Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

2025 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2024 numbers, second set career numbers; players with an * are off season acquisitions):

SP Mark Roberts, 30, B:L, T:L (11-9, 3.33 ERA | 57-51, 3.16 ERA) – like most players, his first half was much better than his second half in 2024, his first season in Portland. He still ended up leading the league in WHIP with a rather high 1.13 mark, while simultaneously conceding the most bombs in the Continental League. He might not continue Nick Brown’s legacy as left-handed litter leader, but if he were to put up Kisho Saito numbers, I would not be mad, either.
SP Rico Gutierrez, 25, B:L, T:L (16-8, 2.93 ERA | 34-30, 3.42 ERA) – held a share for the league lead in wins in '24 as he overcame his 2023 sophomore swoon while keeping walks and home runs down. Has decent control while keeping batters alert with a move-happy 96mph heater.
SP Jack Sander, 29, B:R, T:R (9-10, 4.09 ERA | 15-23, 5.08 ERA, 2 SV) – claimed off waivers by the Cyclones in June in a desperate moment, Sander never exactly sparkled, but managed to keep the team in games and put up a very serviceable 3.64 ERA with the Critters. We hope for more of that.
SP Graham Wasserman *, 34, B:R, T:R (8-8, 4.47 ERA | 100-93, 3.79 ERA) – a Coon reborn 11 years after his desolate debut (14.21 ERA in '14), Wasserman rejoined the team as a free agent on a $1M deal. If he keeps his arm attached and stays close to a 4 ERA, we probably have already won...
SP Jesus Chavez, 27, B:R, T:R (7-16, 4.40 ERA | 23-38, 4.10 ERA) – strikeouts remain low and the ERA remains high for Chavez, who would have been strafed even worse in 2024 if not for the exceptional defense (.274 BABIP) behind him. Has not lived up to the hopes of developing into a frontline starter, and never will.

MR Ricky Ohl *, 26, B:R, T:R (1-1, 4.86 ERA, 1 SV | 1-1, 4.86 ERA, 1 SV) – sophomore that was acquired from the Capitals with some great potential, but also some control issues, like most of our right-handed relievers.
MR Justin Hess *, 34, B:L, T:L (2-1, 3.35 ERA | 46-31, 3.37 ERA, 102 SV) – former Scorpion that was signed as a free agent to cope with the run-of-the-mill left-handed relief requirements.
MR Jimmy Lee, 32, B:R, T:R (3-2, 3.80 ERA, 1 SV | 51-50, 3.47 ERA, 20 SV) – a former starter with only two working pitches, Lee held his ground in the first year of a 2-year deal signed prior to the 2023 season and we hope for more decent relief in a seventh-inning role this season.
MR Kevin Surginer, 25, B:R, T:R (3-2, 3.63 ERA, 1 SV | 8-5, 3.31 ERA, 2 SV) – very solid and mostly reliable reliever that through no fault of his own was sent to St. Pete in the middle of last season because there was no room on the roster anymore. He struggled, mostly with confidence in himself, in AAA and was not fully back to normal even when he was recalled in September. Kid needs some pep talks from the veterans, but otherwise is adjudged to be good to go!
MR Billy Brotman, 26, B:L, T:L (3-3, 1.82 ERA, 4 SV | 4-6, 2.77 ERA, 5 SV) – after a nerve-wrecking 2023 season where he walked six per nine innings, Billy cut down on the walks (4.2/9 in '24), but struck out 11.2 per nine innings to become a valuable killer southpaw.
SU Vince Devereaux, 26, B:R, T:R (6-2, 4.70 ERA, 3 SV | 18-13, 3.87 ERA, 8 SV) – nasty curveball in combination to 97mph heat and makes hitters fear for their lives… because sometimes pitches could end up in the general region of their head. The stats in terms of ERA are somewhat lying about him. For some reason, he has never enjoyed much defensive support, although in 2024 he also surrendered a career-high eight home runs for some damage only attributable to himself.
CL Jonathan Snyder, 25, B:L, T:R (4-3, 2.36 ERA, 25 SV | 12-4, 2.86 ERA, 25 SV) – picked up in our delusional July trading spree in a deal with the Gold Sox, Snyder was not flawless down the road, but is a major asset due to striking out 10.8 per nine innings and avoiding the long ball. He was actually somewhat betrayed by our defense in 2024, especially when compared to the Gold Sox, explaining why he added nearly a full run compared to his Denver ERA. Could be under team control for up to four more years, and depending on early-season performance we might try to sign him to a long-term contract early on.

C Elias Tovias, 25, B:S, T:R (.288, 14 HR, 68 RBI | .264, 35 HR, 140 RBI) – Elias upped his game considerably on defense and hitting for average in 2024, while failing to threaten his mark of 19 home runs from his rookie season in 2023. Home runs are dandy; but a good defensive catcher batting .288 with 39 extra-base hits is nothing to spit at, either, and he is one of our best young players.
C/1B Tony Delgado, 37, B:R, T:R (.281, 2 HR, 18 RBI | .261, 87 HR, 509 RBI) – will provide veteran backup support for the third year as a Raccoon, and will contest his 18th major league season overall, having debuted with the 2008 Wolves.

1B Jon Gonzalez, 27, B:R, T:R (.261, 24 HR, 89 RBI | .275, 66 HR, 263 RBI) – Gonzalez' first Coons season was one of two tales, as he was a real force in the lineup until late July, and then hit only a few paltry home runs in the last few months of the season, professionally crippling an OPS that was pushing .900 at times. We sure hope we get the first-half Gonzalez back for two halves this year, and for years to come.
2B/LF/3B/SS Jarod Spencer, 27, B:R, T:R (.326, 3 HR, 48 RBI | .302, 3 HR, 135 RBI) – "Pop" Spencer finally found the other side of the fence in 2024 after over 1,000 at-bats without a home run, and while he is still averse to drawing a walk, which he considers not a knightly approach to the noble game, he also only struck out 14 times in 377 at-bats last year, which was even fewer than the 17 walks he tumbled into anyway. With the trade of Shane Walter to the Crusaders, Spencer retains unchallenged custody of the second-base job, and we count on him to bring some terror to the bases, too. He stole as many as 27 bags in '23, but only ten last year.
SS/2B Tim Stalker, 26, B:R, T:R (.236, 5 HR, 57 RBI | .249, 20 HR, 157 RBI) – very good defensive shortstop, more than just token speed, and most of the time also a good batter; although "most of the time" died by June last year. His second half was a fiery car wreck like few others.
3B Matt Nunley, 34, B:L, T:R (.266, 11 HR, 55 RBI | .281, 120 HR, 713 RBI) – eternal Matt Nunley, in his 12th major league season, won his first Gold Glove at age 33 and remains unaccosted for his spot at the hot corner. His defense – the lack of prior awards notwithstanding – has always been excellent, and his batting stats have remained virtually the same for a while.
2B/SS Matt Otis *, 36, B:R, T:R (.246, 3 HR, 34 RBI | .262, 25 HR, 328 RBI) – veteran expertise of the bench and we also count on him to stuff the snout of any routine bickermouth in the clubhouse with their own sweat-socked socks.
2B/3B/SS Dustin Jurek *, 28, B:R, T:R (rookie) – this 28-year-old rule 5 pick (rolls eyes) is mainly a defensive complement to the rest of the infielders, and probably should not wield a stick, ever, although he batted for an .808 OPS in AAA last season.

LF/CF/RF Ricardo Carmona, 33, B:L, T:R (.248, 1 HR, 35 RBI | .312, 20 HR, 565 RBI) – signed to an early extension before the 2023 season even began, Cookie soon enough found himself in hell, not seeing the ball well the entire year and dropping 70 points from his 2022 batting average; he also missed 58 games with repeating injuries, and overall had the outright worst season of his career. 2024 was mostly the same for him, except for the injuries, and overall his career trajectory is probably resembling an airplane in the progress of an uncontrolled flight into terain.
LF/CF/RF/1B Abel Mora, 28, B:L, T:R (.285, 13 HR, 61 RBI | .270, 58 HR, 317 RBI) – as much of an allround player as you can find, hitting for average (having reached .300 once with the Wolves) and power, possessing good speed, and fielding very well, also throwing for eight assists last year. Not quite Neil Reece Reborn, but then again Neil's a Hall of Famer and they just don't fall from the skies.
RF/LF/1B/CF Terry Kopp, 28, B:L, T:L (.265, 18 HR, 105 RBI | .276, 104 HR, 520 RBI) – versatile outfielder and first baseman that debuted for the Capitals at 21 and came over in a July trade from the Cyclones last year, but couldn't connect to his success of 46 extra-base hits in 98 games with Cincy. He went for more than a single only 15 times as a Coon in 54 games, which is how things go around here.
RF/LF Omar Alfaro, 24, B:S, T:L (.224, 9 HR, 41 RBI | .224, 24 HR, 98 RBI) – the Age of Omar is in the process of busting spectacularly (or maybe not? Did anybody ever think he was gonna be a star, but me?) as 2025 begins with Omar not being a starter anymore after regressing from an already mediocre 2023 sophomore campaign. Hit for only a .674 OPS in over 400 at-bats last season.
RF/CF/LF Dwayne Metts *, 29, B:L, T:L (.319, 0 HR, 7 RBI | .241, 6 HR, 56 RBI) – arrived back on waivers, somehow. What is he doing here??

On disabled list:
SP Dan Delgadillo, 22, B:R, T:R (9-9, 3.80 ERA | 9-9, 3.80 ERA) – our favorite Cuban starting pitcher ruptured his UCL in September and is not expected to get back into action before August, which is a shame because despite some rookie roughness his debut season was actually a success despite a low (5.8/9) strikeout rate and total (118 K in 182.1 IP).
3B/SS/2B Daniel Bullock, 27, B:S, T:R (.248, 0 HR, 12 RBI | .240, 2 HR, 66 RBI) – strong defensive infielder, especially on the left side of the infield, with a negligible bat, and with a forked up knee that will keep him off the field at last until June.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP/MR Lance Legleiter *, 28, B:S, T:R (2-0, 0.55 ERA | 2-1, 3.51 ERA) – half the players we received in the Shane Walter deal that we didn't trade for something else; Legleiter is a swingman with middling stamina that is usually a good asset in the long relief / spot start role, but was squeezed off the roster and to St. Pete on an option. He also figures to be the first guy back once we have a pitching ailment on the major league roster.

Opening day lineup:
Vs. RHP: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – RF Kopp – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Roberts
(Vs. LHP: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Roberts)

…which probably already gives Omar Alfaro much more credit than he deserves. Problematic is the fact that most of our infielders bat right-handed (sans Nunley), and most of our outfielders bat left-handed (minus Alfaro). Platoon effects are limited; there is the option of moving Spencer to leftfield against left-handers and putting in Matt Otis at second base. Tony Delgado bats right-handed and will probably mainly sub for Tovias against left-handers, but then you probably want Kopp in there to prevent raising the jolly white flag right from the start…

It's not a bad lineup; the top and middle aren't shabby at all, and I'd say there are four potential All Stars batting second through fifth, and Spencer and Nunley can have their moments. At the bottom and on the bench there is a whole lotta meh though.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

For the first time in a few years the Raccoons were borderline relevant in 2024, even though that was only owed to the Titans playing with their food before zooming away in August. We improved our record for the second consecutive year, but it was still another losing season, the third in a row. As indicated before, offseason changes were minimal and barely visible as a whole. By WAR – a flawed stat that should be incinerated and buried and forgotten – the Raccoons' best transaction of the offseason was the addition of Graham Wasserman (+2.1), so there you have it – it was a crummy winter. Overall we rank ninth in the BNN rankings, with a total of +1.4 WAR.

Top 5: Stars (+11.5), Gold Sox (+10.4), Crusaders (+8.5), Cyclones (+8.3), Titans (+7.7)
Bottom 5: Scorpions (-6.1), Knights (-7.6), Bayhawks (-9.4), Condors (-9.5), Loggers (-10.6)

PREDICTION TIME:

Maybe I was drunk, maybe worse, when I predicted 89 wins for the '24 Coons. Although, for a few months they were actually looking like they might get in the right direction, at least until everything collapsed in the last six weeks or so. Ultimately, they finished 11 wins and six feet under.

The team has no improvements worth listing right now. Everybody is a year older, and that is not a good thing for most players we are banking on. The Titans and Crusaders have gained well in the offseason, as you can usually expect from the big-buck teams, and we have to play them 36 times.

The mix wasn't right last year; the mix won't be right this year. The Raccoons will wind themselves through six months of obscurity before ending up 75-87. Too bad to be any fun. Too good to get a top-notch draft pick.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

The Raccoons remain seventh in the ranking of farm systems, and also still have only five ranked prospects. Somebody did improve though, and that was universally-agreed-on blue chip Alberto Ramos, who migrated from #2 in last year's ranking to #1 in the current edition! Did we ever have a #1 prospect before??

Of the Coons' five ranked prospects from last year, three are gone. Dan Delgadillo (#71) exceeded rookie limits and those of his elbow. #41 Gilberto Rendon was traded, and #109 Elijah Bean dropped out of the top 200.

1st (+1) – AA SS Alberto Ramos, 19 – 2022 international free agent signed by Raccoons
38th (new) – AA SP George James, 21 – 2024 first-round pick by Raccoons
82nd (new) – A SP Dave Martinez, 19 – 2022 international free agent signed by Raccoons
98th (+13) – AAA SP Felipe Delgado, 23 – 2019 scouting discovery by Raccoons
157th (new) – A SP Josh Boles, 21 – 2022 second-round pick by Warriors, signed as minor league FA by Raccoons

The franchise top 10 were completed by AA C Elijah Bean, 21 (2023 1st Rd.), AAA SS/3B Butch Gerster, 23 (2022 1st Rd.), INT 3B Andy Michel (2024 IFA), AA 2B/SS Chris Golka, 23 (2021 2nd Rd.), and AA CL Steve Costilow, 23 (2023 5th Rd.)

Costilow has been converted to a reliever last year; the same might happen to Boles due to the lack of an efficient third pitch.

The top 5 overall prospects this year are:

#1 POR AA SS Alberto Ramos (was #2)
#2 VAN AA SP Geoff Swayze (was #1)
#3 NAS A 3B Jim Allen (newly drafted in 2024)
#4 IND A SP Andy Bressner (newly drafted in 2024)
#5 PIT A 1B Danny Santillano (newly signed as IFA in 2024)

IN YOUR FACE, ELKS!! IN YOUR FACE!!

The remaining players from last year's top 5 were Tim Stackhouse, who dropped from #3 to #17, and Antonio Muniz and Dave Christiansen, two pitchers who exceeded rookie limits in 2024.

Next: first pitch.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) @ Crusaders (0-0) – April 8-10, 2025

A new season was being born – finally! The Raccoons would open in New York against the Crusaders, who were probably the only serious threat to the thrice-defending champions from Boston in this division. The Crusaders' lineup wasn't substantially changed, and it would be interesting to see how they'd weave in ex-Coon Shane Walter between Sergio Valdez and Tom McWhorter on the infield. Seeing them add Chris Klein to the top of their rotation was unpleasant for us, although probably more so for the Titans. Recent history hinted at the Raccoons being in trouble right from the start here, having lost the season series three years in a row, including 7-11 in 2024.

Projected matchups:
Mark Roberts (0-0) vs. Chris Klein (0-0)
Rico Gutierrez (0-0) vs. Mike Rutkowski (0-0)
Jack Sander (0-0) vs. Ed Hague (0-0)

Three right-handed opponents to begin the year, which isn't all that bad for a team with no applicable platoon effects whatsoever.

Game 1
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – RF Kopp – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Roberts
NYC: 1B X. Garcia – CF Shaffer – 3B Schmit – RF Ellis – SS McWhorter – C Leal – LF Loya – 2B S. Valdez – P Klein

The Raccoons made two outs from the first two pitches they saw on the season, with Jarod Spencer grounding out to Tom McWhorter and Abel Mora lifting a cozy one out to Ricky Loya in left, and overall went down in order in the top of the first, much in contrast to the Crusaders, who had Xavier Garcia reach on an infield single (and in a 3-1 count…), before Roberts walked Nick Shaffer outright, and Andy Schmit's single to left past a lunging Tim Stalker scored Garcia outright for the first run conceded of the year. Roberts was yelled at by the pitching coach as early as this opening inning after Terry Kopp had to sell out on the warning track to contain an 0-2 drive by Nate Ellis. To no avail – Tom McWhorter cracked a 3-piece to left and the Coons were adrift, 4-0. This year's budding Portland Horror Show saw another McWhorter home run, a solo job in the third inning that ran the score to 5-0, before the Raccoons landed as much as any sort of base hit. Abel Mora's leadoff single in the fourth did the trick; before that, only Elias Tovias had reached on being drilled in the second inning. Nothing good had come of that, and nothing could came of Mora's single, either, with Kopp quickly grounding into a double play.

Mark Roberts wouldn't face McWhorter a third time; when the former Miner's spot came up again with two outs in the bottom 5th, a double switch removed Roberts and Stalker, and Ricky Ohl and Dustin Jurek, two new Raccoons, entered in a double switch. One of them got McWhorter to ground out to the other, and the score remained 5-0 through five innings. Jurek, the miserable rule 5 pick, was not only making his major league debut at 28, he also put the rest of the lineup to shame instantly with a double to right in the sixth inning. Unfortunately, nothing came of that with Spencer flying out to right, and Mora flying out to center. The Raccoons amounted to a vague threat in the seventh inning only thanks to 2-out singles by Tovias and Nunley, but Omar Alfaro did precisely nothing when he batted for Ohl. The Crusaders shook another run from Jimmy Lee and Justin Hess in the bottom 7th, while Klein went into the ninth on shutout course, but had to contend with Terry Kopp doubling up the rightfield line from the leadoff position. Gonzalez and Tovias both hit flies to deep right, neither fell in, but in combination these were still enough to advance Kopp twice and break up Klein's shutout bid with one out to spare, yet this was all the rally the Coons had in them on Opening Day. 6-1 Crusaders. Tovias 1-2, RBI; Nunley 2-4; Jurek 1-2, 2B;

Good start, good start! Maybe try to be even vaguely imposing in the second game of the set, and maybe we can pick up a win on the weekend…

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – RF Kopp – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Gutierrez
NYC: 1B X. Garcia – CF Shaffer – 3B Schmit – RF Ellis – SS McWhorter – C Leal – LF Loya – 2B S. Valdez – P Rutkowski

Rico didn't explode on first exposure to the artificial lighting, which was already progress from the opener, and the game remained scoreless for a while, with the Crusaders getting two on base in the bottom 2nd as Gutierrez hit Nate Ellis and walked Armando Leal, but couldn't move either across once Ricky Loya hit into a double play. Nick Shaffer got their first base hit, a single in the fourth, and Schmit hit a single right after that. Two on, nobody out, and the runners were in scoring position once Nate Ellis grounded out to Jon Gonzalez. Then, Tom McWhorter with 5 RBI (on pace for 810!) in the box. McWhorter however missed his Mark Roberts-shaped launchpad dearly and popped out to short and it looked like Gutierrez might just make it out of the jam, at least until Leal cracked a grounder to the right side that looked like trouble and two runs, but Spencer corralled it in a tumble and zinged to first in time to beat the sluggishly running catcher.

The Coons had their moments, like in the second inning. There, Gonzalez hit a leadoff double before being stranded. Scattering the odd hit here and there the Raccoons failed to put any pressure on Rutkowski, who struck out nine through six innings, all while keeping Portland shut out. Rico Gutierrez matched him in the shutout category, but with only three strikeouts through six. Tovias and Nunley went down whiffing in the seventh, running Rutkowski's tally to 11, while Gutierrez fanned Ellis to begin the bottom 7th, but ran into 2-out trouble. Leal singled, Loya walked, and with two outs and two on, and the pitcher at 102 pitches, the Crusaders sent right-hander Blake Doering to bat for Sergio Valdez. The Raccoons twitched and sent Vince D to relief Gutierrez, which worked out nicely as Doering popped a 2-2 pitch high to short to end the inning. Who'd blink first?

Of course the Raccoons blinked first. Billy Brotman was in for the eighth inning, facing two left-handed batters to begin the inning, PH Shane Walter and Xavier Garcia. Both hit singles off him, and he didn't get even close to a strikeout to bail him out from there. Shaffer and Schmit both grounded out to the right side, the latter plating Walter for the first run of the game. Gonzalez snagged Ellis' quick bouncer to end the inning, then opened the ninth with a single off Steve Casey to become the tying run. Doering, at second base, scooped Tovias' grounder for a double play, and Nunley went down on strikes to end this game. 1-0 Crusaders. Spencer 3-4; Gonzalez 3-4, 2B; Gutierrez 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K;

Well. I think we're dead. Six months of this!

Game 3
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – RF Kopp – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Sander
NYC: 1B X. Garcia – LF Loya – RF Ellis – 3B Schmit – 2B S. Valdez – SS McWhorter – CF Douglas – C Walston – P Hague

Third game, third time the Crusaders scored first, but this time they got an unearned run in the second inning. Matt Nunley had misfielded McWhorter's grounder leading off, and the extra out coupled with Jack Sander playing around with the bottom of the order when he should retire them conspired to the run eventually. 40-year-old veteran Pat Walston drew a 1-out walk, and Ed Hague singled crisply to center to bring in McWhorter. The Coons managed to not lie down and die instantly for once, and for the first time on the season made up a deficit when Abel Mora went yard in the third inning. Nobody was on base, but eh, ya gotta start somewhere…

But the team appeared to ACTUALLY be in business in the fourth inning! Tovias singled with one out, and Matt Nunley hit a double to center, putting runners in scoring position for Tim Stalker (1-for-6) and Cookie Carmona (zip!). Cookie remained zip, being walked onto the open base after Stalker's sac fly to center, but oh dear, we have a lead! Besides, Jack Sander dropped a soft looper into shallow right for a single to load the bags with two outs, but Nate Ellis caught up with Spencer's fly to right to keep three Coons stranded in the 2-1 game. Then Sander thought it prudent to put that lead in danger right away; Lance Douglas hitting an infield single to begin the bottom 4th and stealing second was one thing, but walking Hague with one out was entirely another. That marked two instances where Sander had faced the opposing pitcher with somebody in scoring position and not retiring them in this game. The Crusaders somehow still failed to score, with Garcia striking out and Loya grounding out to Nunley, but I was not exactly calm as I held on to my seventh cocktail at the bar. I told the bartender to the **** ditch the orange slices and the little umbrellas and just keep the vodka pouring.

Sander waddled around a leadoff walk in the fifth, while the Coons had their own scoring opportunity in the sixth, with Tovias' leadoff single to right and Nunley getting clipped slightly by a breaking ball, putting two on with no outs for the bottom of the order again, which went as well as expected. Hague whiffed two of the 7-8-9 bunch, the exception being Cookie who was retired by Lance Douglas upon lining to centerfield. Douglas also hit a leadoff single in the bottom 6th, but Sander struck out the next three batters to quell the threat in his final inning of the game. Portland continued to be wasteful, flushing down Spencer's leadoff double and Mora's walk in the seventh with Kopp's pop and Gonzalez' 5-4-3 double play. But the Crusaders weren't much better, stranding another leadoff man reaching base in the eighth against Ricky Ohl, and eventually having three left-handed batters (Garcia, Victor Hodgers, Ellis) up against Jonathan Snyder, our right-handed closer, in the ninth inning. None of the three reached base, and the Raccoons squeezed out their first W of the season. 2-1 Coons. Tovias 3-4; Nunley 3-3, 2B; Otis (PH) 1-1; Sander 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, W (1-0) and 1-3;

Whee, a win! Of course we may want to look into the possibility of scoring more than one run per game rather soon…

Raccoons (1-2) vs. Aces (1-2) – April 11-13, 2025

Home opener, hosting the Aces, who had finished last year in fourth place in the South. Out of the gate, they had scored seven runs in their series with the Knights, second-fewest in the Continental League, yet towering over our total of THREE runs from three games. The Aces promised to be weird at the outset of the new season in that they had no fewer than four left-handed starting pitchers in their rotation, and these so far had not allowed much damage. The Raccoons had gone 4-5 against Vegas in 2024.

Projected matchups:
Graham Wasserman (0-0) vs. Abramo Archibugi (0-0)
Jesus Chavez (0-0) vs. Tom McGuire (0-0)
Mark Roberts (0-1, 9.64 ERA) vs. Samuel McMullen (0-1, 3.86 ERA)

And we are going to face three left-handers in the series! Since I am a firm believer in giving everybody at least one start during Opening Week, we can expect some strong rotating through the lineup on the weekend.

Game 1
LVA: 1B Retzer – 2B Burrier – RF Dally – SS A. Medina – 3B I. Alvarez – C J. Vargas – LF Raynor – CF Hollingsworth – P Archibugi
POR: LF Spencer – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – C Delgado – RF Alfaro – 2B Otis – SS Stalker – P Wasserman

Omar Alfaro had his first start of the year in rightfield and got his first assist right in the first inning here. Wasserman issued a leadoff walk to Allen Retzer to begin the game, and Retzer tried to go to third base on Andres Medina's 2-out single to right. Alfaro told him to stick it, and the inning ended with the third out made at third base. The Coons also failed to score in the first despite Jose Vargas' throwing error that put Spencer on second base with nobody out. First blood was again left to the other team; Justin Dally, 37 years old, hit his second bomb of the season in the third inning, a 2-piece that collected Cy Burrier and was outta here right off the bat. It was the former Logger's 303rd career homer. The same part of the lineup would bother Wasserman again in the fifth inning, when Burrier singled and Dally walked with one out. Andres Medina popped out, but Izzy Alvarez hit a fly to deep left. Spencer scurried after that and made a catch in motion on the warning track to keep the Aces within nominal reach.

"Nominal reach" was the chronic losing team's battlecry, and things were only going to get worse. Wasserman went six and a third with some K power, but was removed after Retzer's single in the seventh. Justin Hess, who had already stunk it up in his Coons debut in New York, came into the game and walked Burrier, then allowed an RBI single to Dally, the two left-handers he was supposed to retire. That brought up the switch-hitting Medina, who was really not that good from the right side and grounded out to Nunley. That brought up the right-handed Alvarez, with Kevin Surginer replacing Hess and serving up a 390-footer to left that Spencer didn't exactly bother to run after and that jumped the Aces' lead to six runs, at which point the "nominal reach" thing was a thing of the past as well. Archibugi went into the bottom of the ninth, where a supposed Raccoons rally was also very much the pitcher's fault exclusively. Jon Gonzalez hit a 1-out double, after which Archibugi walked Tony Delgado, balked the runners 90 feet further, then hit Alfaro. Bases loaded, one out for Otis, and Archibugi completed his falling apart with a bases-loaded walk that got the Critters on the board. Yay, success! Right-hander Franklin Alvarado replaced Archibugi and managed to retire the Coons' left-handed pinch-hitters. Terry Kopp brought in a run with a groundout, while career buzzkill Dwayne Metts grounded out to end the game. 6-2 Aces. Otis 2-3, BB, RBI;

As Billy Brotman's dear mother uses to say… oy vey!

Game 2
LVA: 1B Retzer – 2B Burrier – RF Dally – SS A. Medina – 3B I. Alvarez – C J. Vargas – LF Raynor – CF Hollingsworth – P McGuire
POR: LF Spencer – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – RF Kopp – 2B Otis – SS Jurek – CF Metts – P Chavez

Another day, another opposing batter hitting satellites into orbit off a Raccoons hurler. Steve Hollingsworth put the Aces 1-0 ahead in the third inning with a leadoff jack after Chavez had initially struck out four batters in the first two innings. Dally and Vargas doubles upped the score to 2-0 in the fourth while the Raccoons' lineup did a spectacular job at keeping a low profile. It took them until the fifth inning for a serious scoring opportunity to present itself after Matt Otis' leadoff double to left, but the bottom of the order entirely lived up to expectations as they stranded Otis at third base. Nunley doubled in the sixth, but Gonzalez flew out easily to Dally and Alvarez was master of Elias Tovias' grounder to the left side, keeping Nunley aboard as well.

Chavez whiffed 11 over seven innings, which won him nothing at all. The biggest damage the Raccoons did to the Aces in those seven innings was Dustin Jurek's drive to right that was caught in a tumble by Dally, but the veteran was not seen again in the following inning, presumably having injured himself in the process; Corey Curro replaced him in the eighth inning, which was also the inning the Raccoons finally caught up with McGuire. Abel Mora pinch-hit for the mind-bogglingly present Dwayne Metts and singled up the middle to begin the bottom 8th, and Tim Stalker had already been inserted in the previous half-inning in a double switch and mashed a fastball over the left-center fence to get the Critters even at two. Jonathan Snyder struck out two in the top 9th amidst not allowing a runner, which gave the Coons a chance for a walkoff against McGuire, who was still in there – the third opposing starting pitcher to see the ninth inning alive in this first week of the season… McGuire did something the others hadn't managed – he pitched a complete game. However, he did so only by virtue of serving a ball on a stick to Elias Tovias, who didn't miss it; his bomb to left was measured at 427 feet as the Coons walked off. 3-2 Furballs! Nunley 2-4, 2 2B; Tovias 2-4, HR, RBI; Mora (PH) 1-1; Stalker 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Chavez 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 11 K;

THREE runs in ONE game!! Will this rollercoaster ever stop!?

Game 3
LVA: 1B Retzer – CF Hollingsworth – C J. Vargas – 3B I. Alvarez – LF Raynor – RF Curro – 2B Moroyoqui – SS A. Medina – P S. McMullen
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – 3B Jurek – P Roberts

In new and exciting developments, the Raccoons scored *first* in the Sunday game, the first time that happened to them in 2025. Spencer singled, Mora homered, and the team was up 2-0. That was not the only Critter to go yard early; Dustin Jurek, the 28-year-old rule 5 guy, hit a leadoff jack in the second inning! Even Cookie found time for his first base hit of the season, a third-inning single, while Mark Roberts was not exactly eliminating the Aces with ease, but held them to two hits and no runs through the five innings it would require to collect a W. He had walked a pair in the second inning, but nothing had come of that, and technically one of the runners was unearned in that inning as Elias Tovias had fallen over his own mask in chasing a foul pop around home plate and had been charged an error for the missed catch.

Except for the early offense the game was very much a pitchers' duel because once Sam McMullen stopped the early hemorrhage, he didn't give the Raccoons very much at all until he was hit for in the eighth inning with Casimiro Schoeppen, who flew out to Alfaro to end the inning, at which point Mark Roberts still had a 2-hit shutout going and that on only 86 pitches. Bottom 8th, Stalker hit a 1-out double to left against Harry Merwin, which prompted the Aces to walk Cookie intentionally to get to Jurek, which was two odd choices rolled into one. Jurek didn't get a shot here, with Nunley pinch-hitting against the left-handed Merwin, and right into a double play. At least that didn't force us into any tough choices with Roberts, who reappeared for the ninth inning, facing the top of the order, with Snyder casually tossing with Brotman in the bullpen. Roberts struck out Allen Retzer in a full count, then got Hollingsworth to lift one out to Mora, no problem with that one at all. This brought up Jose Vargas, who had hit 16 dingers the previous year, but was batting .190 with no power to begin the year. He grounded a 1-2 pitch back to Roberts, who had no troubles playing it for the final out in the game. It's a shutout! 3-0 Coons! Stalker 2-4; Roberts 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (1-1);

Whee! Whee! Whee!!

In other news

April 9 – SAC 1B Luis Moreira (.182, 1 HR, 4 RBI) puts the Pacifics away with a walkoff grand slam in the 10th inning, giving the Scorpions a 7-3 victory.
April 12 – CIN CF Nando Maiello (.417, 0 HR, 4 RBI) figures to miss two weeks with a mild shoulder strain.
April 13 – Boston's SP Alberto Molina (2-0, 1.06 ERA) 2-hits the Thunder in a 3-0 win.

Complaints and stuff

Alberto Molina matched Roberts with two walks and six strikeouts in their Sunday shutouts. For Roberts, this was his third career shutout, second with the Coons, and the closest so far that he had gotten no zero hits in a shutout.

Which gets us to pitching heroics, which were the only reason for this team not going 0-6 in Opening Week. The offense was phenomenally inept, failing to score even four runs in a game even ONCE. We are at the very, very bottom in the league with 11 runs scored at this point. Even with just allowing 16 runs, being 3-3 is still to be considered a stroke of luck. If you have to consider yourself lucky to sit at .500, you're in for trouble…

When Billy Brotman faltered in the eighth inning on Wednesday to take the 1-0 loss against the Crusaders, he lined up for the Raccoons' 3,800th regular season defeat. I wonder whether this was upsetting his dear mother more than whenever he pitched on the Sabbath.

Sunday night the Aces revealed that Justin Dally (.300, 2 HR, 6 RBI) had suffered a pretty bad concussion on Saturday and was probably out for the season, which struck me oddly, since the last time I had seen him his head had still been attached. This was probably bad news for Dally's Hall of Fame chances, because while he was a .881 OPS batter for his career, neither 1,942 hits nor 303 homers were a likely ticket for induction on their own, and he would be 38 next season…

Now, thinking about it, Neil Reece reached neither 2,000 hits nor 300 dingers and still made the Hall of Fame, somehow. And he didn't hit .881 in the OPS column either.

As we are in the process of lining up promotions for this season there has been some friction in the offices, with Maud and Cristiano Carmona getting into each other's fur over whether Daniel Bullock deserved a bobblehead. Cristiano was defending our knee-deficient backup infielder's achievements valiantly and even had produced a few sketches of Bullock holding a bat perpendicularly to his body in front of his pelvis, which I found appealing from an artistic point of view. Maud was beside herself that she would be supposed to promote a replacement level player, which had never been done before (although to be fair, R.J. DeWeese had gotten a bobblehead at some point during the long years of him not doing anything but making his teammates miserable…), and called Bullock names enough that Cristiano teared up and drove out of the room visibly upset.

(keeps looking at the drawings) Maud - … Maud, say, aren't our bobbleheads usually dressed? – (looks over to the stash of leftover Daniel Hall bobbleheads from decades ago) I thought so.

Fun Fact: Seven years ago this Sunday, Michael Foreman no-hit the Crusaders in a 2-0 Loggers win.

That was before Foreman went onto his tour through New York(!), Topeka, and Portland back to Milwaukee. Not complaining much right now about the trade that sent him back to the Loggers, since at least we got Jarod Spencer in that deal. And Greg Borg. Oh well.

[Bub13]

Bickermouth! Gonna have to use that one.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (3-3) vs. Knights (4-2) – April 14-16, 2025

Somehow we had beaten the Knights 6-3 last season, but I wasn't betting on a repeat of that experience. After the first week of the season, the Knights were seventh in runs scored and fourth in run allowed, with a +4 run differential. It was not much to go by so far, except that they had more than twice the Coons' total in their runs account, which was depressing me right out of the gate, so let's open this week's first bottle of Capt'n Coma early, shall we? (breaks off the bottle neck by hitting it against the edge of the desk)

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (0-0, 1.13 ERA)
Jack Sander (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Estevan Delgado (0-0)
Graham Wasserman (0-1, 4.26 ERA) vs. Yoo-chul Kim (0-1, 13.50 ERA)

Delgado would be the sole left-hander in this selection of opponents. The Knights had not used the 23-year-old sophomore during the first week, and he was ostensibly moving into the rotation to replace Antonio Quintana (0-0, 0.00 ERA), who had broken his thumb in his first start of the year and would only return in May.

Game 1
ATL: LF Stuckey – 2B T. Jimenez – SS Showalter – CF Houghtaling – 1B Tello – C Luna – 3B V. Ramirez – RF A. Sauceda – P Cope
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Gutierrez

Early signs of doom included Jon Gonzalez getting called out on strikes with Abel Mora on second base in the opening inning, and dropping a select few words of choice to the umpire, who hesitated not a second to toss him from the game, leading to Kopp moving in to first base and Alfaro entering the scuffle in right. Kopp would immediately make a bad decision in the top 2nd, when Rico Gutierrez – yet not showing signs of excellency – already had two aboard with one out and Brian Cope bunted to first. Kopp threw to third to nip the slow Ruben Luna, but came late, and the Knights had the bags full. Johnny Stuckey's grounder over second base escaped Jarod Spencer for an RBI single, the first run in the game, before Tony Jimenez hit to Stalker for a double play that ended the inning. Unexpectedly, the Raccoons burst out for a 5-spot in the bottom 2nd though. Kopp and Nunley began the frame with singles, and after a fielder's choice that Stalker hit into the Coons, including Gutierrez, drew three straight 1-out walks from Cope, with Gutierrez and Spencer getting their first RBI's of the year. After Mora struck out, Tovias hit a bases-clearing double into left-center, and Omar Alfaro, a true force in the lineup, struck out. As far as Gutierrez was concerned, the 5-spot sucked the air out of the Knights at once, and he effortlessly pitched another five innings with only two base runners against him, until he ran out of steam owing to his early-game struggles. Neither did the Raccoons pile on much. Cope got through six innings after the early shelling, and when the Raccoons did plate another run it was Matt Otis' turn as a pinch-hitter for Gutierrez in the bottom 7th, crashing a solo homer off Efrain Isidoro, still known as the pitcher that last year served up Cookie Carmona's first home run in four years. The rest of the game was Omar Alfaro, for once. He hit an RBI double up the line in the same inning for the Coons' seventh and final run of the game, and then made a sliding catch in shallow right to save Billy Brotman from embarrassment on Matt Wright's blooper in the ninth inning following two walks issued by Brotman. 7-1 Raccoons! Mora 2-5, 2B; Nunley 2-4; Carmona 2-3, BB; Otis (PH) 2-2, HR, RBI; Gutierrez 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (1-0) and 0-1, BB, RBI;

This more than doubles our previous best for runs in a game this season, which is not something I want to discuss in more detail here.

Game 2
ATL: LF Stuckey – 1B Tello – SS Showalter – C Luna – CF Houghtaling – 2B T. Jimenez – 3B V. Ramirez – RF Briscoe – P E. Delgado
POR: 2B Otis – SS Stalker – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – C Delgado – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – P Sander

Portland moved ahead in the first inning when Jon Gonzalez made the ball leave the field instead of himself, cracking a 2-piece over the leftfield fence after initially Matt Otis had reached base on Tony Jimenez' throwing error, making both runs unearned. The next three Raccoons all reached base, but Ramon Tello intercepted Cookie's sound grounder to right to end the inning with three aboard. With that cushion under his bum, Jack Sander retired the first 11 Knights he faced until serving up a long one himself to Andrew Showalter, the veteran hitting his third dinger of the season. That one remained the Knights' only base hit through six innings, but the Raccoons couldn't tack on against the 23-year-old Delgado, either, amounting to four hits through six innings, and no more damage on the scoreboard.

The top 7th saw Sander lose Ruben Luna on a 4-pitch walk to begin the inning, but Jeremy Houghtaling, the former Elk, chipped hard at Matt Otis for an easy double play with the catcher running. Tony Jimenez then hit a double into the gap, thought he had a triple, and was thrown out by Omar Alfaro at third base, ending the inning. In turn the Coons small-balled their way to an insurance run against Alfredo Morua in the bottom 7th: Spencer singled sharply to left leading off in Sander's spot, then was bunted over by Otis and scored on Mora's 2-out single, extending the lead to 3-1, which turned out to be insufficient to cope with a collective bullpen brain fart in the eighth inning. Vince D walked Vinny Ramirez, Justin Hess walked Matt Wright – both times facing a batter of matching handedness – and Kevin Surginer allowed the runners to score on base hits by Devin Hibbard and Alex Sauceda, those two pinch-hitting in the 1-2 spots. The stunned Raccoons would get Otis aboard in the ninth, would also get him picked off, but after two scoreless innings by Jimmy Lee in extra innings had a chance to walk off in the bottom 11th. Elias Tovias batted for Lee in that 11th inning with Nunley (single), Alfaro (single), and Cookie (walk) aboard and one out, ran a 2-2 count and popped out foul to Luna to really deflate the procession here; except that Matt Otis was still to bat with two down, and the veteran bench piece flicked a soft blooper to shallow center that dropped well in front of Houghtaling to walk off the Raccoons with Matt Nunley crossing home plate. 4-3 Coons! Otis 2-5, RBI; Mora 2-5, RBI; Delgado 2-5; Spencer (PH) 1-1; Sander 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K; Lee 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, W (1-0);

Game 3
ATL: LF Stuckey – 1B Tello – SS Showalter – C Luna – CF Houghtaling – 2B T. Jimenez – 3B V. Ramirez – RF Briscoe – P Y.C. Kim
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Wasserman

The Raccoons had plated five in the second inning on Monday, but the Knights tore up Wasserman for five in the second inning on Wednesday; Ruben Luna drew first blood with a leadoff jack, and after a walk and a single Wasserman arrived at Yoo-chul Kim with two on and two out, and unforgivably allowed an RBI single to the opposing pitcher. It got worse against Johnny Stuckey, who hit his first long ball of the year, a 3-piece to dead center that was truly towering. Portland had a subtle answer in the bottom of the inning, with Terry Kopp's first homer in '25, but that was a solo job.

The Raccoons dragged Wasserman into the fifth inning, with him allowing a run on a wild pitch *and* hitting an RBI single, both in the third inning, but down 6-2 allowed a single to Showalter with one out in the fifth and was replaced by Justin Hess, who already had three walks in 1.1 innings pitched this year and loaded the bases with another two walks to Luna and Houghtaling. Surginer replaced the weirdly inept left-hander and held the damage to a sac fly by Jimenez that deepened the chasm to 7-2. The home team lacked punch in those middle innings and didn't put up much of a threat. When they did get two on base on a Nunley single and a walk to Dustin Jurek in the seventh inning, only an error by Yoo-chul Kim got a run across to get the team within slam range, but with two on and two out Abel Mora popped out to short, in the process extinguishing the Coons' last attempt with a man in scoring position in this game. 7-3 Knights. Ohl 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Devereaux 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Unfortunately we have now lined up an 11-inning game with a bad outing by a starter, and there is no rest for the wicked here, as we have no off day this week, and instead have to go to Indy for a 4-game weekend right away.

Raccoons (5-4) @ Indians (4-4) – April 17-20, 2025

The Indians were sixth in runs scored (Coons: 12th) in the CL, and were even one rank better in runs allowed (Coons: 2nd), with a +3 run differential that you would not have expected even in early April for a team that had lost a hundred in 2024 and had not found all that many improvements over the winter. The Raccoons had won the last two season series against them, both times by a narrow 10-8 margin.

Projected matchups:
Jesus Chavez (0-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Victor Arevalo (0-1, 6.00 ERA)
Mark Roberts (1-1, 3.29 ERA) vs. Tom Shumway (0-1, 5.40 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (1-0, 0.66 ERA) vs. Ernesto Lozano (1-1, 7.27 ERA)
Jack Sander (1-0, 0.69 ERA) vs. Jason Clements (0-0, 11.25 ERA)

The Indians played a double-header on Wednesday, so we have at least that going for us; who of their two starters from Wednesday will go again on short rest on Sunday is uncertain so far; the alternative to Clements would be Dave Priest (1-0, 2.20 ERA). In any case, the usually excellent Tom Shumway is the only southpaw they can line up against us.

Game 1
POR: 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – LF Kopp – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – CF Metts – P Chavez
IND: 2B Claros – 1B Ri. Mendez – 3B M. Green – CF Linnell – SS Folk – RF Staebell – LF Cesta – C T. Perez – P Arevalo

Tony Perez' sac fly in the bottom 2nd set the Indians ahead in this game, coming after Mike Cesta had legged out an infield single on which Jon Gonzalez and Jesus Chavez didn't exactly gel in their defensive coordination. That one loaded the bases with one out, and Metts had no chance on a play at home on Perez' plenty deep fly. Arevalo struck out to end the inning, the first K for Chavez in the game after whiffing 11 in his first outing of the year. While the Coons' lineup was searching in vain for their mojo and they amounted only to two hits through four innings, including a 2-out double by Terry Kopp that was followed by a poor pop by Alfaro in the fourth, the Indians loaded the bases entirely without a base hit in the bottom 4th. Richard Linnell and Mike Cesta drew walks, Brody Folk in between was nailed, and somehow Chavez made it out of the mess with a K to Perez and Kopp catching Arevalo's easy fly for the third out.

Once five offensively depressing innings had been completed by the Raccoons, Jon Gonzalez was batting a .206-sort of cleanup, and everybody below him in the order was batting below .200 even. Only the top of the order offered even a vague sort of hope, and the fact that the Indians couldn't convert their many chances against Chavez, who walked four in the first five innings; Jarod Spencer drew a leadoff walk from Arevalo in the sixth inning and then Nunley found the gap in right-center for a double. Runners in scoring position, no outs! Elias Tovias made hay immediately – he drilled the first pitch from Arevalo for a 3-run homer to right, flipping the score in the Raccoons' favor at this point, 3-1.

Chavez got through seven on 103 pitches, and the Coons had a chance in the top of the eighth against Arevalo. Nunley on second, Tovias on first, one out, Terry Kopp grounded to Raul Claros at second. The 4-6-3 wasn't completed on some juggling by Brody Folk, leaving runners on the corners. Abel Mora came out to bat for the inept Alfaro, but before he could do anything much, Kopp got himself picked off first base to end the inning. The Coons sent Chavez back out for the eighth, for one batter only, right-hander Mike Green to begin the inning. With three left-handers in the next four batters, Brotman would then replace him. Green grounded out to Nunley, but Brotman walked Brody Folk and then almost surrendered a game-tying bomb to John Staebell. Kopp made the catch against the fence; too high and not quite deep enough. This didn't mean the panic was over; Jonathan Snyder's day at work in the ninth was rough, with a leadoff single by Cesta and a walk to Perez putting the tying runners aboard with nobody out. Chris Grubbs grounded out pinch-hitting, advancing the runners, and Claros flew to Kopp, with Cesta tagging and scoring. Rich Mendez popped out to end the game just before the bullpen could cock up the lead again… 3-2 Raccoons. Nunley 2-4, 2B; Tovias 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Chavez 7.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (1-0);

Game 2
POR: LF Spencer – 2B Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – C Delgado – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – RF Alfaro – P Roberts
IND: RF Faulk – LF Grubbs – C T. Perez – 3B M. Green – 1B Ri. Mendez – SS Folk – 2B Claros – CF Linnell – P Shumway

Roberts struck out three batters the first time through the order, but that was mostly guys falling over face first swinging for the fences. Batters mostly made hard contact, but early on the Indians didn't get the ball out, although A.J. Faulk hit a double off the fence right at the start of the first inning. In fact, neither team got the ball to fall in much. Through five innings, it was a pitchers' duel, at least on the board, with Faulk landing both of the Indians' two hits, and the Raccoons had been held to a single base knock by Shumway, an Abel Mora single. It took Portland until the seventh inning to get even a second base hit, and it was Mora again with another single, but behind him Gonzalez flew out (with Mora advancing to second), Delgado was walked intentionally, and Matt Nunley popped out near the foul line. Mark Roberts had gotten better in the middle innings, the Indians had gotten worse, and Roberts whiffed ten in seven innings of shutout ball, including Raul Claros to end his final inning. Claros was not amused and got ejected, with Man-su Kim filling in henceforth. Good job, Roberts, really. (quips) Get a proven coonskinner into the lineup! Good job! Where's my blunderbuss!?

