The Rippers reaction, from the other dugout

Greetings, Wild Things fans. Jason Mackey here, the new guy hired Monday to replace Mike Kovak on the O-R's sports staff. My second assignment -- got to thinking that maybe my boss, Chris Dugan, figured it'd be enough to get me to quit -- was to cover the Wild Things and the Florence Freedom less than 24 hours after the London Rippers disbanded, with five players (four for the Wild Things) from that organization here tonight. Here's a snapshot from my pregame talk with Florence manager Fran Riordan (pictured), one of the more trustworthy voices in the Frontier League.

Riordan has seen quite a bit during his 14-year career in the Frontier League, four of those as a player and nine as a manager when he won three league championships and was named the Manager of the Year while with the Kalamazoo Kings.

But what transpired this week when the Rippers announced they would cease operations as a franchise Tuesday night at Consol Energy Park, leaving players either to become free agents or play for a travel team called the "Road Warriors?" That's a new one on Riordan.

"This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like it," said Riordan, who, with a career record of 506-429 after Wednesday's 9-8 Freedom win, is the league's all-time wins leader among managers.

While Washington traded for four former Rippers -- designated hitter Mark Samuelson, second baseman Brad Augustin, catcher Jim Vahalik and center fielder Chris Lloyd -- and inserted all four into the starting lineup, Riordan elected to sit the London player his team acquired, Stephen Cardullo, whose named was comically squeezed into the roster handed out to media members.

Riordan met with Cardullo -- who was still in street clothes, having just arrived from London -- for a few minutes shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday. The message? Take tonight, relax, start fresh tomorrow.

"He drove for 16 hours," Riordan said. "He didn’t get a chance to swing the bat. So I just figured I'd give him a day to get his legs underneath him and get him in there [Thursday]."

Gotta be tough, right?

"Logistically, for him, it was probably a nightmare," Riordan said. "But for us, it was just looking to see who we had interest in and getting that player in here."

Closed the interviewing by asking whether this was a black eye for the league. Sure is wacky enough.

"It doesn’t look good from the league perspective, but it’s completely out of the league’s control," Riordan said. "It’s a matter of one organization that wasn’t minding the ship. When that happens and things get away from you, it makes it important for the league to have the strength and authority to step in. Make sure that the league stays viable. They really didn’t have a choice in the matter. But it doesn’t look good."

Which teams hurt, helped by Rippers' demise

When the London Rippers became the first Frontier League team in 19 years to fold during the regular season, something had to be done to fill the hole in the schedule. The Rippers (25-35) had 36 games remaining to be played.

The only logical solution was to form a traveling team, which will be called the Road Warriors. The Frontier League purchased uniforms from the Atlantic League, which for several years had ran a travel team dubbed the Road Warriors.

Because of legal reasons, all players remaining on the Rippers' roster became free agents as of 12:01 a.m. today. Any of the Rippers wanting to play for the Road Warriors are guaranteed a spot on the team. A manager for the Road Warriors is expected to be named today.

When the Rippers' bus, with quite the impressive paint job, pulled out of Consol Energy Park last night, many of the players on it were still unsure if they would join the Road Warriors or simply call it quits.

This much, however, is certain: the Road Warriors will not be as good as the Rippers, especially after the Wild Things poached four of London's better players. Plus, it was rumored that London's best pitcher (Jamie Richmond) and best hitter (Joash Brodin, the Frontier League's leader in batting average) will sign with teams in the American Association.

So, which teams benefit from playing a weakened Rippers/Road Warriors club? And who plays the most games against a somewhat improved Washington club? Keep in mind that the Frontier League's playoff format this year is agin four teams, but it's the two division winners and the two remaining teams with the best winning percentages.

Looking at the schedule, the clear winner in this is Traverse City. The East Division-leading Beach Bums have six games remaining against the Road Warriors. Lake Erie is the only other team that will play the Road Warriors six times. The Beach Bums also do not have to play Washington. Lake Erie will play Washington six times.

The loser in the Rippers' shakeup is Southern Illinois. The Miners, who are two games behind Traverse City in the East, will not get to play the Road Warriors.

Florence, which is trying to hang in the playoff race with a 31-29 record, is the only other team that has to play Washington six more times, but who knows how many position players the Wild Things will be able to field for tonight's game against the Freedom. Not counting the former Rippers, Washington has only seven position players on its roster.

