Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (49-64) @ Crusaders (49-63) – August 11-13, 2003

Misery against suffering in this midweek series, which saw the Crusaders come in with an L3 in the standings, and the Raccoons all the way at L7 after getting ravaged by the Falcons and basically not taking part in the Indians series at all. The Crusaders held the lowest batting average in the league, and scored the fourth-least runs, against allowing the fifth-most runs and suffering from the second-worst rotation ERA at 4.75. The Raccoons might have different weaknesses and no strengths either, and this series could well go either way, with some team taking some share of the three W’s available largely due to the fact that games can’t end in scoreless ties.

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (3-2, 3.48 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (7-10, 4.00 ERA)
Ramón Meza (1-4, 6.59 ERA) vs. Kelly Fairchild (5-12, 5.01 ERA)
Nick Brown (6-12, 3.91 ERA) vs. Greg Connor (8-8, 3.92 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – 1B Martin – RF Beairsto – LF Reece – SS Ingall – CF Torrez – P F. Garcia
NYC: RF Britton – 2B B. Andrews – SS Rice – 1B Breach – 3B Rigg – C D. Anderson – LF G. Andrews – CF Pena – P Reeves

While Garcia’s stuff had no bite and he didn’t strike out anybody other than Reeves bunting foul with two strikes, he also had abysmal defensive support with a throwing error by Ingall on the Coons’ very first defensive play of the day, and another one in the third inning when Beairsto had a Reeves single pass him through the wickets. That latter run proved costly as it blew a 1-0 lead, attained with an Eddie Torrez homer. Torrez was the only Raccoon to bring a bat to the game. Everybody else hit with ping-pong paddles against Reeves, who leisurely struck out six the first time through the order, despite six left-handed batters in there, and nine through five innings. Tied at one, Reeves lost control all of a sudden in the top 6th. Sharp walked, and Palacios singled in a full count. They moved into scoring position when Ledesma grounded out for the first man down in the inning. Reeves was cooked as quickly as he had served the Raccoons previously. Man up, and on. Man up, and on. Martin doubled, plating both runners, and Beairsto was walked intentionally, followed by an unintentional walk to Neil Reece. That was it for Reeves, with Bob Evans replacing him. Ingall grounded into a force at home, but Torrez drew another walk from Evans, and then Garcia split the outfielders with a gapper that scored two more runs. Where did that 6-1 lead come from!? And more importantly, where would it go? Garcia failed to navigate the sixth, leaving with a run home and two men on. Marcos Bruno originally didn’t seem to make things better when Bryan Andrews singled to load them up, but he then did strike out silent coonskinner Gary Rice for the last out of the sixth. 6-2. Bruno somehow wobbled through the seventh, but the eighth was another choker. Moreno issued two walks with two men down, just in time for Rice to appear in the box. We went to Dan Nordahl, who had been hardly used in the recent futile stretch, and Rice flew out softly to right. Nordahl ended up finishing the game on 12 pitches, notching the final four outs. 6-2 Raccoons. Martin 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Torrez 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Bruno 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Nordahl 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (22);

Raccoons: six runs on five hits. Crusaders: two runs on nine hits. We’ll take it, since this is as good as anything when you have to kill off a dreadful losing streak.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – CF Torrez – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – C Ledesma – SS Ingall – RF J. Rodriguez – P Meza
NYC: CF Britton – 3B Rigg – LF M. Ortíz – SS Rice – C D. Anderson – 1B Breach – 2B F. Adams – RF Burne – P Fairchild

Early on, Meza was all over the place and looked ripe for early replacement. After the Crusaders got a run in the first inning and it only stopped thanks to Ed Rigg getting caught stealing, Meza grew gradually less worrisome and in the third even struck out Gary Rice to end the frame with a man in scoring position. He’d even get Rice twice in the game, yet also gave up lots of hard contact into center, which was dutifully sucked up by Torrez, however. This was not quite overpainting the horrendous middle infield defense the Raccoons showed, with both middle infielders guilty of catastrophic throwing errors and for Ingall that was back-to-back games with such. Offensively, Palacios had a double in the first, and - … that was it for the Coons. They had a walk, and a hit-by-pitch, and one of those singles between two fielders uneasy with each other’s presence at the play. Jorge Rodriguez continued to be hitless, but saved Bob Joly’s bacon in the eighth with two awesome plays, and that was it. 1-0 Crusaders. Meza 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, L (1-5);

(facepalms)

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B M. Ramirez – CF Beairsto – 1B Martin – LF Reece – RF J. Rodriguez – C Thomas – SS Gabriel – P Brown
NYC: 2B Caraballo – 3B Rigg – LF M. Ortíz – C D. Anderson – 1B Breach – CF G. Andrews – SS F. Adams – RF Burne – P Connor

The skies were dark, rain was imminent, so of course Nick Brown had his best game available. He struck out one in the first, leadoff man and debutee Francisco Caraballo, struck out the side in the second, and had another K in the third, this time already in a steady rain. The game was scoreless, at least until Daryl Anderson homered in the bottom 4th to make it 1-0 for the home team. And while the rains didn’t wash away Brown in time, the most ****ed up inning in history commenced in the sixth. While Brown had hardly thrown a ball in the game, he started that inning with four straight to the pitcher. Next, Caraballo’s bunt wasn’t dug out by anybody, and Brown hit Rigg with an 0-2 pitch. Bases loaded, nobody out. Rain getting more intense, too. Then Ortíz popped out to short, Anderson struck out, and Breach rolled out to second base. Inning over. However, Brown was still losing, and the lineup was still ****. The top 7th was the closest they came to being a credible major league outfit. With one out, Martin walked, and Reece and Rodriguez both singled. Load ‘em up with one out, Thomas was next. Well, hum, yeah, no, I don’t know. But imagining Ledesma in the spot didn’t help, and Thomas was sent to bat, which he did by sending a hard grounder to the short side of second base. Any decent shortstop would turn a double play, but Adams blinked too long and had that ball glance off his glove into center for a 2-run single. That was all they got, with Brown making the third out. But he was pitching so well! Yeah, no. He faced the debutee with two out and two in scoring position in the bottom 7th, and Caraballo fired a rocket into the gap in right center for a – third out!! Rodriguez OUT OF THE BLUE!! Wow!! In the bigger picture, this led to no more Raccoons offense anyway, and to Nordahl appearing to protect a 2-1 lead in the bottom 9th. We didn’t fancy our chances, and Brown the least so, and Alan Breach’s leadoff walk didn’t improve the grim outlook. One inning earlier, in the eighth, Manuel Martinez had been saved by a 6-4-3 hit into by Daryl Anderson, and now the same thing happened to Greg Andrews, which left Fred Adams as the poor sod to not only give up all the opposition’s runs, but also make the final out. Unless he homered. He fired the first pitch to deep center, Beairsto running, running, runniiiiiiiing – got it! 2-1 Coons. Rodriguez 2-4, 2B; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (7-12);

Wow. Someone gotta get me some nails, I’ve bitten mine off after this series. Can they make it any more frantic?

These aren’t even exactly frantic games. They just aren’t doing anything!

Raccoons (51-65) @ Gold Sox (67-47) – August 15-17, 2003

Yeah, we might have our hands full with these guys. They had scored 561 runs, third in the FL, with the best batting average over there. They weren’t exactly bleeding runs either, allowing the fourth-least in their league. Their starting pitching was far removed from the stellar phalanx of the 2002 season, but injuries had been a deciding factor in that. Overall, they were still a much better team, including a 40-year old Dale Wales OPS’ing .853… And we haven’t won a series from Denver since 1995…

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (7-5, 3.52 ERA) vs. David Estrada (12-6, 4.24 ERA)
Edgar Amador (2-4, 5.01 ERA) vs. Paco Martinez (4-5, 4.60 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (4-2, 3.30 ERA) vs. Jorge Martinez (6-5, 4.76 ERA)

Missing both Chang-se Park (labrum) and Victor Bernal (bone chips in elbow) from their rotation of stallions, the Gold Sox had dug deep into the box of spare Martinezes and had dug out ex-Coon Paco. Him and Estrada are left-handers.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – LF Reece – 1B Martin – SS M. Ramirez – RF Beairsto – C Thomas – CF Torrez – P Farley
DEN: 3B Davidson – 2B Correa – RF Wales – CF Pujols – 1B Michel – C J. Johnson – LF L. Alonso – SS A. Rodriguez – P Estrada

After the Critters scratched out a run in the top of the first inning, Ramirez hitting into an RBI groundout, Farley came out to walk Zak Davidson right away. He missed often early, and a little less later, and amazingly, the Gold Sox didn’t quite get enough hits to plate any runners. Torrez led off the fifth with a double and scored on another groundout by Sharp, but when Estrada hit a single to lead off the Gold Sox’ half of the fifth inning, we knew Farley was in trouble. Zak Davidson doubled, and eventually Wales plated the pitcher on another groundout. Nobody in hitting mood, eh? Well, Neil Reece was. He had two cheap singles already, and in the top 6th he connected for a home run to left center, 3-1. And now Estrada was on the way out. Martin singled, Ramirez tripled, and then Beairsto brought down the curtain on his night with a huge 2-piece to slightly right of dead center. Manny Ramos replaced Estrada with four runs across and nobody out. Thomas singled, Torrez walked. Still no outs. Farley bunted, oops, badly, out at third, out at first, and after that the inning ended rather quickly. When Reece was up in the top 7th, Ramos came in a bit too far for our taste and drilled him. Reece picked up his ribs and went to first, then jogged home when Al Martin dealt a punishing 2-run circuit blow that made it 8-1. Toby Bevan hit Marv in the eighth, and there was some slight unrest accumulating in the visitors’ dugout. Bevan’s punishment was that Ingall was brought in to score (on a groundout) as well. For now at least. Randy, after struggling early, recovered wonderfully to pitch a complete game. 9-1 Raccoons. Reece 4-4, HR, RBI; Martin 4-5, HR, 2 RBI; Beairsto 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Thomas 2-5; Torrez 3-4, 2 2B; Farley 9.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (8-5);

Might the Coons get a 10-game winner this year after all?

For the moment, Jorge Rodriguez returned to AAA as Clyde Brady rejoined us from the DL.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – LF Reece – 1B Martin – SS M. Ramirez – RF Brady – C Thomas – CF Torrez – P Amador
DEN: 3B Davidson – 2B Correa – RF Wales – LF J. Rivera – CF Pujols – 1B Michel – C J. Johnson – SS A. Rodriguez – P P. Martinez

Sharp singled, Ingall went deep, and the ex-Coon trailed 2-0 in the first. Reece singled, staying unretired in the series, but was left on third base eventually. When he came up again, he grounded out to short, and around that time, offense died completely in the game. While the Raccoons hit a couple of balls to deep center, all their efforts died in Pedro Pujols’ glove, and Amador overwhelmingly gave up only weak contact. In the sixth, the Gold Sox had a pair of 2-out singles, but that was it, really. So the score was still 2-0 in the top 9th, which Martin started with a single. Beairsto ran for him, and took third when Ramirez singled to left on a hit-and-run. No outs, the Gold Sox actually went for their closer Scott Hood, who gave up an RBI single to Clyde Brady right away. Thomas loaded them up with another single, to right, and then Torrez was terribly unlucky when Jesus Rivera nipped his line drive to deep left, turning it into a sac fly. Amador bunted successfully, but Sharp popped out. That made it a 4-0 game with three outs to collect, and Amador had been so in the groove, that we left him in to see how he’d cope. If he’d blow up, we could still go to Nordahl for a quick and merciful end. Amador started by facing Wales, and walked him on four balls straight. That was so not good. He then got a fielder’s choice from Rivera, before Pujols fired a cannonball into the gap in left center. Torrez caught it!!! HA, PUJOLS!! HOW DOES THAT FEEL!!?? With two down, 21-year old Edgar Amador faced another ex-Coon in Samy Michel. C’mon Eddie! For youth and … frugality, or whatever!! Youth came through, Michel did not, and we celebrated a kid’s shutout: 4-0 Raccoons!!! Ingall 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Amador 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 K, W (3-4) and 1-3;

For reasons obvious, this is young Eddie’s first career shutout and complete game. YAY, GO, EDDIE!!

Actually, we have two Eddies, which makes things slightly convoluted.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – CF Torrez – C Ledesma – SS Gabriel – P F. Garcia
DEN: 3B Davidson – C J. Johnson – RF Wales – LF J. Rivera – CF Pujols – 1B Michel – 2B J. Terry – SS A. Rodriguez – P J. Martinez

Another Martinez turned up, another Martinez was turned down: while the Coons sprinkled four singles in the first two innings without scoring, they would come to that after a 2-out walk to Brady in the third inning, when Martin and Beairsto went deep to left back-to-back, quickly creating a 3-0 score. Unfortunately, Felipe Garcia was whipped in return with a 2-shot by Armando Rodriguez, and the score got tied in the fifth inning when Johnny Johnson singled home Zak Davidson. Needing more bombs away, Ledesma hit a solo shot in the top 6th to make it 4-3, but that lead was blown to pieces in the bottom 6th, as Jorge Martinez actually outlasted Garcia in this contest. The Gold Sox loaded them up and then Garcia walked in a run, and another one scored on a wild pitch that was meant to whiff Martinez batting with the bases loaded. If it was any consolation, Martinez would not get the win either, as Daniel Sharp’s leadoff jack in the top 7th knotted the score at five. (It wasn’t). In the top 8th we had the bases loaded before Antonio Donis (another ex-Coon!) killed the rally, and also shut us down in the ninth. Bottom 9th, second inning for Marcos Bruno, and pinch-hitter Luis Alonso reached on a capital throwing error by Daniel Sharp, putting Alonso on second base – with nobody out. Because the Raccoons must never sweep a series, Zak Davidson legged out an infield single, moving Alonso to third with no outs, and Bruno had nothing against Johnson either, who singled on the first pitch. 6-5 Gold Sox. Sharp 2-5, HR, RBI; Palacios 2-5; Martin 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Torrez 3-4, 2B;

Oh well. Sweeps are overrated. And something for winning teams.

In other news

August 12 – The Thunder lose SP Aaron Anderson (9-8, 3.03 ERA) for the rest of the season, as the 33-year old righty suffers from acute elbow soreness. Anderson is – behind the really, really old Vernon Robertson – the second-winningest active pitchers with 214 W, ranking 15th all time.
August 13 – TOP Tony Hamlyn (14-3, 2.61 ERA) allows only two hits but whiffs ten in a 9-0 blanking of the Capitals.
August 14 – SP Juan Garcia (8-13, 4.36 ERA) fires a shutout for the Miners, 3-hitting the Rebels.
August 14 – The hitting streak of TOP OF Lionnel Perri (.314, 20 HR, 96 RBI) ends with an 0-5 day in the Buffaloes 7-4 loss to the Capitals. He had hit in 22 straight games.
August 15 – One day after Perri’s streak, that of ATL C Ricardo Valadez (.276, 2 HR, 29 RBI) dies as well as the Capitals hold him hitless. His streak ran for 23 games.
August 16 – The Buffaloes lose their first baseman, Jose Valenzuela (.290, 13 HR, 85 RBI) for the season to a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
August 16 – The season also ends for WAS SP Mario Pagán (10-6, 2.76 ERA), who is befallen by biceps tendinitis.
August 16 – For RIC SP John Webb (9-9, 4.95 ERA), the ailment is a torn rotator cuff, and he is also out for the rest of the year.

Complaints and stuff

You know who got his 200th career win this month? Dennis Fried. I could just KICK myself for that trade, for a guy that had only 118 AB after that trade, and only nine of those as a Raccoon. -.-

With that history, I checked on the other side of the Ledesma trade again. To be blunt, Ledesma sucks. We sent over Chris Roberson and Jack Berry, mainly, and Berry has surrendered 37 homers between AA and AAA already. The stunning part is that Chris Roberson isn’t batting .460 with 52 home runs by now. He hasn’t played in the Bigs AT ALL for Topeka. He’s rotting in AAA.

While we’re counting down on Neil Reece and his hunt for the franchise mark for hits, I have checked over at the ABL leaderboards for hits. Daniel Hall’s 1,886 don’t sound like that much, but they rank him 55th all time at this point. Only 48 players have made it to 2,000 so far, and only half a dozen figures to have a chance to reach that mark by the end of *next* year, then including some colorful names like Dan Morris (Cincy for his whole career), Haruki Nakayama (ex-BOS), and Sonny Reece (that kid that hit two walkoff homers in postseason game sevens). Tomas Maguey, the long-time Indian, is at 1,832, but his days are about over. Neil Reece’s 1,854 rank him t-60th.

Franchise hits leaders by … well … franchise (* denotes active for this franchise):
3,139 – WAS Jeffery Brown
2,988 – MIL Cristo Ramirez *
2,907 – OCT Dave Browne
2,552 – SAC Aaron Jenkins *
2,531 – DEN Dale Wales *
2,376 – LAP Anibal Rodriguez
2,204 – NAS Horace Henry
2,056 – LVA Lowell Allen
1,933 – ATL Michael Root
1,895 – CIN Dan Morris *
1,886 – POR Daniel Hall
1,863 – TIJ Cipriano Ortega
1,800 – BOS Hjalmar Flygt
1,759 – SFW Dafe Heffer *
1,509 – PIT Carlos Torres
1,478 – IND Angelo Duarte
1,407 – TOP Georg Spinu *
1,390 – DAL Gabriel Cruz
1,386 – SAL Jorge Padilla
1,358 – VAN Salvador Mendez
1,328 – SFB Mike Powys
1,285 – RIC Raúl Vázquez
1,219 – CHA Michael Watson (1)
1,111 – NYC Avery Johnson

(1) Hubert Green is active and one hit away from tying Watson

[Westheim]

Raccoons (53-66) vs. Capitals (58-61) – August 18-20, 2003

Numbers painted a strange picture of the Capitals, whose rotation was third-best in the Federal League in ERA, and the bullpen was at least seventh, but they still had allowed the fourth-most runs. The secret was not terrible defense, but an enormous amount of extra innings the Capitals had played. They had at most three games more under their belt that other FL teams, but had played almost 50 more innings than some of them.

