San Francisco Angels

 Wood Bat Baseball Team

Spring Training 2004

"When you begin to feel indifference toward the 'eternal recurrence', you begin to live in the now...Now empty your windbag and breathe some fresh air!"

- Jerome Sanders Dickey    

Click for Home Page Here

Hey kids!

Click here and go away

"All the News in Fits"

 May 6, 2004    

                                       R H E           

Fairfield Indians 000 000 5  5 5 4

San Francisco     000 010 1  2 9 1

May 2, 8:00pm-  In the morning semi-final of the Fairfield Tournament, the Fairfield Indians rallied for five runs in the top of the 7th inning to wipe out Angels starter Matt Flaherty's (SF State) six innings of near-flawless pitching. Going into the 7th, Flaherty had allowed only one hit and one walk, had struck out eight, and allowed only two fly balls (a double and a fly out to center). A slightly bumpy groundball somewhat bobbled by the shortstop*(see Note below) started things going in the 7th for the Indians. Two groundball singles tied the game, a squeeze bunt between the mound and first base put the Indians in front, and a soft single to right brought in what proved to be the winning run.

The Angels had numerous chances to score early runs and take the pressure off their starting pitcher, but they ran out of potential rallies in the first three innings. In the first inning, leadoff hitter Bertland Watson was safe on an error and was bunted successfully over to second base by Darrell Ard. But Watson rounded second on the play, shuffled sneakily toward the unattended third base, then hesitated (obviously performing some intricate mathematical calculations he was unable to complete), and got caught in a rundown.

In the second inning, Angel left-fielder Ben Amundson was thrown out at the plate as he attempted to score from second base on a single by Angels batter Nick Ng. Amundson skillfully slid to the outside of the plate but the Indians right-fielder had thrown a strike to the catcher who had time to put the tag on Amundson.

In the third inning, Darrell Ard singled and stole second base with one out. He then attempted to steal third from a standing start near second base, and failed. (But we have to cut him some slack- see story on the right.)

The Angels put runners on first and third with nobody out in the 4th inning, but failed to score. They finally put a run across in the 5th, on a leadoff single by Dennis Martinez***, a sacrifice bunt by Bertland Watson, a lucky bunt single by Darrell Ard, and a rare flat-swing line-drive single by Angels shortstop Mike Ryan. Two lineouts kept the Angels' from further scoring that inning.

In the bottom of the 7th, the Angels were down 5-1 and began a rally. Dennis Martinez*** singled to center and advanced on an error by the Indian centerfielder. With one out, Darrell Ard was hit by a pitch, Mike Ryan singled to load the bases, but cleanup hitter Lex Robins hit into a forceout at second base for the second out, scoring a run. Damian Broadnax then flew out to center to end the game. The Angels were eliminated from the Tournament, after having come within three outs of the 4pm championship game.

The Fairfield Indians waited while the San Jose Whacks played the Novato Knicks in the  1pm semi-final. The Whacks edged the Knicks 6-5, and then the Indians defeated the Whacks 5-3 in the championship. It's always fun for the host team to win their own tournament. It happens very frequently. No one won last year, since it rained out on the last day. So they relabeled the trophies and the Angels will get 4th place trophies for this year's tournament.        

Click here for Tournament results and rules.

Hard-Nosed Player of the Day:

On Friday April 30, Oakland's Darrell Ard Jr. finished finals at a small college in Tyler, Texas. He had twisted his knee at the beginning of the collegiate season and was unable to play this spring. On Saturday, he arrived home, and on Sunday morning he was batting second for the Angels in their tournament semi-final loss to the Fairfield Indians. The former LSU player played second base, trading off great defensive plays with Angels' veteran shortstop Mike Ryan. In four plate appearances, he sacrificed, singled twice, and was hit-by-pitch. Ard can also play shortstop, outfield, and catcher. The Angels now have another star in their lineup.

GOTTA WAIT TO GO TO PRISON!

Above: Some members of the baseball group awaiting entry at San Quentin State Prison Saturday morning May 1: Nick Ng, coordinator Alison Harrington, William Gomez, Roland Nazar.

