All-star team announced; Lee lands Riordan Award

For the third consecutive year, the Wild Things failed to land a player on the Frontier League's end-of-season all-star team. Pitcher Gary Lee (pictured) did receive the Fran Riordan Citizenship award for his work with youth baseball programs in the Washington area along with spending time with disabled and elderly fans.

The all-star team and award winners:
1B – Chase Burch, Traverse City Beach Bums (also 2010 selection at DH)
2B – Ryan Still, Traverse City Beach Bums
3B – Jose Vargas, Traverse City Beach Bums
SS – Junior Arrojo, Florence Freedom
OF – Javier Herrera, Southern Illinois Miners
OF – Chad Mozingo, Schaumburg Boomers
OF – Jeff Flagg, Traverse City Beach Bums
C – Landon Hernandez, Gateway Grizzlies (also 2011 selection)
DH – Chad Cregar, Windy City ThunderBolts
SP – Mike Recchia, Windy City ThunderBolts
RP – Jonathan Kountis, Lake Erie Crushers

Morgan Burkhart Award (MVP) – Jose Vargas, Traverse City Beach Bums
Brian Tollberg Award (Pitcher of the Year) –Mike Recchia, Windy City ThunderBolts
Jason Simontacchi Award (Rookie of the Year) – Zac Treece, Gateway Grizzlies
Roger Hanners Award (Manager of the Year) – Gregg Langbehn, Traverse City Beach Bums
Fran Riordan Award (Citizenship) – Gary Lee, Washington Wild Things

Coach of the Year – Ralph Santana, Southern Illinois Miners
Trainer of the Year – Satoshi Kajiyama, Normal CornBelters
Groundskeeper of the Year – Guy Massaro, Joliet Slammers
Newspaper of the Year – SouthtownStar (Tinley Park, IL)
Writer of the Year – Randy Reinhardt, The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL)
Broadcaster of the Year – Andy “Bull” Barch, Lake Erie Crushers

It can only happen in the Indy leagues

Here's another interesting story about the cash-strapped Worcester Tornadoes of the independent Can-Am League. These things only happen in the indy leagues.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20120825/NEWS/108259966/0/NEWS02

James rocks Roger

Roger Clemens made his independent baseball debut tonight, pitching 3 1/3 scoreless innings for the Sugar Land Skeeters against the Bridgeport Bluefish in the Atlantic League.

Clemens gave up one hit, a single to (guess who?) James Simmons. You might recall that Simmons began this year as an outfielder for the Wild Things. He was released after only five games and going 3-for-17. Simmons signed with Bridgeport in the Atlantic League, which is the top independent league and has many former major leaguers and Class AAA players.

Simmons is batting .279 with 11 home runs for the Bluefish.

He's beaten the Pirates and the Wild Things

By now, you probably know that Andrew Werner (pictured), the San Diego Padres pitcher who threw four-hit ball into the seventh inning Wednesday in his major league debut to beat the Pirates, began his professional career in the Frontier League, where he was playing as little as two years ago.

Werner actually made his professional debut at Consol Energy Park on July 17, 2009, tossing a scoreless inning of relief for Evansville against the Wild Things. Two days later, he pitched another scoreless inning of relief against Washington with exactly the same statistics: one walk and two strikeouts. Werner finished the year with a 3-2 record and 5.64 ERA in 10 games.

In 2010, Windy City traded an outfielder named Vinnie Scarduzio to Evansville in exchange for Werner. With the ThunderBolts, the lefty had a 10-4 record and 3.51 ERA. Werner made two starts against the Darin Everson-managed Wild Things that year (each game was in Crestwood, Ill.), posting a 2-0 record. In a June 28 game, he pitched six innings to beat Tim Smith, 5-2.

On Aug. 29, 2010, Werner beat the Wild Things again, going 6.1 innings and giving up four hits, four walks and three earned runs (a pitching line that was very similar to his outing against the Pirates) in Windy City's 8-7 victory. Justin Edwards started that game on the mound for Washington but Kevin Hammons was the losing pitcher.

One article I read late last night mentioned that Werner had tryouts with three Frontier League teams and was rejected before Evansville signed him. The article didn't name the three teams.

Failing math

Though the season was lost many weeks ago, the math tells us that the end of the line for the 2012 Wild Things came Sunday night.

Washington was mathematically eliminated from playoff contention with its 6-5 loss to Windy City.

This is the fifth consecutive year without playoff baseball for the Wild Things.

