West Coast Fantasy Baseball Association
2006 BASEBALL LEAGUE
FROM THE STANDS
Washington Park in Burlingame
July 30, 2006
by Jim Realini
It was a beautiful summer day devoid of the withering heat from last week. We even had some extremely light rain during the first inning of the morning game. Several players availed themselves of refreshment after the games at the nearby Steel Head Brewing Company for camaraderie. It was really nice to see so many fans in the stands, many of whom were just there to enjoy a game, not because they were related to some old guy. Note and apology to Ray Miailovich and Ruben Donig for misspelling their names last week.
St. Louis Giants (Weishaar-Hughey) 8 Fresno Giants (Terra-Realini) 6
The morning affair was an exciting tussle between two scrappy Giant teams. St. Louis prevailed by catching the ball more than Fresno. Mark Bruzzone staggered through six innings with Heath Keller stuffing two Fresno late-inning rallies for the win. Dave Chilcote and Joe Gagliardo struck out nine between them in a valiant effort for Fresno.
Heath Keller, Doug Meyer, and Frank Weishaar each blasted three hits with two of Meyer’s being doubles. Dennis Sanfilippo had two hits out hitting his brother Tom by one. Mike “Let’s Make A Deal” Hughey, Keith Dacosta, and Mark Bruzzone also belted singles.
Todd West, Chilly, and Jim Realini led the Fresno boys with two hits each with Todd leading off the 4th with a towering double to right center. Greg Terra, Lynn Harkrider, and Gus Manning each smacked singles for the day.
San Francisco Giants (Bennett-Lee) 8 Philadelphia A’s (Luis) 4
The San Francisco Giants late game rallies helped them prevail over the Philly A’s. I wish I could say more about how the Giants did it, but I only caught the last inning after a great lunch at the nearby Steel Head Brewing Company with the guys from the morning game. I know Carl Vargas and Ray Miailovich pitched pretty darn good to get the win. Steve Bennett departed the field so quick after the next game (read-on) and was unable to fax the stats from 33,000 feet between Denver and Cincinnati…
Don Luis did let me know the following efforts about the Philadelphia A’s. Dave Gayner (again) led the A’s with two singles and a double while Craig Alexander, Ken Calloway, and Mike Mello (a five hit day!) each banged two singles. Mike Byron, Eddie Contreras, and Erik Hoffman each made a hit apiece. The A’s also managed two nifty double plays before succumbing to the San Francisco team.
Oakland A’s (Mello) 24 Yomiuri (Schmuck-Miller) 4
“Excellent play in the infield this weekend by the A's Rookie 2nd baseman Russ Greenfield along with great infielding by Kevin Zimmerman and Eddie Contreras as well. Flawless pitching by the A's Mark Fitzpatrick 4 innings giving up 1 run with 3 hits and Bob Moore 2 innings of 0 runs and 3 hits. The entire A's team this weekend played an exceptional game of nearly flawless baseball in the field and at the plate. My opinion as a player and Coach for the entire time I've played in this league, you better play your best ball when facing teams with guys like Gemello, Schmuck, Realini, Shaffer, Haines and Rusch playing against you. At any time, these guys can explode and you'll find yourself always trying to play catch up. I know this from experience. Fortunately the game went the A's way for this one.” – Coach Mike Mello’s kind words after his A’s served up a crate of WHUPAZZ on the hapless Giants.
The A’s were led by Giant-traitor Steve Bennett’s three singles and a double for five RBI’s. Bob Moore also had three singles and a double for only four RBI’s. Mike Mello had 3 singles, Dave Vigil and Eddie Contreras each had 2 singles while Commish Ed Glover chipped in a double and a single as did Steve Dennis and Kevin Zimmerman; 21 hits!!!
Matt Schmuck and Mark Gemello led the Giants with two base hits each while John Haines slapped a double. Mike Shaffer, Ruben Doing, and Mike “PUT DOWN THE CELL-PHONE” Hughey each safely hit.
Next games are at College of Alameda.
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
.