – RF Mays – SS Yamada – C B. Wood – P F. Garcia
OCT: 1B J. Brown – CF Walls – SS Grant – 3B Higashi – LF Humphrey – C De La Parra – 2B Palacios – RF Ayers – P Trevino

For a nice change, Garcia was not walloped. He did not give up a hit through three and two thirds, but when Palacios beat Greenman’s paltry range with a double to center in the fifth, that quickly became a run. Of course it was 1-0 Thunder then – the Raccoons’ hitting display through six innings was outright horrendous. Bob Mays then drew a leadoff walk in the seventh – and trouble found Pancho Trevino. Mays stole second and scored on Wood’s single, and with two outs, Sharp hit another home run to give Garcia, who hadn’t won a game since July, a 3-1 lead. Garcia was gone after a De La Parra double in the seventh, with Lucas and Rockburn somehow tumbling through the inning without a run scoring. The 3-1 lead arrived in Casas’ paws, and he saved it – by circumstances. Joey Humphrey hit a 1-out single, but tried to gain an extra base while Mays played the ball at the rightfield line. Obviously Humphrey didn’t know Mays’ arm – he was out at second. And when Palacios fired a drive to deep center, he couldn’t beat Greenman this time, for Greenman had been removed for defense. Eddie Fernandez made the play. 3-1 Coons. Sharp 1-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Garcia 6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (5-15) and 1-2; Rockburn 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Sheehan – LF Brady – 1B Martin – RF Mays – SS Yamada – CF Fernandez – C Cooks – P Watanabe
OCT: 1B J. Brown – CF Walls – SS Grant – 3B Higashi – LF Humphrey – C De La Parra – 2B Palacios – RF Ayers – P Higgins

“Winless” Watanabe found himself sabotaged early by the Stupid Error Show. Al Martin caught a soft pop by Tom Walls in the bottom 1st – and then had it drop out of the glove … and then kicked it away. A rattled Watanabe was rolled for three unearned runs in the inning, and the Coons founds themselves treading water early. It hardly got any better for him. Top 4th, Bob Mays, who was homerless in 56 major league at-bats, found himself up with three on and one out. He hit one sharply to Palacios, to Grant, to Brown, inning over. He was up again with two on and two out in the sixth – and flew out softly to Walls. The score was still 3-0, “Winless” soldiering on, but gave up an earned run in the sixth and was hit for in the Coons’ half of the seventh, in which Curt Cooks plated Fernandez with a single, but 3-0 and 4-1 – it’s all the same ****ty taste. Bob Mays picked his next at-bat for his first home run, there was nobody on, but he followed Al Martin’s solo shot and that cut the gap to 4-3 in the eighth. Then Yamada walked, stole second base, Sancho Rivera replaced Higgins, and Rivera popped up Fernandez and the pop was caught in foul territory by Antonio De La Parra. Lucas and Huerta held on in the bottom 8th, and then Cooks led off the ninth with a single off Jimmy Morey – his fourth single on the day! For once, the Coons romped over Morey: Wheaton doubled, and Sharp singled, which tied the score at four, with runners on the corners and no outs. Quebell hit for Sheehan, SINGLED, and that put the Coons ahead! We got another run on a Brady sac fly after Morey had balked both runners into scoring position. Angel Casas was unavailable after frequent work, and Marcos Bruno was tasked with the ninth, and didn’t allow anybody on base. 6-4 Coons! Sharp 2-5, RBI; Sheehan 2-4; Quebell (PH) 1-1, RBI; Martin 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Cooks 4-4, RBI; Wheaton 1-1, 2B;

Ricardo Huerta picked up his seventh win by getting two outs in the eighth. He is now alone in third place again on the team, trailing Brownie and the old fart that can’t get anybody out.

What a strange team.

Game 3
POR: 2B Sheehan – SS Yamada – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Quebell – 3B Searcy – CF Fernandez – C B. Wood – P N. Brown
OCT: 2B Palacios – C De La Parra – SS Grant – 3B Higashi – LF Walls – 1B G. Wood – CF Humphrey – RF P. Flores – P A. Anderson

The Thunder tried to stop us with Aaron Anderson (15-8, 2.84 ERA) in the Sunday game. He held the Raccoons so short that they easily fit into a box of matches, while Brownie’s control was by now searched for on milk cartons. It still went quite good for him – never mind a rocketing pitch count – until Yamada made a rare error in the fifth that plated the first run for the Thunder. Yamada didn’t have a good day so far. An inning earlier he had already been thrown out stealing by De La Parra, and it looked like he’d be the guy to lock into the baggage compartment on the plane outta Oklahoma City, until he hit a 1-out double in the top 6th that moved Nick Brown to third base. Brown had singled, and brought home the tying run on Clyde Brady’s single to right, Yamada not far behind, and it was 2-1 Coons. Brady would be left on despite a Greenman single, Brownie bore down and clawed and bit his way through the bottom 6th, and in the top 7th he batted with no outs and Fernandez and Brown on second and first, respectively. Brown swung, but grounded out to Palacios, however the only play was to first base, and we had runners in scoring position again with one out, but the Coons didn’t score when Sheehan was sat down on a hero’s play by Jesus Palacios, and Yamada struck out. Brown walked Anderson in the bottom 7th, but struck out Palacios to end on a high note. Could the Coons pull through again?

For starters, Anderson pulled through and struck out the side in the eighth to reach 11 on the day. Rockburn came in for the bottom 8th, gave up a 1-out single to Bob Grant, but then got Takahashi Higashi to hit into a double play. Top 9th. Fernandez grounded out, with Anderson still in the game. Sharp hit for Wood, singled, and Humphrey overran it, moving Sharp to second. Bob Mays hit for Rockburn, but was walked intentionally(!), to get to Sheehan, but hey, we’ve still got Al Martin on the bench. Aaaand a double play. And so it was Casas with no safety net, and he struck out Alonso Baca, George Wood grounded out to short, and Joey Humphrey was retired by Ingram on a pop to second. 2-1 Brownies!! Yamada 2-4, 2B; Quebell 2-4; Sharp (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, W (14-9) and 1-3;

In other news

September 12 – Boston’s Bryce Hildred (15-7, 4.17 ERA) holds the Crusaders to two hits in an 8-0 shutout.
September 14 – BOS INF Masaaki Matsumoto (.295, 0 HR, 63 RBI) reaches the 2,000 hits plateau in the Titans’ 6-5 loss to the Crusaders. The milestone hit is a 12th inning leadoff single off Charlie Deacon, making Matsumoto the potential tying run, but he is left on second base. The 32-year old Japanese was discovered by the Capitals in 1991, and made his debut in 1995 for Washington, moving over Sacramento to Boston. He has a Gold Glove and five All Star nominations along with three World Series rings.
September 17 – TOP MR Jose Sotelo (3-2, 3.32 ERA, 12 SV) has suffered an oblique strain while programming his VCR. He is out for up to two weeks. Yes, actually.
September 18 – Season over for TIJ CF Ramón Perez (.261, 13 HR, 74 RBI), who is out with an oblique strain. He also was a distant second to Yoshi Yamada of the Raccoons in stolen bases in the ABL, with 39.