Projected matchups:
Ramón Meza (1-5, 5.81 ERA) vs. Francisco Garza (4-12, 4.71 ERA)
Nick Brown (7-12, 3.79 ERA) vs. Sergio Gonzalez (5-10, 4.41 ERA)
Randy Farley (8-5, 3.36 ERA) vs. Dean Merritt (1-1, 4.43 ERA)

Two right-handers and a southpaw after that. We really have no clue who Merritt is, but the others were in the CL some years ago.

Game 1
WAS: 1B Yamamoto – 2B Nichols – CF V. Sanchez – 3B J. Lopez – LF MacDonald – RF C. Solís – C J. Rivera – SS S. Gomez – P F. Garza
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – CF Beairsto – LF Reece – C Ledesma – SS Ingall – P Meza

No scoring through four, with only one hit in the game, and that was the Capitals’. Salvador Gomez’ leadoff double in the fifth set a walk-happy Ramón Meza up for Aki Yamamoto’s RBI single through Martin, but the Raccoons would reverse the score in the bottom of the inning. First, finally a hit, with Chris Beairsto knocking a 1-out triple. Reece brought him in with a sac fly, and then the Coons got Ledesma and Ingall on, before Meza blooped a ball to shallow left that not only fell in but was misplayed by Pat MacDonald for a run-scoring error. The Coons added two more in the sixth with a Brady single, RBI double by Beairsto, and an RBI single by Reece. Both pitchers got into the eighth, but only Garza got through, ironically, although Meza and his replacement Marcos Bruno did not cause harm to the 4-1 score, and in the ninth Dan Nordahl recovered from three balls to PH John Alexander to retire the side in order, including a K to Alexander. 4-1 Raccoons. Beairsto 2-4, 3B, 2B, RBI; Meza 7.1 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (2-5) and 1-3, RBI;

With the Elks losing to the Blue Sox, 5-4, the Coons jumped into fourth place. Whoah, the air is thin up here!

Game 2
WAS: 1B Yamamoto – 2B Nichols – CF V. Sanchez – 3B J. Lopez – C M. Torres – RF C. Solís – LF J. Gomez – SS S. Gomez – P Merritt
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – LF Reece – 1B Martin – CF Beairsto – SS M. Ramirez – RF Brady – C Thomas – P Brown

The Capitals skipped Sergio Gonzalez to go right to Merritt, that unknown southpaw.

Sharp walked in the first and was on second when Neil Reece was denied a double by Victorino Sanchez, who was very much reminding one of a Neil Reece ten years younger. Martin however came through, an RBI single to left and the Coons were up 1-0. Brown meanwhile retired the first 14 Capitals he faced before César Solís sent a 1-2 pitch to left, uncatchable for anybody. The score was still 1-0 after the top 5th, which ended with Jose Gomez striking out. It was a true nail biter. The Raccoons would get two on in the bottom 6th once Neil Reece got a these days rare intentional walk, which was a terrific decision once Al Martin hit into a double play. The top 7th the Capitals had their best chance, getting two into scoring position, but Brown hurled his way outta there. The score remained 1-0 into the bottom 8th, where the Capitals had Kevin Jones pitch in relief. The lefty allowed hits to the first four batters. With the bags full in the 2-0 game Beairsto grounded into a force at home, but the lefty Jones remained in with another right-hander coming up. Miguel Ramirez broke the score wide open. As wide as possible, actually. GRAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!! We probably would have run Brown out in the ninth anyway, but with a 6-0 lead it was a no-brainer. After Jesus Rivera bounced out to short, Brownie struck out Sanchez and Lopez to end the game in style! 6-0 Raccoons! Sharp 3-3, BB, 2 2B; Martin 2-4, RBI; Ramirez 2-4, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Brown 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 11 K, W (8-12);

BROWNIIIIIEE!!! His third career shutout sees him still within a dozen K of the Continental League lead.

11th round in the draft, and we found him.

I know it was dumb luck.

Game 3
WAS: CF Alexander – SS Nichols – LF V. Sanchez – 3B J. Lopez – C M. Torres – 2B Reed – RF MacDonald – 1B Yamamoto – P Wright
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – CF Beairsto – LF Reece – C Ledesma – SS Ingall – P Farley

Chad Wright (1-3, 5.04 ERA) was a 29-year old righty in his seventh year with the Caps, and he had never been any good, thus spending most of this year with their AAA team in Modesto.

We had a pretty ugly first inning. Farley came out and gave up line drives upon line drives, with two quick runs scoring. In the bottom of the inning we lost not one, but two players, as Daniel Sharp strained some thing or other in his back and left the game, and Clyde Brady was ejected for barking at the umpire after being called out on strikes to end the inning. The Coons did get two runs (if not two players) back in the bottom 2nd with Beairsto’s 12th homer of the (for him very short) year preceded by Reece walking and coming around the bags to score on a wild pitch. That tied the game shortly, but in the top 3rd the Capitals had their way with Farley yet again, two singles, two walks, another run, and the inning only ended mercifully because Farley could overpower Wright to get a K for the third out. Injury walk-on Ramirez would tie the score with his own 10th home run in not that many at-bats, which was in the fifth, and the next inning Wright imploded. The Coons had them loaded with one out, and Wright walked both Ledesma, the go-ahead run coming home, and Ingall, which made it 5-3. In Farley’s place, Dale Moore hit a sac fly for a 6-3 score before Ramirez struck out against Kevin Jones. That Jones had a special encounter with the other walk-on Eddie Torrez in the seventh, surrendering a 2-run homer, and now Torrez had 10 dingers! It was all add-on, since the relief corps of Martinez, Wilson, and Joly held the Capitals scoreless down the stretch. 8-3 Coons!! Sharp 1-1; Torrez 1-2, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Reece 1-2, 2 BB; Thomas (PH) 1-1, 2B; Wilson 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Remember Kevin Jones? Ex-Coon. ‘f course!

Daniel Sharp had to go on the DL with a back strain. He should miss around three weeks. Matt Love was called up, but we might want to add a third catcher in Gary Fifield?

Raccoons (56-66) @ Loggers (77-43) – August 22-24, 2003

The Coons have been thoroughly caught, killed, and skinned by the Loggers this season, losing nine of a dozen contests. We haven’t been there, and we haven’t even been close to it. There isn’t much this team can do against a team with a +182 run differential.

Projected matchups:
Edgar Amador (3-4, 4.35 ERA) vs. Carl Bean (9-5, 3.05 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (4-2, 3.57 ERA) vs. John Miller (8-5, 4.23 ERA)
Ramón Meza (2-5, 5.20 ERA) vs. Doug Morrow (13-8, 4.00 ERA)

History could be made here, as Cristo Ramirez comes into this series with 2,992 career hits.

Game 1
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – 3B M. Ramirez – C Ledesma – SS Ingall – P Amador
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 3B J. Cruz – SS T. Johnson – CF Fletcher – C C. Ramos – 1B J. Nava – P Bean

Torrez drew a leadoff walk and once Palacios singled, Brady doubled, and Reece singled, three runs were on the board against ex-Coon Carl Bean. Unfortunately, Edgar Amador was no more lucky, allowing four soft singles in the bottom of the inning, and then he was still lucky that the Loggers amounted to only one run. Bean struck out nine in seven innings of work and trailed until the very last moment. Amador had allowed a run on two walks and a wild pitch in the second, and then the 3-2 score had stood for 90 minutes. In the bottom 7th, Nava doubled with one out, getting Amador removed. Moreno failed to clean up and a 2-run double with two out off the bat of Cristo Ramirez flipped the score in favor of Bean and the Loggers. However, this medal had two sides. Jesus Longoria pitched in the top 8th, and Martin got on with a single. Reece popped out for the second out before Beairsto hit for Ramirez and walked. That brought up Ledesma, who fell to 0-2 before connecting for a liner to deep right. Ramirez at first seemed to have a chance to end the inning with a catch, but it tailed away and now the Coons had a score-flipping 2-out, 2-run double! Huerta was in line for the W now, retired two in the eighth, before Fletcher and Ramos reached. Martinez appeared and got a soft pop from Jose Nava to shallow left, but Beairsto, who had replaced Reece for defense, had to come in rather quickly to grab it. The 5-4 lead was Nordahl’s to protect in the bottom 9th, got Juan Jose Villa and Bartolo Hernandez to ground out to Palacios, and then the inevitable Ramirez doubled. Hiwalani with nobody on was bad enough, but with the tying run in scoring position it was a no-go, so we actually put the winning run on base voluntarily to have Nordahl face the assumedly easier Manuel Valdés in Jorge Cruz’ vacated slot. Nordahl got within one strike of the end when Valdés fired the 2-2 pitch to deep right. Run, Clyde Brady, run! Aaaand – he’s got it!! 5-4 Raccoons! Martin 3-4, RBI;

Four in a row!? What sick hex is going on here??

Cristo Ramirez had three hits, so he’s on pace for The Big Mark on Sunday.

Game 2
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Beairsto – 1B Martin – 3B M. Ramirez – C Ledesma – LF Moore – SS Gabriel – P F. Garcia
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 3B J. Cruz – SS T. Johnson – CF Fletcher – C C. Ramos – 1B J. Nava – P J. Miller

Cristo Ramirez had a double in the first (#2,996), and after that Hiwalani popped up to short, but not out to short, as Manny Gabriel – not good for much at all with a bat – dropped that one. He got his whiskers saved by Garcia, who turned a double play on Jorge Cruz’ grounder to keep the Loggers from scoring early. Believe it or not, the second inning was even more awful, although the Loggers only swung hard twice. But leading off was Tom Johnson with an inside-the-park home run and after that Jerry Fletcher tripled and was soon scored. That made it 2-0 for the home team. It didn’t stay 2-0 for long. Garcia had nothing and was whacked mercilessly, with the Loggers getting another triple, Hiwalani driving home Ramirez, who had walked, in the third inning, and the Loggers went up to 4-0. It was Triples Day, and Batters Getting Tossed Weekend, however, and both teams got some of either eventually, with Dale Moore hitting a 2-run triple, and Carlos Ramos getting tossed for chirping after Domingo Moreno K’ed him. That was in the sixth, with Garcia already showering after 4.2 innings of gruesome work. The score was only 4-2 however. Top 7th, Torrez hit a triple with two outs, but Palacios struck out. But more shoddy pitching was on the way for the Coons. In the bottom of the inning, Huerta was taken to the corner by Hiwalani for a leadoff double. Hiwalani was on third with two outs, Jerry Fletcher was 0-2, and then Huerta threw one ENTIRELY past the catcher. Thus when Martin homered in the eighth it only cut the score back to 5-3, and Miller put on the next three batters to load them up with one out before Jesus Longoria replaced him. Gabriel’s turn was up, but we could do better, Ingall hitting for him, aaand … well, that didn’t work out: double play to short. In the top 9th it was a Bartolo Hernandez error that gave the Raccoons life against Robbie Wills. It put a runner on second with two out, but that runner was Palacios and next was Beairsto, who was on a tear. Yet, he was also strikeout-prone. Wills knew that and got him fishing with junk. 5-3 Loggers. Torrez 2-5, 2B;

Cristo Ramirez needs four hits in the final game to reach 3,000.

Game 3
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Beairsto – 1B Martin – LF Reece – C Thomas – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Gabriel – P Meza
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 3B J. Cruz – SS T. Johnson – CF Fletcher – C Benitez – P J. Nava – P Morrow

Meza was nowhere remotely near useful, and just waited for the big inning to happen. After the Loggers’ Jose Nava hit into a double play with the bases loaded in the second, Meza had no such luck anymore in the third when Hiwalani tagged him with a 3-run homer. That easily negated the single run Torrez and Palacios had carved out in the top of the inning. Pitcher Doug Morrow however had already left with an injury, so maybe the Raccoons could do something against the bullpen? They scored one run before leaving the bases loaded in the fourth inning, and in the bottom half of the same frame Meza melted completely. The four batters he faced all reached, including two being hit by a pitch. Somehow the damage was held to one more run by Bob Joly, but the Loggers already led 5-2, so “just one more run” was not a success either. Top 5th, Palacios homered off Jeff Adkins, 5-3, and then Adkins walked Beairsto before Al Martin narrowly missed a game-tying homer and had to settle for a double off the centerfield wall. That put the tying runs into scoring position however, and there were no outs for Neil Reece, who hit a sac fly to left, but that was still better than Mark Thomas’ K. The game would however inevitably blow up against the Raccoons, who were also trying to patch it together with their pen, and to even less success than the Loggers. When Bakile Hiwalani hit his second 3-run homer of the game in the sixth it was two thirds on Joly, one third on Bruno, and ramped the score to 9-4. The Loggers kept putting up the pressure, while the Raccoons just didn’t get it done against the bullpen, not even against 40-years-old-and-over-the-hill Vernon Robertson. 9-4 Loggers. Torrez 2-5, 2B; Palacios 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Martin 2-4, 2 2B; Thomas 2-4;

That was ugly. At least we got outta there before they turned on the celebrations for Cristo Ramirez, who still needs to collect three hits.

In other news

August 21 – The Capitals place SP Sergio Gonzalez (5-10, 4.38 ERA) on the DL with rotator cuff inflammation. He is out for the season.
August 23 – The Titans will have to go the rest of the way this year without OF Vicente Elizondo (.300, 1 HR, 50 RBI), who is out with a torn finger tendon.
August 24 – Paralyzing agony in Atlanta: the Knights picked OF Jose Morales first overall just ten weeks ago in the 2003 draft. They debuted the likeable 20-year old on Friday. On Saturday he slams into the leftfield fence in pursuit of a Jose Hermundo fly ball and is out indefinitely with a severe concussion.

Complaints and stuff

First opponent swept this year! Oh, it’s merely August… LATE August.

Gonzalez actually pitched in the series we had with the Capitals, in relief, and left the third game with the injury.

Can we please have Brownie finish with a decent record? While he’s just not as good as last year, having already allowed as many earned runs as all of last season, and more home runs, and being on pace for more walks, it’s clearly mostly him, despite a 12 points higher BABIP. But, I mean, he’s pretty much our lone spark, since Randy Farley is pitching effectively, but he’s rather dull, to be honest. Brown has a spark.

No ABL team has ever won a division with a losing record. That brings us to this year’s CL South …

[Questdog]

What is the breakdown of your schedule as far as games within the division and not? When real baseball had 24 teams, they'd play 18 games against each division foe and 12 against each team in the other division (no games with the other league). The breakdown of 90 division games vs 72 non, mostly prevented this sort of thing, though it came close a time or two (1973 NL East).

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

When real baseball had 24 teams

What do you mean, "real baseball"? This ain't real?

---

Basically just like that. 90 games in division, 54 against the other division, and 18 interleague. There just seems to be a whole lot of "no good" in that division right now.

Wouldn't it be fun to be right in there, 61-62, totally undeserving, and pelting the last drip of blood out of the Furballs to get over the friggin' hump?

But no, we're worse than "no good", or "totally undeserving".

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

What do you mean, "real baseball"? This ain't real?

---

Basically just like that. 90 games in division, 54 against the other division, and 18 interleague. There just seems to be a whole lot of "no good" in that division right now.

Wouldn't it be fun to be right in there, 61-62, totally undeserving, and pelting the last drip of blood out of the Furballs to get over the friggin' hump?

But no, we're worse than "no good", or "totally undeserving".

Well, the Coons would actually be LOWER in the standings in that division (5th place) with their record, but a lot closer .

Though their record would probably be better if they were actually in that division.

Edit: I was looking at the wrong division when calculating GB the first edit

[Westheim]

Between fourth and fifth, nobody gives a dime. I'd buy into the "a lot closer" though.

Below are our hopes, although nobody knows quite what to think of Beairsto, who needs a nick, by the way. There will be stretches of him batting .150 or less, and they will be very long, but he can go deep and win a game at the slightest provocation.

He also has pitching ratings (8/10/6), making him a perfect player for AWO duties. AWO is when usual mop-up pitching fails. AWO stands for Atrocious WipeOut pitching.

So he's the opposite to closer and pinch-runner deluxe Dan Nordahl (who won't win games no matter how many bases he steals...).

Brownie on the other hand tends to be out of whack and at 25 he won't get any better anymore, but if he's ON - by heavens! - he's ON!

That's what they say about 11th round gold. It's the shiniest gold.

[Griever20]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Brownie on the other hand tends to be out of whack and at 25 he won't get any better anymore, but if he's ON - by heavens! - he's ON!

Actually depends. IF he gets this two points of control developed (compared to his potential rating) over the next year or two years, he could become dominant. With this stuff, he just has to locate the pitches well enough and will be a force.

Without that control, he may walk some and miss over the plate... My advice... tell your pitching coach he gets shot if Brownie doesn't get his control up, that usually works as motivation.

P.S:
I like Beairsto if you can lock him up cheap. 24 years old, great makeup, already developed pretty good... Will need some time, he is still very young for playing in this league, but could be a good middle of the order bat.

