Dugout Tales

Baseball is back for another season in Sacramento!

The River Cats kicked off 2024 with an exhibition game against their parent club, the San Francisco Giants last weekend to wrap up Spring Training before officially staring Opening Day today. The weather has been a little gloomy lately with rain, lightening and thunder pounding the Capital city the night before the exhibition, but it ended up being a beautiful Sunday for baseball.

The San Francisco Giants were in town for the first time since 2018, the scheduled 2020 appearance was cancelled due to Covid. It’s a bit of a weird experience for me to be witnessing this because back in 2018 the Giants roster was filled with names like Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, and Madison Bumgarner; established Major League Baseball players who were the core of the Giants for close to a decade. Today those veterans are all gone, replaced by now veterans Austin Slater, Mike Yastrzemski, and Logan Webb; all of which who spent time as River Cats here in Sacramento but here they are five years later Major League ballplayers themselves. They are not the fresh-faced Minor Leaguers hoping for their shot, no, they’re bona fide stars and the faces of the Giants’ team. It’s weird, not because they are Major Leaguers, but it’s weird because I remember when they weren’t. I’ve watched them all grow in their careers to the players they are today. It’s also weird because it is a sign that I’m getting old and life goes on and so does baseball, ever changing with the seasons giving way to something new yet remaining the same at its core.

This Giants team has also added some key players by way of free agency as they picked up one of the prized international players Jung Hoo Lee out of the KBO, as well as former Oakland Athletics third baseman Matt Chapman and won the long battle for Blake Snell. There was one old friend who returned on a Minor League contract this off season who is the last remnant of the Giants teams that won three World Series Championships in five seasons between 2010-2014, and that would be Pablo Sandoval. The “Panda” stole the show this day as he was given a standing ovation and the biggest cheers of the night when he came into pinch hit and knocking himself a single. The same cheers came up as he walked off the field and waved to the crowd in what would could have been one of his last appearances as a San Francisco Giant. Many have speculated if Sandoval would be retiring any day, and that he only signed with the team because he wanted to retire as a Giant, but Pablo announced that he would accept an assignment to Triple-A just to continue his career. Will Panda be on the River Cats roster on Opening Day? Unfortunately, that answer is no as the Giants released the beloved Panda.

The exhibition game brought all the fans to the yard as the seats were full, kids both young and old with outstretched hands asked for autographs, and a mixed group of players took the field. The Giants brought their starters and a group of subs who we might find in High-A or Double-A ball this year such is Grant McCrary, Carson Ragsdale, Eric Silva; as well as Hunter Bishop and Logan Wyatt who did not make an appearance in the game. The River Cats roster was filled with recognizable names like Casey Schmitt, David Villar, Heliot Ramos, and on the mound was Mason Black. Mason did an amazing job shutting down the Giants starting lineup and I was more than expecting him to be on the Giants’ Opening Day roster with such a great spring he has had, along with the thin pitching staff the Giants are starting the season with, but he was optioned to Sacramento the other day.

The River Cats would beat the Giants by a score of 8-1, and while this game meant nothing, and by the midway point the “Giants” were nothing more than a bunch of lower-level Minor Leaguers the team that Sacramento had on the field is one of the better teams I’ve seen in years.

#ClawsUp

It’s been two weeks since I learned how to properly pronounce Norfolk, and on the best night of Elaine Benes’ life the Baltimore Orioles clinched the American League East, and their Triple-A affiliate Norfolk Tides clinched the International League Championship and a berth to the Triple-A National Championship.

The Tides advanced by beating the back-to-back Triple-A Champion Durham Bulls in the best of three series after falling to them in game one by a score of 10-5.

Next stop Vegas.

The Orioles and Dodgers entered the Minor League Baseball season with the top two farm systems respectively so it’s no surprise that their two top teams would be facing off for the National Championship.

The Tides came into the Championship game with baseball’s top prospect Jackson Holliday. Holliday, who was selected No. 1 overall in the 2022 Major League Baseball Draft has played in all four Minor League levels in 2023 and was named the Hitting Prospect of the Year. Holliday is joined by three other Top 100 prospects in Colton Cowser (14), Coby Mayo (27), and Joey Ortiz (50).

