San Francisco Angels

Wood Bat Baseball Team

Genuine SemiPro Baseball

Competing with total effort since 1981

Organized for the Players by the California Baseball Association

World Headquarters 141 States Street, San Francisco, Ca  94114-1403

General Manager: Jim Brown   Phone 415-377-3099    Email

Field Manager: Tim Luque  Phone 650-814-0805

"All the News in Fits"    

       AABC Rural League     

     Directions to Crocker-Amazon

January 10, 2007 

Single Elimination Playoff!

Next Game:

SATURDAY. JANUARY 13, CROCKER-AMAZON #1, 10AM

-bring coffee & warm clothing

Crocker League website: http://www.wolfsportsonwheels.com/wood/index.htm

The league director is reported to be 109 years old, yet he still runs the web site with professional diligence. But sometimes words are misspelled, and everything is capitalized. Perhaps the typewriter he first learned to use had a caps lock key which was stuck. The rest is history. Lower case and its sensitivities must seem alien to some people: "WHAT'S WRONG WITH LOUD, WHAT ELSE IS THERE?"

You can go along your whole life and not know a lot of  things.

But with the internet, suddenly you learn something new! For example, I contend we are evolving into a society of bonobos!  Google it.  And add that word to your Dictionary.

To check on any game cancellation, click here: http://www.wolfsportsonwheels.com/wood/wood-bat-weather.htm. Saturday's game's a sure bet. Then the League Championship series is scheduled for next Thursday and Saturday.

The Angels handily defeated the South City Mexico team 6-1 last Saturday, January 6. The game started out as a pitching duel until the Angels hitters realized that striking out on balls thrown over their heads wasn't going to win the game. 'Meantime, Angels' starter James McNeil was again dominant, and kept the team steady with his good control. In five innings, he allowed zero hits, two walks, and struck out seven.

Next week, McNeil will join shortstop Adam Callan and second baseman  Milton LaCayo in the Arizona winter season of the Golden Baseball League. This is a "pay-to-play" scheme by the GBL, with a guarantee that some of the players will make the roster in this independent minor league's regular summer season. There is money to be made in feeding fantasies, of course. This revenue stream scheme might gain traction if good players like these compete in it.

After McNeil's work, Robert Salini threw two overpowering innings, but did allow a run. The 6'9" hurler is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, so kept most of his pitches down to the high 80s. That's a good thing too, because as they told Matt Cain of the Giants, you want to get ahead at the corners, hitting the spots without needing to throw your hardest pitch. Tom Walker wrapped up the pitching for the Angels. Offensively, third baseman Jake Holt delivered a two-run single when the score was 1-0.

The Angels on Saturday December 1 posted a 5-0 victory at Crocker#1, improving their Crocker League record to 9-1. The losing Indians team, comprised largely of Lowell High School players, is now 0-10. James McNeil (6-1) threw six innings for the Angels, allowing two hits and six walks, and striking out 10. In fact, the main tension of the game related to whether the Indians would follow through with their numerous scoring opportunities or would instead continue to strike out on full counts.  McNeil succeeded every time in working out of every mess he had created. Tom Walker finished for the Angels.   The following day, Jim Brown and Victor Wu worked out at Golden Gate Park, after the Angels forfeited their morning game against the Red Oaks. The stranded opponent features ex-major league pitcher Bill "Spaceman" Lee, who still throws in the mid-80s. The BAMSBL's Jon Maples kindly rescheduled a game a week later against the Red Oaks but it rained out. If it is rescheduled in January, please bring any ballplayer you know, so we don't forfeit again.
The impressive Lowell lefty starter was  tall and really skinny.	Shortstop Adam Callan hit the ball hard all game and made several dancing plays on defense.	Coach Tim Luque carefully times his 4th quarter arrival at the Cal-Stanford game.

DJ's Startling Development!

"He Keeps Hitting Homeruns!"

Outfielder DaJuan Johnson hit his seventh wood bat homer of the fall during Saturday November 25's BAMSBL "All-Star Game" at Balboa. Jim Brown witnessed Johnson's homerun, triple, and two singles in the 8-6 Us vs. Them victory. "He keeps hitting homeruns!" Brown exclaimed. "Players who know him wonder how the hell he got so good so fast. He not only mashes, but he covers the outfield and throws like a pro. I might start to wonder who he really is, but I haven't seen him hit an off-speed pitch yet. He looks fully capable of clearing that hurdle, his timing's got really good really fast!"