Complaints and stuff

Look at this team, winning, and throwing away the #1 pick! Sitting on the #5 choice now.

Unless we can mop the Knights, the Thunder and Falcons will be the only teams we have beaten both of the last two seasons. 12-6 against the Thunder, and 11-7 against the Falcons.

Single season steals:
1st – Moromao Hino (DAL, 1998) – 58
2nd – Andrés Serna (DAL, 1986) – 55
3rd – Andrés Serna (DAL, 1990) – 54
t-4th – Moromao Hino (DAL, 1996) – 53
t-4th – Yoshi Yamada (POR, 2005) – 53

And how did Adrian Quebell steal a base? If you’re really desperate, you will hit-and-run with anybody. On that play, both catchers whiffed. Wood with a stick, and António De La Parra with the glove.

OOTP needed some intervention this week, with an outrageously silly career-ending hamstring strain that I overrode in commish mode. No the player is not a Coon, nor has he ever been. That doesn’t make it any less outrageously silly.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (65-85) vs. Knights (71-78) – September 19-21, 2005

The third-most runs were scored both offensively and defensively when the Knights were involved. Their rotation ERA was 4.47 (10th), bad enough, but they also had a 4.17 ERA bullpen, which was soundly the first in the league. Yet, they still won four of six from us this season.

Projected matchups:
Edgar Amador (6-11, 4.39 ERA) vs. Ed Wallace (2-1, 4.50 ERA)
Ralph Ford (6-12, 3.93 ERA) vs. Jong-suk Lee (8-18, 5.09 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (5-15, 4.65 ERA) vs. Larry Cutts (17-6, 3.40 ERA)

Game 1
ATL: RF R. Lopez – CF Ware – LF J. Morales – C J. Lopez – SS Luján – 2B J. Miller – 1B J. Gutierrez – 3B Pena – P E. Wallace
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Sheehan – LF Brady – CF Greenman – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – SS Yamada – C Wood – P Amador

The Knights had left-handed bats sitting in the #2 and #3 holes, and those gave Amador a heck of trouble. He only once retired any of them, but the right-handers on the other hand were axed down with great furor, and Ware and Morales were stranded both in the first and third innings. The Coons left on a pair in the second, then had Ed Wallace issue walks to Brady, Greenman, AND Quebell to start the bottom 4th. Mays romped a pitch up the middle for an RBI single, and Yamada hit a sac fly before Wood singled to reload the bases, and then the Fat Cat drew a Fat Walk – and was all exhausted arriving at first base. That bases-loaded walk to the pitcher made it 3-0, Sharp popped out to second, but Sheehan would score a pair with a 2-out single to give us a 5-0 lead. The Knights got on the board the next inning. Amador foolishly drilled Wallace with a pitch, and Ware hit a 2-out single, moving the pitcher to third base. Wood had a ball scoot through his legs to bring in the run before Jose Morales could hack himself out – the first left-hander retired by Amador. Bob Mays would drive in another run in the seventh inning, while Jorge Lopez managed to take Ed Bryan deep in the top 8th. Bryan had already retired Ware and Morales, and we thought, well he can pitch to one right-hander every fortnight – no. Just no. Cash took over, but put a pair on in the top 9th. With Casas not showing much in the way of strikeouts and Bruno having an obscene rate of about 12 K/9, Marcos came out, and struck out Rodrigo Lopez to end the game and notch a save. 6-2 Coons! Quebell 2-3, BB; Mays 3-4, 2 RBI; Amador 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (7-11);

Danny Sharp extended a 10-game hitting streak at the last possible moment, with a 2-out single in the bottom 8th.

Game 2
ATL: LF R. Lopez – SS Luján – CF J. Morales – RF J. Garcia – 1B J. Gutierrez – 2B J. Miller – C Defrese – C Pena – P J.S. Lee
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Mays – LF Brady – CF Greenman – 1B Martin – SS Yamada – 2B Ingram – C Cooks – P Ford

The Knights drew three walks, but no hits and no runs from Ford in the first three innings before Jose Morales fired a home run to lead off the fourth, giving them a 1-0 lead. They continued to load the bases, including the fourth walk on the day, but didn’t score when Ford struck out Lee to end the inning. While it was going like gum for the Raccoons against an 18-game loser, Juan Gutierrez homered to start the top 6th, 2-0, but at least Bob Mays finally made contact in the bottom of the inning and drilled a solo home run himself to get back to 2-1. By then Ford was already out of the game, leaving after five and two thirds with two men on and the right-handed leadoff man Rodrigo Lopez up, merely batting .310. Lee was hit for the next inning, but not that it helped the Raccoons much. The top 9th almost saw the score explode after Rémy Lucas came in with two out and nobody on, got a very good grounder to Tom Ingram from Jose Morales, and Ingram made another one of those colossal throwing errors. Lucas walked the next batter, and Bruno came in to get the final out. We faced Manuel Reyes in the bottom 9th, still down 2-1, but his first pitch was hit for a double up the leftfield line by Al Martin. Yamada lined to left, but Rodrigo Lopez caught it, and after that Wheaton hit for the dirt bag Ingram. Both him and Sheehan would drive balls to deep center, but none of them got them past Morales, and the Raccoons took one of those sour losses that still have you cry on Sunday. 2-1 Knights. Martin 2-3, BB, 2B; Huerta 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Time to erase Tom Ingram from any depth chart we have. As if batting .202 wasn’t enough, he was actively sabotaging his team with a .948 fielding percentage. But I’m glad we could help out You-suck Lee, or whatever that guy was called.

Daniel Sharp has a 12-game hitting streak and is making a bid for a .300 season very late here. He hit .301 in ’01 and .304 in ’04. So he might end up at .305?