The eighth saw an impregnable Tom Shumway work around a leadoff walk to Stalker before Jimmy Lee disintegrated in the bottom of the inning with some vicious support by the defense. A leadoff walk to Ricardo Vargas, who had drawn a walkoff walk in Wednesday's double-header with the Falcons, was a bad start, and while Vargas was forced on Staebell's grounder, the Indians then loaded them up with an infield single by Cesta against Otis, and Nunley's bad throw on Chris Grubbs' grounder for an error. Straight base hits by Tony Perez, Mike Green, and Rich Mendez plated four runs for Indianapolis, and Ricky Ohl had to dig out an overburdened Lee to even get out of the inning. Mora and Gonzalez got on base against Nick Salinas in the ninth, but the Indians' reliever got the final outs from Kopp, who struck out, and Nunley, who rolled one to first base. 4-0 Indians. Mora 3-4; Roberts 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 10 K;

The offense is unspeakably awful. It is entirely likely that random beatings with a good belt will begin while we are still on the road…

Game 3
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Kopp – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Gutierrez
IND: RF Faulk – LF Grubbs – C T. Perez – 3B M. Green – 1B Ri. Mendez – SS Folk – 2B Claros – CF Kim – P Lozano

Lozano came in with eight walks and three strikeouts in 8.2 innings, but that didn't mean that the Raccoons would devour him on first sight. Which is to say he faced the minimum the first time through the order. Matt Nunley hit a second-inning single, got picked off, and everything was horrendous. For what it was worth, the Arrowheads also had only one runner the first time through, Gutierrez walking Mike Green, but Mendez hit into a double play to clean up. Top 4th, Abel Mora doubled as one of the three players not completely dead at this point, and the third (besides Nunley) of the group, Tovias singled to right as the next man up. Mora was waved around third base and thrown out at home by Faulk, but … ugh, where is the bar in this rotten joint?

The Raccoons *did* take the lead in the fifth inning as the Indians were visibly begging them. Nunley reached on an error by Mendez, and Stalker got hammered with a pitch, putting two on for Cookie, who popped out, and then with two outs for Rico Gutierrez, a pretty dire batter even for a pitcher. That pretty direly hitting pitcher was still better than most of the lineup, hit a ball to center that Man-su Kim gravely misjudged and played into a 2-out, 2-run triple. The Indians put two on with singles in the bottom of the inning, probably because Gutierrez was slightly out of breath from his accelerated jog around three quarters of the infield. Gutierrez lived through seven, putting two on again in his final inning, although to be fair Jon Gonzalez started that with a throwing error that put Mendez aboard. Brody Folk singled, but in a bind, Gutierrez retired Claros, Kim, and PH Mike Cesta in order, with Gonzalez visibly exhaling afterwards. Oh Jon, at least you are starting the offense for SOME TEAM!!

Neither starting pitcher was around by the eighth, with Ryan Corkum facing his team for the last three months of 2024. Walk to Cookie, walk even to Omar Alfaro, and nobody out with the top of the order approaching. Oh please, I'm begging you – ANY sign of life, PAW-LEASE!! Spencer singled to load them up (and to get his average over .200…), and Mora sent a fly to deep left, but couldn't beat Grubbs. It was still a sac fly, Cookie bringing home the third run of the game. Tovias' RBI single ran the tally to 4-0, after which left-hander John McInerney replaced the shackled Corkum although for now there was still a right-handed batter up, .186 monster Jon Gonzalez. He singled over Folk into left to restock the bags. Nunley opened the Indians' veins for good with a fly to center that beat Kim cleanly for a 2-run double, 6-0, and two more runs scored on Dustin Jurek's PH appearance that saw him ground out to Claros, and then Tim Stalker's 2-out RBI single. After that 6-run frame, the rest of the game was mostly Jon Gonzalez getting more entries into the box score. He made a second error in the bottom 8th, and had a second at-bat that wasn't a complete waste of his roster spot in the ninth, hitting a run-scoring groundout for the final score of the game as the Coons whipped the Indians by nine after all. 9-0 Raccoons. Spencer 2-5; Tovias 2-4, BB, RBI; Nunley 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Gutierrez 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (2-0) and 1-2, 3B, 2 RBI;

And it took these nine runs to get the team's runs/game value even over the mark of three. 37 runs in 12 contests now…

How precisely we have made it to half a game out in a densely packed CL North at this point is beyond me.

Game 4
POR: CF Mora – 2B Otis – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Kopp – LF Carmona – SS Jurek – P Sander
IND: 2B Claros – 1B Ri. Mendez – LF Grubbs – 3B M. Green – CF Linnell – SS Folk – RF Staebell – C T. Perez – P Clements

What Rico Gutierrez did to the Indians on Saturday, Jason Clements did to the Raccoons on Sunday, hitting a bases-clearing double off Jack Sander in the bottom 2nd after we had already walked Tony Perez intentionally with two outs. Raul Claros singled to center to score Clements, 4-0, after which Abel Mora came out of the game with a finger ailment – like we have no other issues to worry about! Dwayne Metts replaced him, at which point they could have called off the remaining seven innings given that the Raccoons had a hard time impressing a freshman in junior high with a running nose throwing 75…

One base hit through five innings wasn't going to cut it, and it was even Gonzalez trying to shake the cobwebs off the bat with a double. The first time the Coons had more than one batter on base in an inning occurred in the sixth. Still down by a slam, Metts singled up the middle, his first base knock of the season and raising his average to a healthy .100! Clements lost Otis to a walk, and the same happened to him against Tovias, that one in a full count. Jon Gonzalez was the tying run with nobody out, and he brought in a run alright, although no RBI was awarded on his double play grounder to short that didn't require Brody Folk to move much at all. The Indians pulled the run back right away on John Staebell's 2-out RBI single in the bottom 6th, the last inning delivered by Sander on this sad Sunday. The Raccoons had no rally in them, and to be fair they had never claimed such thing. 5-1 Indians. Kopp 2-4; Spencer (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 16 – RIC MR Eddie Krumm (0-1, inf. ERA) concedes the Rebels' contest with the Stars in the bottom of the 11th inning, 6-5, balking with fellow pitcher DAL MR Matt Diduch (1-0, 0.00 ERA) on third base.
April 19 – DEN SP Chris Sinkhorn (2-1, 3.52 ERA) 3-hits the Pacifics in a 5-0 shutout.
April 20 – The Falcons get smothered by the Knights, 17-3, with Tony Jimenez (.400, 0 HR, 6 RBI) and Andrew Showalter (.373, 3 HR, 10 RBI) both chipping in four hits and two RBI apiece.
April 20 – A 9-run fourth inning paces the Wolves to a 16-7 win over the Warriors, with utility man Raimondo Odescalchi (.339, 3 HR, 9 RBI) landing three base hits and as many RBI, tying for the team lead in both categories.

Complaints and stuff

A walkoff balk occurred! Always my highest holiday.

Once of these days a Raccoon will concede a walkoff balk and I will shoot him in the face with the blunderbuss.

We are coming up on our 4,000th regular season win, slowly but surely. 13 more to go for 4K, so no chance for cake next week, when we will face the Loggers and Falcons.

How much we will see of Abel Mora next week is not known yet. It seems like he has a blister on his throwing hand, which normally shouldn't be a huge issue. Given that his backup is either Metts or Alfaro, we have a vested interest in him pulling through this. Oh, the offense…

Fun Fact: Mark Roberts ranks second in the Continental League with 22 strikeouts after two weeks, trailing NYC Mike Rutkowski with 29. In the Federal League, two pitchers are ahead of him.

This includes Washington's Tadasu Abe with 27 K. While we will see a completely broken discard of us next week, probably, in Jonny Toner, at one point we also had Abe on the "broken discard" pile. He hardly could get anybody out in 2021 and was traded to the Blue Sox mid-season in a 6-player deal that gave us Billy Brotman and Tim Stalker. He remained crummy for Nashville in '21, but once he signed with the Capitals in 2022, he put up respectable numbers again. 14-14 with a 3.35 ERA in 2022, not quite that good in the two most recent years, but he was at least getting people out again.

Yet, while he has struck out 27 batters in 22 innings this year, in three starts he is 0-2 with a 2.86 ERA. Sometimes, the curse of being a Raccoon at one point lasts a lifetime.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (7-6) @ Loggers (7-5) – April 21-23, 2025

Milwaukee had opened the season 7-0, but had lost five in a row by now, including a sweep at the hands of the Titans in which they scored only five runs in four contests over the weekend. Been there, seen that. They ranked seventh in runs scored, eighth in runs allowed, but the points seemed set for trouble already given their pitching ranking near the bottom in many categories. The small sample size was probably keeping their moods up, plus, here came the Critters for healing…

The Raccoons had not lost a season series to the Loggers since all the way back in 2013, including a 9-9 outcome last season, altogether piling up a total record of 121-78 against them in the regular season, including the most unfortunate Nick Lester Game.

Projected matchups:
Graham Wasserman (0-2, 7.59 ERA) vs. Alex Hichez (0-0, 4.15 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (1-0, 1.88 ERA) vs. Jorge Villalobos (1-0, 4.70 ERA)
Mark Roberts (1-1, 2.18 ERA) vs. Jonathan Toner (0-1, 4.50 ERA)

Three right-handers; Hichez would open the series on short rest as Villalobos was dealing with a bum shoulder and couldn't go. They still planned with him for Tuesday, otherwise Jonny Toner would have to go on short rest, and he was far from a delight even on regular rest… in 14 innings to begin the season, Jonny had walked nine and had been at the mercy of the defense.

Game 1
POR: CF Mora – 2B Otis – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Kopp – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Wasserman
MIL: SS Ferrer – 2B J. Stevenson – 1B Tadlock – CF Coleman – RF Feldmann – 3B A. Velez – LF Berntson – C A. Baker – P Hichez

Elias Tovias put the Raccoons up quickly with a first-inning 2-piece, collecting the blistering Abel Mora and his leadoff walk for a rapid 2-0 advance. The team could have gotten so much more early on, but proceeded to leave the bases loaded without scoring in both the second and third innings. In the second, the Loggers helped them out with an error subbing for a double play on Wasserman's grounder with two on and one out, while in the third inning it was straight 2-out singles by Nunley, Kopp, and Stalker that stuffed the bags. Neither Mora and Otis in the second, nor Cookie in the third could make anything out of the fattest plate available. Wasserman struggled with control in a muddled outing, walking a batter every inning while generally watching the Loggers not getting their fly balls to fall in and also chip into a first-inning double play. At the plate, Graham did lead off the fourth inning with a double, eventually scoring on Tovias' 1-out RBI double that sent Otis to third base as well, from where he scored on Jon Gonzalez' sac fly to center, generating a 4-0 lead.

While Wasserman got a bit better in the middle innings and stopped trying to throw balls through both the legs of Elias Tovias and the umpire, the Loggers' battery scored a fifth run for the Coons in the sixth inning that saw Matt Otis singling and taking off with one out Gonzalez batting (and eventually striking out). Adam Baker's throw was errant, allowing Otis to get the steal and then third base for free, and from there Hichez plated him with a wild pitch. Wasserman handed that run right back in the bottom 6th on an Ian Coleman RBI double, but these things were going to happen from time to time. The thing more aggravating was the walk to Ron Tadlock before the double, and the one to Ryan Feldmann after the double… The sixth inning was Wasserman's last, just as it was for Abel Mora, who was replaced defensively by Dwayne Metts. No, the finger hadn't fallen off yet, but we were up by four, so why take chances? The Loggers would take a blip out of the lead briefly in the bottom 8th, in which the miraculously helpless Justin Hess faced three batters, resulting in runners on the corners in a hurry. Vince D allowed one run to score, but kept the lead from disintegrating, and the Coons moved back to slam range in the top 9th on Cookie Carmona's fourth base hit on the day (some of that on crummy defense) was his 108th career triple into the rightfield corner and scored Tim Stalker. Bottom 9th, the Loggers had three on and nobody out with Manny Ferrer singling off Vince D, who walked Josh Stevenson too before yielding to Jonathan Snyder, who surrendered a 3-1 single to Tadlock. One run scored on Coleman grounding to first for a fielder's choice that removed Tadlock and kept the double play in order, but Snyder walked Feldmann anyway. Alberto Velez' sac fly cut the lead to two runs, but Jon Berntson swung through the 3-2 pitch to end the game juuust before it could get really ugly indeed. 6-4 Raccoons. Spencer 1-1; Otis 2-5; Tovias 3-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Stalker 2-5; Carmona 4-5, 3B, RBI;

Helpless Hess? Hapless Hess? There is a nickname somewhere in there! Like Winless Watanabe!

Abel Mora got the day off on Tuesday in deference to the finger issue. That, and the off day on Thursday, that's gotta be enough healing.

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – CF Metts – P Chavez
MIL: SS Ferrer – LF Berntson – 1B Tadlock – CF Coleman – RF Feldmann – 3B A. Velez – 2B March – C A. Baker – P Villalobos

Jesus Chavez sunk in the second inning, first allowing a run on three singles to Feldmann, Velez, and Baker, then issued a 2-out walk to Villalobos, inexplicably. Manny Ferrer's RBI single extended the Loggers' lead to 2-0 on the Coons, who had so far gone down in order against Villalobos, and Cookie had to make a running catch on Jon Berntson's liner to keep the game from breaking wide open right in the second inning. The shoulder-ailing Villalobos remained perfect through three, but allowed leadoff singles to Spencer and Nunley, both to left, in the fourth inning, putting the tying runs aboard for Tovias, who held the team triple crown with a .356 average, 3 HR and 12 RBI, singled up the middle, but not even Spencer could reasonably be sent on Ian Coleman's murder arm and Coleman was on that ball in a hurry. So, three singles, three on, nobody out, and lots of .200-and-worse approaching now, starting with Jon Gonzalez, who was still in his September swoon with a .185 clip and only 4 RBI this season. This was a good spot to break out of a rut! He lined out to Velez, though. In a stunner, the .115 menace Alfaro would flip the score with a bases-clearing triple into the corner, putting the Raccoons up 3-2. Stalker's sac fly added another run to that, only for Chavez, the terrible fool, to give it back when Dan March scored on Villalobos' 2-out single to right in the bottom of the same inning. Oh why. Oh why.

Luckily, both teams had their potential for inept moves. The Coons scratched out a comeback run in the fifth on Tovias' 2-out infield single, which sounds weird already, and was mostly on Manny Ferrer handling the grounder with the clumsiness you'd expect from a nine-year-old wannabe fielder. Jarod Spencer scored on that play, having initially hit a 1-out double to left center. The Loggers pulled another run back on March's RBI double in the bottom 6th, which was also Chavez' last meager inning. Cocking up the effort for good was then left to the bullpen. The first guy to be washed forth from the pen, Jimmy Lee, retired nobody before turning a 5-4 edge into a 7-5 deficit, allowing a single to Ferrer, a walk to PH Danny Munn, and then a 3-run homer to Tadlock in the bottom 7th. Ricky Ohl allowed another run in the eighth against the Loggers, while the Coons stranded pairs in the seventh against Joey Hopkins and in the eighth against a bevy of relievers.

Top 9th; Spencer led off with a base hit, his fourth single of the game, against Brian Gilbert. The right-hander got Nunley to fly out while Spencer stole second, then scored on Tovias' single. Jon Gonzalez rolled a soft single to light up an 0-4 day, and that brought up the go-ahead run in … Alfaro. But even Omar had two hits and three ribbies on the day, so maybe miracles were possible after all. He flew out to Munn in left, Stalker flew out to Coleman in center, and if there were miracles after all, the Raccoons were not yet eligible for one. 8-6 Loggers. Spencer 4-5; Tovias 3-5, 2 RBI; Alfaro 2-5, 3B, 3 RBI; Carmona 2-4; Otis (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – 1B Kopp – LF Carmona – RF Alfaro – P Roberts
MIL: SS Ferrer – CF Coleman – 1B Tadlock – RF Feldmann – 2B Stevenson – 3B A. Velez – C Padilla – LF Berntson – P Toner

The Raccoons weren't seen taking enthusiastic advantage of Jonny-Jonny-Jon-ny To-ner's erratic control and eroded stuff, with Mark Roberts' blooper falling into shallow center in the third inning to plate Cookie Carmona for the first run of the game. Cookie had singled and had stolen second base before. Cookie, who entered the series with four base hits in two weeks, was on eight base hits in three days by the fourth inning, dishing a 2-out, 2-run double into the left-center gap to plate Tovias and Nunley, who had both singled, in running the score to 3-0 on Toner, who had three strikeouts in the game and 15 on the year, but still wasn't exactly fooling anybody. That Cookie tore him up the best was extra ironic – here were two players, who at age 30 had looked like sure-as-damn Hall of Famers, and one of the them (Toner) on the first ballot. Now they were 33 (Cookie) and 34 (Toner) and looked like they would best be left alone with a good book.

For Toner it would get worse before it could get any better in the game. The Loggers called for the intentional walk on .161 batter Omar Alfaro, then got charred on another blooper by Roberts that had the guts to fall in for an RBI single, again plating Cookie. Among the (thin, owing to near-arctic temperatures) crowd were a few hundred of the Raccoons' diehard fans that didn't know whether to cheer or weep at this point. Jarod Spencer hit a hard RBI single, 5-0, before Mora took strike three at the knees. Toner would only last five, and his ERA approached six, while Roberts was not dominant, but also not allowing many chances to the Loggers, who got their best chance during Toner's lifetime in the fourth inning, when Ron Tadlock singled and advanced on Roberts' error, a wild pickoff attempt. Roberts made another error in the sixth, eating a 2-out grounder by Feldmann without properly seasoning it first, but that was the only Loggers runner in the inning. The next time the Loggers got multiple men aboard in an inning was in the eighth, aka the inning where Roberts ran out of steam. Consecutive 3-1 counts resulted in a 1-out single to Ferrer and a walk to Coleman, prompting a move to Ricky Ohl, who walked Tadlock to fill the bags before striking out both Feldmann and former Raccoon Josh Stevenson to keep Milwaukee shut out, a state that didn't change in the ninth inning. 5-0 Coons. Nunley 2-5; Carmona 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Jurek (PH) 1-1; Roberts 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K, W (2-1) and 2-2, 2 RBI;

Raccoons (9-7) @ Falcons (4-12) – April 25-27, 2025

The Falcons had allowed the most runs in the CL so far, 96 in 16 innings, which added up to a pretty grim six runs per game. Their offense was mediocre, but mediocre would be a vast improvement for their pitching, with a rotation that ranked 10th in ERA, and a bullpen that was even worse and ranked last with a 5.73 ERA. The Raccoons had won the season series for two years in a row, both times with a 5-4 final score.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (2-0, 0.44 ERA) vs. Doug Moffatt (0-3, 5.79 ERA)
Jack Sander (1-1, 2.84 ERA) vs. Kyle Anderson (0-3, 11.30 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (1-2, 5.40 ERA) vs. Joel Trotter (0-2, 6.11 ERA)

Their rotation was all right-handed and had three wins in total. All those wins were Greg Gannon's, who shut out the Bayhawks on Thursday – our off day – and was thus out of the picture with his 3-0 record and 1.30 ERA. Their pen, among other horrors, held "Tragic" Travis Garrett, who also had an ERA just over six.

Game 1
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – RF Kopp – SS Stalker – P Gutierrez
CHA: SS Bowman – RF Banfi – LF Kok – 1B Fowlkes – 2B Good – 3B Czachor – CF McClenon – C Sigala – P Moffatt

With the Loggers in the rear-view mirror, Cookie seemed to revert to crummy, hitting into a double play with two on and nobody out in the second inning. Terry Kopp picked up the tap, sending an RBI single into rightfield for the first run in the game. Rico sat down the Falcons in order the first time through, but Sean Bowman reached on a Gonzalez error in the bottom 4th and eventually scored on base hits by Pat Fowlkes and Matt Good with two down in the inning, which tied up this game at one. It got worse in the fifth inning, though, and then it was Rico's fault as he allowed a 2-out single to Moffatt, then a double into the gap to Bowman. The Falcons sent the pitcher around third, and the Raccoons dawdled the ball on the infield long enough to allow not only Moffatt to score, but also for Bowman to reach third base, from where he went on to score on a wild pitch. Since the Coons did little to nothing against Moffatt, the Falcons were now ahead 3-1 after five.

Cookie was aboard leading off the sixth, reaching on an uncaught third strike blamed on Jairo Sigala, a 25-year-old Dominican rookie in his fifth major league game. Terry Kopp was supposed to do something about a free runner like that, but struck out. Tim Stalker doubled to right, putting the tying runs in scoring position with one out, which forced the Raccoons' hands in retiring Gutierrez after just six innings. Matt Otis batted for him, but grounded out to Good. While that scored Cookie, it was not enough, with Ryan Czachor cleanly handling Spencer's subsequent grounder, and the Coons remained down 3-2. Moffatt lasted eight, whiffing ten, then made way for left-hander Danny Munos in the ninth. Munos, 35, had been a closer twice before in his career, and both times for losing teams. 3.2 innings into this year, his ERA was 12.27, and he had three walks against one strikeout. However, he faced three left-handers starting with Nunley, who grounded out to Good. Alfaro batted for Cookie for the sake of a platoon advantage. He struck out. Tony Delgado batted for Kopp, rolled out to Czachor, and Gutierrez cashed defeat for the first time this season. 3-2 Falcons. Gonzalez 2-4; Stalker 1-2, BB;

The Raccoons made two roster changes after the game, one of them humiliating. Dwayne Metts was DFA'ed batting 1-for-16, and Omar Alfaro was sent to St. Petersburg outright batting .152. We recalled Greg Borg, who was 26 and thus two years older than Alfaro and batting .308 in AAA, as well INF Sam Armetta, who was batting .400 even.

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – RF Kopp – SS Otis – P Sander
CHA: SS Bowman – RF McClenon – 1B Fowlkes – LF Kok – 3B Czachor – 2B Good – C Mattaliano – CF M. Clark – P K. Anderson

Charlotte put up a near-instant run in the bottom 1st with Bowman and Joseph McClenon getting sharp singles off Jack Sander to go to the corners. Pat Fowlkes' sac fly to center brought in the game's first run, while Sander came back with K's to Barend Kok and Ryan Czachor to stay in control somewhat. McClenon would rob Sander on a line drive in the second inning with the game tied following Gonzalez' leadoff double, Cookie's RBI single, and another double by Kopp, who seemed to slowly shake off the coma. Otis' grounder in front of the plate got in nobody, and while off the bat Sander sure looked like trouble and two runs, McClenon denied him with a superb play that got the Falcons fans cheering. The crowd soon saw their team renew their lead in the bottom of the fourth, with Sander walking both Kok and Czachor in front of three left-handed batters. He managed to stave off Good for the second out, but Paul Mattaliano and Matt Clark both smacked RBI singles to put the Coons into the same 3-1 hole they hadn't emerged from in the Friday game already.

Throughout the middle innings, the Raccoons hardly existed at the plate, but it was hard to swing a bat with a plate on which several slices of cake were piled up. Only Matt Nunley, an expert at stuffing one's snoot, managed a single, and was left to munch at first base thereafter. Otis hit a single in the seventh to no greater effect. Kyle Anderson, who had been clobbered in his first three outings of the year, cruised through eight, and when the Raccoons brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth that was only due to an error by Matt Good. Munos was back at it in the ninth; this time Cookie was allowed to hit for himself and singled, bringing up Kopp as the tying run with nobody out. Kopp also batted for himself and beat Chris Erskine in center for a double, but Cookie had to hold at second base until the ball dropped in and couldn't make a run for home. But the tying runs were in scoring position with nobody out for Otis, who flew out to shallow left, and then Tony Delgado as pinch-hitter for Vince Devereaux. Delgado, the grizzled veteran, creamed a poor 1-1 offering into the left-center gap to tie the score, both runners scoring casually as Delgado cruised into second base on the double, only to be swiftly relieved by pinch-runner Tim Stalker, but two groundouts by Spencer and Mora were not suitable for any sort of runner to score. Kevin Surginer retired the Falcons in order in the bottom 9th, sending the game to extras, where the Raccoons took the lead in the top 10th on Jon Gonzalez hitting a double to left-center, then advancing on a Munos balk and a passed ball charged to Mattaliano. WHATEVER WORKS!! Snyder also worked, retiring Kok, Czachor, and Good in order in the bottom of the inning to squeeze this one to conclusion. 4-3 Raccoons. Gonzalez 2-5, 2 2B; Nunley 2-5; Carmona 2-5, RBI; Kopp 2-4, 2 2B; Delgado (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI;

Like I say. WHATEVER WORKS.

Game 3
POR: 2B Spencer – LF Carmona – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Kopp – C Delgado – SS Stalker – P Wasserman
CHA: SS Bowman – RF McClenon – 1B Fowlkes – LF Kok – 3B Czachor – 2B Good – C Mattaliano – CF Erskine – P Trotter

An error by Fowlkes put Jarod Spencer on base to begin the rubber game, but Spencer was caught stealing to get Trotter out of the first in three batters anyway. The Falcons scored, however, getting three hits, a walk, and only one run out of the relentlessly foundering Wasserman. They stranded another full set in the second, this time without scoring, when a Bowman single, McClenon reaching on Gonzalez' error, and Fowlkes working a walk all occurred with two outs and Barend Kok couldn't get the ball past Cookie. Wasserman also couldn't bunt properly in the third inning; the Coons had two on and nobody out, and also still no base hit. Delgado walked, Stalker was hit, and Wasserman knocked one hard at Fowlkes, who went for the lead runner at third base, and Delgado was well dead there. The Coons couldn't pull through, Spencer hitting into a fielder's choice and Cookie not getting past Kok either.

Still hitless, the Raccoons had the bases loaded in the fifth inning, courtesy of Trotter walking Stalker (who stole second base), Wasserman(!), and Spencer in order, putting Cookie into the slam spot with one out. Although to be honest… a single would do. He got nothing, popping out to Good over the infield, and Abel Mora struck out to keep the Coons in the hitless, runless dust, and 1-0 behind as well. The Falcons struggled to tack on, but had runners on the corners in the fifth until Czachor smacked one to Stalker for an inning-ending double play.

Trotter kept the Coons hitless through six, but his pitch count had long exploded due to the five walks issued. He started the seventh on 91 pitches, five walks, and six strikeouts, before Tony Delgado humorlessly ended his shenanigans with a crisp single over Good into shallow right. That was a single, and that was also the ****ing tying run once more. Stalker singled, but Otis fouled out when he batted for Wasserman. Spencer hit a ball to the left side, past the diving Czachor and into the outfield for the third hit of the inning. Delgado was waved around since Barend Kok was not to the ball very quickly and also did not have the strongest arm, and slid in just a step and a half ahead of the throw. The trailing runners advanced into scoring position, too, now in a game tied at one, but Cookie and Mora failed again. One flew out to Kok, the other grounded out to second base. Joel Trotter stuck around long enough to break Terry Kopp's wrist with a fastball in the eighth inning, requiring Kopp's removal for Greg Borg.

Top 9th, Justin Fleming allowed 1-out singles to PH Elias Tovias and Jarod Spencer. Cookie was in the crosshairs again, 0-for-4 on the day, but we were now short on reserves and the game was likely to go to extra innings anyway if one was to send up Sam Armetta now. Cookie grounded out, remaining a big zipper in the box score, but Abel Mora broke up his oh-fer with two outs, singling up the middle to plate both runners! Jon Gonzalez grounded out, but Snyder had no issues as he faced the bottom of the order in the bottom of the inning, and turned the Falcons away 1-2-3 to notch a series win. 3-1 Furballs! Spencer 2-4, BB, RBI; Stalker 1-2, BB; Tovias (PH) 1-1;

The Kopp injury smells. You don't like to lose one of your best (.200) batters.

In other news

April 21 – Persistent elbow soreness puts TOP SP Carlos Marron (1-0, 2.29 ERA) on the shelf. The 29-year-old is expected to be shut down until the end of May at least.
April 23 – The Miners break through against the Cyclones with an 8-run eighth inning, claiming an 11-3 victory. 1B Josh Keen (.306, 1 HR, 9 RBI) and INF/LF/RF Hector Rodriguez (.350, 0 HR, 3 RBI) lead the winning team with four base hits each, while Keen also drives in three runs.
April 24 – Knights fans are distraught by news as 28-year-old ATL LF/RF Johnny Stuckey (.283, 1 HR, 7 RBI) is reported in critical, but stable condition after losing control kite-surfing and crashing into a hut near the beach on the Knights' off day. With several fractures and foremost a pretty bad concussion, Stuckey is ruled out for returning during the 2025 season.
April 24 – BOS SP Dustin Wingo (0-1, 5.71 ERA) is out with shoulder inflammation and could miss the rest of the season.
April 25 – 34 hits and 32 runs are the total tally of the Loggers' seesaw, 18-14 win over the Condors in Tijuana. 37-year-old RF/LF Ryan Feldmann (.273, 1 HR, 15 RBI) collects three base hits, two doubles, and a game-high 7 RBI,
April 26 – PIT LF/CF/INF Carlos de la Riva (.353, 0 HR, 9 RBI) chains together a 20-game hitting streak with two base knocks in a 9-4 defeat to the Wolves. The streak started in the final week of the 2024 season, with 17 of the 20 games being part of the '25 season.
April 26 – The Wolves trade super utility player Raimondo Odescalchi (.296, 3 HR, 10 RBI) to the Rebels for 3B/2B Adrian Alvarez (.254, 0 HR, 4 RBI).
April 27 – DAL SP Jeff Dykstra (2-1, 2.17 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout against the Buffaloes, clinching the 2-0 win.

Complaints and stuff

The Druid is doing his all, and is already hard at work squeezing out Higher Colombian Spotted Slime Beetles for a healing paste – I am told by the way that the Lower Colombian Spotted Slime Beetles and all variants of the Ecuadorian and Bolivian Slime Beetles are no good for a healing paste – for Kopp's wrist, but at the end of the day it's a broken wrist alright and he's probably going to miss six weeks. The real question is how that hurts our offense, if at all, but we sure need to call up another outfielder, and it's not going to be the just recently banished Omar Alfaro.

We will have to see whether Johnny Stuckey can return to baseball, but for now, this week, 25-year-old Venezuelan Lucan Giannini, a Buffaloes bench piece, retired due to another nasty concussion. Giannini never crossed our paths, getting only 157 at-bats in parts of four seasons, batting .248 with one homer.

Fun Fact: Cookie Carmona hit a grand slam once in his career, in a June 8, 2013 game against the Scorpions. Jorge Gine was saddled with the 8-1 loss, while Rich Hood picked up the win.

The rest of that lineup is a bit of a walk down memory lane, but not often for the right reasons: 1B Sambrano – CF Carmona – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – LF J. Alexander – 2B Palmer – SS Canning – 3B Rodgers – P Hood

That is Walt Canning by the way, who fraudulently extolled over 800 at-bats from the Coons across six seasons while batting for a .665 OPS and never held a major league job for any other team, and Ken Rodgers, a longtime Elk who held his last job of significance with the Coons that season and batted .213 with seven homers for it. Matt Nunley debuted late in the season and put an end to Rodgers' shenanigans.

[Westheim]

The Raccoons started their week with an off day on Monday which was used to send Terry Kopp to the DL with that broken wrist, leaving them with three outfielders; Cookie Carmona, who had boosted his average to .281 the previous week, and which was certainly a fake glimmer of hope, Abel Mora in a 2-for-23 slump, and … Greg Borg. We reluctantly called up Justin Gerace, hitting .377 with five homers in AAA, in vain hope for a spark and that our newly-installed team leadership could stop him from being a distraction again.

Raccoons (11-8) @ Thunder (11-8) – April 29-May 1, 2025

Despite scoring at a rate generally best described as "hesitantly" (3.4 R/G), the Raccoons had enjoyed(?) a fairly decent start to the season and sat second in a tightly-packed CL North as they were on the way to the last stop on their elongated road trip, hitting up with the Thunder, who had the same record, plated a spiffy six runs per game, but lacked any sound pitching at all. Early on it was still enough for first in the South, but how far exactly was a 5.01 ERA rotation going to carry a team? The Coons in any case hadn't won a season series against Oklahoma for three years, and had gone down without much of a squeal in 2024, dropping seven of the nine games then.

Projected matchups:
Jesus Chavez (1-0, 3.10 ERA) vs. Danny Martin (2-1, 6.98 ERA)
Mark Roberts (2-1, 1.61 ERA) vs. Andy Palomares (3-0, 3.90 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (2-1, 1.01 ERA) vs. Tim Sloan (2-2, 3.86 ERA)

Those two right-handers on the tail end of the series where by far the Thunder's best. Southpaw Martin was their worst, but sometimes even an ERA pushing seven can merit a winning record apparently…

Game 1
POR: 2B Spencer – 3B Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – C Delgado – LF Gerace – SS Stalker – RF Borg – P Chavez
OCT: LF Millan – CF D. Garcia – C Pizzo – SS Serrato – RF Sagredo – 1B L. Davis – 2B Ts'ai – 3B Flournoy – P D. Martin

Jon Gonzalez made his fifth(!) error of the season, far outpacing his home run rate, in the opening inning, fumbling the sorry grounder of .357 batter Dave Garcia, the constantly-broken former Baybird. Mike Pizzo's double play grounder to Spencer kept the error from being an issue, but COME ON GONZALEZ!! Justin Gerace tripled in the second, which was not enough for a run in either a vacuum or the Coons' lineup, while Chavez stacked the bags by hitting Luis Sagredo in the bottom 2nd, followed by Luke Davis and Zheng-ze Ts'ai singling, but David Flournoy found his way into a double play. Chavez remained the horror, though, issuing an unforgiveable leadoff walk to Danny Martin in the bottom 3rd, drilling the brittle Garcia, and then surrendering RBI singles to both Pizzo and Sagredo to fall 2-0 behind.

While Abel Mora gave the Raccoons a flicker of hope with a solo homer in the fourth inning, hope was entirely misplaced here. Jesus Chavez sucked the living **** out of the baseball and got pummeled from the game in the bottom of the fifth. Dave Garcia homered, #4 for him, and Pizzo and Sagredo hit doubles to zoom out to a 4-1 lead before Luke Davis and Ts'ai both drew 1-out walks. Bases loaded, Justin Hess in, despite his tendency to just keep the line moving with six walks in 4.1 innings. He struck out Flournoy, then conceded a 2-run single to the opposing pitcher, which was a continuous Raccoons habit that was driving me up the wall. Down by five, the Raccoons were completely dead. They collected two more extra-base hits in the game, a Delgado double leading nowhere nice in the seventh, and a double by Greg Borg in the eighth, which at least saw him score following a Cookie single and Spencer's sac fly. That was indeed all. 6-2 Thunder. Carmona 1-1;

Matt Nunley did not appear in this game. With that, only Gonzalez, Spencer, and Stalker have featured in all Raccoons contests this season.

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – LF Gerace – RF Carmona – SS Jurek – P Roberts
OCT: RF Sagredo – SS Serrato – LF Dobbs – CF D. Garcia – 1B J. Elliott – 2B Ts'ai – C Kubesh – 3B Flournoy – P Palomares

Both teams had three base runners in the first three innings without plating any of them. For the Raccoons it was three disjointed singles, while the Thunder reached by various means, like Roberts' very first pitch in the game finding Sagredo's ribs. Matt Nunley broke the scoreless tie with a solo home run in the fourth inning, his first longball of the season, and it seemed very much like that was all that Mark Roberts was ever going to get. Unfortunately he walked Sagredo with two outs in the bottom 5th, allowed a single to Serrato, and then a 3-run blast to Brett Dobbs, who until this point had not logged an RBI in 2025. Roberts, the fool, would not log another out; from here on out it was single, homer, single homer, and then he was hauled in laden with a 7-1 deficit that he thoroughly deserved. As did the rest of the bunch. When Ricky Ohl allowed singled to Flournoy and Palomares (GODDAMNIT!!!) it gave the Thunder a full run through the entire lineup with everybody reaching base… AND WITH TWO OUTS! Sagredo grounded out then, but what did it matter, as we were all covered in shards of shattered hopes? The Thunder added a 4-spot to their 7-spot in the following inning. Jarod Spencer's throwing error on Serrato's grounder that started the mess led to three of the runs being eventually unearned, but that could hardly mask that Dave Garcia and John Kubesh hit two more 2-run homers off Ricky Ohl, giving Oklahoma five multiple-run dingers in this rotten contest. The Raccoons would have the final say in the game with Justin Gerace's RBI double in the eighth, but that merely prevented them from getting stomped by double digits. 11-2 Thunder. Mora 2-4; Nunley 2-4, HR, RBI; Carmona 2-4, 2 2B; Armetta (PH) 1-2;

So, with that it is safe to declare the Raccoons not fit for competition and we will file papers for their legal disbandment before the end of the week.

While the league's mulling over that one, it's also time to clean up the cleanup spot where Jon Gonzalez is playing and smelling like a corpse. With Cookie batting over .300 now by virtue of a treacherous mirage, he's moved back to the leadoff spot, and everybody slides down one notch, except for Gonzalez, who slides down a bushel.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – LF Gerace – SS Stalker – P Gutierrez
OCT: RF Sagredo – SS Serrato – LF Dobbs – CF D. Garcia – 1B J. Elliott – 2B Ts'ai – C Kubesh – 3B Flournoy – P T. Sloan

The Raccoons homered first again, a 2-piece by Abel Mora in the opening inning that cashed in on Spencer's 1-out single, and lo and behold, Jon Gonzalez – dropped to the #6 spot – hit an RBI double in the same inning to score Tovias, who had also doubled. What's more, Gonzalez hit a 2-out RBI single in the very next inning as the Raccoons continued to take Tim Sloan to town. Gonzalez' RBI single came after Mora's own RBI single in the inning, and the bases remained loaded for Gerace, who drew a walk to extend the score with a sixth run. Stalker grounded out.

You'd be tempted to think that Rico Gutierrez could handle a 6-run advantage for sufficient time to reduce the bullpen's dynamite potential to a minimum, but that would be where you'd be wrong. Both the first and second innings began with infield singles, and both of those runners would score. What was even worse was the fact that yet another ****ing Raccoons pitcher allowed a 2-run base hit to yet another ****ing non-Raccoons pitcher, in this case an RBI double to cut the lead to 6-2, and from there we went Sagredo single, Serrato double, Dobbs double, and when Dave Garcia struck out he left the tying run in scoring position in a 6-5 game after two tiny frames. The Thunder comeback was complete by the third inning thanks to Ts'ai tripling and then scoring on Kubesh's grounder to second base.

Ts'ai made an error in the fourth inning that allowed the Raccoons to take the lead anew; Mora was on first with one out for Nunley, who grounded to the second baseman. Ts'ai's feed to Serrato was sufficiently poor to deny not only the likely double play, but any play, and Jon Gonzalez' single to center scored Mora from second base, 7-6. Tim Stalker would chip in an RBI single before Gutierrez was allowed to bat for himself against reliever Max Nelson, which didn't end well for Gutierrez. Up 8-6 it still seemed like he might be able to drag himself through five innings at least, until John Elliott homered in the fifth and the miserable Ts'ai hit yet another triple past Gerace. Vince Devereaux replaced him and got out of the inning without the tying run coming across, maintaining a ludicrous 8-7 lead, to which the Coons wouldn't tack on anymore. Nelson whiffed five over 3.2 innings, and was succeeded by similarly untouchable relief pitching, while the Coons scrambled to line up their own bullpen. Hess pitched the sixth without imploding, which was laudable, and Surginer gave the Coons five outs from five batters. Billy Brotman retired Flournoy to end the eighth, then remained on the mound for the ninth with left-handers up to start the inning and Jonathan Snyder having pitched an inning in the previous night's rout. Snyder came on with one out and the tying run on first after Brotman walked PH Ezra Branch in the #1 spot. Two pitches to Alex Serrato ended the game, with the 1-0 being hit sharply at Matt Nunley, who started a 5-4-3 just as sharp to wrap up the Thunder. 8-7 Furballs. Spencer 2-4, BB; Mora 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Gonzalez 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Surginer 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Raccoons (12-10) vs. Crusaders (10-11) – May 2-4, 2025

The Crusaders were in last place, which probably meant they were pissed and the more dangerous. Offense hadn't been their thing so far – though not comparable with the Coons' level of just not hitting – and they were tied for ninth in runs scored. Runs conceded saw them fifth in the CL, but overall with a -7 run differential. Their pen had been significantly better than their rotation. New York held a 2-1 edge in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Jack Sander (1-1, 3.16 ERA) vs. Chris Klein (2-2, 2.76 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (1-2, 4.37 ERA) vs. Ed Hague (2-1, 1.69 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (1-1, 4.74 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (1-1, 4.18 ERA)

Right, right, right. There were some injuries to their lineup, though, with Xavier Garcia (hammy) and Sergio Valdez (rib cage) both on the DL. The latter had batted .340 and both were sorely missed. Also, Nate Ellis was on the DL with back stiffness and was reportedly ready to return, but had to wait out his 15 days. He was eligible to come back on Sunday.

Game 1
NYC: CF Douglas – RF Hodgers – 3B Schmit – SS McWhorter – 1B A. Diaz – LF Loya – 2B R. Soto – C Walston – P Klein
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – LF Gerace – SS Otis – P Sander

Few showed their peak performance in the Friday opener, with Matt Otis failing completely at short, conceding all the balls hit in his vicinity on Sander's ledger either for hits or that one error, while Sander himself had such bad control that he blasted through 100 pitches in the sixth inning of what could have been a 2-hit shutout, and Matt Nunley had a Bad Hair Day, with unkempt fur protruding wildly from beneath the ill-fitting cap. At least he didn't fall over any balls to third base… With Sander done after the top of the sixth, the Raccoons had staked him to the slimmest of leads, a 1-0 edge courtesy of Cookie and Mora both doubling in the first inning. When a second RBI fell into the Coons' box score, that was Mora's too, attained on a solo home run off Klein in the bottom 6th. While Jimmy Lee logged four outs for the Coons as they tried to inch the victory to completion, Billy Brotman was the next guy to fall by the wayside, struggling with control as well and putting the tying runs in scoring position in the eighth on a walk to Victor Hodgers, a single to Andy Schmit, and Justin Gerace's error overrunning the Schmit ball in leftfield didn't help either. Kevin Surginer inherited two on, two out, and once formidable lineup cornerstone Tom McWhorter at the plate. The 36-year-old in his first Continental League season was batting .300 with three dingers. Any base hit was very bad right now. He grounded out to Nunley in a full count, and the entire park exhaled audibly. In the bottom 8th Klein, who technically was on the losing end but had never been in serious trouble, finally arrived at his own spot of bother, loading the bags with Cookie (single), Spencer (single), and Mora (walk) and only one out. Elias Tovias had not had an RBI since April 22, but this would be a chiefly good spot for it! Tovias turned around a 1-2 pitch for a single to right, and it would be Nunley to wear the fool's cap when he hit into a double play to strand three. He angrily scratched his itching back fur with the knob end of the bat as he trudged back to the dugout. As Snyder had been in consecutive games now and Surginer had yet to have a "moment", no pitching change occurred for the ninth; at least until there were two on with one out. Snyder came out after all, got a grounder from Pat Walston (40 years old!) to Jarod Spencer, and Spencer was agile enough to call ballgame against a guy that ran like a 40-year-old for sure. 3-0 Furballs. Carmona 3-4, 2B; Mora 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Tovias 2-4, RBI; Sander 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (2-1);

Game 2
NYC: CF Douglas – RF Hodgers – 3B Schmit – SS McWhorter – 2B Walter – 1B A. Diaz – LF Loya – C Walston – P Klein
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – C Delgado – RF Borg – SS Stalker – P Sander

Ed Hague gave his darndest to get in line with the pile of pitchers that had already put the hurt on the Coons this season, but Spencer made a jumping catch on his impressive line drive in the second inning that came with two outs and Angel Diaz and Ricky Loya in scoring position. It was one of the harder hit balls in a game in which neither team tore out a limb to overdo it with the offense. Through six the score would be tied at one, with the runs occurring on a Gonzalez homer (a sign of life!) in the fourth and Andy Schmit being moved around after a leadoff double in the sixth inning. Wasserman went seven without getting any more support, and the second Justin Hess entered the game in the eighth inning he allowed singles to Schmit (who was run for by Robby Soto) and McWhorter. Soto stole third with Ricky Ohl already having replaced Hess, then scored on Blake Doering's groundout to second base to break the tie. Ricky Loya homered off Ohl in the ninth to extend the gap to two runs. Facing Steve Casey (13 K in 9.1 IP) in the bottom 9th, the Coons at least got the tying run up with nobody out thanks to Nunley's leadoff single to right. Delgado struck out. Gerace struck out. Stalker fell to two strikes, but then …! Then he grounded out to Doering at second base. 3-1 Crusaders. Nunley 2-4;

Oh how I wish for a Daniel Hall-shaped batter from time to time……

Game 3
NYC: CF Douglas – 1B A. Diaz – 3B Schmit – RF Ellis – SS McWhorter – 2B Walter – LF Shaffer – C Walston – P A. Mendez
POR: RF Carmona – LF Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – SS Stalker – 2B Armetta – P Chavez

While Nate Ellis' first at-bat off the DL was a leadoff jack in the second, and the Crusaders tacked on a run on Lance Douglas doubling and stealing third base in the third inning with a well-placed out by Diaz after that, the Raccoons continued to display their usual disturbing semi-conscious automatism of strolling to the plate, doing nothing, and returning to the dugout, with no recollection of what had happened in the meantime. By the sixth and still only up by two runs, "Ant" Mendez and the Crusaders looked like sure winners in this rubber game until Matt Nunley reached on a bloop single to center and Jon Gonzalez rammed a ball over the fence in leftfield, his third homer of the season and second of the week. Chavez struck out eight through seven innings, then was allowed to bat for himself in the bottom 7th, leading off. He singled, to the Crusaders' great disturbance, before being forced on Cookie's grounder to the shortstop McWhorter. Spencer singled hard to center, placing speed in scoring position with one out for Mora, who didn't help the cause with a groundout to Diaz. Tovias flew out to Hodgers in deep left, keeping the score tied.

