[Westheim]

Raccoons (59-46) @ Aces (54-51) – August 3-5, 2037

The Raccoons would stop over in Vegas on the way home, playing the Aces for three more games to decide a season series currently tied at three. The Aces had the highest batting average and the second-most runs in the league, while struggling with mostly average to mediocre pitching.

Projected matchups:
Raffaello Sabre (6-5, 4.09 ERA) vs. Matt Huf (4-10, 5.22 ERA)
Bryce Sparkes (11-2, 2.69 ERA) vs. Jerry Hodges (5-8, 5.14 ERA)
Jared Ottinger (7-7, 3.12 ERA) vs. Antonio Vega (12-4, 4.01 ERA)

All right-handers in a rotation struck with the loss of Chris Crowell and Mark Roberts. Closer Steve Bass was also out, and ex-Critter Adam Downs was also on the DL. Huf was of course also a former Raccoon, although it almost wasn’t true anymore – he had been traded for Mark Roberts a whopping 14 years ago.

Of course Portland also could not field their best lineup, with Troy Greenway suspended for another two games.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Trevino – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – LF Hooge – 1B Stedham – 3B Myers – C Garcia – P Sabre
LVA: CF M. Hall – SS O’Keefe – 2B Briones – RF Marz – LF Jorgensen – C Kuehn – 3B Toney – 1B Bonnett – P Huf

The Raccoons hit little to nothing the first time through, while Sabre hit Mike Hall for starters, and when that runners was doubled up in the bottom 1st, John Marz opened the second with a shot to left, his 15th homer and 90th RBI on the year. Erik Bonnett opened the bottom 3rd with a double over Fernandez’ head, and the Aces would bring that runner around with the aid of a Myers error. Portland finally woke up in the fourth with back-to-back leadoff doubles by Cosmo and Manny. Fowler singled the tying run to third base, where that tying run dismally died. Ed Hooge struck out, Jesse Stedham hit a comebacker for a fielder’s choice at second base, with Fernandez frozen at third, and Myers grounded out to Mario Briones. I sighed and once more began to regret all my life choices, in chronological order.

When Sabre held the Aces where they were, the 2-3 batters could cause more trouble to tie the game in the sixth inning. Trevino singled to open that inning, stole his 33rd base, and then scored on Manny’s single through between Briones and Bonnett, tying the game at two. Manny stole second and scored on Hooge’s single after a Fowler K, putting the Critters ahead, 3-2. Stedham K’ed, Myers grounded out, the inning ended, and Sabre allowed 2-out singles to Marz and Steve Jorgensen in the bottom of the inning before ringing up Paul Kuehn.

Huf struck out eight Coons in seven innings before yielding for John Landrum, who walked Manny to begin the top 8th. Fowler and Hooge both whiffed before Stedham doubled to left. Manny lost sight of the ball and slowed down at third base, while the Raccoons had Dave Myers draw a walk to load the bases. Fernando Garcia ran a full count with two gone before hitting a ball inches past Landrum’s body and up the middle for a base hit. The ball landed in center for a single, Manny and Stedham scored, Myers went to third base, and the Raccoons sent Rich Vickers to bat for Sabre, and got a sharp RBI single to right, 6-2! Berto struck out against new pitcher Danny O’Reilly, ending the inning, but O’Reilly got shaken for a walk, three singles, and two runs in the ninth inning. Fowler and Myers got the RBI’s while Derek Barker and Travis Sims delivered two scoreless innings at the end to put the contest away. 8-2 Raccoons! Trevino 2-4, BB, 2B; M. Fernandez 4-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Fowler 2-5, RBI; Stedham 2-5, 2B; Vickers (PH) 1-1, RBI; Sabre 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (7-5);

Berto had a wicked 0-for-5 and would get a day off as reward. With few southpaw pitchers coming up right now, Tuesday was as good a spot as any.

