San Francisco Angels  Wood Bat Baseball Team Recap of prior 2003 games- June 11, 17 & 19 weekday games

June 11- Battle #2

Nine Walks & A Clutch Single

Esteban Contreras singles near the right field line for two runs in the four-run 4th inning as the Angels glide to victory.

Wednesday evening,  June 11- College of San Mateo. Angels pitching neutered the Bulldogs while the offense continued their wait for good pitches, taking nine walks in their 7-3 win. Ninth hitter Esteban Contreras (SF State) drove in three runs with a ground out and a two-run single.

Leroy Stubbles (SF State) started for the Angels, striking out six in his four innings. Conor Bird (SF State) pitched three hitless innings. Rich Gamble (U of Hawaii- Hilo) pitched a quick 8th inning. The offense for both teams was shut down after the fourth inning. The umpires called the game off  in the top of the 9th, due to darkness. The Angels had runners on second and third with one out and a commanding lead, but contentious Bulldog boss Lenny Vagt wants to resume play prior to next Tuesday's scheduled game in San Francisco. The matter has been sent to the League President Norm Thompson for review. In an email to President Thompson, the Angels team's team of attorneys argued the following:

The Angels are in dispute with the Bulldogs over what happens when games are called by darkness. Is there a league rule for this? We, the team for the team, suggest that a twilight game scheduled and played on a field without lights be ruled over if called on account of darkness by the umpires, one team is ahead,  and the requisite number of innings for a legal game has been completed, as under the rainout rule, and a time limit rule.

Some teams in our league have been playing weekday twilight games for years. This is our clients' first year with several 5pm or 5:30pm games without lights.
Single games in our league are supposed to be 9 innings, but the umpires call some of these games on account of darkness. In the first two instances, against the Eagles and the Giants, the games were ended without dispute. Tonight Wednesday June 11, playing at the Bulldogs' home field, in a game originally scheduled for 5pm but which started at 5:30pm by edict of the umpires, the umpires called the game on account of darkness. It was the top
of the 9th inning, one out, men on 2nd & 3rd, Angels at the plate & leading 7-3. Lenny Vagt of the Bulldogs wants to continue it next week at our clients' field, before the regularly scheduled league game between the two teams.

We deny the game is suspended. We stipulate victory. Our clients do not wish to be ordered to continue it next Tuesday for the following reasons:

1. It is bad precendent for college summer baseball, this is not the major leagues. The major leagues have no equivalent context. The Chicago Cubs started their games at noon. Suspended games have been very rare, usually tied games. In our clients' case, they a lead through a legal number of innings. Lenny's umpires walked off. We won! Our clients stipulate victory. 2. It constitutes an effort by the losing team to override the verdict on
the field. The ballplayers should determine the outcomes of the games, not management, not administrators, not the contentious amongst us. Why don't we just have all the scumbag attorneys play baseball?

3. Twilight games starting at 5:30pm on fields without lights can reasonably be expected to be called on account on darkness from time-to-time, so there should be a rule for establishing their finality, much like a time limit in a tournament.

4. The league would have a whole bunch of suspended games, so Shawn Skibek would tear out any unshaved hair on his head trying to figure out the scores and the standings.
 

5. The time taken to complete a suspended game would disrupt the normally schedule games and make a mockery of baseball with the potential for whole chains of game completions and then new games starting late only to be suspended, ad infinitum.

6. It probably won't have an impact on the league standings.

7. Our clients' home umpires were not hired to continue a game, they were hired to officiate a fresh game, they have no knowledge of the context of Wednesday's game, completion of that game could bring about all sorts of disputes and delays to the regularly-scheduled game, we are not the major leagues with central scheduling of employee umpires.

Again we suggest that a twilight game scheduled and played on a field without lights be ruled over if called on account of darkness by the umpires, one team is ahead, and the requisite number of innings for a legal game has been completed, as under the rainout rule.


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June 17- Battle #3

Tuesday evening, June 17- SF State, Maloney Field- The league's executive committee has ruled that a game called on account of darkness will be considered suspended and finished if it makes a difference to the league standings. Otherwise, it will be counted as is, at the end of the season. So the June 11 win over San Mateo has been suspended. Officially, the Angels are 15-2 in the league, not 16-2, after losing 7-6 to San Mateo on Tuesday night.

If the Angels are suddenly filled with the sense of urgency to defeat the Bulldogs once this week at the Angels' home field, they will be well-positioned to win the league title, which would guarantee them a bye into the AABC sectional tournament in Sacramento at the end of July. However, the San Francisco Angels team has never in its entire history won a home game against the San Mateo team!  (But see Battle #4 above)

We dedicate the account of this game to our imprisoned June 11 win, held hostage in immaterial suspension but victorious in reality, on the field of play. Never surrender to "that hostile Philistine activity which sucks the blood" out of baseball!

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First Annual Rural League All-Star Game, Wednesday June 18, 7pm, TCUP Stadium, Vacaville   Angels Manager Roland Nazar ran the South Division team, which lost 4-3. Angel players were starter John Herbert, 1st baseman Mike Mukuno, 2nd baseman Dan Kingman, pitcher Jerame Nelson, and catcher Brad Shannon, who had four hits. "It was uninteresting," said Nazar.

June 19- Battle #4

Sergio Ruiz, Dano Kingman, Tom Shannon: business as usual.

Thursday evening, June 19- SF State, Maloney Field- How can a rivalry with the San Mateo Bulldogs play out when there are artificial rainbows, Mr. Magoo behind the plate, and a joker for a relief pitcher! The groundskeeper took over the game in absentia by setting up the lawn sprinklers to go on during the game. Some sort of turf thing between the moronic groundskeeper and the noble SF State Coach Matt Markovich.  Even when the field wasn't undergoing poorly-timed hydration maintenance, dry dust was swirling through both dugouts. What was even worse, home plate umpire Nils Nilson wasn't calling low strikes, and later the Angel closer Wes Bentley didn't bother pitching from the stretch position with runners on base. So they circled around him. But the Angels offense had already burst open the game in the 8th, allowing starter Lance Stevens to post his 14th straight win for the Angels and Bentley to earn a save. San Francisco 8  San Mateo 5.

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Lance Stevens gets the job done right every time. Wes Bentley shows he can work from a stretch; he did go 2 for 3 with a clutch hit!