Hall Of 100 – Tacoma Style

ESPN has stirred up a debate by releasing a “Hall Of 100″ ranking the top 100 players in baseball history.

This type of project is something that can be argued about forever, with no solution in sight. It’s extremely difficult to compare players across eras in a sport that has been played at a professional level since the late 1800s.

I’m not even going to attempt to critique their list – you can check it out for yourself, the whole presentation is right here.

However, I am willing to look at the Tacoma connections on their list:

Played for Tacoma: Mark McGwire (ranked #83) played for the Tacoma Tigers in 1986. Juan Marichal (70) was a member of the original Tacoma Giants in 1960. Gaylord Perry (66) pitched for the Tacoma Giants from 1960 to 1963. Willie McCovey (57) played for Tacoma in 1960. Ken Griffey Jr (34) played in that one rehab game in 1995. Alex Rodriguez (18) was with the Rainiers in 1995 and 1996. Walter Johnson (12) infamously pitched in one exhibition game for the 1906 Tacoma Tigers before manager Mike Lynch told him he would never make it as a pitcher.

Definitely played at Tacoma as a visitor: we saw Manny Ramirez (85) roll into town with Sacramento just last season. Mike Piazza (78) came through town as an Albuquerque Duke in 1992. Tony Gwynn (61) was a visitor with the Hawaii Islanders in 1982, and possibly Las Vegas in 1983. Pedro Martinez (41) came into town with Albuquerque in 1992. Mike Schmidt (16) played in numerous games at Cheney while with Eugene in 1972. Willie Mays (2) made several appearances at Tacoma in Tacoma Giants vs. SF Giants exhibition games in the 1960s.

May have played at Tacoma as a visitor: Jim Thome (94) played portions of two seasons with Colorado Springs, in 1991 and 1992 for a total of 53 games. It’s possible he came through Cheney Stadium back then. Craig Biggio (90) played a half-season with Tucson in 1988 and seems likely to have played at Cheney. Roberto Alomar (73) played in a whopping nine games for Las Vegas in 1988 – the chance that any of those were in Tacoma is slim. Ferguson Jenkins (62) pitched parts of two seasons with Arkansas in 1964-1965. Arkansas, believe it or not, was a PCL team during those seasons and Tacoma played 14 games against the them, so it is likely that Jenkins played at Cheney. Rickey Henderson (14) played a half-season with then-PCL entry Ogden in 1979; he may have played in Tacoma – if any readers know for sure on Rickey, please contact me.

Tacoma-related: Bob Feller (59) did several appearances/autograph signings at Cheney Stadium in his post-playing days. Babe Ruth (1) played exhibition games in Tacoma and Seattle in the early 1920s.

I will leave you with one complaint about ESPN’s list: no Ichiro? Not even in the “honorable mentions?”

Links:

• Josh Hamilton signed a five-year contract with the Angels. This really limits the Mariners chances of acquiring an impact hitter – they might have to go the trade route at this point, as Nick Swisher seems to be the last quality free agent hitter on the market.
• On The News Tribune’s Mariners blog there is a wrap-up with audio of Jack Z and Eric Wedge visiting the Hot Stove League radio show.
• Ex-Rainiers third baseman Jack Hannahan signed a two-year major league contract with the Cincinnati Reds.
• Another former Rainiers player, Shin-Soo Choo, was part of a somewhat controversial three-team trade. Choo is also now on the Reds, and there are reports that Cincinnati is going to try him in center field.
• In the PCL, the Iowa Cubs have a new manager and it is Marty Pevey.

The Alou Siblings

According to the mysterious people who run the @RainiersLand twitter account, today is “National Sibling Day.” This caused them to publish on twitter a great shot of Clay Huntington interviewing all three Alou brothers at Cheney Stadium.

I don’t know what the heck “National Sibling Day” is, but if it spurred the Rainiers to dig out this gem from the photo archives, well, I’m all for it.

It’s an awesome photo, I thought it would be fun to CSI it a little bit.

First off, here is the picture:

Click photo to enlarge

That’s definitely Cheney Stadium – the right field light tower, shipped to Tacoma after they tore down Seals Stadium in San Francisco, has been in place at Cheney since 1960. It even survived the remodel.

You can see the then-undeveloped Foss tennis courts hill in the background.

On the left, we have Felipe and Matty Alou in their San Francisco Giants uniforms. On the right, Jesus Alou is in his Tacoma Giants uniform. In the middle, we have Mr. Huntington in a snappy sports coat adorned with a Tacoma Giants lapel badge.

Felipe Alou – who would become a great manager – never played in a game as a member of the Tacoma Giants. But the San Francisco Giants used to play an annual exhibition game at Cheney Stadium against the Tacoma affiliate, and this picture is clearly from one of those exhibitions.

