[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Titans (0-0) – April 2-4, 2019

The Raccoons faced the Titans to start the season and would do so to open a 9-game homestand. We had beaten Boston 12-6 in both of the last two seasons, after both of which they had ended up on the bottom of the division. They had finished in the first division of the North only twice in the last 12 years, a terrible fall from grace after taking the North eight times from 1997 through 2005. They did have a few good batters, sure, but their pitching was predicted to be horrendous for ’19, so they probably wouldn’t leave the basement any time soon.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (0-0) vs. Chris Klein (0-0)
Tadasu Abe (0-0) vs. Ozzie Pereira (0-0)
Hector Santos (0-0) vs. Rick Ling (0-0)

To illustrate the point, Ozzie Pereira was a 31-year old career drum skin, who had a winning record for his career thanks to pitching for the Pacifics the entire time. The ERA was semi-decent at 4.13 ERA, but in fact he was issuing too many walks and also had a case for employment as human catapult, because of his vulnerability to the long ball. We will bring our own moonshot producer on Thursday, with Santos facing the Titans’ only southpaw, sophomore Rick Ling, who went a respectable 11-15 with a 3.69 ERA in his rookie season.

Game 1
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – LF J. Avila – 2B Humphres – SS M. Rivera – P Klein
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – P Toner

Jonny Triple Crown struck out Alex Mata and Tom Thomas to start the 2019 season and had a perfect first, while the Raccoons got their first run quickly, with Cookie hitting a single, stealing second base, and then – after Shane Walter walked in a full count – scored thanks to a wild pitch and divine intervention on a Mendoza sac fly. The lead didn’t last, with Chris Almanza drawing a leadoff walk in the top 2nd, stealing second despite Toner trying to pick him off twice, and then scoring on Robby Humphres’ 2-out single to center. Mata also walked in the third, and also stole a base, this time with Denny spiking a throw that almost upended Ronnie McKnight, but Mata was stranded when Jonny struck out Thomas and Steve Butler. Toner hit a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd, but ended up ignored by the top of the order, and Almanza ramped up the pressure with a leadoff double in the fourth. Denny showed that the third time was the charm, throwing Almanza out at third base on yet another steal attempt, and the Titans didn’t score in the inning. Toner struck out ten like it was nothing across the first five innings, and drew a 1-out walk in the bottom 5th to again not receive consideration from an otherwise arthritic performance of the Opening Day lineup; Toner was 40% of the team’s baserunners through five innings.

Opposite Toner, Chris Klein K’ed Nunley to start the bottom 6th, which gave him six terminal whiffs on the day. The problem of the Coons was less no contact, but bad contact; Mendoza’s walk at least put the go-ahead run on base again, and then McKnight reached on a dying blooper to right for a single. Duarte grounded to short, but Mike Rivera was carried away from second base and lost the double play, with only Duarte out at first and the runners now on second and third with two outs for R.J. DeWeese, which was hardly ever any good. In a full count, DeWeese closed his eyes (we have video proof!) and blasted a shot outta rightfield for a tie-breaking 3-run homer. Whatever works, boys, whatever works!

Toner completed seven before he suddenly buckled in the eighth. Mike Rivera hit a leadoff single to right center, and then Craig Dasher hit a pinch-hit homer to get the Titans back to within one. Thrasher replaced him, retired Mata on a soft fly to center, but then allowed a double to left to the right-handed Tom Thomas. Butler struck out, before the ball was moved to Chris Mathis, who got Almanza to ground out to third base. After the Coons’ 3-4-5 went down in the blink of an eye in the bottom 8th (with Jackson hitting for McKnight), Alex Ramirez came as close as one could to blow a 1-run lead without actually putting anybody on base. Tim Robinson hit a laser shot to deep right that Cookie spoiled in full flight, and Jose Avila hit a sharp bouncer to first that Mendoza just barely managed to swipe down and feed to Ramirez for the second out. An inch here and two there, and we’re tied. We weren’t however, and Humphres made the final out without much fuss. 4-3 Raccoons. Mendoza 1-2, BB, RBI; DeWeese 1-3, HR, 3 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 12 K, W (1-0) and 1-2, BB;

Roland Lafon made his Raccoons debut in the ninth inning, replacing McKnight at short.