Game 2
POR: 2B Trevino – 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – LF Hooge – 1B Stedham – C Garcia – SS Nickas – P Sparkes
LVA: CF M. Hall – SS O’Keefe – 2B Briones – RF Marz – LF Jorgensen – C Kuehn – 3B Toney – 1B Bonnett – P Hodges

Pitchers’ duel! The Coons had singles by Myers and Manny in the first inning, stranded them, and then did – nothing. Sparkes also allowed only two hits early on, and the game was scoreless and the innings passed quickly, at least through five. Manny singled on Hodges’ first pitch in the sixth inning, but Fowler struck out once again. Hooge lifted a ball to deep left, but into an out, while Hodges then walked Stedham. Garcia grounded out on the first pitch, and that was that… Hodges was lifted after a leadoff walk to Steve Nickas in the seventh inning. Sparkes bunted the potential maiden run to second base against Sean Bastone, with Trevino getting the intentional walk. The Critters took revenge by pulling off a double steal, actually giving Nickas his first career steal in the fourth attempt. Myers lifted a ball to right, Marz caught it, Nickas was sent – and thrown out. The Raccoons remained unwilling to move their hairy bums, and instead Sparkes walked two in the bottom 8th before giving up a 2-out RBI single to Chris O’Keefe. That looked like the dagger for sure…! Vegas sent right-hander Bobby Valencia for the ninth inning, and Stedham slapped a single up the middle to begin the inning. Berto batted for Garcia to stay out of a double play and floated a ball JUST over the glove of Briones, dumping another single. Somethin’ cookin’ …!! Portland asked for a bunt from Nickas, and got it, then batted Vickers for Sparkes, but got a groundout to Mike Toney at third base that got the team nowhere. Cosmo flew out to Jorgensen, and that was the ballgame… 1-0 Aces. M. Fernandez 3-3, BB; Garcia 0-1, 2 BB; Ramos (PH) 1-1; Sparkes 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, L (11-3);

(sigh!)

A win in this game would have given the Raccoons first place. But a win requires a run, and a run requires that you sometimes get the ****ing guy at third base home with less than two outs and your stupid bum on the line …!

Game 3
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Ramos – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Hooge – 1B Stedham – 3B Myers – C Kilmer – P Ottinger
LVA: CF M. Hall – SS O’Keefe – 2B Briones – RF Marz – LF Jorgensen – 3B Toney – C Wiersma – 1B Bonnett – P A. Vega

The Raccoons got a fast start in this game, despite Manny Fernandez striking out in the first inning, the first time in the series the Aces managed to retire him. Berto was on with a single, Greenway also singled on his first appearance back from suspension, and Ed Hooge shot a ball over the wall in right-center for a 3-run homer! Then came Ottinger and was immediately dissected. Mike Hall tripled and scored on O’Keefe’s sac fly, and a Briones single and a Marz homer tied the game. Jorgensen walked, Toney reached on a Trevino error, and the ship was sinking in a hurry. Ken Wiersma, who had terrorized the Raccoons before, hit a go-ahead RBI single up the middle, and another run scored on a wild pitch before the bottom of the order had the inning fizzle out, leaving the Aces up 5-3.

Neither pitcher had all his eggs in the basket, to be honest. Kilmer, Cosmo, and Berto all hit singles in the second, narrowing the gap to 5-4, and Manny walked to load the bases for Greenway, who ripped a 2-1 pitch over the head of Bonnett for a 2-run double up the rightfield line. Vega walked Hooge, then gave up an RBI single to Stedham. One of THOSE games! Portland got another run on a grounder by Myers, and a 2-out RBI single by Kilmer, *finally* knocking out Vega while Ottinger was still in the game and batted for himself against right-hander Israel Mendoza and his 6.94 ERA, walked to fill the bags, but Cosmo’s grounder was finally intercepted by a random infielder to stop a 6-run outburst, 9-5. And Ottie? He retired 1-2-3 in order in the second, hten allowed singles to Marz and Wiersma in the bottom 3rd. Bonnett, a lefty, was up with two outs. A long mound conference followed, and then a strikeout of Bonnett that kept the score at 9-5, *and* Ottinger retired the Aces in order in both the fourth and the fifth AND the sixth innings, so had the first been just one giant blotch after all…?