Game 3
ATL: LF R. Lopez – 1B Ware – CF J. Morales – RF J. Garcia – C J. Lopez – SS Luján – 2B J. Gutierrez – 3B Pena – P Cutts
POR: 1B Sharp – 2B Sheehan – LF Brady – RF Greenman – CF Fernandez – 3B Searcy – SS Yamada – C Wood – P F. Garcia

After Morales held onto the Knights’ win last night, he gave the Furballs a headstart in the rubber game, dropping Fernandez’ soft fly for an error to plate Sheehan from third base in the bottom 1st. While the Knights struggled against Garcia – of all people – and capitally failed even when getting a man to third base with one out, like in the fifth inning, Cutts was victimized by ugly 2-out defense by his team. When Garcia hit a ball to the outfield with two out in the bottom 2nd, Rodrigo Lopez took an awkward route, missed it, and it became a double, leading to Sharp’s RBI single and a 2-0 score. Cutts had to whiff the guy to come up with two outs, or bad things would happen. Unfortunately for the Coons, he learned that whiffing part fairly quickly and beat up Fernandez, Wood, and Sheehan in succession in the third through fifth innings. In the sixth Yamada was up with two on and two out, but Yamada by now was automatic out and no threat even with bad defense. The Knights would then get to Garcia in the seventh with three 2-out singles, one even back to Garcia, scoring a run and cutting the lead in half, but the Knights had also hit for Cutts, and now the soft bullpen was in play. Moreno held on in the eighth, and the ninth saw Casas cut down the Knights quickly, with strikeouts to Jorge Lopez and António Luján, and Gutierrez just grounding out. 2-1 Furballs. Garcia 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (6-15) and 2-2, 2B;

Yoshi Yamada didn’t get on base even ONCE in this series. So that makes nine games to steal five bags for the single season record. Might not happen…

Raccoons (67-86) vs. Titans (86-66) – September 23-25, 2005

And the Titans continued to stand on their own feet, four games up in the CL North, but still crumbling all around the clubhouse. Never mind their titanic 770 runs scored. Their rotation didn’t live up to previous years’ hype, despite a killer bullpen saving whatever it was tasked with. However, it has been enough to pounce on the Furballs so far, with a 10-5 advantage for them.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (0-6, 3.60 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (16-7, 4.12 ERA)
Nick Brown (14-9, 2.82 ERA) vs. Ray Conner (9-14, 3.90 ERA)
Edgar Amador (7-11, 4.12 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (14-12, 3.74 ERA)

After the constant opposition of right-hander Bryce Hildred (I don’t dare to check what we got for him when we let go of him), we will get the left-handers Conner and Chapa, the latter of which was Pitcher of the Year in 2004, but might not be this season.

Game 1
BOS: CF Garrison – SS M. Austin – RF G. Munoz – LF Brulhart – C L. Lopez – 2B Metting – 3B Matsumoto – 1B Frazier – P Hildred
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Mays – LF Brady – 1B Martin – 2B Sheehan – CF Wheaton – SS Yamada – C Wood – P Watanabe

A scoreless duel developed between ex-Coon Hildred and current-Coon “Winless” Watanabe. The Titans had a chance early but Wood threw out Toby Frazier stealing to knock out their teeth before it could get ugly on Watanabe. Hildred pitched half a perfect game, sitting down the first 13 Critters that came to bat, before walking Sheehan and allowing a single to Wheaton. After that Yamada whiffed and Wood flew out softly to right, and nobody scored despite Sheehan reaching third base on the single. The Titans would also have first and third with one out in the top 7th, but Matsumoto hit into a double play (at least Yamada could still play soft grounders…). Yamada finally got on base with a leadoff single in the bottom 8th. The game scoreless, of course he was gonna run. Problem was that the Titans weren’t that dumb, either, and Bob Wood’s contact making abilities were legendary. Yamada was sent on a run-and-hit and made it to second while Wood grounded out. Greenman hit for Watanabe, grounded out, and Sharp walked, but Bob Mays’ liner was caught by Hildred.

Anybody remember Freddy Rosa?

Yeah, that guy. He pinch-hit against Rémy Lucas with one out in the ninth. He singled. Daniel Silva ran for him. How could this not end in the most sorry way possible? Well, Huerta came in, popped up Jim Brulhart, and then Luis Lopez chopped out to Wheaton in center. Hildred entered the bottom 9th on 107 pitches, and started by walking Brady. Martin singled to right, Brady to second base. Quebell hit for Sheehan, grounded out to first, but that moved Brady to third with Wheaton batting. C’mon Dave – your one chance to be useful in a brown shirt! No, no. They didn’t pitch to him. Hildred put him on, then yielded for – Manuel Martinez. This was not the place to have Yamada bat. Out of right-handers, we went to Searcy, who struck out, and then Fernandez hit for Wood. First pitch low, but swung at, and it’s a liner to left – AND IT IS IN!! EDDIE WITH A WALKOFF!! 1-0 Coons!! Fernandez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Watanabe 8.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Watanabe however? Still winless. And Huerta? Tied for second on the team in wins.

Wicked bunch.

Game 2
BOS: 3B Matsumoto – C Rosa – LF Brulhart – 2B Metting – 1B L. Lopez – SS D. Silva – RF W. Taylor – CF Garrison – P Chapa
POR: 2B Sheehan – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – 3B Searcy – SS Yamada – C Wood – P Brown

Jorge Chapa moved up in a duel of aces, and was the first ace to blunder in the game, plating Edgardo Fernandez, Friday’s hero, with a wild pitch after Fernandez had tripled, and that made it 1-0 in the first, but the heart of the order guys all reached, and Martin scored Brady with a single to make it 2-0. Bottom 2nd, Brown singled, Sheehan was hit, and then Brady beat out Matsumoto for an infield single that plated Brownie from third base, 3-0. Brownie struck out five of his first ten batters before crap started to happen. Rosa hit a stupid bloop double past Fernandez and would score on a passed ball charged to Wood, which made the run unearned. But somewhere Brown had re-caught that fire again: he struck out the side in the fifth! But fire is a curious thing. Sometimes it goes out for no real reason. However, through the sixth and seventh, while he struck out none, only one man reached on a walk (Lopez with two out in the seventh) and the defense made easy plays on five grounders and foul pop. Brown also did the eighth, struck out Will Taylor for the third time, and Pete Baggett for the first, and then retired after a very strong outing. Unfortunately, the Coons didn’t do squid offensively after the first two innings. They had doubles from Searcy and Brady, but that was about it. And so Steve Searcy picked a very bad spot for an error to put the leadoff man Matsumoto on base in the ninth. The Titans now through all their left-handed studs at Angel Casas. Javier Encarnación hit in the #2 hole, but grounded out to Sharp, who had replaced Martin at first for defense (he should have replaced Searcy at third, lo and behold!), and Gonzalo Munoz grounded out to Sheehan, which moved Matsumoto to third base with Mark Austin batting for Kurt Metting. His fly to left got longer and longer, Brady after it - …. Aaaaand …. He got it! 3-1 Brownies!!! Brady 3-4, 2B, RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, W (15-9) and 1-3;

The Titans will send Jason O’Halloran (15-9, 3.70 ERA) into the third game, with the Indians having closed back to three games back. They NEED a win now!