Game 2
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – LF J. Avila – 2B Humphres – SS M. Rivera – P Pereira
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – P Abe

After the flash flood of strikeouts on Tuesday, Abe did not whiff anybody until he arrived at Pereira on Wednesday, but he allowed only one hit the first time through and the Titans didn’t score. Neither did the Coons, who had runners in scoring position with one out and DeWeese batting after McKnight walked and Alx Duarte doubled in the second inning. DeWeese lined out to Avila, McKnight tagged and went, and was thrown out at home. Mike Denny, who would have received the intentional walk had McKnight not gone, to bring up the terrible hitter Abe with two outs and the bags full, led off the bottom 3rd with a single that barely escaped to the outfield. Abe’s bunt was from the textbook and the Titans got nobody out when they tried to get the glacially-paced Denny at second base, which put the 8-9 guys on with nobody out and the 1-2-3 coming up. In one full count, Cookie singled to right, loading the bases, but in the next full count Shane Walter fouled out. Nunley struck out on three pitches before Mendoza hit a 1-0 pitch to deep center. Mata was looking up and reaching, reaching, reaching, but not getting it. The ball went all the way to the wall, where it died, and with Cookie going full barrel from the first step, all runners scored on Mendoza’s bases-clearing triple that gave Abe a 3-0 lead. McKnight lined out to Humphres to end the inning.

In the fifth, the Titans made the third out at third base; Humphres had hit a 2-out single off Abe, then went to third when Rivera also singled. Duarte rocketed the ball to Nunley, who tagged out Humphres with enough time to have a slice of pizza in between. Mendoza came up with two on and two outs in the bottom 5th after Walter and Nunley had reached base, but struck out. The Coons had two on (in scoring position) and two outs again in the bottom 6th, this time with Abe next to bat. Joey Mathews was sent to bat in his stead as the Critters were looking for a knockout blow. They got a floater to shallow left that fell in front of Avila and scored DeWeese from third for a 4-0 lead. Pereira balked in Mike Denny, 5-0, before Cookie grounded out.

Jeff Boynton made his Raccoons debut in the seventh inning, and it was not a splash success. Butler hit a leadoff single, Boynton balked and allowed the run on two deep drives to right that Cookie spoiled. The Titans were on the board, but didn’t get any further in the eighth, in the bottom of which Brett Dill was in a world of trouble immediately. Petracek hit for Duarte and singled to center, DeWeese also singled, and then Denny was nicked by a 3-0 pitch. Despite three on and nobody out, the Coons got only one run on Eddie Jackson’s sac fly. Cookie grounded out and Walter popped out to strand a pair. Seung-mo Chun was up in the ninth, but got strafed; after two leadoff singles by Thomas and Butler, who went to the corners, Almanza hit into a run-scoring double play. Tim Robinson hit a HUGE homer, but Avila grounded out to end the game after all. 6-3 Raccoons. Mendoza 2-4, 3B, 3 RBI; Petracek (PH) 1-1; DeWeese 2-3, BB; Denny 2-3, 2B; Mathews (PH) 1-1, RBI; Abe 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

This is actually the first win for Tadasu Abe since last April. Shane Walter is 0-for-7 to start the year, but I am sure the constant pops will end at some point. And we’re the only North team to start 2-0, so that’s that.

Danny Margolis was the only position player not used so far, and would get the start behind the dish in the last game of the series.