While the Dodgers have also had their share of top prospects on their roster this season, only Michael Busch, and Gavin Stone were on the roster, and Stone was not available to pitch in Saturday’s game.

The Tides finished the season with a 90-59 record, while Triple-A’s best winning percentage goes to the Dodgers who finished the year going 90-58.

The Championship game also featured Jen Pawol, the first woman to umpire a Triple-A game in 34 years, behind the plate.

The teams arrived in Vegas on Friday afternoon, a full day before game time. I on the other hand boarded a 5:25am flight out of Sacramento on Saturday morning for a quick 24 hour adventure in Sin City.

The day started with excitement even before the sun came up as all flights were delayed for about thirty minutes as the Sheriff and TSA officers kept all passengers from boarding while they searched for a subject. I didn’t see if anyone was arrested but they spent most of their time searching around my gate. We finally got to board about 30-minutes later, but our pilot still got us in early to Vegas.

After I got to Vegas I went out to see The Sphere, the new entertainment arena that just opened with a three day U2 concert weekend. I wasn’t able to go in but seeing it up close was still pretty cool. The streets were packed even more than usual with the opening of The Sphere, Canelo fighting later that night, the baseball game, and all the construction down the Strip in preparation for the F1 Grand Prix in November. I also made sure to stop at my favorite breakfast spot, Lou’s Diner off Decatur.

I arrived at Las Vegas Ballpark while the Tides were taking their batting practice and the Dodgers were warming up. Jackson Holliday was busy doing interviews and I stayed back to take in the workouts. I then noticed Lauren Burke hanging out with a group of people by the Tides dugout. Lauren played softball for the Texas Longhorns for three seasons after transferring from Oregon after her freshman season. I approached the group and asked Lauren if she wouldn’t mind taking a picture with me. Her response was, “I’m a nobody” to which I told her that I had been a Texas softball fan for 20 years. The guy who was with her offered to take our picture and I was really grateful for the chance to meet her, and we parted ways.

I later discovered that the guy who took our picture was Kevin Cooney of the No Limits podcast. Kevin has over one million followers on TikTok, and although I had to look him up later, I’d seen some of his videos, but at that moment I had no clue who he was. lol.

The Dodgers were the “home” team for the game and would be starting rehabbing Major Leaguer Yency Almonte while the Tides will give the ball to Justin Armbruester, the Orioles’ 19th ranked prospect who went 6-6 with 3.56 ERA, 109 strikeouts, and 51 walks in 121.3 innings between Double and Triple-A.

The benches of both teams were frustrated with Pawol’s calls behind home plate as they challenged five of her calls in the first few innings and four were overturned. I commented to the Dodgers coach next to me that she must be feeling a lot of pressure being in such a big game, to which he replied she definitely is, but that she is much better behind the plate than she is out in the field making calls. I wouldn’t say that was a vote of confidence for her chances of making the Major Leagues. While I don’t want to discredit her achievements in making it to this level, she’s also in her mid-40s so I have to question her vision based on what I’ve seen tonight. Pawol is only the seventh woman to umpire in the Minor Leagues, the first since 2007, and the first to make it to Triple-A in over 30 years.

The Tides would score first when the Dodgers’ infield had a mental breakdown in the top of the third. After just getting the first out at the plate when Connor Norby tried to score on a ball hit to third baseman Miguel Vargas off the bat of Coby Mayo, Mayo reached first on a fielder’s choice and putting Colton Cowser on second. Cowser and Mayo would attempt a double steal on the next pitch, and as Feduccia threw to second, Cowser kept running. Mayo got himself in a rundown allowing Cowser to score from second before getting tagged out by Michael Busch.

After watching the Tides go through their lineup once, Dodgers’ performance coach Paul Fournier commented, “These guys swing from their heels” which is to say that they’re swinging with all of their power.

