West Coast Fantasy Baseball Association

2006 BASEBALL LEAGUE

FROM THE STANDS
College of Alameda

August 27, 2006

by Jim Realini

             WCFBA play finished playing this year’s East Bay venue with a triple-header at the College of Alameda.  Morning play started with overcast, calm weather – no geese—and rabbits scurrying about right field.  By 3PM, we had sunny skies and mild temperatures for a most enjoyable day at the park.  However, you could detect that most of the players were looking forward to a break over Labor Day after so many great weekends of ball. 
             By the way, we are in desperate need of East Bay baseball fields for next year, if anyone knows of someone in the East Bay (Alameda-Contra Costa) who could help us acquire a field for games next summer, please let Rob Weber know.

GAME #1

San Francisco Giants (Bennett-Lee) 15    Yomiuri (Schmuck-Miller) 2
 

            San Francisco smothered Yomiuri behind the four hit pitching of Carl Vargas and Guy Peabody.  Today was not Yomiuri’s day as a combination of too many walks, fielding miscues, and missing key veterans Weber, Gemello, and Haines; who were off walking around (a golf course?), proved to be too, much to overcome.

            Terry Lee, Don Luis, and Dave Vigil paced the SF hitting attack with two hits each while John Riley, Mike Shaffer, Carl Vargas, and Guy Peabody slapped singles to push the fifteen runs across the plate for the happy guys from San Francisco.  Mike Miller, Matt Schmuck, Scott Lueders, and Gary Hopper stroked singles for Yomiuri on this longest of days.

 

GAME #2

 

St. Louis Giants (Weishaar-Hughey) 9    Philadelphia A’s (Luis) 8
 

            St. Louis bested the scrappy Philly A’s in a close contest featuring 37 hits.  The back-and-forth tussle included a couple of close plays at the plate featuring some text-book safe slides by Mike Byron and Elaine Ortiz, and a seemingly endless set of pop-ups to all five Giants who played first on the day.

            Doug Rusch had three solid singles and Mike Hughey smashed a loud double to go with a single and a fleet-footed infield single led the Giant attack.  Frank Weishaar busted out of a mini-slump by crushing a double and a single to lead a procession of two hit days by Mark Bruzzone, Guy Peabody, Doug Meyer, Bill Pederson, and Dennis Sanfillippo.  Don Dewitt and Kim Rupert also knocked bingles to top off the St. Louis barrage.

            Dave Gayner had another monster day for Philly with three singles and a fence bustin’ double.  Sil Krevocheza, Elaine Ortiz, and Mike Hilton punched out two hits each to back up Gayner while Mark Rowell, Chris Dorn, Mike Byron, Erik Hoffman, Ken Calloway, and Craig Alexander stroked singles.  Bruce Gilliat launched a masterful right center field double to keep the A’s in the game.  Our best wishes go to Mark Rowell who we hope only suffered a minor injury to his knee hustling to first base.

 

GAME #3

 

Fresno Giants (Terra-Realini) 10    Oakland A’s (Mello) 7

            Fresno beat the Oakland by stranding twenty-two A’s on base over nine innings.  Michael Simon dazzled the A’s with a baffling array of breakin’ balls and corner catching hard stuff and then “Smokin’ Joe” Gagliardo came in to overpower the Oakland batters for the final four innings to get the win.  This game also saw two “web gem” plays of the day:  Todd West made a great running grab in centerfield to prove that he’s fully recovered from last year’s knee injury and Dave Gamson made a behind the back “Globetrotter” flip to force a runner at second and stifle a Giant rally.
            Greg Terra blasted three hits to break out of a slump to lead the Giants on the day.  Michael Simon ripped a double and a single to fire up the Giant’s rallies and Jim Realini scrapped out two more hits to add to the Fresno attack.  Todd West hit a terrific game-winning double in the 7th for the “drive of the game.”  Dave DeCruz, Joe Gagliardo, Angie Simon, Lynn Harkrider, Doug Rusch, and the venerable Willy Wineberg each thumped singles to join the Giant fun for the day.
            Pat Macias and Dave Vigil each walloped three hits to lead the Oakland hit parade.  Dave Gamson, Ed Glover, and Boomer Aboumrad joined in with two hits each.  Steve Dennis, Kevin Zimmerman, Mark Fitzpatrick, and Ken Calloway who each bashed singles bottomed out the A’s hitting array.

 

 

Next games are at Albert Field in San Rafael, followed by meetings at the Flat Iron.
 

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

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