Game 3
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – LF J. Avila – 2B Humphres – SS M. Rivera – P Ling
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Jackson – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – C Margolis – P Santos

Santos conceded three near-bombs in four pitches in the first inning, and somehow Cookie and Duarte played them all for outs, which was somehow efficient and scary at the same time. Eddie Jackson’s 2-out walk in the bottom 1st was the only instance of a Critter reaching the first time through the order, but Santos made less noise in the park as well in the following few innings. Cookie and Walter hit 2-out singles in the bottom 3rd, but Jackson grounded out to leave them on. The game remained scoreless through five. Butler hit another deep fly to center in the fourth, but Duarte had that one contained as well. Mike Rivera opened the sixth with a single off Santos that rolled over the third base bag – the second hit for the Titans and the fourth overall in the game. Rick Ling bunted up the third base line, but the bouncer was way too hard and right into Nunley’s eagerly waiting glove for a force out at second base. After Mata lined out to centerfield, Nunley mishandled Tom Thomas grounder to third for an error, and Santos responded with a bases-loading 2-out walk to Butler, which brought up the mashing Almanza. The count ran full, the runners went into motion, and Almanza swung over ball four to end the inning.

Santos maintained a 2-hitter through seven innings, but was pretty much gassed after that. The game was still scoreless, but Nunley’s leadoff double into the rightfield corner to start the bottom 7th was exactly what the Coons needed. Here it got weird: the Titans walked Duarte intentionally to bring up McKnight, who was 1-for-8 and a left-hander, but despite pronounced career splits for Ronnie, I personally would not have bet on his .195 career average against southpaws. Ling didn’t throw a strike until he hung a 2-0 breaking ball over the plate. McKnight hit it hard to right, but also well into Almanza’s comfort zone for the first out. Danny Margolis came up and hit a liner to right center – that one was decidedly NOT in Almanza’s comfort zone, and was in for a single. Nunley had gotten a good read and scored easily from second base with the first run of the game. Denny hit for Santos, but lined out to Tom Thomas at the hot corner. Cookie also hit a liner there, only higher and up the leftfield line for an RBI single. Walter grounded out, and the 2-0 lead was handed to Thrasher, who struck out Mike Rivera, then handled bouncebacks from Mike Cesta and Alex Mata for the other outs in the eighth. The Coons didn’t tack on in the bottom 8th, and Alex Ramirez was up against the 2-3-4 batters in the ninth. Tom Thomas struck out in a full count before Butler singled to left. Almanza was a strike away from a golden sombrero when he grounded hard to third. Nunley was all over that and got Almanza at first base, and Ramirez ended the game with a K to Robinson, sealing the season-opening sweep. 2-0 Critters! Carmona 2-4, RBI; Walter 2-4; Santos 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (1-0);

Raccoons (3-0) vs. Bayhawks (2-2) – April 5-7, 2019

While the Raccoons had had a hard time generating offense – and where had we seen that before? – in their first series of the season, the Bayhawks’ pitching had been ravaged for 20 runs by the Condors, with their starters carrying a sparkling 6.18 ERA early on. They also had scored 19 runs, good enough for a tied second place this early in the season. They were led in RBI by ex-Coon Tom Dahlke, who had driven in five as starter at second base. We brushed the Bayhawks aside in 2018, winning eight of nine games, but sadly didn’t get to see them in the CLCS…

Projected matchups:
Cole Pierson (0-0) vs. Alex Maldonado (0-0)
Bobby Guerrero (0-0) vs. Bob King (0-1, 6.43 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (1-0, 3.86 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (0-1, 10.50 ERA)

We will get three right-handed pitchers in this series.

Game 1
SFB: LF R. Allen – 3B J. Pena – CF D. Garcia – C D. Alexander – SS Claros – 2B Dahlke – RF Sarabia – 1B T. Ramos – P Maldonado
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – P Pierson

Cole Pierson retired the first seven batters of his Raccoons career before Tony Ramos hit a single in the third. Maldonado bunted the first baseman over to second base, after which Roger Allen singled hard to left. Ramos was sent against DeWeese’s arm, which turned out to be a bad idea when Ramos found himself thrown out at home by 15 feet to end the inning. The Raccoons, who so far had only a Cookie walk and a Walter double play to show for, got another leadoff walk from DeWeese in the bottom 3rd. Denny struck out, bringing up Pierson, who’s bunt was taken to second by Maldonado – but not in time. The Coons had two on, and before Maldonado pitched to Cookie they had two in scoring position, Maldonado being called out for a balk. Unfortunately, Cookie’s fly to shallow right ended up with Victor Sarabia and was too shallow to send DeWeese, and Shane Walter grounded out to Dahlke.