Tied it remained through eight, which was as far as Chavez went against the Crusaders. Kevin Surginer would face the heart of the order in the ninth inning, and somehow pulled through despite Schmit's leadoff single, Soto running for him again, AND a wild pitch moving him into scoring position. Surginer also struck out Ellis and Shane Walter to escape the sticky situation. When "Ant" Mendez completed nine without soaking another run, the Coons required an outfield assist by Abel Mora that killed Armando Leal at third base to survive the top of the 10th, but at least they could bring up the juicy part of their lineup against Casey in the bottom of the inning. Here it was the Crusaders' own failures that even produced them a chance after Mora struck out and Tovias rolled one over. Nunley singled, but Gonzalez' grounder to Robby Soto at third base should have ended the inning, really. It didn't because Soto's throw never arrived with Angel Diaz at first base, but sent everybody in the Coons' dugout scattering before the ball hit off the facing of the dugout roof after all and bounced back into foul ground. That put runners in scoring position for all .179 of Stalker's bat. He hit the ball to deep left on a 1-1 pitch … but J.D. Laughery made a decently appealing catch out there to extend the game.

After Portland stranded Cookie aboard in the 11th, and we began to run seriously low on pitchers, the 12th brought up the 3-4-5 crew again against Travis Giordano in the 12th. Mora grounded out, but Tovias and Nunley singled with one out. That gave Jon Gonzalez a chance again to win back some lost credit. He popped out to short, pulling up Stalker again, which was such a thrill. The count ran full, any moment Stalker could rip over ball four, but he didn't, instead grounding to left. Matt Nunley would have had that one. But Matt Nunley was on first base. The ball escaped between Soto and McWhorter, and with two outs Tovias was in full flight around third base. Laughery's throw bounced early and was too late even for the catcher, who ended the game in walkoff fashion! 3-2 Critters! Spencer 3-6; Nunley 4-5, BB; Chavez 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K and 2-3;

In other news

April 28 – The Wolves report SP Alex Telles (2-0, 5.61 ERA) to miss the rest of the season with a torn labrum.
April 29 – The Canadiens beat the Falcons, 1-0, on a ninth-inning homer by OF Elijah Luckett (.306, 1 HR, 10 RBI).
April 30 – VAN OF Tony Coca (.364, 2 HR, 16 RBI) is going to miss at least one week with a sprained finger.
May 1 – The hitting streak of Pittsburgh's Carlos de la Riva (.325, 1 HR, 11 RBI) ends at 23 games after a dry day in a 13-4 rout the Miners suffer in Los Angeles.
May 1 – The Blue Sox' pitching keeps diminishing with an injury to SP Josh Bell (0-3, 5.79 ERA). The 24-year-old is done for the season with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.
May 3 – The Falcons walk off on the Thunder on MR Max Nelson's (0-1, 3.46 ERA) throwing a wild pitch in the bottom of the 12th to allow Chris Erskine to score from third base and give Charlotte an 11-10 win.
May 4 – NAS SP Juan Muniz (2-3, 2.97 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout in 5-0 win over the Rebels.
May 4 – Goat of the game in the Warriors' 10-inning, 4-3 loss in Dallas is SFW MR Ken Gautney (0-2, 7.94 ERA, 6 SV), who ends the game with a walkoff balk.
May 4 – The Bayhawks murder the Condors, 14-1, with SFB C/1B Mike Pizzo (.295, 4 HR, 18 RBI) chipping in four hits and 3 RBI.

Complaints and stuff

Walkoff balk!! =)

Dwayne Metts went unclaimed on waivers, eventually ending up in St. Petersburg again this week. Some things always seem to come full circle, like the Raccoons leeching all the fun out of baseball.

Cookie Carmona has started to hit balls again, at least for a few days. So we promptly moved him back to the top of the order out of desperation and blind hope against hope. Since being in leadoff, he's gone .235/.316/.294 – make of that what you want.

The stinking Elks come in for four next week, and then we will be off on a quick hop to Sacramento.

Fun Fact: Pat Walston debuted with the Blue Sox in 2007 when the Raccoons' primary catcher was Craig Bowen, who on August 31 of that season against the Loggers became the so far only ABL hitter to hit four home runs in a single game.

Walston spent the majority of his career for the Blue Sox (nine seasons), while Bowen spent the majority of his with the Coons. His two stints of 6 1/2 seasons in total were separated by a stint with … the Blue Sox.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (14-11) vs. Canadiens (11-13) – May 5-8, 2025

Last year, the Raccoons had been whooped by the Elks, 5-13 in total, which was something I was never going to live through again because I was either going to kill all the suckers on the roster or was going to die from agony while trying if they were going to lose game upon game to the ****ing Elks again. The time to face them seemed good, as they had lost their last five games coming into town. Of course we are all scarred in our hearts and souls and can remember several instances where they came in bruised and beaten and still won all three or four games here… as of now, they were scoring the third-most runs in the league but had no pitching to speak of, with them tied for most runs conceded, a meager rotation, and a bullpen that outrageously couldn't hold a towel for two minutes, let alone a lead. Their pen was getting raped and murdered to a 6.55 ERA tune.

Projected matchups:
Mark Roberts (2-2, 3.31 ERA) vs. Bryce Sudar (1-2, 3.34 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (2-1, 2.87 ERA) vs. Luis Vasquez (1-2, 5.85 ERA)
Jack Sander (2-1, 2.56 ERA) vs. Fernando Estrada (0-1, 7.29 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (1-2, 3.64 ERA) vs. Greg Becker (0-2, 3.20 ERA)

Three right-handers, followed by one of their two southpaws for this 4-game set.

Game 1
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – 2B Gura – LF A. Torres – CF Chaplin – SS Calfee – 1B Myles – RF Luckett – C Holliman – P Sudar
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – LF Gerace – SS Otis – P Roberts

The shame parade continued relentlessly, with the first run of the opener being brought in on Bryce Sudar's 2-out RBI single in the second inning. John Calfee scored after drawing a leadoff walk initially. The damage, though grim, was not yet permament thanks to Sudar's throwing error in the bottom of the third inning that allowed Justin Gerace to reach base leading off the inning. The Coons cobbled three singles together from their 1-2-3 batters, all with two outs, to plate two unearned runs on Sudar, who surely couldn't complain about that outcome, and after Roberts wobbled mightily for two innings without conceding the lead, the same part of the lineup gave Sudar trouble again in the fifth inning. After Roberts made an easy out to begin the bottom 5th, Sudar saw Cookie Carmona reach on an infield single where John Calfee and Ted Gura got into each other's pants trying to field the roller up the middle. Jarod Spencer singled cleanly up the middle, and both then took off for a successful double steal on the not-so-well aging Ryan Holliman. The Elks went on to walk Abel Mora intentionally, which was a keen gamble ahead of Elias Tovias, who unfortunately popped out on the first pitch. Not Matt Nunley though – much the opposite, Nunley popped Sudar from the game with a 2-run single to left-center, extending the lead to 4-1. Jon Gonzalez then flew out against right-hander Fernando Ortega, who nevertheless surrendered Justin Gerace's first dinger of the year in the following inning, 5-1. All the while Roberts was not exactly excellent, didn't overdo it on the strikeouts, but with the extended lead there was much less panic about him. Roberts made it into the ninth inning, but didn't get an out there. Alex Torres hit a leadoff triple, then was brought in by Mike Chaplin's blooper into shallow right that dropped in front of Greg Borg, who had replaced Cookie after some pinch-hitting earlier. Jonathan Snyder replaced Roberts, and things got much, much worse. John Calfee singled, and after Adan Myles struck out the Coons in horror saw Elijah Luckett double up the rightfield line to score both runners. It was now a 5-4 game, and the panic was back. Holliman flew out, but Snyder drilled PH Raul Mendez, getting back to the top of the order now. That was where Jonathan Morales hit a pop over the infield, where Tim Stalker and Sam Armetta almost took each other out before Stalker made the catch. 5-4 Coons. Carmona 2-4; Spencer 3-4; Roberts 8.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (3-2);

So, if Stalker and Armetta were in the middle infield at the end of the game, where was Spencer?

In the trainer's room, following an on-base collision with Calfee in the seventh inning. We were very worried, and rightfully so; just after the game ended, the Druid came back with some good news / bad news. Spencer's jammed ankle was not broken, but sprained well enough and he was probably going to miss an entire month.

Oh great. Kicks to the nuts.

The Raccoons had to make a roster move, disabling Jarod Spencer's .303 bat, and bringing back Omar Alfaro who had batted .323 with three homers in nine games in St. Pete.

Game 2
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – 2B Gura – LF A. Torres – CF Coca – RF O'Rourke – SS Calfee – 1B Myles – C Holliman – P Vasquez
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 2B Otis – SS Stalker – P Gutierrez

The writing for this game was on the wall early, with a Rico Gutierrez off-day conspiring with eight right-handed batters in the opposing lineup for some extra mileage for the brown-clad outfielders. The Elks were indeed hitting rocket after rocket off Rico, and it was a mild miracle that it took until a Ted Gura bomb with two outs in the third that they hit one out of the park. That was a solo job, and the Raccoons pulled it back with a 2-run of their own in the bottom of the inning, Nunley singling in Stalker, but there was no reason to expect Gutierrez to suddenly get his **** together. And he didn't! Tovias bailed him out in the fourth by throwing out John Calfee trying to swipe second, but in the fifth it was Vasquez and Morales on the corners and Ted Gura batting with two outs. Gura found the gap in left-center, almost hit it all the way to the track, and Vasquez scored handily to break the tie. Morales was sent around, but thrown out by Tim Stalker, relaying a rocket by Abel Mora, to end the inning. And Abel was not to back down so soon! Gutierrez led off the bottom 5th with a flyout to Dave O'Rourke, after which both Cookie and Nunley reached with singles. Abel Mora came, saw, and conquered, ramming a 3-run homer to right that flipped the score in the Coons' favor, 4-2.

Unfortunately, Gutierrez reared his ugly head again. He retired nobody in the sixth on his way to blow the lead. Alex Torres walked, Tony Coca singled, a wild pitch plated Torres, and then O'Rourke plated two including himself with a homer to left, and suddenly the Elks were back in front. Jimmy Lee replaced Gutierrez, got out of the inning, and thereafter Vince D tossed two scoreless. The Coons had Mora and Tovias aboard in the bottom 7th, but neither Gonzalez nor Alfaro managed to get decisive wood on the ball. Bottom 8th, Stalker reached on a Jonathan Morales error, and then Tony Delgado pinch-hit for a single to left. Two on, one out for Cookie, with left-hander Nick Van Fossen emerging from the bullpen. The bench was reduced to Dustin Jurek and Greg Borg at this point, so why bother? Cookie to the plate, he lined to the left side, but into Raul Mendez' glove. Nunley flew out to shallow center to end the inning. The Elks sent right-hander Ivan Morales into the ninth inning, where Abel Mora put the tying run aboard right away with a sharp single to right-center. And then Tovias popped out, Gonzalez struck out, and Alfaro didn't even get to bat as he was 0-4 already. Greg Borg pinch-hit instead – and struck out. 5-4 Canadiens. Nunley 2-5, RBI; Mora 3-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Delgado (PH) 1-1; Devereaux 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 3
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – 2B Gura – LF A. Torres – CF Coca – RF Chaplin – SS Calfee – 1B Luckett – C Tanzillo – P F. Estrada
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 2B Otis – SS Stalker – P Sander

Could the Coons finally push over a terrible pitcher? Yeah, from time to time I like to kid around. There were some positives, like Cookie scoring in both the first and third innings, but … that was largely it. Cookie singled and walked once each, came home on Tovias' single in the first (before Gonzalez killed the inning with a double play), and on Mora's sac fly in the third inning after stealing his fifth base this year, but that was really all. Jack Sander no-hit the Elks for 4 1/3 innings before things derailed quickly and with grim determination. Coca drew a leadoff walk in the fifth, Calfee singled, there was a double steal, a run-scoring passed ball charged to Tovias, and then almost a 2-out double by another opposing pitcher, but Alfaro made a running catch near the rightfield line to strand Calfee and Chris Tanzillo on the corners in what was still a 2-1 game.

Alfaro shone once more on D in the seventh inning, throwing out Calfee at home plate on Elijah Luckett's 2-out double to right. That one ended the inning and kept Sander afloat in a 3-1 contest; Elias Tovias had intermittently homered in the sixth inning, but Estrada and his ERA (still over six) were still in the game at this point. The Elks removed him only for O'Rourke as pinch-hitter in the eighth inning after Tanzillo had hit a leadoff single. O'Rourke fouled out, but Sander lost Morales on balls, which put the tying run on base with one out. The Raccoons moved to Ricky Ohl against PH Adan Myles, with Ohl surrendering a bloody deep drive to right on a 2-2 pitch, but somehow Alfaro got to that one too, making the catch right at the fence. Oh if only he would be batting like this! Torres' groundout to Stalker ended the inning with runners on the corners. On to the ninth, where Snyder whiffed Coca to start the inning, but surrendered a single to left-hander Mike Chaplin. No problem – John Calfee cracked a hard grounder right at Matt Otis for a game-sealing double play! 3-1 Raccoons. Tovias 2-3, HR, 2 RBI; Gonzalez 2-3; Sander 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, W (3-1);

For Thursday, we'd cram the lineup with every right-hander we could possibly fit in. That was all the strategy employed for this game. This one came close to a forfeit; there were only four batters with a clip better than .200 in the lineup (ignoring Wasserman for a moment), and Otis led all position players with a .255 average.

Game 4
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – 2B Gura – LF A. Torres – CF Coca – RF Chaplin – 1B Myles – SS Ra. Mendez – C Tanzillo – P Becker
POR: LF Gerace – 2B Otis – C Delgado – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – CF Borg – 3B Jurek – P Wasserman

Maybe the issue wasn't so much the lineup in itself, but everything else. Chaplin put the Elks in front with a solo homer in the second, but Wasserman also put Myles on base and he got shuffled all the way to third base with a stolen base and a wild pitch. Tanzillo was walked intentionally, and Wasserman struck out Becker on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning… almost. Delgado lost the ball and the opposing pitcher legged out that uncaught third strike to allow Myles to score from third base. Oh, shambles!

While the Raccoons in general and Wasserman in particular struggled through four innings with hits, walks, and a 38-minute rain delay, the Raccoons at least did away with being no-hit early on Stalker's second-inning single. Little came of that, but in the fourth Matt Otis got drilled leading off and that was sure some chance! Jon Gonzalez randomly homered to left, which at that point levelled the score at two. Jon was slowly coming around on the power, but he was still batting a paltry .220 …

Somehow Wasserman was staked to a 3-2 lead when he left the game all chewed up after five innings. Greg Borg had walked, stolen second base, and scored on Gerace's 2-out single in the bottom 5th to make that one possible. Even the Coons' own crowd could hardly believe it. They DID however believe the Coons blowing the lead almost instantly; Jimmy Lee came on for the sixth, saw Matt Otis airmailing Mike Chaplin's grounder to no defender in particular, and Adan Myles' single and Raul Mendez' sac fly were well enough to get the runner home to tie the score. The Critters sure had their chances to get a new lead, but the Elks defense denied them a few times. With men on base, Borg in the sixth and Otis in the seventh hit hard drives to deep center, and somehow Tony Coca managed to appear squarely in the way both times to deny them. The chances only got better: bottom 8th, Gonzalez singled and Alfaro hit a double off the wall in right with one out, giving .195 threat Tim Stalker a prime chance to do late damage against Becker, who still kept tuckering along. Except, the Elks balked, walked Stalk, and pulled up Greg Borg (1-for-11). **** platoons – bring Mora! And he struck out with bold cuts. Bring Nunley? Sorry grounder. Third out. So sad.

Surginer held the Elks short in the top 9th, with the Coons getting Otis aboard with a 2-out double against Dan Moon in the bottom 9th. Delgado flew to deep center, alas, Coca… Surginer had two Elks on in the 10th, but struck out Myles to end the threat before it could get ugly. The Raccoons, however, were out of bench players at this point; with Gonzalez starting the parade in the bottom 10th, Surginer was looming in the #8 spot. We needed offense quick. Groundout, popout, strikeout, and we got nothing at all. Dan Moon, a Coons farmhand a long time ago, could however; after Surginer offered a leadoff walk to Raul Mendez in the 11th inning, Dan Moon had to bat with one out, since the Elks were also out of bench. His bouncer eluded Sam Armetta at the hot corner, and became an RBI double that Gerace had to chase after in leftfield, thus breaking the 3-3 tie. Then things became bizarre. Mora grounded out against Morales to begin the bottom 11th, but Surginer – who had to bat – singled to left to become the tying run. Armetta grounded to short for what was probably the game until Surginer went for second baseman Tom Fitzsimmons' legs, bowling him over hard enough to require the rookie to be removed on a stretcher. This also broke up the double play and put Monday's starter Bryce Sudar at the keystone with Gerace batting with two down. He lined out to O'Rourke in right. 4-3 Canadiens. Gonzalez 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Stalker 2-4, BB;

Raccoons (16-13) @ Scorpions (17-11) – May 9-11, 2025

The perennially dominating Scorpions (six division titles in a row) were in second place in the FL West, one game behind the Gold Sox, but it was still early and they were still playing .607 ball… Fourth in offense, third in preventing such offense, they were certainly to be reckoned with. Their bullpen was one of the best in the league, and the Raccoons hadn't exactly made the worst bullpen in the league cry during the week… We had played a 3-game set last year as well, with the Scorpions taking two out of three back then.

Projected matchups:
Jesus Chavez (1-1, 4.13 ERA) vs. Michael Foreman (3-1, 4.15 ERA)
Mark Roberts (3-2, 3.32 ERA) vs. Jesse Bowsher (1-1, 4.05 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (2-2, 3.72 ERA) vs. Jordan Caldwell (4-2, 3.00 ERA)

Three right-handed pitchers await. Also a lineup full of professional maulers, so we're probably dead anyway.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 2B Otis – LF Gerace – SS Stalker – P Chavez
SAC: RF P. Sanchez – SS Rock – LF Stross – C Drews – 1B Moreira – 3B LaCombe – CF McAllester – 2B J. Castro – P Foreman

A few years back, Pablo Sanchez had batted .409 to set the all-time mark in terms of batting average. Compared to that, the .320 mark he entered the season with was almost embarrassing, but he singled and scored anyway in the first inning, driven in by Doug Stross. The Coons cobbled an unearned run owed to Jason LaCombe's throwing error on Jon Gonzalez together to re-tie the game in the second inning, then took the lead in the third with a run on three singles by Cookie, Nunley, and Tovias, before Jon Gonzalez hit into a double play. In no way was that a comfortable 2-1 lead, though. Chavez struggled, badly, and the Scorpions were crowing him in the following innings. They loaded the bags in the third, but LaCombe grounded out to Otis to strand all three runners, and in the fourth they were on the corners (including a Foreman single…), but this time Trey Rock rolled over to Otis to keep them trailing. Somehow, still, Jesus Chavez managed to wiggle into the seventh inning with that 2-1 lead that the Raccoons were none too keen to add to. Trey Rock's 1-out single knocked Chavez from the game, with Justin Hess replacing him and retiring Doug Stross and David Drews, the 30-year-old rookie that had spent almost all of his life in Japan so far.

Catchers were in the focus in the eighth inning, too, with a leadoff walk drawn by Elias Tovias. Gonzalez grounded poorly, but Foreman bobbled the ball for an error. Otis and Gerace were no help in creating anything from two on, no outs, but there was Tim Stalker, walking onto the open base. Tony Delgado batted for Hess against the left-handed reliever Ben Marx (he of postseason infamy) and sure made his presence felt, driving a ball high into the right-center gap, well past Sanchez and Justin McAllester, and almost to the fence. The bases emptied themselves easily, and Delgado arrived at second base standing up with a 3-run double! Cookie hit an RBI double up the rightfield line to make it four runs in the inning and six overall for Portland. Tovias would hit a double in the ninth and went on to score on Marx' wild pitch, the final mark in the game. 7-1 Raccoons! Carmona 4-5, 2B, RBI; Tovias 2-4, BB, 2B; Borg (PH) 1-1; Delgado (PH) 1-1, 2B, 3 RBI; Chavez 6.1 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (2-1); Devereaux 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – LF Gerace – SS Stalker – 2B Armetta – P Roberts
SAC: RF P. Sanchez – SS J. Castro – C Drews – 1B Moreira – 3B LaCombe – 2B Rock – LF J. Richardson – CF McAllester – P Bowsher

The Raccoons had six runners between the first three innings, but hit into a double play (Nunley in the first) and stranded five more in denying themselves any runs. The first run of the game was the home team's and again a pitcher had a hand in it. Jesse Bowsher hit a 1-out single off Roberts, his first base hit in 2025, and then scored, barley, on Jorge Castro's triple over the head of Justin Gerace. That was the only run in the game through five innings, even though the Raccoons led off the top 5th with a single of their own pitcher. Unfortunately, aside of a Nunley single their lineup could do nothing in support and failed to score with that opportunity.

Mark Roberts did all he could and went eight innings on five hits and that one measly run that was still enough to sink him. The Raccoons would show their soft underbelly to the venomous Stingers in the ninth, leading off with Stalker against former Raccoons Joel Davis. He flew out to right, easily, after which Alfaro batted for Armetta, rolled a ball across the infield that nobody got a play on, and the tying run reached on the infield single. Delgado batted for Roberts, because it had worked once and would surely work twice, right? Nah. Delgado flicked a sharp one right at Jorge Castro, and that was always going to be a pair with the slick shortstop… 1-0 Scorpions. Nunley 2-4, 2B; Armetta 1-2, BB; Alfaro (PH) 1-1; Roberts 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, L (3-3) and 1-2;

You couldn't save a run or two from yesterday for this game, no? No.

Game 3
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – 2B Jurek – P Gutierrez
SAC: RF P. Sanchez – 2B Byrd – LF Stross – 1B Moreira – 3B LaCombe – C Ja. Jackson – SS Rock – CF Barnes – P Caldwell

As always, Sacramento scored first, this time with a leadoff triple by Jason LaCombe in the bottom 2nd that Gutierrez was ill equipped to fight back against, mostly lacking any of his otherwise decent stuff. Jaiden Jackson would hit a home run in the fourth inning to run the score to 2-0. At that point, Gutierrez (against a mostly left-handed lineup) had no strikeouts, and the Raccoons as a whole had no base hits. What a Sunday!

Rico eventually got a K or two, and the Raccoons eventually got a base hit after all. Stalker hit a single in the fifth, but nothing came of that. Omar Alfaro singled in the top of the seventh, then got forced by Stalker. It was the second dead-from-the-waist-up game in a row for Portland, and there was no talking it nice. Also not very thrilling: Gutierrez. He bumped it up to 98 mostly unimpressive pitches through six innings, which was enough, it was decreed. Lee and Brotman did the seventh, and it was Ohl in the eighth. Ohl got ripped a new bum hole, walking a pair and conceding doubles to Sanchez and Stross for 3 RBI in total, but it wasn't like the game hadn't already been decided due to the Raccoons' sheer ineptitude at the plate. The game ended like the last one, with the Coons hitting into a double play, this one by Alfaro, collecting Greg Borg. 5-0 Scorpions.

In other news

May 5 – IND SP Dave Priest (2-1, 2.94 ERA) tests positive for PED's and is suspended for 80 games.
May 5 – OCT 2B/SS Alex Serrato (.245, 3 HR, 19 RBI) will miss six weeks with a broken hand.
May 8 – The injury bug keeps being nasty this season, with TIJ SP Luis Flores (2-2, 3.12 ERA) going to the shelf with a partial tear in his labrum. The Condors hope to get him back by September.
May 9 – The Buffaloes come back from three runs down to walk off on the Loggers, 6-5, with the winning run, Tomas Delgado, scoring on a wild pitch by MIL MR Mike Dempsey (0-0, 20.25 ERA).
May 10 – NYC SS Tom McWhorter (.258, 3 HR, 16 RBI) will miss a month with a sprained elbow.
May 10 – As the Capitals clobber the Indians, 15-3, their #8 hitter 2B/1B Gabriel Sauceda (.333, 3 HR, 11 RBI) leads them with four base hits and as many RBI.

Complaints and stuff

Pablo Sanchez' 2-run double in the eighth inning was his 2,500th base hit. The man is merely *30* years old!! At 30 years old though, he has more medals than 4-star generals in select Middle East or Central American dictatorships; three times Player of the Year, 8-time All Star, as many Platinum Sticks, a postseason MVP and that one ring. Four batting titles. Led the league in slugging three times, despite a career-high of 11 home runs in a season. He led the FL in triples SIX times.

He will establish an all-new inner-inner-inner circle of Hall of Famers once he is elected.

We have to talk about why Greg Borg was the front end of Sunday's game-ending double play. He replaced Jon Gonzalez, who had been struck by a pitch by Alfredo Mendoza and left the game in visible discomfort. Yeah, why not add injury to insult!? I will have the Druid on his case, as soon as he's back from his flower painting course in Laurelhurst Park.

Yes, we haven't scored in 18 consecutive innings, but I do remember more than that… 105 runs in 32 games is absolutely pathetic, though. With that amount of offense, you can't have an educated conversation about anything even remotely suggesting you'd think you can compete. Which is sad, since we also are allowing the fewest runs in the game…

Fun Fact: Opposing pitchers bat .169 against the Raccoons this season.

It sure as heck feels like they are more batting in the order of .412! What else is funny? The Coons' pitchers are even *better* at the plate, knocking the cover off the ball at a .177 rate! Yet it still feels like we are getting nothing but murdered by the opposing pitchers even when they are not pitching.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (17-15) vs. Cyclones (14-18) – May 13-15, 2025

The Cyclones were on a 4-game losing streak in the short run, and plagued by horrendous pitching in the long run. They sat second from the bottom in runs allowed in the Federal League, and their average offense could not keep the pace. Their bullpen was pushing an ERA of six, undoing any and all decent efforts by the eighth-place rotation. The Coons had lost two of three to them last season and had not won a season series over Cincinnati since 2016.

Projected starters:
Jack Sander (3-1, 2.31 ERA) vs. Matt Rosenthal (1-3, 3.49 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (1-2, 3.38 ERA) vs. Trevor Dixon (1-3, 11.00 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (2-1, 3.69 ERA) vs. Adam Moran (4-1, 3.00 ERA)

Rosenthal, the righty, was a former Elk, and had usually not fared too greatly against the Raccoons. After that we'd see two young left-handers with … "mixed" success.

The Raccoons were trying to nip their 4,000th regular season win this week, which would require them going .500 over six games. They also got news on Tuesday regarding Jon Gonzalez and his bum knee, in which no structural damage was found by the Druid, and we were advised to take it lightly on Gonzalez for the next few days, who was listed DTD with a knee bruise.

Game 1
CIN: 3B Rangel – SS Eisenberg – CF Maiello – 1B E. Moreno – 2B Maldonado – RF I. Flores – C Roush – LF Farmer – P Rosenthal
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B Mora – C Tovias – RF Alfaro – 2B Otis – SS Stalker – CF Borg – P Sander

What little offense there was in the early innings was routinely ruined in double plays, with Otis hitting into one for the Coons in the bottom 2nd. The Raccoons managed to squeeze out a run somehow, with Greg Borg forcing Stalker with a poor grounder in the bottom 3rd, then stealing second while Jack Sander failed to bunt entirely and struck out. Cookie singled to left, the Raccoons' second hit in the game, and the speedy Borg scored easily on the play for the first run of the contest, and the only one in the first five innings, with the bottom 5th ending on Otis getting picked off first base by Rosenthal, which led me to groan and seek out the relieving healing qualities of booze.

To make this clear – none of the pitchers were exactly dominating. Sander had one strikeout through five, while Rosenthal had three. There was just lots and lots and always more pathetic contact. It took until the sixth inning to hear a loud noise emanate from any Raccoons' bat when Elias Tovias hit a 2-run double to deep center with two outs on the board. Cookie (who had been drilled) and Nunley (single) scored, stretching the lead to 3-0. For whatever reason, Omar Alfaro then got an intentional walk, which was surely only a cruel joke with a .180 batter involved, but even that gamble(?) failed for the Cyclones, with Otis blooping a dying quail into shallow right center for an RBI single. Matt Rosenthal's destiny of always failing against Portland continued unabated, as he faced only one more batter, Tim Stalker, and surrendered a true blast to left-center, a 3-run homer that put the Coons up by seven, with their sixth-inning 6-spot being entirely scored with two outs. When Sander retired Nando Maiello to begin the seventh inning he dipped his ERA under two, which was a little bit amazing for a guy with his ho-hum pitching portfolio. Said pedestrian stuff selection was still sufficient to sit down the Cyclones for nine innings. Sander scattered six hits through nine innings, with only Ricardo Rangel managing an extra-base hit with a 2-out double in the third inning, to bring home his first career shutout. 7-0 Raccoons! Stalker 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Sander 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (4-1);

…and against his former team!

Game 2
CIN: 3B Rangel – SS Eisenberg – CF Maiello – 1B E. Moreno – 2B Maldonado – RF I. Flores – C Roush – LF Farmer – P A. Moran
POR: 2B Otis – 3B Nunley – C Delgado – 1B Mora – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – LF Gerace – CF Borg – P Wasserman

Dixon seemed to get skipped with his 11 ERA, as Moran moved up into the middle game, which saw more of the fiercely enforced pact of non-aggression the teams seemed to have signed before the series had begun (give or take half an inning on Tuesday). There were seven base hits in the first five innings, two of those singels by Moran off Wasserman, and nobody got particularly close to scoring. The Cyclones occupied third base once, the Raccoons didn't do so at all, and we were scoreless through five. Wasserman changed that in the top of the sixth, surrendering a sharp leadoff single to Eddie Moreno before hitting Raul Maldonado above the buttocks. Two on with nobody out was a bit much to cope for him; Ivan Flores bunted over the runners, and the Cyclones scored the first run on Tim Roush's grounder to short. Rick Farmer was walked intentionally and Wasserman really and actually managed to strike out Moran (in a full count…) to end the inning. Moran struck out to leave the bases loaded in the eighth against Kevin Surginer, who had just packed three guys on base with a pair of 2-out singles and an unintentional walk to Farmer. Wasserman had left the game after seven, and the Raccoons were still a sweeping motion away to empty a bucket of water over Adam Moran. The hampered Jon Gonzalez would bat for the hopeless Omar Alfaro in the bottom 8th after the left-hander Moran had allowed singles to the left-handed Nunley and Mora. Gonzalez was no less useless, though, and grounded out to Frank Eisenberg to end the inning. The Cyclones chased Moran into the ninth, where he allowed a leadoff single to Stalker. Troy Charters, a former Raccoon, replaced Moran eventually and the Coons' next three batters went down in order, with neither between Gerace, Tovias, and Cookie Carmona even advancing the runner to second base. 1-0 Cyclones. Otis 2-4; Mora 3-4, BB; Wasserman 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, L (1-3);

This is us getting shut out for the third time in four games, and also our third 1-0 loss already in 2025.

Game 3
CIN: 3B Rangel – SS Eisenberg – CF Maiello – 1B E. Moreno – 2B Maldonado – RF I. Flores – C Roush – LF Farmer – P Dixon
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Otis – 1B Mora – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – LF Gerace – CF Borg – P Chavez

Moreno drove in the lone run in the Cyclones' opening 3-hit inning, and that was only the beginning to a brief outing for Jesus Chavez in which he fooled absolutely nobody. The Cyclones were pushing double-digit hits pretty soon with nine base knocks in the first four innings, while somehow plating only three runs, Maldonado singling home a pair in the third inning. The Raccoons tried, which was all anybody could expect from them at this point, and scored a run in the bottom of the third, Borg scampering home on Otis' groundout. Chavez was knocked out in the fifth, allowing a leadoff walk against Moreno and a 1-out single by Flores, which brought the curtain down on his shambling afternoon.

For Portland, it was the ignorables to at least maintain the pretense. Justin Gerace hit a leadoff double to left in the bottom 5th, then scored on Dustin Jurek's single into rightfield. Jurek had gotten into the game thanks to Chavez' demise, which had prompted a double switch at Stalker's expense. Cookie reached on an error by Moreno, which put the go-ahead run aboard, but Otis and Mora had poor flyouts to Ivan Flores to let the chance get away.

While the Raccoons' pen got the Cyclones' lineup under control, the Raccoons were still looking for inroads against Dixon. Greg Borg's leadoff walk in the bottom 7th nominally constituted a chance. Jurek grounded out, while Cookie walked. Matt Otis hit a ball to left-center, and that one got away from Rick Farmer in the gap, falling for a double. Borg scored with the tying run, and Cookie was waved around and came in a good two steps ahead of the relay throw, completing a score-flipper in the Critters' favor, 4-3. Matt Nunley would chip in a 2-out RBI single in the inning for an insurance run, following an intentional walk to Mora earlier and Tovias' deep fly out. Billy Brotman tended to the 5-3 lead in the eighth, working around the right-handed Tim Roush's single while doing away with both Flores and Farmer, a pair of switch-hitters that were significantly weaker against left-handed pitching. Nick Gilmor struck out to end the inning, but the Coons added two more runs in the eighth on the horrendous Cyclones pen, dropping in four singles, while Otis grabbed those RBI's as well with a 2-out double. 7-3 Raccoons! Otis 3-5, 2 2B, 5 RBI; Gerace 2-4, 2B; Borg 2-3, BB; Jurek 2-3, RBI;

Raccoons (19-16) vs. Loggers (20-13) – May 16-18, 2025

The Loggers were impressive with their .606 clip, which still placed them nowhere near the thrice-defending champions from Boston. However, how fake was that record? They were seven games over .500, which was as many games over .500 as they were runs over .500. Ranking fifth in both runs scored and runs allowed they did for sure, but it was indeed only a +7 run differential for them. Even the Raccoons had a +8 differential. The season series stood at 2-1 for Portland.

Projected matchups:
Mark Roberts (3-3, 2.96 ERA) vs. Jorge Villalobos (3-0, 3.22 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (2-3, 3.61 ERA) vs. Jonathan Toner (2-2, 4.76 ERA)
Jack Sander (4-1, 1.88 ERA) vs. Ian Prevost (3-2, 4.58 ERA)

This is a full slate of right-handers. They don't even have a left-handed starter. They also have no injuries, while the Raccoons sure wished… Jon Gonzalez was still not in the lineup on Friday, but maybe on Saturday? He had pinch-hit though in both of the last two contests.

Game 1
MIL: SS Ferrer – CF Coleman – 1B Tadlock – RF W. Trevino – LF Feldmann – 2B Stevenson – 3B Berntson – C A. Baker – P Villalobos
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – C Tovias – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – 1B Borg – 2B Armetta – P Roberts

Roberts was shackled for two runs by a strong of four 2-out runners in the opening inning, picked apart by singles hit by Ron Tadlock, Willie Trevino, and Josh Stevenson that sandwiched Ryan Feldmann's walk. It was a rotten outing for him through and through; Adam Baker hit a leadoff jack in the second, 3-0, and Manny Ferrer hit a double in the inning, but hurt himself sliding into second base and was replaced by Alberto Velez. This was with rain coming down already and soon enough the game went into a rain delay for 45 minutes. The mood reached a low point right there, but the Coons managed to contain damage after play resumed. Roberts allowed no more runs through five innings before being relieved, and the Raccoons scored two runs on a Greg Borg double to stay close to the Loggers, 3-2 through five, but they also stranded plenty of runners with the Loggers helping them to get into scoring position from time to time, with Cookie Carmona reaching on an error by an outfielder twice, and yet it never led to a run. The Loggers in turn grew more and more long-faced, losing Ryan Feldmann on a play in the fourth inning to some sort of injury. Danny Munn replaced him.

At least Milwaukee could still entertain themselves by having the lead, although after Ricky Ohl sat down the Loggers in the top of the sixth, Villalobos soon was in trouble. Single by Mora, double by Tovias, and just like that the Coons had the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with nobody out in the bottom 6th. Omar Alfaro had already flown out to a pretty deeply entrenched Trevino twice, but hit a 2-1 pitch even better in this situation, and this time the ballpark didn't hold it – Omar's first homer of 2025 flipped the score to 5-3 in the Critters' favor, and now Ricky Ohl was in line for #4,000. Ohl was hit for by Gonzalez in the inning, the spot coming up because Borg hit another double to keep the line moving. Jon Gonzalez hit a liner high over the head of Jon Berntson and into deep leftfield for an RBI double, 6-3. Cookie also lined to left, but into Munn's mitten, ending the inning.

The 3-run lead looked quite secure until it met Kevin Surginer in the seventh and eighth inning. Surginer took over after Justin Hess got two outs in the seventh, ran a 3-1 count against Ron Tadlock, but the batter lined out to Stalker then. In the eighth Surginer walked two and allowed an RBI single to ex-Coon Josh Stevenson. Vince D inherited a heck of a mess, with the tying runs on and nobody out, and SOMEHOW managed to get through there. Berntson hit a sac fly, cutting the lead to 6-5, a wild pitch moved Stevenson to third base, but Baker popped out and Kevin Jaeger whiffed to get the Coons through the inning. In stark contrast, Jonathan Snyder retired the 1-2-3 batters in order in the ninth inning, bringing about an anticlimactic ending to the Raccoons' milestone win. 6-5 Furballs! Tovias 2-4, 2B; Borg 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Gonzalez (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

4,000!!

Game 2
MIL: SS Ferrer – CF Coleman – 1B Tadlock – RF W. Trevino – LF Feldmann – 3B A. Velez – 2B Stevenson – C A. Baker – P Toner
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 2B Otis – SS Stalker – P Gutierrez

Jonny Toner had already faced the Coons this season, taking a loss in April while allowing five runs in as many innings. He nevertheless got a standing ovation when he came out to pitch in the bottom 1st, when he came out to bat in the top 2nd, and reactions were mooted when Omar Alfaro hit a game-tying homer off him in the bottom 2nd, erasing Gutierrez' first-inning hiccup and Ron Tadlock's RBI double. It got even worse for the home crowd in the third inning, in which Cookie doubled and quickly scored on Matt Nunley's single into left-center, giving Gutierrez a 2-1 lead. However, Gutierrez struggled as he often did against a mostly right-handed lineup, so things were far from over here.

Stalker and Otis turned double plays for Gutierrez in the fifth and sixth innings. Unfortunately, the one in the sixth came too late, as Stevenson had already singled in Ryan Feldmann, who was playing with a sore knee but still hit a leadoff double between Cookie and Mora in the inning. This one tied the game at two, with the Loggers out-hitting the Coons 8-3, so Toner was far from getting stomped and also got through the bottom of the sixth despite walking both Nunley and Gonzalez. Alfaro struck out to end the inning, and then Ricky Ohl issued two walks to Manny Ferrer and Ian Coleman in the top 7th. Brotman replaced him to face left-handed pinch-hitter Danny Munn, who hit a bouncer to Nunley that got turned for another double play. The eighth did not end on a double play, but on Feldmann getting picked off first by Surginer, who had walked him onto that base. Probably the sore knee had prevented Feldmann from making a quick dive bag.The Coons didn't care, taking any out they could get in a 2-2 game. Jonny Toner maintained the score through eight innings against largely hapless Coons, earning him another standing ovation as he exited the contest after the eighth. The Loggers didn’t score in the ninth, with the Coons sending up the bottom of the order in the bottom 9th. Right-hander Josh Riley removed Alfaro, but conceded a single to Matt Otis, then left with an injury. Joey Hopkins replaced him, allowed a sharp single to Tim Stalker, and that one sent Otis, the winning run, to third base. Borg popped out in Surginer's spot, and Cookie grounded out. They just weren't scoring… meanwhile, the Loggers saw another pitcher vanish in the tunnel to the clubhouse, as apparently Hopkins had also been hurt in the outing.

Extra innings. Neither team posed a threat in the 10th or 11th innings, with Jimmy Lee putting up two scoreless for Portland. Justin Hess was in for the 12th, which predictably led to offense for the Loggers, who put Coleman on with a 2-out single in the 12th before Kevin Jaeger hit a huge RBI double to right. Alfaro made a strong play to retire Willie Trevino, but there wasn't much confidence in the Raccoons' ability to make up even that one measly run. After Tony Delgado flew out against Brian Gilbert, Cookie hit a single to left to place the winning run in the box. Nunley grounded out. Mora struck out. Everything was horrible. 3-2 Loggers. Carmona 2-6, 2B; Otis 2-4, BB; Surginer 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K; Lee 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

A kingdom for some offense.

Or at least a ****ing horse, so I can elope this nightmare.

Game 3
MIL: SS Ferrer – LF Berntson – CF Coleman – RF W. Trevino – 3B A. Velez – 1B Tadlock – 2B March – C A. Baker – P Prevost
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 2B Otis – SS Stalker – P Sander

The rain was back for the rubber game, which was bad news for the Critters' badly molested bullpen. There was a 1-hour delay in the second inning that was certainly going to cut short whatever outing Sander had prepared for the crowd of 19,000 apparently not so easily discouraged attendees. At least Sander had seen off the Loggers in order on not too many pitches in the first two innings, so maybe his arm could be tricked into thinking that was some sort of warmup and he would somehow still go six or so and all would be well.

Just kidding of course, nothing was ever well with this team. While the Raccoons scored first in the second inning, Stalker bringing in Gonzalez on a sac fly, overall the offense displayed by either team was sorely lacking. Through five, the Coons had only one more base hit and two walks, while Sander, perversely, was no-hitting them through five. Worse yet, the no-hitter was broken up by the opposing pitcher with Prevost's single to center with two outs in the sixth inning. Ferrer flew out to center to keep the tying run stranded. Sander was hauled in after a leadoff walk to Berntson in the seventh, with the Coons bringing in Brotman in a double switch that removed a slumping Mora for Greg Borg. Billy balked, but boogied through the inning, and then the Coons had runners on the corners with two swift singles off Prevost to begin the bottom 7th. Alfaro and Otis were surely hoping for a big rip by somebody, as did the 19,000 that were being put through a rainy wringer, and also a GM who these days was only mildly dazed by his methyl alcohol. Stalker grounded to Velez to keep Alfaro pinned and to increase the agony, with the Loggers having to take the out at first, so at least there was no double play for Borg to hit into. Of course he could still ground to Velez! Alfaro didn't budge once more as another Coon was retired at first base, and Cookie's grounder up the middle didn't escape Dan March and instead was the third out. Things would yet get worse in the bottom 8th, where Nunley and Armetta made poor outs before Tovias doubled to center, but knocked his head into Ferrer's leg when he slid into the base and left the game under the concussion protocol, which was league-mandated. Dustin Jurek ran for him in the crazed hope that Jon Gonzalez could produce anything of value, which he didn't as Prevost walked him. Maybe Alfaro? Nah, popped out. Snyder retired Dave Padilla, Manny Ferrer, and Danny Munn in order in order to waddle the win across the finish line, somehow. 1-0 Blighters. Sander 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, W (5-1); Brotman 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

In other news

May 15 – In their 9-2 win over the Wolves, the Indians upend the opposition with an 8-run eighth inning.
May 17 – SFW SP Matt Gossen (2-4, 5.74 ERA) might be on the shelf for a full year at least with a shredded flexor tendon in his elbow.
May 18 – The Condors' 23-year-old 3B/RF/LF Mike Matias (.220, 6 HR, 20 RBI) his for the cycle in a 5-4 win over the Aces, going 4-for-4 with 2 RBI. This is the 72nd cycle in ABL history, the first this season, and the fifth for the Condors, as well as their first in 22 years following the achievements of Thomas Martin (1988), Bruce Boyle (1992, 2003), and Martin Horn (1998).
May 18 – NYC INF Sergio Valdez (.350, 4 HR, 7 RBI) will miss a month with an oblique strain.

Complaints and stuff

When I took this job a whole lotta years ago, I never thought we'd make it to 4,000 regular season wins. And going by the early Coons in the 70s and early 80s, it would have taken about 70 or 80 years to get to 4,000 at all…

The aforementioned league-mandated concussion protocol requires the player in question to stare into a strobe light for 20 minutes; Elias Tovias promptly had a mild seizure and will be out for two weeks or so. So that is a trip to the DL, and I have no idea how I am supposed to produce any sort of lineup with this unproductive team composed of useless misfits and flayed career losers.

Maybe Matt Nunley can bat cleanup again. That was so much fun last time around …

And yes, we missed a combined no-hitter because some dork (Sander) had to give a single to the opposing pitcher, but I am well past ripping out my hair over that… the only reason that dork gets off the hook is because the dork pitched 15 shutout innings this week and was thusly named Player of the Week in the Continental League!

Fun Fact: In the Raccoons' 4K win on Friday, Loggers pitchers had 4 K.

Whoah, I'm the rage!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (21-17) vs. Titans (26-12) – May 19-22, 2025

The Raccoons had so far avoided the thrice-defending champions from Boston in this season, but it was time to face their maker now with a 4-game set that was likely to erase the Coons' fake winning record. Boston ranked second in runs scored, third in runs allowed, and even this early in the season – the first quarter post would be reached in this set – they already had a stunning +73 run differential, and that despite their starter putting up a rather pedestrian 4.11 ERA. Their pen, however, was the best in the league.

Projected matchups:
Graham Wasserman (1-3, 3.02 ERA) vs. Alberto Molina (6-1, 2.97 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (2-1, 3.95 ERA) vs. Morgan Shepherd (5-1, 3.12 ERA)
Mark Roberts (3-3, 3.19 ERA) vs. Ian Rutter (2-3, 5.06 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (2-3, 3.54 ERA) vs. Julio San Pedro (2-0, 3.94 ERA)

All righties here, not that this was going to help us anything. "Crummy" was a term lacking precision for the Raccoons' hopelessness against the Titans in recent history, with only 16 wins accumulated against them in the last three years, including seven in '24.

Further limiting their chances was Elias Tovias moving to the 15-day DL with a concussion, leaving Tony Delgado in charge, while 28-year-old trash heap signing Chris Mendez, a Mexican right-handed batter, would make his major league debut at some point after being called up to replace Tovias. Just look at that lineup…..

