[Westheim]

Raccoons (42-57) @ Falcons (50-47) – July 24-26, 2001

The Falcons were winless against the Raccoons this year, with three losses. We had comparable offensive formations, but they had way better (average) pitching. The Falcons ranked 8th in runs scored, and t-6th in runs allowed.

Projected matchups:
Carl Bean (7-8, 4.13 ERA) vs. Terry Wilson (7-5, 4.30 ERA)
Ralph Ford (7-8, 3.13 ERA) vs. John Woodard (9-10, 4.83 ERA)
Randy Farley (4-7, 4.67 ERA) vs. Manuel Hernandez (5-5, 4.53 ERA)

“Loudmouth” Wilson and Hernandez were left-handers, of which we had seen only one last week. The fact that we went 4-2 last week might be less of an indicator of our inability to hit southpaws, but more of the fact that both teams last week were somewhat challenged with their personnel. The Coons – for six days – just happened to be challenged somewhat less. Also, with Brady, Reece, AND Palacios out, our lineup is pretty toothless, regardless of the hand the pitcher on any given day would toss with.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – LF Cavazos – CF Roberson – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – C Thomas – RF Flores – 2B M. Ramirez – P Bean
CHA: 2B H. Green – C F. Chavez – RF Lugo – CF Morton – 1B Soto – LF R. Wilson – SS A. Ramirez – 3B J. Munoz – P T. Wilson

Carl Bean scored the Falcons’ first run with a wild pitch, with two down in the second. Antonio Ramirez’ 2-out, 2-run double in the bottom 4th didn’t help either, especially with the Raccoons not getting anything worth mentioning done against “Loudmouth” Wilson. Their first remote scoring opportunity came in the sixth, with Roberson and Martin singling with no outs. Martin’s hit was a bloop just out of Ramirez’ reach, and that was begging for punishment. After Sharp hit into a double play, the inning fizzled out rather quickly. Bean failed to surrender anybody in the bottom 6th, three batters, three singles, and when Diaz came in, he lit the fuse. Martinez got a lucky double play that would hold the damage to two runs, and made it 5-0 Falcons. Both teams left two men on in the seventh inning, and the Raccoons just weren’t getting any closer. And they wouldn’t for the rest of the day. Eight hits, scattered all over the place. 5-0 Falcons. Kent (PH) 1-1; Heart (PH) 1-1; Miller 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K;

Sigh.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – CF Roberson – 1B Martin – C Thomas – LF Parker – 2B Heart – RF Kent – P Ford
CHA: 3B H. Green – CF Estrada – RF Lugo – 1B Soto – LF Trinidad – C M. Castillo – SS J. Munoz – 2B Sullivan – P Woodard

The Falcons offered an all-right-handed lineup against Ralph Ford, who loaded the bases in the bottom 1st. Two out, Miguel Castillo sent a deep fly to left center, and this was going to – no, Roberson got it! Ford however was in trouble, showing bad control all along. The Raccoons scored first, in the top 3rd. Guerin and Sharp got on with two outs, and Guerin then stole third base. Roberson came through with a single up the middle, plating Concie. In the bottom of the inning, Ford had Jose Lugo and Luis Soto both in 2-strike counts, then surrendered hard base hits, with Soto doubling home Lugo. Trinidad whiffed, but a single and a walk loaded them up with one out, before Terry Sullivan fouled out to Thomas, just short of the fence, and then you think, oh we’re gonna be fine, and then the pitcher hits a double through Sharp. Ford didn’t see the end of the next inning, walking the bases full, giving him six freebies in 3.2 innings. Martinez came in to face Sullivan, who put the game away with a bases-clearing triple on the first pitch he saw. The scoring continued against Scott Wade, who was stuffed for a total of five runs in 1.2 innings, facing nothing but right-handers. The Raccoons – as was to be expected – didn’t do anything. They just slowly watched the score escalating. 12-1 Falcons. Sharp 2-2, 2 BB;

Four consecutive innings surrendering multiple runs. That’s gotta be a new low point. That’s … well, it fits in with the general pitching record of this game, as our resident collection of wet hairballs allowed 16 hits, ten walks, and one plunked batter en route to getting stuffed for a dozen, with 14 more left on base by the generous Falcons.

