It always seems to be the way – the Vancouver Canadians
put on a fireworks show AFTER the game, which draws a huge crowd FOR
the game, and the home team gets duly beaten like a rented mule,
sending thousands of potential Canadians fans home wondering if it’s
worth coming out for another some time.

It’s got to be jarring for the C’s front office to go to all the effort
of gathering sponsors, getting permits, advertising, promoting, and
drawing in crowd of 6300, only to find the team’s best hitter is out
with injury, and the A’s have chosen a kid who got creamed in his last
appearance to start the game as pitcher.

But hey, such is life in the minors – you go to war with the army you’ve got, not with the army you need.

Speaking of ‘the team’s best hitter’, yes, you heard me correctly -
Jermaine Mitchell is injured. Still. He’s gone from "It’s nothing,
he’ll be back in a couple of days" to "We figured we’d rest him with
Salem-Keizer coming up" to "His foot is in a cast and will be for the
next two weeks." As things stand, I’m not saying Mitchell is out for
the season, but he’s going to be out long enough that the C’s need to
start relying on someone else to be the game-winner, and recently
promoted Arizona rookie Lorenzo Macias (seen left), as talented as he may be, is
unlikely to be that person.

Kevin Bunch is also unlikely to be that person – at least in the short
term – as he started last night’s game on the mound and struggled to
make even two outs, while surrendering (and I do mean surrendering)
five runs.

I’m sure Bunch has a future, and potential, and stuff, and all the
other things pitchers have at this level, but boy howdy, did he get the
tar booted out of him by Tri-City. He wasn’t unlucky – he was terrible.
Every hitter hit the ball cleanly, as if they were hitting off a tee,
and when they did, the ball stayed hit.

More? Hit the link below.


The first batter he faced singled to center. The second batter he
faced took him yard to right, pushing Tri-City out to a 2-0 lead with
not an out being registered, and the misery just continued from there.
With two outs on the board, Bunch gave up an RBI-double to Jeff Kindel,
a single to Brett Berglund, another single to Victor Ferrante (we’re
into the #8 hitter now, and the singles keep coming), then he unleashed
a wild pitch to score a bases loaded run, then an RBI-single to bottom
of the order Tri-City hitter, Matthew Repec.

Now, the defense didn’t help Bunch much, to be fair. He watched a few
squeakers juuuuuust slip by outstretched gloves, and as the outfielders
failed to hit cut-off men, and Mike Affronti threw a ball to home plate
that almost hit the bat boy in his seat, it was clear the big crowd
(and it was a big crowd) was spooking the home boys.

And it didn’t get any better with the bat in hand. Well-hit balls from
the C’s offense were finding nothing but leather, no matter how well
hit, while not-so-well-hit balls were drawing groans from the hopeful
crowd.

Andre Piper-Jordan, surging in form of late, seemed to have forgotten
everything he ever learned about plate patience this night, getting
K’ed like an American League pitcher in interleague play – once on
three pitches. Wilber Perez looked similarly baffled by the pitching,
which was pedestrian at best (only 4K’s on the night), tamely poking at
balls that required a solid swipe, and watching cherries down the
middle like they were three feet over the plate. Ditto Mike Affronti,
Jake Smith, Greg Dowling – all guys who have looked dangerous of late,
but who seemed to be flummoxed in the absence of a go-to guy like
Mitchell in their midst.

The question must be asked, who will be the ‘leader’ of this team in
the stretch? Who will be the Chad Boyd-style gamer who will hype this
team up and get them to believe themselves?

It won’t be Matt Sulentic, who, as good as he is, is only 18 years old.
It won’t be Larry Cobb, who, while on fire at the plate and
hard-running after almost everything he sees, started playing things
safe over the last few games – pulling up on flyballs that needed a
full-stretch dive, even while down six runs. And it won’t be Casey
Myers, who is only here until his batting average looks respectable and
his body heals.

Don Sutton would be a good candidate, but he’s out injured. Howling
Greg Dowling gets his nickname because… well… he’s a quiet guy -
not exactly inspirational material in a crunch.

Wilber Perez? No.

Alex Valdez? Hardly.

Sam Hernandez? Na-ah.

Jake The Rake? The quietest catcher I’ve seen turn out for this team in three years.

Mike Affronti? Tough for a guy hitting .206 to be the glue that keeps the team together.

Andre Piper-Jordan? He may be the one who most needs someone standing behind him, yelling in his ear, pushing him to greatness.

The pitchers can’t help – starters are only out there once every five
games, and the bullpen is looking more and more like it’s filled with
guys who won’t be in pro ball in two seasons time. Case in point: Earl
Oakes.

Now, I’m not saying Earl Oakes can’t pitch. Heck, when he decides to
let go with furious anger, he truly zips them in. But he zips them in
high. Over.. and over… and over again. And then guys walk. And when
he finally brings his pitches in low, of late, they’ve ended up flying
past his ear, like they did last night as he surrendered a run in each
of the two innings he pitched – one a moonshot to left field that beat
the wall handily.

Keith Eusebio, who was Mr Blank earlier this season, pitching great
stuff that hitters couldn’t help but miss, is now looking shaken and
uncomfortable on the mound. He gave up a pair of runs in the one inning
he threw – hitting the lead-off batter, then watching two doubles send
two home. In fact, Eusebio couldn’t even get an intentional walk
happening without letting one go way outside Smith’s glove and watching
a runner trot home as a result (The Rake got the ‘passed ball’ call
laid on him because he got a piece of it, but the throw was a shocker).

