[Westheim]

Raccoons (45-36) @ Canadiens (48-32) – July 5-8, 1993

They say that great pitching beats great hitting. That was about what we had to hope for entering this series. The Canadiens topped our offense by 95 runs (427-332) coming in, easily overcoming average pitching to play .600 ball. They had swept us in our so far only series of the year.

Arnold McCray (6-3, 3.05 ERA) had performed best for the Canadiens so far this year, and faced Scott Wade in game 1. The Raccoons 3-spotted McCray in the first inning and Vinson homered in the second to make it 4-0. Wade was not stellar, but held a 4-1 lead through four. In the top 5th, the Coons loaded them up with one out, but both Adams and Kinnear struck out. It was the beginning of the end. The bottom 5th started with an error by O’Morrissey, and the Canadiens not only tied the game, knocked out Wade, took a lead, but sent up 11 men and scored seven runs (all unearned) en route to blowing out the Raccoons, 9-4. O’Morrissey 3-5; Reece 3-4, BB, 3B, 2 RBI;

Game 2 was over even quicker. Miguel Lopez was branded by a pair of first-inning, 2-run home runs off the bats of Luis Arroyo and Kelly Carpenter. The latter was unearned after an error by Salazar that put on Salvador Mendez. Lopez did not survive the fifth inning, either. The Raccoons had had the tying run at the plate briefly in the top of the inning, down 5-2 with two on Neil Reece made the final out to CF Arroyo, but in the bottom of the inning, Lopez was eaten up with all kinds of singles, mostly of the soft varieties. The Canadiens kept reeling off hits, and smothered the Raccoons once more. 8-3 Canadiens. Moreno (PH) 1-1; O’Morrissey 2-5, 2B, RBI;

Whenever I go to Canada, I have this pressing urge to drown myself in the most near body of water. I wonder whether that is the air or something …

Raimundo Beato took the mound for game 3, as all hope was abandoned. Again, an error got the Canadiens moving. Alejandro Lopez had dinged the Raccoons 1-0 ahead in the top 1st, but a Higgins mis-grab in the bottom 1st instantly had the Canadiens score a pair of 2-out runs. Their own messy defense would catch up with the Canadiens in this game, though. SS Michael McFarland made an error that helped the Raccoons plate the tying run, and take a 3-2 lead – while still leaving the bases loaded. A wild pitch by Manny Ramos helped the Raccoons to take a 5-2 lead through three innings. The Canadiens loaded the bases in the bottom 5th on a Salazar error and two walks by Beato, who went to another full count on Kevin Gilmore before the Redhat whiffed on a questionable pitch to end the inning. Beato survived the sixth, and Lagarde the seventh, while the Raccoons kept missing the scoreboard. Salazar was thrown out at home on a Neil Reece single to end the top 8th, still 5-2. Bottom 9th. The “Demon” came in with a 3-run lead, got an out, then allowed singles to Javier Salcido and Raúl Solís, before walking McFarland. CF Orlando Penn, who had replaced an injured Arroyo, grounded to Higgins for a fielder’s choice, while Salcido scored. 5-3, two out, runners on the corners. With the way things were going … Salvador Mendez (.393, 2 HR, 61 RBI) grounded to Higgins’ left, but Higgins made the play to first. 5-3 Raccoons. Higgins 4-5, RBI; Reece 2-5, 2B; Vinson 1-2, 2 BB;

Game 4, Kisho Saito set out to try and at least keep the gap at 3 1/2 games. He faced Ruben Prado (8-5, 5.01 ERA), who doubtlessly was enjoying his run support. The Raccoons took a 1-0 lead in the top 1st before Allen whiffed with the bags full for the final out, upon which Kisho Saito (6-7, 3.91 ERA) surrendered a leadoff single to Solís, who stole second, took third on a wild pitch, and came home on a balk. Saito was awful, failing to punch out any of the seven consecutive batters he went into 2-strike counts on in the second and third innings, before utility player Doug Hill drilled a 2-run home run in the bottom 4th that buried the Raccoons, who could not hope to hurt Prado, once again. Despite getting the tying run to the plate several times late in the game, they grounded out poorly each time, Hall in the eighth and Salazar in the ninth nailing the game, and probably the season. 4-1 Canadiens. A. Lopez 2-4; Reece 3-4; Higgins 2-4, RBI; Quinn (PH) 1-1, 2B; Miller 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Raccoons (46-39) @ Titans (37-50) – July 9-11, 1993

Enter the worst pitching staff in the league once more. Their offense ranked a close 2nd to the Canadiens, but it wasn’t helping them a lick. Maybe against the Weakbatticoons. Miguel Lopez would come up in the last game of the set just before the All Star Game, but since he led the league in ERA I was assuming he would be part of the fun, so Raimundo Beato was getting ready to pitch game 3 on short rest, which was nothing to drool about, either.

