A tale from the dugout

The Omaha Royals are mired in kind of a rough patch these days. That'll happen when two of your hot pitching prospects (Carlos Rosa and Dusty Hughes) are hurting and held to pitch counts, your outfield is depleted by injuries and callups, and Josh Labandeira plays every day. Yeah, losses will happen when the bullpen has to work that much and the lineup doesn't have replacement bats for the likes of Mitch Maier, Shane Costa (who is likely done for the season), and even Mike Stodolka (whose hand is apparently still bothering him). I think we just have to grit our teeth and bear this rough patch until Rosa and Hughes are healthy enough to pitch more than an inning or two at a time. At least we have Kila Kaaihue to cheer us up.

Since there's not much more I can say about the ORoyals' current struggles, I'll just share a story from the dugout yesterday, featuring that day's birthday boy, Roman Colon:

One of our daily between-innings promotions is the water-balloon toss, where one child tosses water balloons and another tries, often with limited success, to catch them in a batting helmet with a pasta strainer on top. After yesterday's contest, we had two unpopped balloons, which I mindlessly tossed to one of our mascots.

In the next half-inning, I heard a "Hey Minda!" from the dugout, so I turned to see a frightening sight: a grinning Roman Colon holding one of the balloons. Oh no, how did he get that? I made a mental note to slap whichever mascot had put a water balloon in such dangerous hands.

Luckily I had an errand to run in the other part of the stadium, so I quickly spirited myself out of Colon's launching range, and the crisis was averted until the next inning. I was sitting on the stairs next to the dugout preparing for the next promotion. In front of me and a few feet to my left was Bob, the guy who films the Omaha players for Kansas City. He has a camera and a laptop set up in the camera well, and normally we're able to stay out of each other's way. So when a little yellow water balloon came sailing out of the dugout towards me, I had to weigh the possibility of ruining Bob's equipment against the possibility of getting soaked. I didn't have much time to decide, but I was able to swat the balloon away and it popped harmlessly in an empty corner of the camera well.

But then....Colon had another balloon. I made another mental note re: punishing the appropriate mascot, because Colon is a mischievous fellow, and for him to have anything to throw at me is always a terrifying prospect. He tossed the second balloon much higher than the first, and this time I was standing, and much closer to that laptop and camera. OK here comes the balloon ah crap I don't want to get soaked oh but Bob would kill me if I wrecked his stuff and holy crap this is bad bad BAD.

Then I caught the balloon in my bare hand. It did not pop.
ME: 1
Colon: 0

BAM! With hands that soft, I should play middle infield. Sign me up!

Extra frames in Omaha

I know I shouldn't base my expectations for the O-Royals 2008 season on what happened last year, but it's hard not to look forward to on-field fireworks every time I head to work. It has been a quiet season so far, with nobody - not even Mike Jerschele - being ejected or exchanging more than a word or two with the umpires.

But ohhh tonight. Tonight was a weird one from the beginning. Maybe it's just because I was sleep-deprived, or maybe it was something else entirely, but there was a weird feeling in the air. I felt like tonight's game would either be a blowout in Iowa's favor, or it would be a wild, contested, frustrating, bullshitty, scrapping and clawing sort of game that could go to either team.

It was the latter, in every possible way.

Things got a tiny bit hairy for Kyle Davies in the first, when Iowa loaded the bases, but Bobby Scales popped out to end that. In the bottom of the first, a pitch that hit Brian Buchanan also hit home plate umpire Dan Bellino in the ear. Bellino inexplicably decided to hold that against Omaha, and made some incredibly...interesting calls against the Royals later in the game.

The game moved along without a lot of incident for a lot of innings, and aside from a couple of runs, Davies wasn't too bad. (His line: 6.2 IP, 8 hits, 2 runs, 2 ER, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts) Still, there was something stifling and oppressive about the way the Royals couldn't get any offense going. The mood in the dugout was unusually tense. Then came the fireworks.

Here's the game recap for the top of the 9th:

# Casey McGehee advances to 2nd, on interference error by catcher Matt Tupman.
# Omaha Royals catcher Matt Tupman ejected by HP umpire Dan Bellino.
# Omaha Royals Manager Mike Jirschele ejected by HP umpire Dan Bellino.

That "catcher interference" was not, by any account that I heard, a fair call. The umpire alleged that the ball kind of rolled up Tuppy's arm and in behind his chest pads, which would have been interference. Problem was, the ball was in Tup's glove. But Bellino was in an ejecty mood, so he tossed Tupman. Then, Bellino was so impressed with his own "you're outta here" hand signal that he used it a moment later on Jersch. Fine, whatever. Tup should not have been ejected, but what can ya do?

Damaso Espino came in to catch, inappropriate things were said to and about the umpiring crew, and we all moved on. Everyone was antsy with the bottom of the 9th approaching and Omaha still down 2-0. Omaha hadn't been able to get much of anything working in any inning prior to #9, had gone down in order four times, and had batted only a four guys in a few other innings. I don't want to say that I didn't believe we could plate a few runs, but I would not have been surprised to lose again, the way things have been going for the team lately.