Game 1
BOS: CF Reichardt – C Leonard – 1B R. Amador – RF Braun – SS Spataro – 2B Kane – LF St. Germaine – 3B Corder – P A. Molina
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – C Delgado – SS Stalker – 2B Armetta – P Wasserman

Calling ballgame as soon as Adam St. Germaine plated Keith Spataro with a groundout in the second inning was not entirely unreasonable; it gave the Titans a 1-0 lead on the routinely shaky Wasserman, and the Raccoons' lineup was even on paper not likely to hurt a fly, let alone a legitimate stud pitcher like Molina. The Coons amounted to all but two singles through five innings, and although Wasserman kept stalking from inning to inning without absorbing more damage, and even had Adrian Reichardt in deathlock with two strikeouts in his first two at-bats (until he doubled in the fifth…), the Raccoons couldn't have felt further away from a potential comeback from the cavernous depths of 1-0 until first Wasserman and then Abel Mora hit singles to the right side in the bottom of the sixth inning, which brought up total threat Jon Gonzalez and his .207 stick that was surely going to give him a huge pay day at some point. The home crowd stared in disbelief before remembering they had to cheer when first Gonzalez, and then Omar Alfaro as well, hit liners to right-center that fell for RBI singles each, flipping the score in Portland's favor.

Not that this did anything to upend the Titans. Adam Corder hit a single in the seventh, Wasserman was replaced by Vince Devereaux, but the pesky Reichardt hit a game-tying single to centerfield with two outs anyway. Cue Jon Gonzalez though, who appeared in the box in the bottom 8th against Molina, who had allowed a leadoff single up the middle to Matt Nunley, who was forced by Abel Mora's roller to second base, but Mora then swiped second base. Gonzalez singled sharply to left, and Mora was sent in blind disregard for Adam St. Germaine's murder arm… AND BEAT THE THROW!! The Titans (like many other teams) had an inexplicable fear of Omar Alfaro, a .191 batter at this point, and walked him intentionally, bringing up Justin Gerace pinch-hitting for Delgado, and Molina kept tuckering along, but hung a breaking ball for his 120th offering of the game that Gerace clocked for 375 feet over the rightfield wall, causing sudden frenzy among the home crowd. The Titans, down by a slam, would not bow down easily and put runners in scoring position against Jimmy Lee in the ninth, but Keith Leonard's grounder to Tim Stalker eventually sealed their fate in this opener. 6-2 Furballs!! Gonzalez 3-4, 2 RBI; Alfaro 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Gerace (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Wasserman 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K and 1-2;

Justin Hess picked up his first Raccoons W in relief here, while Chris Mendez made his major league debut in the ninth inning as replacement for Delgado (who had been hit for by Gerace), but didn't get a chance to bat yet.

Game 2
BOS: CF Reichardt – C Leonard – RF Braun – SS Spataro – 2B Kane – LF St. Germaine – 1B Cornejo – 3B R. West – P Shepherd
POR: RF Carmona – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – LF Gerace – SS Stalker – C Delgado – 2B Otis – P Chavez

There was no late upset, nor an early one on Tuesday. Instead everybody got to witness a first-class waffling of Jesus Chavez at the bats of the Titans, who amazingly wrecked him for 11 hits – all singles! – in 3.1 innings only, plating seven runs, all earned, two in the first, two in the second, and three in the fourth. The last two scored on Ricky Ohl's watch, who struck out Keith Spataro after taking over with runners in scoring position and one out, but then got beat on the Titans' 12th single, a dying dove that dropped into shallow left like a real hero, and scored both runners. That put the Titans ahead by six, 7-1, with the Raccoons having plated a single counter on Tony Delgado's sac fly in the bottom of the second inning. Another run came onto the board in the bottom of the fifth, in which Shepherd conceded a walk to Matt Otis as well as singles to Cookie and Nunley with two outs, but it was still 7-2. Shepherd was still mostly in control and didn't start to look shaky until the eighth inning, which he entered with four hits and six strikeouts, but that inning started with singles by Nunley and Mora and then a balk that moved them into scoring position with still nobody out. This was a nominal chance after all! Yet, in the end, the only run that the Raccoons scored between the appearances of Gonzalez, Gerace, and Stalker, came on a wild pitch by Shepherd… After that, the gently quietly disappeared through the backdoor and allowed the series to be evened at one. 7-3 Titans. Nunley 2-4, RBI; Borg (PH) 1-1; Ohl 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K; Lee 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

Game 3
BOS: CF Reichardt – LF Kuramoto – RF Braun – C T. Robinson – 2B R. West – 3B Corder – 1B St. Germaine – SS Spataro – P Rutter
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 2B Otis – SS Jurek – C Mendez – P Roberts

Yasuhiro Kuramoto's single and a walk to Adam Braun almost served to unravel Roberts in the first when Rhett West drove a hard fly to right. And you could say about Omar Alfaro what you wanted, but he did know how to play D, at least when going backwards. Chris Mendez, behind the plate in the majors for the second time in his 28-year-old life, also had a tough start to this game, allowing Adam Corder to reach at the start of the second inning by sticking his glove into Corder's bat's path, resulting in a catcher's interference call on strike three to Corder. But Mendez made up for it; when Corder tried to swipe second during Adam St. Germaine's at-bat, Mendez threw him out.

The Furballs started calmly before ramping up their act. Cookie Carmona hit a 1-out single in the bottom of the third inning, only their second base knock in the game. Nunley doubled to right, but Cookie was held against Adam Braun's arm of death, which was a wise choice given that Abel Mora hit a real bomb to right-center for his seventh homer of the year, and the Coons jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Ian Rutter. Not that the Titans were backing up here – Roberts was in serious trouble as soon as the following half-inning. Singles by Tim Robinson and Corder, and an open base for the .321 batter Spataro with two outs prompted an intentional walk that got Rutter up, and Rutter sure got his money's worth from Roberts, running a full count before finally striking out to strand the tying runs.

The Coons, concerned with an aching bullpen in this long string of games and especially after the sub-par outing by Chavez the previous day, squeezed out Roberts for 119 pitches in this game, which still only amounted to seven innings of 3-hit shutout baseball owing to all the long counts he ran. Some relievers like Jimmy Lee weren't available at all for this game, but the eighth was expertly done away with by Vince Devereaux, who yielded a single to Adam Braun, but also struck out the other three batters he faced, and Jonathan Snyder made sure to end this game quickly, and saw off West, Corder, and St. Germaine on nine pitches and in order, finishing up with a K to St. Germaine. 3-0 Furballs! Mora 1-3, HR, 3 RBI; Alfaro 2-4; Roberts 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, W (4-3);

The caught-stealing on Corder aside, Chris Mendez' first day at the plate saw him go 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a double play hit into.

This W moved the Raccoons into second place in the division, four games behind the Titans, who were probably also still trying to figure out why the pesky Coons' intestines weren't smeared all over the outfield fences yet.

Game 4
BOS: CF Reichardt – LF Kuramoto – RF Braun – C T. Robinson – 2B R. West – 3B Corder – 1B St. Germaine – SS Spataro – P San Pedro
POR: 3B Nunley – 2B Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – LF Gerace – SS Stalker – C Delgado – P Gutierrez

Maybe Tim Robinson's third-inning slam could get the smearing part done given that it erased a Coons lead and put Gutierrez into a difficult to erase 4-2 hole. The Raccoons had flashed doubles early, one by Omar Alfaro being worth two 2-out runs in the first inning, plating Mora (walk) and Gonzalez (double), but at the same time displayed some pretty indefensible defense. Gonzalez made an error in the first that Rico shipped around (just barely), and Otis flubbed a potential double play grounder by Kuramoto in that bedeviled third. Adrian Reichardt had singled beforehand, and Braun coaxed a walk out of an unnerved Gutierrez before Robinson belched a fastball close to 400 feet. Three runs were earned, a total soon matched by the Coons with another 2-out RBI knock by dangerous pitchers' menace Omar Alfaro, this one scoring Otis. Yeah, I couldn't believe it either.

Gutierrez and the rest of the crew were a little bit less ****ty in the top halves of the middle innings, holding the Titans to the runs they already had, while Gutierrez struck out the 2-3-4-5 batters in order between the fifth and sixth innings (all right-handed!) for some personal consolation, but neither did the team break any bones racing to make up the remaining deficit (and please, dear god, no, no more broken bones!). Ohl, Surginer, and Brotman held the fort in the 2.2 innings inside regulation that Gutierrez couldn't tick off, and the Titans remained only one tantalizing run out in front of us. Left-hander Brent Beene was sent into the ninth inning, but would face easy pickings in the 6-7-8 area in the batting order. Greg Borg batted for the 0-for-3 Gerace, but flew out to Braun, which was already the closest the Coons got to a base runner. Stalker struck out, and Tony Delgado grounded out cautiously to Mike Kane. 4-3 Titans. Otis 2-4; Alfaro 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Gutierrez 6.1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, L (2-4);

I don't usually give shoutouts when you give up four runs, three earned, but Gutierrez had four awesome innings and two in which the defense hit him in the knees from behind with the bats they oughta put to better use…

Raccoons (23-19) vs. Condors (24-16) – May 23-25, 2025

Oh look, another genuinely good team coming to town! Well, good was a selective thing with those first-place-by-half-a-game Condors, who had a somewhat potent offense that liked the long ball, scoring the fifth-most runs with a bottom-three batting average, and they also had some decent bullpen, but they had the worst rotation in the Continental League with a 4.62 ERA. They were eight games over .500, but they were actually one run under even. Even the shill Coons shelled out a +11 run differential. In 2024, the Coons had ended a 3-year losing streak against the Condors, coming back with a 5-4 effort in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Jack Sander (5-1, 1.67 ERA) vs. Jeff Little (2-4, 8.00 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (1-3, 2.98 ERA) vs. Zach Weaver (2-0, 3.38 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (2-2, 5.01 ERA) vs. George Griffin (3-3, 6.46 ERA)

We were getting a bit of the worst the Condors' rotation had to offer. Jeff Little's struggles were mysterious. Their only southpaw starter, aged 24, had pitched to a 3.14 ERA last season across 180.2 innings, walking 3.2/9 and whiffing 8.4/9. Those latter numbers were nearly the same this year. No, the devil was in the defense here. Opposing teams were cracking him up with an outlandish .407 BABIP, something I had never really seen for a guy with 36 innings under his belt.

The other two guys were right-handed, but the Condors had been off on Thursday and could skip anybody to bring Mark Morrison (3-2, 2.72 ERA) into the series.

Game 1
TIJ: 2B B. Rojas – SS Sanks – LF Bednarski – 3B M. Matias – RF O. Larios – CF Hatley – C Zarate – 1B Boggs – P Little
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Otis – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – CF Borg – C Delgado – P Sander

When following Shane Sanks' first-inning single Jack Sander hit a 38-year-old Mike Bednarski in the ribs, most of the assembled crowd didn't particularly care, while I cheered and yelled encouragement through the open window of my office high above the first base line. It had been almost ten years since Bednarski had been a Raccoon. I still feverishly resented him. On the flip side, the Condors scored a run in the inning thanks to the hit-by-pitch, with Omar Larios' 2-out grounder getting through between Nunley and Stalker for an RBI single. In any case, this week's Jack Sander was not the Jack Sander (or his impostor) from weeks past, and the Condors were encroaching on him relentlessly anyway. Another run scored in the second on three singles, Bob Rojas plating Danny Zarate, while Robby Boggs was thrown out at home plate for good measure, and Greg Borg also threw out Larios at home plate in the third inning!

While Sander was chewed up after five innings of three Condors runs and 101 pitches, the worst was yet to come, and we were not referring to a no-hitter by the boy with the ERA of EIGHT whom the Raccoons couldn't touch with a 30-foot pole. No, Nunley had singled in the first inning, and that one was off the table. Never mind that that single was ALL the Coons had on the board. No, the worst came by the sixth inning, which saw Kevin Surginer take over and completely fork the nominally close game. Danny Zarate and Robby Boggs opened the inning with singles to go to the corners before Little bunted back to the mound and Surginer managed to throw that ball away for a run-scoring error. Up by four and with runners on first and second, the Condors continued to play the slow card, with Bob Rojas also asked to bunt. Oh, and it worked, now with Delgado the idiot that made a stupid play, trying to nip Boggs at third base, in vain as it turned out. Now the bags were full with nobody out, and the best thing was that this meltdown had occurred inside of only SIX pitches. Shane Sanks drove in two with a single over Otis, and Mike Matias plated one with another single. You may notice the absence of Mike Bednarski from the hit parade, but COME – ON!! Have you EVER seen Bednarski jump on an opportunity!!?? Surginer was banished with four runs, three earned, on his ledger, and Justin Hess took over, ending the inning on a double play of the 8-2 variety on the left-handed Omar Larios. Greg Borg was ON FIRE!!

So were some of the other Coons, too, in this 7-0 massacre, although mostly it was only their tails. Cookie hit a single in the sixth. Borg hit a single in the eighth. That was the extent of their rallying against Jeff Little, who one day at his Hall of Fame induction would relate how he already considered going back to college to get a proper job before he was 31-year-old AAA washout, but then those silly Raccoons came along and got him back on track with eight innings of shutout ball. Markus Bates spilled a leadoff walk to Cookie in the bottom 9th, also a wild pitch and singles to Nunley and Gonzalez, which was as much support as was necessary to score Cookie these days, and also everything the Coons mustered in this damn game. 8-1 Condors. Nunley 2-4;

So much for run differentials. Ours now: +4. Theirs: +6.

I will never say a bad word about another team again.

Game 2
TIJ: 2B B. Rojas – SS Sanks – RF O. Larios – 3B M. Matias – LF Bednarski – 1B McNeal – CF Boggs – C Zarate – P Griffin
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – 2B Jurek – C Delgado – P Wasserman

The Condors indeed skipped pitchers, but the mind still boggled as Griffin with the 6+ ERA was the skipper rather than the skippee, but there was probably some devious, ugly-feathered plan to that, hatched after the Coons had been utterly dominated by a guy with an 8.00 ERA in the series opener. In the event, Griffin was the first to allow a run thanks to a second-inning leadoff jack by "Sleeping Beauty" Gonzalez, his fifth of the year – what a pity – but Griffin appeared to get instant revenge with a leadoff double up the leftfield line in the third inning. Bob Rojas flew out to left, Shane Sanks grounded out to third, and then Larios singled, but Griffin was held at third base, where he had a good view as Mike Matias struck out to strand them on the corners. It was on Danny Zarate to tie the game with a 2-out triple in the fourth inning that plated Mike Bednarski after all. Tijuana zoomed ahead in the fifth inning. Nobody on, Larios grounded a ball at Nunley, who was absent-mindedly picking all the good bits from his king-sized bucket with chicken wings and drums over there at third base, and when the ball came at him casually picked it up, found it inedible, and tossed it away. That came back to hurt, with Matias hitting a 400-footer right afterwards for an unearned 2-piece that split the tie and put the Condors 3-1 ahead. Through five, the Raccoons were still looking for a second base hit, let alone a second run, and when Jurek drew a walk, Delgado was quick to ground into an inning-ending double play.

The few Coons highlights there were were mostly of defensive nature, like Abel Mora throwing out Larios at third base in the seventh inning, and maybe this could inspire them? Abel went on to lead off the bottom 7th with a single to center, the Coons' SECOND hit in the game. Gonzalez chipped in another single and the tying runs were aboard for … well, whatever soup of the day would stumble into home plate, starting with .217 career disappointment Omar Alfaro. Omar actually turned an 0-2 pitch into the third single of the inning, hit sharply to Larios' feet in rightfield, and the bases were loaded for … three batters with clips under .200 …! Matt Otis (.281, albeit a flimsy one!) hit for Tim Stalker at once, grounding into a force at home. Jurek hit a sac fly, 3-2, and Borg hit in Delgado's spot and walked, which automatically ended Wasserman's day of work, although it was slim pickings on the bench. Feared up and down the west coast, Justin Gerace (batting all of .173) batted for our starter, at which point you could make a legit case for the pitcher batting with three on, two outs, and the whole ****ing thing on the line. Gerace struck out, and the Coons were doomed once more, but before they could be silently buried in the dead of night Matt Nunley got hurt on a defensive play in the eighth inning, prompting replacement by Sam Armetta, last Critter on the bench. Armetta drew a walk against lefty Mike Peterson in the bottom 8th, and righty Lorenzo Romero lost Gonzalez on a single and Alfaro on another walk, bringing up Matt Otis with three on and two outs. Jaws dropped when Otis knocked a single into centerfield. Armetta scored, Gonzalez scored, and this score was flipped! The inning ended soon, and we sent Billy Brotman into the ninth inning, which had totally to do with the three left-handed batters he would potentially face and none at all with the fact that Jonathan Snyder had retreated to the hot tub in the seventh inning and was not wearing pants at this point. Three groundouts later, the Condors were not in first place anymore, and the Coons danced off with a win they had totally and completely stolen. 4-3 Blighters. Gonzalez 3-4, HR, RBI; Alfaro 1-2, 2 BB; Otis (PH) 1-2, 2 RBI; Wasserman 7.0 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

No good thing can come without three bad things attached, though, as the Raccoons had to place Matt Nunley on the DL on Sunday morning, owing to an intercostal strain. He might be able to come back by the middle of June, but the question is whether we will have scored a run at all until then…

And yes, this was a .276/.333/.331 hitter's demise that caused the ship to sink… He's one of our best …!! Mike Grigsby was called up, and he wasn't. He was batting next to nothing in AAA.

Game 3
TIJ: 2B B. Rojas – SS Sanks – RF O. Larios – 3B M. Matias – LF Bednarski – 1B McNeal – CF Hatley – C Zarate – P Weaver
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – 3B Grigsby – C Mendez – P Chavez

Grigbsy made a Matt Nunley Memorial Error on his first major-league chance of the season, putting Bednarski on base in the second inning before Andy McNeal went yard and yonder, putting Chavez into a too-soon 2-0 hole. The Coons scratched out a return run in the bottom of the inning on the leadoff doubles by Gonzalez and Alfaro, with the tying run being donated to them by Zarate, who flubbed a fastball under his mitten and to the backstop with Alfaro on third, Chavez at the plate, and two outs. The bottom of the order grabbed the lead then in the fourth inning, with Grigsby landing a single to right for his first hit of the season, Mendez doubling to left for the first hit of his career, and Chavez dropping a ball between Nick Hatley and Omar Larios for an RBI single, 3-2, with Mendez then scoring on Cookie's groundout for a 4-2 tally after four, with Otis walking, but Mora popping out to end the inning and strand a pair.

Too bad that Chavez sucked bad enough to surrender a game-tying 2-out homer to BEDNARSKI in the sixth inning, something that left the park stunned and annoyed and me scrambling for more booze. I almost tripped over Slappy, who had passed out next to the liquor cabinet, but I got back just in time to see Grigsby reach on an infield single to begin the bottom 6th, knocking out Weaver in the process. Lorenzo Romero handled Chavez' bunt for a force at second base, after which Cookie singled and Otis walked, filling the bags with two down for Mora, our heroic RBI lead with all of 23 runs batted in. He could be moved, emotionally, to up his total to 27 on a 3-2 hanger in the sweet spot. GRAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!!

Chavez came back out for the seventh in the 8-4 game, which saw Hatley hit a leadoff single under Otis' glove, then Hatley on third base after Mendez' grim throwing error on his steal attempt. A double switch removed two problems, with Hess entering the game on the mound, and Armetta at the keystone. Bob Rojas popped up to end the inning, moving us to the bottom 7th and the next bewildering spectacle. Tim Stalker doubled off Rafael Cuenca with one out, getting back to that vaunted .200 mark, which prompted the Condors to walk Grigsby intentionally! Are you all insane!? I mean, technically it worked, with Mendez hitting into an inning-ending double play, but what is it with this readiness to put additional runners on base? Cuenca managed to put enough Coons on base without intent in the eighth inning to produce another two Coons runs, driven in by Gonzalez and Alfaro, while the Condors had the final say with Robby Boggs' 2-out RBI double against Lee in the ninth, but the Coons still won handily and unexpectedly so. 10-5 Furballs! Mora 3-5, HR, 4 RBI; Gonzalez 3-5, 2B, RBI; Alfaro 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Grigsby 2-3, BB;

Winning week! Somehow! Winning week! Don't ask questions! Winning week is all that counts!

In other news

May 21 – The Thunder will be without SS Lorenzo Rivera (.349, 0 HR, 12 RBI) for a month after the 26-year-old has sprained his ankle.

Complaints and stuff

A series split with Boston is better than what I thought we'd get, but I can't help but feel like we wasted a chance in this Thursday game. Yup, the little team that should but couldn't, with the absolute worst, untouchably most rancid offense in the league entertains itself to dream up a scenario where they tackle the mighty Titans for the division. Maud! … Maud! – Where are… I can't find my pills, or did I already take all of them…?

Maud will look into this important matter, as well as my bloodshot eyes.

The Nunley injury sucks, just like the Tovias and Spencer and Kopp injuries before. Just look at those lineups. Completely toothless. And toothless Raccoons do indeed have a hard time …! Finding a replacement for Nunley on the roster was hard, not because I was afraid of bringing up another .166 batter, but because I was afraid I would bring up 19-year-old Alberto Ramos, who was moved to AAA two weeks ago and was batting .315 there. I think the time is drawing closer, though, especially considering what Tim Stalker is giving us, and the Coons could have a teen shortstop as early as June.

You know who else is batting .300+ in under 20 games in St. Pete? Juan Magallanes, the Colombian outfielder from the Jewish high school in Brooklyn. Does he… Maud? .. .Maud!! – Do you know whether Magallanes is actually Jewish? – Oh, hear, hear …! – So that is his father's side? – Yeah, they tend to heckle me less.

Regarding injuries, we will get a set of batters back in the next week or so. Terry Kopp might come back mid-week, and Tovias and Spencer early next week. Tovias' DL stint goes through Sunday anyway. Daniel Bullock is probably a mid-June candidate for a rehab assignment. And yes, the offense is picky enough that Daniel Bullock could be some actual help here. – What is it Cristiano? Why the glare?

Oh, what is it now? – Maud, I don't believe you that Mrs. Brotman is actually on line 2 because her bubbele had to get a save on the Sabbath, you're just toying with me!

Tim Stalker didn't get into the Wednesday game at all, meaning that no Raccoon was left standing with a perfect attendance record at the first quarter post. Then again, we should probably not brag about anyway how we were running out a .202 batting shortstop every ****ing day.

What else? Between half-innings on Saturday, with Wasserman just having been done in by shoddy fielding and Matias' booming homer, the Druid talked to him in the dugout and informed him that all the sufferings he incurred in this plane of existence would see him greatly enriched his soul in its next life, to which Wasserman quipped "**** my soul. I want a ring!"

Dang right you want, but then you should have signed with the Titans instead…

Fun Fact: The Boston Titans have hoisted the World Series trophy seven times since the Raccoons last got turns on the honor.

Yeah, well, I don't know. I'm still going with gypsy curse.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (25-20) @ Bayhawks (15-30) – May 27-29, 2025

Following an off day on Monday, the Raccoons had to put up with the Bayhawks, the worst team by record in the Continental League, and sitting 11th in the CL in both runs scored and runs allowed with a troubling -69 run differential less than two months into the season. The Raccoons actually had a real chance here to crawl out of the bottom spot in runs scored for the first time since the opening week of the season, with the Raccoons' runs total of 158 markers (oh yes…) placing them just two behind the Baybirds. The teams had not yet met in 2025 before, but the Coons had stomped San Francisco at an 8-1 rate in 2024 already.

Projected matchups:
Mark Roberts (4-3, 2.82 ERA) vs. Denzel Durr (2-3, 4.76 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (2-4, 3.62 ERA) vs. Reese Kenny (0-2, 4.05 ERA)
Jack Sander (5-2, 1.98 ERA) vs. Matt Huf (6-2, 3.09 ERA)

Among those three right-handers, Kenny and Huf were just two discards the Bayhawks had received from the Raccoons, but they actually had another one in the rotation in Jonathan Shook (2-3, 3.09 ERA).

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – 3B Armetta – C Delgado – P Roberts
SFB: 3B Booker – 1B Flack – RF C. Martinez – C J. Ramirez – LF R. Allen – CF Hawthorne – SS Hawkins – 2B Pick – P Durr

Tony Delgado's sac fly – all you could hope from a .145 batter with three on and one out – put the Coons ahead in the second inning after singles by Gonzalez and Armetta (of the infield variety) and a full-count walk drawn by Tim Stalker. Unfortunately the Raccoons wouldn't hold on for long, with Tom Hawkins hitting a 2-out double in the bottom 2nd of a somewhat stuffless Roberts – no K's the first time through – which prompted an intentional walk to Pat Pick and then Denzel Durr flying to center, where Abel Mora came on, caught, stumbled, and dropped the ball. Ruled a no-catch, the play allowed Hawkins to score and tie the game again. The Critters failed to plate anybody between three walks drawn in the third inning, but got Armetta aboard right away in the fourth. Delgado struck out, Roberts bunted, and a passed ball advanced the runner before Cookie lost a bat that splintered into ten thousand tooth picks but held out long enough to send a dying quail into shallow right for a 2-out RBI single to plate Armetta and take a 2-1 lead. Otis then singled, sending Cookie to third, Mora was plunked, and with the bags full Jon Gonzalez gave his all and hit an RBI single before Alfaro grounded out hard to Adam Flack at first base.

A 2-run lead turned out to be a whole lot with a rather competent pitcher on the mound and this Bayhawks lineup to face. Roberts covered seven innings in 100 pitches, allowing only one more base hit to Roger Allen after getting staked to the 3-1 lead in the fourth inning. The problems for the Raccoons started only late, after tacking on a run on a pinch-hit single by Greg Borg in the ninth inning, and after a scoreless eighth by Vince D. Jonathan Snyder came out for the ninth with a 4-1 lead and without retiring anybody put the tying runs on base with a Jose Ramirez double, a walk to Roger Allen, and then a Ruben Cervantes single. This was not quite to Snyder's previous standard in '25! When the count ran full on Tom Hawkins he at least struck out the right-handed batter, but Pick singled up the middle to plate a runner and get the Bayhawks to 4-2 with the bags still full. Dave Rojas, who with his .188 clip could just as well be on the Coons, pinch-hit in the pitcher's spot and flew to right on the first pitch. Greg Borg caught the ball coming in, with Allen tagging from third and going for home. Borg fired a zip line to home plate that made you wonder whether his body was somehow mechanically enhanced, and Allen found himself out by a stride as the Bayhawks made the final out of the game at home plate. 4-2 Coons! Otis 2-5; Gonzalez 2-5, RBI; Borg (PH) 1-1, RBI; Armetta 1-2, 2 BB; Gerace (PH) 1-1; Roberts 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (5-3);

Snyder's near-meltdown and the run he conceded unfortunately mean that we still tie the Baybirds for last place in runs scored with 162 counters in 46 games each.

Don't do the math.

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – SS Stalker – LF Gerace – 3B Grigbsy – C Delgado – P Gutierrez
SFB: 3B Booker – 1B Flack – RF C. Martinez – C J. Ramirez – LF Allen – CF Hawthorne – SS Quantrille – 2B Pick – P Kenny

Reese Kenny had walked ten batters in 13.1 innings this season, which was nothing that served to surprise me. That was precisely the reason we had readily parted with him (and Huf and Shook) in the Gonzalez/Roberts deal two winters ago. The Raccoons would soon have other problems, though, since Rico Gutierrez lasted exactly two batters and one out in this game before exiting with a calf strain. (claps hands quickly) Bullpen day!

Kevin Surginer was by far the longest man in the bullpen, so he came out to replace Gutierrez right in the first inning, closing the latter's line efficiently with a double play grounder induced to Cesar Martinez. While results became secondary when your pitcher went down in the first inning, Surginer held himself up quite well. The Coons staked him to a 1-0 lead in the second inning, courtesy of singles by Gonzalez and Stalker and then Justin Gerace's sac fly, and Gerace would also chip in on defense, throwing out Pat Pick at home plate in the bottom 3rd as he tried to score from second base on Adam Flack's single to left. Kenny didn't walk anybody until the fourth inning, but when he issued a free pass to leadoff man Jon Gonzalez, Tim Stalker was on call and belched a homer to centerfield to run the score to 3-0. Kenny's control would elude him gradually then, and he ended up walking four between the fourth and fifth innings, including Cookie Carmona to begin the fifth. Cookie stole second – his sixth bag of the year – advanced on Abel Mora's groundout, then scored on a wild pitch, restoring a 3-run lead following Cesar Martinez' homer in the bottom of the fourth inning that had cut into Surginer's line.

Surginer was wrung dry for almost 60 pitches, which got the Raccoons through five innings with a 4-1 lead and got a huge amount of hugs and pats on the back in the dugout after the fifth inning, and also a heartfelt smooch on the cheek from his GM that hurried down to the tunnel between innings to express his delight at the performance in person and instantly. After Surginer collected more than half the outs in a 9-inning game, Ricky Ohl gave the Coons five more, putting up a 7-pitch sixth inning before losing cohesion in the seventh with a single, a wild pitch, and a runner on third eventually. That runner, Jose Ramirez, was stranded by Justin Hess, who got the left-handed batter Jeremy Quantrille to fly out to Mora in center to end the inning. Up until then the Bayhawks had remained close, but Jay Schimek came completely apart for them in the eighth inning. After retiring Armetta and Delgado, Schimek allowed straight base hits to Alfaro, Borg, Otis, Mora, and Gonzalez, amounting to four 2-out runs in total. Single runs that didn't influence the result much anymore fell out of Jimmy Lee in the bottom 8th and Brandon Smith in the top of the ninth, with the latter allowing an RBI single to Omar Alfaro, who went 3-for-3 off the bench eventually. 9-2 Furballs! Carmona 2-4; Borg (PH) 1-2; Gonzalez 3-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Stalker 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Mendez (PH) 1-1; Alfaro (PH) 3-3, RBI; Surginer 4.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (2-1); Ohl 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

In sole possession of 11th place in runs scored!! Wheeeee!! That's what I call living life in the FAST LANE.

Also, the Titans have lost twice so far, and we are now only two games out of the lead in the North.

Game 3
POR: LF Borg – 2B Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – 3B Grigbsy – C Mendez – P Sander
SFB: 3B Booker – 1B Flack – RF C. Martinez – LF R. Allen – SS Quantrille – C D. Rojas – CF Hawthorne – 2B Pick – P Huf

Matt Huf had 67 K already this season, which was probably one point that wasn't going our way in the huge deal from the 2023-24 offseason, and he struck out three more in the first inning. This didn't include Abel Mora, who hit one over the fence in rightfield, just barely inside the foul pole. Jack Sander led the league in ERA, which was worrisome since he was due for some form of impact, couldn't hold on to the 1-0 lead, suffering a hit batter (Flack), a walk (Allen), and then Quantrille's 2-out single in the bottom of the inning. You blew that one? Here's a new one! Said Mike Grigbsy in the second inning after Alfaro and Stalker had hit singles, and walloped a 385-footer over the leftfield fence. Huf could have used a strikeout there! Even miserable scratch-ticket catcher Chris Mendez almost homered, hitting a double off the wall in rightfield, and there was still nobody out in the inning, but he was left on base, partly because Huf suddenly remembered that the ball wasn't supposed to go as centered as possible over home plate.

While neither pitcher had a good day – and Huf was down 5-1 by the third inning thanks to a throwing error by Dave Rojas and a double into leftfield corner by Jon Gonzalez – the Bayhawks lineup could also be charged for letting good chances get away against Sander. They had the bags full in the bottom 3rd against the scruffy right-hander, Flack and Martinez having singled and Quantrille having reached on a Grigsby error, but Rojas smacked a pitch squarely to Stalker for an inning-ending double play. The fourth inning saw Huf's demise for good, belted from the game by Chris Mendez' leadoff jack (after all!), and now the Bayhawks were into that old pen early, although the Coons were probably not far behind. Sander was stripped for four hits and three runs in the bottom 4th, and it was almost four runs for Martinez' 2-out RBI double hitting off the very top of the wall in leftfield. That axed the lead to 6-4, and Tim Stalker was also axed due to injury, to be replaced by Dustin Jurek.

By the sixth, Sander was booted from the game, but Ricky Ohl kept Flack, whose 1-out single had kicked Sander, on base as he got Martinez to pop out foul and Allen to strike out, the first K for a Coon in this game. The bases were full in the top 7th against Brandon Smith; Mora walked and stole second base, while Alfaro and Jurek both walked. That brought up Grigsby with one out (Gonzalez had flown out to center), with Chris Mendez hoping for a good chance behind him. Mendez, the 28-year-old third-string catcher with one career homer was a triple shy of the cycle. Grigsby struck out, leaving Mendez a full plate with two down, but Jaden Booker played spoiler by intercepting Mendez' sharp bouncer for the third out. The eighth inning saw both teams put two aboard, and both would hit into inning-ending double plays, Otis for Portland and Martinez for San Francisco. More offense in the ninth served to score an insurance run for Portland on Grigsby's RBI single, but also brought up Mendez once more with two on and two outs. Hitting a triple here would be the most stunning thing that had ever happened in the ABL up to this point, and I was not biased given that a week ago I had seen as much value to Mendez as to that piece of gum on my left sole. Manny Sosa struggled badly enough with his pitches that Mendez never got anything to hit and walked to fill the bags, leading to Justin Gerace pinch-hitting for Vince D and smacking a ball up the rightfield line for a 2-run double. Jimmy Lee only allowed a single to Rojas in the bottom 9th in sealing a sweep over the Baybirds. 9-4 Furballs! Mora 1-2, 3 BB, HR, RBI; Gonzalez 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Alfaro 2-4, RBI; Stalker 1-2; Jurek 1-1, 2 BB; Grigbsy 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Mendez 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Gerace (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Ohl 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

This gave the Raccoons a 5-game winning streak, something almost unheard of around these quarters.

Unfortunately no news on Tim Stalker so far, but if he goes to the DL as well, we'll have three quarters of our starting infield on there, four fifths of all personnel stationed around the diamond.

Raccoons (28-20) @ Knights (23-23) – May 30-June 1, 2025

Regardless of the huge casualty list, onwards to Atlanta it was. We were 2-1 against the Knights this season, and they also had been on the upswing recently, having swept the Elks midweek. Okay, that was just the Elks… They did have a potent offense with the third-most runs scored in the league, but struggled with pitching. Both their starters and relievers were just below league average, and overall they were allowing the fourth-most runs, but that still gave them a healthy +43 run differential that hinted at the possibility that they were indeed quite a bit better than the ordinary .500 team…

Projected matchups:
Graham Wasserman (1-3, 2.77 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (3-3, 4.56 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (3-2, 4.89 ERA) vs. Yoo-chul Kim (1-6, 5.63 ERA)
Mark Roberts (5-3, 2.53 ERA) vs. Antonio Quintana (2-0, 1.71 ERA)

Right-right-left; Jesus Chavez also doesn't know it, but he's on the clock, with Lance Legleiter performing very decently in AAA. He better not aspire for Kim's ERA!

With a .346 clip and 12 HR and 39 RBI, the Knights' Ruben Luna was currently in line for the CL batting triple crown.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 3B Grigsby – SS Jurek – C Delgado – P Wasserman
ATL: LF Cobb – 2B T. Jimenez – SS Showalter – C Luna – CF Houghtaling – 3B V. Ramirez – 1B Gershkovich – RF A. Sauceda – P Cope

It wasn't Luna though that pulled the rug from underneath Wasserman in the second inning, but Vinny Ramirez with his first homer of the season, a 2-piece collecting fellow ex-Elk Jeremy Houghtaling. Another ball flew out of the park as a solo shot for Andrew Showalter in the third inning, and the question was whether all of this mattered much, even with Cookie and Mora also spoiling quite a few doubles for the Knights, because Brian Cope was ON and allowed only one base hit, a third-inning Cookie single, in the first five frames, casually handling the 3-0 lead he was given with utmost excellence. Cookie was also the second Critter to reach base, being brushed by a pitch in the sixth and then was left on by Otis and Mora.

The meaningful part of the scoreboard wasn't reached by Portland players until Jon Gonzalez managed to smash a leadoff jack in the seventh inning. There went Cope's shutout, and the Coons were now only two runs behind, 3-1. Eh, wait a second. One run behind – Omar Alfaro goes back-to-back with Gonzalez! When Grigsby batted, for a moment we thought we would have three in a row, but Grigsby's fly to deep right lacked length at the end and was caught by Alex Sauceda on the warning track, with Cope getting out of the inning after all. The Knights weren't fazed much as a team, however. Exploiting the fact that Wasserman issued a leadoff walk to Mike Gershkovich in the bottom 7th and then allowed a single to Sauceda, the Knights pulled those two runs right back on Devin Hibbard's pinch-hit double and Nick Cobb's sac fly. Down 5-2, the Coons brought the tying run to the plate against Jarrod Morrison in the ninth; Jon Gonzalez hit a leadoff single, Alfaro struck out, but Borg singled in Grigsby's spot. Dustin Jurek's poke at a 3-1 pitch resulted in a bouncer back to the pitcher, though, and Morrison had no trouble turning a double play on that one. 5-2 Knights. Gonzalez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Borg (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – RF Borg – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Grigsby – 2B Armetta – SS Jurek – C Mendez – P Chavez
ATL: LF Cobb – 2B T. Jimenez – SS Showalter – C Luna – CF Houghtaling – 3B V. Ramirez – 1B Gershkovich – RF Briscoe – P Y.C. Kim

Chavez was in a hole immediately, entertaining himself throwing absolute garbage across the middle of the plate. It was a miracle that the Knights didn't go yard six times in the first few innings, but damage they did enough with a run on two hits in the first and two runs on four hits in the second inning. To add insult to injury, Chavez was the first Raccoon to hit a single, going up the middle with one out in the third. Cookie also singled after that, and a walk to Mora loaded the bags with two outs. Jon Gonzalez plated two with a double to left, but with the really dire part of the lineup approaching the offense ended right there. Grigsby grounded out to Tony Jimenez, keeping the Coons in arrears, 3-2. Houghtaling spoiled a Gonzalez drive to center with two outs in the fifth that could have driven in Mora from second base, and Chavez turned in three hitless innings in the third, fourth, and fifth when he already had three paws on the bus to St. Pete. He was hit for in the top of the sixth with two on and two outs. Omar Alfaro was assigned the task of bringing in Jurek (hit by a pitch) and Mendez (bloop single), but bounced the first pitch Kim handed him to Jimenez to end the inning instead.

Kim was still going in the seventh, which was such a blast for us. Mora and Gonzalez hit singles to go to the corners, but that was already with two down and now it was Grigsby in the box. But sometimes pathetic batting would beat pathetic pitching; Kim tried hard to get strike three in a full count, coming over the middle and Grigsby could indeed hit a ball on a stick… for an RBI single at least, but that got the Coons even if nothing else. With righty Alfredo Morua replacing Kim at least one batter too late, the Coons' short bench kinda forced their paws into sticking with career .217 annoyance Sam Armetta in this golden spot. He grounded out to Showalter. Morua didn't surrender the go-ahead run until the following inning when he allowed a soft leadoff single to Jurek, who was bunted over by Mendez before Gerace popped out. Cookie came through, however, singling hard past Mike Gershkovich to bring home the rule 5 pick Jurek, and now it was 4-3 Coons! Billy Brotman chewed through the 3-4-5 batters in the bottom 8th before the Knights spontaneously imploded in the ninth for three hits by Gonzalez, Grigsby (double), and Otis (RBI single), and also a Hibbard error on Jurek's grounder that allowed a second run to score. This gave Snyder, who had struggled his last time out, a much more comfortable 3-run lead to handle in the bottom 9th. Struggling he did again, with singles by Gershkovich and Hibbard putting runners on the corners until Mark Walker, a left-handed batter, pinch-hit in for reliever Freddy Heredia in the #1 spot and popped out to Gonzalez… 6-3 Furballs! Carmona 2-5, RBI; Mora 2-4, BB; Gonzalez 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Grigbsy 2-5, 2B, RBI; Otis (PH) 1-1, RBI; Mendez 2-4;

On Sunday morning, Tim Stalker went to the DL finally with a strained biceps that should render him out until the All Star Game. Oh the wild joy! With misery abounding, it was time to give a call to a certain blue chip in St. Petersburg that was batting .307/.402/.427 at this point. Juan Barzaga was waived and designated for assignment to make room for Alberto Ramos on the 40-man roster.

So on a scale from "flog him!" to "at least it wasn't terminal", where do we place Jesus Chavez right now? I think demotion would be overly cruel right now, but then again we are a team that is suddenly ONE game out of the division lead and can't afford another loss EVER AGAIN.

Your turn, Mark.

Game 3
POR: LF Carmona – SS Ramos – CF Borg – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 2B Otis – 3B Grigsby – C Delgado – P Roberts
ATL: LF Cobb – 2B T. Jimenez – SS Showalter – CF Houghtaling – C Luna – 3B V. Ramirez – 1B Gershkovich – RF Briscoe – P Chatfield

At the last minute, the Knights scratched Quintana for unknown reasons and sent in right-hander Chris Chatfield (2-3, 4.82 ERA) causing the Coons to shuffle their lineup. Debutee Alberto Ramos would have batted leadoff with Cookie getting the day off, but the pitching change changed that as well and Ramos would bat second to Cookie. Greg Borg was batting third, because Abel Mora could use a day off as well and apart from that we had casualties akin to the U.S. forces in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive……

Ramos drew a walk against Chatfield (who had more walks than strikeouts on the season) in an otherwise rather uneventful top of the first. Welcome to the Bigs! Not exactly bristling with action were also the first two Knights innings, where only two balls were put in play. Roberts walked two and struck out five. Ramos hit a leadoff single in the fourth inning, and once against didn't make it past second base for a full and complete lack of support around him. Indeed Chatfield and Roberts engaged in a most unexpected pitching duel that saw neither team score through six innings, while a few walks served to rocket up both pitchers' pitch counts anyway. Through six, the Ramos single was the Coons' only base knock, but maybe this leadoff walk to Gonzalez in the seventh can get things moving. Alfaro forced him with a grounder to Gershkovich, but Otis singled. Grigsby popped up, and then Delgado (under .150!) lined over Vinny Ramirez into leftfield for a single. Alfaro raced with blind disregard for anything, and slid in barely safe ahead of Nick Cobb's throw for the first run in the game!

Roberts got well over 100 pitches in completing the seventh inning with ten strikeouts in total, including one to ex-Elk and –Coon Cory Briscoe to end his day. The Coons saw Cookie hit a leadoff single in the top 8th, then get caught stealing. This was too bad because Chatfield yielded more base hits suddenly. Ramos doubled to left, and Borg singled softly, placing runners on the corners with one out. A quick Gonzalez bouncer eluded Ramirez for an RBI single, 2-0, before Alfaro and Otis made the last two outs. Much to our dismay, Vince D would then load the bases with nobody out in the bottom 8th, all runners reaching after 3-ball counts. Mark Walker tripled to lead off and was replaced by Alex Sauceda as pinch-runner after hurting himself, and Cobb and Jimenez walked. Ricky Ohl replaced him and failed to clean up the utter mess. Andrew Showalter grounded out to first to score a run, and Houghtaling despicably singled to right to tie the game. Luna was 0-for-3 with strikeouts throughout, but evaded the golden sombrero by flying into an 8-2 double play to Borg in shallow center, with Greg murdering Jimenez at home plate to keep the Knights from grabbing the lead. Cookie came up with the tie-breaking hit in the ninth, pushing a 2-out single through the left side to score Delgado from second base. Like Alfaro the inning before, the old man gave his all on his way to home plate, sliding in just barely safe, then got some support from Ramos (roughly half Delgado's age) as he staggered back up, huffing and puffing.

But the Cookie giveth and the Cookie taketh it away. Senor Carmona juggled a Matt Wright fly in left-center with one out in the bottom 9th, putting the tying run aboard, and Devin Hibbard disemboweled Snyder with a 2-out triple that knotted the score again and ultimately sent the game to extra innings. Surginer walked Showalter in the bottom 10th, then got torn up by ****ing ***stain Jeremy Houghtaling's walkoff homer over the rightfield fence. 5-3 Knights. Ramos 2-4, BB, 2B; Otis 1-2, 2 BB; Delgado 2-4, RBI; Roberts 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 10 K;

Cookie. Whyyyyyy???

In other news

May 26 – A 15th-inning single by veteran RF/LF Mike Bednarski (.254, 7 HR, 29 RBI) gives the Condors a 3-2 walkoff win over the Crusaders after neither team had scored for over two hours prior to this game-ending base hit.
May 27 – Cincy's 3B/SS Ricardo Rangel (.293, 0 HR, 16 RBI) hits a walkoff single in the 12th inning to give the Cyclones victory in a truly wild 15-14 win over the Gold Sox. The Cyclones led by *13* runs in the third inning and managed to blow that lead before clawing their way to a win after all. CIN 1B/RF Nick Gilmor (.476, 1 HR, 7 RBI) goes 4-for-5 with 4 RBI and scores the winning run.
May 28 – Crusaders and Condors tally seven hits each, but it takes them to the 12th inning to score any run at all. That run, giving the Condors a 1-0 walkoff win, will be unearned thanks to NYC C Pat Walston's (.188, 0 HR, 7 RBI) throwing error, moving TIJ OF Joel Denzler (.222, 0 HR, 3 RBI) to third base, from where 3B/RF/LF Mike Matias (.233, 7 HR, 25 RBI) plates him with a single.
May 28 – SAL MR Cruz Sierra (1-1, 12.21 ERA) allows the Buffaloes to walk off, 3-2, in style. Entering the 2-1 Wolves game in the bottom of the ninth, Sierra allows four walks and hits a batter to shuffle in the tying and winning runs.
May 31 – The Falcons send SP Joel Trotter (2-4, 5.34 ERA) to the Aces for two prospects including #62 SP Alex Lopez.

Complaints and stuff

Jon Gonzalez was Player of the Week in the CL, ripping it for a .481 clip (13-for-27) with 1 HR and 8 RBI. Just a few weeks ago he was batting in the .210s, now he's at .278. If he can get the power going now……

And before you could spit in your hands and rub them in gleeful anticipation, that teen shortstop is already here, kindly brought to you by "lots and lots of injuries". If he does remotely well, Tim Stalker will be trade bait at the deadline. I am sure many teams will jump on a .215 shortstop.

