[Westheim]

Glenn Johnston was diagnosed with shoulder soreness on the way outta Charlotte to Atlanta. Everything was going south, literally. Johnston would be out for three weeks approximately, putting another outfielder on the DL. After batting 3-8 in just two games in AAA, Alejandro Lopez was called up as replacement. He would play for the Raccoons after all, almost 11 years after being drafted second overall by the Coons, and 9 1/2 years after being traded to the Blue Sox in an ill-fated deal that gave us failed centerfielder #88 Raúl Herrera and five “prospects”, of which only one ever appeared for the Coons (OF Ralph Crosby, batting a glorious .138 in 58 AB in 1985).

Lopez was a career .256 batter with 68 home runs between the Blue Sox (1985-1991) and Condors (1991-1992), and of course he also owned two World Series rings from being part of that mid-80s Blue Sox dynasty.

Not hitting or not pitching was one thing. The team being chewed up by mounting injuries was another. We were just grinding by here, stripped of most outfield assets and with the rotation being in so-so mode.

Not that other teams didn’t have it bad, like the Canadiens losing their closer for the year (see below), but so many things were not working at this point that we were sitting right in the middle of the Land of No Joy.

Raccoons (26-23) @ Knights (21-28) – May 31-June 2, 1993

While the Knights’ rotation contained assets like Jesse Carver and Carlos Asquabal, those as well as the rest of the staff had been ravaged so far. They ranked 11th in runs conceded in the Continental League. The offense was not able to match that pace and they had lost four in a row. Asquabal, who was scheduled for game 1, had his worst season of his 13-year career, all with Atlanta: 3-7, 5.92 ERA. He had never, ever, posted an ERA worse than 4.05 in a full season (1983).

Lopez made his Raccoons debut in the opener, as Kisho Saito took on Asquabal. It was a one-sided game. Asquabal, whatever had bothered him so far this year, was not bothered by the raccoony flies that came up and were mowed down with little effort. He was perfect into the fourth, a bid that only ended on a Neil Reece infield single. With two out, Allen doubled, but Kinnear left the then game-tying runs on. Saito was roughed up for seven hits, five for extra bases, including two homers, allowing four runs in six innings. The Raccoons failed to get on the board on their own power, not registering another hit until Higgins doubled leading off the eighth in a 4-0 misery. Lopez was put on intentionally, before Asquabal threw a wild pitch and Jack Jackson mishandled Jose Rodriguez’ grounder for an error, scoring Higgins. O’Morrissey’s 1-out RBI double put the tying runs in scoring position again for a struggling Salazar and Reece. The lefty Salazar, 0-3, was pinch-hit for with Bob Armstrong, who singled past SS Tom Nicks to score another run. And then Reece and Allen left the tying run on third base. Lopez was the tying run in the ninth after a 2-out double, but was left on as well. 4-3 Knights. Armstrong (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Kisho Saito was a wreck at this point. He wasn’t striking out anybody, and he surrendered too much hard contact. That he wasn’t getting even a tiny bit of support in his struggles, amplified his issues into a dismal 2-5 record. Remember that he started the year by winning a pair of 1-0 games. Since then, the Raccoons have lost EVERY SINGLE ONE of his starts – TEN games in total, scoring a total of TWENTY-TWO runs.

**** like that is driving me crazy.

Jason Turner put the first four Knights he faced on base in game 2, falling 2-0 behind in no time. While he certainly didn’t pitch a great game, Turner didn’t allowed another run through his seven innings, but held the Knights in reach for the Raccoons to come back. If they only ever had attempted to come back. The so far beleaguered 2-5 Jesse Carver effortlessly clicked them off, scattering six hits over eight frames of shutout ball. Mike Dye – not the greatest closer of the world – saved the game with a 1-2-3 ninth. 2-0 Knights. Salazar 2-4;

The Raccoons took a wild pitch assisted 1-0 lead in the second inning of game 3, which Scott Wade couldn’t hold on to, and the Knights tied the contest in the bottom 3rd, 1-1. Osanai, who got a start on first base, hit a 2-out RBI single in the fourth for a new lead that lasted just as long. In a 2-2 tie, we had two on and two out in the top 6th with Wade to bat, and Wade was taken out for Mark Allen to pinch-hit. Atlanta’s Jim Harrington moved up the runners with a wild 1-1 pitch, before “Icon” Allen came through with a double off the wall in left center, 4-2 Coons. The lead almost came apart in the seventh, when Christian Proctor dropped the throw from Osanai that would have been the final out of the inning, instead putting two on. Neil Reece barely made a catch on the next fly ball to center. Rain interrupted the game for an hour after that. The bullpen didn’t allow another base runner and held on to a 4-2 win. O’Morrissey 2-4; A. Lopez 2-4, 2B; Rodriguez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Osanai 2-4, RBI; Allen (PH) 1-2, 2B, 2 RBI; Proctor 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

We also signed Bob Arnold on the following off day. The ex-Coon/new-Coon got a 1-yr, $125k contract. He replaced Ortíz on the roster.

Raccoons (27-25) @ Titans (21-33) – June 4-6, 1993

What had happened to the Titans? Nobody really had an answer for that. Their pitching was abysmally bad, but that hadn’t kept them away from playing .500 against us so far this season. We were managing 3.5 R/G against their barely-below-5.00-ERA staff.

