[Westheim]

Raccoons (59-62) vs. Titans (62-63) – August 22-24, 2006

The Titans were similar enough to the Raccoons this season, scoring little (10th in CL), and pitching more or less respectable (4th in CL). The difference was significant however. Their run differential was -3, the Coons’ was -29. We had played a dozen so far, and had split those brotherly. By now, they had last year’s surprise slugger Jim Brulhart back, who had appeared in two games since being activated from the DL, not getting any hits.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (6-12, 4.38 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (11-7, 3.07 ERA)
Tim Webster (4-2, 3.61 ERA) vs. Ray Conner (9-11, 4.39 ERA)
Sergio Vega (0-0, 18.00 ERA) vs. Paul Kirkland (10-10, 4.65 ERA)

Conner might get skipped, in which case we’d get Bryce Hildred (6-13, 4.40 ERA). At least no veteran coonchoker in Jason O’Halloran this time through.

Game 1
BOS: 2B D. Silva – 3B M. Austin – LF Brulhart – RF G. Munoz – SS Hutchinson – C Rosa – CF Walls – 1B L. Lopez – P Chapa
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Crespo – RF Brady – 1B Sharp – CF Fernandez – C Bowen – 3B Searcy – P Watanabe

But here come the Victims: Vic Flores threw away Daniel Silva’s grounder to start the game, giving Silva second base and the Titans a rather easy, unearned run to get this opener going. This was only the first act to a soul-and-mind cruncher of a game. Watanabe was simply not up to the task, allowing a home run to Gonzalo Munoz the second time through, and then Jim Brulhart’s first hit of the year was also a long one, counting for two and making it 4-0 in the fifth. Watanabe did not survive the sixth inning, when shoddy defense on Searcy’s part became coupled with his no-stuff, leaving two men on with no outs in the inning. Domingo Moreno was called on to deal with switch-hitter Luis Lopez, who was weaker against left-handers, but just managed to master Moreno and hit a 3-run homer that put the game to a very definite rest, since at that junction the Raccoons were getting 1-hit by Jorge Chapa, who had always been full of miracles. He would surrender one run on a few cheap first-pitch singles in the eighth inning, but the Raccoons could never stop the bleeding, Kichida getting tagged for one run, and Adam Riddle for three, in a game in which they allowed 18 hits for 11 runs. 11-1 Titans. Sharp 3-4, 2B; Mays 1-1; Quebell 1-1, BB;

There were scarcely over 16,000 people at the park. I don’t think there will be much fight over the 15,000 bobbleheads on Daniel Hall Appreciation & Bobblehead Day, this Saturday, as the Raccoons face the Atlanta Knights.

Game 2
BOS: CF Garrison – 2B Heffer – SS Hutchinson – LF Brulhart – RF G. Munoz – C Rosa – 3B M. Austin – 1B H. Ramirez – P Conner
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – RF Crespo – 1B Quebell – LF Castro – 3B Sharp – CF Fernandez – C Bowen – P Webster

Just like the last bubble of air was escaping the Raccoons’ imaginary playoff bubble (if all other teams lose all their games…), Tim Webster, pretending to be a pitcher, also started to lose his false color coating and was exposed as the dirty piece of **** that he was. The first inning went something like that: Garrison double, Heffer walked, wild pitch; then a sac fly by Hutchinson, and Brulhart homered. Munoz walked, Rosa doubled, another sac fly, another wild pitch, and some miraculous play in the field to keep the score at a manageable 4-0. In an eventful day, Webster spent 100 pitches on six innings of work, both driving in a run with a double, and conceding a run to the opposing pitcher Conner, while always maintaining a safe lead – for the Titans. Conner’s RBI would be their only one past the first against Webster, but despite two triples by J.C. Crespo and a Quebell home run, the Raccoons still trailed, 5-4, when in the sixth they first had Castro thrown out stealing, then hit another three singles, and still didn’t score. Domingo Moreno absolutely found it necessary to surrender a home run to the old wailer Freddy Rosa, giving the Titans that insurance run you don’t want to give up. But hey, maybe we can still make it way worse! Moreno drilled Garrison at the start of the ninth inning, and we went to Marcos Bruno to get it over with – and Bruno got soiled relentlessly. Four hits, a hit batter, two walks (one intentional), and when HE left with his head hanging in shame to cut himself, Ed Bryan kept the line moving. 11-4 Titans. Crespo 2-5, 2 3B; Quebell 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Castro 3-4; Fernandez 3-4, RBI; Mays (PH) 1-1;

We out-hit them 15-14. How is something like that even possible!?

