Notes From The Nat

The Vancouver Canadians have been heating up these last few days, but baseball is a game in which every team expects to win a third of the games they play, and lose a third of the games they play. The third in between - well, that’s where championships are decided.

Unfortunately for the C’s, if the championship is to be decided to games like tonight’s, we might have to get used to coming second. 7 runs in two innings put the Canadians in a strong position by the end of the 4th inning, but pitching lapses, tepid hitting, and the nasty booming bat of Elvin Puello (pictured right) shoved this game into the loss column, despite going in to extra innings.

Not a huge game report tonight - after all, you can watch the game in it’s entirety by going to BoiseHawks.net and clicking the Hawks-Vision button. Long story short, the C’s came out of the gate booming, but then allowed the Hawks to boom right back. (more…)

It’s been a hoot to watch this game tonight on Boise’s ‘Hawk-Vision’, as the Vancouver Canadians utterly obliterated the Cubs short-season affiliate, getting runners on base in every single inning, and crossing the plate in 5 of them, for a 9-2 victory that was about as absolute as any I’ve seen.

Just last night, Vancouver broke a five-game losing skid with a tight victory over the Hawks that depended largely on the bottom of the order and some damn fine pitching. The big question for today was always going to be whether that would set off a resurgence of Vancouver’s early season form, or be just a blip on the radar as they fell back into old habits of errors, impatience and lack of concentration. (more…)

According to NorthJersey.com, Vincent Mazzaro, a 3rd round pitching draft pick out of high school ball, has not come to terms with Oakland GM Billy Beane’s offer for him to come play in the minors. According to the piece:

LYNDHURST - While former Rutherford pitching ace Vin Mazzaro hopes to sign his first professional contract in the coming weeks, Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane has other ideas. Beane said by telephone on Friday that the negotiations with Mazzaro, Oakland’s third-round pick in the June amateur draft and the 101st overall selection, are finished because Mazzaro’s asking price is too high.

"We’ve been unable to come to a financial agreement," Beane said. "We wish him luck in the future."

When told of Beane’s statement, Steve Mazzaro, Vin’s father, said, "That’s the first I’m hearing it. That is news to me. As far as I’m concerned, we’re in negotiations, and they’ll negotiate right up until the day he goes to school." Mazzaro has a baseball scholarship to St. John’s.

Methinks dad needs to get clued in. If Billy Beane isn’t going up from $950,000 to the $1m that Justin Smoak is demanding, you can be damn sure he won’t be bent over a barrel by the likes of Vince Mazzaro. (more…)

I’ve given Isaac Omura (pictured left) no end of heck this season, truth be told. It’s nothing personal, he seems like a genuine good guy, very happy, a positive influence around the clubhouse, but his form so far this season has been dire at best, terrible at worst.

That’s no newsflash - I’m sure nobody knows these things more than The Windjammer himself, but it’s got to be hard for a guy when you’re doing poorly and trying to remain anonymous you work things out, and some douchebag is writing about how you blew it again, night after night.

Well, the Flyin’ Hawaiian had two options when it comes to the negative press he’d been recieving this season - he could take it all on his back, internalize it and make it worse, or he could ‘guts’ it out, start hitting some balls, add a little nasty to each step and show the naysayers exactly why he was drafted.

And so it goes that last night, Isaac Omura, the Windjammer, the Flyin’ Hawaiian, the Hawaiian Stallion - whatever you wanna call him - rocked Boise’s world, and not in a nice way.

The game started, as most games seem to start these days, with a Mike Massaro single. Nothing came of that, because although most games start with Michiro on the bags, they then seem to continue in ‘leave him there’ mode as the Canadians fall over in quick succession.

Boise? Not having these problems so much, as Elvin Puello jumped on a Joe Piekarz pitch inside and smooshed it to center field - not just over the wall, but about 2/3 of the way up the scoreboard that stands 30 feet over the wall. Boise up by one, and we’re not even into the 2nd inning… it’s beginning to seem a lot like deja vu for Vancouver fans at this point.

But if you’ve been paying attention at all, then you know exactly what happens after Vancouver concedes a run - come on, now, they’ve been doing it all season - what do they do?They hit you back, that’s what they do.

Haas Pratt single to center, Jose Garcia takes a walk, and Zeke Parraz doubles down the left field line to score a run.Now, Zeke Parraz (pictured left) is a new addition to the Vancouver infield, having come up from rookie ball in Arizona after going .284 with a couple of dingers, and though he took a little time to click, he’s starting to really give the C’s an option up the middle.

Which is good, because the next batter, second baseman Isaac Omura, has been so… (thwack!) uh… Omura singles to left? Runner scores? What the…?

During the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings, the pitchers took over, with Piekarz throing some nice fire, and managing some smart strikeouts along with plentiful groundballs.

In fact, Vancouver would only allow 6 flyballs all night long, which places a real premium on infield defense.. thankfully, the Canadians’ infield defense tonight was ROCK solid.