(These exhibitions are the reason why some older fans remember seeing Willie Mays play in Tacoma. Mays played in several of these exhibitions between 1960 and 1965).

Matty Alou was one of the stars of the inaugural 1960 Tacoma Giants, hitting .306 while playing in 150 games. Matty cracked the San Francisco opening day roster in 1961 as a reserve outfielder – but he couldn’t break into the starting outfield of Mays, Willie McCovey, and his brother Felipe.

Matty was a back-up outfielder in 1961 and 1962, and in 1963 his playing time really deteriorated so he was sent back to Tacoma for a month to get some at-bats. Eventually he was traded to Pittsburgh where he became a starter and won a batting title.

The appearance of Jesus Alou in a Tacoma uniform makes this CSI an easy project: Jesus only played for Tacoma for one season, in 1963.

Jesus had one of the best full-seasons in Tacoma’s long franchise history, batting .324 over 648 at-bats in 1963 – a batting average that still ranks as Tacoma’s 11th-highest single-season mark. He played in 158 games, a Tacoma single-season record that may last forever, since the PCL only plays 144 now.

It appears this photo was taken prior to a San Francisco Giants vs. Tacoma Giants exhibition game in 1963. It must have occurred during a portion of the season when Matty was up with the big club.

Jesus got called up in September of 1963 and three times that September the San Francisco Giants fielded an all-Alou outfield – although, as the New York Times mythbusted, they never did all start the same game.

Links:

• Larry LaRue has a story in The News Tribune about how the Mariners are better than they were last year. I agree with the sentiment: the team is improved from one year ago, even if it doesn’t really show in the won-loss record. They are much more fun to watch.
• In the Times, Geoff Baker has an excellent article on the remarkable turnaround of Mariners reliever Oliver Perez. Perez signed as a minor league free agent and opened the season in Tacoma.
• Justin Smoak hit a pair of home runs last night in the Mariners 5-4 loss at Anaheim. Smoak is on yet another September tear… hey, I think I figured out what to do with him! Here’s the plan: we keep him in Tacoma all season, while the Mariners contend for a wild card in the majors, and then when the roster expands they make the call – and here comes September Smoak, ready to blast the Mariners into the post-season! Who’s with me?
• So you want to operate a Class-A team in the middle of nowhere? The Mariners High Desert affiliate is hiring a general manager.
• The Wall Street Journal has a study entitled “How Biased Is You Baseball Announcer?”
• Something good has come from the NFL referees lockout: it reminded Larry Stone to write about the 1979 umpire’s strike. Great stuff here.
• Congrats to former Rainiers outfielder Michael Saunders, as he and his wife Jessica had a baby.
• Prospect analyst John Sickels tried to make something of Danny Hultzen‘s season. His conclusion: don’t panic.
• Yet another step towards El Paso: the ownership group signed an agreement to purchase the Tucson Padres.

Some excellent pennant races going into the final week of the season. Maybe the Mariners can be a factor and help bury the Angels?

Brownie On Top

Erasmo Ramirez tossed a gem, carrying a shutout into the eighth inning and pitching Tacoma to a 4-1 victory over Tucson on Monday afternoon.

The victory gave Tacoma a series win over the Padres, three games to one. Tacoma has won five of the last six games, and the team has gone 12-5 over the last 17 games.

With the win, Rainiers manager Daren Brown moved past Dan Rohn to the top of the Tacoma all-time manager wins list.

Here are the leaders, the years they managed, and their records.

1. Daren Brown,  2007-current. 376-366
2. Dan Rohn, 2001-2005. 375-340
3. Dave Myers, 1996-2000. 366-343
4. Whitey Lockman, 1967-1970. 269-316
5. Red Davis, 1960-1962. 259-203

Obviously, longevity is a big part of racking up the wins. Lockman held the title of most wins for nearly 30 years, and he had a losing record! But he managed the Tacoma Cubs for four years, and he won a PCL title with his 1969 team (his other three teams were bad).

Brown is in his sixth season, which is a record in itself. However, he missed a third of the 2010 season when he was promoted to Seattle as Mariners interim manager (Jose Castro got credit for Tacoma wins while Brown was in the majors). Brown’s teams have been to the playoffs twice and won one PCL title (although Brown was in the majors when it happened).

His best season in terms of wins and losses was 2008, when the team went 80-64. Eighty wins in the PCL is almost always playoff worthy – but that was the year Salt Lake started the season 22-1 and held first place from wire to wire. Brown is still amazed by that season – Tacoma opened the season a respectable 13-10 and was eight games out of first place!

The most dramatic was the 2009 season, when Brown’s comeback kids overcame a 7.5-game deficit over the final 17 days of the season and won th division title on the last game of the year. That was a miraculous finish.