If there was any way to dump Webster to Siberia, I would be all in. But sadly, we can’t have Nick Brown pitch six days a week. Some baboon has to take the ball four out of five days. And Vega has to be eliminated first.

But sssshhh. Don’t tell him until after his start.

Game 3
BOS: C Rosa – 3B M. Austin – LF Brulhart – RF G. Munoz – SS Hutchinson – CF Garrison – 2B H. Ramirez – 1B Heffer – P Hildred
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – 3B Sharp – CF Crespo – C Bowen – P Vega

Sergio Vega for a while enjoyed the privilege of playing against a team in which desperation had bred idiocy. In the third inning alone, the Titans had Freddy Rosa ejected for arguing balls and strikes (mainly strikes, and he wasn’t quite arguing, either), and had TWO runners thrown out on the base paths. They still scored a run on two walks and three hits, none soft, to go up 1-0. The Coons would follow up that challenge with leaving runners on first and third in both the third and fourth innings.

At first glance, Vega would make a good start. 97 pitches for six innings of 1-run ball. Putting it that way was a great injustice to the 11 Titans runners that reached against him and somehow vanished in the void. He was still on the hook, since the Raccoons just didn’t hit. The Titans would amount to 13 hits in their nine innings this time, but didn’t score again against the parade of Rockburn, Kichida, Bryan, and Casas (who had to get work). We faced Manuel Martinez (who had pitched the previous days just to get work) in the ninth, still trailing 1-0 with Bob Mays leading off, and he struck out. Sharp singled, but Yamada had already been used to no effect in the eighth. Crespo struck out before Fernandez hit for Bowen, grounded to second – and Hector Ramirez threw it away! That put the winning runs in scoring position and we had to hit for Angel Casas. Our choices were Searcy and Esquivel. Felt like a funeral as Sergio Esquivel grabbed a bat and walked out there. He grounded to second, Ramirez played it again, but this time found his first baseman. 1-0 Titans. Nomura 2-4; Flores 2-4, 2B; Sharp 1-2, 2 BB;

I just want to die.

But that would be a shame, now that I have made it that close to Daniel Hall Appreciation & Bobblehead Day, with the first 15,000 fans receiving a Daniel Head Bobblehall this Saturday before the game against the Atlanta Knights!

Raccoons (59-65) vs. Knights (65-60) – August 25-27, 2006 – DANIEL HALL APPRECIATION & BOBBLEHEHAD WEEKEND!!

The Knights had a run differential of +9, with every game basically descending into wildness. With a league average ERA of around 3.90, the Knights were scoring over 4.9 runs per game, and allowed just below 4.9 runs per game. No lead was ever safe when they were involved, but two of their key outfielders were on the DL in Rodrigo Lopez and Stephen Ware, the latter being lost for the season. We had won four of five against them this season, and we’d play four games on the weekend, with an opening double header before we would then have Daniel Hall Appreciation & Bobblehead Day on Saturday for game 3.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (7-3, 2.62 ERA) vs. Jong-suk Lee (12-11, 4.12 ERA)
Ralph Ford (11-10, 3.38 ERA) vs. Eric Stevens (7-9, 4.85 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (13-10, 4.35 ERA) vs. Greg Grams (6-5, 4.40 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (6-13, 4.54 ERA) vs. Johnny Collins (8-11, 4.69 ERA)

Stevens is the only left-hander in their rotation. We miss the worst guy they have to offer, Vicente Perez, with a 6.07 ERA.