UPDATE: Joash Brodin has been signed by the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League, and Brandon Sinnery, who beat the Wild Things 2-1 last week, has hooked up with the Lincoln Saltdogs of the American Association. He joins former Wild Things pitcher Justin Edwards in Lincoln.

London Rippers: R.I.P.

For most people attending the Wild Things' contest Tuesday night against the London Rippers, it seemed like just another game. The Rippers were a bit sloppy, and at times seemed disinterested, but that's not unusual for a team on the final night of a six-game road trip.

For the Rippers, the game had a funeral feel. Less than three hours after the game, the Rippers folded. "Ceased operations" is how Frontier League commissioner Bill Lee described the team's situation. At 12:01 a.m. last night, the Rippers were no more.

In other words, the London Rippers are dead. The headstone should read: London Rippers. Born: 2011-12 Offseason. Died: July 25, 2012. Cause: Lack of Money.

The Rippers' players learned less than hour before the game that the team's owners were pulling the plug on the franchise. Detroit-based obstetrician and gynecologist Othman Kadry owned 90 percent of the team. The remainder was owned by David Martin, who was the team's manager and general manager. Martin did not attend the series against the Wild Things. He missed the final five games in London's brief history.

Rumors had been circulating for several weeks that the Rippers were on shaky financial footing. London had a league-worst attendance, an average of 845 per home game at Labatt Park, where the team did not have a liquor license to sell beer. Last week, the Rippers were locked out of their team store for failure to pay rent.

According to the London Free Press, the Rippers were scheduled to pay the City of London rent payments of $6,250 June 6, June 23, July 20 and Aug. 14. The contract also specified that the Rippers were to donate $23,000 to the city in four equal instalments due in November 2011, April 2012, November 2012 and April 2013.

In place of the Rippers, the Frontier League will form a traveling team that will play London's remaining schedule. Any team that was scheduled to play at London will have home games instead against the traveling team, which will be known as the Road Warriors.

Matt Dumouchelle, the Rippers' director of media relations, declined to comment to the Observer-Reporter. He did tell the Free Press that the news hit the players hard.

"A lot of them are worried about what happens to them next, some were angry about how things went down and everyone was worried for the guys sitting next to them," he said. "It hasn't been an easy day."

The Rippers' situation also sparked a strange scene after the game. Washington manager Chris Bando and coach Jim Tatum, two team officials and an intern stood outside the Rippers' clubhouse door for about an hour, trying to finalize what turned out to be four trades for London players before the team folded at midnight.

Washington sent Doug Thennis, Will Arnold, Tanner Leighton and Tyler Oldham to London in exchanger for catcher Jim Vahalik, first baseman Mark Samuelson, second baseman Brad Agustin and outfielder Chris Lloyd.

Thennis, Arnold, Leighton and Oldham spent all of about 10 minutes as members of the Rippers. All of London's players became free agents at 12:01 a.m., though Lee said any Rippers player wanting to remain in the league would be guaranteed a spot on the Road Warriors, who will debut Thursday at Lake Erie.

At this time, nobody knows how many players will show up to play for the Road Warriors. Or how many of the new Wild Things will be in Washington tonight in time for the first game of a series against Florence.

Most of London's players went back to Ontario last night to get their cars, clothes and any other things they had left in London.

Without the four newly acquired players, Washington has only seven position players on the roster, which could make tonight's lineup interesting.

The Tide has turned

I must admit, the Wild Thing rides his ATV better than the Norfolk Tides' mascot, Rip Tide.

Clip from Friday night's game

Here is some video from WSIL-TV of the Wild Things' 3-1 win over Southern Illinois Friday night.

http://www.wsiltv.com/sports/local/Miners-Taken-Down-by-Wild-Things-163261346.html

Your cleanup hitter tonight: Joel Hanrahan

There are some things I'm certain I'll never see, even in the wacky world of minor league baseball.

One is a game-ending triple play. Oh, wait, I saw that in a game between the Wild Things and Kalamazoo a few years ago.

Well, there's always a son of a former Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder being called out -- the final out of the game -- for missing home plate after hitting an apparent game-tying home run in extra innings. ... On second thought, I did see that on the Internet. If you don't believe me, then Google "Raul Mondesi Jr." And keep in mind that former Wild Things manager Jeff Isom was the manager for Mondesi's team in that game.