Neil Reece was a bit sore and was rested in game 1 of the series, as the luckless Jason Turner (2-8 for crying out loud) went against the Titans’ Santiago Perez (4-6, 7.94 ERA). Through three innings, the Raccoons had five runners, the Titans had one, the Titans led 1-0. The Raccoons failed to score against the goddamn awful Perez in six innings, and trailed 2-0. Turner, who didn’t give up a lot in this game, could hardly believe his fate. The Titans doubled their output in the seventh, knocking out Turner. Hall didn’t look good defensively here, while also doing nothing at the plate. The Raccoons out-hit the Titans 9-8, but were shut out in a 4-0 loss, leaving 14 men on as a team, 28 individually. Salazar 3-4, BB; Adams 3-4, 3B;

Scott Wade got early support from Alejandro Lopez in the middle game, as Lopez singled in O’Morrissey in the first and hit a 2-run home run in the third inning. The Titans brushed Wade with two runs of their own in the bottom 4th, but Wade held the lead through six before being pinch-hit for. He struck out four batters – or rather one batter four times: Matt Smith, the dangerous left-handed leadoff batter. Proctor came in to face left-handers in the seventh and walked back-to-back batters. Juan Martinez replaced him and three runs scored. Matt Higgins came up with a big game-tying 1-out, 2-run triple in the eighth inning. That he was able to score was not the product of the Raccoons’ effort, but rather of an error by SS George Waller on Glenn Adams’ grounder. In the end, it didn’t matter. Grant West had another ineffective outing in the ninth. Ten pitches were enough for the Titans to walk off with a 2-out, 3-run home run by 3B Jose Ramirez. 8-6 Titans. O’Morrissey 2-5, 2B; A. Lopez 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Reece 2-5;

Proctor is a useless piece of ****. Why do I keep trading for useless pieces of ****? More on useless pieces of **** below.

Game 3. “Pooky” went on short rest, which did little to curtail is usual too-much-to-lose-too-little-to-win ways. The Coons took a 1-0 lead on an unearned run in the second inning after catcher Luis Lopez’ wild throw to second base allowed Sixto Moreno to not only steal that base, but also go to third, from where Rodriguez sacrificed him in. Beato was taken VERY deep by Hjalmar Flygt for two in the fourth, but Adams re-tied the game with a rocket in the fifth. Adams would also be the center of offense in the seventh inning, where he hit home runs in consecutive at-bats, this time a 3-shot that gave “Pooky” a solid lead he never relinquished. 7-2 Raccoons. Quinn 1-1; Rodriguez 2-3, 3 RBI; Adams 2-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Beato 7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (6-5);

Glenn Adams has silently forged an 11-game hitting streak. Very silently.

Bobby Quinn suffered a thumb contusion very early in the game and will be out for a week.

Glenn Johnston’s rehab assignment ran out and he was assigned to stay at AAA.

All Star Game

The Raccoons send Miguel Lopez, Neil Reece, and Ben O’Morrissey to the contest. Several teams in either league have four players active, the Rebels and Capitals have five each.

The Federal League wins 5-2, with WAS Jeffery Brown missing the cycle by a triple and driving in three. Neil Reece goes 0-3, O-Mo goes 1-4, while Lopez pitches the eighth inning, where he surrenders two runs.

In other news

July 6 – The Stars not only smother the Scorpions 10-3, but also end the 21-game hitting streak of catcher Jose Gomes (.296, 1 HR, 34 RBI).
July 7 – WAS OF/1B Jeffery Brown (.350, 12 HR, 43 RBI) gets a fourth-inning single in a 4-3 loss to the Rebels, completing a 20-game hitting streak.
July 9 – TIJ OF Manuel Doval (.281, 11 HR, 60 RBI) suffers severe head injuries from a head-on collision with the outfield wall in the Condors’ game against the Aces. Doval made a daring grab against a fly ball from Royce Green that was bound to hit the wall at the very bottom, and had no chance to avoid hammering the base of the wall with his face.
July 11 – Tijuana’s Manuel Doval announces his retirement from the hospital bed. The 30-year old Doval, a third-round pick in the 1981 draft, batted .322 with 154 HR and 705 RBI for the Rebels and Condors in a 9-year career.
July 11 – VAN OF Luis Arroyo (.284, 7 HR, 47 RBI) has suffered a sprained ankle and will be out for six weeks.
July 12 – The Loggers’ young phenom OF Jerry Fletcher (.335, 1 HR, 28 RBI) is out for the season with a torn labrum.

Complaints and stuff

When I made the trade with the Wolves for Mark Allen, I said that he can’t possibly repeat a .221 season – he has always been an above-average to elite hitter. He dipped below .220 in the Titans series, and when I shopped him, I got close to zero offers. The least uninteresting came from the Capitals, offering an infield prospect with dubious upside and no power. Allen hit four home runs in early April before getting hurt. He hasn’t done **** on the plus side since his return.

More and more Daniel Hall’s 1992 season looks like Hood’s Tennessee Campaign – the last Hoorah of a beaten warrior. We have now entered about the phase of between the battles of Franklin and Nashville. Shot to pieces, starving, and lingering in the cold, the waving flag somewhere lost on the way. He makes for a sorry sight by now.