Haas Pratt took a beautiful diving snare down the 1st base line to save runs, while Chad Boyd took a long, full-stretch, full speed diving catch in left field that could have, if he’d missed it, score three runs. Parraz and Omura? Golden - every grounder to glove, every ball hitting its mark. Truly this was the Vancouver D that we’d come to know and love earlier in the year.

But the offense is still having trouble getting people around the bases. Vancouver runners made it to first base in five of the first six innings, but only in the 2nd did anyone actually cross the plate.A pitching change in the 7th, however, gave the C’s a moment of weakness upon which to pounce. Kyle Holden, a middling reliever having a 2-1, 6.32 year, came in ready for action, but the bottom of the C’s line-up was lying in wait.

Zeke Parraz started the ball rolling with a single to left, and up came the terrible, awful, hopeless Isaac Omura who… (THWACK!) uh… slams an inside pitch deep over the wall in right center?

You’ve gotta be kidding me!

A two-run shot for the Windjammer didn’t just push the C’s to a 4-1 lead, it practically broke my brain. Omura’s 5′9" - outfielders come IN when he’s at bat. He’s been hitting in the .140’s. He’s shown nothing remotely close to pop, but this day, this hour, Isaac Omura was a giant of baseball, clanging the walls with deep line-driven shots that would not be stopped.

Omura, a panther in the field, a mammoth with the bat, was en fuego. This day, the Flyin’ Hawaiian, long the subject of ridicule by boneheads like me, simply would not be denied any longer.

Jose ‘Curveball’ Corchado came in for the bottom of the 7th to throw his ‘cliff-dropper’ breaking pitches, and though the Hawks were having trouble keeping up with his ungodly moving stuff, when the ball stays straight it tends to get moved around.Strike out, double, ground-out, single, run scores, line-out - end of inning.

It didn’t help that the single shot hit the corner of the 3rd base bag, ricocheting away from the waiting Jeff Baisley, but if Corchado’s bag was any more of a mix, you’d think it was Halloween.Vancouver leading 4-2, but they weren’t prepared to rely on defense… or rather, the bottom of the order wasn’t prepared to rely on defense, because the top of the order had done not a lot with the bat for most of the game.

The Bubalo/Recker combo in clean-up is just not working right now, and though they can hit the long bombs at times, when hitters 2 through 7 can only manage 2 hits between them, you’re going to struggle for runs.But tonight, what the meat of the order was up to was of no consequence, because the battlers were in charge.

The bottom of the line-up - Zeke Parraz and Isaac Omura - were in total control and they were about to make certain of this win in strong style.Parraz at the plate, refuses to swing for garbage and draws a lead-off walk. Omura up behind him, giving pitchers the heeby jeebies after his big knock earlier in the game, was likewise walked. A pick-off attempt by Jake Muyco on Parraz at 2nd missed the bag by a country mile, allowing the lead-runner to scurry to 3rd, and suddenly there was trouble in the Hawks nest… because the 155lb Mike Massaro LOVES to slap-hit.Pitch comes in, Massaro flails a bat at it and runs like mad as it plops out to left field, scoring Parraz to make the score 5-2, and the little guys are taking care of business.

And it was catching - Chad Boyd, who hasn’t managed a hit since July 21st, drew a confident walk, then stole 2nd, and when Jeff Baisley was put on with another walk, the bases were chocked with only one out. Credit Jeff ‘Tee-Ball’ Teasley with pulling the Hawks out of the fire, as he induced a grounder from Haas Pratt that saw Omura just caught crossing home plate, before Ty Bubalo was struck out swinging with a grand slam on the horizon.

Final three outs for Boise, and who is on the mound but C’s closer, Brad ‘Killer’ Kilby - fuhgetaboudit.Though The Killer (pictured right) did give up a walk, then a wild pitch, and then a run-scoring double, indicating his best stuff was left in the hotel room this day, he still shut down any scent of a Hawks resurgence, striking out Boise’s big-bat pinch-hitter, Brandon Taylor, swinging to end the game.

Vancouver takes it 5-3, and how about three cheers for the underdogs in the 8 and 9 spots who managed, nearly single-handedly, to keep the Canadians score total ticking over.You have my respect, Mr Omura. Today you showed that the ability to say "I shall not lose" and mean it comes from a place deep within, that rarely shows up on a stat line or a scouting report.

	July 29, 2005
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Vancouver 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 5 8 0 Boise 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 3 6 2 wrap | box | logW: J. Piekarz (2-1, 5.01); L: M. Hyle (2-4, 2.37); SV: B. Kilby (8)HR: VAN: I. Omura (1). BOI: E. Puello (2).

Game notes:* 3/4 of Vancouver’s hits tonight came from the 8- 9-1 combination of Parraz, Omura and Massaro. For a group of guys who were all, without exception, hitting about halfway to Mendoza just a few weeks ago, this is a really positive eventuality. Omura’s got his average up to .172 now, Parraz is hitting a strong .294 and looking better every outing, and Massaro is hitting .312 with an OBP of .416, which is just outstanding for a lead-off guy - especially one who had to inch his way up from .118 a few weeks back.