Game 3
BOS: CF Garrison – SS M. Austin – RF G. Munoz – LF Brulhart – C L. Lopez – 2B Metting – 3B Matsumoto – 1B H. Ramirez – P O’Halloran
POR: 3B Sharp – CF Fernandez – 1B Quebell – RF Greenman – LF Brady – C L. Ramirez – SS Yamada – 2B Ingram – P Amador

After a scoreless first, Amador allowed a leadoff single to Jim Brulhart in the second inning. From there he went to full counts on everybody. He walked Lopez and Metting, but struck out Matsumoto and Ramirez to bring up O’Halloran, who chopped the 1-0 offering back to the mound to be out by 70 feet at first base. The Coons weren’t much better executing however, and had Brady kill the second inning with a double play, Yamada be napped stealing by Lopez in the third before two more Coons reached base, and in the fourth Quebell hit a leadoff double but found himself thrown out by Munoz at third. Amador blew through 100 pitches in only six innings, but was not scored upon. O’Halloran was much more economical with his stuff and continued past the sixth, only to surrender another leadoff double to Quebell in the seventh. This time Quebell only made one step past second base, then saw me standing next to the third base coach with a 19th century musket loaded and aimed right at his silly head, and scampered back. Greenman was put on with the best intentions, but this time the Titans didn’t get two from Brady, who singled to load them up. Leon Ramirez got Quebell forced out at home with a ****ty grounder, which also prompted me to charge after him with that musket, and while Searcy, batting for Yamada, also unleashed a grounder to third, that one was a bit less ****ty and at least plated a run. Ingram predictably whiffed, but we were tight on middle infielders. The Coons had two on with one out for Quebell in the bottom 8th, resulting in a double play, and thus it was Casas without a cushion in the ninth. Casas was in trouble fairly soon, with PH Will Taylor hitting a high liner into right center, where Greenman made a flying grab on the ball and registered the first out. Brulhart grounded out to Sharp, and Lopez grounded out to Ingram, no stupid errors, and the Titans didn’t know what had hit them. 1-0 Coons!! Quebell 2-4, 2 2B; Martin (PH) 1-1; Amador 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K and 1-1; Lucas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (3-0);

In other news

September 21 – The Dallas Stars become the first team to qualify for the 2005 playoffs, beating the Blue Sox 3-2 with a walkoff double by rookie Jorge Vera as clinching moment. Moments later the Gold Sox blow their 1-0 lead over the Capitals and lose 2-1, which alone would have sufficed to put the Stars over the hump, even if they had lost in extras. For the Stars a long period of sadness ends. While this is their seventh playoff appearance, which ranks in the upper quarter among all ABL teams, they haven’t made the show since 1993.
September 23 – OCT SP Aaron Anderson (16-9, 2.74 ERA) reaches the 250 wins milestone with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the Bayhawks, in which he goes eight innings. 250-169 with a 3.23 ERA and 2,832 strikeouts for his career, Anderson, now 35, was the 11th overall pick in the 1988 draft by the Warriors, debuted the next year at the age of 18, and only ever appeared for the Warriors (through 1995) and Thunder, which whom he has won two world series rings, a Gold Glove, and was an All Star four times. He is also an old warhorse, pitching 240 or more innings in all but one season since 1994.
September 23 – WAS SP Seiichi Sugiyama (13-17, 5.52 ERA) holds the Cyclones to three hits in a 10-0 Capitals romp.
September 24 – The Stars’ Paul Miller (22-7, 2.52 ERA) 2-hits the Wolves in a 5-0 shutout.
September 24 – DAL C/1B Rob James (.244, 10 HR, 55 RBI) is out for longer with a ruptured achilles tendon. He might miss the start of next season and you have to worry about a 36-year old getting back from such an injury at all.
September 24 – SFB 1B/2B Juan Diaz (.229, 15 HR, 67 RBI) will watch the rest of the season from the couch with an intercostal strain.

Complaints and stuff

Was that some stupid good pitching, or what? A shame it was wasted on a last place team which scored barely sufficient 14 runs against only SIX surrendered to go 5-1 in consecutive weeks!

In fact, since the 14-3 drubbing on September 5 at the hands of the smelling Elks, the Raccoons have played 12-5 baseball, scoring a paltry 44 runs, but only allowed 32 of those, either!

Of course they have now blown any chance on the #1 pick. We might not even pick in the first half dozen.

This was also the final act at home this year, we will play the Loggers and Elks on that old road to end the season.

Dan Nordahl, one of the two pieces in the Quebell deal last winter, signed a 3-yr, $4.46M extension deal with the Warriors. Well, good thing we traded him, because that money is prohibitive for a closer for us. Guess why we have the minimum guy close!

Although this year, Marcos Bruno probably would have done a good job as closer, too. He struggled earlier because he had a few too many walks and not enough strikeouts to compensate.
Career marks: 7.5 H/9 – 4.3 BB/9 – 9.1 K/9
This season: 6.2 H/9 – 2.3 BB/9 – 12.1 K/9
The turnaround for him started last year, with almost identical numbers, except a 3.1 BB/9. That was already his age 28 season back then, so he took so long to reach his full potential, which is unfortunate. Now of course he loses out to Angel Casas when it comes to the closer’s job, but can you wish for a better eighth inning shutout reliever? He is arbitration eligible once more this fall, after that we will have to talk money. Uh-oh.

[craftdr]

Not sure if you take requests but I have started from the beginning because I wanted to see if your writing was as good when you were winning as it is now (it is) and a feature I really thought interesting was one where you shared the outcomes of your draft picks. Not sure if you still do that. I went back a few pages and didn't notice it but it was a great feature. I don't want to take away from the updates though but if you are ever interested in doing it. Anyway, thanks for the dynasty, it's where I go when I need to take a minute at work.