Prior to Thanksgiving, the weekend of November 18-19 brought two wins and another forfeit loss to the San Francisco Angels SemiPro Wood Bat Summer Collegiate Championship Year-Round Baseball Team. On Saturday, the team just about clinched a bye in the first round of the upcoming Crocker Wood Bat Fall League playoffs by extending its first place position over the Bay Area All-Stars. Click here for the Crocker League standings.

The Angels beat the SF Seals 4-3 in the morning game at Crocker#2 on third baseman Jett Russell's 8th-inning homerun. They then destroyed the second place All-Stars 9-0 when only one player from the opposing team showed up. Chickens!

That made it a double-header sweep, giving the team a 8-1 record in the Golden Gate Division of the Crocker League. But, alas, only three Angels showed up on time at Golden Gate Park on Sunday morning for a BAMSBL Fall League game. The Angels forfeited despite the opportunity to compete against a talented opponent, the Bay Area Mad Dogs. Several Angels, including those who arrived late, drifted to the other Big Rec field to join forces with another team short of players.

It was a good day for baseball but our team continues to lack a core group of dedicated players. We may have to join forces with another local team on a more permanent basis and forget the hope of fielding a regional traveling team next spring and summer. Lack of priority interest in baseball dictates a retreat from the ambitious traveling/tournament schedule which the Angels have been playing for the last twenty years.

Baseball is a healthy outdoor sport, but doesn't compete well with Play Station wanking, tree inhalation, sociopathic rhyming, and other popular alternative activities that will surely make us into a society of destesticled fat zombie imbeciles!   

What's really going on?

Who knows. Sunday mornings is when millions of evangelicals engage in shared community mesmerization by ministers of mass hypnosis. That's okay- it's just church, of course, but our should-be ballplayers aren't doing that family thing. They choose instead the self-medicating meditation methods of head-bobble ipodding swimmingly amongst circles of smoke, puffing on their Holy Pibies instead of the disciplined effort needed in nature's fresh air to tighten down their WHIPs and burst out their OPS's.

The prior weekend's games had been rained out.

The Angels moved to 6-1 in Crocker League play Wednesday night November 8 by defeating Kai Kopp's Cardinals by the approximate score of 13-5. James McNeil picked up his fifth Fall Ball win for the Angels. Angels outfielder Duane Johnson and shortstop Adam Callan (Novato Knicks, played for the Reno Silver Sox in the GBL) hit back-to-back homeruns.

But the Angels fielded a team of only nine players on Sunday November 5, losing 6-5 in BAMSBL play at Big Rec, falling to 3-5.

Games at Crocker Thursday and Saturday November 2 and 4 were rained out.

The Angels handily defeated the division-leading Bay Area All-Stars the previous Saturday morning at Crocker #2, 13-3. The Angels scored six runs in the first inning, and coasted. Juan Mendoza hit a three-run homer in that first inning. DaJuan Johnson singled, doubled, and homered. James McNeil picked up his 4th win in Fall League play for the Angels, throwing six innings. The team is now tied for the division lead with the All-Stars, both teams boasting  5-1 records in Crocker Wood Bat Fall League play.

The Angels had a seven-game win streak, with previous scores of 10-4, 10-5, 8-4, 9-4,  7-3, and 21-1, a month after starting play in two Fall Leagues by forfeiting games in both.

Alas, the Angels missed Sunday's October 29 9:30am game, due to management confusion. Players were geared for a noon game. And the loss this past Sunday November 5 puts the Angels in a precarious position for the BAMSBL playoffs. We need to win the next two Sunday games to get an outside shot at the Golden Gate Park playoffs.

Thursday night October 26 at Crocker #1, the pitching was supplied by Novato Nicks' summer semipro players Jett Russell and Ryan McClelland in a 21-1 win. Russell is a starting infielder but was a starting pitcher on Thursday. McClelland is a workhorse starter who relieved Thursday and pitched again on Saturday, in relief of James McNeil.

Rejoining the Angels on offense were Jake Holt and Lex Robins. Holt hit .409 as a college player at CSUEB formerly known as Hayward State, and has played in Germany.  Big Daddy Robins hit four homeruns for the Angels in a winning Crocker Winter League championship final two-and-a-half years ago. On Thursday night, DaJuan Johnson homered for the Angels. Johnson played in the Carolina Collegiate League this past summer, but only this fall has he stepped up his offensive game. He looks like a pro hitter, and has delivered some impressive blasts for the Angels.

Good new players have joined up and participants from past local league seasons have returned. The recombination of the Angels and East Bay Sox now has strong pitching and powerful offense. All the players are contributing and the team can play even better. We still need another catcher. "Dennis Martinez" plays college ball, and is only occasionally available to work behind the plate. 