It's a shame, but I think Tony Delgado has gone blind over the winter… oh well, Elias Tovias is ready to come back from the DL at the start of next week. Thankfully. Spencer, too, but the Druid is still wondering whether he should go to rehab with Kopp, who started a rehab assignment in St. Pete on Thursday. Since Kopp's bat was ice cold when he was on the DL and I assume he hasn't gotten better in the last month, I will try to get him warm against some innocent AAA pitching. We still have an off day on Monday to make up our mind on Spencer, and on Tuesday we will start a 2-week homestand against the Falcons, Crusaders, Indians, and Warriors.

And again I was this week referring to people as "ex-Elk" that hadn't been on the Elks' roster for a few years. However, being an ex-Elk is a blemish that stays with you forever. You can't just erase such a thing, it's a bit like a forehead swastika tattoo.

Except if you go into the Hall of Fame as a Raccoon like Kisho Saito and Tetsu Osanai. Then you are forgiven!

Fun Fact: Cookie Carmona made his major league debut on July 18, 2012 in a 2-1 loss to the Titans in Boston. Nick Brown dropped to 9-5 in soaking the loss, Keith Ayers was not out at home as he homered in the ninth inning, but Cookie went 0-for-3 in the game.

Ramos' makeup is remarkably close to Cookie's when he was the hottest **** on the farm. Of course, one of them is an infielder and one is an outfielder, but the batting and running profiles are stunningly similar.

Another difference is that Cookie was 20 years already when he debuted (old fart!), he didn't sign for cash in the IFA period but was rather signed in March 2008 by the Capitals straight out of Panama, and of course he came about from the Capitals in the 2011 "Dingus" Morales shuffle rather than being actually selected by us in any form of signing bonanza. "Dingus" was a Coon for only 60 days after being a late, cheap signing in April that season, costing us our first-round pick then, and when the team didn't live up to expectations (they had been in the World Series, their most recent appearance there, the previous season after all) he was sold off to the Capitals in a move for a bushel or prospects, of whom Cookie was really the only one making impact: 2,122 base hits so far and still with a chance at 3,000 and the Hall of Fame.

Right now I can not tell whether the Raccoons have ever had a teenage player before.

[Westheim]

The week began with an off day and players returning from the DL. Elias Tovias came back from the concussion, with Chris Mendez sent back to St. Petersburg. Jarod Spencer also returned, with Sam Armetta being waived and designated for assignment.

Raccoons (29-22) vs. Falcons (20-31) – June 3-5, 2025

Pitching was the main trouble for the Falcons, who ranked second from the bottom in runs allowed. Their offense was average, but average offense was nothing to counter allowing 5.1 runs per game with. We had won two of three in the first encounter with them this year.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (2-4, 3.60 ERA) vs. Greg Gannon (6-2, 3.02 ERA)
Jack Sander (6-2, 2.38 ERA) vs. Kyle Anderson (2-5, 3.80 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (1-4, 3.19 ERA) vs. Doug Moffatt (4-5, 4.02 ERA)

The Falcons had all right-handed starting pitching, including Travis Garrett (0-0, 6.86 ERA) who was employed as swingman by them, which worked about as well as you would imagine.

Game 1
CHA: SS Ochoa – 2B Good – 1B Fowlkes – LF Kok – RF Banfi – 3B Czachor – CF McClenon – C Sigala – P Gannon
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – 3B Grigsby – P Gutierrez

For the second time in two starts, Rico Gutierrez didn't last long, and again it was for an injury. He made it through the lineup only once, then left with elbow soreness, which was so calming… Kevin Surginer came on yet again to handle a 1-0 game, with the Raccoons having gone up in the first inning on Alberto Ramos' leadoff double and Abel Mora's looping RBI single over the head of Pat Fowlkes. Mora would score the second run for the Coons, coming in the bottom 3rd on a 2-out double by Elias Tovias, who hit a drive to deep right that Luigi Banfi originally caught racing back on the warning track, but lost upon slamming into the fence. Jon Gonzalez, who had extended a hitting streak to 12 games in the second inning, reached on an error, and then Alfaro singled clean through the left side to add an unearned run. By the fourth, we went up 4-0 on Gannon thanks to Spencer cashing in the insanely young Ramos, who had hit a 2-out triple into the gap; by the fifth it was a 6-0 game, Cookie plating Tovias with a groundout to first, and Grigsby contributing an RBI single with two outs. Offensively, the Falcons were not much trouble throughout the game, collecting the odd single without amounting to a major threat on the base paths. The Raccoons had this one apparently in the bag already when they batted through the order in the bottom of the eighth inning against right-hander Justin Guerin, who faced nine, surrendered five runs on two hits, and had augmented the traffic on the bases with four walks and hitting Jon Gonzalez, too. Elijah Taylor struck out Mike Grigsby eventually to end the Coons' shenanigans before Justin Hess saw off the Falcons 1-2-3 in the ninth. 11-0 Furballs!! Ramos 2-4, BB, 3B, 2B; Spencer 2-5, 2 RBI; Mora 2-4, BB, RBI; Tovias 2-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Carmona 2-5, 3 RBI; Surginer 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (3-2); Lee 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

While that was a rousing result, we have a starting pitching issue to dissect now with Rico Gutierrez going to miss his next start with the sore elbow, and given that he pitched like three innings between his last two starts and left the rest to Kevin Surginer, maybe we will have to think about shooting him altogether…

By plating eleven in this Tuesday affair, the Raccoons reached 200+ runs on the year. And it took them only 52 games… but we are at least up to ninth in offense now and no longer dead at the bottom. Also, momentum is on our side. If the pitching could hold up now while the offense is getting repopulated and humming…..

Game 2
CHA: SS Ochoa – RF McClenon – 1B Fowlkes – LF Kok – 3B Czachor – 2B Good – C Mattaliano – CF M. Clark – P Moffatt
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – 3B Grigsby – P Sander

Barend Kok gave the Falcons their first run of the series with a first-inning sac fly to Cookie in left, which cashed in on the leadoff singles by Hugo Ochoa and Joseph McClenon, who had gone to the corners right away against Sander, who slowly but surely seemed to return to his expected level of performance, which wasn't all that great. The Coons came back to tie right away, but lost a run when Ramos, who reached on an error by Fowlkes, was caught stealing by Paul Mattaliano before Jarod Spencer tripled and scored on Mora's single. Kok had none of the Coons' act and took Sander deep in the third for a solo home run that gave the Falcons a new 2-1 lead, but neither was Moffatt impregnable. Base hits by Tovias and Gonzalez put the Raccoons on the corners with nobody out in the bottom 4th, but between Alfaro's pop, Cookie's walk, and Grigsby's sac fly to center they only scored the tying run before Sander flew out easily to McClenon in rightfield.

Youth of a Nation was at work to begin the bottom 5th, with Ramos hitting a really hard single past Matt Good, and Spencer rammed a racing grounder through Ryan Czachor for a double into the corner that the blisteringly fast Ramos used to score at once, giving Portland the lead for the first time on Wednesday, 3-2. Unfortunately the middle of the order wasn't quite up to snuff in this game. Moffatt struck out Mora and Tovias to stifle the Coons' ambitions in the fifth, and managed to strand Alberto Ramos – constantly on base – in scoring position in the seventh with another K to Mora. This left the pen to protect a 3-2 lead in the last two innings after Sander had tip-toed through seven without much stuff to work with. The Falcons sure got close to erasing their deficit in the eighth inning, crowding Billy Brotman with pinch-hitters and pinch-runner Chris Erskine in plate of Fowlkes, who had singled, with Vince Devereaux retiring PH Luigi Banfi on a grounder with two outs and two on eventually. The actual nightmare only broke in the ninth, with Jonathan Snyder offering a leadoff walk to Mattaliano, while Matt Clark reached on a hard-luck error on Ramos, who lunged for a quick grounder, actually had it for a potential double play, or at least to kill the lead runner, but then tried to do everything too quickly and dropped the ball. That was two aboard with no outs; while Jairo Sigala struck out, Snyder threw a wild pitch to Hugo Ochoa, who walked anyway on four pitches. McClenon grounded to Spencer, but not for a double play, and the Coons only got the batter at first, with Mattaliano scoring the tying run. Ramos made a strong play on Erskine's grounder to keep the game at least tied. Ramos hit yet another double in the bottom 9th, but was left on third base eventually with Spencer and Matt Otis (pinch-hitting for Snyder) both grounding out. The Coons still won, albeit in ten innings, with Gonzalez and Alfaro hitting almost matching liners into the left-center gap for a walkoff. 4-3 Coons! Ramos 3-5, 2 2B; Spencer 3-5, 3B, 2B, RBI; Tovias 2-5, 2 2B; Gonzalez 2-5, 2B; Carmona 2-3, BB; Sander 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K;

Game 3
CHA: SS Ochoa – RF McClenon – 1B Fowlkes – LF Kok – 3B Czachor – 2B Good – C Mattaliano – CF M. Clark – P K. Anderson
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – 3B Jurek – P Wasserman

Wasserman whiffed four and allowed no hits the first time through the order as the Coons vied for an early clincher of the season series against Charlotte. Barend Kok broke up the no-hit bid before it really became one, hitting a 2-out single in the fourth inning, coincidentally also giving both teams a matching hit total in the game, because the Raccoons weren't exactly sitting on Kyle Anderson's face either. Gonzalez hit a single in the bottom of the inning to get his hitting streak to 14 games, but was left on first base. Bottom 5th, Dustin Jurek dropped a leadoff single into shallow right, was moved over on a bunt by the pitcher and Ramos' groundout, but Spencer's liner to left was caught by Kok hustling inwards, and Jurek was stranded as well.

Pat Fowlkes broke through Wasserman in the sixth, hitting a double off the wall in leftfield with two outs to plate McClenon for the first run in the game. McClenon had previously singled just inches past the reaching Spencer's glove. In turn, the Raccoons still couldn't find access to Anderson, who didn't seem to have any runs in his pockets, although Jarod Spencer stealthily managed to claw a bag of peanuts from his rear pocket that was never seen again. The Falcons squeezed out an unearned run on Jimmy Lee and another error by Ramos in the ninth inning, but the Coons still didn't have anything against Anderson, who made it into the ninth inning largely unchallenged and would get to defend his own 2-0 lead, although Omar Alfaro put an end to that with a leadoff single to right. Left-hander Danny Munos appeared at once to save this game for the Falcons, getting Cookie to hit into a force at second base before Otis hit in Jurek's spot and singled. The winning run would by Tony Delgado batting in the pitcher's slot with one out. He flew out to right without much tooth on the ball, and Ramos struck out to end the game. 2-0 Falcons. Jurek 2-3; Wasserman 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, L (1-5);

Winless Wasserman at it again! Also, future star Alberto Ramos had his first day to forget entirely in his big league career, going 0-for-5 with 2 K, four left stranded, and that error in the ninth inning.

Raccoons (31-23) vs. Crusaders (24-27) – June 6-8, 2025

These were two very similar teams in how they worked to achieve results, except that the Raccoons were significantly more successful at it. Neither team scored much – both sat in the bottom four in runs scored in the CL – and the Crusaders were second to us Furballs in terms of runs allowed. They were playing significantly under their potential, while the Coons probably had no business being eight games over .500, so things could probably be heading for a readjustment right in this series. So far, these two teams had fought to a standstill in 2025, having split the previous six games right down the middle.

Projected matchups:
Jesus Chavez (3-2, 4.94 ERA) vs. Ed Hague (5-2, 2.41 ERA)
Mark Roberts (5-3, 2.29 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (2-3, 3.72 ERA)
TBD vs. Chris Klein (3-5, 2.81 ERA)

First, we were expecting three right-handers here, although they played a double header last weekend and are in a bit of a shuffle that could also see left-hander Ben Jacobson (1-3, 6.10 ERA) slither into this series.

The Coons' TBD would have been Gutierrez' spot and he isn't going to make his start. We have kept Lance Legleiter out of his scheduled start on Thursday in AAA, and he will come up to take over on Sunday in all likelihood. The question is just about the roster spot that he will occupy… The smartest plan so far was to demote Justin Gerace for him, and after the start send Legleiter back to AAA to bring Terry Kopp back from a rehab assignment that didn't exactly see him knock the cover off the ball…

Game 1
NYC: SS R. Soto – CF Douglas – RF Ellis – 3B Schmit – 1B J. Richardson – C Leal – LF Shaffer – 2B Doering – P Hague
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Borg – LF Gerace – 3B Grigsby – C T. Delgado – P Chavez

Three singles plated a Robby Soto run for the Crusaders in the first, although there was also a throwing error by Delgado on a stolen base attempt in there for general discomfort. The Raccoons' replacement brigade flipped the score in the second inning, though, with Greg Borg and Justin Gerace hitting leadoff doubles to tie it, and then Grigsby singled in Gerace to go ahead, 2-1. Ed Hague's first error of the season turned Chavez' 1-out bunt into two bases, presenting the top of the order with runners in scoring position and one down, but both Ramos and Spencer grounded towards unhelpful places to keep the runners aboard. Weak move, considering that Chavez was constantly leaking base hits in this outing, but maybe the Crusaders would set up more chances for the Raccoons in due order.

Such a chance came in the bottom 4th. In what was still a 2-1 game, Tony Delgado had a 1-out single in the inning before Chavez bunted. The Crusaders would fudge this one, too, with Jamie Richardson having to come in quite far and then still tried to get the lead runner at second base, but not even Delgado was that old and this slow. All hands were safe, and the top of the order approached again, including Ramos in his first career 0-for-7 rut. He ended that one with a single to left, although that was not enough to score Delgado and the bases were loaded. Jarod Spencer sent a drive up the leftfield line, Nick Shaffer wasn't close to catching it, and the ball went all the way into the corner, with the bags emptying nicely on Spencer's 3-run double! Hague wouldn't make it out of the inning, surrendering RBI base hits to both Mora and Gonzalez on his way out, pitcher of record on the sad side of a 7-1 score. Meanwhile Chavez, who had looked like another bullpen day could break out any second during the early innings, found his rhythm in the middle innings, and soon began to turn away the Crusaders in short order. Before you knew it, he was in the ninth inning, where Nate Ellis' 1-out single ended an unbelievable string of *seventeen* Crusaders batters being retired consecutively. Andy Schmit struck out, and Borg handled Jamie Richardson's soft fly to shallow right to our full satisfaction as Chavez turned a stiff breeze in the early innings into a coasting complete game! 7-1 Furballs! Spencer 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Borg 3-4, 2B; Chavez 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (4-2);

The middle game would bring us Ben Jacobson as cautioned earlier, so we would give Ramos and Mora the day off; the Raccoons would not get an off day next week, so we might as well start early with giving out days of rest now.

Game 2
NYC: SS R. Soto – 1B Douglas – 3B Schmit – RF Ellis – C F. Delgado – CF Shaffer – LF I. Vega – 2B Doering – P Jacobson
POR: LF Spencer – CF Borg – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 2B Otis – 3B Grigsby – SS Jurek – P Roberts

The first three Crusaders batters ripped three sharp base hits off Roberts in this game, a Soto single, a Lance Douglas homer, and then another single by Andy Schmit, prompting an early pep talk of the pitching coach with Mark Roberts. No, Mark, they are supposed to score AS FEW POINTS as possible! Roberts got it now, and struck out the next three batters to end the inning. Oh, the blessings of communicating! Maybe the Raccoons could have a swift answer to that. The bottom 1st saw Spencer lead off with an infield single that half the Crusaders' infield personnel looked pretty bad on, and then Borg doubled to left, putting the tying runs in scoring position right away. Unfortunately, Tovias struck out in a full count, and only Gonzalez got a run in on a groundout to Soto before Alfaro struck out. That run the Crusaders pulled right back with the aid of a gross throwing error by Dustin Jurek, but it was also Roberts hitting a guy, and this could turn out to be a pretty long game for us… On cue, Jurek got thrown out at home plate on a 2-out single by Roberts in the bottom 2nd, although to be fair he also only had gotten into scoring position due to an error by Nick Shaffer. Lots o' good baseball being played in Portland on Saturday!

And it only got "better". New York went up 4-1 on Nate Ellis' solo shot in the third, then got another run in the fourth that saw Jarod Spencer miss outlandishly on a throw to home plate that probably would also have been late even if it had been on point. The Coons came up with runners in scoring position and two outs in the bottom 4th, but had Roberts at the plate. I still found it too early to pinch-hit for the nominal ace here, even though he had gotten stuffed with five runs already. He sent a grounder at Blake Doering and in a move fitting for this game Doering had it glance off his glove, scrambled after it, picked it up again, still had time, and then lost it in transfer for another pretty stark error. Grigsby scored, making it now a 5-2 game, with Spencer grounding out to leave two stranded. Roberts' non-heroics with the stick didn't translate into more productive innings on the mound either, Felipe Delgado homering off him in the fifth, a solo shot and also the last run and inning for Roberts in this dismal affair.

Maybe it wasn't all dismal yet; maybe there was another chance. There was brief cameo by Ozzie Pereira in the bottom 8th, who did nothing but give up leadoff singles to Tovias and Gonzalez, which at least had the tying run appear in the on-deck circle as Travis Giordano came out of the bullpen to quell this threat in an instant. Omar Alfaro ran a 3-1 count before grounding it sharply at Blake Doering for a soul-stabbing double play. Matt Otis struck out, and that was it mostly for the Critters. Or was it? Cookie hit for Grigsby to begin the bottom 9th against Steve Casey and grounded out, but then the scraps Jurek and Gerace stung New York with back-to-back homers! Still down by two though. Spencer grounded out, but Greg Borg doubled, bringing up the tying run after all. Tovias, 3-for-4 in the game, struck out, and that was that… 6-4 Crusaders. Spencer 2-5; Borg 3-5, 2 2B; Tovias 3-5; Jurek 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Gerace (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

This one sucked balls all over the place. We out-hit them and not just barely so. We had 15 base knocks to their eight, and somehow still couldn't get in front of them… it wasn't the errors, both teams made two of those. They had three homers against our two, and maybe the three double plays on our ledger also didn't help us much…

Justin Gerace's reward for homering in the ninth was a demotion to St. Pete along with his .209 average, 3 HR, and 13 RBI, to get a starter for the Sunday game onto the roster, as Lance Legleiter would try to take the battle to his old team.

Legleiter had gone 5-1 with a 3.34 ERA in St. Pete, whiffing 8.5 per nine innings.

Game 3
NYC: SS R. Soto – CF Douglas – RF Ellis – 3B Schmit – 1B J. Richardson – LF Loya – C Leal – 2B Doering – P A. Mendez
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – C Tovias – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – 3B Grigsby – P Legleiter

Right-handed Lance Legleiter struck out the left-handed batting side in the first inning, but by contrast, the Crusaders loaded the bags with three mostly right-handed batters in the second inning, only for "Ant" Mendez to strike out to keep them stranded. The scoring started in the third inning, and it was Mendez who was on the bleeding end of it. Jarod Spencer hit a 1-out triple into the rightfield corner, but initially didn't score on Tovias' fly to shallow left. Mora singled him in, up the middle, for the first run in the game, and then Gonzalez legged out an infield single and Alfaro drew a walk to load them up for Cookie, who's low liner went past Schmit's glove and bounced fair by just an inch near the leftfield line. Ricky Loya went to coral it quickly, with Gonzalez waved around third base to get two runs on the single, and he slid in safe while colliding viciously with Armando Leal. With the runners advancing, Grigsby got an intentional walk, leading to Legleiter to ground out to end the inning.

When the fourth inning rolled around, Jon Gonzalez was gone, with Mora moving in to first base and the outfield having grown a Greg Borg between innings. The collision with Leal had shaken Gonzalez enough that there was concern for his back and he had to come out. Other than that, the middle innings were mostly uneventful, with Legleiter doing a splendid job in giving the Raccoons six shutout innings before handing it over to the bullpen. Ricky Ohl took over for the seventh, retired nobody, and left Billy Brotman with the bases loaded. Leal reached on an uncaught third strike, while Doering and Delgado hit singles. Soto grounded to short against Brotman, but Ramos and Spencer could only turn one, Soto eventually stole second base, and Nate Ellis would level the score with a 2-out, 2-run single that dropped well in front of Alfaro. Oh, the deflation…

Jon Ozier's consecutive walks to Mora and Borg created a 1-out opportunity in the bottom 7th, bringing up the decidedly unclutch Alfaro, who struck out in a full count. Cookie ran another full count, walked, and with the bags full the Raccoons had .216-and-falling batter Mike Grigsby in the box, and only Delgado and Jurek left on the diminished bench. Grigsby batted, struck out, and it was all horrendous. Mora struck out with Spencer and Tovias on base in an unsuccessful eighth, and the winning run was left in scoring position in the ninth after an Alfaro single and a wild pitch when Cookie popped out and Grigsby flew out to Shaffer in centerfield. The Crusaders would score off Snyder in the 10th with a laughable 4-pitch leadoff walk to J.D. Laughery, who had earlier pinch-run for Nate Ellis, and then Andy Schmit's double, setting the table for the team. Richardson brought in the go-ahead run with a groundout before the Crusaders – with an empty bench – called the squeeze play for Travis Giordano in the #6 hole. The Coons were accidentally alert and Schmit was struck down at home plate by Tony Delgado, but the Coons were still behind now. Steve Casey retired Delgado, Ramos, and Spencer in order in the bottom 10th to keep it that way. 4-3 Crusaders. Spencer 3-6, 3B; Mora 2-4, BB, RBI; Alfaro 2-4, BB; Legleiter 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K;

Alberto Ramos stole his first career base in this game, swiping one from underneath Mendez and Leal in the sixth.

In other news

June 2 – A wild pitch by TIJ MR Markus Bates (2-3, 1.69 ERA, 5 SV) walks off the Loggers for a 4-3 regulation victory as it allows MIL INF/LF/CF Sam Green (.182, 0 HR, 1 RBI) to score with two outs in the bottom 9th.
June 3 – WAS C David Lessman (.300, 4 HR, 18 RBI) could be out until the All Star break with a strained oblique.
June 5 – CIN CF Nando Maiello (.281, 0 HR, 12 RBI) will miss three weeks with a strained hamstring.
June 5 – SAL INF Dan Cobb (.287, 2 HR, 21 RBI) could miss time until September with a fractured ankle.
June 7 – The Wolves trade RF/LF Luke Gross (.306, 4 HR, 23 RBI) to the Stars for 2B/3B/LF Fernando Medina (.257, 0 HR, 3 RBI) and a prospect.
June 7 – The Capitals erase a 2-run deficit to the Miners with a 7-run seventh inning, eventually claiming a 12-8 victory.
June 8 – The Thunder overcome the Falcons in a 1-0 game. The lone run scores in the fourth inning on a walk drawn by 1B/LF/RF Luke Davis (.276, 1 HR, 10 RBI), a balk, and two groundouts.
June 8 – The Knights acquire SP Jim Shannon (2-6, 4.48 ERA) from the Blue Sox for two prospects.

Complaints and stuff

And again we are sitting so tantalizingly close to first place and can't really kick it into gear… maybe it would help if all the injuries would just stop for a second…

Or, well, if the bullpen could refrain from fudging 3-0 leads in an instant.

Neither Juan Barzaga nor Sam Armetta were claimed off waivers during the week.

Fun Fact: Twice in their history the Raccoons had players spin a no-hitter in the early weeks of June; Manuel "Bam Bam" Movonda no-hit the Condors on June 2, 1998, and Jose Dominguez did the honors against the Crusaders on June 5, 2007.

Of course – and besides the fact that Movonda is still the only pitcher to surrender a run while pitching a no-hitter – even that is not a good time to talk about our accomplishments given that the first days of June also saw Charlotte's Hubert Green cycle against Portland in 1999, and the Crusaders' Gabriel Ortíz hit three homers against them 15 years ago today, two off "Winless" Watanabe and another one off Ted Reese, whom I wouldn't have remembered at all right now.

And tomorrow? Tomorrow will be the 13th anniversary of Stan Murphy's second 3-dinger game. Of course against the Coons. And even against Brownie, all three of them!

Stan Murphy. Grrr.

[Westheim]

2025 DRAFT POOL

What can you get with the #10 pick in the upcoming amateur draft? Well, hopefully something from the following hotlist! (*indicates high school player)

SP Bobby LeMoine (15/12/12) * - BNN #3
SP Michael Frank (14/14/11)
SP Jeremy Puskar (11/14/11) *
SP Eric Fox (13/11/13)
SP Aaron Hagemann (10/13/11) * - BNN #2
SP Jim Corlette (12/13/13)
SP Kevin Clark (13/13/9) – BNN #5

C Matt Cooper (10/11/18) – BNN #9

INF/RF/CF Chris Miller (16/2/5) – BNN #7
SS/2B Jim McKenzie (12/8/11) *
1B/2B/LF/RF Dennis Jensen (13/11/12) *

RF/LF Andy Keyes (12/13/15)
OF Mike Wheeler (11/10/12) *
OF/1B Justice Merriweather (9/10/9) *

Hagemann, a 19-year-old left-handed batter, but right-handed pitcher from Kentucky is this year's interesting two-way player. Besides throwing 89 with finesse and a nasty slider, he can also swing the stick for power as an outfielder. Teams are as of yet not agreeing on what would be the best role for him going forwards.

We do have the BNN #1, SP Sean Bastone on our shortlist, but not as high as those fancy writers with pencils in both ears that couldn't stick on their Little League teams seem to have him.

Another interesting pitcher is Bobby LeMoine, who is far-flungly related to slugger Chris LeMoine, who might be one of the better pitchers of his generation. There is little doubt that this kid will make his way; a right-hander firing it at 93 with room to grow, sturdily built and with good character already has three quality pitches and could add another one or two. Also high stamina, and while it's only high school stats, he has an 0.31 ERA in 16 games in the current season, whiffing two guys per inning. What a beast!

[Westheim]

We've got some rightly crippling heat wave over here and I just can't anymore. Can it be November, please? I am barely functioning, which is why this update took three days to compile…

+++

Raccoons (32-25) vs. Indians (30-25) – June 9-12, 2025

The Indians weren't all bad and not quite resembling the team that lost a crisp one-hundred games last season. Maybe they were not ready to push forwards, but they didn't look like they would easily drop into that chasm again, either. They ranked ninth in offense, so they could use some more (but who didn't?) and were in the top three in runs allowed. This could make an interesting nail-biting series with a string of 2-1 games… The season series so far was level at two.

Projected matchups:
Jack Sander (6-2, 2.40 ERA) vs. Victor Arevalo (5-4, 2.05 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (1-5, 3.00 ERA) vs. Ernesto Lozano (5-4, 2.57 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (2-4, 3.45 ERA) vs. Tom Shumway (7-1, 2.09 ERA)
Mark Roberts (5-4, 2.71 ERA) vs. Jason Clements (2-4, 4.79 ERA)

Shumway was their only left-handed starter. We were exchanging the slots of Rico and Jesus Chavez here to get Rico back into action as soon as feasible after two starts aborted via injuries.

Speaking of injuries, the Raccoons sent Lance Legleiter back to AAA and returned Terry Kopp, who had hit absolutely nothing in his ten games of rehabbing. Jon Gonzalez would miss most of this week or maybe all of it, but disabling him would cost him another week, and we were not so keen about that, so we'd have to play with a short bench for a while. We were also expecting Matt Nunley to come off the DL shortly, and also Daniel Bullock, although Brazil's finest would head for a lengthy rehab in AAA after missing about nine months with a blasted knee.

Game 1
IND: RF Faulk – 2B Folk – 1B Ri. Mendez – LF A. Cooper – C T. Perez – CF Linnell – 3B M. Green – SS Kim – P Arevalo
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – C Tovias – CF Mora – RF Alfaro – 1B Kopp – LF Carmona – 3B Grigsby – P Sander

The first four runs in this game would all be scored with solo home runs before one of the starters crapped out for a 2-out shaming. Tony Perez put the Indians ahead initially with a solo piece in the second inning, but the Raccoons' Mike Grigsby, who already had his ticket back to St. Pete punched, equalized with a shot of his own in the third inning. The fourth saw Terry Kopp and Cookie Carmona (!!) go back-to-back to give Portland a 3-1 lead, and with two outs there, Arevalo started to unravel. He would not retire another batter, allowing a double to Grigsby, an RBI single to Sander, and two more singles to Ramos and Spencer, the latter plating another run, the Coons' fifth overall and fourth in the fourth. There, John McInerney replaced the fallen Arevalo, who couldn't get up again, and retired Elias Tovias on a grounder to second base, ending the inning.

Sander regrettably didn't exactly run with that. Walks to Brody Folk and Andrew Cooper in the sixth inning were undesirably enough, but nothing against Tony Perez' 2-out, 2-run double into the leftfield corner. Sander was yanked in the 5-3 game, but the inning wouldn't end until after Justin Hess' walk to Richard Linnell and an error by Grigsby on Mike Green's grounder had loaded the bases. Man-su Kim grounded out to Kopp to strand a full set. By the bottom 7th the Raccoons also had to deal with a full litter on the base paths, courtesy of a Spencer single, an intentional walk to Abel Mora, an unintentional walk to Omar Alfaro, and left-hander David Elliott not quite sure what to offer to Terry Kopp with one out. The plate appearance delapitated into a four-pitch walk, pushing home Spencer with an insurance run, 6-3, with another run coming in on Cookie's groundout, before Brody Folk took care of Grigsby's grounder to end the inning at 7-3. The Indians refused to retreat to their tents just yet, though; Ricky Ohl got taken deep by Perez for the catcher's second homer of the game and seventh on the season in the top of the eighth, and the struggles of Jonathan Snyder also continued. The Coons saw another run evade on A.J. Faulk's ninth-inning homer, and Snyder then put on the tying runs with a Folk single and a walk to Rich Mendez with one out. Andrew Cooper struck out, bringing up Perez once again with a third homer a juicy ambition. Too juicy, in fact. He went down on three strikes. 7-5 Critters! Spencer 2-5, RBI; Kopp 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Grigsby 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI;

As expected, Matt Nunley took the spot of Grigsby on the roster for the Tuesday game.

Game 2
IND: RF Faulk – 2B Folk – 1B Ri. Mendez – LF A. Cooper – C T. Perez – CF Linnell – 3B M. Green – SS Kim – P Lozano
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – C Tovias – 1B Mora – RF Kopp – 3B Nunley – CF Borg – LF Carmona – P Wasserman

Wasserman and Tovias couldn't have been further from the same page if they had stood in libraries on different continents to begin the Tuesday game. Wasserman suffered two walks in addition to a Cooper single, and with the bases loaded Tovias lost a strike between his hind legs and gifted a run to the Indians on the passed ball. While the Coons quickly found a way to scatter singles in a most inefficient way, Wasserman was not charged with a second base hit allowed until Andrew Cooper took him deep in the fourth inning for a solo job. Wasserman kept missing the zone regularly though; through five innings of 2-run ball he allowed four walks and consumed 100 pitches. He was hit for by Jurek in the bottom 5th, but the Coons were playing dead and went down in order in the inning. Top 6th, Vince D allowed a leadoff double to Cooper before striking out the next three. The bottom of the inning saw Spencer with a leadoff single, the Coons' first base hit since the third inning, and then swipe second base. This took away a double play on Tovias' grounder to short, and Man-su Kim's horrendous throw to first also took away any out at all as Rich Mendez had no chance to come up with the ball, which skipped into the stands on the outfield side of the dugout. Kim's scattershot defense allowed Spencer to score on the error and put the tying run in scoring position with nobody out. Mora's single in front of A.J. Faulk and Terry Kopp's infield single that undressed Mendez allowed Tovias to score, and we were tied. The horrendous Indians inning continued despite a pop to short by returnee Matt Nunley; Greg Borg dropped a single into shallow center to plate Mora, 3-2, with Linnell's ill-advised late throw allowing the runners to move up. Cookie singled to center, and this time Linnell overran the ball for a straight error in what was now a 5-2 affair. Fittingly, the Indians replaced not only their starter at this point, but also their centerfielder, cleverly disguising their machinations in a double switch while tying Linnell to a glowing stone in the sun outside the ballpark. Right-hander Jim Cushing surrendered another run when Cookie scored on Ramos' 2-out single, giving the Coons a comfy 6-2 lead. The Indians managed a mild uprising in the eighth inning, putting two men on against Jimmy Lee and Billy Brotman, but that eventually fizzled out, and Ricky Ohl struck out the side in the ninth inning. 6-2 Furballs! Ramos 2-4, RBI; Tovias 2-4; Borg 2-4, RBI;

All our hits were singles, and three of our runs were unearned in this one, although without the gross throwing error by Kim this game could have ended very much differently…

Game 3
IND: SS Folk – LF Grubbs – 1B Jankowski – 3B M. Green – 2B Ri. Mendez – RF Kim – C R. Vargas – CF Linnell – P Shumway
POR: LF Spencer – CF Borg – 1B Mora – RF Alfaro – 3B Nunley – 2B Otis – SS Jurek – C Delgado – P Gutierrez

Another game, another first-inning Indians run, with Gutierrez not really having himself convinced that he could pitch again. Chris Grubbs singled, Mike Green drew a walk, and Rich Mendez drove in a run with a single to center before Gutierrez also drilled Man-su Kim and required Ricardo Vargas to flail himself out to end the inning with three aboard. Grubbs and Green, always mean, also reached base in the third inning, but via flipped means, and Mendez drew a questionable walk on a borderline 3-2 pitch, too. The trouble was real for Gutierrez, who struck out Kim before Jurek handled Vargas' grounder for the last out, but Rico's pitch count was already north of 70 after only three innings. He never stopped sucking in this game, and like Wasserman the previous day was done after five innings, but not without conceding another two runs in the fifth, first shuffling the bases full and then getting sunk by a Jurek error and his own wild pitch to Linnell. His worries for sucking the loss were but brief, however, since while the Raccoons had so far efficiently double-played away their odd runner after a stray single, the bottom 5th saw them put Jurek and Delgado on with leadoff singles before Greg Borg's 2-out double and Abel Mora's following bloop single moved in three runs to tie the game after five.

Three singles in the seventh had the Indians on the brink of breakthrough against Hess and Surginer, but when Mendez turned third to score on Vargas' 2-out single to left, Omar Alfaro (who had arrived there in some mid-inning five-way shuffle) threw him out at home plate to end the inning. The Raccoons would have to wait to the eighth for a splendid chance, which arrived in the form of Borg and Mora occupying the corners with leadoff singles off Nick Salinas. Terrific opportunity in a tied game! That damn go-ahead run scored by the slimmest of margins; while Alfaro and Otis would strike out, Matt Nunley managed to find the sweet spot between Green and Folk, not for a single, but for one out instead of two and far enough away from the line to allow Greg Borg to hustle home. So it was Snyder in the ninth, and facing the meat of the order, which could only ever go well. Cooper fouled out, Green went down on strikes, and Mendez was inspired by that performance and also hacked himself out, giving the Coons the series with a squeezer. 4-3 Raccoons. Borg 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Mora 3-4, RBI; Alfaro 2-4;

Although Surginer managed to allow four base hits in 1.1 innings, he somehow wound up with the win. He now has four of those, or twice as many as Gutierrez, who, if you dare to remember, won 16 games in '24. He is right now on pace for five wins in '25.

For those curious, with one on and two out in the top 7th, the Raccoons double-switched the pitcher's spot to the #7 slot in the order, Surginer replaced Hess, Otis moved to short, Spencer to second, Alfaro to left, and Terry Kopp entered in rightfield. Why? Because we can!

Game 4
IND: RF Faulk – LF Grubbs – 1B Jankowski – 3B M. Green – 2B Ri. Mendez – C T. Perez – SS Folk – CF Linnell – P Clements
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – C Tovias – CF Mora – 1B Kopp – RF Alfaro – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – P Roberts

Mark Roberts whiffed five the first time through the Indians' order, while Clements allowed five singles in seeing each Coon for the first time. The Critters packed five of those singles into the second inning, plating two runs on the singles by Nunley and Ramos while stranding three runners on base. The second time through was much more of a struggle for Roberts, though, just when we had thought we might get a pitcher through – oh I don't know, some lofty goal perhaps – six innings? The fourth inning saw Rich Mendez on second base with two outs and Linnell batting. Since Linnell was a left-hander, the Coons did not go to the intentional walk, paying for it with a double to left-center and the run conceded, before Clements almost got a single past Kopp, but ended up being retired in what was now a 2-1 game.

Alberto Ramos had struggled for a few days, but came through for Portland with two on and two outs in the bottom 4th, ramming a triple past Todd Jankowski into the corner in rightfield to score Nunley (walk) and Cookie (single) and extend the lead to 4-1. Linnell caught Spencer's soft line to center to keep Ramos on base. The Raccoons grabbed their fifth run in the fifth inning instead on a solo homer by Kopp. The following inning the Raccoons got Roberts on with a 2-out walk issued by reliever David Elliott. Ramos now lined up the other line, but was denied a triple by the lead-footed runner ahead of him, with Roberts and Ramos parking up in scoring position for Spencer, who got four wide ones because the Indians preferred the easier strikeout with more power in the box with the game very much on the line. Tovias didn't strike out, but he also couldn't get a fly past Linnell in center, and the inning ended with three left aboard.

Top 8th, Roberts was being squeezed out for every last batter that we could possibly have him retire to give the pen a break. He amounted to one out in the inning, then a Jankowski single, bringing down the curtain. Jimmy Lee replaced him, surrendered a no-doubt homer to Mike Green and now it was an interesting game again. THANKS JIMMY. And Lee kept going, allowing a single to Perez with two outs before Nunley was charged an error on fumbling Folk's grounder. A team effort was in progress, with Billy Brotman coming on against Linnell, who was hit for by Ricardo Vargas instead. The count ran full, the runners were in motion, but Vargas flew out to Mora in center, and the Coons survived in the 5-3 game. The Coons couldn't get through McInerney in the bottom 8th, but neither could the Indians touch Snyder in the ninth, despite a 2-out walk to Chris Grubbs. Jankowski popped out to Omar Alfaro in shallow right, and the Coons had swept the 4-game set! 5-3 Coons! Ramos 3-5, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Kopp 2-4, HR, RBI; Roberts 7.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (6-4) and 1-2, BB, RBI;

Raccoons (36-25) vs. Warriors (27-34) – June 13-15, 2025

Last series before the draft! These teams had most recently faced another in 2023 when the Warriors claimed two out of three. The last Coons series win came in the series prior to that, a 3-0 sweep in 2020. Overall, the Warriors were one of four Federal League teams where we had an all-time losing record against. This edition of the Warriors could just not compete in the FL West (and they hadn't been able to for a while), sitting 17 games out in the middle of June. They ranked fifth in runs scored, but had the absolute worst pitching in their league, conceding 5.15 runs per game. Starters and relievers were equally at fault for that.

Projected matchups:
Jesus Chavez (4-2, 4.41 ERA) vs. John Rucker (2-8, 4.20 ERA)
Jack Sander (7-2, 2.57 ERA) vs. Mel Lira (7-3, 3.81 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (1-5, 2.92 ERA) vs. Pat Okrasinski (3-7, 4.41 ERA)

Those were actually their three best starters by ERA; Rucker was also their only southpaw.

It now looks like Jon Gonzalez will miss the entire Warriors series as well, after we thought he might come back by Saturday or Sunday when the week began.

Game 1
SFW: CF P. Cisneros – 2B Pierce – RF Quinn – C M. Thompson – LF Wadley – 1B D. Lane – 3B W. White – SS Tello – P J. Rucker
POR: LF Spencer – SS Ramos – CF Borg – 1B Mora – RF Alfaro – 2B Otis – C Delgado – 3B Jurek – P Chavez

Chavez struck out the first two batters before putting four consecutive Warriors aboard with two outs in the first inning. Justin Quinn doubled, Mike Thompson walked, Jeff Wadley hit an infield single, and Danny Lane plainly got drilled, which was probably the most infuriating incident here. Wade White, a long time ago in the CL with the Knights, grounded out, but Ricky Tello would hit a leadoff double in the second inning and be brought around to score to make it 2-0. That pattern mostly repeated with Quinn's leadoff double in the third, although in that case Chavez, no more useful than a bar stool on that mound, would plate the runner with a wild pitch. In the meantime, John Rucker faced the minimum the first time through the order. Abel Mora hit a single in the second, but Omar Alfaro was an expert at inconvenient double plays… At least Alfaro became the first Coon in scoring position in the FIFTH inning with a leadoff double to left-center. Tony Delgado would single him in to get the team on the board, but that was really all for the inning, with Dustin Jurek having watched the big boys intently and smacking it into a double play to end the fifth with Portland down 3-1.

Danny Lane's homer made it 4-1 to begin the sixth, and Chavez would not get out of the inning, being knocked off the mound on Rucker's 2-out single sharply mashed into centerfield. Jimmy Lee couldn't have been of less help here if he had been tied to a pole while pitching, conceding straight 2-out singles to Pedro Cisneros, Trent Pierce, and the unavoidable Quinn to allow another run on Chavez' ledger before Thompson swung through a terrible 2-2 pitch with the bags stacked. On to the seventh, where just when the Coons looked certainly dead Omar Alfaro homered to exact center, and Otis and Delgado also reached base to instigate a rally that Jurek expertly killed with his second double play in the game.

The tying run came to the plate again in the eighth inning, with Rucker still lobbing balls at the Coons at that point. Matt Nunley, having entered in a double switch that removed the abominable Jurek in the top of the inning, and Ramos hit singles to bring up the middle of the order with one out. Well, the middle of the order in that case began with Greg Borg, who had no career home runs, real or imagined or otherwise, and flew out to Wadley in left. Rucker lost Mora to a walk, bringing up Alfaro with three on and two outs, which could only ever go so well. He made Cisneros swing the legs in centerfield, but couldn't get the ball past him for runs, and that inning ended, too. Undeservedly, the Coons got the tying run up in the ninth as well with Otis and Nunley hitting singles off right-hander Ken Gautney, bringing up Spencer with two outs. Jarod had career home runs, but none this season, and didn't feel like starting now, but lined over Wade White securely for an RBI double near the line. That put the tying runs in scoring position for Ramos, but there was still no power here. Ramos folded under pressure, Gautney got the K, and the Coons had their 4-game winning streak snapped. 5-3 Warriors. Spencer 2-5, 2B, RBI; Alfaro 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Delgado 2-4, RBI; Carmona (PH) 1-1; Nunley 2-2; Surginer 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Kevin Surginer came within two strikes of an immaculate inning in the top of the ninth. Not that it would have saved the Coons.

Game 2
SFW: CF P. Cisneros – 2B Pierce – RF Quinn – LF Wadley – 1B D. Lane – 3B W. White – C Bann – SS Tello – P Lira
POR: SS Ramos – CF Borg – C Tovias – 1B Mora – RF Kopp – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – 2B Otis – P Sander

Like Chavez, the sucker, the previous day, Jack Sander retired the first two before waving four guys on base. Two singles, two walks, and then Borg made a strong play on Mike Bann's drive to keep the Warriors to one run. It only got worse in the second, where Ricky Tello hit a leadoff single, was bunted over, and Sander walked Cisneros, allowed liners up the rightfield line to Quinn and Wadley to concede three runs, and still managed to walk Danny Lane after that. Portland pulled two runs back in the bottom 2nd, although those were unearned. Cookie grounded to short with two outs and Mora on third base, Tello's throw skipped past Lane for a 2-base error, and Matt Otis then drove in Cookie with a double past Wadley.

Catastrophic on the mound, Sander at least managed to do damage to the other pitcher, knocking an RBI single in the bottom 4th when Lira had Nunley and Otis on the corners and one out. Unfortunately, neither Ramos nor Borg could follow up on that and the team remained 4-3 behind after a fly to center and a grounder to short. The Coons' misery at this point surely didn't come from a lack of chances; by the fifth they were far outhitting the Warriors, 9-5 actually once Mora, Kopp, and Nunley hit 1-out singles in order to load the bags. The team was still held to one run on Cookie's sac fly, with Otis grounding out to White. Sander though could have appreciated the new-found tie more, we thought, but allowed a leadoff jack to Tello in the sixth. Sander, the royal fool, would also put Lira on base with an error, and then was soon banished and sentenced to some corporal punishment just to make ME feel better after he issued six walks in 5.1 innings.

And YET, somehow, nobody knew how, the Coons managed to take the lead in the bottom 6th. Once Billy Brotman cleaned up the mess that Sander had left, Elias Tovias drove in Alfaro (who came on in the double switch for Brotman at Cookie's expense) and Borg with a 1-out single in the bottom of the inning. Now Mel melted, or at least threatened to do so. He walked the bags full, but the Coons lacked patience at that point. Nunley lined out to Tello, and the shortstop also made a nifty play on Spencer's grounder to keep three stranded. Ricky Ohl blew the lead right away, with Wade White walking, whipping second with his speed, and scoring on Tello's single in the top 7th. Raccoons pitchers would drill the leadoff man in the eighth (Ohl into Cisneros) AND the ninth (Snyder doing the honors to Wadley). Both instances saw the free runner erased on a double play right away, and somehow the team pulled through. Maybe they could now entice three straight errors for a walkoff? Nope, Kopp, Nunley, and Delgado went down in order against Cody Zimmerman in the ninth, and this one went to extras.

Both teams stranded pairs in the 10th, with Vince D being in trouble for Portland, while the Coons suffered a blow when Alfaro bunted into a force after Otis' leadoff walk off Gautney. Tovias lined to right with two outs and the runners on the corners, but Quinn came in quick enough to extend the game. Vince hit a SINGLE in the bottom 11th following up on Nunley's 2-out single, but Otis struck out to strand the pair. Vince D made it through another inning, and then Alfaro hit a leadoff double in the bottom 12th. Maybe now was the time? HOW ABOUT NOW, SUCKERS?? Ramos popped out. Borg grounded out to Tello. That was probably a NOPE. Tovias lined to center, another one of those liners that would be caught on a hustle by the outfielder. Except that this outfielder had played deep for fear of a deep fly and now Cisneros couldn't come in to make the catch, and Tovias walked off the Critters after all. 7-6 Coons… Tovias 3-7, 3 RBI; Mora 2-4, 2 BB; Nunley 3-6; Carmona 1-2, RBI; Alfaro 2-4, 2 2B; Devereaux 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, W (4-0) and 1-1;

MAN OH MAN. We out-hit them 16-8 in this one, but except for the two Alfaro doubles and one by Otis, all the hits were singles. Stranding a dozen is bad advertisement regardless of circumstances.