The Raccoons were relaxing at this point, not doing much in terms of offense throughout the middle innings. While Israel Mendoza pitched five innings for Vegas, Ottie lasted into the seventh, being lifted with one out when Hall singled up the middle. Citriniti came on, walked Briones with two outs, but got out of the inning with no damage done. The Raccoons did add to the tally in the eighth inning; Jamie Klages hit Trevino with a fastball, then paid for it when Greenway fired a homer with two outs, extending the gap to six runs. That turned out to be well enough. Citriniti, Garavito, and Sims combined for the last two innings to take the series for this week and the entire season. 11-5 Coons! Trevino 2-4; Ramos 2-5, RBI; Greenway 3-5, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Hooge 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Kilmer 2-5, RBI;

Raccoons (59-46) vs. Canadiens (54-52) – August 6-9, 2037

Alright, **** was getting real. The Raccoons started the series half a game back of the Crusaders in second place and could not afford any slip-ups, especially not of the Northern kind. The damn Elks had a 4-3 lead in the season series, which irked me to begin with, and ranked sixth in both runs scored and runs allowed. They had no injuries, and their strengths were getting on base via hits (second in average in the CL) and homer (3rd), but they had little speed and a terrible defense.

Projected matchups:
Gene Tennis (1-2, 3.55 ERA) vs. Bryce Neal (8-7, 3.62 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (8-8, 3.49 ERA) vs. Corey Booth (8-7, 3.59 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (7-5, 3.91 ERA) vs. David Arias (7-1, 3.62 ERA)
Bryce Sparkes (11-3, 2.61 ERA) vs. Matt Sealock (8-7, 2.83 ERA)

Neal would be the only left-hander we’d get this week, so we had to squeeze in the odd off day here. Stedham would be the only lefty bat not to sit on Thursday that hadn’t already sat for whatever reason earlier in the week.

(exhales deeply) Damn Elks! Oh well. It will be alright.

(calmly puts on protective helmet, fastens seatbelt on chair, puts on welders’ goggles, and dons oven mittens with stitched cat faces on them)

Okay, I’m ready.

Game 1
VAN: 2B Morrow – RF R. Phillips – CF Outram – C Clemente – 1B J. Lopez – LF LeJeune – 3B Schneider – SS Cabral – P Neal
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – LF Greenway – CF Fowler – 1B Stedham – 2B Vickers – C Garcia – RF Pinkerton – P Tennis

Gene Tennis was all over the place and ran many long counts while allowing a hit and two walks the first time through the order, taking 41 pitches for just two innings, but it was the Raccoons that scored first on a Vickers double and Garcia homer in the second inning, going up 2-0. Jerry Outram drew a full-count walk in the top 3rd, but again the Raccoons did the scoring in the bottom of the inning. Neal allowed a single to Greenway, then another 2-piece to Justin Fowler, his 27th of the year. Neal retired the next two, then served up another bomb to Garcia, who had not homered since the trade prior to this game, and was now adding steadily to his old franchise tally of seven dingers from the 2033 season. Garcia found Stedham and Vickers aboard his next time round in the fifth, narrowly missed another homer and had to settle for an RBI double to left, running the score to 6-0. The inning continued with a walk drawn by Pinkerton, Tennis’ run-scoring groundout that knocked out Neal for good, and then a 2-run single up the middle by Berto, which extended the score to 9-0 and finally ended the game as a contest.

There was still Tennis to be dazzled about, given that he was pitching a 1-hitter alright through five innings, but did so on 83 pitches and four walks, but also six strikeouts. The Elks apparently found him just as hard to watch as I did! He got through six before finally exhausting his pitch count, with Timóteo Clemente singling up the middle, but being doubled up by Johnny Lopez to end the inning. The pen took over and pitched rather competently; David Fernandez, who didn’t pitch in the Aces series and appeared rusty, allowed a run in the ninth after a leadoff double by Clemente. The half-inning before, Greenway had hit a solo shot off Raymond Pearce, so the Critters still won by nine! 10-1 Raccoons. Ramos 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Greenway 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Fowler 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Stedham 2-4, BB; Vickers 2-5, 2B; Garcia 3-4, 2 HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Tennis 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K, W (2-2);

Still without an appearance this week? Yeom Soung AND Antonio Prieto …!!

We had to put at least one of them into the Friday game, and better both.