[Questdog]

Personally, I like Mr. Brown quite a bit, but Mr. Beairsto is not my kind of player. He is out of the Adam Dunn, Gorman Thomas mold, players who rarely put the ball in play and are therefore very boring to watch hit. Plus his defense is nothing much to brag about and I have always had a dislike for players who's stealing rating is less than their speed.

[Griever20]

Exactly, that is why I only like Beairsto when he is cheap... very important if you have a budget as low as Mr. Westheim has... His speed rating could drive up his demands over a reasonable amount I guess, he is more like a .240-20-80 hitter without a lot of speed in this league.

[Lafayette53]

Even assuming he doesn't gain some control Brown is an extremely valuable piece. Not only are his stuff/movement ratings good, but he has a screwball which in OOTP (and real life actually, but I digress) means he has a much smaller platoon split.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (57-68) @ Titans (80-43) – August 26-28, 2003

Another series you just hope you can survive, somehow. We are 4-8 against the Titans this year, which still spells hope for an improvement over the dire 4-14 campaigns of the last two years against the Titans. 565 runs scored, 396 runs allowed, with the latter mark leading the league, as did a sub-3 starters’ ERA.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (8-12, 3.57 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (14-7, 3.30 ERA)
Randy Farley (9-5, 3.41 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (13-7, 2.52 ERA)
Edgar Amador (3-4, 4.34 ERA) vs. Steven Snyder (9-6, 2.90 ERA)

Game 1
POR: RF Brady – SS Ingall – LF Reece – 1B Martin – CF Beairsto – 3B M. Ramirez – 2B Palacios – C Thomas – P Brown
BOS: 3B V. Flores – 1B Matsumoto – RF Greenman – CF Garrison – 2B Austin – SS Elliott – LF Hester – C F. Diéguez – P Chapa

The Titans showed atrocious defense in the first inning, in which the Raccoons scattered three singles but most if not all damage was done on capital errors by Pat Elliott first, on Neil Reece’s grounder, and then Chapa himself on Palacios’. In total, that made for four runs of support, and if you were Nick Brown you’d have to be thrilled about that. Six days after a dazzling start, he hardly had anything to dazzle this time. His first K was to Chapa in the bottom 2nd, and it came in due time to end the inning with three men left on base after an infield single and two walks issued. While Brown normally couldn’t remove people in an 0-2 count for his live in this game, Chapa murdered Raccoons like vermin when he didn’t torpedo his own chances like in the first inning, and didn’t allow another base runner until Marvin Ingall drew a 2-out walk in the top 5th. Brown remained hardly effective into the seventh, when the Titans got two silly singles falling in, and it ended up killing the day. They scored a run when Fernando Diéguez crashed into home plate and Mark Thomas, injuring himself, but cutting the score to 4-2 with another two runs in scoring position and one out. Daniel Silva came out to pinch-hit in the #2 hole, and Benton Wilson replaced an ineffective Brown even against the left-hander. Wilson fit into the mold well, getting to 0-2 on Silva and then surrendering a game-tying single up the middle. Top 8th, Ramiro Román struck out Ingall before the pressure mounted with a Reece single (his 100th hit of the year) and a double by Al Martin. The Titans forewent an opportunity to strike out Beairsto and instead desired to pitch to Miguel Ramirez, but Eddie Torrez hit for him. He barely managed a sac fly to break the 4-4 tie, but that was all the Raccoons managed with Palacios walking and Ledesma striking out in place of Thomas. With Wilson getting one, and Bruno two outs in the bottom 8th to hold the fort, and the Raccoons going down easily against John Bennett in the top 9th, the 5-4 lead became a Nordahl case in the bottom 9th, but the case was dismissed by Christian Greenman, whose 3-run homer was the eighth Nordahl surrendered on the year, and gave him his seventh blown save. 7-5 Titans. Martin 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

You get four unearned runs in the first, an enormous present from this team, and you just throw it away!? Unthankful twats!!

Game 2
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 3B M. Ramirez – LF Moore – C Ledesma – SS Gabriel – P Farley
BOS: 2B H. Ramirez – 1B Matsumoto – LF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – C L. Lopez – 3B Austin – SS V. Flores – CF Bryant – P Hildred

Again, the Titans made an error in the first (Matsumoto), but this time the Raccoons failed to cash in when they had runners on the corners but Hildred struck out Martin and Ramirez. In the fourth, the first scoring of the game came from the unlikeliest source, a .158 hitting Manny Gabriel who found Ramirez and Moore on the corners and dropped a ball over Matsumoto that went all the way to the wall for a 2-run double. Farley then singled Gabriel in to make it 3-0. Randy Farley sat down the first 12 Titans when on his day job, but Gonzalo Munoz’ leadoff jack in the fifth put an end to all kinds of bids. The 3-1 score held on for another bit, but like the day before the seventh inning became the end of all things starting pitching for the Raccoons. Mark Austin led off with a double through Martin, and then Vic Flores and Howard Bryant both singled over the second base bag, knocking out Farley at 3-2 with two men on and no outs. Oh, and the stinking rat Silva batting for Hildred. Moreno got him to hit into a double play, and although Greenman hit for Hector Ramirez, facing Manuel Martinez, he popped out to short to leave Flores on third base with the tying run. The top 9th saw Palacios reach with a single, and after he had stolen a base of Luis Lopez early in the game, he was thrown out this time, which was unfortunate with a Clyde Brady double right after that. Brady came around, however, and Nordahl appeared in a 4-2 game eventually. It remained a 4-2 game, since Nordahl didn’t blow it for once. He didn’t dare to. 4-2 Coons. Palacios 3-5; Moore 4-5; Farley 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (10-5);

So, good points: we have a 10-game winner and it is not even September yet. Never mind that Randy started the year as our #4 and without much love. He’s won ten, and that’s marked improvement over 8-11 and 9-16 campaigns in the last two seasons.

If Nordahl had blown up again, or had made it reasonably close to blowing up, he’d have been history. We’d have promoted Marcos Bruno to closer. You can’t keep blowing games. I can imagine the exchange. “Dan, you’re done with the ninth” – “Why?” – “You blew up two nights in a row here.” – “But they’re a good team!” – “That’s your excuse?” – “Ya.” – “That’s a crap excuse.” – “Why?” – “According to your logic, we’re then a crap team because you can’t close **** out. So even in your world, you’re not a closer.” – “(sob)”

Well, it’s a long week ahead. He may get another chance to kill a decent effort by somebody else.

Game 3
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Moore – 1B Martin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Gabriel – P Amador
BOS: 1B H. Ramirez – 3B V. Flores – LF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – C L. Lopez – 2B Austin – SS Matsumoto – CF Hester – P Snyder

For the second night in a row, Gonzalo Munoz broke up a no-hit bid just as you began to notice it, this time with a 1-out double in the fourth. He scored on a double by Mark Austin, and that was the first run of the game, with neither team showing offensive prowess so far. That run turned out to be everything that fell out of Edgar Amador’s enormous pockets. He went six and was hit for with Beairsto with two on and two out in the top 7th. Beairsto flew out to the warning track, and the Raccoons kept trailing, 1-0. This was before the bottom 7th, the inning of horrors of this particular week, and this game here didn’t stand back. The Titans would score three runs on a single hit, somehow also getting on base on two walks by Huerta, a massive throwing error by Martin, and they also stole three bases off Ledesma. But like all games in the series, there was also a sudden renaissance for the road team after that soul-crunching seventh. In the top 8th, Torrez and Palacios singled to get started. Ingall hit for Moore against lefty Xavier Herrera, but flew out. Martin’s RBI groundout almost had us out of the inning already, but Reece singled and then Ledesma doubled to cash in two and bring the score to 4-3, but Ramirez couldn’t keep the line moving, but in the top 9th we got a Manny Gabriel leadoff single against killing closer John Bennett. Playing for one run, we used Manuel Martinez, who had ended the bottom 8th on the mound, to bunt Gabriel to second base, but the point would ultimately rendered moot with strikeouts to Torrez and Ingall. 4-3 Titans. Brady 1-1; Reece 2-4; Gabriel 2-4; Amador 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, L (3-5);

You know, we could have won all three in this set. We were just too dumb. Maybe that’s the problem with the team. Not only inept, or selectively inept, but also dumb.

Sigh.

Neil Reece’s pair of singles puts him at 1,861 career hits, and he’s now only 25 removed from Daniel Hall.

Raccoons (58-70) vs. Aces (52-75) – August 29-31, 2003

Here comes the team with the worst record in the majors, yet they’re half as many games out of first place in their division. We’re kind of playing a strange game. They were 11th in runs scored and 8th in runs allowed in the CL, and were hardly figuring anywhere in the upper half of any category.

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (4-3, 3.86 ERA) vs. Alfredo Rios (7-11, 4.63 ERA)
Ramón Meza (2-6, 5.71 ERA) vs. Anibal Sandoval (11-10, 2.87 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-12, 3.65 ERA) vs. Antonio Sanchez (3-8, 6.32 ERA)

Three right-handers, and we can already give up on the middle matchup. We got to start winning games, however. Not for this year, this year is utterly lost. But in general, winning games wouldn’t be so bad.

Game 1
LVA: C L. Paredes – SS Hitchcock – 1B O. Torres – RF Speed – CF Talamante – 2B J. Martinez – LF G. Wills – 3B Bell – P A. Rios
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Gabriel – C Thomas – P F. Garcia

The Coons jumped out with a quick 3-spot in the bottom of the first, when initially Torrez got on, and was still on second with two outs, but then Martin, Beairsto, Ramirez, and Gabriel unleashed a string of four consecutive 2-out singles to plate the three runs. It quickly got worse for Alfredo Rios, who was taken deep by Torrez in the next inning, and also surrendered a 2-out RBI double to Al Martin that scored Clyde Brady. While Garcia was more or less cruising, but expended a few pitches too much at times, the Raccoons added a run in the fifth when Gabriel singled to score Beairsto. The next inning, the bottom came out of the Aces’ bullpen, as Andrew Wills and Jose Martinez walked four Raccoons. The bases were loaded for Miguel Ramirez with two out, and sooner or later pitches had to come in. Ramirez, not great at making contact, found one to his liking eventually, and dished that quite the distance. GRAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMM!!! That made it a rather comfortable 11-0 lead. Garcia got stuck in the eighth after two singles and was removed at 119 pitches when Oliver Torres’ spot came up with two out. Torres led the CL in OPS, far and away, and there was no need to allow him to do damage, even with an 11-0 lead. Benton Wilson came on, and Benton Wilson got him for the third out. The Coons led by a full dozen after the bottom 8th, then found the childish need to soil the score. Huerta pitched like crap in the ninth, made a 2-base throwing error, Ramirez made one, too, and just like that the suckers whipped up a 4-spot for the Aces that was wholly uncalled for. 12-4 Raccoons. Torrez 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Martin 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Beairsto 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Ramirez 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Gabriel 3-5, 3 RBI; Thomas 2-5, 2B, RBI; Garcia 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, W (5-3);

Game 2
LVA: 1B M. Henry – SS Hitchcock – 2B O. Torres – RF Speed – CF Talamante – 3B J. Martinez – LF Messinger – C Olson – P Sandoval
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – 3B Ingall – SS Gabriel – P Meza

Neither team had a hit the first time through the lineup, and the first hit of the game would already put two runs on the board when Palacios homered to center to make it 2-0 Coons. The Aces got one right back with hits by Torres and Baden Speed, and they had another chance in the sixth when Lance Hitchcock hit a leadoff double and Meza balked that tying run to third base with no outs. But Torres and Speed popped up to shallow confines for two easy outs, before Meza struck out Talamante. Between those spots, Ramón Meza actually showed flashes of greatness, including striking out the side in the seventh to keep the team and the 2-1 lead afloat. That was his last action as he was hit for in the bottom of the inning with Ingall on first and one out. Beairsto struck out in his spot, and Torrez grounded out. Marcos Bruno came in for the eighth, and surrendered a leadoff single to the pitcher Anibal Sandoval, which was more than just unfortunate. The run stayed at first base but it stayed ON for Torres to come up with two out. Domingo Moreno was called on, but walked Torres. With Huerta and Martinez both used too often already, and Joly not trustworthy, we ironically got to the least trustworthy right-hander around the park, Dan Nordahl, to pitch to Baden Speed with two out and two on in the eighth. Speed hit one to deep right, but Brady was there. After this scary moment, and more ineptness by the home team in the bottom 8th, in which Sandoval remained unsolvable to them, Nordahl came back for the ninth and struck out Talamante and Martinez before Forest Messinger grounded out to Palacios, who was something like the match winner in this one. 2-1 Coons. Palacios 1-4, HR, 2 RBI; Meza 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (3-6); Nordahl 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (27);

We had five hits, they had four. Not a great offensive display. Most stunning was the fact that Meza even outpitched the horse Sandoval.

Game 3
LVA: LF Covington – SS Hitchcock – 2B O. Torres – RF Speed – CF Talamante – 1B M. Henry – 3B Warrain – C L. Paredes – P A. Sanchez
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Beairsto – C Ledesma – 3B Ingall – SS Gabriel – P Brown

The alarm went off in Nick Brown’s first ten pitches, resulting in a Covington single, no attempt to keep the runner from stealing, a plunk into Hitchcock, and a wild pitch. At 3-1 to Oliver Torres, the pitching coach went out to shake the crap out of him. Brown then recovered to strike out Torres, but both runs scored on a groundout and single by Talamante. The Raccoons wouldn’t get a hit until Al Martin hit a blooper into shallow center with two out in the fourth, but then Beairsto followed that up with a cannon shot out of right center, tying the score with homer #13. The tie didn’t last long: Lance Hitchcock, light hitting even for a shortstop, took Brown deep for two runs in the top 5th. Luis Paredes had singled on 0-2 before that dinger. No, it was not Brownie’s game, but maybe it wouldn’t be Sanchez, either. Sanchez walked Ingall to start the bottom 5th, before Gabriel singled to left. Brown struggled to get a bunt down, but when he finally did, Sanchez threw it into the dugout, bringing the score to 4-3 with two in scoring position and no outs. Yet, the Raccoons did not score. Torrez, Palacios, Reece, three grounders that kept the runners pinned. Brown went seven and was left in to bunt Gabriel from first to second and make the first out in the bottom 7th. It was step one to get off the hook, and step two came with Torrez’ game-tying single to right that plated Gabriel. Torrez was left at third eventually when neither Reece nor Martin could buy a hit. Brown came back out then for the eighth, at least pitching to Torres, who grounded out. Brown tried to get through the inning, striking out Speed, but when Talamante singled, we went to Bruno against Mike Henry, but the Aces countered with left-handed Forest Messinger. Messinger popped up, but something wasn’t right with Bruno, who was visibly in pain. Before we got him figured out, Beairsto led off the bottom 8th with a single and scored on Gabriel’s 2-out single to break the tie. Nordahl saved this one without much fuss. 5-4 Coons. Beairsto 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Gabriel 3-3, BB, RBI;

Marcos Bruno has a herniated disc in his neck. He is DTD and struggles with pain. It might take two weeks or longer to get back to normal for him, so a trip to the DL might be in order. Roster expansion will be on Monday. While we have a few candidates to call up, Bruno going down is a bad break for our 7th/8th inning plans.

[Of course the win should have gone to Bruno, who ended the eighth, but OOTP credits it to Joly, who was inserted for long man duty in anticipation of the Raccoons not scoring in the bottom 8th.

In other news

August 27 – Salem’s SP Alonso Lopez, who suffered a torn back muscle in his first start of the season on April 11, announces his retirement after two failed surgeries to remedy constant, throbbing back pain, even without actually playing ball. He says, he has other things to bother about now. Like, constant, throbbing back pain. The 29-year old Lopez was signed by the Raccoons out of Puerto Rico in 1992, but taken by the Wolves in the rule 5 draft in 1996. He appeared in 141 major league games (136 starts), going 38-63 with a 4.52 ERA, and more walks than strikeouts, of which he had 444.
August 28 – TIJ CL Enrico Gonzalez (4-3, 1.95 ERA, 23 SV) locks up his 300th career save by conserving a 4-3 lead over the Knights.
August 29 – NAS SP Carlos Castro (17-7, 2.64 ERA) decimates the Scorpions in a 10-0 Blue Sox rout. Not only does Castro allow only four hits in the shutout, but he also strikes out a whopping *16* Scorpions. In doing so he matches Manny Ramos’ ABL record put up in 1997.
August 30 – MIL RF/LF Cristo Ramirez (.306, 4 HR, 46 RBI) joins the elite 3,000 hits club, becoming its fourth member after Jeffery Brown, Dale Wales, and Paul Connolly. The key hit is a sixth inning single off Pancho Trevino in the Loggers’ 1-0, 10-inning win over the Thunder. The sixth overall pick in the 1988 draft has spent his whole career with the Loggers, making his debut right in 1989 and appearing in 144 games that year. His rookie season was the only time he hit under .300; Ramirez was an All Star nine times, Player of the Week 17 times, Batter of the Month six times, Batter of the Year twice (1993, 1998), and won two Gold Gloves (1990, 1995).
August 31 – DEN SP Jorge Martinez (6-5, 4.92 ERA) is out with a partial tear in his UCL. He may or may not return in time for Opening Day in 2004.

Complaints and stuff

Chris Beairsto was the CL Rookie of the Month in August, hitting .302 with 10 HR and 18 RBI. That his average for the season is only .245 indicates that it hasn’t been all roses for him this season.

Nick Brown struck out nine on Sunday, getting to 178 K on the year with a month left to play. 178 K is already the fifth-whiffingest season for a Raccoons hurler, trailing Antonio Donis’ 187 in ’96, Manuel Movonda’s 192 in ’98, Kisho Saito’s 193 in ’85, and of course Nicky’s own record from last year, 212 strikeouts in one season. Since we won’t go to a full six-man rotation due to a lack of suitable personnel, he should easily get a sufficient number of starts to break his own record.