In the BAMSBL Fall League, which hosts the Angels' Sunday games, opponents swing metal while the Angels swing wood full-time.

Only nine players showed up Sunday October 22, but with eight innings of effective pitching from James McNeil, we could have played with eight.  Under the deep blues skies on a warm Sunday morning, pitcher-hitters Albert Jones and James McNeil led the offense in a 7-3 win. Jones had pitched Saturday, and was holding down first base and batting cleanup on Sunday. He hit a single, triple, and inside-the-Big-Rec-homerun. McNeil singled, doubled, and tripled. He was hitting so well at the plate, that he was anxious to get off the mound so he could hit- this explains his sudden pitching efficiency: the Prince of Mound Drama was keeping his pitch count at an all-time low.

The day before, it was a beautiful Saturday morning at Crocker #2 along the south border of San Francisco, where the Lowell High School fall "B" team was no-hit for several innings while Angel starter Albert Jones was on the mound. But late in the game, Jones walked a couple of runs home, and Lowell got the score to 6-4  before Rene Esquivel's 7th inning double drove in two runs and widened the lead back in the 9-4 win. Also contributing big were leadoff hitter Rob Colon, who plays centerfield, shortstop and relief pitcher- and his cousin Juan Colon (Independent High School, Oakland), who is a switch-hitting catcher with good hands. Colon joined the Angels as an infielder, but his stand-in work crouching down behind the plate has been impressive.

On a calm Wednesday night October 18 at Crocker, the Angels were caught unprepared for aggressive base-running by the San Jose Brewers. Fortunately, the Brewers' big lug starting pitcher strained his big hip and left the mound. The Angels rallied with five runs in the 7th inning for the 8-4 win. Angels shortstop Rafael Mendoza knocked a towering homerun over the right field fence at Crocker#1 in the first inning.

On Sunday October 15, Angels' outfielder DaJuan Johnson (Union City University) ripped three doubles in the open field at Golden Gate Park, missing two homeruns by the absence of a fence. On Saturday October 14 at Crocker#2, Angels centerfielder Ozzie Hill of Washington High School drove a homerun over the left field fence.

The Angels earned a satisfying win at Crocker#2 Saturday October 14 with the help of veterans preparing for MABL/MSBL tournaments in Phoenix next week. The summer semipro Novato Knicks' leading pitcher Ryan McClelland rejoined the Angels Fall/Winter team and threw several dominant innings against the San Jose Brewers. Also pitching for the Angels was James DiBasilio of the Knicks. It was their first appearance with the team since the 2005/06 Winter season.

Tinseltown Terror star shortstop Mike Ryan is also gearing up for the MABL World Series in Phoenix. Ryan played three seasons with the Angels before joining the Terror, a Los Angeles team that pays his airfare to join them for summer league weekends and year-round tournaments from his Pacifica home. The Angels compete with the Terror in summer tournaments.

On Sunday in Phoenix, the Terror lost the 18+ MABL World Series' top-ranked division championship, the National Division (and its $7,500 prize money), 4-3 in ten innings to the Mexico Stars.

Ryan joined the Angels Saturday October 14 as the starting shortstop and #3 hitter, jump-starting the offense with a mad dash to home plate from second base on a wild pitch in the 3rd inning. The brazen act of belligerently trying to score prompted the Brewers to fumble around in astonishment, providing the crucial element of success in the endeavor.

Jim Brown, our poor team's version of Jack Gifford (Maxim Yankees player-sponsor billionaire), drove in five runs last Saturday, one on Sunday, and another on Wednesday October 18 .  Then on Saturday three days later,  the Lowell High School pitchers made him into a fool. Baseball has its ups and downs- it will humiliate you. It's lifelike. The next day, October 22 at Golden Gate Park, Brown drove in two more runs and hit three singles.

Former Golden Baseball League hurler James McNeil started Sunday October 14 and grabbed the win. He then won again in relief on Wednesday night and the eight innings Sunday, for a 3-0 record in 8 days. The Angels have had solid pitching.

The Crocker wood bat Fall League schedule is shown below.  The main Crocker-Amazon field has improved with the bank of lights in left-center back in operation, trees cut back to remove obstructions to the lights behind the foul lines. You can see the game, and pick up the pitches. The infield plays smoother, the mound is fuller and leads the pitcher down toward the plate rather than backwards on his ass like before. The outfield remains horrible.  Always bring warm clothing to the Crocker fields San Francisco.

Wear white pants. Sign up on the roster. The Angels will continue to add to the roster until a winning team is in place with players who show up consistently, and play with heart, and can hit wood.