Game 1
ATL: RF Plummer – 3B C. Martinez – CF J. Morales – 1B J. Garcia – 2B J. Gutierrez – 2B A. Rodriguez – C Hurtado – SS Fish – P J.S. Lee
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – 3B Sharp – CF Crespo – C Esquivel – P Brown

Nick Brown’s first major league game in two months began with a 7-pitch strikeout to Doug Plummer. He also struck out Jose Morales in a perfect first, before Brady doubled in Yoshi Nomura in the bottom of the inning. The 1-0 lead became a 3-0 lead in the second inning, with Brown singling home a run with a chop job over Jorge Garcia, but struck out with the bases loaded to end the third inning at 4-0 against a rapidly imploding Jong-suk Lee. He left the game in the fourth after Nomura’s leadoff single with an apparent injury. Brown was perfect the first time through the Knights’ order, but Plummer’s leadoff triple in the fourth brought a run home for the Knights quickly, cutting the lead to 4-1, and the Knights were far from defeated, stranding two men in both of the next two innings with the tying run at the plate grounding out to Flores both times to end it, and the comfort zone got even smaller in the seventh inning. The Knights had a man on first when unheralded Tom Fish doubled to right, and the run scored, 4-2. With two out, Plummer grounded to Quebell, who blew it, and suddenly the tying runs were on the corners. Here, we wanted Brown to face the right-hander Carlos Martinez rather than bring a right-hander, have him fail, then go to a left-hander immediately. If Brown loads the bases, or allows a single, he can still pitch against the left-handers behind Martinez, with Morales and Garcia combining for 45 home runs on the year. We had another game to play after all!

But Brown left on a high note, striking out Martinez to have a very decent comeback, two runs in seven innings, whiffing eight. You were longing for an insurance runs, but for some time they were only grounding out to the middle infielders in this game. Moreno came in to face the monster left-handers, retired Morales on a foul pop, then was taken well deep by Garcia, cutting Brownie’s lead to 4-3. Yamada ran when Sharp drew a leadoff walk against Clyde Henderson. He got to second without much effort on Henderson’s wild pitch to Crespo, who was then walked intentionally, only for Esquivel to hit into a double play and for Castro to ground out terribly. No insurance! Angel retired the first two Knights in the ninth, then Plummer hit a single. OH MY GOD THE NERVES!! Full count on Martinez – who grounded to Nomura, to first, out! Phew!! 4-3 Brownies!! Sharp 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (8-3) and 1-3, RBI;

Game 2
ATL: RF Plummer – C J. Clark – CF J. Morales – 1B J. Garcia – 2B J. Gutierrez – LF A. Rodriguez – 3B C. Martinez – SS T. Pena – P Stevens
POR: 2B Flores – RF Crespo – CF Fernandez – LF Castro – 1B Sharp – C Bowen – SS Yamada – 3B Searcy – P Ford

With at best three relievers available, Ford had to show something in this night cap. And with that we didn’t mean showing the Knights the way onto the scoreboard, but Juan Gutierrez homered in the second inning anyway. Ford was struggling, the Knights went to 2-0 in the third, and the Raccoons had runners on the corners with one out, but between Searcy and Ford to bat you better didn’t expect anything but tears. Having their first two men, Castro and Sharp, on base to start the fourth didn’t help either, as when Castro ran, Sharp ran, too, and was thrown out. Castro was kept pinned by Bowen’s ****ty groundout to third, and we didn’t score again. After a few dull innings, the bottom 6th opened with singles by Crespo and Fernandez, putting the tying runs on first and second like two innings earlier. We moved on when Stevens drilled Tomas Castro to load them up. And then – Sharp flew out poorly to right, keeping everybody pinned against Doug Plummer’s brutal arm. Bowen struck out. Brady hit for Yamada, but grounded out. The next inning finally brought relief. Searcy and Flores were on with one out for Crespo, who doubled to deep right, and even Plummer couldn’t keep Flores from scoring all the way from first base on this one, and it tied the score. Crespo would then score the go-ahead run without any help from the lineup, on a wild pitch and an error by Garcia.