We haven’t talked about him this year, but Daniel Miller has found a new home, signing a minor league deal with the Blue Sox in April. He’s closing for them in AAA, but they have not called him up to the big league club.

Odd quirk: Vince’s latest scouting report gives Al Martin one star current, one star potential. I say for a 1-star player he’s holding up quite well, a career .820 OPS in 2,144 AB, with 609 hits, 96 homers and 346 driven in. And a stolen base. His fielding isn’t quite Tetsu-esque, but it hurts his value. Despite the offensive prowess, he only has 10.2 WAR collected in his career.

Been playing irregularly lately, and played only the Titans series in last night’s dispiriting 4-1 loss the Mets took at the hands of the Pirates. However, I have next week off from the hells of work and may find additional time to pursue the Coons, Civ V (and actually for once finish a Civ V game!), and perhaps I will finally get my other OOTP idea off the ground that I have been toying with for the last 15 months.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Odd quirk: Vince’s latest scouting report gives Al Martin one star current, one star potential. I say for a 1-star player he’s holding up quite well, a career .820 OPS in 2,144 AB, with 609 hits, 96 homers and 346 driven in. And a stolen base. His fielding isn’t quite Tetsu-esque, but it hurts his value. Despite the offensive prowess, he only has 10.2 WAR collected in his career.

1 star?!?!?!

Is he hitting of late? The home runs seem to have slowed a bit....

P.S. 3000 hits at age 33 is pretty impressive. Cristo Ramirez might make it to 4000!

[Westheim]

Al's hitting 'em in bunches. Currently there's no bunch going, but still, one star!? I suspect something personal. Maybe Al put his paws onto Vince's lunch.

[Westheim]

Our AAA team is playing .368 ball. There is no reason to expect any help to come from there any time soon. Still, it was September 1 and the chance was there to add some meat to make it through the last five weeks of the season. We needed a reliever anyway with Marcos Bruno getting shut down, packed up, and put on the DL.

Called up were:
MR Scott Boone, 23, with a 1.34 ERA in AAA, and that pretty 45 ERA for the big league team
MR Lawrence Rockburn, 23, with a 4.62 ERA in AAA, international signing by the Thunder, and came over in the fabled Butch Kaustrop trade
MR Kazuhiko Kichida, who didn’t get the knack in AAA either
C/1B Gary Fifield, batting .292 with three homers in just 24 AB in AAA
1B Alejandro Rojas, 23, .863 OPS with 27 homers in AAA, international free agent from Costa Rica dug out by Vince

Raccoons (61-70) vs. Condors (65-66) – September 1-3, 2003

The Condors were average in scoring and preventing runs. Like all those .500 teams in the CL South, they were quite in the thick of contention.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (10-5, 3.39 ERA) vs. Ramón Ortíz (11-9, 3.71 ERA)
Edgar Amador (3-5, 4.13 ERA) vs. Frank Pierre (8-9, 3.86 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (5-3, 3.46 ERA) vs. Manny Rios (12-9, 3.76 ERA)

Game 1
TIJ: 1B Morton – SS J. Barrón – RF R. Vázquez – LF Reya – 3B B. Boyle – C Clemente – CF B. Román – 2B Stein – P R. Ortíz
POR: RF Brady – SS Ingall – LF Reece – CF Beairsto – 1B Rojas – C Thomas – 3B M. Ramirez – 2B Love – P Farley

For a change, Mr. Singles surrendered plenty of extra-base contact in this start, which couldn’t go unpunished for long. Both teams scored two runs in the third inning, with the Condors’ coming on a pair of doubles, giving them three doubles and a single that far in. They added a Bruce Boyle homer to that in the top 4th, but in the bottom of the inning Clyde Brady came through with a 2-out, 2-run double, giving the Coons the lead at 4-3, and Mark Thomas’ 2-out double in the next inning plated another run in scoring Neil Reece. It wasn’t enough to drag Farley through this game however. On a day of doubles, and 2-out doubles in particular, Jim Stein’s 2-out double in the top 6th tied the score at five as it scored both Boyle and Antonio Clemente. That was nothing against what the bullpen did. Benton Wilson faced two, and Manuel Martinez one batter in the top 7th, nobody was retired, and the bases were loaded. Domingo Moreno replaced Martinez and somehow got out of the inning with only one run scoring, but it was the go-ahead run, and that was bad enough. Bottom 7th, Nick Lee pitching. He struck out Reece to get going, before Beairsto singled. Rojas was hitless in his debut, which ended here to have Al Martin hit against the right-hander. The Condors stayed with Lee, and it cost them, for Martin hit it out, #22. The inning continued, but eventually Pablo Ledesma struck out to leave two men on base.

That put the Raccoons in a bad predicament. Ledesma had hit for Moreno. We now had expended both our good left-handed relievers. Now it was Bob Joly against the left-handed Condors, or Scott Boone, the guy with the ERA just under room temperature. Tough choice, but it was Boone with the 7-6 lead. For how long can one pitch with a 45 ERA?

Boone struck out Román, and Stein flew out to Beairsto in left (Reece was gone), but Boone then walked Bradley Heathershaw in his first plate appearance of the year. Huerta replaced Boone and got Mitsuhide Suzuki to ground out to short. We wanted to stay away from Dan Nordahl, who had been out most days last week, and Huerta continued in the ninth in the 7-6 game, with easily measurable success. Jimmy Bayle singled, and then Luis Reya doubled with one out. Boyle was walked intentionally, but the Condors managed to throw up another power hitter to pinch-hit in Jeff MacGruder. We saw this game swimming down the Willamette, and then MacGruder grounded the second pitch right back to Huerta, who fired home to force Bayle, and Thomas zinged to first to get MacGruder. 7-6 Raccoons. Brady 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Reece 2-4, RBI; Beairsto 2-4, RBI; Martin (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI;

That surely was too close for comfort...

Rojas walked his first time up, then made two outs, so no ball for the mantelpiece of Mama Rojas so far. He will make a few starts against left-handers this month. The Coons are not running for anything anyway, and Al Martin is still five off Ron Alston in the CL home run race (and a mere dozen behind LAP Ken Potter in the FL), so he’s not playing for anything big either. Except, if he hits three more, he will reach 100 for his career. That one might go on Mama Martin’s mantelpiece, I guess.

Game 2
TIJ: C Cicalina – SS J. Barrón – RF R. Vázquez – LF Reya – 3B B. Boyle – 1B Morton – CF MacGruder – 2B Stein – P Pierre
POR: CF Torrez – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Ingall – C Thomas – 2B Love – P Amador

By the time Edgar Amador surrendered Raúl Vázquez 385th career home run, he had already surrendered a few doubles, not quite living up to his groundball percentage. Both teams plated a run in the first, with a 3-on, 2-out Ingall Single doing the job for the Coons. Amador wobbled, Pierre didn’t quite. The Condors scored a run in the fourth to go ahead and when Vázquez then took Amador deep in the fifth, it was a 4-1 game. Amador had walked Juan Barrón just before #385. In the bottom 5th the Condors had to fight their own little blemishes, with Torrez at first striking out to start the inning, but wait – they called catcher’s interference. Torrez then scored casually when Clyde Brady tripled, 4-2, and Neil Reece became the tying run with an RBI single to collect Brady. That tying run never actually tied the score, however, when Martin got Reece forced out with a grounder to first, and an Ingall Single evaporated when Thomas popped out. But the team DID come back. Torrez singled in the bottom 6th, and then Brady upped his output by a base with a rocket to deep right that stayed just inside the pole to flip the score to 5-4! This was with Amador still in the game, but he would not register another out, allowing a single to Urbano Cicalina and then fumbling Juan Barrón’s bunt and throwing wildly to second base. But Moreno came in to deny the Condors any advance, and the lead stood up, and was extended in the bottom 7th when all the Coons did was Marvin Ingall drawing a 2-out walk and then not tripping and breaking a leg during a sequence of wild pitch – balk – passed ball. Frank Pierre and Urbano Cicalina clearly were not in sync! Pierre remained in the game until Matt Love singled in the bottom 8th. Love became the seventh run on Pierre’s ledger (sixth earned) once Eddie Torrez went deep against Jared Chaney to make it 8-4. With that, Nordahl remained in the stall again, and Bob Joly pitched a perfect ninth. 8-4 Coons! Torrez 4-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Brady 2-4, BB, HR, 3B, 3 RBI; Reece 2-5, RBI; Ingall 2-3, BB, RBI; Moreno 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

We’re really struggling to form a proper lineup against left-handed pitchers with Guerin and Sharp on the DL. However, they have scored 15 runs the last two games, so maybe we shouldn’t complain. Next is a righty, though.

Oh, and we’ve got a 5-game winning streak!

Game 3
TIJ: C Cicalina – SS J. Barrón – RF R. Vázquez – CF Luxton – 3B B. Boyle – 1B Morton – LF B. Román – 2B Stein – P M. Rios
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – 3B Ingall – SS Gabriel – P F. Garcia

While Felipe Garcia struck out four the first time through the Condors’ order, the Raccoons put Torrez and Palacios onto the corners in the bottom 1st before the heart of the order broke some hearts with three poor outs and nobody scored. When Palacios mishandled Raúl Vázquez grounder for an error in the third inning, it led to an unearned sac fly hit by Robbie Luxton for the first run in the game, but the score would be evened again quickly when Torrez homered in the bottom of the inning. That one was a leadoff jack, and Ledesma made it back-to-back innings with leadoff jacks in the fourth, giving the Raccoons a 2-1 lead. The fifth began again with Torrez, but he didn’t hit it out, though he reached with a single to center. At this point, Manny Rios just stopped to retire batters. Palacios singled, Brady singled, Martin singled and scored two. Reece still had two men on and got a pretty fat pitch. Neil was suffering from old age, but he clearly saw that 1-0 pitch coming right down Broadway, and an instant later, that ball went where nobody could see it again: OUT OF THE PARK!! That made it 7-1 Coons, and Rios went for an early shower. Garcia also went only six, but without surrendering an earned run. The score was 8-1 after Brady drove in Torrez in the bottom 6th, and the top 7th saw the debut in the Bigs for Lawrence Rockburn. He surrendered a single to his first ever big league batter, Bartolo Román, but Jim Stein hit into a double play and his first inning remained scoreless once MacGruder rolled out to second. It was Kichida’s turn in the eighth. He walked Barrón, but struck out Vázquez, and nobody scored, either. 8-1 Critters! Torrez 3-4, BB, HR, RBI; Palacios 3-5; Ledesma 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Garcia 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (6-3);

Six in a row! Our run differential, that was over -70 (or rather under -70) at one point last month is now back to -16 and we’re only six under .500. You know, it’s bad for drafting, but I would REALLY dig to end that string of losing seasons. It’s been TOO LONG.

Well, *technically* we are not yet mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, so maybe we …? Ha-hah, joking (choking?).

Raccoons (64-70) vs. Indians (67-66) – September 4-7, 2003

Four versus Indy, who were scoring the fourth-most runs in the CL despite the third-worst batting average. They also had the fourth-least runs allowed around. It was not enough to even stay close to the powering Titans and Loggers, though. Against the Indians, it has been a disaster for the Raccoons so far this year, winning only three of 11 contests that have taken place already. Half the losses were by one run, the last three of which came in that dreadful series in early August, where we lost 2-1, 1-0, and 2-1 in succession.

Projected matchups:
Ramón Meza (3-6, 5.23 ERA) vs. Jack Hamilton (5-6, 2.78 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-12, 3.70 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (14-10, 3.62 ERA)
Randy Farley (10-5, 3.55 ERA) vs. Kai Edwards (2-6, 6.29 ERA)
Edgar Amador (4-5, 4.26 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (4-7, 4.06 ERA)

Hamilton is the third left-hander we get this week. Might be a good spot for another start for Alejandro Rojas before we face three more right-handed pitchers.

Game 1
IND: 2B D. Mendez – SS Stevens – RF Alston – C T. Turner – LF Alvarez – CF J. Valdez – 1B Booker – 3B Harris – P Hamilton
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Ingall – LF Reece – RF Beairsto – 3B M. Ramirez – 1B Rojas – SS Gabriel – C Fifield – P Meza

Meza gave up on the 6-game winning streak just like that, allowing six straight base runners with two outs in the second inning, resulting in four runs. Meza allowed only three more runners in six innings, but the result was bad enough. While Ingall hit a solo homer in the third inning, he left three men stranded in the fourth when he grounded out to Hamilton. Miguel Ramirez then hit a 2-run homer collecting Reece in the fifth, but the team still trailed 4-3. Rojas made an out after that. Rojas already had a single in his first AB of the day, netting him that vaunted mantelpiece exhibit, but he didn’t know then that he would take home another one, and it was a big one: Miguel Ramirez reached base with a soft pop that fell into shallow center in the bottom 7th. That brought up Rojas, facing Maximo Mendez, and Rojas unloaded to left for his first big league home run, this one flipping the score in favor of the Coons, 5-4! Jesus Alvarez hit a leadoff double off Ricardo Huerta in the eighth. Huerta was in line for the W after collecting the last out in the seventh, but it was about to run away from him again. Alvarez was on third base with two out, when the Indians brought lefty slugger Matt MacKey as pinch-hitter in the #8 hole. Moreno replaced Huerta and got a pop right to Ingall to end the inning. The Coons left two on base in the bottom 8th, leaving no cushion for Dan Nordahl, but it was all right, as Nordahl struck out two and got an easy grounder to short from David Mendez in between. 5-4 Coons. Torrez 2-5; Reece 2-4, BB; Ramirez 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Rojas 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Martin (PH) 1-1;

Seven in a row!

Game 2
IND: 2B D. Mendez – SS Stevens – RF Alston – C T. Turner – LF Alvarez – CF J. Valdez – 1B Booker – 3B Harris – P Alba
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – C Ledesma – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Gabriel – P Brown

Messy game. Brown allowed singles to Mendez and Stevens out of the gate, then walked Ron Alston. A nifty double play started by Palacios eventually held the damage to one run, the defense bloked out the next two innings, leading to an unearned run in the second on an error by Manny Gabriel. Brown’s stuff wasn’t biting, and the Raccoons went 0-9 the first time through the order. Manuel Alba sat down the first ten Critters before Palacios singled, and Brady walked. Beairsto would drive in a run with a 2-out single, but Ledesma left two men on base when he popped out to second. Beairsto’s run was given back by Brown right away. He just didn’t have it, neither the stuff, nor the luck, as Tom Turner’s bloop fell into shallow right to score Mendez from third base with two outs in the fifth. Brownie went six innings whiffing seven, but trailed 3-2 going into the bottom 6th. Brady singled, and Martin lined one to left center that Alvarez tried to catch in a slide, but missed entirely for a double. That put Brady and Martin in scoring position with no outs, but the Coons were held to a sac fly by Ledesma and that was all they did for Brown, who got a no-decision. In the top 8th, Martinez laid two eggs that Moreno had to hatch, facing Phil Montray with two out, and got him to pop out really not far from home plate. Brady hit a leadoff double in the bottom of the eighth, but nobody could be bothered to score him, with Martin and Ledesma striking out against right-handed pitcher Terry Harris, and Beairsto grounded out between them. The tie was then resolved in the ninth to the home team’s disadvantage. It was not a good matchup in the first place, but Ron Alston hit a MONSTROUS home run off Bob Joly to end the Coons’ winning streak. 5-3 Indians. Torrez 2-4, RBI; Brady 2-3, BB, 2B;

No, Bob Joly shouldn’t pitch to Ron Alston. That was … that was a bad mistake. Alston is a mashing robot who can hit the ball 600 feet, and Joly essentially works like a tee. That is quite insulting. To the tee.

Harrumph. Well, we can always start a new winning streak tomorrow. (laughs)

Game 3
IND: 3B Montray – 1B M. Jones – C Paraz – CF Cavazos – RF C. Rey – LF MacKey – 2B Kilters – SS W. Walker – P K. Edwards
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Gabriel – C Thomas – P Farley

More messy defense, with Chris Kilters’ lazy grounder thrown away by Mark Thomas in the second inning. That was with two outs and Farley managed to strike out Wilton Walker, so no harm was done to the efforts on this Saturday yet. Miguel Ramirez homered in the bottom 2nd to put the Critters up 1-0, and after singles by Torrez and Palacios and Brady hitting an RBI double they had a 2-0 lead and two in scoring position in the bottom 3rd, before a most depressing stretch of plays left the runners stranded, as Martin popped out, Reece struck out, and Ramirez popped out as well. Two runs would probably not be enough in this game, with Farley not giving up singles, but lots of high flies. One of those went out in the fourth, as Cavazos homered just over the fence in right. It was Ramiro’s 10th on the year. With the Raccoons struggling against Kai Edwards (6+ ERA…), Farley gave up enough contact for a second run sooner or later and that happened in the sixth, when the Indians tied the score. In the bottom 6th, Wilton Walker’s throw to first on Reece’s grounder was way off and into the stands, and that gave the Coons a man on second with no outs. Ramirez singled, moving Reece to third, Gabriel walked, bases loaded, and still no outs. And they failed again. Thomas flew out to shallow right. Beairsto hit for Farley and merely managed a slightly deeper out to allow Reece to tag and score, and Torrez lobbed out to left. The bullpen blew it again, with Boone pitching a scoreless seventh, but allowing a single to lefty Montray atop the eighth. Martinez came in and was taken deep by Jose Paraz, and another run was conceded by Kichida in the ninth. Iemitsu Rin did the dirty work in the bottom 9th just like the day before. 5-3 Indians. Palacios 2-4; Ramirez 2-4, HR, RBI;

I really don’t know what it is with the Indians. We’re now 4-10 against them. That’s Loggers and Titans territory.