Dahlke’s bunt was taken to second base unsuccessfully in the fifth inning by Pierson, also giving the Bayhawks two on after Raul Claros’ leadoff walk. Pierson lost Sarabia in a full count, loading the bases with still nobody out. To Pierson’s credit – he gutted this one out. He got Ramos to pop out to short on the first pitch, struck out Maldonado, and then got help from Duarte who went back to grab Roger Allen’s fly to deep center, hit on another 1-2 pitch. The Baybirds had had three on, and scored none. However, this did not manage to gloss over the fact that the Raccoons remained hitless through five innings against Maldonado… Chances for a no-hitter were slim for Maldonado, though, who lost Cookie to a leadoff walk in the sixth, his fourth walk allowed in the game, which put him on 79 pitches with 12 outs left to collect. While Walter and Nunley made quick outs, Mendoza singled over Claros’ glove into left to dispel the notion for good, but it was not enough to get anything onto the board. Not that the Birds got on; while Sarabia hit a 1-out single to right to knock out Pierson just shy of 100 pitches in the seventh, Wade Davis came on to strike out PH Jimmy Raupp and Maldonado to end the inning. Chris Mathis was in trouble in the eighth; after striking out Allen to start the inning, he walked PH Willie Ramos and allowed a single to Dave Garcia. With D-Alex and Claros approaching, Ron Thrasher replaced him, but allowed Ramos to score on D-Alex’s first-pitch single past Walter into right. Claros walked before Dahlke hit into a double play with the bases loaded. Down 1-0, Mathews hit for Thrasher in the bottom 8th, but lined out to Robby Vasquez at short. Cookie walked, the fifth walk off Maldonado, but was thrown out on a hit-and-run ordered in which Walter didn’t hit – then walked two pitches later. Barry MacDonald replaced Maldonado after this sixth walk, and Nunley grounded out to Dahlke to end the inning. Boynton had a clean ninth to leave the Raccoons one run away for the bottom 9th, in which they faced Kevin Woodworth, right-handed setup man, who pitched in lieu of lefty closer Mike Stank, who was unavailable after three outings in four days. If that was not a Coons-sized opening! Starting with Mendoza’s poor grounder to Dahlke, the Raccoons made three pathetic outs to complete a pathetic game and their first loss of the season. 1-0 Bayhawks. Carmona 0-1, 3 BB; Pierson 6.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K;

Bright sides: still batting .200 as a team!

EXACTLY .200 …

Game 2
SFB: LF R. Allen – 3B J. Pena – CF D. Garcia – C D. Alexander – RF Raupp – SS Claros – 1B T. Ramos – 2B Vasquez – P Bo. King
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 2B Mathews – SS Lafon – P Guerrero

Cookie made an error in the top of the first, singled and got caught stealing in the bottom of the first, and when Duarte tripled, nobody scored one Nunley and Mendoza amnesiaed their way to the batter’s box and back. Meanwhile Bobby Guerrero had walked Allen to start the game, but despite the error had gotten through the first. He wouldn’t get through the second like that. Raupp was issued a leadoff walk before the Bayhawks loaded the bases with singles by Claros and Ramos. Guerrero crapped out completely there and then and issued bases-loaded walks to not only Robby Vasquez, but also to Bob King, the opposing pitcher. Allen hit into a run-scoring double play, and the fourth run scored on Juan Pena’s double to right. Down 4-0, the Coons opened the bottom 2nd with singles by DeWeese and Denny, who went to the corners, but Mathews killed the effort right away by grounding sharply to Robby Vasquez, who had no trouble turning a 4-6-3 double play. A run scored, but there had been more in that inning for the Coons…