Record night in Evansville

The Evansville Otters set the record for largest attendance in Bosse Field's 97-year history Saturday night when 8,120 showed up on Breast Cancer Awareness Night to see the Otters' 8-7 victory over the Gateway Grizzlies.

Until somebody proves otherwise, I'm going with this also being the Frontier League single-game attendance record.

UPDATE: Received an email from Frontier League deputy commissioner Steve Tahsler concerning the attendance in Evansville.

Steve said the Frontier League's single-game attendance record is 10,250 for a game in Johnstown on July 4, 2000. The game was preceeded by a concert performed by the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and followed by fireworks.

The league's six games on Sept. 5, 2010 set the one-day attendance record of 30,854. Traverse City drew 8,211 that day.

Bet you've never heard of this kind of delay

Baseball games have had all kinds of delays. There have been rain delays, lightning delays, (lack of) lighting delays. In Pittsfield, Mass., there were often sun delays during minor league and independent games because the field was built in the wrong direction. There have been skunk delays, snow delays, and delays because of an injured player or umpire. Games have been delayed because of fog, insects and even out-of-control fans.

But here's one you might not have heard. The start of a recent independent Can-Am League game in Worcester, Mass., was delayed because a company, armed with a court order, tried to collect on more than $5,000 in unpaid cleaning bills incurred by the Tornadoes.

Stephen S. Buchalter, president of Enterprise Cleaning Co. of Worcester, obtained a court order that enabled the company to collect the game's receipts and take possession of the team's uniforms, bats, gloves and other equipment.

Enterprise cleans Hanover Insurance Park's restrooms and concourses, and it had not been paid for its services this year.

The game was delayed one hour until the league's commissioner could be contacted and arrangements could be made to pay the company.

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/dish/201208/minor-league-game-delayed-because-teams-huge-debt-cleaners

Change that bookmark

If you like high school sports, then check out the O-R's Varsity Letters blog at its new address:

http://thevarsitylettersor.blogspot.com/

Don't forget to change the bookmark if you've been a follower of Mike Kovak's coverage of local high school sports on this blog. Mike recently left the O-R to be the sports editor of the Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown. You can read Jason Mackey's coverage of high school sports at the new address and follow Jason on Twitter at @mackey_jason.

Zero tolerance

By signing Vinnie Fayard -- to replace suspended Robbie Garvey -- prior to their game Sunday against the Road Warriors, the Wild Things have reached the Frontier League's transactions limit. By my count, Washington has no transactions left. Zero. To add a player, Washington would have to make a trade within the league for an equal number of players or put a player on the DL.

Fayard fits the mold of the players Washington signed during the last offseason. He has no professional experience and played this spring at an NAIA school, Biola (Calif.). He batted a team-high .372 with four home runs and 13 stolen bases this year. As a sophomore, he hit 14 home runs, but his power number dropped significantly. Perhaps that was caused by the new aluminum bats used in the college game.

The Frontier League transactions page listed Fayard as an outfielder, though he played a lot of infield as a senior.

Night at the ballpark in less than 3 minutes

Here is a neat video I found on YouTube. It's from the Wild Things' 7-3 loss to Rockford back on July 4. The trick is to stop the video when you think you're in the frame.

Handicapping the pennant race

There is less than three weeks left in the Frontier League's regular season and quite an interesting playoff race is developing.

The two division winners along with two remaining teams with the best records, regardless of division, will qualify for the playoffs. Entering Tuesday's games, Traverse City leads the East Division by four games over Southern Illinois, while Windy City is holding a 1 1/2-game lead over Gateway. Southern Illinois and Gateway are in the wild-card spots, but the Grizzlies have a slim lead over Schaumburg (1 game), Lake Erie (2 games) and Florence (3 games). The Freedom's 1-0 win Sunday at Lake Erie was a huge boost to Florence's playoff chances.

So who has the advantage down the stretch? Who has the most difficult path to the playoffs?

In the East, we like Traverse City with the four-game lead, especially when you factor in that the Beach Bums have only six road games remaining compared to 12 at home, including three against the Road Warriors.

In the West, the schedule favors Schaumburg. The Boomers have 12 home games remaining (they are 27-12 at home), including three against the Road Warriors and play only six games against teams in the playoff race. Gateway has nine home games and nine away, and matches Schaumburg with six games against playoff contenders.