The few players permitted entry represented the Angels,  who used players from the opponent San Quentin Giants inmate team to fill out their lineup. "The inmates just needed to play baseball, so instead of complaining about the situation, we went on in and played the game,"  said the Travel Director.

As a rock band, then a soul fusion band, played loud in the background in the large prison yard, the mixed group of visitors and inmates got trounced by the competent Giants team.

"We're coming back with a full squad on May 15," promised the Travel Director, "but first we have to straighten out the entry process with prison officials."

Fairfield Tournament- Angels' Game #3

                                      R H  E           

San Francisco    034 000 0  7 10 3

                     San Jose Whacks  004 020 0  6  5 0

May 1, 7:00pm-  Angels ace pitcher Lance Stevens (SF State) worked his way to a complete game victory over the Whacks, despite the Angels' use of a doddering senior citizen in right field. The dodderer was a vagrant who had spent much of the week in a Fairfield jail cell for causing a near-riot of children at the fun castle in Alan Witt Park, the site of the Tournament. He had also just been released Saturday afternoon from San Quentin State Prison where he had spent several hours tortured by the absence of teammates who were scheduled to play baseball against inmates at that facility.

In right field, the vagrant was inexplicably wearing the sad, stretched-out uniform of the Angels' rotund Travel Director, whose recent disappearance remains unsolved. The dodderer allowed a wind-blown popup/flyball to fall, clearing the bases in the third inning and putting the Whacks back into the game after the Angels had taken a commanding lead in the top of the third.

The Angels first scored with a three-run triple in the second inning by veteran centerfielder Bertland Watson. A run-scoring single by Ben Amundson and a three-run double by dh Ben Smith gave the Angels a 7-0 lead in the 3rd inning off Whacks' starter Robert Graham. But then a two-out error by second-baseman Damian Broadnax and the miscue by the stumble-bumbler in right field gave the Whacks some hope. A two-run triple by Howell of the Whacks put the tying run on third with one out in the 5th inning, but the tenacious Stevens struck out the next two batters to stop the bleeding. Stevens then breezed through the final two innings.

The win made the Angels' the Division B winner in this round robin tournament.

Three teams in Division B ended up with 2-1 records. The usual tie-breaker is head-to-head but that doesn't resolve anything when there is a three-way tie: The Angels lost to the White Sox who lost to the Whacks who lost to the Angels. The second tie-breaker is least total runs allowed in games lost. Each team lost only one game- the Angels had lost 1-0, the Whacks lost 7-6, and the White Sox lost 8-5. So the Angels and the Whacks made the Sunday semi-finals, while the White Sox went home.

Fairfield Tournament- Angels' Game#2

                                    R H E           

White Sox      000 000 1  1 5 0

San Francisco  000 000 0  0 5 1

April 25, 6:15pm-  The Angels laid an egg.

At right, Angels starter Ben Smith:

7 innings, 5 hits, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts, 1 run- unearned.

At Alan Witt Park, the fun castle (shown at left prior to incident) is among many amusing diversions. After the game, the Travel Director scared off the little children and then bounced around the castle. "I have to decompress," he said. And sure enough, on one bounce, the whole castle burst and fell to the ground, trapping the Travel Director inside for several hours, without any assistance despite dozens of eyewitnesses.

"That's really pathetic," he exclaimed, walking away from a city law enforcement facility Thursday morning on his own recognizance. "I needed medical care, not brutality! 

"You know, though, it's amazing how many things they can charge you with, just being passed out in the park and then trying to leave: loitering and vagrancy, obstructing public access to a public facility, destruction of municipal property, creating a public nuisance, creating a public disturbance, verbal battery, child endangerment, inciting a public riot, maintaining a domicile in unsanitary conditions, an endless list of residential building code violations, public park curfew violation, resisting arrest, racketeering and other federal statutes including some stupid clause in the Anti-Terrorism Law- and littering! 

"I am not a litterbug!" he declaimed. His next court appearance is in late September.

You can help the Travel Director fight these scurrilous charges through a large contribution to the California Baseball Association. Mail payment and a letter of support to California Baseball Association, Travel Director Defense Fund & Fun Castle Restoration Project, 141 States Street, San Francisco, Ca  94114.