We’ll see how 2012 plays out. Brown’s club is 3.5 games behind first place Reno, and there are still 93 games to play.

Tacoma plays at Reno this week, with a four-game series starting with a game on Tuesday night at 7:05. Tacoma starts RHP Andrew Carraway (2-0, 2.21) against Reno RHP Joe Martinez (2-3, 5.87). The broadcast is on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here.

Tacoma has always struggled at Aces Ballpark, and the Rainiers have already been swept there this season. But Tacoma has a much stronger lineup this time around, and I think we’ll see some better results.

Reno just split a four-gamer at Sacramento. Tacoma will not face Reno Aces top prospect Trevor Bauer, who pitched on Monday.

It should be a fun series!

Links:

• We’ll lead off with Ryan Divish’s Rainiers game story from The News Tribune, focusing on Daren Brown‘s accomplishment.
• The Mariners lost in Texas, and that’s five in a row. This team is streaky!
• Ho-hum, he did it again. Danny Hultzen tossed six scoreless innings for Double-A Jackson, lowering his ERA to a Southern League leading 1.59. He’s allowed two runs on 15 hits in his last 26 innings pitched. I wonder if this is boring for him?
• The greatest hitter anyone has ever seen came out to the ballpark in San Francisco and had some interesting things to say. I wonder if this was a step to try to heal his reputation? He certainly sounds a little older and wiser.
• In the PCL, Reno’s Trevor Bauer was once again both wild and unhittable, pitching the Aces to a 10-2 win at Sacramento.
• Baseball America says the Rainiers are going to have to look out for Reno third baseman Ryan Wheeler this week.
• As expected, Manny Ramirez will not be activated by Oakland on Wednesday. Will he still be with Sacramento on Saturday when they come to Tacoma? Who knows?
• New Salt Lake hitting coach Francisco Matos has a problem: the Bees aren’t hitting. Salt Lake lost to Las Vegas and has dropped five in a row.
• Fresno outscored Colorado Springs 10-8, and the Grizzlies are now 19 games over .500 and have the PCL’s best record.
• I’m developing a mancrush on Omaha’s Wil Myers, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI in a 6-3 win at New Orleans.
• Matt Kemp wrapped up his two-day rehabilitation assignment with Albuquerque in style: three hits, and a homer. He went 5-for-7 with two homers in two games.
• Round Rock put three on the board in the tenth inning and defeated Nashville, 8-5.

Off to the airport – gotta fly to Reno!

Piece Of History

Instead of looking to the future, let’s take a step back into the past.

I was at a Tacoma Athletic Commission meeting yesterday (Scott Hatteberg was the speaker; he was terrific), and a member named Rich Berndt brought something really cool: an autographed 1961 Tacoma Giants team baseball.

The ’61 Giants are still the greatest team in Tacoma history, and one of the greatest minor league teams of the 20th century. They went 97-57 and were PCL champions.

Rich let me take some pictures of his baseball.

The ball is in great condition – the ink is very bold. Rich told me he stores it away from sunlight, which seems like a good idea for any signed baseball. I have a Harry Caray “Holy Cow” ball that I wish I hadn’t let sit near sunlight.

Manager Red Davis

Red was the first Tacoma manager, piloting the 1960-1962 Giants. He passed away in 2002.

Here’s a nice panel:

 

What, no vaseline smudge next to Gaylord's name?

 

That’s Dusty Rhodes, Frank Reveira, Gaylord Perry, and Tom Haller. Three of the four had very long MLB careers.

And another side:

There were about 20 signatures on it.

Rafael Alomar, Tacoma Hall of Famer Gil Garrido, Ray Daviault, Verle Tiefenthaler, Bill Hain.

There were more signatures on it, but at this point Rich caught me trying to sneak the baseball into my coat pocket, and I was booted out of the TAC meeting by Stan Naccarato, Bob Robertson, and Bill Baarsma. C’mon, guys, I just wanted to display it in my booth!

Seriously, though, it’s an awesome piece of Tacoma baseball history.

Speaking of decorating the booth, big-time shout-out to blog reader Big Mike, who located the below photo of Daren Brown getting ejected for me. Two down, two to go: I have Brown and Rohn getting tossed; I need Dave Brundage and Dave Myers. I have a lead on a Brundage, but Myers is going to be tough – he rarely got ejected.

The hat has been tossed.

