The Rainiers lost a rather ordinary game last night in Albuquerque, 5-2, so let’s do something different today.
El Paso Chihuahuas broadcaster Tim Hagerty has a side gig as a baseball writer, and he released a book this spring entitled Tales From The Dugout: 1,001 Humorous, Inspirational & Wild Anecdotes from Minor League Baseball.
This book celebrates far-from-ordinary events that have occurred in the minor leagues over the last 120 years. It’s one brief snippet after another, page after page, 1,001 short tales.
Here are a couple examples I found at random:
NOSEBLEED SEATS
When Arkansas Travelers manager Frank Lucchesi was thrown out of a game in 1963, he left the ballpark, walked down the street, climbed a water tower, and watched the game from 150 feet above the field.
CROSSING STATE LINES
ABC Supply Stadium, home of the High-A Beloit Sky Carp, is in Wisconsin, but foul balls hit over the first base side stands sometimes land on Shirland Avenue and bounce into Illinois.
CAUGHT WITH A CAMERA
Great Falls Electrics general manager Nick Mariana videotaped a mysterious saucer flying over his ballpark in Great Falls, Montana on August 15, 1950. It’s considered one of the earliest UFO videos and experts refer to the sighting as “The Mariana Incident.”
If you find these kinds of notes to be fun, this is the book for you. It’s relentless – one after another: crazy ejection stories, early-1900s umpire abuse, players getting traded for all kinds of physical objects that aren’t other players (a bucket of oysters! A live turkey!), the ballpark next to the dump where the smell of burning trash sometimes caused games to get cancelled… it just goes on and on.
Hagerty has a never-ending supply of these stories – he told me he had to leave some on the cutting room floor to pare it down to 1,001. They all come from documented sources, too – although he didn’t included a bibliography, because it would have doubled the size of the book.
The book is in wide release – here’s the Amazon link if you want to check it out.
RAINIERS DAILY
YESTERDAY: We had another low scoring game in Albuquerque, as Isotopes starter Ty Blach tossed five shutout innings to earn the win in a 5-2 victory over the Rainiers. Tacoma had seven hits – six singles and a double – with Mason McCoy and Jake Scheiner netting two hits each. Cooper Hummel reached base four times, with a double and three walks.
TODAY: Tacoma Rainiers (19-23) at Albuquerque Isotopes (18-24), 5:35 (Pacific).
OPPONENT AFFILIATION: Colorado Rockies.
OPPOSING MANAGER: Pedro Lopez.
SEASON SERIES: Albuquerque leads, 2-1.
PITCHERS: RHP Konner Wade (0-0, 6.08) at LHP Josh Rogers (1-2, 7.76)
ROSTER MOVES: None today as of blog posting time. Our last roster move was May 5 – this has got to be a record in the Dipoto era.
HOT HITTERS: Jake Scheiner has hit safely in 13 of his last 15 games. He ranks tied for second in the PCL with 12 homers… Mike Ford has 46 RBI, which still leads all of minor league baseball despite Ford having just one RBI in his last ten games… Zach DeLoach has a six-game hitting streak… Cooper Hummel has hit safely in four straight games.
OPPONENT NEWS: Albuquerque just went 2-4 in a six-gamer at Las Vegas… after starting the season 10-6, and ‘Topes have lost 18 of 25… Nolan Jones has been one of the top hitters in the PCL this year, batting.358 with 12 home runs and 41 RBI… an Albuquerque returnee from 2022, Coco Montes is batting .322 with 37 RBI… Gig Harbor product Michael Toglia went and got himself called up to the big leagues the day before the series against his hometown team, so congrats to him… former Rainiers lefty Fernando Abad was also called up Monday, but the Isotopes do still have ex-Rainiers from last season Matt Koch and Phillips Valdez, plus another former Rainiers reliever Matt Carasiti.
BROADCAST: All games will be broadcast free on a live audio stream which is available right here.
Unfortunately, there is no traditional terrestrial radio station carrying the games at this time.
PCL SCOREBOARD: Follow all league games in real-time with links to broadcasts and Gameday screens right here.
Links:
- Here’s the Rainiers recap from the Albuquerque Journal (ignore the fact that they forgot to update the headline).
- In an off-day mailbag, Ryan Divish address the lack of hitting from Julio Rodriguez.
- But at least Julio has a cereal now.
June 9, 2023