Game 2
VAN: 2B Morrow – 1B D. James – CF Outram – RF R. Phillips – C Clemente – LF LeJeune – SS Cabral – 3B Schneider – P Booth
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Ramos – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Fowler – C Garcia – 1B Stedham – 3B Myers – P Chavez

The damn Elks scored first on Friday, with Eric Morrow hitting Bernie’s first pitch off the top of the fence in leftfield. Ryan Phillips singled him home with two outs after Derek James’ lineout and a K to Outram. The damn Elks’ centerfielder caught two hard drives by Critters in the bottom 2nd (Fowler, Myers), spoiling a potential comeback, while James hit a ball over the wall in left in the third to make it a 2-0 game. Derek James was a 26-year-old catcher misfiled at first base and also a rookie, making only his 32nd ABL appearance. This was his first ever home run. He had no trouble getting the ball back, a disgruntled teenage fan tossing it all the way back to Alberto Ramos from his cheap seat out there. – Cristiano, did you see the toss? – We should sign the kid! – I don’t care whether he looks like 15, sign him!!

Bernie Chavez at least singled up the middle on an 0-2 pitch to begin the bottom 3rd, which soon turned into a real chance when Booth walked Cosmo on four pitches. Berto hit into a double play, Manny flew out to left, and all that the Raccoons got was a stale taste in their snouts. Greenway thumped a homer in the bottom 4th, but it was a solo deed, and the only marker the Raccoons left on the board through five. It took another Troy Greenway at-bat to tie the game – with another solo homer, leading off the inning. Alright, Cristiano – I think he’s warmed up to here now! … That was his sixth Portland bomb, and it brought his batting average in the brown shirt to .310!

Not that it helped Bernie get a win, because the rest of the offense remained putrid. Bernie got one out in the seventh before running into lefty batters in Jesse LeJeune and Ramon Cabral. Garavito came on, walked PH Alex Torres, and then Antonio Prieto and a Ramos error almost managed to spiral the inning out of control until Myers handled a sharp grounder for the third out. Prieto got two strikeouts to begin the eighth, then ran into left-handers again, so Yeom Soung got the ball in a 2-2 tie with two outs in the eighth, which was unusual but deemed necessary. He struck out Jerry Outram, then saw Berto slap a leadoff single against the still-active Booth in the bottom 8th. Berto made for third on an 0-2 single by Manny Fernandez, Ryan Phillips briefly mishandled the ball, and both Raccoons reached scoring position with nobody out! Come on, boys – get them! The damn Elks wanted no piece of Greenway, who was put on the open base, bringing up Fowler, who merely led the CL in bombs. Unfortunately he didn’t hit one here, and Phillips played his meager fly to right VERY well, taking a step back to grab it on the run and shy back Berto. Next was Rich Vickers, batting sixth after two double switches that had gotten us here (and Soung into the #1 hole). He hit a ball to left, past Brian Schneider and Edgar Serrano, and this time two runs scored and the tie was broken! It was all the Critters got in the inning, with Stedham and Myers both grounding out, and when Berto flubbed a second ball for another error and put Phillips on base to begin the top 9th, I began to sweat profusely again. However, Soung reared back, struck out the next two, and got Berto to handle Serrano’s 2-out grounder for the final out, finally! 4-2 Coons! Ramos 2-4, 2B; Greenway 2-2, 2 BB, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Vickers 1-1, 2 RBI; Chavez 6.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K and 1-2;

Squee! Come on, boys, two more!

Game 3
VAN: 2B Morrow – 1B D. James – CF Outram – RF R. Phillips – C Clemente – LF LeJeune – SS Cabral – 3B Schneider – P D. Arias
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Ramos – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Fowler – 1B Stedham – 3B Myers – C Kilmer – P Sabre

The Elks had a bullpen day on their hooves in the first inning, which Arias left after getting only two outs thanks to some oblique issue. Jeremy Bloedow took over and stranded Berto and Manny on base. Sabre would have two shaky innings, then walk Bloedow to begin the third inning. Eric Morrow singled, and before long a meltdown was in progress, with Jerry Outram driving in the two runners with a single, moved up on the throw home, advanced to third base on a wild pitch, and then scored on Phillips’ single. The inning fizzled out after that, but Sabre looked devastatingly awful and the Raccoons trailed 3-0 when they should have an advantage. They couldn’t get the sticks up against Bloedow at all, who was still shutting them out in the fourth inning, while Sabre got exploded for good in the top 5th. Outram doubled, Phillips homered, 5-0, and then Clemente singled. That was enough, with David Fernandez getting out of the inning.