Moving on, I don't think I've ever seen a power outage ... oh, wait, ...never mind.

I guess about the only thing I haven't seen is a manager start his closer at designated hitter and bat him in the cleanup spot. Can you imagine Clint Hurdle starting Jole Hanrahan at DH and batting him in the No. 4 hole? Think that would make people question Hurdle's sanity?

Well, that, in a way, is what Wild Things manager Chris Bando did Friday night when he filled out his lineup card.

Bando started Orlando Santos, who has been sharing Washington's closer's role since the all-star break, at designated hitter and batted him in the cleanup spot against the Southern Illinois Miners.

You read that correctly. Santos batted, and not in the No. 9 spot. He batted cleanup. No. 4. Ahead of five other starters.

Let's keep in mind that Santos isn't your typical relief pitcher. He broke into professional baseball in 2006 as a catcher. He remained a catcher into the 2009 season, when he was converted to pitcher. Santos had a career .244 batting average in three years of rookie ball.

So Santos is a guy with a bit of a hitter's background. But keep in mind, as far as one can tell from researching it on the Internet, Santos didn't have an at-bat in a professional game since 2009. His last at-bat in a game in the United States, when they were keeping statistics, apparently was July 10, 2009 -- more than three years ago.

But there was Santos hitting cleanup Friday night. At first, I thought it was a mistake on the Poinstreak site's live scoring. Had to be a mistake, I thought. The scorekeeper in Marion, Ill., had to have punched the wrong player's number into the computer, right?

But no, Orlando Santos was Washington's cleanup hitter.

I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when Miners manager Mike Pinto received Washington's lineup and saw a relief pitcher batting cleanup.

But, hey, this shouldn't come as a total shock. After all, pitcher Eric Blackwell has started two games in right field and one at designated hitter, batting No. 6 in the lineup twice and No. 7 once.

Two things keep running through my mind about this:

* Santos got a hit in the game and got better with each at-bat. He struck out with the bases loaded in the first inning. In his second at-bat, Santos hit a nubber in front of the plate on an 0-2 pitch and was thrown out by the catcher. In the sixth inning, he hit a hard line drive to the third baseman, and in the eighth inning he dropped a single into center field.

* What does this say about the other hitters on the team? What are the position players who weren't in the lineup thinking? It had to be something like this: "I can't believe a relief pitcher is batting and I'm not. Am I that bad?" And what does this say about the five guys in the lineup who batted behind Santos? The guy hasn't batted in a pro game in three years and he was batting higher in the lineup than five guys.

There are many hard-to-explain things that have happened with the Wild Things this year. This is just one more. Maybe, a few years from now, we'll be able to say "Remember that time the Wild Things started their closer at DH and used him as the cleanup hitter?"

Switch-hiting: a lost art?

Are switch-hitter becoming a dying breed in baseball?

Lenny Randle and A.J. Nunziato (pictured), two people who know a little about the subject, agree that switch-hitting is on the way to becoming a lost art, and the statistics support their theory. There are fewer switch-hitters in the professional game today than there were 20 years ago. Randle and Nunziato have different reasons why switch-hitters are becoming scarce.

Randle, the Wild Things' coach who spent 12 years in the major leagues after becoming a switch-hitter while playing college ball at Arizona State, says it's because youth league and high school coaches put too much emphasis on winning games and not enough on developing a player's skills.

Nunziato, the Wild Things' switch-hitting shortstop, says players who hit both left-handed and right-handed are becoming harder to find because it requires too much time and effort to hone the skills necessary to hit from both sides of the plate.

Randle was a natural right-handed hitter who learned to bat lefty while playing for former ASU coach and major league manager Bobby Winkles. Randle was a speedy middle infielder who played in the majors in the 1970s and early '80s. He fit the mold for switch-hitters from the 1950s through the '80s.

Many fast middle infielders who were natural right-handed hitters were turned around and taught how to hit lefty so they would get a step closer to first base.

"When I played, almost every team had at least one switch-hitter in the lineup," Randle said.
Most teams had more. The 1986, '88 and '90 St. Louis Cardinals each had five switch-hitters in their lineup. The 1993 New Yort Mets had six switch-hitters. Going back a few decades, the entire starting infield of the 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers could switch hit.

