West Coast Fantasy Baseball Association

2006 BASEBALL LEAGUE

FROM THE STANDS
Albert Park, San Rafael

September 10, 2006

by Jim Realini

             WCFBA moved back to beautiful Marin County and is headed for the homestretch.  The fans from Saint Vincent DePaul on B Street were dumbfounded by the continual grasping at the belts by many Giant players sporting new cream-colored pants until they were informed that those size “38’s” still needed some shrinking in the wash.  Congratulations to the Saint Louis Cardinals for attaining the titular distinction of achieving the ephemeral league championship, so I guess that means Moochy and Tom San Filippo will be throwing batting practice to the rest of us.

GAME #1

Philadelphia A’s (Luis) 12    Oakland A’s (Mello) 2

            The morning contest forced the A’s to play against each other so they couldn’t gang up on the Giants.  Philadelphia spanked the Oakland squad bustin’ Mike Mello’s dream of an A’s championship this season behind the stalwart pitching of Sil “Red Bull” Krevocheza and Mike Byron.  The Philadelphia guys backed their pitchers with great plays by Craig Alexander, David Gayner, Mike Byron, and Erik Hoffman.

            Dave “Chavey” Gayner pounded Oakland with four hits to lead the Philly attack.  Mike Byron followed with two singles and a double while Mike Hilton (2 hits), Eddie Contreras (2 doubles), ageless Don Luis (2 hits), and Steve “Rolo Tomasi” Bennett (2 hits) plastered Oakland.  Craig Alexander smacked a double with Sil Kevocheza and Ken Calloway slapping singles topped-off the A’s hitting array.

            Dave Vigil paced the Oakland boys with two hits on top of one hit a piece by Mike Mello, Matt Amaro, Gary Hopper, and “Boomer” Aboumrad.

GAME #2

San Francisco Giants (Bennett-Lee) 12    Fresno Giants (Terra-Realini) 5

            If you ignore the first inning of this game when Fresno didn’t exactly shine behind the “dart throwin” Mike Hughey to let 6 runs cross the plate, this was a pretty decent game.  Carl Vargas and Bobby Hartkop put in solid innings to pace San Francisco while Joe Gagliardo pitched really well, especially when the Fresno boys needed him in a rough inning number six.

            Mike Shaffer and Steve Bennett led the San Francisco hit parade with three each while Terry Lee, Tad Consani, and Joe Matlen had two each.  Carl Vargas, Mike Desjardins, and JC Penney slipped in singles each.  Big powerful Bobby Hartkop shook everybody up with a surprise BUNT with a 6 run lead in the seventh for the amusing play o’the day!

            Joe Gagliardo and Don DeWitt kept the Fresno team in the game with two hits apiece.  Dave DeCruz, Eric MacAusland, Rolly Hofstedt, Lynn Harkrider, Greg Terra, and Mike Hughey tried vainly to stoke the Fresno fire with solid singles each.  Don DeWitt made the play of the game with a running sliding catch in centerfield to stifle a San Francisco rally.

GAME #3

St. Louis Giants (Weishaar-Hughey) 1    Yomiuri (Schmuck-Miller) 0

            In a game for the ages, the Saint Louis Giants were held to only three hits by the masterful arms of Mark Gemello and Rob Weber; unfortunately, one was a 333-foot “big fly” by Saint Louie slugger Doug Meyer.  Heath Keller and Mark Bruzzone masterfully spread the eight Yomuiri hits over nine innings finished off by Bruzzone's acrobatic diving stab of a loopy, lazy fly to the right of the mound and whip throw to first for the game ending double play.
            Meyer had a hit and a homer while the only other hit was a bingle by Denis Sanfillippo.  That’s it. Three G*D D*MN HITS!!!
            Yomiuri played inspired defensive ball behind their crafty pitchers and it looks like those casts on Weber’s arms since San Diego actually strengthened his 41 MPH fastball!  Donny Hahn led Yomiuri with three hits while Don Dewitt, Mark Gemello, John Haines, Bill Londeree, and Jim Realini each stroked hits to no avail.  This was our second 1-0 game in league play this year and both were decided by home runs!  Whew!! Whatta blast!!  The post-game wrap at the Flat Iron was great!!

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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