Down five-zip, the Raccoons loaded the bases out of the blue in the bottom 5th, and it wasn’t really their own fault. Myers reached on a Brian Schneider error, Kilmer was nicked, and only Ed Hooge in the #9 hole hit an actual single. Three on, no outs, Trevino hit a sac fly, and Bloedow then walked Berto, which certainly made things interesting with the 3-4-5 batters up with nobody out. Elks management believed in a hands-off approach, and Bloedow was left to his own devices against Manny Fernandez, who cracked a ball through between Schneider and Ramon Cabral for an RBI single. Greenway struck out, disturbingly, and when right-hander Alex Aguilar DID replace Bloedow, he walked Fowler to push home the Coons’ third run. Stedham shot a single up the rightfield line, Berto scored, Manny scored, and unbelievably, we were tied …!? The bleeding didn’t stop yet, with Myers, up for the second time in the inning, hitting a single through Schneider to plate Fowler and take a 6-5 lead. I screamed in excitement and banged my oven-mitted fists on the desk, enough for Slappy to put the bottle down and cover both of his ears. Kilmer struck out, ending the 6-run rally, but, BOY, did I feel good now!

The game had some crazy left to it – like the reliever Aguilar hitting a leadoff double off Citriniti to begin the top 6th. Citriniti dug in, struck out Morrow, James, and even Outram in order, and growled at Aguilar on his way back to the dugout. Garavito in the seventh and Barker in the eighth kept holding on, even though both had a runner creep into scoring position; in the eighth it was ancient Alex Torres with a pinch-hit double that looked very scary off the bat, but hit off the base of the wall in left-center. The Raccoons had nothing to add offensively, then gave the ball to Soung for the 3-4-5 batters, which was at least two lefty bats leading off. Groundout, strikeout, flyout, more hitting on the desk with the cat-faced oven mitts!! 6-5 Furballs!! Ramos 2-3, BB; M. Fernandez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Garcia (PH) 1-1; Myers 2-4, RBI;

What a squeezer! But we were one game away from sweeping the damn Elks for the entire long weekend – don’t let up now, boys! We have them right where we want them!

Game 4
VAN: 2B Morrow – 1B D. James – CF Outram – C Clemente – LF LeJeune – SS Cabral – RF Pohl – 3B Schneider – P Sealock
POR: 3B Trevino – SS Ramos – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – RF Greenway – C Garcia – 2B Vickers – 1B Stedham – P Sparkes

For the second day in a row, the Raccoons’ starter was shackled early and substantially. Morrow singles, James and Outram hit doubles, and the damn Elks scored three runs total in the opening inning off Sparkes, who had led the CL ERA race not too long ago and was now dropping like a dead old rock. Ramos and Fernandez singles and a Fowler sac fly grabbed a run back in the bottom 1st, but then they stranded Stedham and Sparkes with 2-out singles in the second, and Fowler hit into a double play after Manny legged out an infield single in the third. Jesse LeJeune’s solo jack put the Elks up 4-1 in the fourth, and Vickers erased Garcia being brushed with a breaking ball in the bottom of the fourth when he hit into a double play as well.

Sparkes was still more productive with the stick, hitting a 1-out single to center in the fifth. Trevino popped out, but Berto singled through the right side, which at least brought up the tying run, and if we had seen a thing this week, then that the offense was quite hot and could make up a deficit in no time at all. Manny hit an 0-1 pitch to left, which would have loaded the bases if not for a pretty bad throwing error by LeJeune that sent the ball howling through the middle of the infield, vacated by all players, and allowed everybody to get an extra base, narrowing the score to 4-2 with the tying runs in scoring position for Fowler, who grounded out…

The sixth was uneventful, while in the seventh Preston Pinkerton hit a 1-out double off Sealock when pinch-hitting in the #9 hole. Cosmo walked, which put the tying run aboard once more. Ramos ran a full count before poking a roller on an emergency hack. The ball made it into no man’s land between Sealock, Morrow, and James, and all paws ended up safe on the infield single *and* we got an MVP up in Manny Fernandez. He hit a grounder to the right side, but Morrow reached it. He tossed to Cabral for a force on Berto, but a run scored and the inning remained alive, with no relay throw to first begin attempted. Unfortunately, the buck stopped with Fowler, who again grounded out…