Today, switch-hitters are harder to find. Randle says that's because of coaching.

"I know for a fact that coaches discourage switch-hitting," he said. "Coaches today, in the youth leagues, tell players 'I need you to hit from your strongest side. If you want to switch-hit, then you're not going to play every game for me.' Switch-hitting has become a lost art.'"

Randle, however, says players today are as willing as those from decades ago to try their hand at becoming a switch-hitter. To prove this point, he walks into the coaches' locker area of Consol Energy Park and pulls out a stack of letters -- about 10 or 12 in all -- from youth players who asked Randle for their help in becoming a switch-hitter.

"If a player wants to learn to switch-hit, then he needs to try. I would advise him to play a lot of pepper, play home run derby from both sides and hit off a tee," Randle said. "And I'd tell him to play tennis because you have to learn to forehand and backhand shots in that sport. That helps. I'd bet Roger Federer would make a good switch-hitter."

Randle added that switch-hitting helps a player pay more attention to the details of his swing.
"One thing it does is make your concentrate more," he said. "Things you don't notice about your swing from one side, you'll pick up on the other side."

Nunziato is a rarity for a Wild Things player in that he's a switch-hitter. In their 11-plus seasons, the Wild Things have had only a few switch-hitters. Nunziato replaced injured Michael Mooney (also a switch-hitter) in the lineup at shortstop a few weeks ago. Before Mooney joined Washington, I believe the last switch-hitter to crack the Wild Things' regular lineup was second baseman Phil Butch in 2008.

Nunziato learned to switch-hit without really trying. When he was five years old in New York, his father would pitch to him in the back yard.

"When I was hitting, I would go through the New York Yankees' lineup. When I got to Tino Martinez, I had to switch around to the left side. That's how I started," Nunziato said. "I started playing organized baseball when I was five, and I started switch-hitting in games when I was seven. I've done it ever since."

In the youth leagues, Nunziato didn't play the lefty-righty percentages. If an opponent started two right-handed pitchers in a doubleheader, Nunziato would bat right-handed one game, then change to lefty the next game. It wasn't until the opposing pitchers began throwing curveballs that he began playing the matchups.

"Since then, I've take only one left-handed at-bat against a left-handed pitcher," he said. "My coach in that game said, out of the last five left-handed batters the pitcher faced, he hit all five. He told me to go up there and get hit for the team. The pitcher threw me three breaking balls and struck me out. After that, it was always right-handed hitting against lefties."

Nunziato agrees that switch-hitting is becoming a lost art.

"I have never seen more than one switch-hitter on any team I've played against. That's high school, summer leagues, college," he said.

Why?

"Because of the amount of work work that goes into it, switch-hitters are becoming a dying breed," he said. "I take 50 to 60 pitches a day from each side of the plate during batting practice. That's not counting any swings I take in the cage.

"People tell me they like that I switch-hit," Nunziato said. "Most of them tell me they tried it when they were growing up but stopped because of the work it takes to become good at it."

2012 London games

Problems for the London Rippers continue to mount. There's the lousy attendance. There's no license to sell beer at home games. Now, there is a rumor that the Rippers will become a road team for the remainder of the season.

http://www.lfpress.com/sports/baseball/2012/07/19/20004486.html

As I've written previously, the Frontier League doesn't need London and all the problems that come with having a team located there.

McClain on Randle, Ted Williams and '71 Senators

Denny McLain, the last pitcher to win 30 games in a major league season, was at the Normal-Schaumburg game Sunday and interviewed by Boomers broadcaster Tim Calderwood. Tim sent along a clip of the interview, during which McLain talks about playing with Lenny Randle on the 1971 Washington Senators under manager Ted Williams. The Senators were 65-94 that year, the last for the Senators before they became the Texas Rangers.

If I did this correctly, you should be able to hear the snippet by clicking the link below and then the play button.

http://soundcloud.com/user359083046/715mclainrandle

Baby steps and a power outage

We have some good news and some bad news about the Wild Things' offense. First, the good news:

Today is a red-letter day for the Washington offense. If you're looking for one little sign of improvement, one little sliver of hope that something is starting to work, this might be it:

Today is the first since the second day of the season that the Wild Things are not in last place in team batting average. Washington (.223) has moved ahead of Normal (.222) and into 13th in team batting. This is the first time since May 19 that Washington hasn't been buried in the basement.

