Sunday, June 24, 2001
[ PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL ]
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED on the way to the baseball game this past week. Breakdowns, mishaps
OK, as long as team
goes 5-1LIFE IN THE MINORS
Hawaii Professional Baseball Report
Brendan Sagara
Special to the Star-BulletinSome of the incidents and accidents that occurred on our jaunt through Richmond, Ind., Kalamazoo, Mich., and London, Ontario, had even the most veteran of our coaches and players shaking their heads and smiling.
The smiling was made possible by the fact that we went 5-1 and moved into sole possession of first place in the Frontier League West Division, despite rumbling through a series of events fit for a made-for-cable TV movie. Not quite feature movie stuff, but better than network.
Before we even left our hometown of Huntingburg, Ind., we were having serious issues. The day began with my host mother -- the very kind and very gracious Viola Scherry -- informing me, our bullpen catcher, a newly acquired outfielder and the team trainer that our laundry washing demands had taken their toll on her Sears Kenmore washer.
Ten loads and 12 hours after the four of us began our ritual, pre-road trip laundry binge, Viola's old pal just had too much, and the next thing we knew, the basement wash area was under a few inches of soapy water.
Upon finally gathering all our clean clothes and other belongings for the week-long trip, we drove down the street to League Stadium where we were set to load up our "trusty" bus for our first destination, which was about six hours away.
But the bus needed to be replaced. Something about air bags. So there we sat, baking in the 92-degree asphalt parking lot at the stadium, waiting for our replacement bus to arrive from Evansville.
An hour-and-a-half later, we were on our way to play the Richmond Roosters. We split the two-game set, but that wasn't our worst loss. About a half-dozen or so of our players had money stolen from their wallets in the visitor's locker room.
Oh, and our bus broke down again. Power steering fluid leak this time.
With the equipment check complete on our third bus, we departed on the second leg of the trip to Michigan to play another two-game set, this time against the Kalamazoo Kings.
After pulling into Kalamazoo at around 5 a.m., we promptly located the Red Roof Inn, where we were to spend a few hours catching some shut-eye. About seven hours later, we were loading up again to head off to our series opener.
One problem -- we forgot our starting pitcher. Damon Yee and his roommate, one of our hard-throwing relievers, Jess Turner, forgot that Kalamazoo runs on Eastern time and not Central time, like Indiana. So they missed the bus.
So about 15 minutes later, Damon and Jess caught up to us at Burger King, where we were all getting our daily fast-food pre-game meal. And off to the stadium we went -- no pre-game batting practice, no infield-outfield -- just stretch, warm up and play.
Two-and-a-half hours later, we were boarding the bus, riding high on Damon's 1-0 win over the Kings. Now we were headed for our second Kalamazoo hotel, the Best Western, "home of the deposit."
They require a deposit for everything there. Usually when traveling with teams, the hotel has you pay a minimal deposit for use of the phone.
At our final destination of London, Ontario, there was a major mix up at the hotel because of the currency changing and unchanging at the bank down the street.
Coach Alumbaugh and I were somehow evicted from our room and ended up sleeping on the floor of a player's rooms.
So after about three hours of sleep and four hours of trying to get comfortable, we had to get up and go.
First back to the bank to get back some U.S. dollars, then off to Labatt Stadium for our final game against the London Werewolves, and then back to the bus to set off on the 13-hour ride back to Huntingburg.
As I lay on the bus watching one of my personal favorites, "Jerry Maguire," I came to the conclusion that I would take all of that, as long as the 5-1 record goes with it.
Now if I could only get my laundry washed.
Brendan Sagara, a former University of Hawaii-Hilo pitcher, is in his first season as pitching coach for the Dubois County (Ind.) Dragons.