Top 8th, Citriniti bled two base runners in James and Clemente before arriving at LeJeune, who was a career coonskinner, but also routinely pinch-hit for in recent times. The Raccoons sent David Fernandez with two outs and two on, the Elks blinked and pinch-hit Torres. We were still comfy with that matchup (not because Torres was 0-for-2 for his career against D-Fern, but it just looked right to us), but Torres reached the 0-2 and barfed it into the gap for a 2-run double that blew the doors off the game. Cabral struck out, ending the inning, and Greenway hit a leadoff jack in the bottom 8th, but that still only got the Critters back to 6-4. Stedham doubled with two outs in the inning, but Myers flew out as pinch-hitter in the #9 hole. Travis Sims had a scoreless ninth, and the Raccoons brought the top of the order to bear (hopefully) on Tim Zimmerman, a righty with a 5.08 ERA, in the bottom 9th. Cosmo made a good start – shooting a not-splitting splitter over the fence in right for a homer, cutting the gap to 6-5. Berto popped out to short. Manny struck out. Fowler grounded out, as always. 6-5 Canadiens. Ramos 3-5; M. Fernandez 3-5, 2 RBI; Stedham 2-4, 2B; Pinkerton (PH) 1-1, 2B;

In other news

August 3 – Richmond SP Derrick Forbes (5-13, 3.92 ERA) spins a 4-hit shutout of the Dallas Stars in a 6-0 Rebels win. A prominent casualty of the gem is the 23-game hitting streak of Hugo Acosta (.353, 0 HR, 65 RBI), who fails to collect a base knock.
August 4 – DAL INF/RF Jose Castro (.278, 9 HR, 30 RBI) will miss a month with a sprained ankle.

FL Player of the Week: DEN C Danny Zarate (.309, 18 HR, 76 RBI) hitting .458 (11-24) with 3 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: TIJ RF/LF/1B Willie Ojeda (.357, 11 HR, 71 RBI) batting .654 (17-26) with 2 HR, 10 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The bad news: we never got a sniff of first place this week, and the loss on Sunday dropped us back into third place. The good news? The Crusaders will be here on Monday to discuss our grievances in person. It will be a 3-game set, so we’d have to sweep them to get first place (non-interference by the Indians being assumed), but a series win wouldn’t be so shabby. They had however won five in a row, so we are warned.

The Elks and Titans look finished, leaving the division as a three-horse race, which I am not complaining about. All that I have to do now is find a way how we can make the other two horses stumble and break a leg… (firmly tapes trip wire across the doorway to Maud’s office)

I would still like to somehow pick up an arm or a stick, but the trade deadline has passed…

Nick Valdes has announced himself for the Wolves series next weekend. I explained to him that the games are in Salem, and not in Portland. He stated that he can’t go to Salem due to some weird real estate deal that turned a public park and playground into a junkyard for ancient rusting, oil-leaking long haul trucks, and we should play the games here. He didn’t understand that the Wolves would not come to Portland to play us…

Cristiano, how did you get in here? – What do you mean, “through the door”?? – But I laid a trap with trip wire to… Cristiano, I think your ankles are bleeding. – I know that you feel nothing. They’re bleeding anyway. Uh. Dr. Chung? – Dr. Chu-hung!!

Fun Fact: The most recent Raccoon to lead the ABL in home runs all on his own was Hugo Mendoza in the 2020 season, knocking 38.

That beat Gil Rockwell, who had hit 40+ every year from 2013 through 2019 and had been elected to the Hall of Fame this past winter. Rockwell hit 36 that season as he hit his decline.

Prior to Mendoza, Ron Alston (2009, 35 HR), Royce Green (1994, 38), Mark Dawson (1982, 25 (tied); 1988, 31), Tetsu Osanai (1985, 26), and Ben Simon (1979, 28) also led all of the ABL in homers as a Raccoon.

Liam Wedemeyer (1996, 33; 1997, 24), Tetsu Osanai (1986, 31), Daniel Hall (1984, 29) won the CL homer crown, but the FL had a more powerful homer king.

Oh, there’s actually one more in the former category. It’s from the 2028 season, when Rich Hereford hit 32 homers for the top mark in the league. Tied with the disgusting skunk weasel.

(eyes begin to glow dark red)