* Ty Bubalo and Anthony Recker, with 6 strikeouts between them and not one hit to their name, really need to start thinking about whether they’re going to rely on long bombs to get them up to the next level, or if they’re going to start hitting for situations. The pitchers Boise put up last night were not meat-axe strike-out men, they were journeyman standard at best, and Recker and Bubalo should have been able to tag them a time or two - or at least come close. Instead, they whiffed and watched and whiffed some more, which doesn’t help anyone. Most telling of all - five of the six K’s were swinging.

* All the pitchers gave up earned runs tonight, but one of them pitched beautifully regardless. Joe Piekarz, considered by some to be the ‘non-prospect’ end of the rotation, delivered six innings of 2-hit ball, striking out 5, walking 2 and giving up a 1-run dinger. Pikey has good stuff, and though he’s been oft-overshadowed by the K-machines around him, a 2-1, 5.01 record with 16 BB’s and 29 K’s is decent stuff at this level. If he can stretch another 1-2 MPH out of his fastball and get a little more movement going on, Pikey could turn out to be a worthwhile keeper.

Oakland GM Billy Beane, who just happens to be one of brightest minds in baseball, sat down at BaseballProspectus.com for a chat with the fans tonight, and as per usual, he was pretty candid about how the Oakland franchise is run. No mention of Vancouver per se, but plenty that gives insight into why the Canadians have the players they have this year, and what the future holds.Select portions of the interview follow:

Steve (NYC): Why all the High School pitchers in this years draft? Didn’t you once fire somebody for drafting HS pitchers too early?

Billy Beane: No, we’ve never fired anyone for drafting HS pitchers…urban legend. In looking at this year’s draft, we just felt that a lot of the premium college players were being pushed up in the last few drafts, and there was some premium HS talent that was falling as a result. Despite reports to the contrary, we don’t deal in absolutes here, and are always looking for the best value relative to the draft position and the talent that’s available.…

Twins and Athletics Fan (DC): Congratulations on making another great 2nd-half run and doing what all us statheads knew you could, and on the great Mulder-Hudson trades. Since the decision to keep Zito is long over, would you mind sharing with us your thought process in deciding which of the Big Three to keep? Thanks.

Billy Beane: Thank you. I’m lucky to have some real smart people around me. Quite frankly, if you were going to trade any 2 of the 3 guys, you’d still be left with a great pitcher. One of the great things about Barry is that in his entire team here in Oakland, he’s never, ever shown up on a trainer’s log for any type of injury whatsoever. His durability has been as good as anybody’s in the game.…

Gavin (San Francisco): Juan Cruz has been absolutely dominating in AAA (57/14 K/BB in 41 innings; 1.54 ERA). It seems to me he has to be put into the rotation - as much as I like Saarloos and what he has done for us this year Cruz has earned a shot at the rotation (which he has wanted his whole career). What’s the plan with Juan?

Billy Beane: When we acquired Juan, we felt his long-term future was probably as a starter. As you point out, he’s been absolutely spectacular in Sacramento, and building up the confidence and experience he needs to be a major league starter. His opportunity to contribute to our major-league team will come.…

justin (Providence, RI): I’ve notice that the A’s have very good defensive players compared to a few years ago. Does reflect a change is philosophy, do you value defense more, or is it just a coincidence?

Billy Beane: We’ve had to evolve to try and find gaps in the marketplace, and determine where the best values were. It wasn’t that long ago that we were a very poor defensive team that did nothing but walk and hit homers. The Kotsay acquisition was a direct reflection of this shift. I think you can point to the Red Sox’ Garciaparra trade last year as another example of this. There are some real smart people out there running teams these days, so opportunities are fewer and these windows close quickly.…

bctowns (Chicago, IL): Billy, Thanks for chatting. What’s the most rewarding part of your job? Making a deadline trade that helps your team? Watching players you drafted develop into productive major league regulars?

Billy Beane: I would say watching players you drafted turn into productive major league players. It’s something the entire organization can take pride in, from the scout that signed him, to the player development system, all the way up to the major league staff.

Wanna read the rest? Go read the entire transcript at BaseballProspectus.com

So yesterday, I posted a diary about how the Vancouver Canadians/Boise Hawks game was being broadcast on the web, for free, on streaming video. And then, of course, Murphy’s Law kicked in and I couldn’t get the thing to work.Apparently plenty of other people were having the same issue, so Mr Technology himself, Beer-Hawker/Color Man extraordinaire Rob McGowan did a little research to help the rest of us out.