Of course, that previous out-of-basement experience lasted only one day and was based on only one day of statistics. Washington was batting .138 after one game, while Lake Erie (.133) and London (.103) were worse for 24 hours.

An even more unthinkable statistic: This also is only the second day since May 27, 2011, that Washington isn't last in team batting average. Last year, the Wild Things were .02 ahead of, you guessed it, Normal, heading into a May 27 game, then fell into last place that night and resided there for the remainder of the season.

That's a lot of bad hitting.

But Washington's offense has shown some signs of life over the past month, steadily pulling closer to Normal and finally passing the CornBelters. The additions of Andrew Heck, Rick Devereaux and A.J. Nunziato have paid some dividends and appear to be good signings.

While the batting average has climbed, one area of the offense that is still lacking is power hitting.

Last night, Traverse City's Jose Vargas hit his Frontier League-leading 19th home run, which is quite impressive for several reasons. The league record for home runs is 36, and halfway through the season Vargas is on pace to challenge the mark. Plus, Traverse City's home ballpark is widely considered a pitcher's park -- one that does not yield many homers.

Vargas' 19 home runs also is three more than Washington's TEAM has hit. The Wild Things have hit only 16 home runs and could be the first team since Florence and Rockford in 2003 (which was a shorter schedule) to hit fewer than 30 home runs in a season. The one thing the Wild Things have going for them is they have games remaining at Gateway and River City, two parks with short right-field walls and are known as hitter's parks.

Baseball fans like to see the home team hit home runs. The home run is the baseball equivalent of the 70-yard TD pass, the slam dunk, the breakaway goal and the knockout punch. For many people, the home run is what puts the excitement in the game. But at Consol Energy Park, there was been very little excitement this year. Washington has not hit a home run at home in more than a month. The last one was hit by Devereaux in the series finale against Normal June 10.

And it's not only home runs that are lacking, it all extra-base hits. Washington's slugging percentage is a league-low .308, which is equal to its on-base percentage. Before Saturday night's game, the Wild Things' slugging percentage was actually .001 lower than its on-base percentage, a statistic that is almost unheard of 48 games into a professional baseball season.

Balk on the wild side

Here is a story will leave you shaking your head. It also shows that winning is far down the priority list in affiliated ball.

http://www.modbee.com/2012/07/02/2267387/as-hitting-instructor-banned-by.html

Useless information, midseason edition

With the All-Star break at hand, it's a good time to clean the notebook of some statistical drivel that reveals some interesting, and some rather predictable, things about the season's first half.

We know that starting pitching has usually been the Wild Things' strength. This year is no exception, though, as expected, the numbers have fallen off following last year's record-setting performance. Here's a look at the number of quality starts (at least six innings pitched and no more than three earned runs allowed) for each team:

Quality Starts
27 - Evansville
27 - London
25 - Schaumburg
23 - Washington
23 - Windy City
22 - Gateway
22 - River City
20 - Lake Erie
20 - Southern Illinois
20 - Traverse City
19 - Florence
19 - Joliet
18 - Normal
10 - Rockford

You can see why Rockford is last in the league in team ERA (note that two of the RiverHawks' 10 quality starts have come against Washington), but it's surprising that Lake Erie has the lowest ERA yet is in the middle of the pack in quality starts. This is mainly because Crushers manager John Massarelli, more often than any other manager, goes to his bullpen at the start of the sixth inning. Despite being tied for the lead in quality starts, London is in the bottom half of team ERA, which has been caused by its bullpen. As you can see below, the Rippers' relief pitching has been shaky when given a lead.

Blown Saves
10 - Florence
9 - Joliet
9 - London
8 - Washington
6 - Gateway
6 - Lake Erie
6 - Rockford
5 - Southern Illinois
5 - Traverse City
4 - Schaumburg
4 - Windy City
3 - Normal
2 - Evansville
2 - River City

One note about Washington's blown saves: the eight have come from seven different pitchers.

The standings in the West Division today show Schaumburg holding a one-game lead over Windy City and a three-game advantage over River City. As you can see above, the Boomers have gotten there with solid starting pitching and, despite what happened over the weekend against the Wild Things, some dependable relief pitching. But another aspect of Schaumburg's game is its ability to come through offensively in the late innings. The Boomers lead the league in wins in their final at-bat. We're not talking talking walk-off wins, but simply scoring the game-winning run in you team's final inning of batting (extra innings, ninth inning, bottom of the eighth for a home team). The statistic shows a team's ability to keep a game close and then find a way to win late.