Maybe it’s Marv! He is 2-for-29 against the Arrowheads this year.

Game 4
IND: 3B Montray – 1B M. Jones – LF Alston – CF Cavazos – 2B D. Mendez – C Bowen – RF J. Lugo – SS Kilters – P Jimenez
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Beairsto – 3B Ingall – SS Gabriel – C Ledesma – P Amador

2-for-29 foreshadowed the bottom 1st, where Ingall came to bat with one out, the bags choked, and a 1-0 lead. He lined hard to deep left – and Ron Alston made the play. It was a sac fly, still, but 999 times out of 1,000 this one would fall in for three runs. The Coons scored three total in the inning, batting through the order until Amador grounded out to short to keep the score at 3-0. The Indians missed a chance to score in the second when Cavazos hit a leadoff double, but amassed hits and a walk to score two runs off Amador in the fourth. The Coons responded with loading them up in the bottom of the inning, with one out, for Al Martin, who sat at 98 RBI. This would be a nice spot for two, Al. NO, NOT for a double pla- … hnnngghhh. In response to that, the Indians just broke through Amador and our overwhelmed defense with a bunch of singles, an Amador error, a David Mendez grand slam - … in short, a nightmare, and we had all but booked a 3-game losing streak with a 6-run fifth.

However… there were still five innings to bat in for the Raccoons despite an 8-3 deficit. And all week long the ball had been carrying like crazy in Raccoons Ballpark, and this wouldn’t stop, and this played into the cards of the home team: by the seventh, the Raccoons led 9-8! Ledesma homered in the fifth, Reece homered in the sixth, and Ledesma hit another one in the seventh! And then came Moreno for the eighth – and served up a leadoff homer to Tom Turner. Well, maybe the wind would benefit the better team after all? In which case, congrats Indians. They overcame the crappy Raccoons bullpen in the ninth, where Huerta allowed two singles, Boone drilled MacKey, and Nordahl surrendered two runs on a single by Juan Valdez. Iemitsu Rin was tired of the non-challenge and the Indians sent Terry Harris in the ninth. It didn’t matter. It was a 1-2-3, even if the bat boy would have been sent to pitch. 11-9 Indians. Torrez 3-5, BB; Reece 2-5, HR, RBI; Beairsto 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Gabriel 2-5, RBI; Ledesma 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Wilson 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

September 2 – BOS CL John Bennett (3-2, 1.38 ERA, 41 SV) notches his 300th career save with conserving the Titans’ 7-4 lead over the Falcons.

Complaints and stuff

Just when the mood began to be lightened up a little bit in Coon City, we run into these goddamn Indians again, and BAM – losing streak.

Well, it’s not like these suckers could have actually finished with a winning record. ****ing losers.

Neil Reece’s homer off Maximo Mendez on Sunday leaves him 15 hits shy of the franchise mark. In passing, the ultimately irrelevant home run also was his 168th and tied him for third for the Raccoons with Tetsu Osanai. Tetsu also holds down 3rd in RBI with 865, and Neil is off by eight. Mark Dawson is only four ribbies further ahead, but Dan The Man’s franchise mark in that category looks very safe: 980.

Of course the ball was flying frantically this week. In seven games, we got to see 20 homers, and of those there were even 65% hit by the home team! Since we got a bit dizzy along the way, those were our dinger hitters this week:
3 – Ledesma
2 – Torrez, Ramirez, Reece
1 – Martin, Brady, Ingall, Rojas

Once Al Martin hit the pinch-dinger on Monday, Vince upped him to 1.5 stars. There really is something at odds between these two…

By the way, everybody not liking Chris Beairsto’s scouting report (10/16/12), will absolutely hate Miguel Ramirez’: 8/11/11; despite that, the Raccoons have some shocking young power going. To put it this way: if Ramirez would still qualify for the rookie title (he had 162 AB between 2001 and 2002), the Raccoons would account for a 3-way tie between rookie-eligible players for the home run lead in the league, with Ramirez, Torrez, and Beairsto all having 13.

Torrez’ scouting report? 12/11/13. Not quite the younger Reece, but good enough, to be honest. AND it was good enough to win Player of the Week honors! He hit .481 (13-27) with 2 HR and 5 RBI to get the honors.

And our accountant handed this one in: regarding our free agents Palacios, Wilson, Moreno, and Ingall … our money available for extensions is zero.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (65-73) @ Canadiens (59-77) – September 8-10, 2003

Penultimate series against the always unpleasant(ly smelling) Canadiens. While we have cultivated losing records against every other CL North team this year – smothered by MIL, BOS, IND, and 7-8 against NYC – at least we have beaten the drum out of the Elks, 8-4. They were 9th in runs scored, but their biggest problem was allowing the second-most runs in the league, and their bullpen was worst not only in Canada. They also had lost Joe Hollow and our beloved Royce Green to injury.

We’re playin’ in the Land of Elks, which means I am at home and eating a large container of ice cream for each game. Two if the Coons lose.

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (6-3, 3.21 ERA) vs. Cal Holbrook (3-2, 3.71 ERA)
Ramón Meza (3-6, 5.30 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (0-3, 6.84 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-12, 3.67 ERA) vs. Daniel Dickerson (13-11, 3.13 ERA)

Spears was their first round pick from last year, taken fifth overall. On his rush to the big leagues, he casually no-hit the Lincoln Blue Wings, the Capitals’ AA outfit, less than two months after being drafted.

Game 1
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Beairsto – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Gabriel – C Thomas – P F. Garcia
VAN: SS Simon – 3B A. De Jesus – 2B Dobson – 1B I. Gutierrez – RF Velasquez – CF T. Wilson – LF E. Garcia – C Hurtado – P Holbrook

Garcia didn’t fool anybody. He didn’t get any K’s (any!), and in turn most at-bats were rather short. The Canadiens put the ball into play quickly, and while a two on, no outs situation in the second inning was defused when Garcia’s namesake Enrique hit into a double play, there was no such luck in the fourth. Alfredo De Jesus and Jerry Dobson singled, and Iván Gutierrez hit his 21st homer of the year for a definitive 3-0 Canadiens lead. For the Raccoons, Torrez had a hit to lead off the game, got erased on a double play by Palacios, and the Raccoons would not get back onto base until the sixth, when Mark Thomas hit a double. He wasn’t scored either. The ball was just not carrying up here, it seemed. Or at least it didn’t for the visiting team. Bottom 6th, De Jesus singled, Dobson singled, De Jesus got himself thrown out at first, but then Gutierrez went deep regardless. That was it for Garcia, 5.1 innings, eight hits, five runs. Another 2-run homer was achieved by Dave Wheaton to further soil Kaz Kichida’s stats, Lawrence Rockburn gave up his first big league run by the Elks’ 2-out terror in the eighth, and the Raccoons were soundly drummed in this one, give or take a 3-run homer by Beairsto in the ninth. 8-3 Canadiens. Torrez 2-4; Rojas (PH) 1-1; Thomas 2-3, 2B;

Yay, four losses in a row! How childish to think we might have a chance at .500, or beyond.

Or beat the Elks.

Game 2
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Gabriel – C Ledesma – P Meza
VAN: CF T. Wilson – 1B J. Zamora – 2B Dobson – RF Velasquez – LF Trinidad – 3B A. De Jesus – C Rosa – SS Phillips – P Spears

Meza casually walked the bases loaded in the bottom 1st, which didn’t lead to damage only for Clyde Brady’s hero’s play on a hissing liner by De Jesus to end the inning. The Raccoons took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Ledesma went deep off Spears, but ultimately didn’t do much with the rookie. Meza pitched wonky shutout ball long enough to drop his ERA to a flat five before the Canadiens piled on him in the fifth inning, starting with a leadoff single by Spears, and scored two runs on four hits and another walk. The score was re-tied in the sixth when Beairsto singled in Brady, but key strikeouts to Ramirez and Ledesma with two and three men on respectively ended the inning without a big bang or a sarissa rammed into Spears, this included leaving another two men on in the seventh, and in the bottom of the same inning the Canadiens took another lead on Bob Joly’s general tendency to walk batters without need to, Ledesma throwing into center on Dobson stealing second base, awarding him third for free, and then Joly failing to dig out a grounder by Ramón Trinidad that became a 2-out RBI infield single. There was small ball, and there was being dumb. Both boxes got ticked here. The Coons left another three men on in the last two innings combined to put this particularly pathetic loss in the books. 3-2 Canadiens. Palacios 2-5; Brady 2-5; Gabriel 2-4; Fifield (PH) 1-1;

Five in a row, yaay!!

We also got news that Marcos Bruno’s herniated disc had worsened and he would take longer to come back.

Game 3
POR: CF Torrez – RF Brady – LF Beairsto – 1B Martin – 3B Ingall – C Ledesma – SS Gabriel – 2B Love – P Brown
VAN: C Rosa – CF Wheaton – 2B Dobson – RF Velasquez – LF Trinidad – 3B A. De Jesus – 1B Simon – SS Phillips – P Dickerson

Two 25-year old studs went up against another, the difference being that Dickerson had better control but also fooled less batters than Brown. Like every game in the series, this one was led off by Torrez with a single. He never scored. In turn, Wheaton and Dobson hit doubles off Brownie in the bottom 1st and two runs scored early. The Raccoons got one run back in unearned fashion after Ingall reached on a De Jesus error in the second inning, but Brown lacked fortuné completely, as the Elks took the run back in the bottom 3rd when soft singles eluded the infielders, and in the fourth the rather pathetic Freddy Rosa, wielding a .172 bat, took him deep to make it 4-1. Brown then led off the top 5th with an infield single and scored when Torrez hit one out, cutting the gap to 4-3. But while the next three Coons all hit deep flies to the warning track, all three were caught, and we kept trailing, and we soon trailed by one more when it was Tony Velasquez’ turn to show Brown the bleachers in the bottom of the fifth. Top 6th, Ingall single, and then Ledesma squeezed another single past Jerry Dobson, who was then fed a perfect 4-6-3 by Manny Gabriel, except for the 6, Jim Phillips, having the ball go off the top of his glove, and all hands were safe with no outs in the inning. Palacios hit for Love and singled up the middle, 5-4 Elks, and we had Brown bat for himself in what could become a feast day for the Agitator back at home. But Brown managed to put a 2-2 pitch into play and it went past Dobson for another RBI single, and we were tied! And we STILL had the bags full with no outs! Dickerson looked dizzy, walked Torrez for the go-ahead run and was then removed for lefty Bubba Cannon and his 6 K/BB. Reece batted for Brady, struck out, and Beairsto struck out, and Martin grounded out to have this one NOT become a rout. Brown held on to the 6-5 score for another inning, whiffing ten batters in the game, but all the runs on him were earned, while four on Dickerson were unearned. Thomas hit for Brown with two out and Ingall and Gabriel in scoring position in the top 7th, but popped out to short. The Raccoons hit three singles off Ralph Davis in the top 8th, and nobody scored, while the bullpen was constantly on the edge of breaking. Benton Wilson wiggled out of the seventh with two men on base reaching against Huerta, and in the bottom 8th it was a Gabriel-induced double play that bailed out Wilson and Martinez. Inevitably this led to Nordahl coming into a crazy 1-run game, which always had the potential for heartbreak. He went to 3-1 on PH Jorge Durán, but Durán grounded out. He went to a full count on Dobson, but struck him out. A K to Velasquez gave him 60 on the year, and the Raccoons at least avoided the sweep. 6-5 Coons. Torrez 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Martin 2-5; Ledesma 2-5;

That was a wicked one we in no way deserved, by the way. But Brownie will take it as compensation for all the good ones he pitched that he didn’t win. He’s a meager 9-12 on the year now.

Daniel Sharp will rejoin the team in time for the weekend series at home against the Crusaders, but we also got the bad news of another setback and worse pain for Marcos Bruno. This one doesn’t look good at all.

Raccoons (66-75) vs. Crusaders (63-76) – September 12-14, 2003

Their .245 batting average was worst in the league, and they scored the third-least runs with it. Both starters and relievers ranked second-worst in ERA. This was not a good team, but the Coons still were 7-8 against them and would need to take two out of three to get at least a split out of the season series.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (10-5, 3.53 ERA) vs. Kelly Fairchild (6-15, 5.19 ERA)
Edgar Amador (4-5, 4.34 ERA) vs. Marvin Hall (6-7, 5.75 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (6-4, 3.53 ERA) vs. Greg Connor (12-10, 3.78 ERA)

We will thus not face a southpaw all week long. This means that Rojas will not make any starts, and that Neil Reece won’t chase franchise history until next week, since I want to choke those right-handers with my left-handed power bats.

Game 1
NYC: SS Rice – CF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – C D. Anderson – 1B Berry – 3B Rigg – 2B Caraballo – P Fairchild
POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B A. Martin – LF Beairsto – 2B Palacios – SS Ingall – C Ledesma – P Farley

Farley started out in search of the strike zone, finding it only occasionally, but the Crusaders didn’t score in the top 1st. The bottom 1st saw Fairchild get hammered early with a Sharp double and then back-to-back bombs by Brady and Martin that made it 3-0 for the Furballs, who loaded them up but left them loaded in the next inning. Randy wobbled badly, however, and in the fourth the Crusaders finally broke through. A walk, two hits, and two stolen bases in between led to two runs and a 3-2 score, and the next inning Gary Rice singled home Francisco Carballo to tie it. Bottom 5th, help was on the way in form of power. Kelly Fairchild could only stare in amazement at Chris Beairsto’s 2-run homer that cleared the field, the wall, the batter’s eye, and the scoreboard behind that. MASSIVE home run! It also gave Randy a new lead, 5-3, but he made it through only one more inning, walking Stanton Martin and getting out on a double play. Lawrence Rockburn pitched the seventh, allowing one runner, and both teams stranded a pair in the eighth. Nordahl faced the bottom third of the order in the top 9th, retired Ed Rigg, but then Caraballo tripled. Felix Gonzalez hit for the pitcher, flew out to Brady, but Caraballo scored. Gary Rice had hurt the Raccoons all year long, but not tonight. He lined to the left side of the diamond, but Manny Gabriel was more or less right there and grabbed it. 5-4 Coons. Martin 2-4, HR, 3B, RBI; Ingall 3-4;

Game 2
NYC: SS Rice – CF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – C D. Anderson – 1B Berry – 2B B. Andrews – 3B Caraballo – P M. Hall
POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B A. Martin – LF Reece – 2B Palacios – SS Ingall – C Ledesma – P Amador

Both pitchers would drive in 2-out runs off another in this game, first Amador with a double in the second inning that went just over Apasyu Britton, and Hall did the honors with an RBI single in the fifth. In both cases, this was the team’s first tally of the game. Hall had been rocked quite a bit early on, as the Raccoons stranded pairs of runners in each of the third three innings, but also scored two more runs after Amador’s double. In the fifth, the Crusaders only scored thanks to two grounders eluding Palacios for singles other than Hall’s. The score was 3-1 after five, but grew in the bottom 6th. Ingall and Ledesma got it going by reaching base, and Amador bunted them into scoring position. Torrez was not pitched to and walked intentionally. Sharp fired one to deep right, but Stanton Martin caught it, holding him to a sac fly. Brady singled, reloading the bags with two out for Al Martin, who drew his 100th RBI of the year with a bases loaded walk. Hall was gone, but the line kept moving with Reece and Palacios hitting RBI singles, and Ingall drawing another bases loaded walk from Don Richardson, who then caught Ledesma’s liner to end the inning after five runs had come across and the Coons led 8-1. We went to 9-1 when Torrez homered off ex-Coon Mike Collins in the seventh, and another run scored in the eighth. An attempt to have the inept Boone and Kichida pitch the last two innings failed abysmally and the Crusaders rallied for three runs late. 10-4 Furballs. Martin 2-4, BB, RBI; Reece 3-5, RBI; Palacios 2-5, RBI; Ingall 4-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Ledesma 2-4, 2B, RBI; Amador 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (5-5) and 1-2, 2B, RBI;

Three of the six singles surrendered by Amador rolled through between Palacios and Martin. We know Martin can’t field for his life, but Palacios didn’t look good in this one at all. Well, we can’t pay him, he’ll be gone in three weeks anyway.

Nice day at the office for Marv, though, who was not retired.

Game 3
NYC: SS Rice – CF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – C D. Anderson – 1B Berry – 2B B. Andrews – RF Gonzales – 3B Rigg – P Connor
POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B A. Martin – LF Beairsto – 2B Palacios – SS M. Ramirez – C Ledesma – P F. Garcia

Danny Sharp homered in the first, and Al Martin drove in another run in the third while Garcia was wobbly. His stuff didn’t bite, and it seemed like the Crusaders left somebody in scoring position almost every inning. This couldn’t go well forever, and in the fifth they finally broke through when consecutive 2-out doubles past the sizeable reach of Clyde Brady in right center hit by Anderson and Berry plated a total of three runs. The game was about to blow open when Garcia walked Connor on four straight balls with two out in the sixth and Sharp made one of his trademarked throws past Martin’s reach on Gary Rice’s grounder. Benton Wilson appeared to induce an easy pop from Britton to end the inning. Connor continued to pitch and the Raccoons had nothing going in the middle innings. He entered that meaty middle of the order again in the eighth, and those guys were all left-handed. Brady flew out softly for the second out, but Al Martin racked up another homer to knot the score at three! And the Crusaders STILL didn’t remove Connor, who was left in to face Beairsto, and made a really juicy 2-2 pitch down the middle. Beairsto tended to miss a lot but he sure didn’t miss that one: BOMBS AWAY! It is … OUTTA HERE!! That 4-3 lead still had to survive contact with Dan Nordahl, however. Though while he did save it in a perfect ninth, most credit should go to Matt Love, who replaced Martin for defense. He made a launching catch on Stanton Martin’s liner to start the inning, then made a nifty pick on Gary Rice’s grounder as well. Britton struck out. 4-3 Critters!! Torrez 2-4, 2B; Martin 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Wilson 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Not only did we sweep away this series and won the season series, 10-8, we are now also back to an even .500 split against the Crusaders over the last 27 years: 243-243. As a tie-breaker, no-hitters pitched against another, the tie is not broken: 1-1.

