[Westheim]

With two weeks of games left, at 61-89 we have already clinched our sixth-worst season ever in the ABL’s 21th year of play. Abysmal 1979 (55-107) is safe, but we could still make this the second-worst campaign for the Raccoons ever if we go 4-8 or worse from here.

We still have Mike Crowe, Royce Green, Vern Kinnear, Jose Rivera, and Stephen Buell on the disabled list. There’s no hope for Crowe, his season is over. Green, Kinnear, and Rivera could all be good by the weekend or the start of next week for a final hurrah. Stephen Buell’s return date is now estimated at two weeks by the medical staff, which could or could not get him into another game or two this year.

Raccoons (61-89) vs. Aces (75-74) – September 23-25, 1997

5.5 games out, the Aces had not given up quite yet, and would push the hell out of the Raccoons in this series. Luckily, we’re immune to any kind of reaction under pressure. This includes looking at fat called third strikes. Their own big weakness was a 10th place rotation, which rendered many efforts of their 3rd place offense moot.

Projected matchups:
Hector Lara (8-7, 3.25 ERA) vs. Alejandro Venegas (13-10, 3.47 ERA)
Jose Ramos (5-6, 4.71 ERA) vs. Jou Hara (13-10, 3.74 ERA)
Kisho Saito (11-12, 2.90 ERA) vs. Rafael Espinoza (3-5, 5.92 ERA)

We have lost our last four, they have lost their last five. One streak’s gonna end.

Game 1
LVA: CF Douglas – LF E. Garza – 1B J. Vargas – RF Mashiba – 2B J. Zamora – C Manuel – 3B Petipas – SS E. Lopez – P Venegas
POR: 2B Ingall – LF Utting – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Newton – SS Guerin – C McDonald – 3B McLaughlin – P Lara

Early on, the Raccoons twice had a pair of runners on base, but couldn’t cash in, with Weeds hitting into an inning-ending double play in the first, and Guerin striking out to end the fourth. Lara kept the pace that ex-Coon Venegas had put up, until the fifth, when huge doubles by Bob Petipas and Joe Douglas did him in, as the Aces took a 1-0 lead. Lara pitched into the eighth, getting exactly zero support. For the Raccoons to step up, he had to leave the game first, as Santana and Miller pitched in the eighth, before Vinson got on base with a pinch-hit single in place of Miller, and then Ingall jacked one out of left field, and suddenly Venegas found himself trailing. Wade pitched a 1-2-3 ninth. 2-1 Raccoons! Ingall 1-4, HR, 2 RBI; Reece 2-4; Vinson (PH) 1-1; Lara 7.1 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K;

Game 2
LVA: CF Douglas – 3B Petipas – 1B J. Vargas – RF Mashiba – 2B J. Zamora – C Manuel – LF R. Reyes – SS E. Lopez – P Hara
POR: 2B Brewer – RF Newton – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Utting – SS Guerin – C Vinson – 3B G. Rodriguez – P Ramos

The first inning saw Javier Vargas’ 14th homer of the year, a 2-run job off Jose Ramos, which set the Aces ahead in this contest. Not that Ramos was horrible. That dinger was about all he allowed the Aces to do in this game, and he would pitch seven solid innings. Unfortunately the Raccoons failed to navigate their way around home plate although by the time they failed through the lineup for the second time we had gotten a helper monkey and a few assistance dogs ready to support them – to no avail. The Raccoons managed to get four hits off Jou Hara in 7.2 innings, whiffing eight times, and Qi-zhen Geng and Cory Maupin finished the game. 2-0 Aces. Reece 1-2, BB; Utting 2-3, 2B; Ramos 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, L (5-7);

After this game, we added pitchers Iván Costa and Esteban Flores to the roster. Flores would take over Wade’s old spot in the rotation for the remainder of the season, with De La Rosa back to the bullpen. Costa might get a start, but probably not, and audition for a bullpen job. We have many slacks at AAA that are vying to start, and we will have to make room for our best SP prospect, Ralph Ford, in AAA next season.