Links:

• It’s time for spring training: Larry LaRue of The News Tribune flew to Arizona today.
• John McGrath wrote a column on Mariners general manager Jack Z, and McGrath states that it is time to see some “signs of tangible progress.”
• Keith Law posted his Top 100 Prospects list, with write-ups, on ESPN – if you’re an “Insider” you can access the list here. Not an Insider or only care about the Mariners? Larry Stone has the Mariners info for you.
• As an aside to that previous link, ESPN displays #11 prospect Dylan Bundy’s high school stats, since that’s all he has: 11-0, 0.20 ERA, 158 strikeouts and five walks. How would you like to be a high school kid facing that guy?
• The New York Times did a feature on Dirk Hayhurst, the former PCL pitcher who is about to release his sure-to-be-entertaining second book.
• The humidor is coming to Colorado Springs. Let the celebration begin!
• Minor League Baseball is going back to Canada, with Ottawa attracting an Eastern League franchise rumored to be the Binghampton Mets. It sure would be nice if the PCL brought back a nice, thriving coastal Canadian city.
• College baseball starts shortly. Here is the Pac-12 Preview from Baseball America.

Check back Monday – we should have our first real, live spring training reports!

Street Name

Today we get word that the Tacoma Landmarks Preservation Committee is moving forward with plans to try to get the street that leads into Cheney Stadium to be named after recently departed civic leader and baseball man Clay Huntington.

I am in favor of this, and I hope it happens. As we discussed when he passed away, Clay was one of the men responsible for the building of Cheney Stadium, and bringing Triple-A baseball to Tacoma. He supported youth and professional athletics in the Tacoma area his entire lifetime.

Fellow broadcaster Bob Robertson tipped me off that he was part of a citizen’s group trying to get the idea off the ground, and now we have confirmation in John McGrath’s column.

The street – currently named South Cheyenne Street – is the one that winds around the outfield wall, past the Foss High School parking lots, and intersects at S. 19th St.

It would be a fitting honor for Clay.

Links:

• The Mariners signed veteran relief pitcher Aaron Heilman to a minor league contract. Heilman will go to spring training and fight for a big league bullpen job. He was a solid major league reliever for several years, but he struggled in 2011. At age 33, can he bounce back? We’ll find out soon enough.
• In his post on Heilman, Jeff Sullivan of Lookout Landing has a list of the Mariners bullpen candidates. Many of the ”Legitimate Competitors” will make up the pitching staff of your 2012 Tacoma Rainiers.
• Larry LaRue writes that Ken Griffey Jr. is being a dad.
• Next year’s Hall of Fame ballot is going to be a never-ending story, as many known or suspected PED users will be on it. With Barry Bonds at the head of the class, the heart of this story is going to be in San Francisco – where lead baseball columnist John Shea is already conflicted about his ballot.

Still waiting for this Prince Fielder saga to play out. Is anyone else getting impatient?

On Player Names

Yesterday afternoon I updated the Tacoma all-time roster, filling in all of the names of players who appeared in at least one game in 2011. It’s on the Rainiers website – you can see the complete alphabetical list of every player to appear in a game for Tacoma, since 1960, right here.

The first name to go in was David Aardsma, who is now the very first player on our list.

This is no surprise. When Aardsma reached the major leagues in 2004, he jumped ahead of Henry Aaron as the first player listed in the all-time alphabetical list of Major League Baseball players.

Why would anybody know this?

Well, let’s go back in time a little bit… to a long-ago era, a dark age of few computers and no cell phones and no internet. Yes, I said no internet - I know, I’m old.

Back then to get your baseball stats you needed get The Book. That would be the Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia. It was a huge, huge book – you could go on a workout plan doing curls with it.

I rummaged up my old copy and took a photo for you. That’s a standard-size coffee mug in the foreground.

Try lugging one of these around the PCL in your carry-on bag!

The encyclopedia lists every player in MLB history, and all of their career statistics, in alphabetical order. It was a bit of a story when Aardsma ousted Aaron from the leadoff spot – if I recall correctly, the esteemed John McGrath even wrote a column about it.

So now, on our Tacoma roster, we lead off with the same player that MLB does.

—

There is one thing we have on the Tacoma all-time roster that MLB does not have: a player whose last name begins with the letter “x.”

Joe Xavier played for the Tacoma Tigers in 1988, and he had a pretty solid season and appeared to be on the verge of a call-up to Oakland.

In all of the 100+ years of Major League Baseball, there has never been a player with a last name starting with the letter “x.” Xavier was poised to be the first.

This was actually somewhat newsy at the time – Baseball America ran a bi-weekly “Joe Xavier Watch” updating his progress, and Sports Illustrated even made a note of him.

Alas, it did not happen. Joe never got the call, and Major League Baseball remains X-free.

Here’s some more on Joe Xavier, from a blog with a very unique idea.

—

When I got to Chaz Roe on the roster, I wondered if he had the shortest name in Tacoma baseball history. I had to check it out.

Sorry, Chaz. Tacoma has a five-way tie for shortest name, between Bo Diaz (1979), Joe Law (1987-1990), Ron Law (1972), Don Lee (1967), and Al Rico (1972).

I eliminated initial-names from the competition. My apologies to T.J. Bohn, J.J. Putz, and A.J. Zapp – you guys don’t count.