Fairfield Tournament- Angels' Game#1

                                    R H E           

San Francisco  000 610 0  7 7 4

Solano         111 110 0  5 5 0

April 24, 10pm- On a calm Saturday night, the San Francisco Angels held on to a 7-5 victory over the Solano Mudcats in the first day of the Fairfield Tournament. Angel starter Matt Flaherty withstood some Angel errors, pitching strongly into the 6th inning. Members of his family watched the contest, held at Alan Witt Park in Fairfield. The Mudcats put single runs on the board in each of the first five innings. For the second week in a row, the Angels' young left-hander Dennis Martinez*** shut down the Mudcats' hitters at the end of the game. Last week, Martinez preserved an extra-inning tie with 3 2/3 scoreless innings. This time, it was a 2-inning save for the 17 year-old southpaw.

The Angels won the game offensively with a six-run 4th inning. The inning began with consecutive hits by Damian Broadnax, Jarion White, and Jaime Portillo. The Mudcats' big hard-throwing starter, "Funny Sox" Conrad, then proceeded to walk three of the next four batters. With three runs already in, Angels cleanup hitter Lex Robins cleared the bases with a double to left-center field. The Angels added their seventh run in the 5th inning when Jaime Portillo doubled to lead off the inning, and later scored on a passed ball.

It was the fifth match-up in a month between the two teams. So far it's 2-2-1. Unless they meet again in the tournament championship game, their next face-off will be Sunday June 13 in Golden Gate Park.

Here We Are Now, Entertain Us!

April 18- TCUP Stadium, Vacaville- Two practice games against Shawn Scibek's Solano Mudcats, scheduled for 9 & 7 innings. On an alternately drizzly and misty day, the Angels escaped town with a 9-inning 6-5 win and an 8-inning 4-4 tie. Greg Tagert, manager of the Springfield-Ozark Ducks of the Frontier League, is still scouting players. But Greg left early on Sunday, after playing with the radar gun for several innings. Tagert is from Vacaville, where he ran the summer Vacaville Tigers for several years without any money. Contact Greg Tagert at (707) 410-6034.

Photos- clockwise from top left:  Fans. Angels' 2003 Cy Young winner Lance Stevens (SF State) torques his cut fastball and then discusses pitch selection with his advisors. Angels' second game starter Greg Jensen follows through. Jensen was born in another star system but seems to have adapted unusually well to life on the Third Rock. Angel stalwart Ben Smith warms up with catcher Brad Shannon. Shannon was the Angels' MVP  last year. He is an assistant coach at Sonoma State. He batted .370 for the CCAA champion Seawolves in 2003, then went on to catch 60 games for the Angels, hitting 17 homeruns.  And he hit a two-run homer Sunday at TCUP, in the 8th inning of the first game, to give the Angels their margin of  victory.

Another Sonoma State alumnus, centerfielder Keian Davis, played on Sunday, despite being banged up from his work as a quarterback on a semi-pro football team. Being a play-caller on the football field, he took advantage of all opportunities to practice his vocal skills on the baseball field. He decided to play 3rd base in the 2nd game in order to have someone nearby to converse with - the third base coach of the other team. No one is really sure how the air gets in, but he explained in elaborate detail how a catcher could, from his squatting position behind the plate, expel air in a variable manner to provide audible pitch selection signals to the pitcher.  Davis is an excellent lead-off hitter who knows his strike zone, and a talented outfielder who also plays 2nd well. His third base defense does appear to follow the classic Bull-Fighter Style with its provocative but non-confrontational sweep of the glove and step to the side: Olé!

Welcome to Spring Training.

Hard-Nosed Player of the Day: Veteran outfielder Ben Amundson plugged the holes:

He played third base in the first game & caught the second.

Click here for box scores

April 10- Crocker-Amazon #1, San Francisco- Spring training continued with a scrimmage between the Angels and Andrew Wagner's Bay Area Cubs^®. The Cubs are a talented team which competes on Saturdays in the Bay Area Men's Adult Baseball League.

