[Westheim]

Raccoons (35-41) @ Condors (40-35) – June 27-29, 1994

The Condors were better than the Raccoons in about every category. I couldn’t find one in which they were not.

The suffering continued unabated in the series opener, as Scott Wade pitched very well – but was far and wide alone with his solid performance. He matched his opponent Charles Bywaters through seven innings in allowing four hits and a run. Both runs were scored in the third on outs, with Salazar’s sac fly accounting for the Raccoons’. The team never got a base hit in a RISP situation, leaving the go-ahead run on third base twice in the game. Martinez lost the game in a hurry in the eighth. 3-1 Condors. A. Lopez 2-3; Jin (PH) 1-1, 2B; Wade 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K and 1-2;

Game 2. Robbie Dadswell (7-4, 3.16 ERA) had a decent year going. He still fell behind 1-0 in the first inning on a 2-out RBI double by Vern Kinnear, before the Coons filled them up – and Lopez left them full. To be exact, the Raccoons left runners on third base in each of the first three innings. Thus we were entrusting makeshift starter Gabriel De La Rosa with a 1-0 lead and nothing else. Given his limited arsenal and that Condors team, he didn’t do bad at all, holding the 1-0 through five. Vinson was on first with one out in the top 6th. De La Rosa had already bunted into a force play on the day, so this time he got the sign to swing. Astonishingly, he doubled past RF Paul Theobald, and any other runner on the team would have scored, but Vinson had to hold at third base. Salazar walked to load them up. In a 3-1 count, Baldivía fouled out. O’Morrissey grounded out, ending the inning, and because nothing good was supposed to happen, De La Rosa was taken apart by the Condors – finally – in the seventh. Three runs scored. The Raccoons? They allowed it to happen. 3-1 Condors. Kinnear 2-5, 2B, RBI;

Game 3. The Condor’s first hit of Kisho Saito was a 2-out grand slam. Just … just how …? Saito had retired the first two batters, then had walked two (an anomaly in itself), then plunked Bruce Boyle. SS Kuang Liu came up and punished him. Saito pitched quite well after that spill, striking out eight in an outing of five innings, but the damage had been done, and the game was over right there. The only Raccoon to ever touch third base in the entire game was O-Mo, and he was thrown out trying to get home. The Condors’ Jose Macias tossed a 6-hit shutout. 6-0 Condors.

I’ve stated so many times that it can’t possibly get worse. I have ceased to believe it. It will always only get much more worserer.

Raccoons (35-44) vs. Indians (37-41) – June 30-July 3, 1994

The Indians were nothing special, but the Raccoons were abominations. Also, we still outscored the Indians, but this dates back to before Neil Reece breaking his hand. This was – in terms of runs scored – the 3rd-worst team welcoming the 2nd-worst team for four games of 2-1 ball. Possibly all with two runs in the top line of the score.

To make things even worseritasticer, the Indians laughingly threw junkballer Arthur Young (5-6, 4.92 ERA) at us in the opener. No matter how terrible his stats, the Raccoons failed to hit him for years now. Jason Turner started the game by setting down the first 13 Indians that dared to show up, but the Indians scored on him in the fifth with a single and a double. And of course Turner had received no support at all. Turner went eight frames, allowing two hits, including Joe Estes’ RBI double, and five walks (talk about him losing it completely), and into the bottom 9th the Raccoons trailed 1-0. Baldivía blooped into shallow right and the ball at first eluded RF Carlos Paredes for a leadoff double in the bottom 9th. Lopez pinch-hit for Green to counter righty closer Jim Durden, but grounded out to short, pinning Baldivía in place. Kinnear singled to move Baldivía to third with one out. Durden got to 1-2 on O-Mo, before the Furball made contact and doubled past Paredes to tie the game. Kinnear carried the winning run, 90 feet away with one out. The Indians walked Matt Higgins, counting on David Vinson to whiff. Durden’s first was wide, but the second wasn’t and Vinson took it to deep right, where it fell past the reach of Paredes for the third time. Walkoff. 2-1 Coons. Kinnear 2-4; O’Morrissey 2-4, 2B, RBI; Vinson 1-3, BB, 2B*, RBI; Turner 8.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 2 K;

*Note that the walkoff hit was denoted a double in accordance with the well-known bug not putting down walkoff hits correctly in certain circumstances. It would have been a single actually.