Too bad we never had Ed Ott or Ed Hug, who have the shortest names in MLB history.

—

The longest name on the Tacoma all-time roster belongs to Tommy Johannesen-Ellis, checking in at 20 letters.

Tommy pitched in one game for Tacoma, in 2007. I believe he is out of baseball now.

If he had reached the majors, Tommy Johannesen-Ellis would have tied such mouthfuls as William Van Landingham and Jarrod Saltalamacchia for longest name (first + last) in MLB history.

Links:

• At The News Tribune, Larry LaRue recaps a media session Ichiro had in Japan.
• The well-connected Jon Heyman ranks the Prince Fielder suitors. The Mariners are #2.
• Former Cheney Stadium groundskeeper Bob Christofferson (a strong 17 letters) helped select the initial members of the MLB Groundskeeper Hall of Fame.

We really need Prince to sign soon. See what we were reduced to today? If he doesn’t sign tomorrow I might have to write about something even nerdier, like radio equipment.

Liddi Produces

The Rainiers lost the series-opener to Fresno on Friday night, 7-2, but Alex Liddi was able to achieve a rare accomplishment.

Liddi singled home Greg Halman in the bottom of the first inning for his 100th RBI of the season. With that RBI, Liddi became just the second player in 52 years of Tacoma baseball to reach 100 RBIs and runs scored in the same season.

Craig Kusick is the only other player to achieve the feat. Kusick scored 102 runs and had 104 RBI for the 1973 Tacoma Twins.

Kusick had the type of season in 1973 that would cause him to be a hot commodity in 2011. At the age of 24, in his first Triple-A season, Kusick hit .305 with 27 home runs. He also walked more than he struck out: he drew 103 walks next to 92 strikeouts. He had a .424 on-base percentage and a .518 slugging percentage.

Kusick shuffled between Tacoma and Minnesota during the 1974 and 1975 seasons, and he finally stuck in the big leagues in 1976, playing the next four seasons in a reserve role.

In 1980, after being sold to Toronto and released, Kusick signed a minor league deal with San Diego and spent a season-and-a-half with their Triple-A affiliate, the Hawaii Islanders. He retired after the 1981 season, and he passed away in 2006 in St. Paul, Minnesota at the young age of 57.

Check out Kusick’s Baseball Reference pages: major leagues and minor leagues.

—

Tonight the Rainiers play the final night game of the season, and there will be fireworks after the game at Cheney Stadium.

First pitch is set for 7:05, and you can listen to the broadcast on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here. Tacoma will start RHP Jarrett Grube (4-3, 5.00) against Fresno LHP Geno Espinelli (2-5, 7.14).

A note on the broadcast: we will be brushing up against the end of the Washington Huskies football broadcast. Their game starts at 4:00 and should end right around 7:00 or 7:15. When the clock hits zero on the Huskies game, we’ll come right out to Cheney Stadium and pick up the Rainiers game. Hopefully we’ll be in time for the first pitch.*

Links:

• We lead off with the Rainiers game story from Larry LaRue of The News Tribune. Also, we have some Fresno notes from the Fresno Bee.
• Video highlights! We have the Carlos Peguero home run from Thursday, and Greg Halman’s Little League grand slam from Wednesday. The video on the second one was a little shaky - that play needed a seven-camera MLB TV set-up.
• Cesar Jimenez pitched in his first major league game since 2008, but it didn’t go well and the Mariners got skunked in Oakland.
• The Mariners activated Justin Smoak from the disabled list and he had a hit last night.
• John Sickels previewed the Peoria Javelinas – that’s the Arizona Fall League team that the Mariners contribute players to.
• Oakland called up Sacramento outfielder Michael Taylor, which meant… hugs for everybody!
• Las Vegas pitcher Kyle Drabek has experienced a loss of control, but they’re working with him. In this story: Las Vegas first baseman David Cooper won the Mayor’s Trophy, which is a cool fan-chosen award they give out in Las Vegas every year.
• Round Rock manager Bobby Jones won the PCL Manager of the Year award, and then his Express went out and beat Albuquerque.
• Wow. Sacramento is 12-1 against Colorado Springs this year. In this story: Sky Sox manager Stu Cole is suspended.
• Reno beat Tucson in ten innings, 2-1. Ryan Langerhans had the game-winning hit.

I’d like to see the Rainiers close this out with three straight wins, and finish the season at .500. The Rainiers have not finished under .500 since Daren Brown’s first season, 2007. 

* call me crazy, but I think Eastern might give them a good fight, and this could be a close game – which of course would make it last longer.

A Big Loss

I found out during the ninth inning of Tacoma’s 3-0 loss to Reno yesterday afternoon that Clay Huntington had passed away.