And Sharp? Why did I miss that he is dumb as a rat’s ass? He doubled in the first, and made an out at third base, and he was out by a light year. Yeah, dumbass, you might have been on base four times, but YOU’RE STILL DOING ****!!!

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – LF Cavazos – CF Roberson – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – 2B M. Ramirez – RF Kent – C Fifield – P Farley
CHA: 2B H. Green – C F. Chavez – RF Lugo – CF Morton – 1B Soto – LF R. Wilson – SS A. Ramirez – 3B J. Munoz – P M. Hernandez

The first thing that the Raccoons did – other than vanishing 1-2-3 in the top 1st – was Gary Fifield dropping Hubert Green’s pop that didn’t get much farther than five feet from the plate. Green stole second with Fifield’s throw so high that Ramirez had to leap to keep it in the infield, and Jose Lugo sacrificed him home eventually. 1-0 Falcons, because of inadequate personnel manning certain positions. We had nine of those on the field at that point. Top 2nd: Sharp hit a double off the wall, Ramirez walked, and Kent doubled to right, plating Sharp only. In a 3-0 count, Fifield suddenly swung and popped out to short. In the Falcons’ cozy suite for the high level brass of the visiting team, I suffered a mild stroke and fell crashing into the table with the delicately presented and certainly mildly expensive food, while Maud was looking on. She couldn’t help it, she’s a woman, she had an hors-d’oeuvre with salmon in one hand and her ugly old-lady’s purse in the other. She might not have wanted to help me, either.

Neither did the Raccoons. Although Ford plated both runners Fifield had foolishly left on with a single, he still had to pitch, but didn’t do it for long. Technically, he still had a no-hitter going, up 3-1, but it was the pitcher Manuel Hernandez to break it up in the bottom 3rd with a 1-out single. The gates opened and flushed Farley far away, as the Falcons reeled off five more hits and a walk to plate six runs in the inning. And that was that game, also over after five innings or less. Hernandez pitched a complete game, striking out ten Issuecoons, including all three in the ninth inning. 8-4 Falcons. Ramirez 2-3, BB; Miller 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Once I had plucked all the little wooden sticks – cheese cubes still attached on some – from my face, I felt the urge to purge some sucker to Antarctica. The choice was not difficult. Gary Fifield, batting .152 and useless in every other regard as well, was vaporized. The call went to C/1B Jorge Defrese, a 23-year old right-handed batter from Venezuela, whom we drafted 258th overall in the ninth round of the 1996 draft. Generally not major league material, so he fits right in.

This filled our 40-man roster, but we swiftly moved Clyde Brady from the 15- to the 60-day DL.

Raccoons (42-60) vs. Thunder (67-33) – July 27-29, 2001

Odes should be composed about this Thunder team, and they ought to be praised in song. The Raccoons were ****, knew it, and we were racing straight for an 0-6 week and an 1-8 year against Oklahoma.

Projected matchups:
Cipriano Miranda (3-11, 4.49 ERA) vs. Luis Martinez (4-4, 2.46 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (6-6, 5.27 ERA) vs. Ricky Beach (6-1, 1.94 ERA)
Carl Bean (7-9, 4.30 ERA) vs. Aaron Anderson (9-6, 3.15 ERA)

Ya, we’ve got no chance.

Game 1
OCT: CF Humphrey – SS Liu – 2B Grant – LF D. Henry – C Vinson – RF M. Rodriguez – 1B T. Cardenas – 3B H. Castro – P L. Martinez
POR: SS Guerin – LF Cavazos – CF Roberson – 1B Martin – C Thomas – 3B Heart – RF Flores – 2B McLaughlin – P Miranda