Sure enough, first batter strikes out. That brought up the catcher's spot, Damaso Espino's first AB of the game after being brought in for the ejected Tupman. Espino got down in the count 1-2 before fighting back for a walk. The first pitches to Jason Smith, the next batter, were the things that made me know something was going to happen. Smith didn't swing at either of the first two pitches, which he almost always does. Nor did he swing at the third or fourth, ball three and strike one. And then he swung. No way, no way is this ball going to make it out of the yard. Not the way things have been going all night. An Iowa outfielder - and I honestly can't remember if it was Andres Torres or Felix Pie, because I was not breathing - leapt, extending an arm over the wall. Oh no, did he really make that catch? I can't see; please tell me his glove is empty.

The umpire raised an arm and signaled "home run."

That was the most breathlessly, speechlessly, ohmygosh-did-that-just-happen excited I've been all season. I mean...wow. Finally. High fives all around; every fan I could reach got a hearty five. Tie game.

But it would not be a true matchup between the O-Royals and I-Cubs if it ended in only nine innings, so the next two batters struck out to send us to the tenth. The home plate umpire still wasn't done showing off his cool "outta here" move. Neal Musser allegedly balked, and was ejected after muttering something or another. It was kind of garbagey, and got some fans to wonder if the officiating crew was being sponsored by the Iowa Cubs. Brad Salmon came in and got out of the inning unscathed, thanks to a hell of a throw by Mike Aviles to cut a runner off at home.

In the 10th, Aviles came up to bat with two down. I figured if anyone could make the magic happen at that time, Aviles was the guy. Sure enough, he doubled. Then Shane Costa was intentionally walked, brining up Buchanan, who absolutely smoked a low liner down the third base line. I thought for sure it was a hit, but somehow - some-freaking-how, third baseman Casey McGehee got his glove down between his knees and snagged the ball on the fly.

Iowa managed a run in the 12th after being shut down by Salmon in the 11th. Dave Matranga led off the inning, and hit a high, deep drive out to right-center. For a moment, it looked for all the world like it would go out, but that was again probably just the way my tired brain perceived the situation. Mitch Maier and Mike Aviles both singled, and a wild pitch moved them to 2nd and 3rd. After that, Iowa decided to intentionally walk Costa again to load 'em up for Buchanan with one out.

I can't even pretend to be able to describe how the rest happened. Here's the account from the game log:

# Brian Buchanan grounds into a force out, second baseman Eric Patterson to shortstop Andres Blanco. Mitch Maier scores. Mike Aviles scores. Shane Costa out at 2nd. Brian Buchanan advances to 1st, on throwing error by shortstop Andres Blanco.

At that point I realized I was still barely breathing from the Smith home run. Did that really happen? No way, no way, that didn't just happen. Really? We won? Something went our way? WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I was told later that I looked completely ecstatic as I hopped up on the dugout to celebrate and throw out Victory Pigs. I don't remember any of it, and I'm still trying to breathe.

Shenanigans in the Big XII

Lead story tonight:
Duh. What else would it be?

A few thoughts:
1) Why not televise that game somewhere? I got to see the last few minutes thanks to "bonus coverage" on ESPN, but I wanted to see the whole thing.
2) Michael Beasley, please don't kill my Huskers when you play them. Please? I really love seeing super-hyped players (think Kevin Durant last year, all of KU this year) in person, which is a bit of consolation when they beat up on my Huskers. So in that sense, I'm excited for February 20, when K-State visits The Bob in Lincoln. But I am a Nebraska fan first, so I'd rather see an upset of some sort.
3) I want to know what it felt like to be a K-State fan tonight. That's the first time in my life I've ever said that, I think, and it could be the last. But The Streak came to an end, a streak that would not have been a huge deal if it were against any other team. The Jayhawks saw a somewhat significant streak of their own (a previously unbeaten record, for those of you just joining us) come to an end, and Wildcat fans got to see it happen in their house.

With 35 seconds left, KSU's Bill Walker grabbed the ball away after a KU basket and stormed down the court, capping it off with a powerful dunk that sent the fans to the next level of Nirvana, I think. If I had been there, and if I were a K-State fan, I may have passed out from the sheer ecstasy of that moment, within the already ecstatic context of a historically MASSIVE win in the making.

Elsewhere in the Big XII, another in-state rivalry was an unexpected blowout, as the Aggies of Texas A&M had their way with the UT Longhorns. I didn't see the whole game, just a few minutes at a time while the NU/MU game was in commercials, but the first score I saw of it was A&M's 19-5 lead early on. Texas looked feeble, and all their attempts at making a comeback were quashed as soon as they got started.

And lastly, before I go back to pretending to do homework (hey, those Bill James tables LOOK like they could be some math homework, right?), my Huskers tried their darndest to lose to a shorthanded Missouri, but pulled out a 4-point win, much to my blood pressure's delight. As per my request over the weekend, Aleks Maric did not attempt a single no-look hook shot. Lo and behold, he scored more than his zero-point performance against KU (13 tonight), which is what I suggested might happen if he were to look at the hoop when he pushed the ball towards it. Sek Henry led the Husker bench with 14 points, after losing his starting spot to the still-struggling Ade Dagunduro.

It wasn't the greatest win for the Huskers, but it was a conference win, and that's just what the doctor ordered. (Ha, get it? Doctor? Because our coach's name is Doc--oh, never mind.)