Huntington, 89, was one of the biggest baseball supporters in Tacoma. He was a crucial part of the group that worked with Ben Cheney to build Cheney Stadium in 1960, and bring Pacific Coast League Baseball to Tacoma.

But Huntington’s influence was more than just the one project in 1960 – he continued to support the team through the years, becoming one of the 20 investors who saved the team in from moving away in a last-minute desperation gambit in 1972.

Clay had a sports broadcasting background and he was always willing to air Tacoma games on the radio station he owned, KLAY 1180.

Clay was a friend of mine - although it didn’t have to be that way. When I first came to Tacoma it was in a role replacing Clay’s longtime friend, Bob Robertson. Clay could have taken affront to that, but instead he welcomed me to town and helped ease the transition.

Rainiers games were on KLAY for a few years when I first came to Tacoma in 1999, and I always enjoyed stopping by the station in Lakewood and visiting with Clay in his office. We would talk about baseball and broadcasting – he was a treasure-chest of information.

In more recent years I would see him at the Safeco Field press box, where I would sit with him for a few innings on the rare occasions I could make it to a Mariners game.

Clay was very encouraging of my work and told me as recently as last year that I was good enough to be a major league announcer. I was floored to hear that from a man of his stature and experience in the industry and I consider it one of the greatest professional compliments I have ever received.

I miss him already.

—–

Tacoma Rainiers baseball continues – and of course Clay would want it that way.

The team has lost the first two games of the Reno series, and it desperately needs to win one of the next two - if not both.

Yesterday the team was shut out for the first time this season, with Reno’s Barry Enright and three relievers combining on a three-hitter.

Amazingly, it was the first shutout Tacoma has been involved in this year – either way. No shutouts, for or against, for 53 games.

Today’s game is at 7:05 pm and you can catch the broadcast on 850 AM or streaming online. Tacoma starts LHP Nate Robertson (0-0, 0.00) against Reno LHP Tom Layne (5-1, 4.95).

This will be Robertson’s first appearance of the season – he has been on the disabled list since having bone chips removed from his left elbow in mid-March. The MLB veteran had been expected to compete with Michael Pineda for the Mariners #5 starter spot. 

The Rainiers had an open roster spot because reliever Manny Delcarmen asked for his release. Delcarmen had a May 31 out clause in his contract.

Delcarmen obviously feels like going to another team will increase his chances of reaching the majors – and he’s probably right. The Rainiers have two relievers on the 40-man roster in Josh Lueke and Dan Cortes, and then Denny Bautista, Royce Ring, Cesar Jimenez and Scott Patterson throwing well, and the Mariners just claimed Jeff Gray on waivers – going to a team with less bullpen depth seems like a smart move for Delcarmen.

On the other hand, Tacoma now has seven starting pitchers. What is the rotation now? I have no idea. I’ll ask the manager during tonight’s pre-game show.

Links:

• Here is Clay Huntington’s obituary, as written by John McGrath of The News Tribune. If you are unfamiliar with the man, give it a read and cruise through the comments to see what kind of influence he had.
• A cool fact about Clay Huntington: he once told me had some sort of Major League Baseball lifetime gold card that allowed him premium access to any MLB park – all he had to do was show it at the ticket office, and he would be ushered in. And get this: he had it since 1960, when they built the ballpark and brought baseball to Tacoma. How awesome would that be?
• Here is the Rainiers game story from yesterday. Ryan Divish misses Clay, too.
• Ex-Rainiers outfielder Adam Jones made an amazing catch and hit a game-winning home run. That’s all awesome, Adam, and we support you – but why did you have to do it against the Mariners?
• Mariners manager Eric Wedge was upset about the lack of offense, and apparently they are considering calling up Mike Carp. Opinion from the booth: well, duh. It’s ridiculous that Carp is in Triple-A right now.
• Buster Olney brings up a good point (ESPN Insider required) about the Mariners usage of Michael Pineda: at the current rate, Pineda will reach a carer-high for innings pitched before the end of July. Remember how they babied him in Tacoma at the end of last year, before shutting him down in August? What will they do this August?
• In the PCL, Salt Lake blew a 4-1 lead and lost at Sacramento, 7-4.
• Colorado Springs took sole possession of third place with a 7-2 win at Fresno last night. Charlie Blackmon has a 19-game hitting streak.
• Fresno has outfielder Thomas Neal off the disabled list, and he’s supposed to be a pretty good prospect. We’ll see him for the first time on the next road trip.
• Apparently the Rainiers put Las Vegas into a funk – the formerly red-hot 51s lost their fourth in a row yesterday. The paper featured Will Venable of Tucson.
• Remember that game last homestand, when Adron Chambers single-handedly beat the Rainiers? Well, the Memphis outfielder did it again – but this time, he did it to Albuquerque.
• This is an interesting feature on Oklahoma City outfielder Brandon Barnes, who turned down UCLA football in order to play baseball. His RedHawks lost to Round Rock yesterday.
• Omaha rode a good start from Vin Mazzaro to a win over New Orleans.
• Looking for a feature on a person who is probably smaller than you who has played Major League Baseball? Here’s one on Nashville reliever Dan Herrera.
• News from the Northwest League: it looks like the Yakima Bears are eyeing Vancouver, WA as a new-stadium destination. How or if this affects any attempt to bring the PCL back to Portland, I don’t know. It’s been nothing but silence on the baseball front from Portland since they committed to soccer.
• I am, as a rule*, officially opposed to the at-the-ballpark marriage proposal. But, if you’re going to do it, this is the way to do it.