Game 3
SFW: CF P. Cisneros – 2B Pierce – RF Quinn – C M. Thompson – 1B D. Lane – 3B W. White – LF Winborn – SS Tello – P Okrasinksi
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – C Tovias – CF Mora – 1B Kopp – RF Alfaro – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – P Wasserman

The daily first inning from hell saw the Warriors score only one run from a Pierce double, a Quinn single, and a clueless walk to Lane, so maybe things were indeed pointing upwards now… Winless Wasserman went on to allow the first career homer to 25-year-old Pat Okrasinski – and to dead center! – in shoveling his own personal black hole on the mound. The homer that Mike Thompson hit in the third inning was so much easier to swallow down …! At the plate, the Raccoons went down in order in the first, which was something they were doing every single ****ing game now, and didn't get much of a clue afterwards either against the newly-minted slugger Okrasinski. There was not much more from the Coons then the odd badly timed single off the Warriors hurler, except in the fifth inning, when Cookie singled, got bunted over, and then plated on Ramos' 2-out single, but then Ramos was immediately caught stealing, and the Warriors soon answered with a run that again prominently featured Ricky Tello in it, for whom I couldn't wait to board a plane and leave town. Tovias had two deep fly outs, including one in the sixth inning on a 3-0 count. That came with nobody on, but also before Abel Mora's double up the line that could have created a run if Kopp had batted with two on and one out rather than one on and two outs. As it was, his grounder to short was useless, as was the team's possession of bats in general in this lame Sunday affair. The grunts in the pen, Lee and Hess, cocked up another two runs in the eighth inning by just being awful, with Justin Quinn taking Lee deep to start the inning, and three more runners accumulating on base one way or another.

You could still blow a bubble of hope for another late meltdown for the opposing team, which was all we had ever seen this week, and which was also what had gotten us five wins despite trailing in more or less every game, and sometimes badly. Tovias finally got a ball in against Okrasinski in the eighth, and Mora singled to left. Kelvin Winborn overran the ball, giving the runners the extra base to both score on Terry Kopp's single to right, and it was now 6-3. Matt Nunley worked a leadoff walk off Scott McLaughlin in the bottom 9th, but got forced on Cookie's grounder. The chance was still close enough to smell it! Borg batted for Surginer, but flew out, and the Warriors advanced Cookie on a passed ball before McLaughlin hit Alberto Ramos with a 2-2 pitch. Any way to get on base! And the tying run was at the plate… in form of Jarod Spencer. Well, another five singles would also do the trick! Spencer grounded to Tello, who was annoying as all hell, but at least he now had no longer any business to do in Portland. 6-3 Warriors. Mora 3-4, 2B;

(drags 7-for-16 Ricky Tello by the uniform out of the visiting team's clubhose and boots him down the stairs) GET OUTTA HERE!!

In other news

June 10 – BOS SP Morgan Shepherd (8-1, 2.81 ERA) and two relievers throw a combined 1-hitter against the Loggers in Boston's 2-1 victory. Milwaukee's Ian Coleman (.283, 1 HR, 26 RBI) saves his team with a seventh-inning single.
June 11 – TOP SP Nick Danieley (8-3, 2.99 ERA) is done for the year with shoulder inflammation.
June 11 – The Thunder lose OF/1B Omar Millan (.259, 3 HR, 29 RBI) for the season after the 23-year-old tears his labrum.
June 11 – Miners and Buffaloes play five-and-a-half hours until the Miners break through in the 17th inning and seal an 8-5 victory. PIT MR Rob Owensby (3-4, 6.75 ERA) throws four shutout innings for the victory.
June 14 – A single, a wild pitch, and two errors allow the Titans to walk off, 2-1, against the Capitals in the 10th inning. WAS 1B Matt Barber (.262, 11 HR, 45 RBI) and his missed pickup drive home the final nail in the coffin for the visiting Caps.
June 14 – The Falcons acquire C Alfonso Gonzales (.311, 2 HR, 16 RBI) from the Blue Sox for a prospect.
June 15 – TOP SP Carlos Marron (2-0, 1.57 ERA) claims victory in a 7-0 shutout over the Aces, but is heartbroken after Las Vegas' Andres Medina breaks up his no-hitter with a 2-out single in the bottom of the ninth inning.
June 15 – CIN 1B/3B Eddie Moreno (.308, 8 HR, 35 RBI) might miss time until the end of July with a sprained ankle.

Complaints and stuff

Sometimes there are things best described as "crummy", f.e. the Coons' starting pitching this week. Don't even bring up stats (2-2 over 41 IP, with 24 R, 21 ER in seven games). Just leave it at "crummy". There are worse descriptions, but you can also go worse than 5-2 over that week. And despite some slowness on the weekend, the offense is now up to seventh in the Contintental League in runs scored, and even with the third-best batting average(!?). Since we're also t-5th in homers and stolen bases, and this seems to be humming, more or less, I suspect the pitching to crap out completely by the All Star Game.

Maybe some injuries! Speaking of injuries… Daniel Bullock started a rehab assignment in St. Pete on the weekend. Cristiano Carmona has requested going on a field trip to St. Pete just now, which is sure a strange coincidence.

Jon Gonzalez should finally be back on Tuesday against the Blue Sox (we have Monday off). Mind that he still has an active 17-game hitting streak and we want to see where this goes. Probably 0-for-5 with three double plays and four strikeouts – Coons can do that! – and for good measure also two errors in a 13-12 loss.

Funny thing, the Falcons canned their GM and manager the day after the Gonzales trade. Not that the trade was THAT bad. Oh well, better them and not me!

Although I still have photos.

Fun Fact: I was looking through some player files and did you know that our catcher's full name is really and actually Elias Matias Tovias Corias?

I wonder why he never told anybody about this!

[Westheim]

Heat keeps killing me, and is projected to last another week. I will not hesitate to accept donation of ice cubes, an attractive assistant shoving cold air my way with a fan, or a sponsored holi- business trip to the Faroe Islands!

+++

2025 AMATEUR DRAFT

Numerically, the Raccoons were guaranteed to select a player from their annual hotlist with their #10 pick in the Sunday night spectacle. The hotlist is below (*indicates high school player) but I refrained from eyeing any particular player given the unlikelihood of anybody being specifically picked around for our benefit and I don't take disappointments lightly these days (repeatedly fumbles a container with pills and a child-proof cap) GODDAMNIT!!!

SP Bobby LeMoine (15/12/12) * - BNN #3
SP Michael Frank (14/14/11)
SP Jeremy Puskar (11/14/11) *
SP Eric Fox (13/11/13)
SP Aaron Hagemann (10/13/11) * - BNN #2
SP Jim Corlette (12/13/13)
SP Kevin Clark (13/13/9) – BNN #5

C Matt Cooper (10/11/18) – BNN #9

INF/RF/CF Chris Miller (16/2/5) – BNN #7
SS/2B Jim McKenzie (12/8/11) *
1B/2B/LF/RF Dennis Jensen (13/11/12) *

RF/LF Andy Keyes (12/13/15)
OF Mike Wheeler (11/10/12) *
OF/1B Justice Merriweather (9/10/9) *

This year's #1 pick and going to the Dallas Stars was SP Michael Frank, right near the top of our preferred pitching personnel. Oh there it goes! All the Hall of Famers will be gone by #10! The Indians already fell out of order though, taking 2B Dan Schneller with the #2 pick, while #3 was SP Bobby LeMoine to the Blue Sox. The top 5 were completed by the Bayhawks snapping up RF/LF Andy Keyes, while the Falcons took the best catcher available in Matt Cooper.

…which left the Elks to screw us over, but they selected a pitcher not on the hotlist at #6, Jeremy Truett. All of a sudden our pick appeared on the horizon, and would we get two-way talent Aaron Hagemann after all…!? The Miners took SS/2B Jim McKenzie with the seventh overall pick, the Cyclones snapped up SP Kevin Clark, and the Loggers took Jim Corlette!

I feverishly patted head scout Miguel Carrasco's arm. It was now our time, and our time was now! Can we get the two-way toy, Carrasco? Canwecanwecanwe??

YES WE CAN!!

SP Eric Fox went to the Cyclones at #14, INF/RF/CF Chris Miller to the Condors at #19, and Jeremy Puskar was the last pitcher of the hotlist to get picked, the Bayhawks selecting him with the #26 pick. That left three position players from the hotlist still alive in the supplemental round, where we didn't pick, but perhaps giving an idea how this organization has failed for eternities to draft worthwhile position players… ever. Justice Merriweather went at #31 to the Capitals, and Mike Wheeler at #36 to the Condors, just one pick ahead of the final hotlist candidate, Dennis Jensen, who was selected 37th by the Titans. And that was that.

2025 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#10) – SP Aaron Hagemann, 19, from Villa Hills, KY – two-way player with a high-power bat but middling contact potential, but also three well-defined pitches in his arsenal that will see him get a shot at pitching first, and if that doesn't work out, heck, there's another path to the majors to try!
Round 2 (#53) – 1B Craig Hollenbeck, 18, from Cheektowaga, NY – not your prototypical first baseman with tons of power and bad defense; well, he has bad defense, but he is more about contact and being on base first, and then about power. Could hit lots of doubles into the gaps though.
Round 3 (#77) – SP Robbie Blair, 18, from Randallstown, MD – right-hander, well built with four useful pitches, including a neat curve, but so far he throws only 88 and will have to add some acid to that fastball if he wants to get anywhere…
Round 4 (#101) – CL Matt Stonecipher, 20, from Barrington, RI – right-hander with a 91 mph heater and a complementary curve that can wipe guys out in no time, at least at the college level
Round 5 (#125) – LF/RF Zach Pierce, 20, from New York, NY – hard to get overly excited here as young Zack does a little bit of everything, like a little bit of hitting for contact, a little bit of power, a little bit of running, and a little bit of errors, and it is hard for a fifth-rounder to carve a niche without excelling at anything…
Round 6 (#149) – 1B/LF/3B/RF Jesse Stedham, 18, from Westlake Village, CA – plays all the corners, which is also where the Mark Dawson comparisons will likely end. Weird package given that he is speedy on the bases but not very adept at any position, even the rangy ones in the outfield.
Round 7 (#173) – C/1B Zachary Gonya, 17, from New York, NY – it just occurred to us that we should take our annual catcher at some point…
Round 8 (#197) – SP Jimmy Powell, 22, from Story City, IA – probably not going to be a starter for long due to some stamina issues, but on the other hand his mix of three decent pitches could make him a useful reliever down the road.
Round 9 (#221) – SS/2B Jeremy Rains, 18, from Junction, TX – is rangy with a strong arm and could also learn the third base trait, but his bat leaves little reason to feel excitement… also no real speed on the bases, and definitely no power whatsoever. Also ugly.
Round 10 (#245) – RF/LF Jonathan Jordan, 20, from Montevallo, AL – corner outfielder with little range, not much of an arm, and worst of all, a foam bat…
Round 11 (#269) – MR Patrick McNeil, 20, from Hemet, CA – this year's Nick Brown Memorial Pick is a left-handed reliever from Cali that has an interesting curve, which is so reminding of that "lefty with a slider" of yore…
Round 12 (#293) – LF Jeremiah Scott, 18, from Priest River, ID – surprisingly solid contact potential for a guy in the second-to-last round, but he also has no power and no defensive qualities to talk much about
Round 13 (#317) – SP Cameron Boring, 19, from Kouts, IN – he was totally not drafted in the vain hope that he will somehow make the majors as designated punchline…

All players were assigned to Aumsville.

So far there were only a few releases to players already in the organization, because the rosters were not really stuffed before the draft to begin with, and with some guys I want a few more numbers. Gone though are f.e. 2024 eighth-rounder Luke Scoggins (horrendous pitcher), 2022 tenth-rounder Jordan Ponce (no control whatsoever, with his pitches AND with drugs), 2022 twelth-round backstop Andrew Lanza (steadfastly batting .160 in his fourth season in single-A), and 2023 eighth-rounder INF Judah Clayton (also no bat). No international players canned so far, but the IFA period is also just around the corner.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (37-27) @ Blue Sox (25-38) – June 17-19, 2025

The Raccoons had won the last three series with the Blue Sox, most recently in 2024, and each time by taking two out of three. Nashville looked like they could use some offense, sitting under .400 despite allowing the third-fewest runs in the Federal League. Unfortunately their offense was rightly putrid, even compared to Portland's, and they were scoring just a measly 3.6 runs per game, which was especially shocking in the traditionally more offense-oriented Federal League.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (2-4, 3.32 ERA) vs. Shane Baker (5-3, 3.50 ERA)
Mark Roberts (6-4, 2.69 ERA) vs. Jose Menendez (4-5, 3.33 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (4-3, 4.68 ERA) vs. Adam Garrett (1-1, 4.85 ERA)

All righties from them; speaking of righties, Jon Gonzalez was finally able to rejoin the lineup after having to sit out the entire previous week.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – C Tovias – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – P Gutierrez
NAS: SS Muller – CF Sams – 1B Gasso – C Marrero – 3B T. Fuentes – LF Rainey – RF M. Ramirez – 2B Che – P S. Baker

The early innings saw no scoring, with Jon Gonzalez just almost hitting a homer, but lacking a few feet and being caught on the warning track by Manny Ramirez in rightfield, and when Cookie hit a leadoff single in the third inning, Gutierrez bunted into a double play to remove that runner from the bases, unfortunately just before Alberto Ramos doubled into the gap in right-center, only to then be stranded by Spencer. Cookie would feature in the Coons' first run (and the game's first run) eventually, cashing in Terry Kopp with a 1-out single in the fifth inning. Kopp had led off the inning by squeezing a bouncer through between Gus Gasso and the foul line for a leadoff double and came home from second base on the single to center hit by #31. To our stunning amazement, Rico Gutierrez held on to the 1-0 lead for a grand total of zero pitches before getting taken deep by Will Rainey to begin the bottom 5th, and Ramirez doubled off the fence in leftfield right after that. Hang-yu Che grounded out, moving the go-ahead run to third base, after which Rico Gutierrez had Shane Baker at 0-2 when he threw a mind-tearing wild pitch past Tovias to plate the runner when the opposing pitcher would have struck out in this 1-out spot and John Muller would have popped out to Cookie in left.

WELL. At least Rico remained remotely useful afterwards. Cookie hit a 2-out single in the seventh with nobody aboard, going to 3-for-3 on the day in the process, and Rico remained around and batted for himself, singling to right past Che. Alberto Ramos cracked one up the middle, allowing Cookie to score with the tying run. The string of singles ended with Spencer's pop to first base, keeping the game tied, which it also remained through eight. The ninth began like the fifth with a Kopp double narrowly past a defender, in this case centerfielder Khalil Sams for a get-going two-base effort off left-hander Mike Greene, who proceeded to hold on to the lead against Matt Nunley (K), Cookie (4-3), and Greg Borg (K). Neither team did much in the rest of regulation or in the 10th. Tovias hit a double that led nowhere, but the Coons staved off leadoff singles by the Blue Sox in the bottom 11th to get runners on first and second with nobody out against Vince Devereaux and Justin Hess. The top 12th saw a marked improvement in our chances when PH Matt Otis drew a leadoff walk and Alberto Ramos doubled down the leftfield line. Runners in scoring position, no outs against right-hander Jose Trejo! Spencer's grounder eluded John Muller for an RBI single, stole second base to keep up the pressure, but Tovias was robbed by Sams in center and held to a sac fly on a raucous drive. It was 5-2 and bedtime for Trejo after Abel Mora's RBI double, and after going 0-for-5 with some real ****ty luck, John Gonzalez snuck an RBI single past Paul Langan at third base off new pitcher Ruben Ortega to keep the hurt on Nashville. This also extended his long-dormant hitting streak to 18 games! The inning continued long enough thanks to a Cookie RBI infield single for Otis to come to the plate again in the inning, this time popping out to strand a pair with a 5-run lead. Ricky Ohl retired the Blue Sox in order in the bottom of the inning. 7-2 Coons! Ramos 3-6, 2 2B, RBI; Spencer 2-6, RBI; Kopp 2-5, BB, 2 2B; Carmona 4-6, 2 RBI; Gutierrez 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K and 1-3; Devereaux 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Everybody in the starting lineup was included in the bushel of 16 base hits we got off the Blue Sox here!

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – C Tovias – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – P Roberts
NAS: LF Espinosa – CF Sams – 1B Gasso – RF Orozco – C Marrero – 3B T. Fuentes – SS Muller – 2B Che – P Jo. Menendez

The Coons hit three singles in the opening inning, which didn't translate into a run thanks to Alberto Ramos getting caught stealing yet again after initially ticketing a looper into shallow center. The second inning yielded three more base hits for them, but this time they included leadoff doubles via Terry Kopp and Matt Nunley, and both of them scored, the latter on Spencer's 2-out single. While apparently we could read Jose Menendez like an open book as he was out of Mexico now, the worrying thing was the control of Mark Roberts, who went to several 3-ball counts in the early innings. He didn't actually walk anybody, but that pitch count soon enough started to peak. However, no Sock actually reached in the first three innings, while the Coons began to drive the fork deeper into Menendez by the fourth inning when Elias Tovias hammered home a 3-run dinger that was unearned but nevertheless counted for a 5-0 lead, cashing in Cookie, who reached on a Che error, and Spencer, who had walked. A Gasso double in the bottom 4th led to nothing great for Nashville, and the Coons sat on Menendez' face again in the fifth inning when Gonzalez, Kopp, and Nunley reached on straight singles to begin the inning, yet wouldn't score after Menendez grittily struck out Cookie and Roberts and got Ramos to fly out to center.

The Raccoons were challenged for the first time in the sixth inning when the Blue Sox put Khalil Sams and Gus Gasso on the corners but Ruben Orozco then went down on strikes to end the inning, maintaining Portland's 5-0 lead, which grew to 6-0 in the seventh when Roberts drove home Jon Gonzalez and his leadoff double with a 2-out single up the middle against largely successless reliever Andy Love. The Raccoons went on to drag Roberts' bum into the ninth inning, but his shutout bid hit a rock wall at 110 pitches, an Orozco single, and Tony Fuentes double. That put runners in scoring position with one out and prompted a relief call that Kevin Surginer failed to answer, throwing a wild pitch after K'ing John Muller for the second out. Ruben Santiago's pinch-hit RBI single made it 6-2 and brought on Billy Brotman for the left-handers atop the order. Brotman drilled Juan Espinosa, then allowed a 2-run single to PH Will Rainey. With Gus Gasso appearing in the box as the winning run, another move was made to Jonathan Snyder, who got the K in a lengthy full-count battle. 6-4 Coons. Spencer 2-4, RBI; Gonzalez 3-5, 2 2B; Kopp 2-5, 2B; Nunley 2-5, 2B, RBI; Roberts 8.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (7-4) and 1-4, RBI;

That could have been such a great game if not for that completely fudged ninth inning…

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – C Tovias – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – 3B Nunley – LF Alfaro – P Chavez
NAS: LF Espinosa – CF Sams – 1B R. Santiago – RF Orozco – C Marrero – 3B T. Fuentes – SS Muller – 2B Langan – P Potter

The Sox sent Adam Potter (2-6, 4.02 ERA) into the Thursday game in lieu of Adam Garrett, which was a right-handed Adam with varying success one way or another, while we were not going to mention the VERY varying success of Chavez just right now. Potter sure had his back against the wall a few times early, putting Tovias and Mora on in both the first and third innings. Nothing ever came of it; Jon Gonzalez flew out to end the first, but singled to load the bags in the third, after which Terry Kopp was the doofus who grounded out to short on a 3-1 pitch, ending the inning. The Blue Sox weren't any less unclutch; Espinosa's 1-out triple in the bottom 3rd saw Sams strike out and Santiago ground out.

Chavez plated the first run of the game with a sac fly in the fourth, bringing home Matt Nunley who had doubled through Santiago and past Orozco and advanced on Alfaro's groundout. But, be wary of that right-hander with varying success the Raccoons had on the mound. After four shutout innings, Chavez came apart merely by being due for it, and the Blue Sox grabbed a lead in the fifth on a single by Paul Langan and Sams' 2-out, 2-run homer to left, with almost the same spot later being visited by Espinosa for a solo shot in the seventh inning. After a few mentally absent innings, the Coons got Tovias aboard with a leadoff single in the top 8th, with a wild pitch by Potter being key in plating him with a Gonzalez sac fly. Kopp hit a 2-out double past Sams, but Nunley grounded out to keep the tying run aboard. Portland would have to rally their way through a left-hander, Mike Greene, in the ninth inning, which began with Matt Otis batting for Alfaro. Otis fouled out on a 1-2 pitch, with another right-handed pinch-hitter, Greg Borg, not faring any better and whiffing. Tony Delgado batted for an 0-4 Ramos out of desperation and somehow grinded out a walk to bring up the go-ahead run in Spencer, who nevertheless grounded out to Santiago on the first pitch. 3-2 Blue Sox. Tovias 2-3, BB; Mora 2-4, 2B; Chavez 7.2 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, L (4-4);

Ha-rumph. How are we going to celebrate Jon Gonzalez' 20-game hitting streak now?

Raccoons (39-28) @ Titans (42-24) – June 20-22, 2025

The Titan's 3 1/2 game lead in the North assured them to keep the division lead even after being swept by the Raccoons in this crucial 3-game set (giggles), with the season series so far even at two wins apiece. This series pitted the best offense (Boston) against the best pitching (Coons!) in the league, but it wasn't like the Titans' pitching was "shabby". They still ranked fourth in the league, and what was worse was that in combination with the league-leading offense that produced a soul-wringing 5.5 runs per game their run differential was an astounding +111 in the latter half of June. I was really curious of the Raccoons' battle plan for this series, because I sure didn't have one…

Projected matchups:
Jack Sander (7-2, 2.95 ERA) vs. Morgan Shepherd (9-1, 2.70 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (1-6, 3.11 ERA) vs. Jeremy Waite (3-6, 4.26 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (2-4, 3.20 ERA) vs. Ian Rutter (4-6, 5.57 ERA)

More right-handers on a string!

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – C Delgado – P Sander
BOS: CF Reichardt – C Leonard – 1B R. Amador – RF Braun – SS Jam. Wilson – 2B R. West – LF St. Germaine – 3B Kane – P Shepherd

Ramos was again caught stealing in the opening inning, which still somehow amounted to an initial 3-spot for the Critters. Spencer doubled through Mike Kane and up the leftfield line, scored on Gonzalez' RBI single, and then Alfaro sunk one into the rightfield stands for a 2-piece, his fifth of the year. The bases were then loaded in the second inning with one out owing to a Nunley single, a K to Tony Delgado, and then Shepherd misfiring Sander's bunt before he walked Ramos. Spencer brought in the only run with a looping line over Jamie Wilson, uncatchable, for an RBI single, before Mora flew out to shallow left and Gonzalez lined out to Kane. However, it didn't Jack Sander very long to cork up, issuing full count walks to Wilson and Adam St. Germaine, followed by a 2-out, 2-run triple by Kane, bringing the early score to 4-2.

At least Sander outlived Shepherd; that was a good start, although Sander hardly fooled anybody, but the Coons had Shepherd in the showers by the fourth inning, in which ironically Sander was key after a leadoff double that fell barely fair near the rightfield line. Abel Mora brought him in to make it 5-2, and that put the cat in the bag for Shepherd, heretofore defeated only once this season. However, a disproportionate amount of outs was made in the air for Sander, so the Titans were really a breakthrough waiting to happen despite trailing by three after four innings. Indeed, the Titans knocked Sander around for straight singles to begin the bottom 5th, and with the bottom of the order: St. Germaine singled, Kane singled, PH Trent Herlihy brought an RBI single to the table. Adrian Reichardt – the sole right-hander anywhere around – flew out to shallow left, and Cookie was also close to the action on Keith Leonard's gapper to left-center that followed. The ball fell in, scoring Kane, and Herlihy was sent around third base, but thrown out at home plate. Sander departed proceedings after a 2-out walk to Roberto Amador, with Vince D taking over facing Adam Braun, who grounded out to the end the fifth with a 5-4 score.

Next frame, Portland loaded the bases (including an intentional walk to Terry Kopp in the #9 hole after Tony Delgado's leadoff double), but couldn't pull through, with Jose Fuentes striking out Gonzalez to end the sixth inning. The Raccoons didn't find a way in against the Titans' pen, but the Titans found a way in against the Coons', with Adam Braun homering in the eighth to tie the game off Justin Hess, the sole right-hander Hess was intended to face in a group of left-handed bats… The Coons had nothing in the ninth, but at least the defense saved Jimmy Lee's bacon on a few rockets hit in the bottom 9th and the game went to extras, where ironically Tony Delgado put the Coons back on the horse. Still batting under .200 and following on the easy outs Brent Beene got off Cookie and Nunley in the top 10th, Delgado wrapped a homer around the left foul pole, his first in '25, to break the tie and get Snyder stirring. Adam Braun and Keith Spataro went down to begin the bottom 10th before Rhett West zinged a single to center and a full count put St. Germaine on with a 2-out walk. Mike Kane was 3-for-4 and a homer short of the cycle – talk about writings on the wall – then popped a 2-2 pitch over the infield. Nunley contained that one, and the Coons took the opener in extras! 6-5 Furballs!! Spencer 3-5, 2B, RBI; Delgado 2-5, HR, 2B, RBI;

My paws are so sweaty, I can barely hold on to this bottle of booze…!

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – CF Borg – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – P Wasserman
BOS: CF Reichardt – C Leonard – RF Braun – SS Jam. Wilson – LF St. Germaine – 1B Herlihy – 2B Kane – 3B Corder – P Waite

The Coons' Graham Wasserman had already walked a pair in the bottom 1st when the runners were on the move and Adam St. Germaine confidently laid off a 2-out, 3-2 breaking ball aimed at his ankles, only to be called out on strikes by the umpire anyway. From there, the atmosphere was tense enough to cut it with a knife… Was it a strike? Probably not. Was I mad? Probably not. Meanwhile, the only batter to actually land a base hit the first time through either team's lineup was Waite with a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd that promptly got mopped up on Adrian Reichardt's double play grounder to short. Reichardt hadn't yet murdered the Coons in this series, so we were probably due soon enough… The Coons meanwhile had to wait until the fifth inning for a Greg Borg single to get into the H column, but there was also no score through five in a pitchers' duel.

Spencer's single in the sixth only served to even the teams at two hits each, but Terry Kopp looked like he had one going in the seventh inning, hitting a deep drive to right that nevertheless ended up with Adam Braun on the track. Wasserman gave his all, fought the Titans to a standstill for seven innings, then was hit for in the top of the eighth after a 1-out Cookie single. Nothing more came of this, with Alfaro and Ramos making outs. Boston had two men on in the bottom 8th, Reichardt walking against Brotman (uh-oh …!) and Leonard reaching on an infield single (UH-OH …!), but Vince D replaced Billy against pinch-hitter Tim Robinson with two outs and got a fly out to Terry Kopp in rightfield to keep the game scoreless. Top 9th, Brent Beene in for Boston, Spencer hit a leadoff single to center. Tovias was used to bunt, because one run was probably enough, after which Beene leaked an intentional walk to hitless Jon Gonzalez and an unintentional walk to Terry Kopp, putting Greg Borg into the winner's circle with three on and one out. Since Borg was batting right-handed, he remained in that spot, but fell to one strike, two strikes, and OH IT'S THROUGH LEONARD'S LEGS!! All the way to the backstop, here comes Spencer, and it's 1-0 Coons!! FUR-BALLS!! FUR-BALLS!! The Titans got nervous, while Borg rallied to a full count, which then prompted an intentional walk to utilize a double play on Matt Nunley, who was hit for however. Otis struck out, Cookie grounded out, and it was on Synder with no cushion now, and with three left-handed batters breathing down on him. At least this made the Titans controllable? St. Germaine singled cleanly to right to begin the inning, then advanced on Herlihy's bunt and Kane's grounder to Spencer, which placed Rhett West in the box, a right-handed batter clipping it at .337 in semi-regular use. Well, there's no clamoring right now. West had to die! West wouldn't die. Jumping on a 2-2 pitch, all or nothing, he got it all, blasting a 390-footer over the leftfield fence. 2-1 Titans. Spencer 2-4; Borg 1-2, 2 BB;

(with a blank expression plays light-on, light-off, light-on, light-off at 3:20 in the morning in the hotel room)

Game 3
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – 3B Nunley – LF Alfaro – SS Jurek – P Gutierrez
BOS: CF Reichardt – LF Kuramoto – RF Braun – C T. Robinson – 2B R. West – 3B Corder – 1B St. Germaine – SS Spataro – P Rutter

Nobody else did much in the way of hitting, but Adam Braun brought in a run in each of his first two showings at the plate, homering off Rico in the first, and plating Reichardt in the third inning. Rhett West's leadoff double in the fourth led to another run as Gutierrez struggled to get even one paw on the ground in this season, let alone all four. The Coons at least finally answered in the fifth inning, with Kopp bringing in another leadoff double and then scoring on Alfaro's single to center, cutting the deficit to 3-1. But was there any saving Gutierrez at all? The bottom 5th began with Rutter at the plate, an 0-2 count, and then a sharp single into rightfield. That run, for once, didn't come around, mainly thanks to Braun smacking it into a double play after a walk to Yasuhiro Kuramoto, ending the inning, but Gutierrez still coughed up another run with Robinson's leadoff double in the bottom 6th being followed by two productive outs, enough to score the run and extend Boston's lead to 4-1. Braun would add a cosmetic solo homer against Jimmy Lee in the eighth inning, with the Raccoons completely failing to challenge old man Rutter in this game. The 37-year-old right-hander made it to the ninth inning without much trouble, and once there retired Tovias, Gonzalez, and Kopp in order. 5-1 Titans. Kopp 2-4, 2B;

I guess this sheds light on which team will make the playoffs this season… and it's not the Coons.

In other news

June 18 – Boston goes up by 20 runs before the Wolves managed even one in an eventual 23-2 clobbering. BOS CF/LF Adrian Reichardt (.291, 7 HR, 42 RBI) leads the team with four hits, including two doubles, and ties for the team lead of 4 RBI as the Titans engorge in a 7-run third and a 10-run fourth inning.
June 19 – The Titans lose swingman Alan Farrell (1-0, 2.08 ERA) to a torn rotator cuff. The 29-year-old is not expected to return in 2025.
June 20 – The Cyclones bafflingly trade SP Mike Lake (6-3, 3.10 ERA) to the Miners in the heat of a division race, receiving two prospects in return.
June 22 – 31-year-old "rookie" SAC C David Drews (.323, 11 HR, 54 RBI) sizzles with a 20-game hitting streak after landing an early single in the Scorpions' 5-3 loss to the Wolves.

Complaints and stuff

Adam Braun was named Player of the Week in the Continental League, driving another extra-long nail into my numb skull.

We are feverishly trying to find out the obvious tell that Alberto Ramos must have before he embarks on a stolen base attempt, but for the love of baseball gods, we can't find it. Maybe you can? (swivels screen around and shows a video from Friday's first inning, with Ramos on first and Spencer batting; on the 1-1 pitch, Ramos shouts "HO!" before going to second in his very best dash) We got nothing!

(Slappy, Chad in full costume, and the Druid shake heads in unison on the couch)

Saturday morning Graham Wasserman invited me for contract talks. Dear Graham, this is something you do off the back of a rousing win. So, NOT what we got on Saturday, which also saw the end of Jon Gonzalez' 21-game hitting streak amidst a sea of not-hitting, then not-closing.

Next week: Loggers, Aces. Although it doesn't really matter who we play as long as the Titans don't have their team culled by the plaque…

Fun Fact: From 2017 through 2021, the Raccoons won the season series against the Titans every year, claiming 11.0 wins on average.

Yeah, it hasn't been very rosy since. 19-42 not-very-rosy.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (40-30) vs. Loggers (36-31) – June 23-25, 2025

The Loggers were nominally not out of the picture yet despite the Titans merrily steaming ahead in the division, just like the Raccoons were entertaining a plausible scenario where they would somehow make the playoffs now at the end of June. Milwaukee, though, was roundly mediocre, ranking seventh in runs scored, seventh in starters' ERA, sixth in bullpen ERA, and eighth in runs allowed. Their run differential was a telling -13 and there was no tell as to where a sudden spark would come from on their roster, which was hitting the fewest home runs in the majors, by far, with just 28 dingers at this junction. Portland held the edge in the season series right now, 4-2 after six games contested.

Projected matchups:
Mark Roberts (7-4, 2.64 ERA) vs. Jonathan Toner (4-5, 4.64 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (4-4, 4.57 ERA) vs. Jorge Villalobos (6-2, 3.05 ERA)
Jack Sander (7-2, 3.21 ERA) vs. Ian Prevost (4-6, 3.29 ERA)

Three more right-handed pitchers, including Jonathan Toner, who was no longer (sings) Jonny-Jonny-Jon-ny Tooo-ner …! (cough) but was more like - … well, he still made grown men weep, but for different reasons. Where his BB/9 and K/9 had been around 2.5 and 11.5 in his hey days, they were now approaching common ground in the 5's.

Game 1
MIL: SS Ferrer – CF Coleman – 1B Tadlock – RF W. Trevino – 3B A. Velez – C A. Baker – LF Feldmann – 2B S. Green – P Toner
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – P Roberts

The most powerless team in baseball sure enjoyed seeing Mark "Launchpad" Roberts in this series opener, with Manny Ferrer knelling his maiden dinger of the season to lead off. Fortunately, Jon Gonzalez was quick to answer, following up a Spencer double and a walk to Abel Mora in the bottom 1st with a booming 3-run shot into the top rows of the leftfield stands, with the crowd first cheering, and then suddenly moaning when they realized who was getting the business down there. Much to our chagrin, Ferrer launched another bomb leading off the third inning, giving him two dingers in two attempts after going 243 at-bats without one in 2025 and I was mumbling names for Roberts into my non-existent beard. The Loggers loaded the bases afterwards with a 4-pitch walk to Ian Coleman, a pitch into Ron Tadlock's ribs, and a 1-out single by Alberto Velez, but somehow Roberts eluded them with two strikeouts and Ryan Feldmann's grounder to short. Before anyone could exhale, the Coons had three on and nobody out in the bottom of the third inning, thanks to Spencer getting drilled, a Mora double, and Tovias also getting drilled. Jonny Toner sure knew how to gamble away permanent credit in a road ballpark…

Jonny made it through the inning (but was hit for in the fourth), albeit not without two black eyes and a gaping chest wound. Gonzalez and Kopp hit back-to-back RBI singles, and then the Coons almost ran themselves out of the inning, with Tovias being thrown out at home by Feldmann on Nunley's F7 attempt. However, the runners moved up, Cookie was walked intentionally, and Mark Roberts dunked a doozy into shallow left center that plated another pair for a 7-2 lead. Just keep Manny Ferrer away from home plate now! Ferrer singled his next time up in the fourth and was left on base, and when Roberts drilled Trevino in the fifth (that's four hit batters in this game, between the two pitchers) Tovias threw Trevino out in an attempt to nip second base. Ferrer remained unretired, walking in the seventh, the penultimate batter that Roberts faced before blowing through the 100-pitch mark and being replaced by Ricky Ohl, who struck out Tadlock to end the top 7th. By then, the Raccoons' bats had been suddenly silenced by scruffy long man Jody Loughran's three perfect innings, but at least that demon had also been hit for in the inning. The Coons went to town again on Mike Dempsey in the bottom 7th, plating three runs on as many doubles, and Jimmy Lee finished the game with two scoreless innings for Portland. 10-2 Coons! Spencer 2-4, 2B; Mora 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Gonzalez 3-4, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Kopp 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Borg (PH) 1-1; Roberts 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (8-4); Lee 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
MIL: SS Ferrer – C A. Baker – 1B Tadlock – RF W. Trevino – CF Coleman – 3B A. Velez – LF S. Green – 2B March – P Villalobos
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – 3B Nunley – LF Alfaro – C Delgado – P Chavez

The Furballs scored first, and in the first inning, although after Ramos and Mora went to the corners with singles, Jon Gonzalez' grounder to short should have been the inning, except that Ferrer missed the pickup and everybody was safe on the error, including Ramos crossing home plate. No problemo, though, with Kopp easily picking up the slack and hitting into a 4-6-3 to Dan March instead. Portland stranded pairs in the second and third innings, with Ramos and Nunley striking out to end the innings, respectively, and in the fifth the Coons had Spencer and Mora in scoring position with one out, but Gonzalez' poor grounder and Kopp's fly to center were neither eligible to bring home a runner. None of this was much of a serious issue as long as Chavez held up, scattering four hits through five shutout innings, although he also infuriatingly at one point walked the opposing pitcher. Coleman singled in the sixth, made it to second base on a passed ball, but then was left there when Alberto Velez grounded out. A Ramos pop stranded runners on the corners in the sixth, and somehow the writing was on the wall now. Chavez was eaten up by back-to-back doubles by Dan March and Kevin Jaeger in the seventh, and all of a sudden this was a tied ballgame. Adam Baker's 2-out, 2-run homer (…!) put the Loggers in front, 3-1. The Loggers' pen coughed up a run in the bottom 8th courtesy of Nunley and Alfaro doubles off Joey Hopkins and Lisuarte Paradela, respectively, but still entered the bottom of the ninth trailing by a run and facing Brian Gilbert, who had a dubious 3.55 ERA for a closer. The top of the order was up to face the right-hander, and Ramos and Spencer hit instant singles to put the tying and winning runs on base. Mora chopped an 0-2 pitch into play, bouncer to the right side, and somehow March missed it for the third single. Bases loaded, nobody out, and Gilbert was dissolving fast right now, issuing a game-tying 4-pitch walk to Jon Gonzalez! That brought up Cookie, an injury replacement for Terry Kopp (more on that in a second), who was told to hold ****ing still, which worked until a 2-0 count, but then Gilbert and the Loggers smelled what was in the oven and threw two right down the middle. The "hold ****ing still" sign was taking off, and Cookie cracked the 2-2 up the middle, past the diving Ferrer, and the Coons walked off! 4-3 Furballs! Ramos 2-5; Spencer 2-5; Mora 3-5; Carmona 1-1, RBI; Nunley 2-4, 2B;

Terry Kopp was injured in the eighth inning on a defensive play that ostensibly saved multiple runs, hustling in to snag a line drive by Dan March, making a sliding, then a tumbling play to end the inning. He looked creaky right away and was pinch-hit for in the bottom 8th to begin with. No diagnosis yet. The Druid claimed that the moon was in a bad part of its cycle for medical witchcraft.

There was still a roster move on Wednesday, with Alberto Ramos (.267, 0 HR, 5 RBI) being returned to AAA. He had played for 24 days and 90 at-bats, and we were quite convinced that we had a potential Rookie of the Year on our paws, but it was too late in the season to really make a mark, and he had also cooled off recently. With Daniel Bullock waiting to be reactivated from a rehab assignment, now was a good time, and it left us some time to call Ramos back up later in the season.

Game 3
MIL: SS Ferrer – LF Berntson – 1B Tadlock – RF W. Trevino – CF Coleman – C A. Baker – 3B S. Green – 2B March – P Prevost
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – SS Bullock – P Sander

Offense was slow to begin with, as the Loggers brought up only ten batters in the first three innings against Sander, and Prevost was facing the minimum until Sander dropped a blooper into shallow right. Spencer and Mora followed up with singles of their own then, and Sander scored for a 1-0 lead after the third inning, which ended on a K to Tovias. It was probably only fair for the opposing pitcher to get the Loggers on board then in the fifth inning, hitting a 2-out single up the middle to plate Adam Baker and get even with Portland. Sander went on to walk Ferrer to load the bases, then hit Jon Berntson to give them a 2-1 lead. Tadlock flew out to right-center to strand a full set then. This all came after the bottom 4th, where the Raccoons had runners on the corners and two outs for Bullock, who cracked a hard grounder up the middle that somehow found Dan March's glove for the third out, prompting a visibly angry Cristiano Carmona into yelling out lots of curses in Spanish, while Slappy nodded in agreement. I understood nothing, except that another good chance had been missed.

Maybe a swift comeback from the top of the fifth was possible, though. Ferrer made a ghastly throwing error on Sander's grounder to lead off the bottom 5th, putting the Coons' hurler on second base with nobody out. Spencer walked, but Mora hit into a fielder's choice that de-Jaroded the base paths and gave Tovias runners on the corners. Elias was hitless in the series; this would be a splendid spot! A walk was also fine, however, and with the bags full Jon Gonzalez found the gap between Coleman and Trevino for a 2-run double, flipping the score back Portland's way! Alfaro grounded out to first in his usual unhelpful ways, but Nunley turned an 0-2 pitch around for a 2-out, 2-run single to right, extending the lead to 5-2 before he was picked off… It didn't negatively affect the Coons' sweep ambitions though. Sander held up through seven innings, and the Raccoons added the sixth homer in both Tovias' and Alfaro's seasons, both off Joey Hopkins to extend their lead. The Loggers scored an unearned run on Billy Brotman in the ninth inning, but still went down without much noise, amassing only five base hits in the game. 7-3 Raccoons. Spencer 2-3, BB; Nunley 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Sander 7.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (8-2) and 1-3;

Everybody in the lineup had at least one base hit, which is always nice to have.

Not so nice to have was a broken finger, suffered by Terry Kopp, which would send him to the DL for the next two months. Well, gives Omar another chance to kickstart his Age? I don't know, trying to pick something good from these icky news.

Raccoons (43-30) @ Aces (36-35) – June 27-29, 2025

We were up 2-1 in the season series against Vegas, and like the Loggers they were mostly middling in many metrics. They were seventh in runs scored, but a nice fourth in runs allowed, although their run differential was only a +2 and also not indicative of a winning team. They had yet to recover from losing their most dangerous hitter Justin Dally for the season in early April, and last year's home run and RBI king Ron Raynor was only batting .250 with 11 dingers and 38 RBI as we were closing in on the halfway mark.

Projected matchups:
Graham Wasserman (1-6, 2.86 ERA) vs. Samuel McMullen (5-7, 3.51 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (2-5, 3.42 ERA) vs. Joel Trotter (4-6, 5.30 ERA)
Mark Roberts (8-4, 2.65 ERA) vs. Miguel Morales (7-3, 2.68 ERA)

Sam McMullen was obviously still left-handed after all those years, but the remaining two starters for them were right-handers.

With Kopp to the DL and Justin Gerace laboring on a bum shoulder, the Raccoons called up Dwayne Metts, because if you can't take a joke you shouldn't follow this team.

Game 1
POR: LF Spencer – CF Borg – C Tovias – 1B Mora – RF Alfaro – 3B Nunley – 2B Otis – SS Bullock – P Wasserman
LVA: SS A. Medina – 1B Retzer – LF Serrano – C J. Vargas – CF Raynor – 2B Burrier – RF Curro – 3B I. Alvarez – P S. McMullen

The routinely unlucky Wasserman shoveled himself a well-deserved grave right in the first inning, retiring the first two Aces batters before putting six straight batters on base with two outs. The Aces scored four on Danny Serrano's single, the 0-2 pitch that found Jose Vargas, Ron Raynor's RBI single, Cy Burrier's RBI single, the walk to Corey Curro, and Izzy Alvarez' 2-run single. McMullen struck out, cackling with glee. However, the Coons would clamber back into this game, and pretty soon. Daniel Bullock, of all people, hit 2-out RBI singles in both the second and fourth innings, and while Wasserman surrendered a homer to Allen Retzer in between, the Coons opened the top 5th with straight singles from the top of the order, plating Spencer already with Borg and Tovias representing the tying runs on base in a 5-3 game. Mora hit a scorcher to leftfield that was caught by Serrano nevertheless, and while Alfaro clicked an RBI single into shallow center, 5-4, Nunley hit a groundout and Otis popped out to Burrier to keep two men stranded. Unfortunately, Matt Nunley would detonate the Coons' efforts in more ways than one, making consecutive errors, a fumble and an errant throw, in the bottom 5th after a leadoff single by Danny Serrano. The Aces pulled the Coons' two runs from the top of the inning right back, yet Portland still wasn't finished off. Greg Borg hit a leadoff jack in the seventh, his first homer of the season, and the Raccoons put Tovias and Mora on base with nobody out, at least until Alfaro smacked a grounder for a double play. THAT was the fatal blow. No other Raccoon reached base anymore. 7-5 Aces. Spencer 2-5; Borg 2-5, HR, RBI; Nunley 2-4, 2B; Bullock 3-4, 2 RBI;

We had twice as many hits as them Aces…

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Borg – LF Carmona – SS Bullock – P Gutierrez
LVA: 1B Retzer – 2B Burrier – CF Serrano – C J. Vargas – LF Raynor – RF Curro – 3B I. Alvarez – SS A. Medina – P Trotter

The Oregonians scored first on Jon Gonzalez' leadoff jack in the second inning before embarking on more unlikely fail plays. After Rico Gutierrez reached on an uncaught third strike in the third inning, Spencer hit right into an inning-ending double play, and with Gutierrez back on the mound, Allen Retzer missed a homer to dead center by about two inches, tripling off the top of the fence with one out. Now the Aces failed; Cy Burrier flew out to Cookie, Retzer went, but was thrown out at home plate! Obviously the 1-0 lead was divine and would be enough, no need to score more; Jon Gonzalez hit into a double play in the fourth, then farted on Ron Raynor's grounder to put the Aces' leftfielder on base in the bottom 4th via an error. Problem was, that was the Aces' third runner and there was nobody out following hard singles to center by Serrano and Vargas… Curro flew to deep center, but Abel Mora made the play, however, Serrano was always going to score on that ball, tying the game at one. Rico whiffed Izzy, then got Andres Medina to pop out to strand the other two runners.

For the shockingly low number of base hits the Raccoons would amass (three as long as Gutierrez was pitching, which was seven innings), they kept hitting into an astounding number of double plays. Greg Borg found one in the fifth, and Jarod Spencer found one in the eighth. Both killed good chances proficiently. Rico was left with a no-decision, and was still 14 wins short of his 2024 tally, Trotter was done after eight, likewise unsuccessful in his bid for a victory, with Franklin Alvarado, who had sawed off the Coons' core with little effort in Friday's ninth inning, back out in the ninth inning, now in the 1-1 tie, and Mora was to lead off. He hit the first offering in the inning over Corey Curro for a leadoff double, but the Coons had squandered three leadoff batters reaching base since squandering their not-so-divine 1-0 lead, so confidence was low right now. Tovias, in a bit of a funk, struck out, and Gonzlaez was bypassed to get to Nunley in a prime double play scenario. Nunley grounded to Steve Hollingsworth, replacement at second base, but it probably wasn't due, and since Hollingsworth fumbled the ball, it was no out at all. Bases loaded, one out for Greg Borg, who hit a 1-1 pitch for a bouncer to Jose Navarro's left at shortstop, but Navarro missed it and the ball eloped into center for an RBI single. That was it, with Cookie whiffing and Otis – batting for Bullock – grounding out to Navarro after all. Snyder walked Curro in the bottom 9th, but struck out Raynor and Alvarez before Navarro popped out, evening the series. 2-1 Raccoons! Mora 2-4, 2B; Gutierrez 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

Ricky Ohl picked up his fourth win of the season in relief here, which as you might notice, is twice Rico Gutierrez' total.