With the bat, Casey Myers has started to look like the Mighty Casey of
old. His 2nd inning triple (well, actually it was a double, but it
would have been a triple if it were hit by someone who could run at
full-stretch) gave the C’s fans early hope of a comeback, as Greg
Dowling and Alex Valdez sacrificed themselves to bring him home, and
the 4th inning lead-off single and steal by Authentic Sulentic rattled
Tri-City starting pitcher Andrew Kreidermacher (don’t mention the war)
enough that he walked the next two batters to give Jake The Rake Smith
a potential grand slam situation.

But Jake isn’t exactly looking ‘big game’ right now, and as Alex Valdez
walked to load the bases in front of him, he vocally announced his
displeasure at being in a pressure situation with an expletive that was
surely audible at the mound. Seriously, isn’t this the situation you’re
supposed to live for? Yet here was a guy with a chance to bring home
four runs, in front of one of the biggest crowds of the year, and he
didn’t want to be there!

What followed was an RBI-inducing groundball to second that nearly
ended the inning with a double play, followed by a Mike Affronti 2-out
groundball to shortstop that ended the threat with a whimper rather
than the bang the C’s were hoping for. And they didn’t come close to
threatening after that.

And you know, it’s not that they didn’t have success in the second half
of the game that sucked most for the crowd, it was that, at times, it
appeared they weren’t even trying – a crime for which there can be no
excuse when the team is struggling to grow its fanbase.

A 7th inning Mike Affronti swing at a strike three pitch that was about
three feet outside the plate was synonymous with the way things were
going, as Tri-City kept adding to their run total and the C’s…
didn’t.

As the Vancouver bullpen tried to paint corners and got themselves into
dreadful counts and horrific jams, the Tri-City pitchers, in turn, did
the easy stuff – sent balls down the middle that challenged C’s hitters
and made them work for their bases. Tri-City walked only two hitters
all night – something that says as much about their mound discipline as
it does about Vancouver’s lack of plate discipline.

Props should be given to James Heuser, who threw 5.1 innings at the
drop of a hat after Bunch was pulled, and gave up only two hits, a
walk, and a single earned run in that showing. Heuser threw great stuff
all night – something that is generally lost on a fireworks crowd
looking at their team trailing by five runs and hoping for a rally, but
even that was undone as the bullpen didn’t just blow any chance of a
comeback, they blew it repeatedly.

If it sounds like I didn’t have fun last night, you can imagine what
6,299 people like me might have sounded like. If it sounds like I’m
being harsh on a team that, let’s face it, is struggling under the
weight of injury, a lack of bonus baby presence (are Oakland truly done
signing their draft picks?), a tough schedule, a surprisingly huge
crowd, and their first season of every-day ball…. sure, I am.

But here’s the thing – when you’re being paid to swing a bat, with the
promise of potential riches beyond your wildest dreams, and 6372 people
have paid at least $8 a head to watch you swing that bat, you don’t
walk out to the plate and swing wildly at three pitches outside. You
don’t play it safe when you’re down by five runs in the bottom of the
6th and not go for the big catch. You don’t rush your pitches, you
don’t say "*****!" to yourself loud enough for people in the crowd (and
on the mound) to hear when you come to the plate with bases loaded.

You put on your game face and you play the GD game with emotion and
anger and determination, even if you’re down by four, or five, or eight
runs, because 6300 people paid good money to see you play, and because
the Oakland A’s are signing your paychecks. You go into each at bat
with the attitude of "I don’t care if we lose, I’m going to make a good
at-bat out of these next three pitches because I’m a damn good
ballplayer."

Now, I’m sure some player’s parent will leave a comment saying "you
don’t know what it’s like" – I’ve seen plenty of those on this site
over the years – but you know what? I *do* know what it’s like.

You sleep in the basements of strangers. You sit on buses for 13 hours
at a time. You get to the ballpark at 9am and put in a full day of
training, and then you have to come out and play – every night. You get
bumps, bruises, you get insults, you get yelled at, you get people
messing with your swing, you get sat when you’re in form and played
when you feel like crap, you get paid $1200 per month, you eat crappy
food, and in most cases, your sign-on bonus was four figures… low
four figures.

Okay, I understand all that. But you know what supercedes all of that? You get paid to play ball.

Each of those kids who ask you for autographs after a game, do so
because THEY WANT TO BE YOU. We all do – the fans, the coaches, the
broadcasters, the beerhawkers, the Japanese guys that live in the
scoreboard – we’d all give our pinkie fingers to ‘put up’ with the crap
you guys put up with.

So hey, how about you make a decision. Either you LIVE for the day when
you get to the plate with the bases loaded with one out, or you make
way for a kid who will, because I guarantee there’s plenty of them in
Arizona.

And it’s the guys who relish the chance to roll the dice and be the
hero or the zero in front of thousands of people, who will attain the
level of Shane Komine, who debuts on the mound for Oakland tomorrow
against the Toronto Blue Jays, or Jason Windsor, who went from pitching
for Vancouver in 2004 to pitching against Boston’s Curt Schilling last
week.

Time to step up, Vancouver Canadians.
Time to win a god damned pennant and show that you’re major
league-worthy. Time to be the team leader that Vancouver is waiting for.

It starts here. Play ball.
 

	July 28, 2006
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Tri-City 5 0 0 0 1 0 2 1 1 10 14 0 Vancouver 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 4 2 wrap | box | log W: A. Kreidermacher (3-3, 4.01); L: K. Bunch (0-1, 48.60) HR: TRI: V. Ferrante (5), G. Strickland (1).

Photo credit: WCNPA.