Back to the ballpark. The Rainiers really need to split these last two with Reno, at the very least. Otherwise, we’re looking at a huge deficit in the standings for this point in the season.

* there are exceptions – Alonzo Powell’s proposal a couple of seasons ago was appropriate, as it was in response to the way he met his now-wife. I’m sure there are other valid exceptions.

The Rainiers Are Back In Town

The Rainiers returned to Tacoma on Monday afternoon in the hopes of opening an eight-game homestand tonight at 7:05, but as you can probably tell it is quite damp outside. No official decision has been made so we are moving forward with the plan of playing tonight.

I’ll update this blog if anything changes.

Tacoma was unable to win the series finale in Reno, although the club did have another spirited rally in the ninth. Trailing 10-6, Tacoma scored twice and had the tying runners on base before former Rainiers reliever Kam Mickolio was able to nail down the final two outs for Reno.

Still, it was a successful road trip: the Rainiers played .500 ball, which is alway the goal on the road, and the Rainiers started to hit. The team averaged over eight runs per game on the trip.

Hopefully the offense will carry over into this homestand. The team was not happy with the first homestand, when they only won one game, and they want to play better at home.

Tonight Tacoma is scheduled to start LHP Fabio Castro (1-2, 5.89) against Tucson RHP Jeremy Hefner (0-1, 5.31). I sure hope Hefner’s nickname on the team is “Playboy.” You can catch the live stream here or listen on 850 AM.

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Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve heard that US forces killed Osama bin Laden yesterday. Of course this was welcoming news for all of us who will never forget what happened on 9/11/2001.  Like most of you, the news made me remember that day…

I was with the Rainiers in a hotel in New Orleans. You see, 9/11 was also the date of the first game of the Pacific Coast League Championship Series, Tacoma at New Orleans.

I had spent the entire previous day preparing for the series. I stayed up pretty late the night of the 10th, and early in the morning on 9/11 my hotel room phone kept ringing. I ignored it – I was trying to sleep! – and seeing how it was my first PCL final I thought maybe this was normal, people calling on the morning of the game. I’d call them back later, when I was awake.

Eventually I woke up and turned on the TV and you know the rest. The images, the fear, the anger. Obviously, the game was cancelled.

The team spent the day in the hotel, watching the news and talking about it. The next day the game was cancelled, too, and on the third day the entire series was cancelled, and Tacoma and New Orleans were named Co-Champions.

All of the players were happy about that decision. The guys just wanted to get home and be with their loved ones.

That was a problem, though. Commercial airlines were grounded. We were stuck in a hotel in a suburb of New Orleans, with no way to get home.

I ended up spending six days in that hotel before I could fly back to Tacoma. Some players were able to fly out a day earlier. Several guys pitched in and rented a cars and drove home to the east coast and southern states, dropping each other off at their houses along the way.

I’ll never forget that flight home. It was one of those Southwest Airlines three-hoppers, but I sure didn’t mind - I would have stopped ten times. Every flight was so empty - the airlines were back in business, but nobody wanted to fly. There were only about four of us from the team on the flight. We stuck together, eyeing other passengers suspiciously. We decided that if there was any trouble, we would be like Mark Bingham and Todd Beamer and the others.

We made it home safely, of course, and in time the world seemed normal again.

I’m glad we got the guy.

A few links:

• The Rainiers game story recapping Sunday’s finale in Reno, from The News Tribune. The Aces were worried in the ninth inning.
• The Mariners couldn’t finish off a perfect road trip, but it was great to see them play well. Felix Hernandez pitched well, like he always does in Boston.
• John McGrath went to the Cheney Stadium “Fan Go-Round” and had a good time.
• There are a bunch of good Mariners minor league notes in this Larry Stone blog post.

That’s all I have time for today – I have to head to the ballpark and see if it stops raining.

Ackley Live Chat Today

Here’s something different: Rainiers second baseman Dustin Ackley is doing a live chat today at 1:30.

The Seattle Times is hosting the event, and it will run through their website right here. Apparently, Dustin will be doing his part from one of the suites at Cheney Stadium. So get your questions ready.