Game 3
POR: 2B Spencer – RF Borg – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – SS Otis – C Delgado – P Roberts
LVA: 1B Retzer – 2B Burrier – CF Serrano – LF Raynor – RF Curro – C Schoeppen – 3B J. Navarro – SS A. Medina – P M. Morales

Jon Gonzalez drove in the first run again, this time a 2-out RBI double chasing home Abel Mora in the first inning, but it took the Aces only until the second to equalize. Raynor's leadoff single, a wild walk to Corey Curro, and then a well-placed 2-out blooper by Medina produced a run before Miguel Morales was fireballed away to end the inning, which was the fourth K for Roberts in the game, and the 100th this season. Roberts was whiffing two per inning at a steady pace here, but unfortunately his pitch count was also rather steady in its skyrocketing ways, and he was near 80 pitches through four 8-K innings. At least he had the lead again; in the top of the fourth, Cookie had singled, stolen, and scored on Matt Otis' double to make it 2-1 for the brown team.

Roberts struck out only one batter in both the fifth (Retzer) and sixth (Curro), but he also reached 105 pitches while doing so, and the Coons had to get to their pen earlier than you'd like with your Opening Day man on the mound. Since Roberts led off the top 7th, there was no point in keeping him around for maybe another guy or two, and Daniel Bullock hit for him, reaching base when Navarro dropped his easy pop in fair ground. Whatever works! Morales was also removed at this point, and new pitcher Mike Espinoza got Spencer to hit one right into Medina's gaping maws for another unfortunate double play. The Coons then had to use their two best arms right in the seventh inning, because Vince D walked both Medina (then forced out by Alvarez' grounder) and Retzer, with left-hander Donovan May pinch-hitting at this point. Brotman came on, had him where he wanted him at 1-2, then still allowed a 330-foot drive to right. Greg Borg spoiled extra bases for May, and the inning ended. Brotman got the switch-hitting Serrano, who was better against right-handed pitching, to begin the bottom 8th, and Surginer K'ed Raynor and got Curro to fly out easily to Cookie Carmona, bridging the game to Snyder, who got a then unexpected insurance run via a pinch-hit 2-out RBI single by Elias Tovias in the top of the ninth, this one plating Otis against former Titan Harry Merwin. Snyder began his job by K'ing Casimiro Schoeppen, who wasn't aging well at all anymore, before Navarro flew out to center, and Medina rolled one over to Otis at second base. 3-1 Coons! Tovias (PH) 1-1, RBI; Mora 2-4; Otis 3-4, 2B, RBI; Roberts 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, W (9-4);

In other news

June 24 – The Gold Sox lose LF/CF Armando Martinez (.304, 9 HR, 42 RBI) for the next six weeks due to the 29-year-old suffering an oblique strain.
June 25 – LAP SP Bryan Hanson (10-4, 1.67 ERA) shines with a 2-hit shutout of the Warriors, claiming the 6-0 victory.
June 25 – The Aces look defeated as they trail 8-1 in the eighth inning, but then unspool a 7-run eighth and walk off in the tenth for a 9-8 victory over the Condors.
June 26 – Back-to-back doubles by the Scorpions' LF/RF Doug Stross (.342, 5 HR, 37 RBI) and C David Drews (.328, 11 HR, 59 RBI) end a 5:32, 19-inning affair with the Gold Sox in a 2-1 victory. The loss hands on DEN MR Rich Lester (0-2, 2.70 ERA, 1 SV) in his fourth inning of work.
June 27 – For whatever reason, the Loggers acquire CL Joe Moore (2-5, 5.67 ERA, 11 SV) from the Wolves in exchange for two prospects. The pair of youngsters includes #99 prospect 2B Rafael Padilla.
June 27 – The lead changes hands seven times in the Titans' wacko 12-inning, 14-12 win over the Thunder. BOS 1B/LF/RF Gil Cornejo (.267, 1 HR, 7 RBI) leads all players with four RBI, while OCT OF Dave Garcia (.310, 16 HR, 53 RBI) chips in five base hits and two RBI.
June 28 – The Wolves acquire C Matt Wittner (.354, 6 HR, 32 RBI) from the Capitals in exchange for INF/LF Travis Givens (.283, 2 HR, 15 RBI) and #99 prospect 2B Rafael Padilla.
June 29 – Catchers don't hit for the cycle all too often, but Dallas' Josh Wool (.300, 2 HR, 35 RBI) now has done it! The 29-year-old ticks off all the requirements in just four trips to the plate in the Stars' 8-5 win over the Cyclones. This is the 73rd cycle in ABL history, and the league-leading eighth for the Stars.

Complaints and stuff

That is five wins this week! Hooray! We still didn't gain any ground on the Titans…

Jonny Toner will one day retire with five strikeout crowns; that is a fact, because he already has as many and won't get any more. Will he make it to 3,000 K? If he continues at his whiff production of the last few years, he'd have to pitch until he's 46 … Will he still make the Hall of Fame? Well, how much value do you ascribe to four Pitcher of the Year awards and two triple crowns?

…and already we're encroaching on the All Star Game. We won't have an off day anymore until the event, playing another 14 straight against the Condors (on the road), and then on a homestand against the Indians, Elks (who are our four-and-four foes), and Crusaders.

Fun Fact: The following catchers had previously hit for the cycle: Lance Branch (1997), Felix Hernandez (2000), Jose Paraz (2004), and Jason Clark (2006);

In all of those games, either the Miners or the Thunder were on the receiving ends.

And yes, it is still unbearable here. Next year I will definitely spend the summer on the Faroe Islands.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (45-31) @ Condors (42-33) – June 30-July 2, 2025

The Condors were tied for first with the Knights in the CL South but had won only three of their last 11 games. They ranked fourth in runs scored, eighth in runs allowed, but it was also interesting to see how they were scoring their runs, given that they had the second-lowest on-base percentage of all the Continental League teams. They weren't really powering it out (7th in home runs), but were in the top 3 in stolen bases, and also had a knack for doubles apparently. The season series stood 2-1 in Portland's favor.

Projected matchups:
Jesus Chavez (4-4, 4.53 ERA) vs. Jeff Little (4-5, 4.69 ERA)
Jack Sander (8-2, 3.16 ERA) vs. George Griffin (7-4, 4.61 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (1-7, 3.19 ERA) vs. Mark Morrison (6-3, 2.97 ERA)

While probably not only Wasserman was looking at his stats and Sander's and had a high-pitched "why??" ringing in his head, the Condors had their own versions of pitchers above league average in ERA with winning records and one guy that put together a 1.86 ERA but had only a 3-3 record. That was swingman John Waker though, who had mostly appeared in relief so far this season. You might recognize the name; he was a first-round pick by the Raccoons in 2016, but was included in the totally not regrettable trade to the Stars for Hugo Mendoza. In any case, the Coons would see a left-hander here, followed by two right-handers.

Game 1
POR: LF Spencer – CF Borg – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 3B Nunley – 2B Otis – SS Jurek – P Chavez
TIJ: C Zarate – SS Sanks – RF Bednarski – 3B M. Matias – LF O. Larios – 1B McNeal – CF Hatley – 2B H. Jones – P Little

While Chavez faced the minimum through three innings, the Raccoons had Otis and Jurek on the corners with two base hits to begin the top of the third, but then stalled; Chavez popped out, Spencer hit into a fielder's choice, and Borg flew out to Omar Larios in left. Three singles then loaded the sacks in the fifth inning for Portland, but that also brought up Chavez again with nobody out. He struck out, and Spencer grounded a ball to the shortstop Shane Sanks, who zipped it to second for one out, but the throw to first was barely late, and the Coons put the first run on the board as Matt Nunley scampered home. Greg Borg's single up the middle made it 2-0, but the Condors also pulled a run back in the bottom of the inning on two base hits and too many batters that Chavez had two strikes on and couldn't remove.

Little was less picky with his strikeouts, whiffing eight through six innings (and ten through 6.2, by which time Spencer knocked him out with a single), but the Raccoons had their own satisfying moment in the bottom 6th with Sanks on first base and old foe Mike Bednarski (even when he was a Coon, he was still a foe…) batting. He lined a 1-1 pitch to the right side, but Gonzalez swiped it and tagged an errant Sanks for a 3-unassisted double play to end the inning. By the seventh, though, Chavez gambled away his slim lead with a 1-out triple to Omar Larios, whom Andy McNeal scored with a fly to deep right, evening the score at two, and then a leadoff walk knocked out Chavez in the bottom 8th. Pinch-runner Joel Denzler stole second base, but Justin Hess' K to Chad Highsmith, and Vince D whiffing Danny Zarate took out some steam here, and Jurek's nifty play on Sanks' grounder up the middle ended the inning. The Raccoons remained unable to put any sort of offense together. Spencer had another 2-out single in the ninth that led nowhere, and once Ricky Ohl extended the game into additional innings, the Coons wouldn't get on base altogether. The Condors turned out to be less picky; #9 hitter Robby Boggs doubled off Jimmy Lee to lead off the 11th inning, and then Zarate took him deep altogether to end this game. 4-2 Condors. Spencer 2-5, RBI; Otis 2-4, 2B; Jurek 2-5; Chavez 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K; Ohl 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Hey, listen you stink bombs! I don't like ending a month with a loss! Or starting one with a loss. Or losing ever, at all. Keep that in mind.

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – SS Bullock – P Sander
TIJ: C Zarate – SS Sanks – RF Bednarski – 3B M. Matias – LF O. Larios – 1B McNeal – CF Denzler – 2B Boggs – P Griffin

Nunley and Alfaro managed to thwart much offense early on with double plays in the first two innings, but Jon Gonzalez snuck in a long one to give Sander an early 1-0 lead anyway. Sander was perfect through three innings, then batted with the bags full and two outs in the fourth following an infield single by Tovias, a proper single by Alfaro, and an intentional walk to Bullock. He popped the first pitch to the second baseman Boggs, who drank the Kool-Aid and dropped the goddamn ball as he tried to one-hand it in style. That scored a run and blew a fuse or two with the Condors' manager. Unforunately, larger exploits where denied to the Raccoons, with Jarod Spencer striking out to end the inning.

Sander walked Zarate to begin the Condors' half of the fourth, and was then 3-0 on Bednarski, when the constant joy to have around in the lineup popped out to Cookie in shallow left, which unraveled the inning for Tijuana and left Sander ahead 2-0 after four. At this point the Condors were hitless, although Larios took care of that with a leadoff jack in the bottom 5th (and Gonzalez had hit into a double play in the top of the fifth…), and in the bottom 6th the Condors broke through with a leadoff single by Griffin and then ****ing Bednarski actually hitting a homer, his 11th of the season to flip the score, which Mike Matias immediately followed up with another moonshot to centerfield, 4-2. All of this was preceded by Cookie hitting into a double play to murder the Coons' efforts in the top of the sixth. So that is FOUR double plays in six innings. What a blessing they can't hit into two per inning…!!

Top 7th, Dwayne Metts singled in Sander's spot, and with two outs the brown train slowly got moving. Nunley singled, Mora hit an RBI single to left, 4-3, and Gonzalez got knocked by Lorenzo Romero after the banishment of Griffin from the game. That gave Tovias a chance with the bags full, but he lined out to Joel Denzler, and once again the Coons were denied while far out-hitting the opposition at this point (8-5). The Coons pen managed to keep the team in the game, as did Alfaro with some impressive plays in rightfield, and we came up still only a run short in the ninth inning, with Greg Borg leading off in the #9 hole against Zach Weaver, a former starter whom the Condors were employing as a swingman and mostly out of the pen now since acquiring him from the Thunder last year. True closers have a different whiff about them, so come on boys, go out and kill him! Denzler spoiled two liners into center by Borg and Nunley, only Spencer hit a single, and Mora grounded out to Boggs to choke on the opportunity. 4-3 Condors. Spencer 2-5; Metts (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
POR: 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – SS Otis – P Wasserman
TIJ: C Zarate – SS Sanks – RF Bednarski – 3B M. Matias – LF O. Larios – 1B McNeal – CF Hatley – 2B Boggs – P M. Morrison

Wasserman made an instant bold dash for 1-8 by serving up a hanging breaking ball at 3-2 to Condors leadoff man Danny Zarate that was hit for at least 16 miles out of centerfield and just like that it was 1-0 again. Larios and Nick Hatley plated a second run in the second inning with a pair of doubles, while the Raccoons generally reached base only on the mercy of the Condors, whose representative Morrison drilled Nunley in the first, walked Otis in the third, and walked Gonzalez in the fourth. Portland refused to amount to anything with a no-hit bid officially in the works by the middle innings.

Jon Gonzalez played spoiler to Morrison, singling past a diving Sanks to lead off the seventh after the top of the order had disappeared haplessly in the sixth inning. This was still a free-for-all; Wasserman hadn't exactly sparkled, but held the Condors to two runs so far, and if the Coons could FINALLY stop hitting into double plays and chain base hits together … like Alfaro's double between Hatley and Bednarski that maneuvered the tying runs into scoring position with one out for Cookie! Senor Carmona knocked a 1-0 pitch sharply to left. Sanks in the dive again, knocks it down, scrambles up, and the throw to first was LATE. Infield single, and a run was across, 2-1! Come on; come on! Stay on their necks! Matt Otis listened and drove a ball to right-center, and again neither Bednarski nor Hatley made the play in the gap. This double tied the game and kept the pressure on, with Greg Borg now batting for Wasserman and hitting a sac fly to center, putting the Coons ahead, 3-2. Spencer grounded out to Sanks.

Since adding on seemed not like an immediately available option, the pen had to grit it out now. Hess retired two, and Ohl got four Condors in order between the seventh and eighth, and Snyder also wouldn't have any cushion when he faced the 3-4-5 batters in the ninth. At this point it was the Raccoons that were out-hit this time, 6-4, in a weird series that brought no joy. Bednarski flew out to Cookie. Matias flew out to Mora. Larios rolled one over to Gonzalez, and the Coons salvaged one game before flying back home. 3-2 Coons. Gonzalez 1-2, 2 BB; Otis 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Wasserman 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, W (2-7);

Raccoons (46-33) vs. Indians (36-41) – July 3-6, 2025

The Coons were aiming to repeat their most recent success against the Indians, whom they had swept in a 4-game series in May. Indy was still a bit overwhelmed especially on the offensive side, ranking 11th in runs scored with 3.8 runs per game, and at the bottom with their .238 batting average. The pitching remained decent with the sixth-fewest runs conceded in the Continental League, but the overall mix was not enough to compete for anything but fifth place with the Elks right now. The Raccoons held a 6-2 edge in the season series ahead of this 4-game set.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (2-5, 3.13 ERA) vs. Victor Arevalo (6-7, 3.63 ERA)
Mark Roberts (9-4, 2.58 ERA) vs. Jason Clements (3-6, 4.65 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (4-4, 4.39 ERA) vs. Ernesto Lozano (5-7, 3.48 ERA)
Jack Sander (8-3, 3.33 ERA) vs. Mark Matthews (4-4, 4.81 ERA)

All right-handers as we'd miss their best guy, southpaw Tom Shumway (9-2, 2.07 ERA), who had pitched on Wednesday.

Game 1
IND: 2B Pizano – 1B Ri. Mendez – 3B M. Green – LF Folk – SS Benedetto – RF Faulk – C R. Vargas – CF Linnell – P Arevalo
POR: 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – C Delgado – SS Bullock – P Gutierrez

While struggling Rico began the game with a full-count walk to Mario Pizano, a double play would clean up that runner and Rico allowed neither a hit nor a run the first time through the Indians order, but the Coons weren't brilliant with the sticks, really, and left the bases loaded without scoring right in the first inning after singles by Nunley and Gonzalez, and a walk drawn by Omar Alfaro. Cookie grounded out to Pizano for the third out. Rico would line up five no-hit innings, with the only hitting done being into Rich Mendez' buttocks in the fourth inning, but was not in line for a win until the bottom of the fifth, which saw Matt Nunley drop in his third single of the game, followed by Abel Mora conquering the fence in right-center for his 10th homer of the season. The Raccoons went on to put Gonzalez (single) and Alfaro (walk) on base, but Cookie then smashed it into an inning-ending double play to Jason Benedetto.

The Indians were still taking all of this lying down, but maybe Rico Dearest could tickle them long and hard enough to wake up, like in the seventh inning, where he issued a 1-out walk to Mike Green, threw a wild pitch, then walked Brody Folk on four pitches. The tying runs were on and the Indians still without a base hit, but how priceless would a 3-run homer by the light-hitting Benedetto be in this spot? The shortstop chubbed a 2-2 pitch into play, a high and quick bouncer at Jarod Spencer, who was served perfectly to execute a 4-6-3 double play. Oh boy!

A bit of length was provided by Matt Nunley in the bottom 7th, remaining unretired with a solo homer to right, which at the same time retired Arevalo. John McInerney replaced him, put the next two guys on, but in a mirror image of the fifth inning, the next Coon up, Alfaro, hit into an inning-ending double play. But it was a 3-0 game now, and the main focus was on Gutierrez anyway. The eighth: A.J. Faulk lifted one out to Alfaro, easy catch, five to go, but that was as close as Rico got. Ricardo Vargas singled up the middle, spoiling the effort and making this a mundane 3-0 game without any glitter. Gutierrez didn't finish the inning, allowing a 2-out single to PH Andrew Cooper, then was replaced by Vince Devereaux, who got Pizano to pop out, then retired the side in order in the ninth inning. 3-0 Coons. Nunley 4-4, HR, RBI; Mora 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Gonzalez 2-3, BB; Gutierrez 7.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, W (3-5); Devereaux 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (1);

Sometimes a win is just a win, is just a win.

(sighs)

Game 2
IND: 2B Pizano – 1B Ri. Mendez – C T. Perez – 3B M. Green – LF Folk – SS Benedetto – RF Faulk – CF Linnell – P Clements
POR: LF Spencer – 3B Nunley – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Borg – 2B Otis – SS Jurek – CF Metts – P Roberts

This was an obvious rotational game during a 17-day stretch without an off day and it wasn't like Spencer, Nunley, and Gonzalez wouldn't get an off day soon, so it's not all the burden on Mark Roberts, who did not develop a no-hit bid, but struck out five in the first three innings while being stuck with a 1-0 lead in the bottom 3rd. Routinely useless crack-in-the-roster filler Dwayne Metts had hit a leadoff single, been bunted over by Roberts, and plated by Spencer with a 1-out single. That lead wouldn't hold up; Roberts opened with a K to Pizano in the fourth, but then allowed base hits to Mendez, Mike Green, and disgusting ex-Elk Brody Folk. The main issue was Green's double into the leftfield corner, plating Mendez to tie the game, and then allowing Folk to claim the lead for Indy with a single to left-center.

Greg Borg had none of this! When Clements opened the bottom 4th by conceding a single to Tovias and losing Gonzalez on balls, Greg Borg rammed a ball into the gap in left-center and legged it out for a score-flipping 2-run triple! Dustin Jurek would cash Borg with a sac fly for a 4-2 lead after four, which was all I would reasonably expect from this bottom of the order with a runner on third and no outs. Borg chipped in another RBI in the fifth in which the Coons hit three singles for a run off McInerney.

Roberts would last seven innings with ten strikeouts. Control eluded him for a while in the fifth and sixth innings, resulting in long counts and a rising pitch total. The final nail in Andrew Cooper's strikeout that ended the seventh and stranded Richard Linnell on second base was Roberts' 110 pitch of the night, so that was a job well done for him. It was a job less well done for Kevin Surginer, who got taken deep by Mendez in the eighth, but that still left Portland up by two. The Coons had Borg aboard again in the bottom 8th, but couldn't cash him in from third base, leaving it to Snyder in the ninth. Folk lined out to Bullock, who was the replacement at short after Jurek had been hit for in the bottom 8th, and Snyder struck out the next two to keep the Indians to a low profile. 5-3 Raccoons! Tovias 3-4; Borg 3-4, 3B, 3 RBI; Roberts 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 10 K, W (10-4);

Very nice triple by Greg Borg in the fourth! Maybe that Michael Foreman deal to the Loggers four years ago wasn't all a failure after all! … What is it, Jarod? Why the grim look and the tapping with one foot?

Game 3
IND: SS Pizano – 2B Folk – LF Cooper – 3B M. Green – CF Linnell – 1B Faulk – RF Staebell – C T. Perez – P Lozano
POR: 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – 1B Mora – C Tovias – RF Alfaro – CF Borg – LF Carmona – SS Bullock – P Chavez

The bases were loaded with one out for Daniel Bullock in the bottom 2nd, which made a certain intern in my office very giddy, while I had mixed feelings about the situation. Alfaro and Borg had singled, Cookie had drawn a walk against Lozano, who fell 3-1 behind Bullock before the backup shortstop poked and grounded to short. Cookie was all the Indians got at second base, so a run scored, but that was not a desired result in a 3-1 count for me. It was for Cristiano, who punched his fists in the air and squealed. Well, it was a 1-0 lead alright, never mind Chavez grounding out to Folk to end the inning. 2-out base hits by Mora and Tovias brought in another run in the third inning, but the Indians finally amounted to something against Chavez in the fourth. Opening with a Cooper double to left-center, they railed off three straight base hits, with Green and Linnell chipping in singles, which gave them the tying run at second, the go-ahead run at first, and nobody out in a 2-1 Portland score. Faulk popped out, but John Staebell got a grounder past Spencer for an RBI single. A strikeout to Tony Perez and Lozano's pop kept the game tied at two then.

The Indians also left the go-ahead run in scoring position in the fifth inning, leaving the Coons to pounce in the bottom 5th. Spencer hit a leadoff single, Nunley flew out to left, but then Mora found the corner in rightfield, where the ball caromed around long enough for not only Spencer to score, but Mora to reach third base with a triple, but he was then stranded at third base on Tovias' poor groundout, Alfaro being walked intentionally, and Borg flying out to Linnell in center. With that 3-2 lead we dragged Chavez into the seventh, where he walked Pizano with two outs and was thereupon replaced by Vince D, who couldn't prevent Pizano from stealing second base as the tying run, but struck out Brody Folk to make the stolen base irrelevant. We pieced the eighth together with Brotman and Ohl, keeping the tying run, Linnell, at first this time around. An insurance run would still be welcome, but didn't materialize for Snyder, who got to face the bottom of the order. Snyder had Staebell, Perez, and Benedetto all in 2-strike counts, whiffed none, but also allowed no base runners. In order, the Indians flew out to left, flew out to right, and grounded out easily to short. 3-2 Furballs! Mora 2-4, 3B, RBI; Borg 2-4; Chavez 6.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (5-4);

That is now seven straight wins against the freshly-minted last-place Indians, and already we can't lose the season series anymore, which now stands at 9-2. Don't get carried away though, because the Titans were also winning every game at this point…

Matt Nunley would get a day off on Sunday against a right-hander, which was weird, but we'd also not see a left-handed starter on Monday or Tuesday, either. Probably Wednesday, although we're talking about the Elks here, and they know wickedness like no other…

Game 4
IND: SS Pizano – 1B Ri. Mendez – LF Cooper – RF T. Ruiz – 3B M. Green – CF Linnell – C T. Perez – 2B Folk – P Matthews
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – CF Borg – LF Carmona – SS Otis – 3B Bullock – P Sander

Tony Ruiz' single leading off the fifth inning was the first base hit for either team in this Sunday doozy. There had been the odd error (Green) or hit batter (Borg), a walk or two or three sprinkled throughout, but mostly neither team had made a whole lot of their slim chances, with the Coons in the bottom 4th producing a 6-3 double play in a hit-and-run when Cookie lined out to Pizano with Borg already having ignited the afterburners. Tony Perez hit a second single in the inning before the disgusting ex-Elk in the #8 hole lit up the recently not-so-great Sander with a 3-run homer to left. Swingman Matthews kept the no-hit bid upright through five innings, only surrendering it to Spencer's leadoff single in the bottom 6th. Tovias would also single, but the runners remained on the corners with three soft flies by the other batters in the inning.

Bottom 7th, Otis doubled with one out, and while Bullock grounded out readily to the right side initially, Mendez dropped Folk's feed at first base, putting runners on the corners with one out again after all. Alfaro batted for the pitcher, but grounded out in a 3-1 count, allowing Otis to score, but … eh. Spencer walked, but Mora grounded out to Mendez to end the inning. That wasn't it for the lowlights, though, with Jon Gonzalez grounding out to short on a 3-0 pitch in the bottom 8th. What the …? The Indians jumped on Justin Hess in the top of the ninth with a leadoff single by Ruiz, a double to left by Green, and when Ricky Ohl came on for the pinch-hitting A.J. Faulk, he allowed an RBI single to him, and later plated Green with a balk. Good thing this game had already been out of the window! Although the Raccoons would not go down without putting runners on the corners AGAIN in the bottom 9th, with Cookie doubling off Nick Salinas, who also walked the pinch-hitting Nunley, but of course no run was brought across. 5-1 Indians.

In other news

July 1 – SAC C David Drews (.336, 12 HR, 62 RBI) earns the Federal League's Rookie of the Month honors for June, and will also miss all of July with torn ankle ligaments.
July 1 – A torn hip flexor tendon is expected to keep out BOS 3B/2B Rhett West (.340, 3 HR, 35 RBI) for the next six weeks.
July 1 – The Cyclones and Warriors are in a 2-2 game through seven innings before the Cyclones blast away the opposition with four in the eighth and seven in the ninth en route to a 13-2 win. Brett O'Dell (.321, 7 HR, 23 RBI) and Alvin Bennett (.340, 4 HR, 15 RBI) both pinch-hit in the #9 hole in the last two innings and rack up a grand slam and a bases-clearing triple, respectively.
July 2 – The Stars trade for Nashville's 1B Gus Gasso (.263, 9 HR, 26 RBI), parting with MR Mo Robinson (3-1, 4.42 ERA, 1 SV).
July 3 – Rookie CIN SP Trevor Dixon (5-6, 4.29 ERA) spins a 2-hit shutout against the Rebels, 4-0.
July 3 – In a second FL East shutout on this day, WAS SP Killian Savoie (8-3, 3.94 ERA) does the honors to the Blue Sox, 4-0, allowing only three base hits.
July 3 – NYC INF Sergio Valdez (.311, 4 HR, 11 RBI) appears to be lost for this injury-riddled season after tearing ankle ligaments.
July 5 – SFW OF Jeff Wadley (.265, 9 HR, 43 RBI) figures to miss six weeks with a sprained ankle.
July 6 – BOS INF Jamie Wilson (.306, 2 HR, 29 RBI) will miss the rest of the month ostensibly with a strained hamstring.

Complaints and stuff

It's injuries galore for the Titans. It is also wins galore for the Titans. They were 20-6 in June, which is tough to compete with, and are 5-1 in July. Specifically, they have won 11 of their last dozen games, dropping only a 7-2 game to the Falcons on Wednesday. Jeremy Waite was the loser in that game, although he brought it on himself with five runs (two earned) in five innings. The error that led to the unearned runs, however, was Waite's, so I would have little sympathy for him.

Our recent strong run has put our all-time record at 197 games over .500 (in the regular season), so we could get back into the +200 zone soon enough, a level that we dropped from two years ago.

Tim Stalker might have been able to return to at least begin a rehab stint before the All Star break, but his return keeps sliding now due to various setbacks. He's now ruled out to play again (in rehab even) until the week of the All Star Game.

Watch a simple biceps strain lead to amputation here. Of both arms!

The other day I walked into the room with the Xerox to copy one of the comic strips from the newspaper when I walked right into a naked Daniel Bullock, who quickly covered himself with his glove and began to stammer what a beautiful day it was, right, boss, right? The next second, Cristiano came rolling in from behind, shouting in the hallway already that he found the tube and they could now play bal- … and then noticed me as I looked back and forth between them while holding on to the comic page and quickly made the tube he brought disappear in an empty box next to him. 'Catch', he then said, 'we're going to play catch.' 'Si', Bullock nodded eagerly while still covering himself with what looked like his actual fielding glove. I pointed out that they had no baseball between them. 'Ooh, riiight', Cristiano noticed now as well and hit himself on the forehead. 'Can you belief I forgot THE BASEBALL?' He laughed, turned around and rolled out as quick as possible. Another ten seconds of awkward silence later, I asked Bullock whether he minded me squeezing ahead of him at the Xerox. He silently shook his head.

What a madhouse it is here!

The hunt on innocent Latino teens has begun again, meaning the international free agent signing period has started. There might be some REAL pitching goodies in there this time, and since we have the dough and you never know what you're gonna get (if anything) next year, this could be a year where we blow through the cap without asking. There was one particular 17-year-old Dominican left-hander I had fallen instantly in love with and who made up the majority of our initial offerings of $616k to five players in total, which was already almost $200k over the soft cap.

Fun Fact: In a rare occurrence, former Raccoon and now Cyclones closer Troy Charters was named Pitcher of the Month in the Federal League with 13 scoreless outings in the month of June in which he racked up 11 saves.

Charters was once a #55 pick by the Falcons in the 2011 draft. Since then, the 32-year-old right-hander has been with more teams than you can possibly count. He was traded from the Falcons to the Crusaders and then to the Loggers before he made his major league debut. From Milwaukee he would then trace his path through Dallas, Portland, Washington, Richmond, Denver, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, and Los Angeles into Cincinnati, being traded mid-season three times, including from the Stars to the Coons in 2019 for Michael Richert, a shortstop that has never seen the AAA level. Charters left Portland as free agent after half a season.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (49-34) vs. Canadiens (37-45) – July 7-10, 2025

Ugh, Elks! They sat in last place in the division, which only meant they were the more likely to ruin the Raccoons' modest ambitions of somehow upstaging the juggernaut Titans. Vancouver ranked fifth in runs scored in the Continental League, but their pitching wasn't up to snuff. They were in the bottom three in the league in starters' and bullpen ERA as well as runs allowed overall, and they didn't have a single pitcher with a sub-3 ERA on staff. The season series so far was even at 2-2.

Projected matchups:
Graham Wasserman (2-7, 3.18 ERA) vs. Fernando Estrada (2-4, 5.21 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (3-5, 2.87 ERA) vs. Bryce Sudar (4-5, 3.27 ERA)
Mark Roberts (10-4, 2.58 ERA) vs. Greg Becker (4-5, 4.34 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (5-4, 4.28 ERA) vs. Luis Vasquez (2-3, 5.03 ERA)

Among their four starters, Becker was the only left-handed offering.

Jarod Spencer would start the week with an off day.

Game 1
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – 1B Luckett – CF Coca – RF Wojnarowski – 2B Gura – LF Chaplin – SS Ra. Mendez – C Tanzillo – P F. Estrada
POR: RF Borg – LF Carmona – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – 2B Otis – C Delgado – SS Bullock – P Wasserman

Tony Delgado's sac fly to Mike Chaplin was all that the Raccoons cashed from having the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the second inning, following all singles by Gonzalez, Nunley, and Otis. Bullock grounded out to detestable scarecrow Ted Gura, and Wasserman flew out softly to Chaplin in left. The 1-0 lead didn't last long thanks to three straight 2-out singles by the Elks in the third inning. Jonathan Morales doubled to center, Elijah Luckett had an infield single, and Tony Coca hit one cleanly through the hole on the left side to tie the game before Brian Wojnarowski struck out. Wojnarowski, a 23-year-old rookie that had skipped AAA, made his 30th major league appearance here and dropped his average to .207 with three dingers.

Bottom 4th, Tony Coca also had a hand in the Raccoons regaining the lead. Jon Gonzalez had drawn a leadoff walk and made for third base as Matt Otis' singled to center with one out. Coca made a valiant attempt at Gonzalez at third base, but his throw was exceptionally poor and skidded well past Jonathan Morales and into foul territory, allowing Gonzalez to score and break the tie, and Otis to move up to second base. Delgado popped out, and Bullock was walked intentionally to bring up Wasserman, who chopped Estrada's first pitch into play and through between Morales and Raul Mendez for an RBI single. Borg bounced out, and then Wasserman proceeded to get shelled for three runs in the fifth. Leadoff walk to Chris Tanzillo, as well as scorched extra base hits by Morales (double) and Luckett (triple), with Coca's grounder to short giving Elkland a 4-3 lead, on which they looked to build further down the road. Morales knocked out Wasserman with a 1-out RBI double in the seventh inning, plating John Calfee, who had pinch-walked in Estrada's spot. And where were the Raccoons? They went down in order a couple of times after the fourth inning, and even when they didn’t they made a poor impression. Gonzalez hit a leadoff double in the eighth, but two more Elks relievers held Nunley, Otis, and Delgado to absolutely nothing and stranded Gonzalez at third base in the inning. Ivan Morales sat down Spencer, Alfaro, and Borg in order in the ninth inning. 5-3 Canadiens. Gonzalez 2-3, BB, 2B; Nunley 2-4; Otis 2-4;

One of those series, obviously.

Game 2
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – C Holliman – CF Coca – SS Calfee – RF Chaplin – 2B Ra. Mendez – LF Wojnarowski – 1B Luckett – P Sudar
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – SS Jurek – P Gutierrez

Gutierrez' offerings looked very much like being carefully placed on a stationary stick to begin this game and the Elks wouldn't have to be invited twice. Morales and Ryan Holliman hit absolute scorchers to begin the game for a double and a single, and they probably would have scored at some point if Morales hadn't been thrown out at home plate in the inning. In turn, Jarod Spencer was picked off first base after a leadoff single in the bottom 1st, so we were kinda even… In one of those weird games, both teams had runners on base in each of their first three innings, both pitchers singled their first time up, and somehow everybody always ran themselves out of it, with Morales being caught stealing by Tovias to end the third inning. The Elks in the fourth were the first team to not reach base at all in an inning, with Holliman grounding out to short and Coca and Calfee both bouncing out to Nunley. In turn, the Coons loaded the bases in the bottom 4th; Tovias was retired on a drive to left, but then Gonzalez singled, Alfaro walked on four pitches, and Nunley pawed out an infield single between Sudar, Morales, and Holliman. Cookie was up with one out and nothing on the board and cracked the first pitch over Raul Mendez for an easy-does-it RBI single before Dustin Jurek hit into an inning-ending double play…

Rico Gutierrez retired nobody before blowing the lead, walking left-hander Mike Chaplin on four pitches to begin the fifth inning. He threw a wild one to Mendez, who ended up singling to center to plate Chaplin and re-tie the game. There were two more left-handers at the bottom of the order; Wojnarowski homered to dead center, so there was that, and Luckett singled sharply to right against Gutierrez, who really and actually had won 16 games last season, although you'd have doubts that he'd win another 16 in his career from now on. The rest of the team was just as rotten. Gonzalez was on base in the sixth inning, and became the second Raccoon in the game to be picked off by Sudar. Gutierrez left the game in the seventh in another mess. Mendez reached on a Jurek error to begin the inning, and Gutierrez walked Luckett before being sent for the showers. Vince D retired PH Matt Anton and Morales to keep the 3-1 game in nominal reach. Bottom 7th, Cookie grounded out to begin the inning before left-hander Nick Van Fossen put pinch-hitters Greg Borg (single) and Matt Otis (walk) on base. Those were the tying runs for Spencer, who grounded an 0-2 pitch to short, where John Calfee misfired a potential double play ball into Mendez' legs, and it bounced away. Bases loaded! Abel Mora pathetically flew out to shallow left, but Tovias beat Calfee for a 2-run single to left, tying the score before Gonzalez regrettably struck out. Van Fossen was still around in a tied game in the bottom 8th, conceding singles to the left-handed batters this time around. With Nunley and Cookie aboard and one out, the Coons had to pinch-hit for Ricky Ohl. Slim pickings – try to find impact between Delgado, Bullock, and Metts on the bench! It was Delgado merely for the fact that he was a right-handed batter. Van Fossen got to 0-2 easily anyway, then hung one and Tony sure got hold of it, banging a 370-footer over the leftfield fence to break the tie! To our greatest dismay, Jonathan Snyder couldn't have an easy save against the bottom of the order in the ninth. Up by three, he allowed a leadoff double to left to Mendez, then Wojnarowski to single to right, bringing up the tying run with Elks on the corners. Elijah Luckett smashed the ball at Bullock at short, who turned two while Mendez scored, and Snyder completed the ho-hum job with a K to Chris Tanzillo. 6-4 Coons. Nunley 2-3, BB; Carmona 2-4, RBI; Borg (PH) 1-1; Delgado (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Bullock (PH) 1-1;

Ricky Ohl is now 5-0 on the season. Maybe he will reach 16 wins before Gutierrez does?

Game 3
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – 2B Gura – LF A. Torres – CF Coca – SS Calfee – RF Chaplin – C Holliman – 1B Luckett – P Becker
POR: LF Spencer – CF Borg – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 2B Otis – 3B Bullock – SS Jurek – P Roberts

Two walks and three wild pitches – that was the Elks' loot in the second inning of an absolutely off-the-rails Mark Roberts, who couldn't have found the zone if his life had depended on it. Somehow, the Elks even left the second runner on base, scoring only once on the myriad of wild pitches, and the Raccoons levelled the score in the bottom 2nd, Alfaro singling home Gonzalez after the latter's leadoff double. Those two base hits were the only ones of their kind through five innings in the game, because Roberts was so wild that the Elks couldn't hope to hit him, and the Coons were not really having their tails on fire at this point.

Roberts turned away Becker, Morales, and Gura on five pitches in the sixth inning, giving some seriousness to his no-hit bid, only to have it broken up on Alex Torres' leadoff double into left-center at the start of the seventh inning. Torres stole third base in the inning, and still was left there amid two pop outs, a walk to Chaplin, and finally a K to pinch-hitter Matt Anton. Now, contrary to popular belief, the Raccoons were still batting in their halves of innings. Gonzalez and Alfaro both had 2-out singles in the bottom 7th, the first hits for the team since the second inning (and the same players), but Otis grounded out to end the frame. Becker was still around in the bottom 8th, while Roberts had been hauled in after throwing 100 mostly errant pitches through seven innings. Surginer had handled the top 8th, and now Daniel Bullock handled Roberts with a leadoff triple into the gap in right-center! Dustin Jurek flew to deep center, Coca getting there, only to have the ball clonk off his glove for a run-scoring 2-base error, this one breaking the ancient 1-1 tie. Becker collapsed in slow motion then. Nunley batted in the #9 hole, but grounded out. Spencer was walked intentionally, Borg singled. Bases loaded for Tovias, whom Becker lost to a run-scoring walk. And you could almost forgive the Elks for not having a reliever ready, because Becker's pitch count had been low, and the bases-loaded walk was the first time things got REALLY out of control for him here. Gonzalez hit an RBI single to left, and another run scored on Alfaro's grounder when the infielders failed to turn a double play. Abel Mora flew out to end the eighth, with the Coons handing a 5-1 lead to Jimmy Lee in the ninth. The damn Elks however started the inning with Torres and Coca legging out a pair of infield singles, getting Snyder engaged in no time, AND in a mess. Calfee struck out. Tom Fitzsimmons struck out. And Holliman grounded one to short to end the game after all. 5-1 Coons. Gonzalez 3-4, 2B, RBI; Alfaro 2-4, 2 RBI; Roberts 7.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K;

It is now also five wins for Kevin Surginer, or in other words, we have two relievers with as many wins as Wasserman and Gutierrez combined, and also tying with Thursday's starter, Jesus Chavez.

Game 4
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – 1B Luckett – LF A. Torres – CF Coca – SS Calfee – RF Wojnarowski – 2B Gura – C Tanzillo – P L. Vasquez
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – SS Bullock – P Chavez

There was little offense in the early innings, and no runs, with the Coons seeing Daniel Bullock reach on an error to begin the bottom 3rd, steal second, make for home on Chavez' single up the middle, and being thrown out at home plate by Coca. No runs were scored through three innings. Chavez would hit another single the next inning, which was impressive in some way, but the inning actually began with singles by Gonzalez and Alfaro. Nunley flew to deep right, but was robbed by Wojnarowski, before Cookie smacked a ball at Ted Gura. For the umpteenth time, the Elks couldn't turn a double play, getting only Alfaro while Gonzalez scored from third base, the first tally of the game. Bullock singled to keep the line moving, and then Chavez' single to left center plated Cookie from second base for a 2-0 lead. Spencer flew out to Wojnarowski to end the inning.

Chavez looked nearly untouchable for six innings, scattering three base hits to no great effect for the Elks, who nevertheless were a threat in the seventh following Tony Coca's leadoff triple into the alley in right-center, and then a walk to Calfee. The tying runs were on the corners when Chavez reached back and to many's surprise, including mine, struck out Wojnarowski and Chaplin before Tanzillo grouned out to Nunley. Chavez made it through seven and two thirds before the power department in the Elks lineup approached the plate as the tying runs after a Raul Mendez single earlier in the inning. Vince D retired Torres on a fly to left to end the eighth, and was tapped for the ninth as well with Snyder having been out the last two days in lengthy appearances, but retired only Coca before complaining of shoulder soreness and leaving the game. This brought in Billy Brotman, who had not appeared in the series so far. Calfee grounded out to short, and a K to Wojnarowski ended the game with a series win! 2-0 Coons. Spencer 2-4, 2B; Chavez 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (6-4) and 2-3, RBI;

The Druid claims that Vince's shoulder is not all that bad and recommends him only to be shut down for a week. Since the All Star break was right upon us, we would perhaps only miss three games on the upcoming weekend, and was not sent packing to the DL.

Raccoons (52-35) vs. Crusaders (42-42) – July 11-13, 2025

The Raccoons were trailing, 4-5, in the season series, which they hadn't won from the Crusaders since 2021. The New Yorkers were a bit the opposite of the Elks, pitching rather well with a pen that was second-best in the CL, a very capable rotation, and the third-fewest runs allowed, but their offense wasn't up to snuff, sitting only ninth in the league, and to make things worse they were also missing a key bat in Sergio Valdez right now.

Projected matchups:
Jack Sander (8-4, 3.36 ERA) vs. Chris Klein (6-6, 2.84 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (2-8, 3.42 ERA) vs. Mike Rutkowski (7-7, 3.96 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (3-5, 2.96 ERA) vs. Ed Hague (9-5, 4.18 ERA)

All righties into the break…!

Game 1
NYC: 1B X. Garcia – CF Douglas – RF Ellis – 3B Schmit – LF Hodgers – 2B S. Walter – SS R. Soto – C Walston – P Klein
POR: 2B Spencer – LF Carmona – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Borg – 3B Nunley – SS Otis – C Delgado – P Sander

The Crusaders ran out a lineup in which every batter was left-handed, with the exception of right-handed Chris Klein and switch-hitter Andy Schmit. Jack Sander was as dead as disco with his first pitch, we assumed, and he drilled Xavier Garcia with the second pitch to pretty much seal his fate. Actually, the Crusaders left Garcia on second base in the inning, ran themselves out of the second inning when Tony Delgado threw out Victor Hodgers trying to steal third base, and didn't score through three innings at all. Unfortunately, neither did the Critters. Top 4th, Nate Ellis' leadoff double rung the bell of doom yet again, with Sander losing Andy Schmit to a walk, and Hodgers to a single up the middle. Bases loaded, nobody out, the Coons kinda got the best result from two-time former Raccoon Shane Walter, who smacked a grounder at Jarod Spencer that the Critters turned for two while Ellis scored from third base. Robby Soto grounded out to short, stranding Andy Schmit on third base, and the damage was limited to a single run in the inning.

That run was the difference through five. The Coons seemed to have a guy on base constantly, and never got that key base hit to drive him in, or they were caught stealing (Cookie in the third) themselves. Cookie hit a leadoff single in the bottom 6th and never got off first base. While Sander hung on to dear life in admirable fashion through the innings, Nunley was the next Critter to come up with a leadoff single in the seventh. This time, Matt Otis followed that up with a looping single over Walter, and the Coons actually had two runners on base with nobody out. Delgado popped out, while Alfaro batted for Sander, hit a ball to the right side, and Walter intercepted it, but dropped it from his glove when he tried to throw to first, costing the Crusaders the play and loading the bases for a 2-for-3 Jarod Spencer with one out. Spencer lined out to Hodgers, who you couldn't run Nunley against, and Cookie went down on strikes to end the inning… Bottom 8th? New leadoff single by Abel Mora! It wasn't enough that they weren't scoring, but they had to be teasing about it, too! Blake Doering had pinch-hit in the top 8th and had replaced Walter at second base, but not even he could get to Gonzalez' liner into shallow right that put a second Coon aboard with nobody out. Greg Borg flew out to center, runners holding. Nunley grounded out to Soto, but the shortstop had to come in and this allowed the runners to advance into scoring position. Nevertheless, Matt Otis grounded easily to the sure-handed Doering, who's casual throw to first base rammed a dagger deep into the hearts of … Crusaders fans everywhere, because the throw was wild, past Garcia, and the Coons scored the tying and go-ahead runs on the error! Even the home crowd stared in baffled disbelief before remembering to cheer after like ten seconds. Chris Klein was biting hard into his glove before disemboweling Tony Delgado for a vicious, inning-ending strikeout.

Of course, we hadn't earned or deserved that win, and we didn't get it. Jonathan Snyder came into the ninth, allowed a single to PH Nick Shaffer, a double to Pat Walston, balked in the tying run, and walked Tom McWhorter in the #9 hole before being forcefully removed for Billy Brotman. Too bad that Billy wouldn't throw strikes, either, allowed the go-ahead run to score on Garcia's sac fly, and then waved around another run with a walk to Ellis and a Schmit single. Bottom 9th, nominal appearance by the tying run with two outs after Steve Casey walked Cookie Carmona. Mora grounded out to short. 4-2 Crusaders. Spencer 2-5; Gonzalez 2-4; Otis 2-3, BB; Sander 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K;

Oh look, Chris Klein won anyway!

Nine ****ing singles, nine ****ing runners left on base. Booze!