Though Windy City leads the West, the ThunderBolts have the toughest schedule. Windy City has 17 games remaining (one more than every other contender) and only six are at home. The ThunderBolts are the only contender that must play a doubleheader, that being Friday at Washington, and you know what they say about the difficulty of sweeping a twinbill. Windy City also plays 12 of its 19 games against playoff contenders.

As for the wild-card contenders from the East, Florence has the most ground to make up but the Freedom have the easiest schedule, which adds a little spice to the stretch drive. Florence has nine games at home and play only one three-game series (this weekend at home against Southern Illinois) against other playoff contenders.

Southern Illinois plays the most contenders as 12 of its remaining 18 games are head-to-head with teams in the playoff chase. Lake Erie has nine games left against contenders (just three at home), but also gets the Road Warriors for a series.

Washington, by the way, plays 13 games against playoff contenders: Windy City (4), Gateway (3), Florence (3) and Schaumburg (3).

Major move by Miners

The Southern Illinois Miners, who are currently four games behind East Division leader Traverse City and tied for the two wild-card playoff spots with Gateway, began to rework its roster for the pennant race last week when they traded leadoff hitter Darian Sandford to the Wild Things for relief pitchers Steve Grife and Nick Cicio.

Southern Illinois made another trade today, and it might have landed the Miners the missing piece for its offense. The Miners acquired outfielder Javier Herrera from Rockford in exchange for three players to be named.

Herrera is third in the league in batting average (.338) and RBI (64). He already has hit for the cycle in a game this season, which is his first in the Frontier League.

You might recall that Herrera, while in the Oakland Athletics' organization, spent two years on Baseball America's Top 100 prospects list. He climbed to as high as the No. 2 prospect in the Athletics' system before a series of injuries forced him out of affiliated ball. He did not play professionally last year.

It's about time

The home run hit Wednesday night by Washington's Mike Bando (pictured) at Normal was notable not only because it was the first of Bando's pro career, but it also ended a lengthy home-run drought.

Bando's home run was only the second hit by a Washington first baseman this season, and the first since Trevor Pippin hit a solo homer in the 10th inning to beat Evansville May 20 -- the third game of the season. That means the Wild Things went 70 consecutive games without getting a home run from somebody playing first base, which is supposed to be a power position.

Lasting relief

Everything is working again in the Wild Things' bullpen.

The arms are healthy, the confidence is back, the saves and scoreless innings are piling up.

It's not the recommended way to get quality results from your bullpen, but after the epic meltdown last Thursday at River City, the Wild Things' relief pitchers have been a group seemingly determined to rebound and erase the memory of that bad night. The bullpen has been a big reason why Washington has won three of its last four games.

The Wild Things' bullpen had the biggest collapse in franchise history when it gave up nine runs in the eighth inning of the 10-6 loss at River City. Since then, Washington's relief pitchers have forged a string of 14 consecutive scoreless innings. The formula for success has been simple. During the scoreless streak, the relievers have combined for 17 strikeouts and only one walk.

K Zone

To nobody's surprise, the 23 strikeouts by Wild Things hitters in the 15-inning win Saturday over Lake Erie was a team single-game record. After checking the final stats from seasons past and some boxscores, I found that the old record was 17 strikeouts, set last year in an Aug. 25 game at Windy City. Washington lost that game 2-1 in 11 innings.

One thing that I found to be interesting while checking this record is that the most strikeouts Washington's 2004 hitters had in a game was a mere 10.

Remember James Simmons?

During the last offseason, the Wild Things stockpiled former NAIA players with no previous pro experience and Pecos Leaguers. The signings were criticized, bashed and judged as bad. The critics were correct. Of the players from the NAIA-Pecos offseason haul, only infielder Shain Stoner has made a significant contribution.

One position player signed in the offseason who didn't fit the NAIA-Pecos mold was outfielder James Simmons, who had Class AAA experience in the San Francisco Giants' system. Simmons has size (6-3) and speed. He was expected to be the newcomer with the best chance to make an immediate impact with Washington.

Simmons, however, got off to a slow start with the Wild Things. He played in only five games, going 3-for-17 with seven strikeouts and was released May 25 -- before the seasson's first homestand was complete.

Simmons didn't stay unemployed very long. He signed with the Atlantic League's Bridgeport Bluefish. The Atlantic League is the top independent circuit, filled with former major leaguers and ex-Class AAA and AA players.