Here’s the skinny:1) You need broadband or it won’t work.2) If it ain’t working in Firefox (which is an awesome, free browser that leaves Microsoft Internet Explorer for dead), then try Microsoft Internet Explorer (okay, maybe Firefox has some catching up to do in certain areas, as this worked for me).3) If that’s not helping, give the website in question permission to be seen in your browser preferences (you’ll need to allow it in your pop-up blockers too).4) Lower your cookie security while watching.

If all that makes no sense to you, then use the eternal helpful hint that works for any problem at least 50% of the time… hit ‘restart’.Now, the beautiful thing about all this is, Boise archives the games on their site, so you can watch both yesterday’s game AND the game from the night before by just clicking those dates on the video page of the website.

Tonight’s game starts at 6:15pm Pacific, and as far as I’m aware, Travis Buck will be playing, and the starting pitcher will be Joe Piekarz.See your future Oakland players tonight at http://boisehawks.net/multimedia/audio/PS: If you want to see Shawn Callahan’s solo dinger from Wednesday night, click here and go to 2 hours, 26 minutes in, and to see Jeff Baisley’s oppy field moonshot last night, click here and go to 0 hrs, 56 mins.

Q: What do you get when you hit one home run every 9 at-bats?

A: Anything you freaking want.

Word on the street has it that Kevin Melillo (right), 2004 Vancouver infielder and bona fide Oakland prospect, is headed up yet another level of ball, and will shift sometime in the next 24 hours to the AA Midland Rockhounds club in the Texas League.

Melillo, currently hitting .400 in 90 at-bats, with a slugging percentage of .800, and an on base percentage of .471, is just destroying pitchers in the High-A California League, so though a shift upwards will be no shock to anyone paying attention, the fact that he will have jumped from two levels from Low-A ball to AA-ball, in just 22 games, most definitely is.

Melillo’s only possible downside, his defense, is apparently something he’s been working very hard at, and if he can improve that aspect of his game and maintain his devastating form with the lumber, he’s going to push very hard for a Major League spot in the next few years. (more…)

Buck up, C’s fans.

Short game report tonight because, well, not a lot happened that requires my standard over-extended play-by-play treatment that goes on for eighteen pages per pitch.

Today, the C’s found it difficult to score runs. In the past, this was okay, because the Canadians pitching was lethal, keeping other teams to a single run per game or less. But it’s a long season, and you can’t pitch that tight forever - eventually you just have to sit back and let your hitters hit.Today, the pitching strayed, and the hitters sputtered. And Boise won by a whisker. (more…)

Position: 1st base

Bats/Throws: Righty/Righty

Height: 6?3?

Weight: 215lbs

School: Arkansas University

Hometown: Arvada, Colorado

Drafted: 30th round, 2004 (more…)

Who the hell is Mike Safford Jr, I hear you ask?Who indeed. Mike Safford Jr is the guy who does play by play for the Boise Hawks - a club that offers, in my opinion, the best online coverage of home games anywhere in the lower levels of ball, and by a country mile at that.

Boise doesn’t just do audio calls - they work with a company called Fiberpipe to stream video footage of the games - live - and for free.Every club in the NWL (except for the Tri-City Dust Devils) offers online listeners a webcast so family, friends and fans of the players can keep up with their games as they travel around the northwest, but Boise’s the only one that does video.

For many clubs, especially the Vancouver Canadians, who only have about a third of their home games covered by TEAM 1040 radio, getting even audio coverage of their games is a giant pain in the behind.In order to keep fans happy, the Vancouver front office has to find someone who will call the games on the web, travel with the team on the road, arrange deals with distant hotels to exchange accommodation for on-air plugs, and not complain that they’re doing all that for free.

In essence, they rely on the hospitality of strangers and interns so that we, the fans, can listen to the call.Most clubs don’t work it this way - those with good radio deals don’t have to worry about such things, because the radio stations in question cover their commentators expenses.

Boise is one such team - they’re covered by ESPN Radio 1350 KTIK-AM, "The Ticket", who have for the last three years given the on-air duties to Mike Safford Jr.

Who is a jack-ass.

And here’s why.

Close your eyes and picture it. No, don’t really close your eyes or you can’t read what I’m about to tell you, goofball. Pretend you’re closing your eyes. Maybe squint.

So it’s the back end of the 2004 season and Boise and Vancouver have managed to get themselves in the playoffs for the NWL title. This is huge among fans of both teams, because both divisions were neck and neck for much of the year, and Vancouver in particular stumbled to the playoffs after a massive road slump nearly killed their season, only to pull out a last gasp win against the Emeralds on the road to beat Everett for the Western Division.It was a big time event. We were finally looking like we could win it all.

The catch?

The first two games of the series would be played in Boise.

Ack.

So naturally, since Boise streams video of their games for free, every man and his dog was watching that as the playoffs rolled on. And when you watch the streaming video, the call you get is that of Mike Safford Jr.Now, I’d been playing with Safford’s head for months through the season, so I already considered him a bit of a goofball. Early on, when the C’s had their first road trip to Boise, I’d been listening in and every time Safford’s co-caller had said something - anything at all - Safford’s response would be "amen to that."