Bob Arnold played left in place of a struggling Kinnear in the opener of the series, while Miguel Lopez tried to make it ten. He fell behind in the third on a solo home run by weak-hitting SS Ricardo Vargas. The Raccoons were entirely overwhelmed by Chris O’Keefe and his 5.50 ERA. Down 3-0 in the top 8th, Lopez was pinch-hit for with Kinnear, who singled up the middle into center. O’Keefe walked Salazar and Higgins to give O’Morrissey a prime chance to get Lopez off the hook. O-Mo’s grounder barely made it through Vargas, but two runs scored. Now Neil Reece to tie it up, but he flew out to short right. Alejandro Lopez ended the inning with a grounder to first. A leadoff walk to Arnold to start the ninth was followed by Javier Navarro striking out the side. 3-2 Titans. Salazar 2-3;

Tetsu Osanai was the first K in that top 9th and I had enough. He was waived and designated for assignment after the game, just to send a signal to him that he was not wanted anymore around here. Baldivía was brought back.

It was doubtful though that he understood words like “waiver” and “designated for assignment”. The only words I was sure he understood in English were “burgers” and “six”. Oh, and “million”.

Game 2. It was “Pooky” time while the Coons faced 7.01 ERA champ Santiago Perez. While Beato fell 1-0 behind in the first, the Raccoons struck out to end an inning with runners on the corners not once, not twice, but three times in the first four frames (Allen in the first and third, Salazar in the fourth), while not scoring a lick. A 1-out single by Reece in the fifth sent him and O-Mo into scoring position for Allen, still 1-0 down. Allen didn’t miss Perez’ stuff this time around (and I would have brutally murdered him with a nail clipper if he had) and singled to left for both runs to score and to turn the game around. 2-1 Coons, but not for long. The Titans knocked four straight hits off Beato to start the bottom 5th and took a 4-2 lead. The Coons loaded the bags in the sixth against reliever Michael Brown. Allen flew out to deep right to leave them unscored. Tony Vela was then torn up in the sixth, and the Titans moved the game out of reach. 7-4 Titans, while the Raccoons out-hit them 13-12. Salazar 2-4, BB; Higgins 3-5, 3B, 2B, RBI; Reece 2-3, 2 BB; Rodriguez 2-4; Jin 2-5; Lagarde 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Let’s get swept! With Kisho Saito in game 3 and the team losing ten straight starts for him with 2.2 R/G, this was a perfect fit! And the Titans wasted no time, making a Bob Arnold error in the first inning count when George Waller hit an unearned 2-out, 3-run homer off Saito in the first. The Titans loaded them up in the third, but Saito escaped with a K to Vargas. On the other side of the line score, the Coons loaded them up in the fifth, and Allen left them on. The Coons only scored through a wild pitch by Francisco Vidrio in the sixth, leaving two more on. Saito was effective, but not electric, yet held the Titans to their three runs. Top 7th: Higgins doubled, Reece singled, nobody out, tying runs on. COME THE **** ON NOW!!! Allen was next and grounded into a run-scoring fielder’s choice, leaving it to Bob Arnold to make something happen with one out. He couldn’t. Kinnear with two out. The 0-1 pitch to Kinnear – CRUSHED. Into the upper deck, Kinnear turned the game around, 4-3 now. The Titans left the tying run on second base in both the seventh and eighth innings, while the Coons failed to add on to their lead, so that West came out without a cushion for the bottom 9th. Seven pitches later, it was over. 4-3 Coons. Higgins 2-4, BB, 2B; Reece 2-5; Kinnear 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Baldivía (PH) 1-1; Saito 7.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (3-5) and 1-2, BB;

In other news

May 31 – SFW CL Andres Ramirez (0-2, 2.78 ERA, 16 SV) holds the Cyclones at bay to save a 5-2 win for the Warriors. Ramirez notches his 500th save, the first ABL player to reach that benchmark.
May 31 – The Canadiens announce that CL Ricardo Medina (1-1, 0.39 ERA, 15 SV) is out for the season with a torn UCL, but may be ready for Opening Day 1994.
May 31 – NAS LF/RF Tommy Norton (.271, 3 HR, 24 RBI) has suffered a rotator cuff strain and could be out until the All Star game.
June 2 – Another pitcher gets ready for Tommy John surgery, as SAL SP Rafael Serrano (3-6, 2.69 ERA) goes down to a torn UCL. The 25-year old remains optimistic and proclaims to be back for the start of next season.
June 2 – IND OF Tomas Maguey (.283, 2 HR, 29 RBI) will be out for two to three months after getting a finger broken badly in an on base collision. You should have seen it. It had about twice as many joints after the collision.

Complaints and stuff

While Kisho Saito was drifting heedlessly through the ethers of the .500 world, Miguel Lopez was honored by the league by being named the Continental League Pitcher of the Month of May 1993, having gone 6-0 with a 0.97 ERA in this span. He notched 32 K’s in 46.1 innings.

The Bob Arnold signing was a major blunder on my part, since it forfeited our first round pick to the Indians for the upcoming draft, meaning our first pick to fall all the way to 83rd – making even looking at the draft pool beforehand redundant. I wasn’t even aware that compensations are still valid in June. Well, who am I to complain about these players not performing well? I am obviously the most ******ed stupid ****tard around here.

******* idiot moron. You deserve every bit of your misery.