In other news

September 10 – TIJ SP Kelvin Yates (11-12, 3.11 ERA) 2-hits the Bayhawks in a 4-0 shutout.
September 14 – Here’s a blow to the Loggers, as SP Carl Bean (11-6, 3.12 ERA) has to be shut down with shoulder inflammation.
September 14 – DEN SP Roberto Herrera (4-3, 3.14 ERA) is out for the season with a torn labrum. He should return in time for first pitch next year.

Complaints and stuff

W7, L5, W4… Well, we’ll take the 11-5 run anyway. I would have loved to take the Elks series, though.

At 69-75, we have a very real chance to best our last four seasons. That is sad enough, but we already topped dreadful 2000 (63-99), and 1999, 2001 (71-91 each), and 2002 (73-89) are not that far away.

I am tempted to bring Marvin Ingall back yet again. If we can see in November that the Raccoons will make it eight consecutive losing seasons anyway, then we can just as well cover the gap to Better Times ™ with Ingall, especially with no second base prospects forthcoming in the foreseeable future. This does not include Yoshi Nomura, who fared well in A and AA in his age 19 season: .258/.392/.341 with 3 HR, 18 RBI in 182 AB in A, and .282/.377/.425 with 4 HR, 23 RBI in 242 AB in AA. His season ended early with biceps tendinitis, costing him the last two weeks.

He can’t run for his life, strangely enough, and we shouldn’t even bother about that. His defense is wonky, and he’s a little bit chubby for a middle infielder. But Vince is all over the kid, projecting him to develop a 20/6/18 bat, and that batting left-handed. He is, however, quite easily at least one and a half years away from being even remotely useful in the Bigs. Late season call-up in 2005? Possibly. But not before that. We most recently rushed Dan Nordahl and Julio Mata and it didn’t do them any good.

Julio who? Since the trade he has gobbled up all of 52 AB with the Scorpions, and even caught in Tampa in AA for them this year.

Concie will return in time for the next series in Indy, so move over Manny Gabriel. We are worryingly eyeing Marcos Bruno, who is still in pain, although it’s a bit better than mid-week.

With Clyde Brady reaching ten dingers this week, we now have six guys with double digits this season. All instances of six guys hitting 10 or more home runs for the Raccoons:

1985: Mark Dawson (22), Ricardo Gonzalez (21), Sam Dadswell (18), Tetsu Osanai (16), Cameron Green (14), Daniel Hall (12)
1996: Liam Wedemeyer (33), Royce Green (26), Neil Reece (15), Ben O’Morrissey (14), Vern Kinnear (14), David Vinson (13)
2003: Albert Martin (24), Chris Beairsto (16), Edgardo Torrez (15), Miguel Ramirez (13), Pablo Ledesma (12), Clyde Brady (10)

I am not mad for Royce Green signing with the Canadiens. He’s gotta get bread on the table, too.

Also: Neil had five hits this week, and is now 10 off Dan The Man. Still tied for third with Tetsu in homers, and trailing him by 7 RBI. Neil is very much a singles hitter now, and we should probably bat him even lower (6th/7th), but right now his right-handed bat is required to break up the strings of left-handers a bit higher up.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (69-75) @ Indians (73-70) – September 16-18, 2003

Third in runs scored, fourth in runs allowed – and yet the Indians played out the string in mid-September. In this they didn’t distinguish themselves much from the perennially fruitless Raccoons, whom they had clobbered at a .733 pace this season.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (9-12, 3.80 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (14-10, 3.46 ERA)
Randy Farley (11-5, 3.56 ERA) vs. Jack Hamilton (5-6, 2.85 ERA)
Edgar Amador (5-5, 4.12 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (4-8, 4.68 ERA)

With an off day on Monday, the unreliable (to say the least) Ramón Meza was skipped. We have no more weeks without off days so this might become a semi-permanent arrangement until the end of the season. Maybe we will sneak in Bob Joly at one point. Nobody in AAA really deserves a shot. Or might survive one.

Game 1
POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Fifield – P Brown
IND: 2B D. Mendez – SS Stevens – RF Alston – C T. Turner – LF Alvarez – 1B Booker – CF Mendoza – 3B Harris – P Alba

The Furballs got a running start when Torrez walked and Sharp hit a bomb that bent around the inside of the foul pole in left – fair by a whisker. Brownie reached 200 strikeouts on the season in the fourth inning, fanning Tom Turner, but by then had been taken deep twice already, by Robbie Harris and Ron Alston, after initially retiring the first six Indians in the game. An infield single by callup Ricardo Mendoza got the Indians started in the bottom 3rd, and the game was tied at three after four innings. A similar spectacle gave the Indians the win in this one in the seventh, although then Brown – in the process of melting down – hit Mendoza with an errant 3-0 pitch before Harris homered in a full count, leaving Brown with seven strikeouts and five runs conceded in six and two thirds. The Raccoons left the bases loaded in the top 8th when Palacios flew out to Alvarez, and in the bottom of the inning Scott Boone retired nobody, with another run scoring. 6-3 Indians. Sharp 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Palacios 2-4;

Beairsto struck out twice, but managed a single, stitching an 11-game hitting streak together. Not bad for a swing-and-miss guy.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – LF Reece – RF Beairsto – 3B M. Ramirez – 1B Rojas – CF Moore – C Thomas – P Farley
IND: 3B Montray – RF C. Rey – LF Alston – CF Cavazos – 2B D. Mendez – 1B Kilters – C Bowen – SS Stevens – P Hamilton

Beairsto got to 12 games in a hurry, giving the Raccoons 2-run homers in the top 1st in back-to-back games, here collecting Concie who had doubled. Quickly it became apparent that Randy had arrived without his best (and then still limited) stuff, and that his control was at times troubled. The Indians got a run off him in the first before the teams settled into a 2-1 slog in which neither team could land a blow for an extended period of time. The Coons would surprisingly score next after not reaching third base for four innings, but in the sixth Ramirez got on with a walk, took a base when Hamilton balked, and scored on Moore’s double. Moore was then thrown out at home trying to score on Mark Thomas’ single. The Indians got their first two men, Rey and Alston, on with singles in the bottom 6th but again couldn’t get through Farley. The score remained 3-1 in favor of the Critters, who then broke through Maximo Mendez in the top 7th. RBI doubles by Reece for one, and Rojas for two runs opened the score to 6-1, but four 2-out base runners not only chased Farley in the bottom 7th but also plated a run before finally ex-Coon Cavazos popped out to short and saved us (and Farley and Moreno) from more heartbreak. Neil Reece drove in another run with two out in the eighth, singling in Matt Love, who had walked after entering in the double switch that removed Randy from the game, but Bob Joly coughed up a homer to .191 batting Craig Bowen in the bottom of the inning. Disaster still loomed large over the visitors’ dugout, 7-3 score or not. Indeed, the entirely insufficient Scott Boone meeting up with Ron Alston resulted in another homer to finally create a save chance for Dan Nordahl, which he converted with a K to David Mendez. 7-4 Coons. Guerin 2-5, 2B; Reece 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Rojas 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Thomas 2-5; Farley 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (12-5) and 1-3;

To compare Brownie’s and Randy’s stuff: the former has 202 K, and the latter not even 100 this year (96). Brown has spun 13 more innings.

Game 3
POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P Amador
IND: 3B Montray – 1B M. Jones – LF Alston – C Paraz – 2B D. Mendez – CF J. Lugo – RF MacKey – SS Stevens – P Jimenez

Again, the Raccoons took the first lead of the night on a home run, but this time it didn’t come until the third inning, but also counted for three when Al Martin sent a no-doubt rocket to center and beyond. Amador again worked his way down to a 4.00 ERA before something bad happened, in this case Jose Paraz’ leadoff jack in the bottom 4th. In the sixth, we left the bases loaded when Sharp grounded out after scoring one run on a Ledesma single, but that run came right back from Amador when Ron Alston continued to treat our staff as punching bags and homered to left center, 4-2. Top 7th, Brady led off with a double, followed by three singles to score Brady and load them up. Jimenez remained in the game, popped up Palacios, and Ledesma hit into a double play. Gah. To make up for that annoyance, the Indians put two on in the bottom 7th, knocking out Amador with one out, with Benton Wilson coming in, only to walk Phil Montray. Jesus Alavarez hit for Mike Jones, but hit into a double play. Well, it DOES happen to every team! Top 8th, Maximo Mendez pitching, Ingall singled, Torrez singled, Reece walked. No outs! No hits were coming forth from here, but at least Brady walked, and Martin and Beairsto both had run-scoring outs. Up by six, Huerta pitched a scoreless eighth and then we were mentally ready to give Kichida another chance to get that 12-ish ERA down in the ninth. Three up, three down, and a K to Bowen to end it. 8-2 Furballs! Torrez 2-4, BB; Brady 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Martin 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Guerin 3-5, 2B; Ingall (PH) 1-2;

Al Martin of course hit his 100th major league home run. He took 2,197 AB to get there, OPS’ing .826 along the way.

Raccoons (71-76) @ Thunder (76-70) – September 19-21, 2003

The Thunder tied the Falcons for the CL South lead, so we could expect fierce resistance to our attempts at taking this series. The Thunder had taken four of six from us so far, and they were still scoring the least runs in the league. In a way you had to be rooting for the Falcons, because a team so inept at run scoring shouldn’t make the playoffs! Their pitching was phenomenal, though, conceding less than 3.8 runs per game, second best in the CL.

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (6-4, 3.61 ERA) vs. Fabien Armand (13-12, 3.59 ERA)
Bob Joly (2-8, 4.20 ERA) vs. Vaughn Higgins (12-10, 3.65 ERA)
Nick Brown (9-13, 3.90 ERA) vs. Luis Martinez (9-11, 3.64 ERA)

Marcos Bruno rejoined us from the DL, and Sergio Vega could also come back for a cameo in a few days, and then we should run out of chairs in the bullpen.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Beairsto – C Thomas – 2B Love – CF Torrez – P F. Garcia
OCT: LF F. Jones – C De La Parra – 3B Higashi – 1B T. Cardenas – RF Humphrey – 2B Grant – SS Scott – CF Olson – P Armand

To put it simply, Felipe Garcia was hit by a Greyhound and dragged all the way to Omaha, NE. The first four Thunder all hit the ball hard, hit it deep, and Tomas Cardenas’ 3-run dinger made it 4-0 for them before Garcia registered a single out. Garcia didn’t get out of the second inning, with three more hard hits off him, and when Kaz Kichida came in he had nothing better to do than giving up another RBI triple to Takahashi Higashi. 7-1 Thunder after two, this one had gotten out of hand quickly against THE WORST OFFENSIVE TEAM IN THE LEAGUE. At least Kichida saved his ham by going into the sixth inning, allowing one more run on the way, but it wasn’t like it still mattered. At that point, Beairsto and Thomas were the only Raccoons with a hit, manufacturing their lone run in the second inning. When Neil Reece singled in the eighth, the Thunder seemed to fear a comeback from 9-1 and went to their pen which quickly quelled the insurgency. 9-1 Thunder. Beairsto 1-2, BB; Ramirez (PH) 1-1; Kichida 4.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K;

Well, that was unpleasant. And next is Joly’s spot start. (laughs madly)

Game 2
POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P Joly
OCT: CF Olson – C De La Parra – 3B Higashi – 1B T. Cardenas – LF Humphrey – 2B Grant – SS Scott – RF Rangel – P Higgins

Joly was more or less in the game since a pitcher was mandatory by the rule book. If the Thunder had played tee ball, the difference would have been small. Joly surrendered nine hits in 3.2 innings, which miraculously only amounted to two runs for the Thunder, before leaving with an injury, possibly due to split ends. The game was a copy of Friday’s. The Raccoons did nothing, the Thunder hit every which way, although they left runners on base in droves this time and led only 3-0 after seven. It took not one, but TWO errors by the Thunder to get the Coons into the game at all. Moore led off, and Burton Scott threw his grounder away. Torrez made an out, Sharp singled, and then Brady’s perfect double play serving was thrown away by Bob Grant. That made it 3-1 and runners on first and second with one out for the menacing left-handers, with righty Vaughn Higgins still pitching. Martin struck out, and Beairsto rolled one to short. A third error was too much to ask for. 3-1 Thunder. Torrez 2-4;

Bob Joly had a sore wrist, and we would not speculate over where that came from. Perhaps serving up too many gopherballs.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – CF Torrez – C Thomas – P Brown
OCT: CF Santos – RF Rangel – SS Grant – 1B Higashi – 2B Kaustrop – C De La Parra – LF M. Rodriguez – 3B Scott – P L. Martinez

Brady robbed the hovering demon Butch Kaustrop of a 2-run double to end the bottom 1st of what early on figured to become another long and dreadful night for Raccoons pitching as Brown failed to find the strike zone. In the second, Brown hit both leadoff man Antonio De La Parra AND the opposing pitcher, Luis Martinez, but the Thunder still didn’t score. The Coons loaded them up in the top 3rd, one out, for Neil Reece. The old war horse, who had recently turned 37, lobbed a soft line over a leaping Higashi into shallow right to score the first run of the game. The line kept moving: Martin singled, 2-0, Brady walked, 3-0, and Ingall managed a sac fly to right, 4-0. That didn’t make Brownie any better, though. When he whiffed Grant in the third, it was his first K on the day, for the second out in the inning. He immediately walked Higashi, and it was Sharp with a fantastic grab on Kaustrop’s sharp line drive to end the inning. The boy needs a W. Maybe we could nurse him through five somehow. Just as that thought hushed into our minds, Brown got good, retired the Thunder in order over the next two frames, striking out three, and hardly missed. He was brought back for the sixth – and sucked. Three hits scored a run for the Thunder, and Manuel Martinez replaced him and got out of the inning. The Raccoons were more or less idle in the top halves of innings until the eighth, when they got a few singles. Brady had one, and after Ingall failed to bunt twice, he singled on a 1-2 pitch by Cris Pena. Torrez made an out, but Mark Thomas singled up the middle and scored Brady. One more run would score on a groundout by Concie, making it a 6-1 game with six outs to collect. Predictably, the bullpen crumbled. Sergio Vega struck out Alberto Rangel, then put two on. Marcos Bruno came in, and couldn’t get it done AT ALL. The runners scored, and there were two more on after Bruno had also balked and thrown a wild pitch. Domingo Moreno didn’t help, allowing 2-out RBI single to Joey Humphrey that made it 6-4. Nordahl to the rescue, facing PH Brian Camphell, and ANOTHER grounder through on the left side, scoring the fourth run of the inning. Rangel then flew out to Torrez. GODDAMNIT!!! Of course it wasn’t over! There was still a ninth inning, and that was led off by Bob Grant with a home run. Nordahl, the useless ****, loaded the bases while also striking out three in the inning, and we got to play extras for extra “yay, Raccoons baseball!”.

Top 10th, Ingall and Torrez got on with no outs, leading to Thomas bunting into a force at third. Palacios hit into a double play, and Martin and Higashi left runners on the corners in the 11th. Guerin grounded out to end the 12th with two on. By that point, we were out of pitchers. It was either Meza or Boone. Boone was a sure loss, and Meza was a sure loss, too. Meza came in, Jason Briggs led off with a single, tried to get to second, but Eddie Torrez threw him out. Meza walked two, but the Thunder didn’t finish him off, but in turn Meza killed the top 13th with a room service bunt to get Reece tagged out.

Bottom 13th. Butch Kaustrop grounded to second, and beat out Palacios’ throw to second. Antonio Ayala bunted and was safe at first. Meza walked Marcos Rodriguez. Three on, no outs. Burton Scott grounded right in front of the plate, where Thomas made the play himself for a force of Kaustrop at home. Jason Briggs popped out to shallow right to Brady, and Ayala tagged, but didn’t go. Meza then struck out Marshall Lyons. Oh my god, it goes on. The Thunder had a 2-out single and walk off Meza in the bottom 14th when he struck out Joe Watkins, 29, in his first major league AB, to get out of that one.

Top 15th. Concie led off with a walk off Ricardo Contreras and made it to second on a hit-and-run with Rojas grounding to short. That brought up Reece. He was 4-6 on the day, finding ways to sneak singles through on the left side. Contreras didn’t get him at 1-2, but Reece singled to left, and Concie ran, ran, ran and was safe at home to break a 6-6 tie that should have been broken years ago. Ledesma hit for Meza, doubled, and Brady was walked intentionally to load them up for Ingall. C’mon, Marv! Give us one! Nope, Marv grounded out, and Torrez lined out to left. Now our options in the 7-6 game were Boone, an ailing Joly, a much-used Rockburn, or Monday’s starter, Randy Farley. That was a decision nobody wanted to make, but we had right-handers due up, and … oh … oh what to do?