The score remained 1-0 in favor of the Tides until the bottom of the fifth when Feduccia hit a two out solo home run to right field, game tied 1-1. Armbruester would strike out Michael Busch to end the inning and that would be an end to his night, going five complete innings, and allowing one run on two hits with four strikeouts.

The Dodgers would take the lead in the bottom of the sixth when Miguel Vargas led off the inning with a double and scored on a base hit by Jonny Deluca.

The Dodgers would send out Alec Gamboa to start the top of the seventh. Gamboa would get Josh Lester to line out for the first out before giving up a double to Lewin Diaz. A walk, strikeout, and second walk would follow to load the bases for Colton Cowser who stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and his team down by a run.

Down in the count 0-2, Cowser took the third straight fastball he saw and sent it for a drive that landed 455 feet away, grand slam. The score was now 5-2 Tides. After coming into the game 1-13 in the postseason, that was Cowser’s second hit of the night after getting a single in the first.

Connor Norby would add two runs on the board for the Tides in the top of the ninth inning when he hit a two out, two-run home run to extend the Tides lead to 7-2.

Going into the bottom of the ninth, the Dodgers’ were down to their last three outs and would be facing Nick Vespi to try to close out the game for the Tides. The bottom part of the order was due up for the Dodgers as their seven, eight, and nine hitters were coming to bat.

Jorbit Vivas walked to lead off the inning and Vespi got two quick outs when he got Hernandez, and Fedducia to fly out to center and right field respectively. That would bring up Drew Avans.

Avans would swing through the first pitch as Vivas took second on defensive indifference. Avans then took Vespi’s next pitch, a fastball, to left field that scored Vivas, 7-3 the Tides still lead.That brought up Michael Busch for the Dodgers. Vespi started Busch off with a slider that Busch hit deep to right field and almost out of the ballpark for a two run home run and the score was now 7-5. That pitch would be all for Vespi as Tides manager Buck Britton would pull him in favor of Joey Krehbiel to face Miguel Vargas with two outs, and the Tides were now one out away from the Championship.

Ball 1

There is this guy in the stands just riding Vargas tonight, and its starting to get a bit frustrating especially since Vargas already has a double on the night.

Ball 2

The constant jabbering starts to annoy coach Paul Fournier.

95 mph fastball up and in the zone…..goodbye. Vargas sends that 372 feet to left, and the score is now 7-6. As Vargas rounds third he glares over in the direction of the fan who had been shouting at him and has now been quiet since Vargas took his swing.

Ryan Ward up to bat for the Dodgers. Ward is 0-4 on the night.

Krehbiel starts him off with a change up, strike one. Ward fouls off another change up, strike two.

Fastball, strike three, and the Norfolk Tides defeat the Oklahoma City Dodgers by a score of 7-6 to claim the Triple-A National Championship!

As the Tides celebrated on the field, it was Norby’s home run in the ninth, his third hit of the night, that proved to be a crucial game changer as the Dodgers put up four in the bottom half of the inning.

This is Norfolk’s first Triple-A title for the franchise since 1983 when they were then known as the Tidewater Tides, and were the affiliate of the New York Mets. The last time an Orioles club won the Triple-A title was in 1971 with the Rochester Red Wings. The Tides also won 90 games this year which is a new franchise record, and many of the players who contributed to this season also contributed to the Orioles AL East winning team.

Colton Cowser, whose grand slam in the seventh really opened up the game for the Tides was named the game’s MVP and rewarded with an black engraved bat, and an XBox gaming system.

After the trophy presentation the Tides headed to their locker room where manager Buck Britton told them, “I’m so proud of everything we’ve accomplished. This is not easy to do, and this was one hell of a season. Great freaking job tonight. Colton Cowser, its been a tough road here for a couple of weeks…” and the champagne corks started to fly.

After the celebration I walked to my car, soaked in champagne, and realized that I didn’t have a change of clothes. It was near midnight,I didn’t have a hotel room, and I was catching another flight in six hours so I resigned myself to smelling like a drunk on the flight home.

Harbor Protected.

Author: Dugout Tales

Seasons Change, New Eras Begin

Harbor Protected