Well back to the history of the 'Coons! Lot of pages to go!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by craftdr

Not sure if you take requests but I have started from the beginning because I wanted to see if your writing was as good when you were winning as it is now (it is) and a feature I really thought interesting was one where you shared the outcomes of your draft picks. Not sure if you still do that. I went back a few pages and didn't notice it but it was a great feature.

I did that infrequently every three years or so, because it is a lot of work and usually depressing. You're right that I haven't done it in some time.

But hey, offseason is approaching anyway, and somewhere after the free agency date would be a good point.

Thx for pointing out the writing, but it was definitely not as good at the beginning

[Westheim]

Raccoons (70-86) @ Loggers (74-82) – September 26-28, 2005

It’s the last week of the year, and here we are, the only teams yet definitely eliminated in the North. What a sorry bunch we are. Nevertheless, the Raccoons have won ten of their last dozen, now that it doesn’t count anymore. We are 7-8 against the Woodchucks this year.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (6-13, 3.91 ERA) vs. Dani Alvarado (5-7, 2.77 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (6-15, 4.52 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (16-8, 2.58 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (0-6, 3.06 ERA) vs. George Norris (3-14, 7.18 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Sheehan – RF Mays – LF Greenman – 1B Martin – CF Fernandez – SS Yamada – C B. Wood – P Ford
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF Fletcher – LF Hiwalani – SS T. Johnson – 1B Nava – 3B Tolwith – C Ervin – CF K. Wood – P Alvarado

Our not so beloved enemy, Bakile Hiwalani, bombed a 2-piece off Ford in the first inning to get the Loggers on top, and the Coons didn’t have much early on against Alvarado. Greenman sent a deep drive to left his first time up, which was caught by Hiwalani, and another one his second time up, which could not be caught by anybody and was a solo home run. The next two scoring chances the Coons had ended with Bob Mays striking out, and the game remained 2-1 through seven, with Ford already gone from the game. Alvarado was still in and seemed to become victimized by a sudden brush of luck for the Coons. After a true double by Greenman to start the eighth, Martin walked on generous calls, and a bloop single by Fernandez loaded them up with no outs, but Yamada flew out to shallow right. Clyde Brady hit for Bob Wood, and gave a 3-2 pitch a heck of a ride to deep right, but had it caught by Jerry Fletcher – the game still got tied with Greenman tagging and scoring. Only now did the Loggers move to the pen, bringing right-hander Gabe Garcia, so we had a left-hander hit for Law Rockburn, with Adrian Quebell coming up with a bat. He didn’t come through, however, and struck out. Huerta came into the tied game, and first thing he experienced was Daniel Sharp making one of his specials to put Jerry Fletcher on base to start the inning. It would all be well, still, with a double play turned by Yamada and Sheehan and nobody scored. Huerta and Cash nursed the game through ten, but in the bottom 11th, our heavily not so beloved enemy, Bakile Hiwalani, led off with a triple off Kaz Kichida, and Kichida had little means of wiggling out of there. 3-2 Loggers. Greenman 2-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Huerta 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Sheehan – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Quebell – CF Fernandez – SS Yamada – C Cooks – P F. Garcia
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – CF Fletcher – SS T. Johnson – RF Hiwalani – LF Bayle – 1B Nava – 3B Tolwith – C J. Reyes – P M. Garcia

In a duel of Garciaces, our Garcia had absolutely no control over his stuff, but the Raccoons still scored first in the third inning, when they loaded the bases with no outs, starting with a Garcia single(!), then could only get a pair of RBI groundouts, which was probably not enough to stave off the Loggers with the way our Garcia was pitching. In fact, that 2-0 lead was blown before Garcia registered another out. Fletcher homered to start the bottom 3rd, and the bases got loaded before Jose Nava hit into a double play to relief some, but not enough pressure. Hiwalani remained at third base and scored on an Aaron Tolwith single that put the Loggers up 3-2. A Yamada error led to an unearned run in the fourth, and Garcia issued a leadoff walk to Hiwalani in the bottom 5th and got yanked. After using Cash and Lucas for an inning each, the Coons seemed hopelessly behind, not doing anything against Martin Garcia, and we even used the forgotten Ben Carlson in relief. Then came the eighth, Sharp walked, Sheehan doubled, tying runs in scoring position and nobody out. The outcome of this was rather depressing, though. Brady hit a sac fly, but when Gabe Garcia relieved Martin Garcia (who, remember, was defeating Felipe Garcia right now), he struck out both Greenman and Quebell. Carlson was rocked in the latter half of the eighth, with back-to-back howling doubles hit by Nava and Clint Philip, and the Raccoons went down again. 5-3 Loggers. Sheehan 2-4, 2B; Yamada 2-4;

This loss wins us last place all of our own for good. This is actually our first last place finish since 2000.

Yamada stole his 54th base, but with the target sitting at 58, it’s too late by now, don’t you think?

Both the Canadiens and Crusaders were eliminated on this Tuesday, and the Titans are four up on the Indians. It might be business as usual in the CL North after all…

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Yamada – LF Brady – 1B Martin – RF Mays – CF Wheaton – 2B Ingram – C B. Wood – P Watanabe
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – CF Fletcher – SS T. Johnson – RF Hiwalani – LF Bayle – 1B Nava – 3B Tolwith – C J. Reyes – P Norris

“Winless” Watanabe didn’t help his own cause of not going back to Japan for the winter without having disemboweled an opposing warrior in ritualized combat, when he hit into an inning-ending double play in the fourth, starving Dave Wheaton at third base. Wheaton had already stolen two bases in different trips around the bags in the game, but his trips never formed a full square, while Yamada had been on second with one out for Brady in the third, and was caught stealing ahead of Brady’s single. Jimmy Bayle then hit a 2-piece off Watanabe in the bottom 4th for the first tally of the contest. Watanabe went seven without any more damage, and the Loggers continued to use Norris, his ERA now soundly under seven(…), into the eighth, but removed him after a 1-out single by Al Martin. Alan Crowley surrendered the run instantly with a triple given up to Bob Mays, who scored on Wheaton’s fly out to center, but that was all the Coons managed to do for Watanabe, who remained – winless. Unfortuantely and unexpectedly, the Loggers then romped over Marcos Bruno in the bottom 8th with a leadoff walk drawn by Clint Philip and two hits by Fletcher and Hiwalani that plated two runs. The Coons had nothing. 4-2 Loggers. Wheaton 2-2, BB, RBI; Quebell (PH) 1-1; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K;

Raccoons (70-89) @ Canadiens (81-78) – September 30-October 2, 2005

Why DO we have to go to Elkland? We have already lost ten against them this year! What’s the purpose?