Hey, I’ve got a question: when are the Rainiers going to win a home game? This is getting kind of ridiculous. The team is now 0-5 at the New Cheney and has lost six in a row.

There isn’t much manager Daren Brown can do. He’s down to ten position players on the roster and yesterday he crossed himself and put both of his catchers in the starting lineup (Jose Yepez played first base).

Tacoma has lost all three starting outfielders to injury and/or promotion, and has received no outfielders in return. If the Mariners aren’t comfortable promoting any of the Class-AA outfielders – and apparently they aren’t, or else they would have done it when Greg Halman was injured - then they need to sign an experienced Triple-A outfielder. There are plenty of veteran players looking for jobs right now.

This whole outfield crisis was completely unexpected. Who would have guessed that Halman and Mike Wilson would get injured immediately? Certainly nobody expected Carlos Peguero to be in the major leagues on April 19.

Changing gears, let’s talk about something positive: a few of the Rainiers hitters are heating up.

• Dustin Ackley had three hits yesterday and has an 8-game hitting streak.
• Josh Bard extended his hitting streak to 10 straight games last night.
• Mike Carp has his first multi-hit game with two doubles yesterday.
• Alex Liddi has hit safely in 5 of his last 6 games.
• Jose Yepez had three hits last night.

Tacoma had 11 hits in the game yesterday, and five were doubles, yet it all added up to just three runs in a 6-3 loss to Colorado Springs.

David Aardsma pitched the eighth and looked rusty, issuing two walks and surrendering a two-run homer to veteran Mike Jacobs. It was the first time Aardsma has faced live hitters since the end of last season, so the rust is totally understandable. Aardsma will probably pitch several times for Tacoma.

One fun fact I unearthed before the game (OK, this is a “fun fact” for everybody except Aardsma): prior to last night, the last pitch Aardsma threw at Cheney Stadium was hit for a walk-off grand slam by Tacoma’s A.J. Zapp.

It was August 20, 2004, and Aardsma was an up-and-coming San Francisco Giants relief prospect pitching for Fresno. Protecting a one-run lead, he allowed the tying run to score and then loaded the bases with one out for Zapp. Zapp launched it onto the Foss Hill to complete the biggest single-player game I’ve ever witnessed: he went 5-for-5 with two home runs and 9 RBI in that game, an 11-7 Tacoma win.

Tonight’s game is at 7:05 (broadcast on 850 AM and streaming here). Tacoma starts RHP Chaz Roe (0-1, 10.57) against Colorado Springs RHP Billy Buckner (0-0, 8.00). Roe pitched for the Sky Sox all of last season.

Links:

• Here is the Rainiers game story from The News Tribune.
• The Mariners placed Justin Smoak on the bereavement list and called up Carlos Peguero from the Rainiers. Our condolences to Justin and his family. Here’s a good story from South Carolina on Justin and his father Keith. Geoff Baker had a good one a while ago, focusing on Keith’s influence on his son’s game.
• Ryan Divish posted this video of Mariners manager Eric Wedge talking about Peguero.
• The M’s offense erupted and they beat the Detroit Tigers into a pulp.
• Former Mariners GM Pat Gillick and his wife toured the Hall of Fame.
• The Sky Sox are getting Ian Stewart from the Rockies. Stewart was just 2-for-26 in the big leagues.
• Las Vegas outfielder Eric Thames is featured today – after being drafted in the 39th round, he wore a “First Round Or Bust” t-shirt.
• David Winfree and Brandon Allen each had four hits and Reno crushed Sacramento, 13-6. Reno has the best record in the league (9-3). Tony Abreu has been one of the team’s hottest hitters.
• Giants outfielder Cody Ross rehabbed with Fresno and had an amusing take on Steve Decker’s basestealing plan. It’s halfway down the notebook.
• The Padres have high hopes for Tucson starter Simon Castro, but he’s struggling with his delivery right now.
• The New Orleans Zephyrs have hit a pitcher in the head with a batted ball in two straight games. Fortunately everybody is OK.
• Omaha reliever Louis Coleman got the feature treatment from the esteemed Rob White. It seems like all of the big baseball events in Coleman’s life occur in Omaha.
• Sometimes, even the Minor League Baseball Home Run Champion needs to bunt. Moose got it down, and the Storm Chasers won.
• Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you… The Shortest Perfect Game in Texas League History. Martin Perez thanks you all, especially Mother Nature.
• This link is for co-worker Adam Baker and any other avid College World Series fans: they opened up the new home of the CWS in Omaha yesterday, and it looks pretty cool.
• Port Orchard’s Willie Bloomquist is having a great start to his season.

That’s it for this morning. If Pedro Grifol sends in the Calvary today, I’ll post the roster moves before the game.