Ten
First loss
May 12, East Bay Lumberjacks Loss 9-0
Nine players, all young studs, skinny pitcher racked up 9 strike outs and 7 of which were “looking,” meaning no swing at the third strike– over seven innings. Three home runs, all long shots, sounded like canons being fired. Had their defense, offense, pitching going and the catcher had a Buster Posey like arm. Real ball players, serious, friendly; baseball guys all the way. Scott Price manages the team–has twin girls on the way he said.
For the Giants, Mario Ellis started, was fairly sharp but tired quickly. He did not have the arm strength. Johnny’s play behind the plate keep us from being embarrassed. Only a couple of errors, but our pitchers, Matt White followed Mario (did not record an out), then Pete came in and was able to stem the flow of runs somewhat. Only two hits for the home team. Guys were frozen with bats in hands at the plate. Duck had a cast on his hand after a surgery to reattach a ligament in his thumb, Bilal pulled a hammy trying to run out a ground ball to short, and Eli with a swollen knee from a slide last game—left us wanting on the bench.
Scott Price’s team looks every bit as good as any of the college teams that have come in. And it looked like they were letting up some the last two innings. Good for our guys to see such a powerful and skilled team lest they think too highly of themselves.
The team’s chemistry is holding solid despite the thumping. If this continues we will be fine, if not, could be a long and miserable season.
May 14, Stanislaus Storm, 17-7, Giants have the 7
Another team with nine players, this team up from the Fresno area meaning they had to be on the road about 4:30am. Louis Quadros runs the team, another power packed bunch of guys, again as good as any college team I have seen and the community colleges in the Bay Area field some real good teams.
Our best pitcher so far, Kevin Driscoll, gave up 10 runs in 3 innings, Frank Braby gave up 2 runs in the next three innings, and Stafont Smith, usually the back-up third baseman, pitched the last 3 innings and gave up 3 runs as well. We had gotten to the desperation point.
Team chemistry–we will see tonight. The thing that complicates it is the A’s won one game against The Mission, a team from the City, the evening of May 14, so there will be some discussion about which team ought really be the A team. Though The Mission, managed by Greg Snyder, cannot be compared to the powerhouse that is the Stanislaus Storm, still the A’s will ignore that and merely see a win for them and a loss for us. See, I have developed a we versus they mentality.
I waver between trying to assist the A’s and letting them go without scheduling games for them. At this point certain A’s players are talking to the outside teams hoping to get games with them and also talking with coaches, both A’s and Giants coaches, about getting them games. My feeling is they think I am deliberately sabotaging them and there may be some truth to it. Elements of the A’s are making the season to be another unpleasant experience for me and I am getting tired of it. I can justify my failure to get outside teams to play them by protesting that it is too confusing to schedule games what with three other guys doing the same besides working private deals with outside teams that come in.
Tonight we play the East Bay Lumberjacks again and I will be able to test the chemistry of the team and face A’s players who know they have a block of open dates coming up.