"I think Landon Powell is a long ball threat…""Amen to that.""I could really use a hot dog.""Amen to that.""You’re saying ‘amen to that’ a lot.""Amen to that."

So I emailed Safford and told him the following:

Hey Mike,Love your call. You’re doing a great job down there, but what’s with the ‘amen to that’ habit? I’ve been counting and so far in the first five innings of the game, you’ve said it 14 times. Are you a religious man? Is God your co-announcer? Should I genuflect to my PC speakers whenever I hear His voice?Love, Oz

Safford duly mentions this on the air, much to his cohort’s joy, and makes some excuse about not being used to having a co-announcer and he’ll try to keep a lid on his amens in the future. Me? I’m laughing hysterically listening to Safford umming and aahing and clearly getting embarassed. It’s one of the few joys I can muster since the Canadians had seemingly surrendered the series before it had even began… but that’s another story, one I’ll save for the bestseller.Anyhoo, so Safford’s flustered and the game rolls on, and he says "amen to that" a few more times, and each time he does I send another email:

"15 times!""18 times!"

And eventually it takes effect. Some Boise player hits a double, to which the cohort caller says something like, that was a huge hit, and Stafford says…

"Amen to… uh… yeah it was."

Seriously, I’m dying with laughter now. Okay, so it’s not groundbreaking humor of the George Carlin variety, but I enjoy messing with the heads of the radio callers, something I’m sure Matt "Hit ‘em where they ain’t" Baker can attest to.

So why is Mike Safford Jr a jackass?

This is why.

Minor league radio callers always invite people listening to email them. Always. It’s how they fill time. "Hey, we got an email from Myron Leslie’s Aunt Maggie in Florida, she says she’s enjoying the call and wishes all the best to Myron as he takes his third at bat of the day…" That kind of thing.

So it’s playoffs time and the C’s are hurting, and every family member, friend, girlfriend and fan is tuned in to Safford’s stumbling prose, and he reads one of his emails, this one from someone he calls "Landon Powell’s Vancouver girlfriend."

Which is weird, because Landon Powell doesn’t HAVE a Vancouver girlfriend.

He has a girlfriend in the Carolinas, one he’s engaged to, and one who had visited him for much of his time in Vancouver, causing about 2000 males to crane their necks every time she walked by to go sit behind the dugout and tan herself in the Nat Bailey sunlight.

See, Landon Powell’s fiancee isn’t just hot - she’s like something out of the Fantastic Four. She ignites stainless steel surfaces with nothing more than a casual glance. If she were any hotter, they’d have to unhook the smoke detectors from hotels before she could check in. Think Jennie Finch hot. Think un-air conditioned basement suite in Hell hot. Think ‘wasabi enema’ hot.

But there’s Safford, saying on the air, for all Powell’s friends and family to hear, "I have an email here from Landon Powell’s Vancouver girlfriend…"His co-host says something like, "didn’t we get an email from his other girlfriend yesterday?" and Safford, either not realizing he’s got the player’s name wrong, or that someone is playing a gag on him, or maybe even knowing full well that what he’s saying is untrue says, "Well, you know these ballplayers…"

So the Director of Media Relations at the Canadians calls Safford between innings and says "what the hell are you doing - you can’t say things like that about people!", and was reportedly told, "Nobody tells me what I can and cannot say on my show."

Begrudgingly, a few innings later, Stafford mumbled something about the offending email ‘probably’ having been a joke, but the damage had been done. Pandora’s box was open for business.So the game is over and Powell climbs aboard the team bus for a 12 hour journey back to Vancouver, and every single person he knows is hitting his cellphone screaming "What are you? Insane? What’s wrong with you? How could you do that?"

Every single person, that is, EXCEPT his girlfriend (his REAL girlfriend), who is totally cool and knows that it isn’t true and knows that if it was, she would have been told about it by one of the many people she became friends with while in town, but that isn’t playing with Powell’s family, who are filthy with him for his supposed indiscretion, and for the next 12 hours, instead of sleeping and resting so he can try to come back from the 2-0 lead Boise has in the series, Powell is repeating the same thing over and over - "I don’t know what this guy’s talking about, it isn’t true, why would I do something like that?"

Of course, Boise swept Vancouver in the playoffs 3-0, and Powell played like crap, and Safford paid no price for his boneheaded radio call, despite the negative effect it could well have had on the Vancouver team, and the personal life and career of one Landon Powell.

Was it deliberate on Safford’s part to try to throw Powell off his game? Was it ‘just a joke’? Was it the sort of thing a guy with half an hour’s radio experience should know NOT to say? Who knows, but whatever the excuses, whatever the twisted logic, I refuse to let it die.

Mike Safford Jr is a jackass, and I’m here to make sure everyone knows it.