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (15-9, 2.76 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (10-16, 4.67 ERA)
Edgar Amador (7-11, 3.92 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (17-10, 3.42 ERA)
Ralph Ford (6-13, 3.88 ERA) vs. Joe Hollow (3-12, 5.28 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Yamada – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – CF Wheaton – 2B Sheehan – C Wood – P Brown
VAN: 3B Suzuki – SS Nakayama – CF J. Gonzalez – LF Trinidad – 1B Phillips – 2B Rodgers – RF Jardine – C F. Diéguez – P Spears

It was one big, ugly struggle for Nick Brown in the series opener, and one he didn’t even make it through five innings. For one, he couldn’t surrender Mitsuhide Suzuki, who walked and scored in the first, then homered (and obviously scored) in the third. Another run in the fourth, and even a 2-run bomb by Ramón Trinidad in the fifth. Two on and two out and down by four, Rockburn replaced him in the same inning. Ironically, the only offense the Coons had enjoyed had been sparked by a leadoff double by Brown, then scoring on a Yamada single, and Yamada got himself caught stealing for the third time this week. The Raccoons went down silently for three more innings until the ninth, when they loaded the bases with no outs on reliever Juan Sanchez and closer Pedro Alvarado, with Bob Mays at the plate, representing the tying run. Mays kept the line moving with an RBI single, but somewhere, someone had to do something stupid. It was León Ramirez in combo with Brad Sheehan, who was on second base. Ramirez lined out to Nakayama, and Sheehan had gone full speed and was soundly out. Danny Sharp popped out to end the game and extend the losing streak to four. 5-2 Canadiens. Martin 2-4; Searcy (PH) 1-1; Mays 1-2, RBI; Rockburn 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB; 1 K;

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Sheehan – RF Mays – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – CF Fernandez – C L. Ramirez – 2B Ingram – P Amador
VAN: 3B Suzuki – RF Calzado – 2B Dobson – CF J. Gonzalez – LF Trinidad – 1B Phillips – SS Rodgers – C F. Diéguez – P Fujita

The Coons put their first three men on base in the second inning, Tom Ingram singled in a pair, and despite two on and no outs, nothing else happened in their favor. Like Garcia in Milwaukee, Amador immediately threw the lead away with three hits, including an RBI double by Phillips, in the bottom 2nd. The Elks stranded a pair in scoring position in the fourth that arrived there after Diéguez’ 1-out double. Fujita grounded hard to Sharp, who made the play and kept the runners pinned, and Suzuki rolled out to short. Top of the fifth, the Coons came through, bases loaded, and then a 2-run single by Fernandez to get to 4-2. The next inning, Sharp and Sheehan got stranded when Mays struck out, and they left two more on base in the seventh. The Fat Cat had his claws pulled in the bottom 7th, allowing singles to Diéguez and Suzuki, upon which Moreno appeared to face Calzado, but only surrendered another single to pinch-hitter Haruki Nakayama. Marcos Bruno came in against Dobson with the bases loaded, got to 2-2, then gave up an RBI single, 4-3. Gonzalez hit a game-tying sac fly, and then Trinidad singled to restock the dishes. 2-2 to Jim Phillips – came inside and hit him. Rémy Lucas appeared for Ken Rodgers, who was hit for by the righty Alex Rivas, who struck out anyway, but the damage was done, and while the Furballs scratched in vain in the ninth, with Brady walking, getting forced by Quebell, who was run for by Yamada, Martin hit a single in place of Fernandez, but León Ramirez grounded out to end the game. 5-4 Canadiens. Sharp 2-5; Sheehan 2-4, BB; Fernandez 3-4, 2 RBI; Martin (PH) 1-1;

One more win before the curtain comes down? Please? Finish on a high note? No?

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Sheehan – LF Brady – RF Greenman – 1B Martin – CF Fernandez – 2B Ingram – C Wood – P Ford
VAN: 3B Suzuki – LF Trinidad – 2B Dobson – CF J. Gonzalez – SS Nakayama – RF Denunez – 1B Phillips – C F. Diéguez – P Hollow

Hollow didn’t allow anything to the Critters, while he also led off the third inning with a single, and the frame quickly developed into Ford being walloped for four runs on five hits. It continued in the fourth, plus some rain that forced a 1-hour delay, and Ford was yanked with two on and two outs. Kichida got Trinidad to ground out to Sheehan to keep the Elks at 4-0, with the Raccoons hitless, which didn’t change until the sixth, when Sharp singled into right, which also moved Steve Searcy first-to-third with no outs. Sheehan dissolved that in the acid of a run-scoring double play, and Sharp’s hit would be the only one the Raccoons would achieve. After Greenman reached on an error to start the seventh, the rain returned. It wouldn’t leave again and the game was called an hour later. 4-1 Canadiens.

This ties our all time worst season against the Elks at 5-13, which we also achieved in 1986 and 2000.

In other news

September 28 – It’s the finish line – and TOP SP Tony Hamlyn (13-12, 2.98 ERA) has a dead arm. Unfortunately it is the one he pitches with, and he might be unavailable in the FLCS, if the Buffaloes can even reach it, trailing by two games.
September 29 – The Titans lock up the CL North by forcefully shutting out the last remaining direct competition from the Indians in a 5-0 win behind Jorge Chapa, notching their eighth playoff appearances, all in nine years, and fifth consecutive. Except the 2000 Loggers, no other team has reached the playoffs since the 1996 Raccoons in the North.
September 30 – The playoff field gets set with two games to play, with the Blue Sox making their tenth appearance with a 6-5 comeback win in Washington, and the fourth since 1998, although they haven’t been crowned champions since the 80s, and the Falcons outlasting the Thunder (with both teams losing on this Friday) to make their fourth appearance, their previous having been in 2003.
October 2 – The Falcons lose their primary catcher, Fernando Chavez (.323, 13 HR, 57 RBI), for the playoffs with a strained oblique.

Complaints and stuff

Leave me alone. I’m sore.

[Questdog]

Would rather see the season numbers than the career numbers.

P.S. Would also like to see runs scored by hitters and hits allowed by pitchers. If you need to make room, OPS and WHIP are redundant information.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Would rather see the season numbers than the career numbers.

Which is understandable. Another thing that keeps happening to me. I copied the first one without looking after that stellar finish. Fixed it.

Originally Posted by Questdog

P.S. Would also like to see runs scored by hitters and hits allowed by pitchers. If you need to make room, OPS and WHIP are redundant information.