Game 2 saw “Pooky” Beato lose it early on. I mean control here. He plunked the leadoff batter, 3B Claudio Ayala, and walked two, which included forcing in a run. Beato didn’t get ahead in counts at all and was worked up after five innings, trailing 4-1. Attention in the game soon shifted to Carlos Paredes, who had gotten his share of blame for his role in the ninth inning the day before. Here, he hit a 2-run homer and a triple off Beato, knocking off the hard half of the cycle, but time and a slow Indians offense worked against him. He came up again in the seventh with two down against Grant West, and when the “Demon” punched him out, it was also the end for Paredes hunt for the cycle. The Coons meanwhile crawled somewhat back into the game when Jorge Salazar hit a 2-run triple in the bottom 7th. Salazar was then left on with two already out, but it was a 4-3 game right there, and the score remained the same into the bottom 9th. Durden was on the mound again as we needed a pinch-hitter for Martinez to start the inning. I forewent Mark Allen and sent Rodriguez, who singled up the middle. Bobby Quinn instantly replaced him to run. It didn’t help at all. Lopez flew out, Vinson whiffed (hah…), and a Hall double wasn’t enough for Quinn to score. Salazar struck out. 4-3 Indians. Higgins 2-4, RBI; Rodriguez (PH) 1-1; Hall (PH) 2-2, 2B; Martinez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Neil Stewart (10-7, 2.40 ERA) was a victim of his team’s low output for sure. He was up in game 3, and this time the Indians stormed out of the gate, pouncing on Scott Wade and Matt Higgins in the first inning. Higgins made a critical 2-out error that was soon followed by a bases-clearing double by CF Rich Tracy. It wasn’t all Higgins’ fault: Wade surrendered four earned runs in a shocking display of ineptitude in the second inning. In total, Wade went 3.2 innings with a dozen hits allowed. Stewart coasted to an easy complete game win, which became a massive rout in the eighth inning, where the Indians pinned three runs each on Miller and Burnett. 13-1 Indians. Kinnear 3-4, 2 2B; Higgins 3-4; Martinez 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Matthews 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

For Daniel Miller, this was the end of his Raccoons career. He failed to get people out, and gave up hard contact without an end in sight. His ERA had shot up to 5.75 now. He was sent to Florida on a one-way ticket and Jose Rivera was recalled. De La Rosa would move back to the pen *after* his start in game 4, since Rivera had pitched two days earlier and was not ready and there was no point in rushing Kisho Saito with last-place playoffs on us after the Indians series. As I was already on it, I also sent back Chih-tui Jin and brought up INF Marvin Ingall.

In game 4, De La Rosa actually got some support, with Baldivía hitting a 3-run boom in the bottom 3rd that broke up the scoreless tie. De La Rosa pitched impressively again, and got even more support when the Indians lost all feathers in the fifth inning. After the Raccoons had luck with two infield singles early on in the inning, they then saw a pair of 2-out, 2-run hits by Daniel Hall and David Vinson to cap a 5-run inning making the score a comfy 8-0. This time it was the Indians that were rolled over by a moving van – several times. 10-0 Coons. Baldivía 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Green 3-5, RBI; Higgins (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Hall 1-2, 3 BB, 2 RBI; Ingall 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; De La Rosa 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, W (2-1);

David Vinson was hurt in this game upon hitting his 2-run triple (presumably moving faster than perpetual slow motion drained his body of all energy). He is not diagnosed yet.

In other news

June 29 – As a whole, the Thunder beat the Crusaders 6-4, but the Crusaders beat Vonne Calzado (.363, 3 HR, 41 RBI) 4-0, ending his 23-game hitting streak.
July 2 – The Aces lose two players at once, as C Mario Guerrero (.315, 0 HR, 11 RBI) goes down to a strained hip muscle and utility player Nathan Hines (.160, 3 HR, 6 RBI) breaks his knee. Both are out for the year.

Complaints and stuff

In ALL OF JUNE, we have scored in excess of five runs exactly … wait for it … TWICE. We beat the Indians 7-6 on June 9, and the Aces 9-2 last week. That’s it. On average, we scored 85 runs in 28 games. That’s a hair over three per game, and that stinks like sulphur.

Last week, I ordered a stuffed toy raccoon from Amazon, so a) I would not have to sit on my couch alone on the weekends and b) the Raccoons would get some good luck charm or stuff like that. The latter obviously failed to come together. Maybe I have to sacrifice the little furball on a pyre first? Will run tests later this week.