In another wacky move that was not really classy, we waived and DFA’ed Kenny Crockett, who was on the DL. The reasoning was the following: we had a promising prospect in AAA in 1B/2B Samy Michel, who was not quite major league ready, but was already rule 5 eligible this season and had to get on the 40-man roster regardless. With Brewer being traded not really a secret for the coming off season, Brewer would be scaled back and we would open up second base for either Ingall to play there and get Guerin into more games, or for Michel to appear in a few games to get a headstart here. He would however not be on the big league roster next April.

Game 3
LVA: LF E. Lopez – 3B Petipas – 1B J. Vargas – RF Mashiba – C Manuel – 2B S. Moreno – CF Mendoza – SS Heart – P Espinoza
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Newton – C McDonald – RF Miranda – 3B McLaughlin – P Saito

After Saito had been the poor sod to be sold off cheap by his team in his last few starts, he blew this one himself. In a spectacular display of eroding abilities, he hit consecutive batters in the first inning, surrendered two line drives (one of which was even played by Reece), and then Miranda contributed with a fantastically pathetic error to plate three runs (two unearned) in the first inning. Saito was not himself somehow, allowed two runs in the third, and was removed when Espinoza singled off him in the sixth. Otero came in to surrender the sixth run on Saito. At that point, the Raccoons had not reached third base the entire game, and wouldn’t until Ron McDonald homered off Espinoza in the seventh. The displays of dismality became more horrendous any day now. 6-1 Aces. Brewer 2-4; Grandridge 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

15 hits total for the entire 3-game set. Yaaay.

Raccoons (62-91) vs. Crusaders (79-73) – September 26-28, 1997

There was nothing left to win for. This was true for either team as the Crusaders were by now all but eliminated from contention.

Projected matchups:
Esteban Flores (0-6, 5.48 ERA) vs. Anibal Sandoval (14-9, 4.16 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (11-9, 3.49 ERA) vs. Francisco Garza (11-14, 4.72 ERA)
Hector Lara (8-7, 3.14 ERA) vs. John Woodard (6-6, 3.33 ERA)

Game 1
NYC: 3B Rigg – CF C. Clark – LF A. Johnson – 1B Berry – RF Latham – C Melendez – 2B L. Wilson – SS J. Vega – P Sandoval
POR: SS Ingall – LF Newton – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B Utting – 2B Michel – RF Kent – C Vinson – P Flores

Ruben Melendez got the Crusaders up 2-0 in the second with a huge homer to dead center. The Raccoons were struggling to find their mojo early on, but in the bottom 4th had singles by Weeds, Utting, and Michel (for whom it was the first major league hit) to start the inning. The go-ahead runs were on base with nobody out. Jason Kent, who had just thrown out Mark Berry at home plate to end the top 4th, flew deep to left, but Avery Johnson got to the ball, and it became a sac fly. Vinson grounded into a double play, and we kept trailing, 2-1. Poor Esteban Flores (although, if you were a pitcher on this team, you were poor by definition, creating a redundancy here…) did not get a lick of support although he pitched into the eighth, and left on the hook after allowing a 2-out single to Clement Clark. Zuniga just barely almost managed to allow Clark to score, before Reece made a play on Berry before this could become more ugly than it was already. Bottom 9th, and I had more hot dogs on my ledger than the Coons had hits on theirs. Neil Reece drew a walk, leading off against John Hatt. Wedemeyer struck out. Utting to short, to second, to first. 2-1 Crusaders. Flores 7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, L (0-7);

To make this one clear: Hot Dogs Consumed 8, Hits by Raccoons 4 …

Royce Green came off the DL in time for the middle game, and Jose Rivera’s DL time would be up after the middle game. Still holding out for Kinnear.

Game 2
NYC: CF Diéguez – 2B Rigg – RF A. Johnson – C Melendez – 3B J. Ramirez – 1B Delgado – LF L. Wilson – SS J. Vega – P F. Garza
POR: 2B Brewer – CF Newton – RF Green – 1B Wedemeyer – SS Ingall – 3B Utting – LF Kent – C McDonald – P M. Lopez

The Crusaders would take the lead in the fourth after three quiet opening innings with a pair of home runs by Ed Rigg and Lorenzo Delgado. At that point, Francisco Garza was perfect, and remained so until a leadoff walk to Wedemeyer in the fifth inning. Weeds was left on third base in the inning, and we trailed 3-0. David Brewer wasn’t doing a lot anymore down the long and pot-holed road, but he would break up the no-hit bid in the sixth with a 2-out homer. Brewer would in the end account for 50% of our base hits, Royce Green making up the other half with a seventh inning double after which he was left at third base. The Inepticoons lost another one: 3-1 Crusaders.