I see no point in runs scored and pay zero attention to them, and I've always been happy with WHIP.

Truth be told, space is an issue. The game and MLB.tv have to fit side by side on the laptop.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

I see no point in runs scored and pay zero attention to them, and I've always been happy with WHIP.

Runs scored is the most underrated useful stat there is. You give me 9 guys who can score runs and I will have a great offense.

Runs scored tells who who is cashing in on their opportunities, and ultimately is more pertinent than who is getting opportunities.

Take the Reds C Brayan Pena as an example. Most people will say that he is having a decent year at bat this season. But I say he is the worst batter in the National League. The reason is that it is almost irrelevant how many times Pena can get on base because it takes an unlikely alignment of the planets and an act of congress to get him around to score a run. And since he offers nothing else other than a decent OBP, that means he has no value at all. Couple that with his horrible defense behind the plate and he is about as worthless a player as can exist (though he seems like a really nice guy).

[Westheim]

Breaking news! In the potentially deciding game 6 of the FLCS, all hell broke loose, all pitching broke down, and there were THIRTY runs scored.

More at eleven.

[Westheim]

While the 91-71 Titans (champions of ’98, ’01, ’02, and ’04) had avoided complete humiliation and had rescued themselves into the playoffs, they had lost home field advantage to the surprise 94-68 Falcons, who have never made the World Series, losing in the CLCS to the Crusaders in ’78, the Canadiens in ’82, and the Titans in ‘03.

The Titans’ vaunted rotation had struggled this year. Between veteran ace Jason O’Halloran (15-11, 3.62 ERA), 2004 POTY Jorge Chapa (15-13, 3.64 ERA), and the rest of the crew they had allowed the fifth-least amount of runs, and nobody had posted a better ERA than those two. They had slugged their way through, plating a CL-leading 808 runs, but had lost their top home run hitter and RBI leader Jim Brulhart (.292, 28 HR, 116 RBI), who had been acquired from San Francisco early in the season, on the final weekend of the season, although officially no injury has been named. SP Joe Mann is also on the DL. They still had Kurt Metting (.338, 22 HR, 97 RBI) to anchor their lineup around, though, and had three more double-digit home run hitters. If their lineup had a weakness, it was first base, where they played an offensively unimpressive glove man in Toby Frazier.

The Falcons enjoyed a well-balanced mix of pitching and hitting, ranking in the top 3 in most of the important categories, including 2nd in both runs scored and runs allowed. They had played sub-.500 from May through August, but had gone .714 or better in both April and September and thus were also red hot coming into the series. They had serious injuries to overcome, though. Third starting pitcher Tommy Wilson (11-9, 3.29 ERA) and C Fernando Chavez (.323, 13 HR, 57 RBI) would be sorely missed in the playoffs in addition to another starter in Alfredo Collazo and rookie 3B Javier Rodriguez. Lewis Donaldson and Dylan Jones, however, had combined for 33 wins and were a formidable 1-2 punch in their playoff rotation, which nevertheless thinned out rapidly after that. With Chavez, their most prolific home run hitter is out – nobody else on the team hit even 10, but half their lineup has been batting .294 or better.

Tough to say who should have an advantage in this series. The Falcons are hot, but the back end of their rotation could be slaughtered by the Titans’ huge offensive potential. However, the Titans’ rotation has not been razor sharp all year long and could become a factor, and if the Titans lose Brulhart for the series, they could run into real problems. This series is really impossible to call and must be considered wide open. Due to recent fortunes, the Falcons might have the tiniest of edges.

Over in the FL, the 91-71 Blue Sox are in their ABL-record 10th postseason and will face the 99-63 Stars, who lead all FL West teams with seven appearances.

The Blue Sox had the best rotation in the Federal League, with the bullpen not trailing by too far, which helped them to overcome a middling offense, which relies on the long ball to mitigate their weak results in drawing walks and stealing bases. Headed by Carlos Castro (20-8, 2.64 ERA), the rotation fears no one, and the middle of their lineup is anchored by two 20+ home run hitters in Cesar Gonzalez (.281, 23 HR, 80 RBI) and Juan Ortíz (.296, 27 HR, 96 RBI). Their lineup knows no weak spots, and they also have no injuries to complain about.

Meanwhile the Stars are worried about Cesar Morán (.272, 17 HR, 65 RBI), who is laboring on an abdominal strain and might miss the FLCS. While winning 99 games, the Stars did it mostly on hitting, setting a few top marks, including those for home runs (139) and stolen bases (99). Their lineup (assuming Morán can play) has a worst batting average of .257! They also have four other double-digit home run hitters, with C Rafael Garza leading the team with 20, and also four guys to hit over .300 in the regular season. Their pitching was good overall, but the bullpen proved to be porous at times. The rotation however produced two 20-game winners in Paul Miller (22-8, 2.55 ERA) and Elwood Spurrell (20-9, 3.22 ERA), but also includes Alfredo Rios (9-13, 5.13 ERA), who lost three starts against the Blue Sox over the course of the season. The Stars hope the starters will go deep enough to give the ball to Dane Sanders and Leonardo Sosa right away, because the rest of the bullpen is tagged with one big red danger sign.

Good pitching beats good hitting, but the Stars’ offense is REALLY impressive. They should have the advantage and should win this series in six.

It should be mentioned that this playoff field contains only those teams with the most playoff appearances in their division, except the Falcons. Had the Thunder outdueled them, they also would have made their 10th playoffs.

---

2005 CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

The day the FLCS started, with the CLCS due up a day later, the Titans got the news that Jim Brulhart was out, not only for the playoffs, but for an estimated nine months, with a torn posterior cruciate ligament.

Blue Sox @ Stars … 1-0 … (Blue Sox lead 1-0) … NAS Carlos Castro 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K, W; NAS Juan Ortíz 2-4, HR, RBI;

Blue Sox @ Stars … 7-2 … (Blue Sox lead 2-0) … NAS Javier Cruz 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, SV;
Titans @ Falcons … 3-6 … (Falcons lead 1-0) … CHA Eduardo Durango 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI;

Titans @ Falcons … 9-2 … (series tied 1-1) … BOS Jason O’Halloran 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W; BOS Rudy Garrison 2-4, BB, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; BOS Mark Austin 2-5, 3B, 3 RBI;

Stars @ Blue Sox … 5-4 (10) … (Blue Sox lead 2-1) … NAS Juan Ortíz 3-5, RBI;

Stars @ Blue Sox … 2-9 … (Blue Sox lead 3-1) … NAS Alex Samuels 3-4, 3B, 4 RBI; NAS Filippo Fugosi 4-5;
Falcons @ Titans … 3-4 (10) … (Titans lead 2-1) … BOS Luis Lopez 1-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Luis Hernandez walks off the Titans with a wild pitch that plates Javier Encarnación

Stars @ Blue Sox … 4-2 … (Blue Sox lead 3-2) … DAL Rafael Garza 1-4, HR, 3 RBI; DAL Elwood Spurrell 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W;
Falcons @ Titans … 8-1 … (series tied 2-2) … Boston’s Ray Conner is crushed in a 7-run second inning

Falcons @ Titans … 6-4 … (Falcons lead 3-2) … and now Jorge Chapa is socked for six runs in three innings!