Rockburn came out, and we had a feeling of death approaching. Rodriguez lined the first pitch into right, where Brady made a hero’s play. Burton Scott was 2-2 when he lined hard to the left side – CONCIE!!! The second mad catch of the inning, now what could go wrong with Jason Briggs!? He walked. And when Lyons shot a ball into the gap in left center, there were no heroes left. Briggs scored. Rangel grounded out to Guerin to fall to 0-8 on the day, but it was just not … it was … a-aah…

Top 16th! And Farley was warming up, because Boone and Joly were sure losses. Unless we’d plate six or so. We didn’t plate any, and what did we say about sure losses? Farley didn’t retire anybody. Grant singled, Higashi tripled, ballgame. 8-7 Thunder. Guerin 2-6, 3 BB, RBI; Reece 5-7, BB, 2 RBI; Ledesma (PH) 1-1, 2B; Thomas 4-7, BB, 2B, RBI;

Box score: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ml#post3874012

Stupid bunch of decrepit ****s.

Both teams left 22 on base. We used 12 pitchers. The voices tell me to ram a knife into my own neck to make the pain stop.

In other news

September 15 – The Stars concede defeat and send 28-year old 1B Mac Woods (.291, 37 HR, 93 RBI) to the Loggers along with a scrub for … 1B/3B/RF Vitantonio Cavalleri (.259, 1 HR, 13 RBI)???
September 17 – The Buffaloes would have loved to have CL Arthur Joplin (4-2, 0.55 ERA, 23 SV) down the road, but the 30-year old southpaw has to be shut down with elbow inflammation and is out for the season.

Complaints and stuff

Well, I guess the Loggers just got better? That trade is a steal. Congrats to GM Leland French. His Texan trade partner should be institutionalized, though.

We finish the year 6-12 against the Indians, matching the low mark from 1990. Given that we lost the season series only once between ’91 and ’01 (ironically in ’96), they must have something to counter us, but I don’t know what. There was a time a few years back when we’d always suck out against the Titans. Back then I identified their left-handed starting pitching. Whether that was correct or not, who knows. The Indians look so scrappy overall… Well, they have Ron Alston. At the conclusion of that series, he had 34 home runs, and with the way the year had gone I estimated about half of those having come against Brownshirts, but in fact he had hit “only” six against us, but three in that last series. He’s nasty, though.

If Neil Reece would have gotten two more hits on Sunday, he would have tied the franchise hits mark by surprise after only starting against the three southpaws this week.

But yeah, Sunday. We have gone 2-7 against the Thunder three out of the last four years. Butch Kaustrop. **** my life.

[Questdog]

Something in the air with these long games!

You used 12 pitchers in 16 innings; I used 1 in 21.....

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Something in the air with these long games!

You used 12 pitchers in 16 innings; I used 1 in 21.....

We haven't played many extra inning games this season. But this one makes up for five. -.-

I saw that 21-inning game and wondered, what, no reliever? How!?

Simple explanation would be that the Raccoons are just not as tough as the armad- ... Wolverines. They are probably also eaten by them.

And this is not the strangest thing. While playing this, I've had the Phillies-Mets game on, and some guy has a Phillie Phanatic plushie with him at the game, dressed in a Mets uniform, which is ... mildly disturbing. 17 innings of futility against the Thunder ain't crap against a Phillie Phanatic plushie dressed as a Met.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (71-79) vs. Knights (70-79) – September 22-24, 2003

Another team that had handled the Raccoons 4-2 so far this season, the Knights had their playoff bubble burst in the last two weeks, going 6-14 in September. Glancing over their roster, it was not playoff-worthy, do be honest. 712 runs allowed, mostly on a horrible rotation, were certainly one thing that you didn’t want on the way to October baseball. That mark had them third-worst. Their 651 runs scored (7th) were not enough to carry them.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (12-6, 3.58 ERA) vs. Larry Cutts (13-6, 4.34 ERA)
Edgar Amador (6-5, 4.04 ERA) vs. John Woodard (12-13, 4.19 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (6-5, 4.23 ERA) vs. Sadakuno Imamura (5-10, 5.09 ERA)

If Randy had pitched on Sunday in the 16th inning of that demoralizing (and maddening) loss to the Thunder, we would have reshuffled the rotation. But since he hadn’t pitched, but merely delivered a note of surrender, he was on the mound on Monday.

Also, we come in with Neil Reece having had a 5-hit day on Sunday, getting to 1,884 career hits. He needs two to match Daniel Hall, just in time for the final homestand of the year. Titans will be coming in after the Knights, and the last week will be on the road.

Game 1
ATL: C Vinson – SS Luján – RF J. Garcia – 1B J. Gutierrez – LF A. Rodriguez – CF F. Rivera – 2B Brantley – 3B T. Pena – P Cutts
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – C Thomas – CF Torrez – 2B Love – P Farley

Any team batting a 38-year old David Vinson leadoff should be swiftly punished, but in an otherwise futile first run through the lineup only one hometown hero got on base, and it was Reece with a single, reaching 1,885. Juan Gutierrez singled in the first run for the Knights in the third, but they left the bases loaded before really damaging Farley’s resume. While the Raccoons briefly took a lead in the fourth on a 1-out solo homer by Al Martin and two more singles and a sac fly by Torrez, Farley was singled to death in the fifth, an inning he did not get out of. The game was tied 2-2 when Martinez appeared with runners on the corners and two outs, and he surrendered an RBI single to Ron Brantley that put the Knights up 3-2. Bottom 8th. The Raccoons had been idle for some time, but Danny Sharp hit a leadoff single against Cutts. Neil Reece had flown out to the warning track twice since his single, and now hit one sharply to Tony Pena at third. Pena intercepted it, then dropped it and couldn’t get a throw off again. The error put the go-ahead runs on base, and Al Martin’s single to center loaded them up. Ingall hit for Brady. Nothing wrong with Brady, but I longed for a steady right-handed bat against Cutts. Ingall steadily popped out to the shortstop, before Mark Thomas flew out to right, but at least we got Sharp in to make it a sacrifice. Up came Torrez, and our best right-handed bats were already gone, so what the heck. To heck with matchups – Torrez hit it out! The inning continued with a Love double and Fifield singling him home, so we were up 7-3. Scott Boone was the only guy (other than Bob the Clown) that hadn’t been used on Sunday. He was picked to get the ninth going, first facing Vinson. First pitch ball, second pitch ticketed to left center. Reece managed to cut it off while Vinson thought he had a double. Neil said NO and threw him out at second base. Boone walked Antonio Luján on four straight, but lefty Jorge Garcia was next. Garcia drilled a rocket to the right side, and luckily it was right to Matt Love, who started the game-ending double play. 7-3 Raccoons. Martin 2-4, HR, RBI; Brady 1-2, BB, 2B; Thomas 2-3, RBI; Torrez 1-3, HR, 4 RBI; Love 2-4, 2B; Fifield (PH) 1-1, RBI; Wilson 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

You really can’t use Boone. You just can’t use him. Vinson’s stubborn old head and luck dug him out there. On a normal day, he doesn’t get anybody out, and we lose. I’m contemplating just removing him from the roster. There’s no point in using him. Even for AWO pitching, he lacks basic skill.

The win by the way went to Kaz Kichida for the first of his career.

Game 2
ATL: 2B J. Miller – SS Luján – RF J. Garcia – 1B J. Gutierrez – LF A. Rodriguez – CF F. Rivera – C Vinson – 3B D. Henry – P Woodard
POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Beairsto – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P Amador

Dan The Man’s hits mark was tied in the first inning, when Neil Reece doubled, but was left on second base once Martin struck out. Somehow, the baseball gods did not approve, and their tears soon soaked the park and everybody in attendance. In the steady rain, Amador was quite on, striking out five in the first three innings against a lone single by Doug Henry. The Coons were up 1-0 after a run-scoring double play hit into by Ledesma in the bottom 2nd when the tarp was brought on in the bottom 3rd. The delay was brief, 24 minutes, and was followed by Sharp singling. That brought up Reece, everybody in the park onto their feet, and the electricity discharged into a single to right – NEW FRANCHISE HITS LEADER, RIGHT HERE!! The baseball gods, who wore their old #15 jerseys, still didn’t approve, and the rain restarted immediately. Nobody scored in the inning, but with two out in the fifth, Sharp doubled to bring up Reece in another RISP situation. Neil delivered, lining a string into the gap in left center, then shifted into gear, blew through second base and arrived safe at third! Technically, that was now three parts to a cycle. The fans were surely thrilled. Nobody noticed Edgar Amador spinning a nice start that was curtailed by the rain, but he went six shutout innings, striking out nine.

However, as soon as the bullpen took over, the splendid effort and the 2-0 lead were shattered to nothing more than dust. Moreno came on, put two men on, and left for Bruno. With two in scoring position and one out, Bruno surrendered a fly to deep center to James Miller. Torrez chose the worst possible moment to make an error, but dropped the fly, and both runs scored. Bruno walked Luján, threw a wild one, then Luján singled home Miller. Huerta came on. The first pitch had exit written all over it and Jorge Garcia hit his 18th homer of the year. Bottom 7th, reliever Miguel Lopez walked Torrez, Sharp, and Reece to start the inning, nobody scored. It was one of those ****ing days at the ****ing office. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening to lighten up the ****ing daily drudge.

Bottom 8th. Ledesma got on, and Torrez tripled him in, 6-3. Sharp was drilled by Bartolo Gomez, which brought up Neil Reece as the tying run. It would have been too sweet. He struck out. 6-3 Knights. Sharp 2-3, BB, 2B; Reece 3-4, BB, 3B, 2B, RBI; Amador 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K; Boone 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Let me restate what I said yesterday. Boone is just fine for AWO pitching. What is wrong with Bruno is what is truly worrying right now.

Game 3
ATL: 2B J. Miller – SS Luján – RF J. Garcia – 1B J. Gutierrez – LF A. Rodriguez – CF F. Rivera – C Valadez – 3B T. Pena – P Imamura
POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P F. Garcia

Garcia was no good, and barely adequate after getting roped in the second inning in his last start. At least, here he made it through the opening innings, although he lived on his defense. After surrendering 2-out singles to Valadez and Pena in the second, Imamura hit a grounder to left that looked like an RBI single, but Concie not only nabbed it, but also got the third out with it. In the third, Miller led off with a single, and tried to score on Gutierrez’ single to right. Brady struck Miller down at home, keeping the game scoreless. Alejandro Rodriguez was caught stealing in the fourth to end another frame, and the fifth ended on a line drive off Luján’s bat that Palacios not only caught, but he doubled up Imamura on second, while the Coons were still looking for a way to break into the Knights’ kitchen. The Knights did break through Garcia with a pair of uncatchable doubles in the sixth, scoring two runs. James Miller (off Garcia) and Francisco Rivera (off Benton Wilson) would hit homers. The Raccoons didn’t hit anything. Imamura tossed a 3-hitter without ever getting disturbed a lot. 5-0 Knights.

Raccoons (72-81) vs. Titans (100-52) – September 26-28, 2003

Life is unfair. And the Titans are awesome.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (9-13, 3.84 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (18-8, 3.10 ERA)
Bob Joly (2-9, 4.19 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (15-10, 2.61 ERA)
Randy Farley (12-6, 3.64 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (19-8, 2.66 ERA)

We moved Joly behind Brown. Joly pitched in relief on Wednesday. It didn’t do Farley any good to start the day after relieving (lousily), and Joly is not name Bob The Clown for nothing. Brownie can start on regular rest though. He needs six K to match his own franchise strikeout mark for a single season from last year.

Can we flip Joly for Hildred, please?

Game 1
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B Matsumoto – CF Garrison – LF G. Munoz – 3B V. Flores – RF Bryant – 2B H. Ramirez – C Bader – P Chapa
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – C Thomas – CF Moore – 2B Palacios – P Brown

Daniel Silva, the pest of pests, doubled on the first pitch, but Brown struck out the next two and got out of the inning when Munoz flew out to right. That didn’t matter to the Titans, ultimately, they just set fire to Brown the next inning, hitting relentlessly to plate three runs and leaving three more runners on base. What was more astonishing was that the Raccoons got back to tie the score by the third inning. They got a run on defensive mess in the second, and then Neil hit a 2-run homer in the third! But this wasn’t Nick Brown’s day. He struggled, somehow got through six innings, but struck out only five while giving up nine hits. On Tuesday against Atlanta, the truly horrible things had started with Moreno, and it was no different here. Moreno came in, somehow got Silva, but walked Matsumoto and was taken well yard by Rudy Garrison in the top 7th. Marcos Bruno was ravaged for his third outing in a row in the eighth, three runs on him, the last of which scoring when Wilson replaced him with two out and Matsumoto on second, and Wilson walked them full, then surrendered a single. In the ninth, Sergio Vega had only two outs to collect once Wilson took care of leadoff man Ramirez. Vega knew there would not be another pitcher coming. He issued six straight walks. 12-3 Titans. Martin 2-4;

So that gives us the seventh consecutive losing record in style, but WHAT IN HELL is wrong with the bullpen??

I mean we know that Vega sucks balls, and that all the other crap hats can’t do ****, but what is wrong with Bruno and Moreno??

Goddamnit, ****ING HELL, this team is annoying as all hell!

And now comes a guy that normally throws batting practice for us.

Game 2
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B Matsumoto – LF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – 2B Austin – C L. Lopez – 3B V. Flores – CF Hester – P Hildred
POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P Joly

Nobody expected anything but a loss in this game, and everybody delivered. Turned out, batting practice was putting it mildly as Joly was rocked for ten hits and five runs in five innings. The Titans hit it wherever they pleased. The Raccoons hit it right at the Titans. Next was Ramón Meza, who retired one batter against two hits and three walks in the sixth. Kichida followed him, had nothing, surrendered a bases-loaded double for two runs to Hildred, and then a 3-run homer to the disgusting Silva. Counting was hard, since the Titans scored quicker than anybody could possibly count, but that was ten runs in the inning, and only one out collected. Kichida: no outs collected, and ultimately three hits and two walks. Boone entered and actually got two outs. Well, the Titans were merely up by fifteen. Go get ‘em, boys! We switched out five starters after the sixth inning, and by the time the curtain came down on the latter half of back-to-back demolitions, the park was already cleaned up by the service personnel. The attendance had left along with Brady, Martin, Guerin, Palacios, and Ledesma after the sixth. 16-2 Titans. Moore 1-1; Rojas 1-1, HR, 2 RBI;

There are no words.

Game 3
BOS: SS D. Silva – 3B V. Flores – LF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – 2B Austin – C L. Lopez – 1B H. Ramirez – CF Greenman – P Hildred
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – CF Torrez – C Fifield – P Farley

Silva reached on an infield single (the ****ing pest), Flores doubled, and Garrison walked. No outs, and we’re in the top 1st, and in the thick of things. Munoz popped out, Mark Austin emptied the bases with a double, and Lopez scored Austin with a single. 4-0, and the Raccoons hadn’t even been at bat. In fact, with O’Halloran pitching, the Raccoons didn’t even need to grab a bat. They had already lost. The Titans put up another 4-spot in the third inning, this time entirely unearned after jaw-dropping errors by Torrez, Martin, AND Farley, all in the same inning, in the span of four plays. Ingall made an error in the fourth to plate the Titans’ ninth run. If we’d take anything positive from this one besides the Titans stopping there and not even making it double digits, then it was Marcos Bruno’s scoreless ninth, which spells faint hope that the neck will not become a permanent thing. And the Raccoons loaded the bases against Ramiro Román in the ninth! They didn’t score, though. 9-1 Titans. Gabriel (PH) 1-1; Torrez 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI;

Total number of wins vs. Titans 2001-2003: 13

In other news

September 22 – The Thunder get the bad news that MR Jimmy Morey (3-2, 3.18 ERA, 3 SV) will be out for the rest of the regular season with shoulder tendinitis.
September 23 – The Thunder engage in a late season deal that sends 30-year old 2B Butch Kaustrop (.261, 6 HR, 33 RBI) to the Miners for 36-year old OF Alberto Flores (.321, 0 HR, 3 RBI in 28 AB). Another drunk GM on the loose?
September 27 – Rookie CIN SP Richard Williams (8-6, 5.12 ERA) is diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff and figures to miss all of next season.

Complaints and stuff

“That might be a sweep. But I think the team is on a good way. That one time, we almost had them. And that other time, well, they were lucky. And the third one, well, you can’t win every game. You know. The team might have horribly LOST three here – but we won a MORAL VICTORY!” –

That’s what I told the press Sunday afternoon. Not even in my head that made any sense. We go out of town for the winter in style for sure.

The ****ing ass hat Silva was the CL Player of the Week, too. He merely went 9-for-12 in Portland, come on!

Today was supposed to be a 2-week update, but I can’t. I just can’t.

Sometimes I think about how every single dynasty around here ends up with the player winning title upon title upon title, and nobody is losing ever. Must be me then.

Edit: I think that's a single week record for the F-word.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (72-84) @ Loggers (97-59) – September 29-October 1, 2003

There was little reason to believe that the fantastic drubbing the Raccoons had received at the hands of the Titans last weekend wouldn’t continue in Milwaukee, especially since the Loggers, first in runs scored, third in runs allowed, could not afford to let one get away. A single loss will eliminate them from playoff contention.