Guerrero was pinch-hit for in the bottom 3rd after three innings, three hits, five walks, and four runs. McKnight batted for him and reached on an infield single, scoring with two outs on Nunley’s double. Mendoza, the tying run, struck out. Despite knocking out NINE hits in the first five innings, the Raccoons failed to make up the four runs the Baybirds had puked onto Guerrero in the second… They made it to 11 hits when Denny and Mathews with two outs in the bottom 6th. That brought up Lafon. The Birds seemed disinclined to replace King at this point, so Shane Walter batted for Lafon. A crummy .143 out of the gate, Walter blooped a single to shallow center to load the bases. Up came Brian Petracek, who had earlier replaced Nunley at third in a double switch and popped out to Vasquez to end the inning, maddeningly. Despite him allowing a dozen hits, the Coons failed to knock out King across eight innings, then faced Stank in the bottom of the ninth, still down 4-2. Walter, Petracek, and Cookie were going to come up, and faced six pitches between them, resulting in two groundouts and Cookie’s single to center. Duarte came up, batting .143 like almost everybody in the lineup, and struck out to end the game. 4-2 Bayhawks. Carmona 2-5; DeWeese 2-4; Denny 2-4; Mathews 2-4; McKnight (PH) 1-1; Jackson (PH) 1-1; Chun 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Boynton 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

13 hits for the Coons, six for the Baybirds. That’s all types of ineptness now, right?

Game 3
SFB: LF R. Allen – 3B J. Pena – CF D. Garcia – C D. Alexander – RF Raupp – SS Claros – 1B T. Ramos – 2B Dahlke – P Boyer
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – C Margolis – P Toner

Boyer had some years ago denied Jonny Toner a triple crown by winning one game more than the Raccoons’ ace, but not only had he been roughed up badly for seven runs and a loss in his first start of the season, he was also insta-drummed in the first inning. Cookie walked, Walter singled, Nunley lined out right to Dahlke, which was all that kept the bases from being loaded, or even worse for Boyer. It still didn’t help Boyer, who allowed a raw bomb to deep right, high and very much gone for a 3-run homer and an early Coons lead. Toner was close to stumbling into harm’s way in the second inning, issuing walks to Claros and Ramos before Dahlke grounded out and Boyer struck out to leave runners in scoring position. When Roger Allen hit a leadoff jack in the third to get the Baybirds back to 3-1, Toner’s ERA rose to a flat four, which was just wrong aesthetically. Pena singled, but Toner struck out the next three to stop the nonsense.

This was certainly not a vintage Toner start; he struggled with control not only in the second inning, but ran 3-ball counts consistently and used 81 pitches through four innings. Batting with runners in scoring position and one out in the bottom 4th, he hit a sac fly to center that almost would have been a 2-run double, but Dave Garcia made a marvelous catch to keep the Raccoons at 4-1 rather than 5-1. To start the fifth, Toner lost Allen on four pitches, although he would be thrown out trying to steal second base by Margolis. Garcia reached with an infield single with two outs, and that came in a full count, putting Toner at 96 pitches and still short of five innings. Before it got better, it got much worse with Mendoza mishandling D-Alex’ grounder for an error. Toner ran ANOTHER full count against Jimmy Raupp, who became his tenth strikeout victim, but that was also the end for Toner in a brief and schizophrenic start. The Coons, up 4-1, had to find 12 outs from a bullpen that had pitched six innings the previous day. Kaiser got only one, Chun got four, but then put two men on base in the seventh. With D-Alex the tying run, Thrasher came out, another full count, and Dylan Alexander struck out to strand the runners. Lafon led off the bottom 7th after entering along with Thrasher in a double switch to replace McKnight. Lafon hit Woodworth’s first pitch up the middle for what appeared to be a single, but Raul Claros made a fabulous defensive play to get him by a whisker at first base.

Thrasher struck out Raupp (who got a golden sombrero) and Claros in the eighth before Ramos worked a full-count walk. Alex Ramirez would have to get the last four outs and struck out Tom Dahlke for a good start. But before Ramirez could continue his day job, he had to bat in the bottom of the eighth inning after Mendoza had walked and Denny had hit a pinch-hit single. Ramirez came up with two outs and had not gotten a base hit since 2010 – his only career base hit – and so of course he snipped a 2-0 pitch up the middle and past Dahlke for an RBI single…! The top of the ninth was much less successful. Sarabia led off with a single, and Roger Allen’s hard liner went right into DeWeese’s glove in left. After Pena hit a softer single to left, Garcia hit the next rocket – right into Lafon’s glove! Maybe we could get another lucky out here? D-Alex grounded hard to Lafon, but no problem for the defensive infielder, who easily got Alexander at first. 5-1 Critters. Mendoza 2-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Duarte 1-2, BB; Denny (PH) 1-1; Ramirez 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (3) and 1-1, RBI;