So when you’re watching Boise’s streaming video of the game tonight, feel free to turn down the sound and hit CanadiansBaseball.com so you can listen to the call of young Matt Baker, who is currently in the middle of nowhere, sleeping in a rathole hotel, having traveled on a bus with many stinky ballplayers to get there - and for no payment - just so we have an alternative to the JACKASS call of Mr Mike Safford Jr.Amen to that.And now, a picture of Vancouver webcast co-host Rob McGowan’s kidney.

No tumors!

I’d be a very vain man if I believed that anything I wrote on this website was insightful or knowledgable enough to make the Vancouver Canadians players smarten up their game and march harder towards victory, but I’m very much confident enough to suggest that on the bus from Salem-Kaizer to Boise last night, the coaches of this team would have been harping on some very specific issues.

1) Get the fundamentals right. Catch, throw, back-up, play smart.

2) Never believe you have the game won, until you’re in the showers with a tick in the win column.

3) Never - ever - take a Boise girl back to the hotel room. Seriously, those Idaho girls are renowned for being the reason their state is named what it is. Think it through - I-da-ho. Mm-hmm, you know what I’m talking about. And no, they don’t give change for twentys.

I can’t say whether or not the C’s listened to the third rule, but looking at the way today’s game against the Boise Hawks went down, it seems the first two might just have stuck in some heads.Joe Newby was on the mound for the Canadians, fresh off the kind of game last Friday that cause pitchers to wake up screaming. Especially if there are Boise girls in the room. 7 Earned runs in 0.2 of an inning is not a good performance, and with Newby having been touched for a couple of runs in the game before that, it was safe to say that today’s outing meant more than just a potential victory for the Canadians.

Today’s game meant Joe Newby (seen above) would either maintain his spot in the rotation, or be shoved back into the bullpen, where second year pitchers go to await their release.On the hill for the bad guys, Boise pitcher Darin Downs, a hurler playing a level below where he should be, by virtue of having been shredded playing for the Peoria Chiefs earlier in the season in Low-A ball. In the Midwest League, Downs has an ERA of 18.47, which rates him somewhere between a bowl full of goldfish and a block of dill havarti in terms of fearsome reputation.

But in the Northwest League, ‘Double’ Downs is a ferocious competitor, having racked up a record of 3-2 and a 2.46 ERA, not to mention 33 strikeouts in 33 innings.So would ‘Total’ Newby have the gunpowder to keep up with a Low-A standard fireballer?

Would he cave under the pressure of last week’s pounding and put his career on shaky ground?

And would Anthony Recker beat his scrawny ass for daring to suggest that he doesn’t shower before bus trips?

Top of the 1st, ‘Michiro’ Massaro faces down the Double Down, and strikes out looking.Next batter, Chalon Tietje comes to the plate, and he too strikes out looking.1st round draft pick, Travis Buck takes his stance, and sheesh! He also strikes out looking.3 up, 3 down, and Downs is en fuego.

Which means it’s time for The Newby to show what he’s got.Now, I’ve got to admit to you, after watching Newby’s beatdown last week, I was really dreading tonight. Say what you will about the kid, but he’s an absolute gamer, he throws determined heat, and even when he was being shelled and his teammates were blowing plays, he said nothing, wound up and fired with everything he had. But another outing like that… wow, that would be tough to get through.First batter, Johnny Defendis, smashes a comebacker at Newby who takes the ball in glove and rams it to 1st to make the out.Second batter, Carlos Quinones, swings at Newby’s stuff with everything he has, but the Newby nukes blow right through him. Strikeout, two away.Third batter, Chris Gaskin, grounds weakly to Newby who reels it in and hurls to 1st in time for the third out.He didn’t strike out the side, but he didn’t need to - Newby OWNS Boise.…Or maybe I’m just getting ahead of myself.

2nd inning, and Jeff Baisley singles to center, before straying too far off 2nd and being picked off in a rundown. Of course, Jeff Bieker then singles, but nobody is there to benefit from The Beak’s line drive.

Boise, on the other hand, sticks to the fundamentals and generate some interest in the bottom of the 2nd, as Newby dishes up a hittable pitch to Jesus Valdez with one on the bags, and watches it zoom back over his head… and back over the wall. A two-run home run for Boise, and Newby is surely thinking deja vu.Immediately after, Mark Reed singled, then got pushed around in a ground-out, and then scored on a single from Johnny Mota. As Newby fought back and ended the inning, the score sat at 3-0 Boise, and the question that was on all C’s fans’ lips was "is Newby folding?"The easy answer is no. No, he’s not. Nope, not a chance, no freaking way, don’t even think about it, smart guy. For Joe Newby, read my lips, is a GAMER.

3rd inning, he faces four hitters.4th inning, he faces three and strikes out two.5th inning, he faces three and draws them all into ground-outs.6th inning, he faces three and they’re falling like Gordon Campbell at an inebriation test.7th inning, he’s STILL throwing, and they go down quickly.No, friends, Joe Newby would not go down easily this day. He would fight his way back from the brink and pitch some seriously smoking hardball, against a team that threw everything at him but the 3rd base hot dog wagon.