It was a sunny, breezy day for seven innings, and then a continuous blast of freezing winds from Alaska swept through the field. It was as if the end of the game were being held on the Farallon Islands. During the Ice Age, the Farallon Islands separated from Crocker-Amazon and drifted into the Pacific Ocean. To this day, their climates remain exactly the same.

The Angels won despite their use of wood bats while the Cubs mixed in those bogus metal bats.

Ari Zagaris hit two homeruns for the Cubs.

Above left: Ron Arostegui delivers a pitch.

 

At right: Jaime Portillo shows off his hesitation  pitch. 

 

At left: Centerfielder Bertland Watson freezes his ass and counts his feet.

 

 

The Angels succeeded with clutch hitting by first baseman Steve Salazar, who drove in five runs with two doubles and a single. The Angels also benefited at the top of the order with rally-building walks and singles by centerfielder Bertland Watson and shortstop Ben Amundson, each reaching base safely four times.  Greg Jensen, Ron Arostegui, Rich Salvatto, and Jaime Portillo pitched for the Angels. The defense  held steady.

 

April 4- Crocker-Amazon #1, San Francisco- It was a typically windy and overcast day at Crocker, the exact kind of weather which originally motivated the Travel Director to make the Angels a traveling team. "It would be nice to play baseball in the sunshine," he said one day.

Youngsters from Managua used metal to out-hit the veterans with wood bats. John "Boom" Nelson and Mike Toy from the Whacks team joined Ron Mingo to create a Fontanetti triumvirate at the top of the Angels' order in the first game. It started out well when Toy led off the game with a first-pitch homerun.

Rich Salvatto pitched four good innings, after three bad innings. Salvatto also had several solid hits with a quick, flat stroke.

Above: Rich Salvatto gets right on the ball.

Above right: Exclusive photo showing Edgard Garcia using a wood bat.  He drove the ball deep to the outfield with inexplicably solid contact.

March 28- TCUP Stadium, Vacaville- Two practice games, 9 innings and 7 innings. On the most beautiful day of the year, the Angels scrimmaged against Shawn Scibek's Solano Mudcats. Both Angel starting pitchers were impressive. Matt Flaherty went six full innings and left with a 3-1 lead. John Nelson changed his name to Greg Jensen and pitched the second game, going a strong six innings.

Jarian White finished the first game, pitching the last two innings and working out of trouble, that is, finally getting out of lots of trouble, after it was too late and couldn't get any worse, and the Mudcats got tired of smacking the ball.

On April 20, the San Francisco Angels Wood Bat Baseball Team Committee on Proper Respect, Decency, and Recruitment of Good Left-Handed Pitchers voted to mandate the insertion of the following four sentences: Mr. White is a very valuable southpaw who was unhittable early last year with the Angels. He just had a little trouble in this inconsequential workout. Jarian White is a great talent. We pray for his return to our team.

At left: Mike Ryan. Above: Steve Salazar. Below: Greg Jensen.

"Every pitcher needs to be able to throw a straight strike at all times, and be able to take something off to get it done," stated the Travel Director, whose optimism about the team took a bad turn Sunday. "This may require a more subtle skill than is possessed by some of our pitchers," he suggested. Venturing further, he flatly stated, "All of our pitchers should learn to throw changeups, not only for strikes but with movement and to get the hitters off-balance. The colleges should be keeping up with the pros in demanding that all pitchers learn to take something off and put something on, within the same delivery." Becoming more emphatic, he declared, "This work should start from the pitcher's basic fastball, whatever it is. Once the pitcher feels his pitch off and on with understanding, he can work on cutting the ball more and slicing the plate. Just trying harder by shoving it doesn't work." Finally becoming irrationally intemperate and sarcastic, he sneered, "I really admire the intense drama some of our pitchers put on when they get in trouble, they want to just storm through by pure dementia!" The Travel Director then took his medications and began to talk about Sunday's beautiful sunset over the West Bay.

Shortstop Mike Ryan (3-for-8) and catcher Dennis Peters (4-for-8) were the 1-2 hitters in the lineup and led the defense. Zack Brown had four walks and did extra duty with some admirable catching work in the second game. All of the hitters worked on their wood bat skills, making use of the opportunity to face a rotation of six quality Mudcats' pitchers.