Monday, September 3, 2007

A SOBERING LOOK BACK; A PROMISING LOOK FORWARD

Leave it to Riccardo Ingram’s enigmatic Rock Cats to be playing their best ball of the season by far when the curtain comes down.

The Portland Sea Dogs, the Rock Cats’ spring training partners because their complexes are across town in Fort Myers, Fla., came into the five-game series needing a win or two to secure a playoff spot that they seemed to have wrapped up weeks ago.

So what happens? The Rock Cats, whose playoff mathematics stopped mattering after they lost three of four in Binghamton last week, sweep the series and wind up just a half-game out of a playoff spot.

Portland and New Hampshire finished the regular season 70-72 and will stage a one-game winner-take-all game Tuesday. The Rock Cats ended at 69-72 after a season-best seven-game winning streak.

“The guys just came to play,” Ingram said, after Monday’s crowd-pleasing 11-7 thrashing of the Sea Dogs. “I think a lot of it was all the stuff we went through as a team. We had to keep battling. We were younger than everybody else. This last series they finally started to understand what you have to do to compete here.”

The reason for 141 games played instead of the prescribed 142: a rainout on getaway day in Erie August 9 couldn’t be made up. The logistics of travel made it difficult to envision. The priorities of the major league clubs and their perspective on minor league playoffs make such a thing unthinkable. League rules made it impossible.

The slightest of shortcomings had Ingram thinking of all the games the Rock Cats should have won. His players learned a valuable lesson the hard way on playing every game to the hilt. If just one of those late-game leads could have been protected. Ingram heads back to Georgia with a duffel bag full of ifs and a strong belief in a productive future.

“I feel good about a lot of things,” he said. “We went from 14 under (.500, 64-78 last year) to the record we have this year and a mindset to build on next year. Next year we have to definitely be over .500. Anything else will be unacceptable.”

The prevailing sentiment is that many of these Cats should repeat. Ryan Mullins, Oswaldo Sosa and Yohan Pino should form a nucleus of a solid starting rotation. Jose Mijares, Eduardo Morlan and Armando Gabino have the stuff to alleviate the horrible bullpen woes that are at the heart of 2007 failures.

Who will be back among the position players would be rampant speculation at this point but it should start with shortstop Trevor Plouffe, center fielder Brandon Roberts, with Class A grads Dustin Martin and Florida State League All-Star Erik Lis among the newcomers.

Perhaps slugging first baseman Brock Peterson will repeat if Garrett Jones is still ahead of him. What is to become of Matt Moses is anybody’s guess.

Nonetheless, we’ll all look back on 2007 wondering what might have been. We’ll look ahead to 2008 confident about what can be.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

BUCHHOLZ GEM TRIGGERS N.B. CIVIL WAR

I’m known as a pretty opinionated guy among my readers but here’s an issue in which I find it hard to take a side.

The bottom line is that this Red Sox Nation phenomenon, born when bleeding-heart fans of the underdog leaped on the bandwagon after a team that soiled its night shorts for 86 straight years finally broke through, has created a culture that supersedes the sport itself.

Ironically, Red Sox rookie right-hander Clay Buchholz was at the center of the controversy. Here’s the “poop.”

Back on June 25 in Manchester, N.H., Buchholz, pitching for the Portland Red Sox, threw 6 1/3 innings, allowed a run on four hits and struck out 11. He received a rousing standing ovation for his part in beating the hometown New Hampshire Fisher Cats, a state of affairs that didn’t sit well with outspoken N.H. manager Bill Masse.

“I think it’s sad,” Masse said, in the heat of the moment to the Manchester Union-Leader. “We’re not playing the Boston Red Sox. We’re playing the Portland Sea Dogs. Unless you’re from that area, you root for your hometown team. This is New Hampshire’s team, Manchester’s team, and to see Clay Buchholz get a standing ovation was absolutely disgraceful.”

After having time to think it over for a day, Masse added, “When I came to the dugout after that standing ovation, players were not happy. I just think it rubbed my team, and especially myself, the wrong way. These guys are out there competing every night and giving the fans some awesome games, and they came away feeling like they were the visiting team.”

Fast-forward to Saturday night’s game at New Britain Stadium, Portland vs. New Britain.
With Buchholz closing in on his no-hitter in Boston, Rock Cats staffers felt obliged to keep the fans informed of the developments, while the Rock Cats and Sea Dogs were in the midst of their game.

Several Rock Cats players climbed the steps of the dugout and indicated their contempt.
The night before, Minnesota Twins right-hander Scott Baker – a former Rock Cats pitcher – was working on a perfect game heading into the ninth inning. The Rock Cats’ press box crew did inform the fans of Baker’s bid, although not as ardently as the Sox fans within portrayed Buchholz’ bid.

After the game, a self-appointed spokesman who requested anonymity said the following: “This comes from the entire Rock Cat baseball team. It’s a little weird that when a Red Sox player is pitching a no-hitter, it’s announced, which is fine. But when Scott Baker had a perfect game going in the ninth, there was no word of it. A little weird, just a little weird.”

When Rock Cats outfielder Garrett Guzman heard that the aforementioned player preferred anonymity, he offered to go on the record.

“It was definitely bush. ... (Baker) pitched here in New Britain a few years ago and they announce Clay Buchholz and show his highlight (on the scoreboard video display). I think it’s bush. It’s terrible of the front office,” he said.

Here’s my take.

I feel the players’ frustration, and I’m strongly in their corner philosophically that this is the home of the Rock Cats, affiliates of the Minnesota Twins, and the borders of Red Sox Nation stop at the Willow Brook property line since former owner Joe Buzas booted Boston after the 1994 season.

However, the Rock Cats front office is on a mission to provide fans with the kind of atmosphere that will bring them back often, something Bill Dowling and Company have done diligently and effectively since they’ve been in charge here.

Again, in fairness to the front office and press box workers, they did keep fans abreast of Baker’s effort, if not quite as zealously as they projected Buchholz’ achievement. Here’s one issue where it’s hard to define a right and wrong.