Meanwhile, the good guys were moving some pieces around the board themselves. In the 5th inning, the plucky Wilber Perez knocked a single through to center to make his way to 1st base, but a pick-off attempt saw him suddenly stuck in a rundown. Perez ducked and weaved like Ali on the ropes against Foreman, eventually giving Boise enough of a panic as to draw them into a throwing error at 1st. When Justin Sellers grounded him around to 3rd base and Mike Massaro drew a walk, the Canadians were beginning to show Boise that confident ball can rattle any pitcher, even one who should be playing at another level.

Up to the plate comes ‘Sweet Chal O’ Mine’, Chalon Tietje, who I’ve been hyping for weeks as the guy you want at the plate with men on base, and what does he do?He singles to right and brings the runner home, narrowing the score to 3-1 and sending the starting pitcher to the showers. Nice work, Teej.

Just as Vancouver was cleaning up it’s act and giving their pitcher every chance to keep innings clean with solid error-free play, the Boise camp were beginning to cave. The 6th inning saw another Hawks fielding error, which reliever Andy Santana had to work very hard to neutralize, and the 7th saw yet another mistake by the Boise kids, which the C’s just couldn’t capitalize on.

In agonizing fashion, the C’s were doing all the right things, playing hard and forcing the error out of their opponents, but just not having the luck needed to turn those errors into runs. That said, when you know your opponents are coming back at you hard, you either collapse or knuckle down, and Boise did the latter, getting a walk off reliever Long John Herrera, then drawing him into a balk, then stealing 3rd on his next pitch.Can I say to you all right now that I have sincere man-love for Lefty Lefferts after today’s game, because rather than leave Herrera hanging out there when he was clearly not at his best, Lefty gave him the early hook and brought in The Killer to keep the game tight.

And that’s exactly what Brad Kilby did, because Brad Kilby has the power of cheese.Kyle Reynolds: Strikes out swinging.Elvin Puello: Strikes out swinging.End of inning - give that man a beer!

So the top of the 9th and Vancouver trails by two, and who do Boise bring in to close the game out? Jeff Teasley, with a record of 0-0, and a 9.49 ERA. If EVER there was a guy you want to have come in when you’re mounting a comeback, ‘Tee-Ball’ Teasley is that guy. He’d already surrendered three dingers in previous action this season, and his K:BB ratio isn’t intimidating at 7:4, so as The Beak stood at the plate, you could have been forgiven for feeling the C’s were right in this thing.

And then The Beak struck out swinging.Shawn Callahan then came up to the plate, with an 0-3 game to his name and a .176 average on the year. All of which looks pretty crap, but don’t let that fool you - ‘Dirty Harry’ has a set of pipes on him that can make a ball go away very fast.And Tee-Ball Teasley found that out real quick as he felt the cool breeze of his pitch zoom back past his right ear on its way over the left field wall.

Canadians trail 3-2, with one out, and Tee-Ball is looking very hittable. That is, if he could just keep the ball over the plate. Wilber Perez takes a wild swing at a third strike that is nowhere near the plate, the ball whizzes past the catcher, and Perez takes off for first, getting there in a trot.HERE! WE! COME!And there Justin Sellers goes, popping up for the second out.

But it’s okay, because Mike Massaro is at the plate, and he’s just money right now. Massaro dragged his average, kicking and screaming, from .118 to .320 in barely more than a week of hard-hitting, walk-drawing, speed demon action, and if you ever wanted a guy facing a shaky pitcher in a pressure situation (and Chalon Tietje was sick that day), the guy you want is MICHIRO!As Massaro faced down Tee-Ball, suddenly Wilber Perez took off for 2nd. It was a good call from Juan Navarette, because a man on second not only means you’re one base hit from tying the game, it also means the pitcher is more likely to surrender a walk, and who is coming up after Michiro?Tietje. Buck. Baisley - each one more dangerous than the next.

So Navarrete, knowing Perez is quicker down the middle than a Nat Bailey chili dog, risked it all and called for the steal. Now the pressure was really on Boise. Now they had to make a decision - do we throw to Massaro? Do we put him on and throw to Tietje? Do we risk Buck getting in on the action?Crisis time for Boise, time for Vancouver fans to stand up and yell.Massaro takes his stance, Tee-Ball wipes sweat from his brow, and the pitch comes in… AND PEREZ STEALS FOR 3RD!

Why?!

Why, oh why would you try to steal 3rd in a two-out situation with the tying run just dying to be hit? What possible percentage is there in having a man on 3rd instead of 2nd - you need a base hit either way to score the guy!Perez zipped and zoomed, Boise catcher Mark Reed took the ball and threw, and Elvin Puello made the tag.

OUT!

Game over. Boise wins 3-2, and instead of yelling at the players for their errors, tonight’s yelling will be reserved for coach Navarrete.