We had had reason to worry about getting no-noed in this game. The only pitcher to ever no-hit the Raccoons was a Crusader, too, and a borderline starter, too: Eric Edmonstone, 13 years ago.

Jose Rivera’s time on the DL was up. He had been on the 60-day DL, so we now had the problem that he had to be put back onto the 40-man roster, which was still choked full. We made room by waiving left-hander Fred Carlton, an AAA reliever that had been tortured to an ERA just short of six this season. He was 24 but didn’t appear to have any future.

Game 3
NYC: SS Rigg – 3B L. Wilson – LF A. Johnson – 1B Berry – RF Latham – C Melendez – CF Lyons – 2B Marino – P Woodard
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Newton – CF Reece – RF Green – 3B Ingall – 1B Michel – C Vinson – SS Guerin – P Lara

Lara – still playing for a possible contract – was not very sharp in the contest, fell behind in the first, although Reece would tie the game back in the bottom 1st, singling home Newton, but held the damage to two runs over six innings. The Raccoons again were mostly starved for pretty swings, but got Green and Ingall onto the corners with nobody out in the bottom 6th, as the two represented the go-ahead runs. Samy Michel tied the game with a liner into shallow right for his first career RBI. In some way, luck ran out here, with Vinson hitting into a double play. Guerin was put on intentionally, and Utting hit for Lara, lined out to Rigg – except that Eddy couldn’t hold on to the ball, and the go-ahead run scored on the error. We got another run with a 2-out single by Brewer, and Donis came out for the seventh with the 4-2 lead looming large over him. He registered one out, before putting lefties Johnson and Berry on base. De La Rosa replaced him, his first pitch was wild, and the Crusaders would get one run right back on a groundout. He would still surrender the tying run with a moonshot to Larry Wilson in the eighth. The agony. The undescribable agony. Ivan Lopez appeared to pitch for the Crusaders in the ninth. He sat down Reece and Green quickly, before he allowed a liner to Ingall that went past about everybody and ended up being a 2-out triple. Michel stepped in at the plate, and he was not going to be replaced. Kid’s gotta learn to succeed in these situations. His line drive whizzed less than a foot past Lopez’ head, into center, and fell in, Ingall scored, the Coons walked off. 5-4 Raccoons. Brewer 2-5, RBI; Newton 2-4, BB, 2B; Ingall 2-5, 3B; Michel 2-5, 2 RBI; Lara 6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K;

Quite a few seats were empty.

In other news

September 22 – In just his third major league start, 22-yr old DAL SP Elwood Spurrell (1-1, 2.78 ERA) spins a 5-hitter as the Stars rout the Capitals, 10-0.
September 23 – The Titans just acquired SP Henry Selph (16-8, 3.67 ERA) this season from the Rebels, and now he’s made history, tossing a NO-HITTER!!! Selph allowed only two walks and no hits in a 1-0 win over the Knights, becoming the 21st pitcher in the ABL to toss a no-hitter. He is the third Titans pitcher to achieve the feat (Luis De Jesus, 1990; Vicente Navarro, 1996), as the Titans join the Indians as the only team to have three no-hitters tossed by their players. It is the second no-hit job this season after CIN Manuel Garza’s. Selph, 30, the Rebels’ 1988 first round pick, is 55-39 with a 3.85 ERA in his career.

Complaints and stuff

Since September 16, we have played 13 games. We scored more than TWO runs … in THREE of those games.

WAY TO GO.

I scanned our prospective free agents. Only David Vinson is rated a type A free agent right now. Even Royce Green is rated type B. May the limited number of AB’s he got this season factor in there? All our free agents are going to be at least type B free agents, except for Cesar Zuniga, who won’t be compensation eligible.