Although we had a 3-2 lead through seven, and Ford was on 112 pitches, we couldn’t remove him. Morales and Garcia were leading off the eighth, and what had not been publicly announced, was well known to us: neither of our left-handed relievers was available – and we had to use the left-handed starter to get those two out. Morales hit a fly to deep left, but had it caught, and Garcia grounded out, and then Ford promptly was removed on 121 pitches. Adam Riddle was tasked with Gutierrez with the intent of saving Law Rockburn for the ninth inning. This barely worked – Gutierrez hit a looper into the gap, but Castro managed to blink himself there and snagged it. Law didn’t have that much himself, having pitched two days in a row, but he was aided greatly when the Knights fouled out twice in the ninth inning, and Rockburn struck out the middle batter as the Coons squeezed through again. 3-2 Coons! Crespo 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Fernandez 2-4, RBI; Nomura 1-1; Ford 7.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (12-10);

We didn’t use Kaz in the double header. You don’t want to use Kaz in a 4-3 game.

Next will be an event you don’t want to miss: Daniel Hall Appreciation & Bobblehead Day. Don’t miss tomorrow’s appreciating and mind-bobbling bonanza, with the first 15,000 fans receiving Daniel Hall Bobbleheads, 223 of those being signed by Daniel Hall!

Game 3
ATL: RF Plummer – C J. Clark – CF J. Morales – 1B J. Garcia – LF A. Rodriguez – 2B J. Gutierrez – 3B C. Martinez – SS T. Pena – P Grams
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – 3B Sharp – CF Fernandez – C Esquivel – P Dominguez

Dominguez was of course a disgrace to Daniel Hall Appreciation & Bobblehead Day, but we kinda were on a tight schedule here. He allowed a run in the first, then pretended to be decent for two innings before one hell of a fourth, in which he walked three, including one when the bases were already loaded. The Knights took a 3-0 lead, moved to 4-0 on Carlos Martinez’ homer in the fifth, and the Raccoons – were they playing or were they occupied bobbling and appreciating their Daniel Hall Bobbleheads? After six, we trailed 5-0, with two hits to our credit. Daniel Hall was not actually seen weeping when presented with the rather pathetic look of this outfit, but on the inside you bet he was. The Raccoons didn’t get a faint glimmer of offense until the seventh when Clyde Brady hit a fly to left that for half a second looked like it might be going, but soon enough dropped into Rodriguez’ unhustled glove in slightly deeper-than-average leftfield. Another run scored off Marcos Bruno in the ninth in the most horrible week he had had in years. Offensively, there was not the slightest sign of life as the Raccoons’ lineup lay down like rocks strewn across a desert. 6-0 Knights. Kichida 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Daniel Hall Appreciation & Bobblehead Day was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Daniel Hall, 51 and having a grayish fuzz appearing around the temples, handed out bobbleheads along our regular crew on one of the gates before the game, then was the center of festivities before the actual game. We honored him with a banner showing his number #15 and his name (HALL), black lettering on brown ground, being unveiled on the front face of the upper deck of the stands in leftfield. The attendance was treated of highlights from his playing career (which was light on playoffs for the reason of too many hospital bills), but hardly anybody remembered his first major league hit (a pinch-hit RBI single on September 1, 1978 in a 5-1 win over the Loggers), and unfortunately there was no footage to be found of his first major league home run in the same series, which game in a non-televised game. But quite a number of people remembered the Daniel Hall Game, April 11, 1984, driving in nine runs in a 14-12 knife fight with the Bayhawks, in which he hit for 11 bases.

During the game, Dan The Man shook hands with fans, signed all kinds of stuff in different sections of the ballpark. Caps, yearbooks, a kid’s arm cast, and I *heard* that some guy also had his wheelchair-bound mother-in-law signed to make her more likeable. Can’t verify that.