Guerin doubled and was plated by Roberson in the bottom 1st, as the Baseball Gods teased and taunted me, giving the Raccoons a 1-0 lead. Miranda wasn’t doing so bad, however, and handled the Thunder quite well, despite giving out a few walks and he also overcame a Max Heart error that put Grant on with nobody out in the fourth. To be fair, Cavazos and Roberson both made multiple fine plays in the outfield, too. When Mark Thomas went yard in the bottom of the sixth, collecting Martin to give Miranda three runs of support, Miranda still had the Thunder in a 1-hit death choke. But bad control – he walked Tomas Cardenas in the seventh for his fifth BB on the day – put him in a bad spot with the pitch count. He was at 109 through seven. Yet, with the Raccoons you’re always tempted to send a starter with a shutout going back out there, with 109 pitches or 190, rather than risk to bring in a reliever with two outs and nobody on and have a grand slam in the inning. The eighth inning was a quick one, but Miranda’s velocity dropped into the mid-80s and we got Dan Nordahl ready, until Roberson’s leadoff jack made it 4-0 in the bottom 8th. Now Wade joined Nordahl and entered the ninth with the same score. He struck out David Vinson (easy), then walked a pair. Nordahl entered, struck out Hector Castro, then pinch-walked Takahashi Higashi. Oh come on, boys, don’t …! Joey Humphrey ran a full count, and Nordahl eventually threw a pitch in the dirt to force home a run. Kuang Liu was next, and ripped into the first pitch. It was a high fly to deep right, and Gil Flores had played deep already, but this was … was it going to …? Would it …? Nope, it wouldn’t, it lacked less than five feet of depth, and with Flores playing deep, he made the catch at the wall. 4-1 Raccoons. Roberson 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Thomas 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Miranda 8.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 4 K, W (4-11);

Nine walks, four of those in the ninth inning. No wonder the neighbors here me screaming at 3:45 am.

And I wondered where I got that sore throat from every morning after waking up.

Game 2
OCT: SS Liu – CF Humphrey – 2B Grant – 1B Higashi – C Briggs – RF M. Rodriguez – LF A. Diéguez – 3B H. Castro – P Beach
POR: SS Guerin – RF Cavazos – CF Roberson – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – C Thomas – LF Parker – 2B M. Ramirez – P M. Lopez

Spending his day behind in the count was Miguel Lopez, and the Thunder took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Somehow, they didn’t score again until the fifth, when they singled every which way off Lopez and plated two more runs. The Raccoons were tamed by Ricky Beach, whom Vince had rated a 10/11/8, but who was pitching to a sub-2 ERA. He allowed two hits through four, before the third one by Chris Parker was a long one, cutting the gap to 3-1. Lopez went 6.2 innings and left with Beach on first base after a leadoff single, but Miller got Bob Grant to fly out to Cavazos. Down by two, technically the Coons had a chance, and a 1-out double by Thomas in the bottom 7th opened a little door. When Higashi misfielded Parker’s grounder, Thomas scored, and then Ramirez doubled to right, giving us the go-ahead runs in scoring position with one out. Kent hit for Miller, and grounded out so poorly that the runners had to hold. Guerin came up and sent a fly to center on the second pitch. The fly got longer and longer and eluded Humphrey, hitting off the base of the centerfield wall as Guerin flipped the score with a 2-out, 2-run double! A 4-3 lead, what are we gonna do!? Once Cavazos unsurprisingly stranded Guerin to end the inning, Marcos Bruno appeared – and went on to blow it. Two out, runners on the corners, David Vinson hit for Hector Castro. The count ran full. Vinson ALWAYS strikes out in these situation. He ALWAYS does. Bruno walked him. And now the Thunder did NOT hit for Beach! Bases loaded, two out, Bruno against Beach, and this one ended with a strikeout. But we still had to nurse Nordahl through the ninth, and he faced the top of the order. Danny was much more in the zone than the previous night, and the Thunder were tempted to make contact – poor contact. Kuang Liu grounded out to Concie. Humphrey fouled out. And Bob Grant grounded out to Ramirez. 4-3 Coons! Guerin 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

What? Two wins in a row? Against the THUNDER?

Is this real life?

Game 3
OCT: CF Humphrey – SS Liu – 2B Grant – 1B Higashi – LF D. Henry – C Vinson – RF M. Rodriguez – 3B H. Castro – P Anderson
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – CF Roberson – 1B Martin – LF Parker – RF Cavazos – 2B Heart – C Defrese – P Bean

