West Coast Fantasy Baseball Association

2006 BASEBALL LEAGUE

FROM THE STANDS
Archbishop Riordan High School

May 7, 2006

by Jim Realini

             Another fine day at the Riordan High School Diamond courtesy of Coach Ron Isola.  The WCFBL is providing a great way for men to remain boys playing the “old ball game” as opposed to the old bald game.  As soon as the Terralini’s wake up their bats, it looks like each game will be a well-balanced match-up.

GAME #1

Philadelphia A’s (Luis) 9    Fresno Giants (Terra-Realini) 2

           

            The Philadelphia A’s pounded the Fresno Giants 9-2 behind some great pitching by Sil Krevocheza who finally got the defensive support he deserves.  The A’s shortstops turned in two clutch double plays to snuff out Giant rallies.  David Gayner feasted on Giant pitching with three doubles and a single to go along with Mike Mello’s three singles.  Eddie Contreras and Craig Alexander each stroked doubles to pummel the Giants while Don Luis, Ken Calloway, Mark Rowell, Mike Hilton, and Sil Krevocheza each added sharply hit bingles.

            Fresno got a gritty pitching performance from the old war horse Michael Simon filling in for the injured Dave Chilcote.  Joe Gagliardo finished up with another workmanlike performance.  Angie Simon finally got to play and she started a nifty 5-3-2 double play with Eric MacAusland to Rolly Hofstedt to spike some energy in the Giants.  The Giants hit the ball hard, but they hit it right at the A’s who simply caught the ball and made the throws.  The Giants could only muster five hits today, a double by MacAusland and singles Dave Decruz, Jim Realini, Joe Gagliardo, and the ubiquitous Angie Simon.

 

GAME #2

 

Oakland A’ (Mello) 14    Yomiuri Giants (Schmuck-Miller) 12

 

            The Oakland A’s faced another tough outing by Mark Gemello who always reminds us of old Sal “the barber” Maglie and for the first time in coach Mello’s memory, the A’s won 14-12.  It was a seesaw battle marked by some shaky A’s pitching and Giant outfielders desperately in need of some fungo time shagging flies.

            Yomiuri jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first behind Mike Miller’s double, even though Miller erased himself getting caught in a run-down.  The A’s answered with three in the bottom half with Mike Mello’s single the big hit.  The Giants added 4 more in the 3rd inning behind another double by Miller and Ruben Donig’s big single.  Matt Amaro eliminated the Giants rally with a web-gem unassisted 6-3 double play.

            In the A’s fifth, Russ Greenfield powered a large double to right-center and the A’s pushed three more across to keep it close.  In the sixth, the A’s tied the score with the help of Kevin Zimmerman and Mike Mello singles combined with some spotty Yomiuri fielding.  The A’s went ahead for good in the 7th with two towering three-run triples by Eddie Contreras and Steve Dennis that went only 250’ and 251’ into right field.

            In the 8th the Giants came back using some A’s pitching woes and Matt Schmuck’s big double to get the score to the final of 14-12 in favor of Oakland.

GAME #3

St. Louis Giants (Weishaar-Hughey) 9    San Francisco Giants (Bennett-Lee) 2

            In the late game, the story was simple; Heath Keller and Mark Bruzzone stifled or maybe baffled the San Francisco Giants throwing a 5-hitter.  Thanks to a game-time trade, I was swapped for Adam Schneider and got to catch these two stellar pitchers.
            Almost everybody on the Saint Louis Giants (remember Leo Durocher was a member of the Gas House Gang before he played and managed the Giants) got a hit.  Who else but Keller with a single and a double and “BUZZ” with two singles led the Giants?  Keith DaCosta, Mike Hughey, Bill Pederson, Doug Meyer, Frank Weishaar, “Doctor Guy” Peabody, Tommy Sanfilippo, and Jim Realini each launched singles.
            San Francisco reeling from the absence of Penney, Riley, and Parsons could only muster singletons from Mike Shaffer, Steve Bennett, and Adam Schneider while John Haines added two hits from the pool.

 

Reminder to all regular players, do not forget to tell your coach by Thursday morning, before NOON if you are going to play or you will lose your spot on the team for the weekend to a pool player.