Juan!

Dude!

What the hell?

July 27, 2005
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Vancouver 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 9 0 Boise 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 3 6 3 wrap | box | logW: D. Downs (4-2, 1.88); L: J. Newby (2-4, 5.73); SV: J. Teasley (1)HR: VAN: S. Callahan (1). BOI: J. Valdez (1).

 

Game notes:

* This game, though it goes in the loss column, is by no means a poor result for the Vancouver team. In fact, it might be just one of the ballsiest displays they’ve shown in a long time. From ‘Dirty Harry’ Callahan’s solo bomb to Newby getting his act together and gutsing out five innings of scoreless ball after his 2nd inning struggles, to Killer Kilby’s outright dominance in the closing stages, to the error-free defensive display as Boise threw ball after ball in the dirt, this was a performance that is worthy of applause for all. In fact, only Sellers, at the #9 slot, failed to register a hit today. Good job, lads.

* Respect to the pitching coach for pulling Long John Herrera in a situation many would have left him in. Lefty Lefferts loves a win as much as anyone, and with Vancouver coming home hard, he did the right thing for his team and made sure that their 8th inning resurgence was well and truly shut down. All too often the pitch count comes before managerial moves, but tonight the big guy showed his nous and made the perfect decision to keep the ballgame tight.

* Mike Massaro - I’m sounding like a broken record, but 1-2 with 2 walks is seriously smokin’, and he does it seemingly every game.Helpful hint for those who like to watch the games rather than listen to them - Boise pipes streaming video of their games through their website - for free - although I haven’t been able to connect to their site for two days now. Take a look yourself tomorrow - http://www.boisehawks.com, and if the service is up, enjoy!

Any C’s fan who was hoping for a return to V-Town for recently promoted pitchers Mighty Joe Scott and Mike Mitchell, could be waiting for a while.

Last night, the Cougars went on a home run spree, and almost all the runs were scored by 2004 Vancouver Canadians players, while the Scott/Mitchell tag team combined to keep the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers well and truly out of a game won 8-3 by the Coug’s. Javier Herrera and Myron Leslie (pictured left) cracked two of the three long bombs on the night, which has become the norm for both players, who earned Midwest League All-Star selections just a few weeks ago.

Leslie, who hit a solo shot, has racked up 11 long shots so far this season (he only hit 1 home run in 2004), and a .290 average (up from .245 last year), while Herrera, last year’s NWL MVP, hit a three-run shot. Last season, Herrera destroyed the NWL, hitting 12 dingers and a .331 average, and so far this season he has managed a reasonable tally of 8 homers and a .265 average (though he was hitting .417 over 5 games in an emergency promotion to AAA earlier this season).

Mighty Joe Scott (who we’re really missing in Vancouver right now), gave up 3 earned runs in his 5th inning of 4 hit, 5 walk ball, so though he got himself out of a few jams along the way, he’s not exactly in premium form, but Mitchell gave up just one hit and a walk in three innings of middle relief, keeping the Timber Rattlers rattled when it counted.

But the star of the show was Ryan Ruiz (seen right), last year’s Vancouver Canadians king of clutch (who can forget the game-winning walk-off grand slam that Ruiz hit on the road last year, on his first at-bat after a several week lay-off with injury?). Ruiz went 0-1, which doesn’t help his average much, but the 3 walks and 3 runs he managed over the course of the game surely grabbed the attention of coaches. In the 7th, after drawing a walk to get aboard, Ruiz stole 2nd, then scooted to 3rd on a wild pitch, and made it home after a second pitch escaped the catcher, manufacturing a run out of absolutely nothing in three pitches. Ruiz has had a rough time of it in pro ball in terms of getting serious playing time, and when 1st round draftee Cliff Pennington came to Kane County to play shortstop, it shifted everyone else in the infield back a step.

Ruiz, playing behind the higher-rated Kevin Melillo in the pecking order for most of last season, found himself in the same spot for most of this year, until Melillo was sent up to High-A Stockton.Unfortunately, that happened not long after Pennington took over at short, which shifted defensive marvel Gregorio Petit along to second base, and Ruiz once more sat and waited for his chance.

In my opinion, if the A’s are smart (and they are), they’ll either give Ruiz an extended run at 2nd base for Kane County, or (and this seems all the more possible if Travis Buck goes up) they’ll shift him back to Vancouver for the season, where his defense and offense would fill the hole currently occupied by the patchy pairing of Wilber Perez and Isaac Omura, and his calm head and patience would benefit everyone else in the C’s line-up by giving them a #2 man who can draw a walk, steal a base, or go yard, depending on the need.

I’m sure Ruiz wouldn’t be asking for any such ‘demotion’, but if that’s what’s required to let the Ry-Guy show that he has what it takes to hold a regular spot in the line-up, then I think it would be a smart move for all concerned. He’d never say as much, but Ryan Ruiz is just too good a player to warm the bench.