Blue Sox @ Stars … 19-11 … (Blue Sox win 4-2) … NAS Filippo Fugosi 4-7, 2 2B, 3 RBI; NAS Juan Ortíz 3-6, BB, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; NAS Bob Townsley 4-6, BB, 2 2B, 3 RBI; NAS Felix Hernandez 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; BOS Artie Barnes 3-5, 3B, 3 RBI; BOS Vitantonio Cavalleri (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Utter madness! The game is tied at 11 before the Blue Sox plate eight in the top 9th! The Stars make EIGHT errors in this game, including FIVE by 1B Robinson Perez!

Titans @ Falcons … 0-4 … (Falcons win 4-2) … CHA Conceicao Guerin 3-3, BB; CHA Arturo Ramirez 7.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, W;

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2005 WORLD SERIES

Since the Falcons made it to the World Series for the first time, these teams have never faced each other in the Fall Classic. The Blue Sox, who won the championship back in 1986 and 1987, but were denied the last two times they got here, being defeated by the Titans in 1998 and 2002. They have a chance to tie the Capitals for most championships by a Federal League team with three (the Titans having four), and restore the FL’s honor, after winning only one championship in the last seven years (by the 2003 Gold Sox). Overall, the FL still has the nose up due to its dominance in the 1980s, having claimed 15 titles to the CL’s 13.

The Falcons did not suffer additional injuries in their championship series, while the Blue Sox have to wait out Carlos Castro’s stiff back, and also lost long reliever Toshiro Uenohara.

While the teams scored and allowed almost identical runs during the season, it was about the little differences. The rotations were roughly equal, but the Falcons had a bit better bullpen, and also better defense. The Blue Sox had over 30 more home runs, but hadn’t stolen nearly as many bases, ranking almost last in the Federal League in that stat. This was very close, and the Falcons were still hot.

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Blue Sox @ Falcons … 0-3 … (Falcons lead 1-0) … CHA Rodrigo Gomez 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K, W;

Blue Sox @ Falcons … 6-3 … (series tied 1-1) … NAS Bob Townsley 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI;

Falcons @ Blue Sox … 3-4 … (Blue Sox lead 2-1) … NAS Dennis Fried 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, W; Falcons score in each of the last three innings, but can’t catch up from being down 4-0

Falcons @ Blue Sox … 6-0 … (series tied 2-2) … CHA Eduardo Durango 3-5, 2 RBI; Stanton Taylor is rocked for four runs in the top 1st

Falcons @ Blue Sox … 8-5 … (Falcons lead 3-2) … CHA Eduardo Durango 4-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI; CHA Matt Whaley 2-3, RBI; NAS Juan Ortíz 2-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI; NAS Filippo Fugosi 3-5;

Blue Sox @ Falcons … 2-3 … (Falcons win 4-2) … NAS Juan Cruz (PH) 1-1, RBI; CHA Jose Mendoza (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Falcons took a 1-0 lead in the second, which got away from Dylan Jones in the top 7th, with Juan Cruz pinch-hitting for the tying run to score, before Jones’ own error hands the Blue Sox the lead. In the bottom 7th, Mendoza comes out to pinch-hit and cracks the series-winning 2-run homer!

2005 WORLD CHAMPIONS
CHARLOTTE FALCONS
1st title

[Westheim]

The 2005-06 offseason started out awful for reasons unexpected. Vince, our head scout for 15 years, told me that his old body couldn’t withstand the grueling travel anymore, probably a result of him having to walk 12 miles to work every morning when he was nine years old. He had inherited a little farm close to his home town with a few workers from a distant aunt and had decided to retire there, voiding the rest of his contract.

Stay well, old friend, you hear me? (lips are shaking) You hear me-e?

Enter the Mexican Prick. Before I could even get the phone up to call a veteran scout to replace the irreplaceable Vince Guerra, some pale guy with a shoddily knotted tie, who looked honestly like he couldn’t pour himself a glass of milk without help from mom, entered the office and announced that he had been sent by Mr. Valdes jr. Ah, the prick. What is he up to now? Does that poor impersonation of a Sunday school action figure actually hide a concealed gun to shoot me with? Or otherwise terminate me?

Nah. He merely announced that he was the new head scout, appointed my Mr. Valdes jr., right when Slappy innocently walked in without knocking to ask whether I had seen his pack of cigarettes, upon which Slappy inquired with me who Mr. Valdes jr. was. “Why, the prick!” I replied, much to the shock of Paleface. Slappy nodded, grumbled “Hate that fool” and trotted off, leaving the door open.

Paleface introduced himself as Mike Abrams, sweating visibly. I didn’t say much at all. Paleface Abrams explained in way too many words how he had studied this and that and knew how to evaluate players, and he used the word algorithm quite a lot. When he inquired about where his room would be in the office, I raised an eyebrow. What office? Wasn’t he willing to crawl through the Venezuelan jungle to uncover talent under gunfire from separatist militias? No, he said, all data he needed to evaluate players was in his notebook. I told him that there was no scout’s office at the Raccoons. But if he insisted, he could ask Slappy to get a share of the room for the cleaning equipment, which Slappy didn’t use much anyway.

Before he went off to get his Notebook of a Thousand Wonders from his Subaru, he also handed me an envelope from Mr. Valdes jr., a.k.a. the Prick.

That envelope contained nothing pleasant at all. The Prick pointed out in no uncertain terms how Paleface’s contract was interminable by anybody else but him, and also that he had bought Vince’s farm. Aunt Estella had been a fake to replace Vince, a semi-sociable guy you could drink a glass with while watching the Brown Botchers on the field while staying sentient – nobody stayed sentient when Slappy brought the booze – with this college kid that hadn’t seen sunlight since ’96.

Well, neither had the Raccoons.