In the top 2nd, Dan Henry tripled and knocked his elbow hard against the base sliding in. The Thunder had to replace him, but had a good chance to score now with Eric Phillips waiting to be driven in with one out. Bean walked Vinson (!?), then struck out Marcos Rodriguez and Hector Castro to end the inning. While Bean had had a shoddy beginning with two walks and a triple against him, he then struck out four more for half a dozen in total by the end of the fifth. His team mates weren’t shy about leaving scoring chances unused, however. In the bottom 4th, Sharp reached on a Phillips error, and Roberson legged out an infield single when Bob Grant had to grab the ball twice from his glove. Martin killed it with a double play grounder and Parker struck out, and we left two on base in the fifth. Top 6th, and a Max Heart error put Humphrey on base with nobody out. Humphrey was on third with two down, but Higashi hacked himself out to end the inning. Vinson was hit by Bean in the seventh, but nothing came of that, either, and we still had no score, however this changed soon. Ramiro Cavazos, deeply muddled in the mother of all slumps, led off the bottom 7th with a homer, and now it was 1-0 Coons. Bean made it through the eighth comfortably, and then Roberson and Martin hit back-to-back doubles starting the bottom 8th! Jorge Defrese’s major league debut had not been too great so far. He was 0-3 coming to bat with two out and two on in this inning, but now made contact and singled up the middle for his first major league hit. With Bean next, the time to score was now and Martin was waved home, where he arrived at the same time as Diéguez’ throw and was called …….. – SAFE!! Anderson then struck out Bean, who had other things on his mind, like his 3-0 lead. He had surrendered only two hits on the day so far, and surrendered Bob Grant on the first pitch. And then – oh bother – both Higashi and Phillips managed to single past the reach of Concie at short. Vinson was next. Hey, there was our chance! Bean fell behind him, however, before Vinson put the fourth pitch in play. It went to Concie as well. This time, our cherished Venezuelan shortstop got it, zipped to Heart, to Martin – ballgame. 3-0 Furballs! Guerin 2-4; Roberson 2-4, 2B; Martin 2-4, 2B, RBI; Bean 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (8-9);

WOOOOT!!! A sweep of the Thunder!!!???

I am pretty sure it is safe to assume that they don’t know what hit them here. And neither do I.

For Carl Bean, this was his third career shutout, and the second as a Furball.

In other news

July 24 – NAS SP Dave Crawford (6-11, 5.11 ERA) befuddles helpless Wolves in a 3-hitter, taking a 6-0 win.
July 24 – DEN C Johnny Johnson (.264, 7 HR, 47 RBI) is out for a month with a lat strain.
July 26 – And more trouble for the Gold Sox, as OF Chih-tui Jin (.306, 5 HR, 28 RBI) goes down with a sprained ankle and may also miss up to a month.
July 27 – The Crusaders acquire backup outfielder Ricardo Chavez (.374, 11 HR, 26 RBI in 131 AB) from the Wolves, giving up SP George Allen (1-2, 3.57 ERA) and prospect outfielder Wilson Ballina, who had been in the A-level All Star Game this season.
July 28 – The Buffaloes acquire C Pablo Ledesma (.260, 8 HR, 45 RBI) from the Pacifics for SP Carlos Camacho (2-9, 5.70 ERA).

Complaints and stuff

Here’s one coming out of leftfield, or from behind the plate, or whatever. Mark Thomas was named CL Player of the Week, batting .450 (9-20) with 1 HR and 5 RBI. Not bad for someone who was a throw-in to a deal to get rid of an unwanted pitcher, and only made to the primary role because our Chosen One, Julio Mata, was beyond terrible the first two months (and now is hurt).

During the middle Falcons game, I had a Cyclones moment. What’s a Cyclones moment? Well, that was the first time I threw in the towel on this team, over two years ago. Of course, the sucker faces were different then, but they were no less abysmal (well perhaps a little more abysmal). Then, they walked NINETEEN batters in a nine inning contest against the Cyclones, which would tie a now 127-year old “real” major league record.

If all you come to the park for every day, is another hit with a wooden beam straight into your teeth, why do you come then?

The Thunder series was certainly an aberration, because I can’t explain it otherwise. They are not tops of the league in hitting, but they are certainly better than plating four runs against the Coons – in a three-game set, that is.

Totally random fact: Jorge Defrese is the first position player with the surname beginning with D to play on the Raccoons since 1995 (Matt Duncan). Before that, you have to go back to Mark Dawson, whose career ended in 1991.

Anybody remember the first Raccoons position player the surname beginning with D to play for the Raccoons? Johan Dolder, the Pride of Luxembourg, Luxembourg!