Projected matchups:
Edgar Amador (6-5, 3.82 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (14-11, 4.00 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (6-6, 4.19 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (15-9, 3.01 ERA)
Nick Brown (9-13, 3.86 ERA) vs. John Miller (12-6, 3.72 ERA)

Where will the Raccoons pick in the 2004 Amateur Draft? Right now everything between #3 and #11 is up for grabs. We picked #7 the last couple of years. Not that we are going to tank intentionally. We can well tank UNintentionally.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – LF Reece – RF Brady – 1B Rojas – CF Torrez – 3B M. Ramirez – C Thomas – P Amador
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 1B M. Woods – 3B J. Cruz – CF Fletcher – SS T. Johnson – C C. Ramos – P M. Garcia

Gonzalez was a late scratch and instead we faced Martin Garcia right away, which made for a nasty surprise. Garcia retired the first six Raccoons, which was not a big feat in itself, but he struck out all six except for Marvin Ingall. The Loggers plated one run in the first, but Miguel Ramirez equalized with a leadoff home run in the third inning. He was the only other batter not to strike out in the first three innings, and Garcia reached 10 K in the fourth! He fell behind at the same time, though, walking Ingall, allowing a double to Brady, an RBI single to Rojas, and then scored Brady with a wild pitch. 3-1 Coons, but Amador couldn’t hold on and Jorge Cruz tied the score with a 2-run shot in the bottom 5th. Amador went into the seventh, but was whacked hard for two runners in scoring position with one out. Huerta came in, got a poor grounder from Mac Woods, but then Cruz singled over the head of Ingall and both runs scored. Garcia struck out 13 over eight innings, tying the Milwaukee franchise record. The Raccoons got the tying runs into scoring position in the ninth against Robbie Wills, but ultimately couldn’t get the ball out of the infield again. 5-3 Loggers. Brady 2-4, 2B;

CL North: The Titans lost 9-6 to the Indians to keep the CL North mathematically open.
CL South: Charlotte beats the Thunder 6-4 at home to break the tie for the lead in their favor, they now lead by one game.
FL East: Topeka beats Nashville 7-5 in 10 innings to extend their lead over the Blue Sox to three games.
FL West: Salem W 7-2 @ Sacramento, Denver W 9-1 @ L.A., division race remains tied.

We are by now 1-9 for our last ten games.

Game 2
POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P F. Garcia
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 1B M. Woods – 3B J. Cruz – CF Fletcher – SS T. Johnson – C Benitez – P J. Miller

Gonzalez continued to be unavailable with a neck problem.

Al Martin hit #27 in the first, putting two runs on the board early for the Furballs. When his turn came up again in the third with two out and two on, the Loggers’ John Miller wanted no part of him and timidly walked him, before falling to 2-0 on Beairsto, but Beairsto was eager to do damage, which he hadn’t done in a while, and grounded out to second base. The Loggers’ first hit also plated their first run, and RBI double by Bartolo Hernandez with two out in the bottom 3rd, bringing the score to 2-1. That was still the score in the bottom 7th in which Garcia, after a good run to try to overcome a horrible September, just plainly got stuck. The bases were loaded with two outs and the always dangerous Hiwalani, who had driven in merely 103 this year, and this was a spot for a righty with more juice than Garcia. Manuel Martinez came out, got ahead 1-2, Hiwalani still put it in play, but Sharp made a nice play and the inning ended with the lead standing at 2-1. Martinez also pitched the eighth, while John Miller went the distance of nine for the Loggers – but with two out in the ninth, with Martin on second base, he ran into Palacios, whose 2-run homer widened the margin considerably to 4-1 for our pal Nordahl. Turned out, that Palacios shot was worth every pound in gold, since when Nordahl came in he quickly surrendered a pinch-hit home run to Avery Johnson. That was all the Loggers amounted to, however, and it eliminated them from October. 4-2 Raccoons. Martin 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Garcia 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (7-6); Martinez 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Both teams had only five hits, which is miraculous when you consider the middle of the Loggers’ lineup. However, those power hitters are all right-handers. We will see how Nick Brown can survive them…

CL South: The Thunder scramble late to get past the Falcons, win 7-4, and re-tie the division.
FL East: The Buffaloes claim another one in Nashville, 4-1, moving to a 4-game lead, with a magic number of 2, and a chance to claim the division tomorrow.
FL West: Salem W 6-4 @ Sacramento, Gold Sox thump the Pacifics 10-6, division remains tied

If either Palacios or Neil Reece can hit another homer before this season passes, it would be the first time in franchise history that we have seven double digit dinger hitters.

Game 3
POR: CF Torrez – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – 3B M. Ramirez – P Brown
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 1B M. Woods – 3B J. Cruz – CF Fletcher – SS T. Johnson – C Benitez – P Alvarado

The defeated Loggers threw up Dani Alvarado, who was 6-10 with a 6.32 ERA.

The first inning was a mess. Torrez walked. On the first proper play of the game, Guerin grounded hard to short, where Tom Johnson hurt himself and left the game. Torrez was out. Then Brady singled, and we called a double steal. Pedro Benitez’ throw went into the outfield (and hadn’t gotten Concie anyway), and Concie scored. Al Martin hit a sac fly and the Raccoons were up 2-0. Bottom 1st, Bartolo Hernandez singled, but Brown then whiffed Cristo Ramirez to match his strikeout mark from 2002, Hernandez was caught stealing, and the Loggers didn’t score when Hiwalani grounded out. The Coons added a run in the second on a helpless Alvarado, before Brown fanned Woods to start the bottom 2nd and set a new mark. In a twist of fate, that K got away from Ledesma, however, and Mac Woods reached on the uncaught third strike. With two out, Johnson’s replacement Keith Scott hit a huge fly to deep right that Clyde Brady picked off the top of the fence to end the inning.

Gimme a jacket! It’s CRAZY out here!!

Brown was mostly good, but had a wild episode in the fourth, where the Loggers already had a man on and then Brown walked both Cruz and Fletcher. He struck out Scott, however, and Guerin took care of Benitez’ easy grounder to end the inning. Alvarado was often hit hard, but the outfielders robbed quite a few Coons of doubles. Runs were nevertheless tacked on twice, once with Martin’s 28th homer to make it 5-0. Brown finally ran out of juice in the eighth after whiffing a dozen. A walk to Mac Woods with two out ended his day, and Bruno kept the run from scoring by retiring Cruz. Rockburn walked a pair in the bottom 9th with two already gone, but Huerta got the final out from Hernandez. 5-0 Coons! Brady 2-4, BB; Martin 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Palacios 2-4; Brown 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 12 K, W (10-13);

CL South: The Falcons rout Oklahoma’s September call-up Michael Mitchell, win 9-1, and take a 1-game lead again.
FL East: Dan George decimates the Blue Sox in a 7-0 shutout to claim the division for the Buffaloes.
FL West: Wolves win 10-2 in Sacramento, the Gold Sox win 8-3 in L.A. to stay in a tie.

The Raccoons were idle on Thursday, but other teams weren’t:

CL South: A 6-3 win over the Thunder has the Falcons stake out a 2-game lead over them with three to play.
FL West: The Wolves lose the final game of the 4-game set in Sacramento, 4-2, then anxiously watch until the Pacifics walk off against the Gold Sox in the tenth, 7-6. The division remains tied.

Currently we are in line for the #8 pick next year, with #6 to #11 still possible.

Raccoons (74-85) @ Canadiens (72-87) – October 3-5, 2003

We are 9-6 against them this season. I am not asking for much, boys. But don’t get swept.

Don’t. Get. Swept. I will be holding on to my pink blanket from afar!

Projected matchups:
Ramón Meza (3-6, 5.65 ERA) vs. Paul Kirkland (8-7, 3.65 ERA)
Randy Farley (12-7, 3.73 ERA) vs. Cal Holbrook (4-4, 3.80 ERA)
Edgar Amador (6-6, 4.00 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (3-4, 4.89 ERA)

That’s three right-handers. Neil Reece has done nothing but striking out in Milwaukee, but he will get one more start to improve on 1,890 career hits. Don’t know quite when. I don’t think there is room for Rojas anymore. We just can’t do anything with him, we have Al Martin, even if our own scout hates him.

Game 1
POR: CF Torrez – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – 3B Sharp – LF Beairsto – C Ledesma – P Meza
VAN: 3B A. De Jesus – LF Trinidad – 2B Dobson – CF R. Green – RF Velasquez – C Rosa – SS Phillips – 1B Gusman – P Kirkland

The Coons struck first with a Martin homer to start the top 2nd, but Meza faced an all-right-handed lineup and struggled. The Elks tied the game right back in the bottom 2nd. Top 3rd, Brady singled, and then Martin – hits it out again!! That’s 3-1 and 30 home runs for the big kid at first base! And he wasn’t the only one. Palacios got on, but got forced by Beairsto. Ledesma hit one to deep left that eluded Ramón Trinidad and fell in for a double, with the fast Beairsto scoring easily to make it 4-1. And then Meza stunned just about everybody including his own dugout, as HE hit a home run! Kirkland was gone immediately to be drowned in the Fraser River by HIS manager, and Meza was staked to a 6-1 lead. Then he set out to blow it. Freddy Rosa took him deep for two immediately in the bottom 4th, and he hit TWO batters in the fifth before Beairsto caught Rosa’s high fly into the left corner to end the inning before damage could be done. Thankfully, two runs fell out of Paul Brown in the top 6th, but Meza was just not good enough. He allowed two singles in the bottom 6th and was removed. Marcos Bruno had two strikes on De Jesus, who singled, but got Trinidad for the second out. Jerry Dobson hit an infield single that nobody could get to, but Bruno then struck out Royce Green to end the inning at 8-4. Top 7th, Bubba Cannon issued a bases-loaded walk to Ledesma, after which Rojas hit for Bruno. High, deep, no. No, Royce Green got it. Still, sac fly, 10-4, but the Canadiens came back with a run off Kaz Kichida in the bottom of the seventh inning, 10-5, and another run scored on two singles off Rockburn, a wild pitch by Martinez, and a groundout in the bottom 8th. In the top 9th, Reece and Ledesma reached base safely before Thomas hit for Martinez and hit one to short that Phillips bungled. Bases loaded, no outs, top of the order against reliever Salvador Franco in his second inning of work. And oops, he struck out three in a row. And the bullpen couldn’t seal the deal either. Huerta got one out in the ninth before Phillips singled and Gusman doubled. That made it 10-7 and lefty Arthur Simon appeared to pinch-hit, which made Huerta yield to Moreno. Simon hit an infield single on an 0-2 pitch, and we moved to Nordahl. COME ON, STINKING ELKS! BRING ON A HOMER!! No. Four pitches did the job for Nordahl, who also caught a comebacker from De Jesus to get this game finally into the books. 10-7 Raccoons. Guerin 2-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Martin 2-3, 2 BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Reece (PH) 2-2; Ledesma 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Meza 3-3, HR, 2B, 2 RBI;

Meza is listed without his abysmal pitching performance. He still got the win for 5.1 innings and four earned runs. Being a triple shy of the cycle should get him listed, though. Oh that bullpen!

CL South: The Thunder trail 4-0 after eight in Las Vegas before rallying in the ninth. But ultimately Alberto Rangel flies out to end the game, 4-3 Aces, and with the Falcons’ 11-3 romp over 37-year old Scott Murphy and the Knights, the curtain comes down on this division.
FL West: The Wolves chew through tough Warriors to claw out a 2-1 win, while the Gold Sox destroy the Stars, 12-1, but still the division remains tied up.

Game 2
POR: CF Torrez – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – LF Beairsto – 2B Ingall – C Thomas – P Farley
VAN: SS Simon – 3B A. De Jesus – 2B Dobson – RF Velasquez – LF E. Garcia – 1B Rodgers – CF Wheaton – P Hurtado – P Holbrook

Torrez led off the game with a jack, but Holbrook would strike out five on the way the first time through the order. The Raccoons were mostly idle until the seventh when Marvin Ingall hit a key double to give them two men in scoring position trailing Sharp, but also hurt himself and left the game. Thomas only managed a sac fly for the team’s second run. Farley had pitched in trouble all game long: the Canadiens hit a single with either no outs or one out in EVERY inning through six, and never scored. In the seventh, however, the roof came down on Randy. Holbrook singled, and then Simon singled, and he walked De Jesus, all with one out. Manuel Martinez was called on to face Jerry Dobson, who looped a soft liner into shallow center, Brady came on and GOT IT!! Tony Velasquez then grounded out to short on the first pitch to keep the bases loaded and the Coons ahead 2-0. A third run was added in the eighth, Torrez scoring on a Brady groundout. Benton Wilson retired the side in the eighth, and Nordahl tried to protect the shutout in the ninth, and he struck out Pedro Hurtado, struck out Tom Wilson, and – oops, walked Arthur Simon. And he walked Alfredo De Jesus as well. Hnnggah, now comes the teethy part of the lineup – but Jerry Dobson struck out. 3-0 Coons. Torrez 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Beairsto 2-4, 2B; Ingall 3-3, 2B; Farley 6.1 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (13-7);

The FL West yet stays tied, and both teams won again! The Gold Sox trumped the Stars 8-5, while the Wolves won 5-2 over the Warriors. The Wolves do lose their catcher Jorge Lopez though, who is ejected after allegedly calling the umpire a donkey (except it was that other word with three letters), and is suspended for two games.

Game 3
POR: CF Torrez – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P Amador
VAN: SS Simon – LF J. Durán – 2B Dobson – 1B I. Gutierrez – CF T. Wilson – RF Wheaton – 3B Rodgers – C Hurtado – P Spears

The starters combined for 44 years of age, or just more than Neil Reece’s. Spears turned out to be a tough customer for the Raccoons, who managed just two hits off him in the first five innings. Luckily, those were a Reece double and RBI single by Palacios in the top 2nd. Overall however, the Raccoons looked quite lost. Bottom 4th, Dave Wheaton lined a double to deep right to score two runs for the Elks, which made it 2-1 for the home team, and it looked rather final. Brady then hit a 2-out triple in the sixth, but Martin struck out. Amador was hit for the next inning, as his turn came up with Reece and Ledesma on the corners and two outs. Beairsto walked in his spot, and Torrez fired a shot into the left center gap – but Durán made it there, and the inning ended with the bases full. Two were left on in the eighth when Reece grounded out, and this one was just wasn’t going to come back. Top 9th, down 2-1, Pedro Alvarado pitching. Palacios and Ledesma hit singles to get going. Alejandro Rojas hit for Benton Wilson, but struck out. Torrez walked, bases loaded! Guerin was up 2-0 before he flew out to right, but it was quite deep and Palacios scored!! Brady grounded out, to make it a 7 LOB for the last three innings. It were also the final three innings: Tony Velasquez walked the Elks off with a walkoff homer off Ricardo Huerta. 3-2 Canadiens. Reece 2-4, 2B; Palacios 2-3, BB, RBI;

The Gold Sox won 7-2 over the Stars, while the Wolves are eliminated 5-4 by the Warriors, with Ryosei Kato sending them to a miserable winter. We all know how miserable Oregon winters are when you end up short.

In other news

October 2 – CYCLE!! DAL 1B/3B/RF Vitantonio Cavalleri (.295, 4 HR, 24 RBI) goes 5-6 against the Warriors, and collects one of each type of hit in the Stars 13-5 romp over the Warriors in Sioux Falls. The 28-year old Italian had just been traded from Milwaukee to Dallas in September. It is the 32nd cycle in ABL history, and the third for the Stars (Samuel Serra, 1977; Gustavo Infante, 2000), as well as the second this year after Bruce Boyle’s second career cycle on July 31.
October 5 – Shock for Boston fans: SP Jason O’Halloran (21-8, 2.63 ERA) has been diagnosed with a torn back muscle and is out for the playoffs. O’Halloran led the CL in wins and ERA before the injury.
October 5 – Shock pairs up with disbelief in Charlotte: 24-year OF Ralph Wilson (.307, 4 HR, 59 RBI) is also out for the playoffs with an undisclosed injury. He reportedly tried to tear a phonebook in half.

Complaints and stuff

I don’t remember all four division races being open in the final week of the season.

I also hate to lose the final game of the season. You have to look at that most recent line score all winter.

We had the Rookie of the Month for the second consecutive month, as Eddie Torrez hit .354 with five homers and drove in 14 in September to get the nod from the baseball gods.

So that’s 223 strikeouts for Nick Brown this year! That’s a funny number, because it has some significance. Daniel Hall hit 223 career home runs, which is still the franchise mark. We’ll see if and what Al Martin can do to that down the road. He has not even half Dan’s mark so far, but then again he’s only 26! Al has 105 homers through his age 26 season. Dan had 66! Both debuted at age 22.

Where did Neil Reece end up after all? He is now first in franchise history with 1,894 hits, is in sole possession of third place with 169 home runs, and tied Tetsu Osanai for third in RBI at the very end with his 865th.

For once, no triple crown winning pitcher in the Continental League, with Jason O’Halloran falling well short in strikeouts with 154. He also fell well short of the playoffs. He’s such a good pitcher, and the Titans will miss him, even with the rest of their beastly staff.

And Ralph Wilson? Just wow. The Falcons make the playoffs for the first time in *21* years! And he - … I … the …

You know what? It’s video games! Youth is silly, and it’s because of video games! When I was a kid, we had to be in school for half the day, and then work around the house or in dad’s shop, or in the family fields the afternoon! We didn’t have no time for silly games, we had to take care of ourselves, and not pull stuff like that! Maud, Slappy, and Vince are nodding in agreement here.

Thank goodness they are tugged away safely at home when they’re playing their silly games. I refuse to imagine a world where teenagers play games on tiny little gadgets while walking around outside in traffic. They might step right in front of a bus, those silly kids. Or worse, playing ****ty games when they’re on those skateboards! Those are a hazard for everybody!

And yes, this finish is the best we have done in FIVE YEARS.

I feel exceedingly old.