Last At-Bat Wins
8 - Schaumburg
7 - Evansville
7 - Florence
7 - River City
6 - Gateway
4 - Lake Erie
4 - London
4 - Traverse City
4 - Washington
3 - Joliet
3 - Windy City
2 - Normal
2 - Southern Illinois
2 - Rockford

The interesting note about Washington's four last at-bat wins is three of them came in the first six games of the season, and they didn't have another until Sunday, the final game of the first half. Washington went a stretch of 40 consecutive games without a last at-bat win.

If you study these three statistics, the one question you might have is this: How is Evansville first in quality starts, have the fewest blown saves and is second in last at-bat wins, but yet is 11 games out of first place in the East? The answer is Otters simply don't score enough (12th in runs) to carry many leads into the late innings.

Best Game by a Hitter in the First Half: Rockford outfielder Javier Herrera, June 28 vs. Evansville. Herrera was 5-for-5, hit for the cycle and drove in 7 runs.

Best Game by a Pitcher in the First Half: Windy City's Mike Recchia, July 2 vs. Evansville. Recchia threw a 9-inning shutout, allowed only 3 hits and 3 walks. He struck out 16 and threw 146 pitches. In his next start, Recchia, had a 2-hit, 10-strikeout shutout of River City.

Sometimes they do make it

Somebody commented today that Arena Football League players are closer to the NFL than Frontier League players are to the major leagues. They probably are. But, sometimes you do get players who make it from the Frontier League to affiliated ball and then up the ladder to the majors.

By my count, the Frontier League has had five of its former players in the major leagues this year, including three pitchers in Seattle.

If you watched the Pirates-Giants series over the weekend, you might have seen a former Frontier League player, Justin Christian, who is an outfielder for San Francisco. Christian batted leadoff for the Giants Friday night and reached base three times.

Christian began his pro career as a second baseman with River City in 2003 and 2004. He played four games against the Wild Things in 2003, including two at Consol Energy Park. He was 2-for-14 in those games. He didn't play against Washington in 2004 as he was signed by the New York Yankees after 30 games with River City.

Home of the Boomers

Here are a couple of pictures snapped by WJPA Radio's Randy Gore of Schaumburg Baseball Stadium, home of the Schaumburg Boomers.

The ballpark used to be called Alexian Field when its was home to the Schaumburg Flyers of the defunct Northern League.

One coaching change

Though no word has been released from the team about the change, the Wild Things will be down to three coaches for tonight's game against Rockford and likely the remainder of the season. Pitching coach Tim Ferguson is no longer on the staff.

UPDATE: Was told tonight that Ferguson has "resigned."

Lee added to all-star team

Washington pitcher Gary Lee was one of three players added to the East Division all-star team today. The right-handed starter will be the lone representative from the Wild Things in the game Wednesday at The Corn Crib in Normal, Ill.

Lee (3-3) is fourth in the Frontier League in ERA at 2.27 and has allowed only 29 hits in 39.2 innings. Lee likely pitched his way onto the all-star team Tuesday night when he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against Rockford, the league's top hitting team.

No all-stars

The Frontier League announced today its preliminary rosters for the All-Star game that will be played July 11 at the Corn Crib in Normal, Ill.

The first 24 players for both the East and West teams were released and, though it's not much of a surprise, nobody from the Wild Things was selected. East Division manager Greg Langbehn will add three players to the roster Thursday, and here's guessing that one will be either pitcher Chris Smith (3-3, 2.78) or pitcher Gary Lee (3-3, 2.27). Utility player Andrew Heck (.378) also could be selected, though he has played in only 18 games.

Tarp attack

Here is a link to some amazing video of from a rain delay Friday in the game between Southern Illinois and Joliet.

A severe thunderstorm with heavy rain and strong wind gusts moved through Joliet between the sixth and seventh innings at Silver Cross Field. The ground crew put the tarp down over the infield and seemed to have it secured. The wind, however, lifted up the tarp. Some of the ground crew who returned to reposition the tarp were gobbled up in the flying tarp.

The game called after six innings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6O0XxnO_s4