Statistics of players in professional baseball with Hawaii ties through Friday's games: Hawaii Baseball Report
Compiled by Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.com
Player
Team, League Class AB R H 2b 3b HR RBI Avg. Benny Agbayani N.Y. Mets, National ML 168 16 46 8 1 4 17 .274 Chris Truby New Orleans, Pacific Coast AAA 128 23 43 13 1 7 33 .335 Keith Luuloa Portland, Pacific Coast AAA 57 21 46 9 2 3 10 .293 Keoni DeRenne Greenville, Southern AA 226 19 60 4 2 2 22 .265 Miles Luuloa West Michigan, Midwest AA 165 26 30 8 1 1 11 .182 Jason Ross Greenville, Southern AA 6 0 1 0 0 0 1 .167 Shane Victorino Wilmington, South Atlantic A 257 46 72 14 6 3 12 .280 Chad Santos Burlington, Midwest A 236 36 60 21 0 8 41 .254 Darren Blakely Tampa, Florida State A 184 27 50 10 4 7 29 .272 Dane Sardinha Mudville Nine, California A 220 22 47 13 0 3 26 .214 Mike Tejada Asheville, South Atlantic A 198 18 44 8 0 10 25 .222 Brandon Chaves Hickory, South Atlantic A 177 16 40 9 2 1 19 .226 Rodney Choy Foo Burlington, Appalachian A 40 2 10 0 0 0 5 .250 Billy Pieper Spokane, Northwest A 13 2 3 0 1 0 4 .231 Bryce Uegawachi Mahoning Valley A 10 1 2 0 0 0 1 .200 Bronson Sardinha Gulf Coast, Gulf Coast A 5 1 1 1 0 0 0 .200 Key Voshell Lakewood, South Atlantic A 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 .250 Brian Rooke Vancouver, Northwest A 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Rex Rundgren Utica, New York-Penn A 17 0 0 0 0 0 2 .000 Sean Murphy London, Frontier Ind 77 15 29 9 2 0 13 .377 Scott Suraci Evansville, Frontier Ind 67 13 12 1 1 2 13 .179 Patrick Scalabrini Quebec, Northern Ind 37 8 6 2 0 0 2 .162
Pitcher
Team, League Class G IP H ER BB SO W-L ERA Mike Fetters Los Angeles, National ML 25 22-2/3 17 10 9 21 2-1 3.97 Mark Johnson Toledo, International AAA 14 90-1/3 94 39 17 54 7-6 3.89 Jay Spurgeon Rochester, International AAA 14 84-2/3 83 42 26 58 3-5 4.46 Scott Karl Nashville, Pacific Coast AAA 13 79-2/3 75 34 23 50 4-3 3.84 Onan Masaoka Las Vegas, Pacific Coast AAA 20 51-1/3 61 36 23 40 7-3 6.31 Brandon Villafuerte Oklahoma, Pacific Coast AAA 22 38 46 16 19 43 3-4 3.79 Dusty Bergman Arkansas, Texas AA 14 83 98 41 27 45 5-7 4.45 Jerome Williams Shreveport, Texas AA 12 59 57 36 22 37 5-3 5.49 Tyler Yates Midland, Texas AA 32 34 35 15 15 33 3-2 3.97 Justin Wayne Harrisburg, Eastern AA 1 6 7 1 1 6 1-0 1.50 Corey Miller Modesto, California A 21 33-1/3 31 15 15 35 2-4 4.05 Hawkeye Wayne Wisconsin, Midwest A 13 30 26 13 23 24 2-1 3.90 Thomas Ford Frederick, Carolina A 7 10-1/3 13 5 2 9 0-0 4.35 Jason Kahi Kaanoi GC Royals, Gulf Coast A 1 1 0 0 0 0 0-0 0.00 Jeff Martin San Angelo, Tex-Louisiana Ind 6 40-2/3 40 18 15 47 2-2 3.98 Damon Yee Dubois County, Frontier Ind 5 26 25 7 7 21 3-2 2.42 Notes: Tyler Yates was the winning pitcher in the Texas League All-Star game as the West defeated the East, 6-2. ... Justin Wayne was promoted to AA Harrisburg in the Eastern League, and pitched six strong innings in a win over the New Haven Ravens last Thursday. ... Jason Ross was demoted to AA Greenville in the Southern League. Ross was hitting .209 at AAA Richmond. ... Many of the new signees made their debuts last week, most notably Bronson Sardinha, who doubled in his first professional game last for the Gulf Coast Yankees last Wednesday.