Simmons is currently batting .258 with the Bluefish with 10 home runs and eight stolen bases. He's in a 4-for-32 slump after getting his average up to .285 on July 21. Simmons also has a pair of muli-homer games, each against defending league champion York.

It seems as if this was one time when the Wild Things had the right guy in camp but gave up on him too soon.

Parkersburg wants to talk Frontier League

Parkersburg, W.Va., officials are planning a series of meetings to gaugue the area's interest in building a ballpark and bringing a Frontier League team back to the city.

Parkersburg was home to the Ohio Valley Redcoats for the league's first six seasons (1993-98) at Bennett Stump Field, which was basically a high school field. By 1998, Parkerburg was the smallest market in the league and was last in attendance in 1997 and '98. The Redcoats moved to Huntingburg, Ind.

http://newsandsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/563759/Public-meetings-planned-for-local-baseball-franchise.html?nav=5063

Mario says: Yer outta here, Sound Guy

Many Wild Things fans are likely familiar with Mario Seneca, a Washington native and former Frontier League umpire who currently works in the high-Class A Florida State League.

I thought Seneca, who also is a college and high school football official, was one of the best ball-strike umpires the Frontier League had over the last 11 years.

Last night, Seneca was working a game in Daytona Beach between the Daytona Cubs and the Fort Myers Miracle. There was a close play at first base in the eighth inning and Daytona manager Brian Harper (a former Pittsburgh Pirates catcher) argued the call.

After the argument, Derek Dye, an intern who was controlling the sound effects for the Cubs, decided to play "Three Blind Mice."

Now, there are only four rules that sound guys have to follow during a game: 1. Don't play music when the ball is in play. 2. Don't play music when the pitcher is beginning his windup. 3. Don't play any music with the F-Bomb in the lyrics. 4. Don't play "Three Blind Mice."

Dye broke Rule No. 4, and his attempt at humor didn't sit well with Seneca, who was the home-plate umpire. Seneca turned around and quickly and emphatically ejected Dye from the game.

"You're gone! Turn the sound off the rest of the night," Seneca yelled.

I guess you can say this was the Night the Music Died in Daytona Beach.

Cubs general manager Brady Ballard told the Daytona Beach News Journal that the clip was harmless fun but “there are rules.” He added, “It probably violated the rules, but again, there's been discussion on whether it was an overreaction.”

Seneca posted on his Facebook page: “The good news is that I called my league president (Chuck Murphy) afterwards, and he said I did the correct thing. His opinion is pretty much the only one that matters, since he's my boss.”

This was not a first for the Florida State League. Wilbur Snapp, an organist for the Clearwater Phillies, was tossed in 1985 for playing the same tune.

There is just one thing, though, that keeps running through my mind ... there are only two umpires in a Florida State League game.

Here's the video of the ejection:

They can still trade in the Frontier League

Though the nonwaiver trade deadline in Major League Baseball passed yesterday, the transaction deadline has not been reached in the Frontier League. The Wild Things made another trade Wednesday, sending relief pitchers Steve Grife and Nick Cicio to Southern Illinois in exchange for center fielder Darian Sandford (pictured) and lefty reliever Anthony Collazo.

The hard-throwing Grife (0-2, 6 saves, 4.79) and soft-tossing Cicio (0-4, 1 save, 4.25) each have been erratic this season. Though I like Grife as a power arm in a save situation, it seemed as if Grife was never a favorite of this year's Wild Things' coaching staff and his role has diminished in recent weeks.

Sandford, who leads the Frontier League in stolen bases, spent two years in the Kansas City Royals system before signing with Southern Illinois this season. He's a speedy switch-hitter who made the Frontier League All-Star game and is batting .256 with 45 stolen bases.

It seems that pitchers might have figured out Sandford as he ended his run with Southern Illinois on a 6-for-41 slide.

Collazo (3-0. 1 save, 2.28) has been a setup guy for the Miners. This is his first year of pro baseball. Collazo played at Howard Junior College and the University of Oklahoma.

By my count, with the addition of Sandford and Collazo, the Wild Things have had 55 players on the roster during the regular season. Yes, that's a team record. The previous record for most players used was 46, set in 2009, when Mark Mason was the manager.

The trading of Cicio meands that only seven of the 24 players who were with Washington on opening day in Evansville are still on the roster. The seven include five pitchers (Casey Barnes, Justin Hall, Jhonny Montoya, Chris Smith and Shawn Smith) and two position players (Michael Bando and Shain Stoner).