BOOZE!!

Game 2
NYC: 1B X. Garcia – CF Douglas – RF Ellis – 3B Schmit – SS McWhorter – LF Hodgers – 2B S. Walter – C Walston – P Rutkowski
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – SS Bullock – P Wasserman

Oh, Omar! Alfaro not only kept Wasserman in one piece in the first inning after a 2-out single by Nate Ellis and two clueless walks on nine total pitches to Schmit and McWhorter by spearing Victor Hodgers' spiked drive to deep right, he also gave the Raccoons a lead in the bottom 2nd with a 2-run homer to right, collecting Jon Gonzalez on the way. The Crusaders went down in order in the second, third, and fourth innings, but Shane Walter would get them started with a single up the middle to begin the fifth. Pat Walston dropped a soft single into left, and suddenly the tying runs were on for New York and soon bunted into scoring position, although Wasserman walked Xavier Garcia anyway, giving Lance Douglas a full arrangement of runners with one out. Omar Alfaro had no chance to defend the bases-loaded walk Douglas drew, and Nate Ellis tied the game with a sac fly to Cookie before Schmit grounded out to Spencer.

Wasserman got nicked by Rutkowski in the bottom 5th, which pushed Daniel Bullock and his 1-out walk into scoring position, although there was nothing left to score once Spencer grounded to McWhorter for a double play. The slim chance for the playoffs the Raccoons had was increasingly running away from them because they wouldn't convert gifts like this into runs… Next inning, next chance, with Rukowski shoveling the bases full with one out, walking Mora and Nunley with a Gonzalez single in between. Alfaro popped out, Cookie flew out to Ellis, nobody scored. Well, the Crusaders scored, in the eighth inning, an unearned run resulting from Ricky Ohl allowing a single to Ellis (who was run for by Robby Soto), hitting McWhorter, and then Bullock farted on the 2-out grounder that Billy Brotman got from Blake Doering to allow Soto to score from third base. Bottom 9th, Nunley hit a leadoff single against Steve Casey to become the tying run aboard. Alfaro whiffed. Cookie K'ed. Greg Borg flew out to left. 3-2 Crusaders. Gonzalez 2-4, 2B; Nunley 2-3, BB, 2B; Wasserman 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 4 K;

Well, that sucked. Sucked it more than Friday's game? Do I really want to mull over that?

But with the gap to the Titans now at 7 1/2 games, and the Coons playing increasingly crummy, it was probably a good time to bury all the false hopes.

Game 3
NYC: 1B X. Garcia – C Leal – 3B Schmit – RF Ellis – SS McWhorter – 2B Doering – LF Douglas – CF Shaffer – P Hague
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – SS Bullock – P Gutierrez

Three hits and two errors plated three runs for the Raccoons in a mess of a first inning. Spencer reached on an error to begin with, and Mora, Tovias, and Alfaro had the RBI base knocks. Mora also doubled in Daniel Bullock and his leadoff walk in the second inning, giving the rarely richly run-endowed Rico a 4-0 edge in the early going. It wasn't 4-0 for long, though; Xavier Garcia hit a triple in the third inning and was brought in by Armando Leal's single over Bullock, inching the Crusaders a run closer, and they scored two more runs in the fourth inning, which started with McWhorter and Doering singles, creating a quagmire from which Gutierrez could hardly disentangle himself from, allowing three hits and a walk in total in the inning and leaving the score at 4-3 for the moment. When the Coons were done with stranding Bullock in scoring position in the bottom 4th, Leal's leadoff jack tied the game in the fifth.

Jon Gonzalez got the intentional walk in the bottom 5th after a 1-out Abel Mora double. The Crusaders seemed to be banking on the slow Nunley giving them a room service double play, but for once were mistaken as Nunley instead peppered a fastball over the rightfield fence to break the tie and bring Portland in front again, 7-4. The inning continued with a Cookie single with two outs, a stolen base, and then an intentional walk to Bullock, although Gutierrez was on 105 messy pitches and readily hit for in this spot. Matt Otis flew out to end the threat. Would this homer stand up? The Crusaders put pairs on base in the sixth against Jimmy Lee, and in the seventh against Lee and Kevin Surginer, but couldn't break through. Hess walked Nick Shaffer in the eighth and allowed a scorched liner to Victor Hodgers, but Spencer leapt and spared that one right at the apex of his jump. The beautiful plan was for Hess to retire Garcia to begin the ninth and then hand things to Snyder, but Garcia lined viciously to center for a single and that was that. It was still a 3-run game, but Snyder started with a guy on base now. Leal lined out high to Mora. Schmit flew out deep to Greg Borg in left. Ellis went down on strikes, somehow. 7-4 Coons. Mora 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Tovias 3-4, 2B, RBI; Bullock 1-2, 2 BB;

That was probably too little, too late in this series…

In other news

July 7 – SP Alex Hichez (5-6, 4.92 ERA) is traded from the Loggers to the Condors for two prospects.
July 7 – The Miners acquire SP Mel Lira (8-6, 4.46 ERA) from the Warriors for #65 prospect SP Ben Darr.
July 8 – ATL CL Jarrod Morrison (1-6, 3.27 ERA, 22 SV) nails down his 400th career save in securing a 4-3 win over the Bayhawks. Morrison, a 3-time All Star and 39 years old, is 101-86 with a 2.84 ERA for his career, having made 1,186 appearances for four different teams, striking out 1,164 batters in the process.
July 9 – OCT 1B/LF/RF Luke Davis (.260, 1 HR, 18 RBI) opens the Thunder-Aces game with a triple for the first and only Thunder hit in the game. The Aces clinch a 6-0 victory with shortstop Andres Medina (.229, 9 HR, 41 RBI) going 4-for-5 with 5 RBI.
July 10 – The Buffaloes walk off against the Capitals in the truest sense of the word, drawing four walks in the bottom of the 13th inning from WAS MR Pat Selby (2-5, 4.22 ERA, 2 SV) for a 2-1 victory.
July 13 – TIJ SP Jeff Little (4-6, 4.40 ERA) is going to miss the rest of the month with an oblique strain.
July 13 – Season over for IND SP Jason Clements (3-7, 4.59 ERA). The 33-year-old right-hander is suffering from radial nerve compression.

Complaints and stuff

Do the Titans ever lose? Mostly not.

We have four All Stars, which is more than I would have had expected, although the selections were sure to cause some stir in the clubhouse. Mark Roberts was selected, which is a defensible move. Jon Gonzalez, hum. I would love an All Star first baseman to have more than nine homers at the break. But then we also had two relievers selected, and these didn't include Billy Brotman or Jonathan Snyder, but were Ricky Ohl and Vince D (who would not be able to pitch due to injury).

Ricky Ohl, really?

The Titans have only five All Stars, so they aren't really overrepresented.

Tim Stalker started a rehab assignment on Friday, and could rejoin the team in time for the post-ASG series in Elktown, BC.

By the middle of the week, we had signed three international amateurs, a more defensive-minded shortstop and two starting pitchers, both right-handed. The interesting pieces, however, were still being negotiated over. The asking price on one particular pitcher, left-hander Izzy Chavez, a 17-year-old from the Dominican, was approaching half a million fast, which would obviously blow us through the soft cap, and we were still after another right-handed pitcher, Raffaello Sabre from Venezuela.

Fun Fact: The Titans scored more than three runs in only five of their 13 contests in July. They have still won ten of them.

Yeah, we got nothing, I fear…

I played this week over three days because every laptop I flick on heats up like an oven and I have my paws on it...

And here is Carl with the weather: four weeks of crippling heat will end later today in a fantastic storm that might just as well cleanse humanity from this part of the land. For all I care… as long as temperatures return to civil amounts, I am fine with the mother of all storms…

[Westheim]

Seriously, how do you make this team better? The pitching is nearly flawless, as good as you can normally hope to have. But even the offense has stopped being at just-kill-me level more than a month ago. Could they score more runs? They damn hell yes could. But the shortstop position aside perhaps there is hardly a spot where you can drop in a Ron Alston type of player and sound the horn for a charge on the Titans. True, true; Cookie isn't exactly setting the world on fire. If you really want to do something, find a left-handed slugger to drop into the outfield mix.

Of course there is the latent and long-standing problem of every slugger dropped into the mix in Portland stopping to slug immediately. Just ask Jon Gonzalez, who hit 24 bombs even with the Bayhawks, barely matched that output last season, and doesn’t look like he will come close this year…

All Star Game

While the Scorpions' Pablo Sanchez is named the MVP of the All Star Game, his Federal League team falls to the Continental League All Stars, 3-0. Sanchez picks up two hits and two walks, but that is already a good chunk of the FL's total output. The Thunder's Dave Garcia plates VAN Alex Torres with a sac fly in the first inning for the winning run. Ruben Luna of the Knights hits a home run.

In terms of Raccoons making their presence felt, Mark Roberts pitched a scoreless inning and struck out three, while Jon Gonzalez went 0-for-2 after starting on first base. Ricky Ohl pitched two thirds of an inning, allowing two base hits. Vince Devereaux was injured and could not take part in the contest.

Raccoons (53-37) @ Canadiens (39-50) – July 17-20, 2025

Back to the business end of the game, the Raccoons had to travel to hostile territory to face the damn Elks, whom they had beaten three out of four in Portland the previous week and were 5-3 against overall this season, which was also as many wins as they had managed in all of 2024 against them. Vancouver still had bad pitching, unsurprisingly, now sitting tenth in runs allowed and bullpen ERA, and 11th in starters' ERA. Their offense ranked fifth, with a -65 run differential.

Projected matchups:
Jack Sander (8-4, 3.24 ERA) vs. Antonio Muniz (4-9, 4.44 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (4-5, 3.17 ERA) vs. Bryce Sudar (4-6, 3.46 ERA)
Mark Roberts (10-4, 2.51 ERA) vs. Fernando Estrada (4-4, 4.77 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (2-8, 3.36 ERA) vs. Greg Becker (4-6, 4.26 ERA)

There is as usual some guesswork involved in getting their rotation straight for this series, but we expect both of their left-handers, Muniz and Becker, to appear against us.

Game 1
POR: LF Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Borg – 2B Otis – 3B Nunley – SS Bullock – P Sander
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – 1B Luckett – LF A. Torres – CF Coca – RF Wojnarowski – 2B Gura – SS Ra. Mendez – C Tanzillo – P A. Muniz

Matt Otis taking ball four with the bases loaded pushed a run across in the first inning for Portland, although Matt Nunley was then called out looking at strike three to end the inning before things could really snowball. Speaking of snowballing innings, the bottom 1st really looked like a disaster in the making for Sander, who drilled Elijah Luckett and had a second runner put on base by a Nunley error, but somehow the Elks left runners in scoring position in the inning. They didn't in the third inning, though, which saw a 2-out string of base hits with a Luckett single, Alex Torres RBI double, and then a 2-run homer to left center by Tony Coca. Down 3-1, the Raccoons could hardly have done less to get back into the game. While Sander somehow made it through the middle innings, the Raccoons got consecutive base hits from Matt Otis in the fourth and seventh innings. The fourth-inning single was incinerated by Nunley hitting into a double play (good game for Nunley…), but the second time around he managed to get a ball over the head of Raul Mendez for another single. Two on, no outs, and Daniel Bullock at the plate, which was not your prototypical threat. Alfaro batted for him and flew out to left, and then Delgado batted for Sander and bounced to Mendez for a double play. Elias Tovias hit into a double play in the eighth, and while Greg Borg drew a ninth-inning walk off Ivan Morales to bring up the tying run for the 25th time, neither Otis nor Nunley could get the ball to fall in anymore. 3-1 Canadiens. Mora 2-4; Otis 2-3, BB, RBI;

As far as hapless losses go, this one was pretty amazing. We had seven hits to their six. Our hits all were singles. They had four for extra bases, stole three bases, and generally ran circles around us.

**** it, Coons, GET YOUR **** TOGETHER!!

They didn't get their **** together on Friday, however, which saw steady rain and a postponement into a Saturday double header. Both teams stuck to their starters for the opener.

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – SS Bullock – P Gutierrez
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – 1B Luckett – LF A. Torres – CF Coca – SS Calfee – RF Chaplin – C Holliman – 2B Gura – P Sudar

The Raccoons again scored a run in the first, this time on a sac fly by Nunley to center, before leaving the bases loaded. Only Jarod Spencer had an actual base hit in the inning, singling to open the game. Mora walked, Gonzalez got nicked, Alfaro walked, but Cookie grounded out to the keystone schreck, Ted Gura. It took the Elks even less to flip the score this time, with Gutierrez issuing a leadoff walk to Tony Coca in the second, soon followed by Ryan Holliman's homer to left-center after consecutive strikeouts to John Calfee and Mike Chaplin. The next few innings rekindled the bad memories of Thursday, with Jon Gonzalez drawing a leadoff walk in the third and Nunley smacking right into a double play afterwards, but desperate times would bring out the real heroes and their desperate measures: in the top of the fifth inning, Jarod Spencer uncorked a leadoff jack to leftfield, tying the score at two with his first homer this season, and his fourth overall in almost 2,000 major league plate appearances. And that wasn't all. Suddenly Sudar lacked sharpness – okay, he had lacked that from the beginning, sitting on four walks and one strikeout – and was taken deep right away again by Abel Mora, giving Portland a 3-2 lead. Sudar lost Tovias to a walk, then conceded a Gonzalez single. Nunley smacked one up the middle out of the reach of Gura's sticky fingers, and the ball went into centerfield for an RBI single. Nope, the dork to hit into a double play would turn out to be Cookie, ending the inning with a grounder to Gura and leaving the score at 4-2 against the shaking and shaken Sudar.

In a perfect world, Rico Gutierrez would have held on to the lead for a bit longer, but this was not a perfect world, and it was Vancouver precisely, which was as far from perfect as a town could be. Gutierrez fell and couldn't get up again in the sixth inning, issuing walks to Jonathan Morales and Alex Torres before throwing a 2-out wild pitch and getting incinerated on Coca's game-tying 2-run double to right-center, and then Calfee's 2-run homer that put the disgusting Elks ahead, 6-4. The Coons engorged themselves on another double play in the seventh, this time on Tovias, and generally looked like losers through and through not only after Tony Coca's 2-run homer off Jimmy Lee in the eighth inning. 8-4 Canadiens. Spencer 2-5, HR, RBI; Mora 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Gonzalez 1-1, 2 BB;

But we made them use four relievers in this game! Now we have them RIGHT where we wanted them all along! (fires half-empty Capt'n Coma bottle shattering against the apartment wall)

Game 3
POR: LF Borg – 2B Otis – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – C Delgado – SS Bullock – CF Metts – P Roberts
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – 1B Luckett – LF A. Torres – CF Coca – SS Calfee – RF Chaplin – C Tanzillo – 2B Gura – P F. Estrada

If the previous games were anything to go buy, the Coons' two runs on Alfaro's 2-out single through Morales in the first inning where nothing but the kiss of death for yet another game in Elktown. Nunley and Gonzalez scored on the play before Delgado struck out. Roberts didn't implode at first sight, which was progress, and struck out three in the first two innings, which didn't include removing Ted Ghou- eh, Gura from the game with a blazing fastball right into the second baseman's forearm. Tom Fitzsimmons had to replace Gura, who was taken for evaluation. The Elks DID score a run in the third inning, though, which began with clean singles to either flank by Morales and Luckett, putting runners on the corners and allowing Torres to plate Morales with a sac fly to Greg Borg, who brought in a rather weak throw. But Roberts nursed his first-inning lead through three innings, which already made him a prime contender for being our starting pitcher of the week.

While the Raccoons merrily stranded runners on base and hit into double plays (Nunley in the fifth…), Roberts still held on to the 2-1 lead in the bottom 5th when once again and as always everything that possibly could indeed came up tails. In a remarkable sequence that sent me cowering under the couch, the Elks tied the game on an Alex Torres homer (#18 of the year, just sayin'), went ahead on a Tony Coca homer (#17, just sayin'), got Calfee on in a full-count walk, and then got Calfee in on Mike Chaplin's line drive homer. Under the couch, I screamed hard enough to lose consciousness for a while, and when I regained that against my will, it was the seventh inning of a 6-3 game, with the Elks' former Coons farmhand Dan Moon standing surrounded by three Raccoons on base and Jon Gonzalez batting with one out. Goddamnit, Jon! Be goddamn useful even ONCE IN YOUR LIFETIME!! I squealed sharply when Gonzalez put a 2-0 pitch in play towards the hot corner. Morales couldn't react quickly enough and the ball went into leftfield for a 2-run single, cutting the gap to 6-5, which saw no improvement anymore in the inning thanks to Alfaro hitting into a fielder's choice and Delgado grounding out to the pitcher.

The Elks were on top of Kevin Surginer, who had replaced the "All Star" Roberts in the fifth inning, in the bottom 7th. A single and walk posed a 2-out threat, with Billy Brotman coming on to face the left-handed pinch-hitter Brian Wojnarowski, who walked in a full count. Another full count occurred to Morales at the top of the order with the bags now full, but Morales struck out. The Coons did absolutely nothing in the eighth, but the ****ing Elks did. Luckett's leadoff walk off Brotman was to get them going, and Vince Devereaux conceded an RBI triple to Coca and a run-scoring groundout to Calfee to restore a 3-run deficit. Not that it mattered, with Ivan Morales retiring the top of the order 1-2-3 in the ninth… 8-5 Canadiens. Otis 2-5; Gonzalez 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Bullock 2-4, 2B, RBI;

The smothered and squished Raccoons activated Tim Stalker from his rehab assignment for Sunday, while deleting Dwayne Metts (.115 and 0-for-4 in this game) from the roster.

Game 4
POR: LF Spencer – 2B Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – C Delgado – 3B Bullock – P Wasserman
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – 2B Gura – LF A. Torres – CF Coca – SS Calfee – 1B Myles – RF Luckett – C Tanzillo – P Becker

Thanks to Abel Mora's double play grounder that erased Spencer and his leadoff single, the Raccoons would not score in the opening inning for the first time in the series. GOOD. PROGRESS! While Wasserman retired the first eight Elks before inexplicably walking Becker on four pitches, the Coons had another double play by Bullock in the third inning, which cost run(s) there given that the Coons came up with 2-out singles by Wasserman and Spencer AFTER that. Otis would eventually ground out to short to strand those pesky runners. On to the fourth, where Mora and Gonzalez went to the corners with a pair of soft singles to begin the frame. Alfaro grounded to short, Calfee to Gura, to Adan Myles, double play! GODDAMNIT!! Never mind that Mora scored on the play, the first run in the game, but STOP HITTING THE BALL TO THE ****ING SHORTSTOP!! Tim Stalker wouldn't hit the ball to the ****ing shortstop, instead belting a 2-out homer to increase the lead to 2-0, but the feeling of inescapable doom and getting swept in hostile territory only got worse in the fifth inning when Graham Wasserman hit a solo homer off Becker.

Wasserman also held on to a no-hitter for a notable amount of time, but had it broken up by Morales with a 2-out single in the sixth inning, only the second runner for the damn Elks. Gura struck out, the fourth trophy on Wasserman's belt in this game, and his pitch count was in good shape, too, through six. About all of this changed in the seventh inning, which saw Torres draw a leadoff walk, Coca getting nicked, and Calfee leg out an infield single, all with nobody out. Raul Mendez – injury replacement for Adan Myles – lined out to Bullock at the hot corner to keep all runners pinned for the moment, while the Coons conceded a run on Luckett's grounder to the right side, Calfee being forced out at second base while Torres scored, 3-1. Chris Tanzillo singled to right, plating another run, before Becker struck out to finally end the dismal inning with a 3-2 score. The Elks knocked Wasserman out with Morales' leadoff single in the bottom 8th, bringing on Vince D instead. Another liner to Bullock, a soaring fly to Alfaro, and a grounder to Otis, and somehow the Raccoons made it out of the inning with the lead. Maybe an insurance run in the ninth? How about …? No, Greg Becker told them to get out, lining himself up for a complete-game loss unless the Elks' 5-6-7 batters could upend Jonathan Snyder, which was not unheard of. Snyder retired the first two before Elijah Luckett singled to center, but Tanzillo couldn't catch up with the fastballs and struck out, allowing the Coons to barely scratch by a sweep. 3-2 Coons. Spencer 3-4; Wasserman 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (3-8) and 2-3, HR, RBI;

Of course the Raccoons' chances in the division were murdered anyway in this series…

In other news

July 15 – In a visible move of giving up, the Blue Sox trade SP Juan Muniz (7-11, 2.87 ERA) to the Warriors for vaunted #9 prospect SP Chris Pyles.
July 16 – The Loggers acquire RF/1B/2B Ivan Flores (.296, 6 HR, 46 RBI) from the Cyclones in exchange for RF/LF Danny Munn (.216, 2 HR, 8 RBI) and a prospect they only picked up nine days earlier in the Alex Hichez trade.
July 17 – The Thunder add pitching with Denver's SP Mike Cavallin (6-6, 4.02 ERA), for whom they trade a prospect to the Gold Sox.
July 18 – BOS SP Jeremy Waite (4-8, 3.43 ERA) unfurls a 1-hit shutout against the Indians, claiming an 8-0 victory. Indy's lone hit is a pinch-hit single by John Staebell (.264, 2 HR, 18 RBI) to lead off the ninth inning.
July 19 – A solo home run by PIT C/1B J.J. Henley (.307, 16 HR, 66 RBI) in the 17th inning is the difference in the Miner's 7-6 win over the Rebels.
July 20 – NYC SP Mike Rutkowski (8-7, 3.69 ERA) heads to the DL with a torn meniscus and will probably only return towards the end of the season.
July 20 – For the second time in their 4-game series, the Indians amount only to one hit, this time by Mike Green (.201, 6 HR, 25 RBI), against the Titans' Morgan Shepherd (13-1, 2.50 ERA), who claims the 6-0 victory, and Jose Fuentes (3-1, 3.45 ERA).

Complaints and stuff

(screams incoherently) DAAAH!! ****ING … ****… THE DAMN … ELKS … WAAAACKK …!! (waves with both arms, howling, until Maud brings Honeypaws for comfort)

(squeezes the stuffed toy raccoon tightly while slowly rocking back and forth)

(sigh)

Season over, by the way. No need to dole out prospects for "improvements" like Terry Kopp. Has anybody seen Terry Kopp lately?

The postponement on Friday and double header on Saturday will not seriously throw us into disarray, because we will have the day off on Monday and can rearrange the rotation at our leisure. The road trip continues next week into Milwaukee and Oklahoma City. More grueling travel in August, by the way, where the Raccoons will only have nine home games, and no more than three in a row, playing the Falcons at home at the start of the month, then a 3-game set against the Capitals from the 18th to the 20th, and three against the Condors right at the end of the month, travelling in between.

We signed the last player we really wanted in the IFA period, much-hunted Izzy Chavez. The Izzy stands for Isidoro, I am told, but we are still waiting to collect all the documents on him. Oh I'm sure it's gonna be fine.

SP Izzy Chavez - $640k - SIGNED
SP Raffaello Sabre - $162k - SIGNED
SP Melvin Ortíz - $96k - SIGNED
SS Miguel Ortíz - $21k - SIGNED
SP Jesus Barajas - $11k - SIGNED
TOTAL Spent $930k

We have obviously blasted through the soft cap here, which was $423,200, meaning that we also had to fork over another $506,800 in tax, bringing the total expenditures to a daunting $1.44M. We will not be able to sign any player for more than roughly $36k next season. I claim that the money was well invested; Chavez is rated a 20 stuff by OSA.

NEXT JONNY TONER??

Fun Fact: Graham Wasserman's home run on Sunday was the third of his career, the other two coming years ago during his Bayhawks days.

You know where this is going, right? Wasserman's first career homer came against then-Condor Casey Hally in 2018, but on May 26, 2021, the Raccoons were playing a rubber game at the Bay where Hector Santos (his last season as a Critter) in the second inning allowed a double to Errol Spears, a single to Tyler Gooch, and then hit Gerardo Gonzalez, eventually pulling up Wasserman with the bases loaded before presenting him with a ball on a stick. Wasserman's grand slam caused some mild depression and was also the eventual margin of victory (8-4) for San Francisco.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (54-40) @ Loggers (44-47) – July 22-24, 2025

The Raccoons were mostly out of it by now, the Loggers had been for some time; it was another sad late-July series in Milwaukee. The Loggers sat tenth in runs scored in the CL, and their seventh rank in runs allowed didn't exactly propel them forwards. The season series stood at 7-2 in the Coons' favor, which put them two wins away from not losing the season series to the Loggers for 12 years in a row.

Projected matchups:
Jack Sander (8-5, 3.30 ERA) vs. Ian Prevost (4-8, 3.45 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (6-4, 3.98 ERA) vs. Vincent Alfaro (7-8, 3.11 ERA)
Mark Roberts (10-5, 2.77 ERA) vs. Jonathan Toner (6-7, 4.93 ERA)

Maybe saddest of all in this series would be Jonny Toner again, winner of two straight games (both over the Crusaders) and still a hopeless wreck. He beat New York his last time out in an 8-1 rush, while walking NINE batters. No Raccoons starter has ever walked nine batters in a game. Before that, however, he pitched a complete game before the All Star Game on five hits, two runs, three walks, and six strikeouts. This would be his fourth appearance against Portland this season; he was 0-2 with a 7.88 ERA against the Coons.

All their starters were scheduled to be right-handers.

Game 1
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF O. Alfaro – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Sander
MIL: SS Ferrer – RF Stevenson – 1B Tadlock – LF W. Trevino – CF Coleman – 3B A. Velez – 2B I. Flores – C A. Baker – P Prevost

Two Raccoons hit into a double play in the first inning; Elias Tovias did so to end the top 1st, while former Raccoons centerfielder Josh Stevenson hit into a double play in the bottom 1st to clean up Sander's leadoff walk to Manny Ferrer. There was some more early ineptitude, like Jon Gonzalez hitting a leadoff double in the second and being stranded, but the abyss opened only in the third inning, which Jack Sander used to not only walk the bases loaded with one out, but then walked Stevenson with the bases loaded, conceded two on Ron Tadlock's single to left, and after Willie Trevino grounded into a force at second base, walked Ian Coleman to reload the sacks. Alberto Velez dropped a single in front of the onrushing Alfaro, who came too late as another two runs scored, and somehow Ivan Flores swung over a 1-2 pitch in the dirt to finally end the dismal inning that put the Raccoons into a 5-0 hole they were not likely to emerge from. Sander definitely didn't, leaving the game in the fourth inning with an injury after Elias Tovias had knocked a 2-run homer in the top of the fourth, and after a leadoff single by Adam Baker in the inning. Kevin Surginer and Daniel Bullock came on in a double switch that would not give the Coons much relief. Prevost's bunt was fielded for an error by Nunley, Manny Ferrer hit a 2-run double up the line in leftfield, and Stevenson singled through the clumsy Bullock. Nobody out! The Loggers would score three runs in this inning, then further down the road scored three runs on Jimmy Lee between the sixth and seventh innings, including a 2-piece by Trevino in the sixth. The Raccoons scored some stray runs throughout the massacre, with Jarod Spencer involved in most of them, but they never came close to challenging again in a real thrashing. 11-5 Loggers. Spencer 3-5, 2B, RBI; Mora 1-2, BB; Tovias 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Otis (PH) 1-1; Delgado (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Somehow, we stole four bases in this game, and it didn't really help us get anywhere…

The Druid came back the next day reporting that Jack Sander had strained an oblique and would probably miss his next start, but no any more. Which was surprising given that I had already tied him a noose after walking six and allowing as many runs in 3+ innings.

We had another off day next Monday, but of course Sander's next turn would be Sunday. Somehow we had to sneak a spot starter onto the roster or send Chavez on short rest on Sunday. And Chavez was not a pleasure on regular rest to begin with.

Speaking of Chavez…

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF O. Alfaro – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Chavez
MIL: SS Ferrer – RF Stevenson – 1B Tadlock – LF W. Trevino – CF Coleman – 3B A. Velez – 2B March – C A. Baker – P V. Alfaro

Spencer walked, stole second, and scored in the opening half-inning, singled home by Jon Gonzalez with two outs; Gonzalez notched his 46th RBI in this spot, fervently trying to defend his team lead from the relentlessly challenging Abel Mora, and no, there was no sarcasm involved here AT ALL. Tim Stalker extended the lead to 2-0 with a homer in the second inning, but Chavez blew it all in the bottom 2nd without much effort on Trevino's leadoff double and Alberto Velez' RBI single getting the Loggers halfway – which was something that could happen any given run through the lineup – then allowed 2-out singles to Adam Baker and, more infuriatingly, Vincent Alfaro for the tied score, 2-2, which drove me up the wall again.

Nothing major happened in the next few innings, although while the Raccoons were rightfully anemic and could hardly get the ball out of the infield, the Loggers did hit some deep flies, although without exception to an outfielder until the sixth inning when Velez tripled to deepest centerfield, but that was with two outs and Mora had no trouble with Dan March's easy fly to end the inning, still in a 2-2 tie. The Coons didn't see scoring position again until the eighth, in which Spencer reached on an error, Gonzalez doubled, but Alfaro stranded them by grounding out to short. Chavez completed eight innings to at least receive a no-decision (but got his pitch count over 100, making a short-rest start on Sunday the more unlikely), but the Coons - … no, the Loggers manufactured a chance for giving Chavez the win in the top of the ninth as ex-Coon Joe Moore hit Stalker with one out in the ninth, Baker was charged with a passed ball, and they walked the struggling Cookie to put another guy aboard. Otis grounded out to Tadlock in Chavez' spot, Spencer grounded out to short, and the Coons left runners on second and third for the second straight inning. Justin Hess got the game into extras by retiring the Loggers in order in the bottom 9th.

Moore was still at it in the 10th, allowing leadoff singles up the middle to Mora and Tovias. Jon Gonzalez seemed to be warming up recently, except for the power department. He had in fact not hit a dinger in three weeks, and this would be a wonderful spot. He fouled out behind home plate, Alfaro grounded out, and Moore lost Nunley in a full count to load them up, shifting responsibility to right-hander Brian Gilbert against Stalker, who cracked a single through the left side to break the deadlock. Only one run scored, with Tovias being held in deference to his non-speed, Trevino's arm, and the favorable matchup with Cookie, who nevertheless flew out to Stevenson in centerfield. Fortunately, the Loggers went down in order against Snyder, who got Baker to ground out to short, then whiffed Flores and Ferrer. 3-2 Raccoons. Gonzalez 2-5, 2B, RBI; Stalker 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Chavez 8.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K;

The Loggers whirled up their rotation after this one and evacuated Toner from the Thursday game. Instead, the Raccoons would see left-hander Jody Loughran (0-2, 5.14 ERA).

Game 3
POR: LF Spencer – 2B Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – SS Stalker – RF Borg – 3B Nunley – C Delgado – P Roberts
MIL: SS Ferrer – CF Coleman – 1B Tadlock – RF W. Trevino – C A. Baker – 3B A. Velez – 2B Stevenson – LF Berntson – P Loughran

Spencer scored again in the first, albeit aided by Loughran's balk that moved him to third base ahead of Abel Mora's groundout to Stevenson, who still looked weirdly misplaced at the keystone. Like on Wednesday, the Coons got a second run in the second inning, this time Nunley plating Stalker with a sac fly. Mark Roberts had two men on base in the bottom 2nd, but pulled through that with Jon Berntson's fly to Borg to end the inning, and lined up a few zeroes on the board to begin his day's work. But through five innings the Coons also only had two base hits, so they weren't exactly pounding Loughran. The sixth began with Spencer reaching on an error by Berntson, then an Otis single to right, sending Spencer to third base. Mora hit a neat drive to deep left, but Berntson had that one secured, although Spencer still scored on the play to make it 3-0. The big blow didn't come until the following inning though, when Greg Borg hit a leadoff single, stole second (to go 9-for-9 this year), then was cashed in regardless by a long Nunley homer to right, 5-0. None of this could however push Roberts to a complete-game shutout, because while he was still nursing a 3-hitter, his pitch count stood at 88 through only six frames. Never mind that he didn't get through the seventh at all. Baker singled, Stevenson walked, Ivan Flores was drilled, and with the bases loaded and two outs, Roberts lost Ferrer on four pitches en route to the showers. Billy Brotman replaced him, couldn't handle Ian Coleman's left-handed bat and surrendered another two runs on a sharp single along the rightfield line before Ron Tadlock flew out to Mora.

At least the Coons found an immediate answer; Otis got on base to lead off the eighth against Gilbert, but got forced by Mora, although that also added speed to score from first base on Gonzalez' double into the rightfield corner, extending the lead again to 6-3. Stalker was a walker, and both runners scored on Nunley's raging double that reached the rightfield corner on the fly with two down, negating the Loggers' 3-spot from the bottom of the previous inning. Another run was added in the ninth on singles by Cookie and Spencer, then Otis' sac fly. 9-3 Raccoons. Spencer 2-5, 2B; Otis 2-3, BB, RBI; Nunley 2-3, HR, 2B, 5 RBI; Carmona (PH) 1-1; Roberts 6.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (11-5);

Raccoons (56-41) @ Thunder (49-47) – July 25-27, 2025

The Thunder were fourth in the South, so two positions worse than the Coons, but were in fact much closer to the playoffs to the Raccoons, sitting six games out compared to the Coons' 8 1/2. Not that the Thunder had a convincing playoff case; while their offense was second only to the Titans' in the Continental League, their pitching was porous, with a bottom-three rotation and a mediocre bullpen, together allowing the fourth-most runs. They did however have an edge over the Coons in '25, holding a 2-1 lead after the first series this year.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (4-6, 3.48 ERA) vs. J.J. Menendez (5-8, 4.19 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (3-8, 3.32 ERA) vs. Andy Palomares (11-6, 3.86 ERA)
TBD vs. Max Nelson (6-5, 3.44 ERA)

Our "TBD" is more likely than not Lance Legleiter (0-0, 0.00 ERA), who will not make his scheduled start in AAA on Saturday. All the Thunder starters here are right-handers, making us miss their pair of southpaws.

Game 1
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Gutierrez
OCT: 3B L. Rivera – SS Serrato – LF Dobbs – CF D. Garcia – 2B Ts'ai – RF Sagredo – C Kubesh – 1B F. Larios – P J.J. Menendez

A walk to Alex Serrato, Brett Dobbs' double, and Zhang-ze Ts'ai's single put Rico Gutierrez in a quick 2-0 hole in the opener, while the Coons engorged themselves only on double plays early on. They had five base hits in the first four innings, all singles, and never reached third base, while Tovias and Nunley were each charged with a double play. Gutierrez got better, but not great, after the rocky start, allowed a run in the fourth, but wasn't routed from the game at least. The Coons' prospects were bleak through five, but they found a way into J.J. Menendez in the sixth inning, with Spencer hitting a leadoff single, getting forced out by Mora, but with two outs Jon Gonzalez homered to right-center, breaking that power drought, and hopefully for good, with his 10th (…) homer of the season, getting the team back to 3-2. Alfaro hit a single after that, but Nunley's drive to deep left was intercepted by Brett Dobbs. Gutierrez was hit for in the seventh inning with Tim Stalker the tying run on second base and one out, but Menendez got Otis to ground out and Spencer to lift one out softly to Dobbs to kill the threat. On to the ninth then, with the score still the same after Ohl and Lee had held on for Portland while the Thunder had used a bevy of relievers in the seventh and eighth before sending in right-hander Jesus Lopez for the ninth, who had a 2.40 ERA and no saves on the season. He was unlikely to get one, given that Omar Alfaro hit a leadoff triple, placing the tying run 90 feet away! Lopez lost Nunley on balls, then with Delgado batting for Stalker threw a wild pitch to get the teams even and place the go-ahead run in scoring position, but there he remained as Delgado whiffed and Cookie and Greg Borg both flew out softly. Gutierrez was spared the loss, which instead hung on Kevin Surginer in the bottom of the inning when Kevin surrendered a leadoff, walkoff jack to Dave Garcia, who his 19th bomb of the season to walk off his team. 4-3 Thunder. Mora 2-4; Gonzalez 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Alfaro 2-4, 3B;

That was Menendez' last outing with the Thunder, who traded him away before the next game, picking up graying 1B Mike Rucker from the Pacifics. Rucker, 38 years old and most well-known for being an all-or-nothing slugger with the Indians, had been batting .271 with five homers in limited action for L.A. so far. For his career, Rucker had 322 homers to go with a .254 average and 1,087 RBI.

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Borg – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – SS Bullock – P Wasserman
OCT: 1B M. Rucker – SS Serrato – C Pizzo – CF D. Garcia – RF Sagredo – 3B Flournoy – LF de Santiago – 2B Ts'ai – P Palomares

In a game properly moisted by an on-and-off drizzle, Wasserman got rushed even harder in the middle game of the series, surrendering base hits to all of the first four batters, culminating in a 3-run homer by Garcia. Dave Flournoy doubled with one out in the bottom 1st, and the Coons walked Ts'ai intentionally with two outs in the inning, only for Wasserman to lose Palomares on four pitches. Alfaro contained a Rucker fly with the bases loaded to finally end the miserable inning. Base hits by Mike Pizzo and Luis Sagredo in the second were answered by Flournoy with a 3-run homer to left-center, and Wasserman found himself on the way to the showers after that, surrendering seven earned runs in just 1.2 innings. That was pretty much the story of this game, with Palomares surrendering only a few scattered singles in his outing, while the Coons had to resort to much-abused Kevin Surginer for long relief again. Surginer loaded them up in the fourth, with ex-Logger Carlos de Santiago contributing a 2-out, 2-run single to run the tally to 9-0. Alfaro drove in a 2-out run in the sixth inning, plating Greg Borg with a single, but that didn't exactly get the Thunder to break a sweat for Palomares. De Santiago pulled that rally run back with a leadoff jack off Justin Hess in the bottom 7th, and the Coons put Ts'ai on third base with two errors after that. Vince D, who had replaced Hess, made an error on Ts'ai's grounder, and when Ts'ai tried to nip second base with a 9-run lead, Tovias' throw was wild and went into centerfield. Mike Rucker singled in that run, which was thoroughly unearned and had Ts'ai on the shortlist for a beanball on Sunday. The Thunder had Palomares go all the way in this game, and he completed the contest on 115 pitches, but not without blowing the Thunder's double-digit lead. Well, they still won by nine, but Daniel Bullock's 2-out single in the ninth chased home Gonzalez to REALLY make it close once more. Dustin Jurek then struck out, with the tying run just having lined up about two blocks from home plate. 11-2 Thunder. Gonzalez 2-4; Mora (PH) 1-1;

This gruesome loss knocked the Coons into a double-digit value in terms of games back relative to the Titans. They had probably already been killed off by the Elks the previous week…

We made a roster move for the Sunday game to get spot starter Lance Legleiter onto the roster. Greg Borg was sent to AAA; he was an odd choice, but also the only player that a) had an option, AND b) had already used the option this season. Borg would be back soon, but daddy needed a starter right now…

Game 3
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Legleiter
OCT: 3B L. Rivera – SS Serrato – LF Branch – CF D. Garcia – RF Sagredo – C Pizzo – 1B M. Rucker – 2B Ts'ai – P Nelson

Dave Garcia never came to the plate in the game, breaking his foot on a jumping catch on Matt Nunley's 2-out drive in the first inning. Frank Larios replaced him. The Raccoons still broke out in the second inning, piling a 4-spot on "Doppler" Nelson, who allowed a single to Alfaro, nicked Stalker, but didn't bleed until with two outs. Spencer hit an RBI double to right, and Abel Mora conquered the fence for a 3-piece to re-tie Jon Gonzalez for the team RBI lead with 49. The Thunder went down in order in the first against Legleiter, had a Sagredo single in the second, and had Nelson with a single and Rivera getting plunked in the third inning, but after Alex Serrato flew out to Alfaro, Ezra Branch smacked into a double play to keep them off the board against the short-staminaed Legleiter, who needed 48 pitches through three. Bottom 5th, Ts'ai drew a 1-out walk, followed by Legleiter throwing a wild pitch. That took the bunt off Nelson, who instead singled over Stalker's head to put runners on the corners. Rivera's grounder to Nunley was the second out, but Ts'ai scored, ending Legleiter's string of 10.1 scoreless innings to begin a Coons career. Serrato grounded out to Spencer, keeping it at 4-1 through five, with Legleiter over 80 pitches, which didn't bode well for a team that had to find 6.1 innings in their pen the previous day. At least Monday was a day off…

Legleiter got one more out, although he could have maybe gotten through the sixth inning if not for Alfaro dropping a Branch fly for an error to begin the frame. Larios flew out to center, but that brought up three left-handed bats against a tiring righty, so Brotman came on and notched a double play from Luis Sagredo to dissolve the threat, then hung around to pitch all of the seventh, ultimately logging five outs on just nine pitches before being hit for in the top 8th. This put the Coons, still up 4-1 after a Cookie single and Spencer double play in the eighth, in a position to finish the game with two relatively rested relievers in Ohl and Snyder without bothering the parched part of the pen again. Ricky Ohl did his part well in the bottom 8th, retiring John Kubesh on a fly to left, Lorenzo Rivera on a grounder to short, and Alex Serrato on strikes. Snyder came on for the ninth although the save opportunity had been taken off in the meantime when Elias Tovias hit a solo shot off Mike Tandy in the top of the ninth. Branch grounded out, but Snyder lost Larios in a full count. Sagredo singled through on the right side, with Larios making for third base, being greeted by a deadly laser throw by Omar Alfaro that allowed Nunley to tag him out in a game of inches. That one killed the Thunder for good, with de Santiago pinch-hitting for a flyout to Cookie to end the game. 5-1 Coons. Spencer 2-5, 2B, RBI; Mora 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Tovias 3-4, BB, HR, RBI; Nunley 3-5; Alfaro 2-5; Legleiter 5.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, W (1-0); Brotman 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

We out-hit them 13-4 in this game, but it still remained somewhat close until the end there…

In other news

July 22 – CHA SP Doug Moffatt (7-9, 3.74 ERA) 1-hits the Bayhawks in a 4-0 win, whiffing a staggering 14 batters, including every batter in the San Francisco starting lineup at least once. A second-inning single by San Fran's Roger Allen (.219, 4 HR, 27 RBI) is everything that separates Moffatt from a no-hitter.
July 24 – PIT 1B/OF Bruce Tomlinson (.260, 1 HR, 26 RBI) goes to the DL with a broken wrist, unlikely to return before September.
July 25 – No-hitter! Richmond's SP Todd Wood (7-9, 4.06 ERA) holds the Gold Sox hitless in an 8-0 Rebels win while whiffing six and spilling five bases on balls. The 28-year-old Wood, who missed all of 2023 with injuries and went 10-14 last season, spins the 49th no-hitter in ABL history, and the second in Rebels lore after Roger Weaver's 1984 gem over the Capitals. It is also the first time the Gold Sox are involved on any side of a no-hitter.
July 25 – The Canadiens trade OF/1B Elijah Luckett (.267, 1 HR, 25 RBI) to the Wolves for RF/LF Justin Jenkins (3-for-7, 0 HR, 0 RBI) and a prospect.
July 26 – The Bayhawks acquire Sacramento's C Jaiden Jackson (.303, 6 HR, 30 RBI) for an AAA pitcher and #17 prospect INF Tim Stackhouse.
July 26 – Back stiffness puts SFW C Mike Thompson (.225, 11 HR, 58 RBI) on the DL for the next two weeks.

Complaints and stuff

Dave Garcia had featured in all but two of the Thunder's games this season, but left the ballpark on Sunday with one of those funny boots and on crutches and would probably miss most of August with a broken foot. There is so much Neil Reece to this guy, it's staggering. Will he get into the Hall of Fame? Neil Reece managed on under 2,000 base hits, and Garcia is at 1,587 right now, but overall has been a more elite batter even, with a career .297/.363/.503 slash, 228 HR and 838 RBI. And he is only 30 years old! But without the injuries, the CONSTANT injuries, Garcia could really have been the key position player of his generation. As it stands right now, he is a 9-time All Star, 2-time Player of the Year, and has a batting title and a Gold Glove, too, which is plenty of silverware.

Yeah, it was the Elks series last week that prevented me from shuffling Alberto Ramos for rentals in a vain attempt at catching the uncatchable Titans, which was just as well because we certainly didn't perform like a playoff team this week, either. I half-heartedly tried to find a rental shortstop at the start of the week, but that led nowhere, and by now there is no point in trading up anymore.

There is also no real point in trading down because the overall package isn't terrible. If we could just have gotten the offense to break out earlier. Our power numbers are shocking. And the offense was dead-last for two months, which killed us probably more than losing three of four in Vancouver at a random point of the season, and let's face it, the Coons drop three in a set in Vancouver pretty much every year. It's what they do in Elktown. No point in blaming the Elks specifically for this year's general disappointment, because the team was already in arrears due to the accumulated badness of the first two months.

Better luck next year? Who knows. The core crew will still be around for a while. The only key free agents are Wasserman, who will not be missed after his paw in Saturday's blowout, and Matt Nunley, who can probably convinced that there is more food in Portland than anywhere else and that he should stay around for a decent, but not luxurious salary. It's not like Mike Grigsby is going to lead us to the playoffs any time soon.

Also free agents: Otis, Delgado, Lee, Hess; none of them are likely to be showered with coins for another season.

This week Dan Delgadillo (who you may or may not remember) started a rehab assignment in AAA to see what was left of that arm.

Fun Fact: The Loggers, who are behind in the season series to the Raccoons 9-3 after Thursday's 9-3 rubber game, have not won a season series against the Raccoons since Cookie Carmona's sophomore season and Matt Nunley's September cup of coffee in 2013.

For Nunley, that cup of coffee led into his ROTY season in '14 when he batted .285/.355/.419 with 8 HR and 53 RBI in 146 games. He beat the .774 OPS only twice since then, but he remains a regular 3 to 4 WAR player by other means. In fact, ignoring this season and his '13 cup of coffee, Nunley has been worth at least 2.9 WAR in every season except 2019, when injuries limited him to 107 games and 1.7 WAR. He has almost always been glove-first, but for his career he is still an above-average batter, too, with a .729 career OPS and 106 career OPS+, even though he has not reached either mark in four years.

Nunley is now 34. Depending on how he holds up, he could manufacture a Hall of Fame case fringe enough to survive on the ballot for a few years. The bare minimum for that might be to reach at least 2,000 base hits. He sits at 1,737 right now. Yeah, I know, the Hall of Fame is full of glove-first third baseman…