In other news

April 1 – Neither joke, nor fool, LAP LF Jimmy Roberts (.667, 1 HR, 2 RBI) knocks four hits on Opening Day in a 17-inning, 5-3 win over the Scorpions to reach 2,000 career hits. Roberts’ damage total includes a double and the game-winning 2-run homer off Logan Sloan in the 17th inning. A career Pacific, Roberts has batted .307 with 262 HR and 1,059 RBI since his 2006 debut, and has netted three World Series rings, the 2011 FL Player of the Year award, six Platinum Sticks, and seven All Star nominations. The actual milestone hit is an eighth-inning single off southpaw Justin Hess.
April 1 – SAL 3B George Roop (.333, 0 HR, 2 RBI), 22 years old, is credited with a game-winning RBI in his major league debut when SFW CL Salvadaro Soure (0-1, 27.00 ERA) drills him with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Wolves walk off, 3-2.
April 2 – A strained posterior cruciate ligament puts CIN 2B Ieyoshi Nomura (.167, 0 HR, 0 RBI) on the DL early, but the 35-year old veteran is only expected to miss two weeks.
April 2 – In their season opener, the Loggers pump out 20 hits in a 17-5 thrashing of the Canadiens. MIL OF/1B Chris LeMoine (.600, 2 HR, 6 RBI) has three base hits, including two home runs, and drives in six.
April 5 – The Stars win their game with the Miners in ten innings thanks to 3B Miguel Salinas’ (.235, 1 HR, 5 RBI) walkoff slam. The final tally is 5-1.
April 6 – IND C Jayden Jolley (.538, 1 HR, 5 RBI) has his hot start to the season rudely abrupted. He suffered an elbow sprain in a game against the Condors and will miss a month on the DL.
April 7 – The Indians ride a 10-run third inning to a 15-3 victory over the Condors.
April 7 – Salem’s RF/LF Nate Ellis (.158, 1 HR, 3 RBI) will miss two weeks with an oblique strain.

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons were the last team to lose a game, which is not much consolation with the way the offense has seamlessly found back to its CLCS form. We are last in runs scored by a good margin with 19 counters from six games, with almost half of those coming home on three distinct swipes that each plated three, two by Mendoza and one by DeWeese.

Let’s just say that the pitching won’t be able to hold opponents to two runs per game for an entire season and that most of the Blighters need to pick their **** up PRONTO.

Then BNN came up with this neat bit:

ACTIVE PITCHERS BY ERA

1st – Angel Casas – 1.97
2nd – Arturo Lopez – 2.21
3rd – Helio Maggessi – 2.23
4th – Salvadaro Soure – 2.32
5th – Jonathan Toner – 2.33

Mind that Jonny ain’t a closer.

All our DFA’ed players reached AAA without being claimed.

Yoshi is in his 16th major league season after debuting at 20 (which was a mistake). He looked like a potential Hall of Fame candidate for a while, but I am not sure anymore. He’s a career .300/.381/.395 batter, so he’s not going in as a slugger (59 HR) for sure. He is also nowhere near the magic mark of 3,000 base hits, having amassed 2,167 so far. He has some assorted accolades as a 4-time All Star, 2-time Platinum Sticker, and he also has a Gold Glove, and almost none of this bling was won as a Raccoon, and he didn’t get good until he was 27, but IF he made the Hall, he’d probably make it as a Raccoon, because he was here for ten years, and is now on his second FL East team.

But like I said, he was fringe for a while, but I think he’s out by now.

I apologize for the bad shape of the season-opening post above, which originally contained several mistakes like Nunley batting twice against left-handers and several top rookie lists. However, you know that you subscribed to a chronic sucker, so I still don’t wanna hear any complaints. All botch jobs may or may not be fixed now.