Despite the game being a real mood killer, Dan afterwards and into the night hung out with us select few, you know, Slappy, me, Honeypaws, and Tim from Accounting, who showed Daniel the "I [heart] DAN THE MAN" tattoo on his left buttock that he had gotten himself in 1982. Drank a few, remembered the old times, cried a bit.

Those were manly cries, of course.

Game 4
ATL: RF Plummer – C J. Clark – CF J. Morales – 1B J. Garcia – LF A. Rodriguez – 2B J. Gutierrez – 3B C. Martinez – SS T. Pena – P J. Collins
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Fernandez – RF Mays – LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – SS Yamada – P Watanabe

Watanabe didn’t have a clean inning until the fifth, and also didn’t strike out anybody until the fifth (and then it was Collins), but at least the Knights left all their runners on in those five innings. But so did the Raccoons. But Watanabe would have two singles with the bat, which didn’t get the offense going however. The first was one to lead off the third, which quickly led to a double play, and the latter came with two outs in the fifth, moved Yamada to second, but Nomura was something of a black hole in this game and kept being oh-fer, then blew the game in the top 6th when he got a grounder from Morales and mishandled it. Instead of a double play, Watanabe got two on and no outs, then had Fernandez drop Rodriguez’ soft fly to load the bases on the second inexplicable error of the inning. OF COURSE Juan Gutierrez hit a COMPLETELY UNEARNED grand slam after that, which was more than enough to sink the Raccoons in this one. Watanabe went six and two thirds, got no love whatsoever and probably cried all night like me. 4-0 Knights. Castro 2-3, 2B; Watanabe 6.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, L (6-14) and 2-2;

And just like that we haven’t scored in 19 innings.

In other news

August 22 – SFW INF/RF/CF Ramón Garza (.308, 3 HR, 61 RBI) has suffered an intercostal strain and will miss about a month.
August 27 – The Loggers pick up scruffy utility player Orlando Rios (.273, 10 HR, 44 RBI), who is 36 years old, from the Wolves, parting with two not-too-great A level players that go to Salem.

Complaints and stuff

First thing Monday morning, I will commission a Dadaist painting, perhaps 12 by 20 feet, of Sunday’s top half of the sixth inning. You know, one of those things that tell a story with everything happening at the same time, inside differently colored cubes. Or – … is M.C. Escher still alive?

I’m told by Whitebread, no.

What a nightmare!

That’s only #2 in our week in disarray. Shameful story of the year from Portland (and if the Agitator picks this up, it could get really bad), but … right now my office is occupied by 827 Daniel Hall Bobbleheads, because we have no other way to store them. We had 15,000 of the little fellas. There were 17,115 tickets sold to Saturday’s game. Tickets … SOLD. Actual attendance? 14,173. That includes season ticket holders not appearing (really puzzling!), guys that had tickets and couldn’t make it, corporate suites not occupied, yada-yada-yada. Anybody want a bobblehead? Actually we have 82*6* left - I managed to break the bat off one of the little guys - and any number of them might be signed.

Brownie – 64 wins, 1,073 strikeouts, and we keep counting. As we’re counting beans, I missed the following last week: Ralph Ford might have been choked by the Indians, but he struck out Ron Alston in the game to reach 1,000 career strikeouts himself. Ralph Ford – always overlooked, always his own fault.

Also overlooked: Daniel Sharp. On Sunday, for a very brief moment, his batting average reached .250; but that’s not the point. For years I have been bitching and moaning and throwing knives and snakes at him for his ****ty defense. He had 88 errors in five-and-a-bit seasons mostly manning third base, and two full dozen last year. He has only made THREE errors this year! He actually gained a quarter of a point of WAR from defense this year, for the first time in his career!

Not that it offsets the fact that he and his bat just dropped off the table, through the floor, through the floor underneath that, and then impacted the ground in the cellar to leave a 12ft deep crater…

AA CL Derrek Fredlund, whom we acquired like three weeks ago from the Warriors, has torn a flexor tendon and is out until next season, maybe late April, early May.